Showing posts with label COST. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COST. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Jan | 11 | Preaching The Gospel With A Sanctified Selfishness
COSTPreaching The Gospel With A Sanctified Selfishness
John 12:3-8
Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said, "Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii* and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." NKJV
“For the poor you have with you always.” You know, from the death burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, all the way through to His glorious return, it seems we can guarantee that the poor will always be with us. It has been over two thousand years of watching wait so far and sure enough, the poor are still with us! If the commission of the church is to move the global population toward an egalitarian world, a financially fair one with no poverty, then we have failed. However, this is not our commission or our mission, though judging by the main efforts of our churches in the early 21st century, you would think it was. Not that we should forget the poor mind you! Oh no. Even though we do neglect and forget the church poor, but that is a different issue. Or is it? Let me come back to this.
Look, as society roller coasts again down into financial recession and depression, as the tent cities grow and the city centres burn, the churches main mission remains the same: Preach the Gospel. However, the church seems to have lost its faith in the Gospel's power and so, money, bent legality and greed have been the gods of our pre-crash world and we have to admit, there are none so powerful as these three. However, now the post-crash world has lifted its chin over the fallen walls of western protection and on its shoulders, guns, gold and greed are the new demi-gods that seem on the rise in a post-crash society. Pre or post, our mission remains the same, ‘Preach the Gospel’. Remember as well that as quaint as the story of some old monk walking through a village and simply saying good morning to people in an affable way might be, or as necessary as giving a meal to a hungry tramp or money to a young girl with her legs shot off, none of these good things is preaching the Gospel. Yes, all are good, all might be loving, but none are preaching the Gospel. Proclamation might be dead in our land, but it is the ONLY WAY for people to hear and believe. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. We have, thus far, failed abysmally in this.The presence of the poor among our general communities is societies disgrace. It is not the churches. However, the presence of poor Christians in a rich church is the churches shame of face. Now then, here is fuel for the accuser to bring before the throne of God! For when there is known and unmet need among the sons of God, among the church of Jesus Christ then this is a foul disgrace dripping down our face like stinking yellow egg yolk from a broken 'gone-off egg'. “See how they love on another!" Yeah right. How embarrassing.
God’s commands to Israel to take care of the poor and needy was not to forget the alien and the stranger at all, but was, never the less, a family affair of care for one another. Every year of Jubilee and all sacrificial celebrations, even the gleaning of the edge of crops were all a family affair of care. So then, let us in our church, not neglect the external poor at all, but more so, let us focus on the family first of all, for I tell you, there is a need for some sanctified ‘selfishness’ among the church of Jesus Christ. Let us take care of our own first, so we can preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Then, let us take care of our wider societies poor.The Biblical model is for us to all work hard as Christians, living with simplicity in this world, taking care of the poor Christians among us, and then piling all our vast resources into ‘Preaching the Gospel’. This has been our omission, but it still remains our great commission.
Listen:- How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:14-17 NKJV
Pray: -Father, help us to get this right, in Jesus name we ask it. Amen.
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Nov | 26 | A Time Of True Thanksgiving
Dream Word – COST
Luke 14:26-28 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. NKJV.
A Time Of True Thanksgiving
At some point this date in our calendar will fall on the final Thursday of November, which of course is the dedicated day in America for the celebration of ‘Thanksgiving.’ Harvest celebrations are however not new. No, not at all. For an innate thankfulness to a ‘Higher Being,’ the ultimate giver of food and fertility is found in almost all indigenous peoples, even amongst the once flourishing, native Indian tribes of America. Yes, the need to say ‘Thank you’ is a human trait, not a Christian one.
Such polity to a ‘Supreme Being’ however, might be offered by pagan peoples, more out of relief and fear rather than a thankfulness which is offered out of the relaxed joy of a gifted prized possession. Relief in the sense that a seemingly capricious God has finally come through with the goods once more and fear, in the sense that we must be thankful lest He not continue to come up with the goods next year, if we don’t acknowledge His present and most beneficent goodness. If we have to sacrifice an odd virgin to maintain this fertile flow, then so be it. Whatever it takes.
It was a commercial decision to regulate the specific start date of ‘Thanksgiving’ and was overtly chosen by this other ‘nation of shopkeepers’ to make sure that the selling days before Christmas were as long and as profitable as they could possibly be. To this end then, the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus are regularly sacrificed on the altar of commerciality each and every year, for tomorrow in America, is the start of the Christmas period and all the fun and all the feasting, all the selling and all the competing will now get under way with the earnestness gobble of a chocoholic waking up in the Hershey’s factory.
I was told yesterday of a Christian man who after years of serving his local church and heading a very successful ministry to children had one day, just up and left his calling, his duties and his responsibilities. Apparently a tornado had gone through and damaged his own church so badly that one Sunday the doors had to be left shut for that Lord’s day and so, he had opportunity, for the very first time, to go and visit another church nearby. In his opinion, this “other church” was bigger, better and shinier in oh so many ways than his own, that he just “up’d sticks” and decided he would go there instead. Now, we all would like to see this seemingly fickle move as being indicative of some much deeper reasons for the abandonment of years of profitable ministry but no, there was nothing deeper. The reasoning and the decision was as shallow and as a fickle as that. It was very simply, a much more nicer deal.
I think if we are honest, we could acknowledge that much of our church choices are commercial ones. Yes, much of our church choices are from a ‘what’s the best deal I can get for my kids and my marriage, for my future and my personal happiness’ sake, rather than for any other. Pastors know this and so all their programming panders to these ‘spiritually’ commercial needs. So much so, that Pastors have become the high priests of the annual sacrifice of the Virgin and her Son. Oh don’t worry and please don’t be too upset, for this sacrifice can be justified in oh so many ways, that in this now commercialised and man-centred religion which we have created, we leaders spend most of our time making sure we are lining our shelves with so much shiny and cut-priced Christianity, just to make sure that our shameful sheep might never actually be seduced to go and shop elsewhere. Yes, most church leaders in America especially, actually live under the dark cloud of a commercial fear, where the Shekinah stenched breath from the mouths of disappointed founding member stockholders, fill the air with the condemnation of commercial loss, the like of which should only be found in the boardrooms of K-Mart and the once great American car industry. Unfortunately though, it is this same cloud of “fear and condemnation of loss” that most of the time fills both the pastor’s leather bound studies during the day and their horror filled dreams during the night. Yes, like all good shopkeepers, pastors face daily the questions of “What do I need to do to keep my shoppers and then go and get me some more!” So, should the congregation numbers drop and with it the fertile flow of money, materials and manpower suddenly cease to flow, then in the face of such commercial condemnation from remaining members, inevitably, the virgin and her Son shall be sacrificed again. Whatever it takes you see? Whatever it takes.
To break the sacrificial commercialism of the church, the question we must ask of our own local churches is this, “What can I give?” Not “What can I get?” The question we must ask of our own local churches is this, “What will it cost me to serve here?” Not, “What can they offer to keep me here?” You see, real Christianity, the heaven branded stuff, is never cut price! Pastors, don’t you know that the possession of something valuable and costly brings with it such a great care and thankfulness from the possessors of the same, that their words and their lives will inevitably ooze with the relaxation and joy of a true thanksgiving. No fear you see, no manipulation, just a confident and heartfelt thankfulness.
This Thanksgiving then Pastor, leader, commercial sacred and spiritual feeder, why don’t you stop the annual sacrificing of both the Virgin and her Son on the altar of competitive cut-price commercial Christianity and simply begin to offer them the real deal? Stop cutting Him down and selling Him cheap! Rather, go raise Him high and make Him costly. Maybe then, maybe in a few years time, we as a nation can then begin to live in a time of true thanksgiving. Tell me tonight then, just how valuable is Your Jesus? Regarding your church, don’t ask yourself, “What will they have to do to keep me?” But rather ask yourself, “What has it cost ME to follow Him?”
Listen: - Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing."( 2 Samuel 24:24a NKJV)
Pray:- I am persuaded, Lord to love You, for I have been changed to bless Your name. I am constrained by this great Gospel, forever to worship Thee. (From ‘Precious Jesus’ by Thomas Whitfield)
Luke 14:26-28 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. NKJV.
A Time Of True Thanksgiving
At some point this date in our calendar will fall on the final Thursday of November, which of course is the dedicated day in America for the celebration of ‘Thanksgiving.’ Harvest celebrations are however not new. No, not at all. For an innate thankfulness to a ‘Higher Being,’ the ultimate giver of food and fertility is found in almost all indigenous peoples, even amongst the once flourishing, native Indian tribes of America. Yes, the need to say ‘Thank you’ is a human trait, not a Christian one.
Such polity to a ‘Supreme Being’ however, might be offered by pagan peoples, more out of relief and fear rather than a thankfulness which is offered out of the relaxed joy of a gifted prized possession. Relief in the sense that a seemingly capricious God has finally come through with the goods once more and fear, in the sense that we must be thankful lest He not continue to come up with the goods next year, if we don’t acknowledge His present and most beneficent goodness. If we have to sacrifice an odd virgin to maintain this fertile flow, then so be it. Whatever it takes.
It was a commercial decision to regulate the specific start date of ‘Thanksgiving’ and was overtly chosen by this other ‘nation of shopkeepers’ to make sure that the selling days before Christmas were as long and as profitable as they could possibly be. To this end then, the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus are regularly sacrificed on the altar of commerciality each and every year, for tomorrow in America, is the start of the Christmas period and all the fun and all the feasting, all the selling and all the competing will now get under way with the earnestness gobble of a chocoholic waking up in the Hershey’s factory.I was told yesterday of a Christian man who after years of serving his local church and heading a very successful ministry to children had one day, just up and left his calling, his duties and his responsibilities. Apparently a tornado had gone through and damaged his own church so badly that one Sunday the doors had to be left shut for that Lord’s day and so, he had opportunity, for the very first time, to go and visit another church nearby. In his opinion, this “other church” was bigger, better and shinier in oh so many ways than his own, that he just “up’d sticks” and decided he would go there instead. Now, we all would like to see this seemingly fickle move as being indicative of some much deeper reasons for the abandonment of years of profitable ministry but no, there was nothing deeper. The reasoning and the decision was as shallow and as a fickle as that. It was very simply, a much more nicer deal.
I think if we are honest, we could acknowledge that much of our church choices are commercial ones. Yes, much of our church choices are from a ‘what’s the best deal I can get for my kids and my marriage, for my future and my personal happiness’ sake, rather than for any other. Pastors know this and so all their programming panders to these ‘spiritually’ commercial needs. So much so, that Pastors have become the high priests of the annual sacrifice of the Virgin and her Son. Oh don’t worry and please don’t be too upset, for this sacrifice can be justified in oh so many ways, that in this now commercialised and man-centred religion which we have created, we leaders spend most of our time making sure we are lining our shelves with so much shiny and cut-priced Christianity, just to make sure that our shameful sheep might never actually be seduced to go and shop elsewhere. Yes, most church leaders in America especially, actually live under the dark cloud of a commercial fear, where the Shekinah stenched breath from the mouths of disappointed founding member stockholders, fill the air with the condemnation of commercial loss, the like of which should only be found in the boardrooms of K-Mart and the once great American car industry. Unfortunately though, it is this same cloud of “fear and condemnation of loss” that most of the time fills both the pastor’s leather bound studies during the day and their horror filled dreams during the night. Yes, like all good shopkeepers, pastors face daily the questions of “What do I need to do to keep my shoppers and then go and get me some more!” So, should the congregation numbers drop and with it the fertile flow of money, materials and manpower suddenly cease to flow, then in the face of such commercial condemnation from remaining members, inevitably, the virgin and her Son shall be sacrificed again. Whatever it takes you see? Whatever it takes.
To break the sacrificial commercialism of the church, the question we must ask of our own local churches is this, “What can I give?” Not “What can I get?” The question we must ask of our own local churches is this, “What will it cost me to serve here?” Not, “What can they offer to keep me here?” You see, real Christianity, the heaven branded stuff, is never cut price! Pastors, don’t you know that the possession of something valuable and costly brings with it such a great care and thankfulness from the possessors of the same, that their words and their lives will inevitably ooze with the relaxation and joy of a true thanksgiving. No fear you see, no manipulation, just a confident and heartfelt thankfulness.This Thanksgiving then Pastor, leader, commercial sacred and spiritual feeder, why don’t you stop the annual sacrificing of both the Virgin and her Son on the altar of competitive cut-price commercial Christianity and simply begin to offer them the real deal? Stop cutting Him down and selling Him cheap! Rather, go raise Him high and make Him costly. Maybe then, maybe in a few years time, we as a nation can then begin to live in a time of true thanksgiving. Tell me tonight then, just how valuable is Your Jesus? Regarding your church, don’t ask yourself, “What will they have to do to keep me?” But rather ask yourself, “What has it cost ME to follow Him?”
Listen: - Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing."( 2 Samuel 24:24a NKJV)
Pray:- I am persuaded, Lord to love You, for I have been changed to bless Your name. I am constrained by this great Gospel, forever to worship Thee. (From ‘Precious Jesus’ by Thomas Whitfield)
Friday, October 26, 2012
Oct | 26 | The Real Road Show
Dream Word – COST
2 Samuel 24:24,25 Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. NKJV
The Real Road Show
An examination of the Old Testament use of the received tithe, that fictitious ten percent the church is always so focused upon, reveals that it was used essentially in three major areas, that is, for the support of personnel, the purchase and upkeep of premises and the financing various people-keeping, money-spinning programmes. Local churches of today and I suppose every Christian para-church organization uses the larger percentage of its collected finances for exactly the same 'three P’s' in the same old pod.
Now do not get wrong here! The workman is worthy of his hire, though often some Pastors just are not as worthy as much as we pay them and more often than not, many Pastors are worthy of so much more. Yes, the workman is worthy of his hire, and premises should be warm inviting and attractive, though not necessarily plushy, lushy and cushy, and correctly funded programmes are not only justifiers of our existence but they sometimes actually do some good. Sometimes.
O.K. so now we are clear on that, let me say six things tonight in closing.
Firstly, that ten percent of giving is far too much for some people. Giving ten percent of nothing, when you have less than nothing coming in and more than nothing going out is just stupidity. Either that or faith. I hope it’s faith, because that alone will please God, and that alone will unite your family in the cost of such sacrificial giving.
Secondly, that ten percent is just not enough for some people. Ten percent of ‘loads a money’ is an accounting line item that your accountant needs to use to ensure tax relief at the end of the fiscal year. There is no sacrifice here. No really, there is no sacrifice here.
Thirdly, that tithing though a Biblical principle is not a New Testament practice. The practice of the New Testament is the hilariously happy and regular giving of that which we have decided in our hearts. It might be a whole lot less than ten percent and then again it might be a whole lot more. It may vary from gift to gift and giver to giver and that’s O.K.
Fourthly, that if you have committed to regular giving to the 'three P’s' in that oh so pesky pod, then GIVE and GIVE regularly! Other people are relying on your regular committed giving.
Fifthly, that there is another principle to be applied to giving that precedes the hilarity of the task. Giving that honours God, giving that incites belief, giving that is astonishing and giving that will be utilized by the receiver in the most holiest and astute of ways, is giving that is sacrificial. Giving that can most easily have the largess of hilarity affixed to it is giving that has cost you something.
Lastly, a confession. It’s a double-edged confession really, in that on the cutting edge I tell you that I have given my all to God. Many times I have regretted it and often I have wanted to take it back and much of the time it has not been done with gay abandon. I am sorry to God for this sometimes, very reluctant gift. On the back edge of the gift I have to tell you as well that regarding the basic material stuff of life, in the form of food, clothing, transport and tools, it has cost me nothing to give myself away as a bond servant of Jesus Christ. That’s a little scary eh? The feeling, that it has cost me nothing to give myself away.
I do not know what kind of accounting software package the Lord has but I do know that He has got one and that it is open access, there for all to see. One day, we shall all know the true cost of our sacrificial works in terms of the gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble in the right hand column of God’s great balance sheet. I must tell you, that this is one of the great things that I am most looking forward to finding out about at the great Antiques Road Show in the sky. That is, finding out what is the real value of all our goofy looking investments! Imagine all those disappointed faces at the sad evaluations of treasures both touted and shouted about, and all the other wide-eyed intakes of breath that shall be seen and heard, when what some considered to be a piece of old junk, releases untold millions to the tips of their of well worn, tired and torn little fingers, that might be later spent at their leisure, in every angelic outlet shop, spread across the universe anew. Oh yes, even angels engage in trading and therefore engage in manufacturer. However, let us stop there at this flight of fancy….
Tonight, I dare not and I will not set myself up as anything but a reluctant disciple and a reluctant giver to boot, but I do find it interesting when considering these things, that on some counts I feel the cost of giving, yet on many counts I simply feel both the need to give and the pull of greed not to give. What about you tonight? In all your giving of self and stuff, What do you think shall be the real price tag placed upon all your giving to Jesus?
Listen: - If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. John 12:26b NKJV
Pray: Thank you Lord for the great cost you paid for me. Thank you Lord for others that count the cost for me, of me, with me. I am willing Lord to pay the price of pleasing You right now! Help the hilarity of the gift become then that much more insane to my head and helplessly funny to my heart, to my soul and spirit and my body. Yes, help me laugh like a lion, in Jesus name I pray amen.
2 Samuel 24:24,25 Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. NKJV
The Real Road Show
An examination of the Old Testament use of the received tithe, that fictitious ten percent the church is always so focused upon, reveals that it was used essentially in three major areas, that is, for the support of personnel, the purchase and upkeep of premises and the financing various people-keeping, money-spinning programmes. Local churches of today and I suppose every Christian para-church organization uses the larger percentage of its collected finances for exactly the same 'three P’s' in the same old pod.
Now do not get wrong here! The workman is worthy of his hire, though often some Pastors just are not as worthy as much as we pay them and more often than not, many Pastors are worthy of so much more. Yes, the workman is worthy of his hire, and premises should be warm inviting and attractive, though not necessarily plushy, lushy and cushy, and correctly funded programmes are not only justifiers of our existence but they sometimes actually do some good. Sometimes.O.K. so now we are clear on that, let me say six things tonight in closing.
Firstly, that ten percent of giving is far too much for some people. Giving ten percent of nothing, when you have less than nothing coming in and more than nothing going out is just stupidity. Either that or faith. I hope it’s faith, because that alone will please God, and that alone will unite your family in the cost of such sacrificial giving.
Secondly, that ten percent is just not enough for some people. Ten percent of ‘loads a money’ is an accounting line item that your accountant needs to use to ensure tax relief at the end of the fiscal year. There is no sacrifice here. No really, there is no sacrifice here.
Thirdly, that tithing though a Biblical principle is not a New Testament practice. The practice of the New Testament is the hilariously happy and regular giving of that which we have decided in our hearts. It might be a whole lot less than ten percent and then again it might be a whole lot more. It may vary from gift to gift and giver to giver and that’s O.K.
Fourthly, that if you have committed to regular giving to the 'three P’s' in that oh so pesky pod, then GIVE and GIVE regularly! Other people are relying on your regular committed giving.
Fifthly, that there is another principle to be applied to giving that precedes the hilarity of the task. Giving that honours God, giving that incites belief, giving that is astonishing and giving that will be utilized by the receiver in the most holiest and astute of ways, is giving that is sacrificial. Giving that can most easily have the largess of hilarity affixed to it is giving that has cost you something.
Lastly, a confession. It’s a double-edged confession really, in that on the cutting edge I tell you that I have given my all to God. Many times I have regretted it and often I have wanted to take it back and much of the time it has not been done with gay abandon. I am sorry to God for this sometimes, very reluctant gift. On the back edge of the gift I have to tell you as well that regarding the basic material stuff of life, in the form of food, clothing, transport and tools, it has cost me nothing to give myself away as a bond servant of Jesus Christ. That’s a little scary eh? The feeling, that it has cost me nothing to give myself away.
I do not know what kind of accounting software package the Lord has but I do know that He has got one and that it is open access, there for all to see. One day, we shall all know the true cost of our sacrificial works in terms of the gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble in the right hand column of God’s great balance sheet. I must tell you, that this is one of the great things that I am most looking forward to finding out about at the great Antiques Road Show in the sky. That is, finding out what is the real value of all our goofy looking investments! Imagine all those disappointed faces at the sad evaluations of treasures both touted and shouted about, and all the other wide-eyed intakes of breath that shall be seen and heard, when what some considered to be a piece of old junk, releases untold millions to the tips of their of well worn, tired and torn little fingers, that might be later spent at their leisure, in every angelic outlet shop, spread across the universe anew. Oh yes, even angels engage in trading and therefore engage in manufacturer. However, let us stop there at this flight of fancy….
Tonight, I dare not and I will not set myself up as anything but a reluctant disciple and a reluctant giver to boot, but I do find it interesting when considering these things, that on some counts I feel the cost of giving, yet on many counts I simply feel both the need to give and the pull of greed not to give. What about you tonight? In all your giving of self and stuff, What do you think shall be the real price tag placed upon all your giving to Jesus?
Listen: - If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. John 12:26b NKJV
Pray: Thank you Lord for the great cost you paid for me. Thank you Lord for others that count the cost for me, of me, with me. I am willing Lord to pay the price of pleasing You right now! Help the hilarity of the gift become then that much more insane to my head and helplessly funny to my heart, to my soul and spirit and my body. Yes, help me laugh like a lion, in Jesus name I pray amen.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Sep | 07 | Of Hell & Texas
Dream Word – COST
2 Samuel 23:20-23 Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand; so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men. He was more honoured than the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three. And David appointed him over his guard. NKJV
Of Hell & Texas
In my kitchen cupboard I keep one of the largest mugs you have ever seen! It’s bulbous proportions means it can hold at least twelve ounces of hot steamy tea and I tell you that on cold winter mornings it comes in very useful indeed! Another unusual feature about this mug is that it has a quote emblazoned on the front of it that reads, “You may all go to hell and I shall go to Texas!”
It is said that when he was but twelve years of age, after beating the tar out of a bully at his new school, that he ran away from home to avoid having the same tar beaten out of him by his father! It would be seven years later, after stopping for refreshment at a New Tavern now owned by his father and run by his family, that one of his sisters would recognize this now six foot tall, statue of frontier manhood. ‘Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier’ was welcomed home at last by all of his family.
Descended from fleeing French Huguenots, Protestant believers of Roman Catholic France, it seemed Crockett’s whole recent family line had been frontier people. Davy Crockett had inherited all of that frontier spirit and need for adventure, but on arriving home after some no doubt very daunting adolescent years, it was now time to settle down and settle down he did.
Jilted by Miss Margaret Elder from his first engagement, Crockett would later marry twice, the second marriage after the death of his first wife and fathering in total some six children. Living in Tennessee in the early 1800’s meant that he was involved in the Indian Wars. Some of his relatives had been previously killed, maimed and scalped alive by Indians, so Colonel Crockett had no problems with being involved in such wars, such ‘land’ wars at that!
Davy ran four times to serve as a Congressman in the House of Representatives and won twice, but it was just prior to his last electorial defeat, that he was remarked as saying “I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not then you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas”. Following his defeat, he did just that. Why?
Well for one reason Texas, that vast and ever inviting frontier region, was beginning to break away from Mexico and in 1836 Crockett and 65 other men signed an oath before Judge Forbes to serve the provisional government of Texas for just six months. His pay for that service would be 4,600 acres of land. “Sign me up!” I say, “Sign me up!” Land and lot’s of it! Could there be any better reason to go to Texas? However, it would be just a couple of months later that, ‘The King of The Wild Frontier’ would arrive with James Bowie to aid William Barret ‘Line in the Sand’ Travis, the commander in charge at the siege of the Alamo and on March 6th of that same year, Davy Crockett and the other 180-230 Alamo soldiers would be massacred by an overwhelming Mexican force.
There are three lessons for us here tonight:
Firstly, remember that certain folk are frontier folk. Like it or not, they will not die on their beds, but in likelihood will perish far away from home, seeking a fortune of one kind or another. If you are a frontier person, make sure you hazarding your life for that eternal land of liberty. No other land is a fruitful, is as pleasant, is as safe and is as guaranteed as God’s good land.
Secondly, understand that folk are known by the company they keep. It is no accident that Crockett would be found dead along with that other adventurer, Bowie and his famous knife. When people often ask me what they should do with their lives, I tell them to see who they naturally gravitate towards, who do they desire to be with and in some way emulate? Your peers, both real and desired, are usually a good indicator of the similar stuff that flows through your veins. What company do you keep? Look, for therein lies a picture of your destiny.
Thirdly, despite the facts and the folk-lore, people are not perfect. Bowie was an angry knife fighter who made his money in the slave trade and his name in bar brawls and gunfights. Crockett, the bear-butcher hunter of Tennessee had utilized his story telling abilities so well that it got him into successful politics, and further utilized his story telling abilities by marrying it with such affability and humour, (It ain’t braggin if it’s true!) that he was largely able by himself, to ensure he became a legend in his own lifetime and beyond!
These were all extraordinary people, but people never the less and imperfect people at that. Legends are made out of imperfect people. God uses imperfect people, He can do no other. Never forget that.
If your looking for eternal treasure, if you have an adventure that will be rewarded with land on the other side of Jordan, then call me up will you, sign me up will you please, for I am a frontier person and I shall not die with boots under my bed. How about you?
Listen:- “The bows of the mighty men are broken, And those who stumbled are girded with strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, And the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, And she who has many children has become feeble. "The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. 1 Samuel 2:4-8 NKJV
Pray:- Lord, please give us all a frontier-like spirit, that we might spread your gospel to the ends of the earth. Lord, grant us land in your Kingdom! Lord if the rest of the world shall go to hell, then we shall choose to go to Texas, even if it should become our very own Alamo. So give us this spirit, so revive Your church. In Jesus name we pray, amen!
2 Samuel 23:20-23 Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who had done many deeds. He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, a spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand; so he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men. He was more honoured than the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three. And David appointed him over his guard. NKJV
Of Hell & Texas
In my kitchen cupboard I keep one of the largest mugs you have ever seen! It’s bulbous proportions means it can hold at least twelve ounces of hot steamy tea and I tell you that on cold winter mornings it comes in very useful indeed! Another unusual feature about this mug is that it has a quote emblazoned on the front of it that reads, “You may all go to hell and I shall go to Texas!”
It is said that when he was but twelve years of age, after beating the tar out of a bully at his new school, that he ran away from home to avoid having the same tar beaten out of him by his father! It would be seven years later, after stopping for refreshment at a New Tavern now owned by his father and run by his family, that one of his sisters would recognize this now six foot tall, statue of frontier manhood. ‘Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier’ was welcomed home at last by all of his family.
Descended from fleeing French Huguenots, Protestant believers of Roman Catholic France, it seemed Crockett’s whole recent family line had been frontier people. Davy Crockett had inherited all of that frontier spirit and need for adventure, but on arriving home after some no doubt very daunting adolescent years, it was now time to settle down and settle down he did.
Jilted by Miss Margaret Elder from his first engagement, Crockett would later marry twice, the second marriage after the death of his first wife and fathering in total some six children. Living in Tennessee in the early 1800’s meant that he was involved in the Indian Wars. Some of his relatives had been previously killed, maimed and scalped alive by Indians, so Colonel Crockett had no problems with being involved in such wars, such ‘land’ wars at that!
Davy ran four times to serve as a Congressman in the House of Representatives and won twice, but it was just prior to his last electorial defeat, that he was remarked as saying “I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not then you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas”. Following his defeat, he did just that. Why?
Well for one reason Texas, that vast and ever inviting frontier region, was beginning to break away from Mexico and in 1836 Crockett and 65 other men signed an oath before Judge Forbes to serve the provisional government of Texas for just six months. His pay for that service would be 4,600 acres of land. “Sign me up!” I say, “Sign me up!” Land and lot’s of it! Could there be any better reason to go to Texas? However, it would be just a couple of months later that, ‘The King of The Wild Frontier’ would arrive with James Bowie to aid William Barret ‘Line in the Sand’ Travis, the commander in charge at the siege of the Alamo and on March 6th of that same year, Davy Crockett and the other 180-230 Alamo soldiers would be massacred by an overwhelming Mexican force.
There are three lessons for us here tonight:
Firstly, remember that certain folk are frontier folk. Like it or not, they will not die on their beds, but in likelihood will perish far away from home, seeking a fortune of one kind or another. If you are a frontier person, make sure you hazarding your life for that eternal land of liberty. No other land is a fruitful, is as pleasant, is as safe and is as guaranteed as God’s good land.
Secondly, understand that folk are known by the company they keep. It is no accident that Crockett would be found dead along with that other adventurer, Bowie and his famous knife. When people often ask me what they should do with their lives, I tell them to see who they naturally gravitate towards, who do they desire to be with and in some way emulate? Your peers, both real and desired, are usually a good indicator of the similar stuff that flows through your veins. What company do you keep? Look, for therein lies a picture of your destiny.
Thirdly, despite the facts and the folk-lore, people are not perfect. Bowie was an angry knife fighter who made his money in the slave trade and his name in bar brawls and gunfights. Crockett, the bear-butcher hunter of Tennessee had utilized his story telling abilities so well that it got him into successful politics, and further utilized his story telling abilities by marrying it with such affability and humour, (It ain’t braggin if it’s true!) that he was largely able by himself, to ensure he became a legend in his own lifetime and beyond!
These were all extraordinary people, but people never the less and imperfect people at that. Legends are made out of imperfect people. God uses imperfect people, He can do no other. Never forget that.
If your looking for eternal treasure, if you have an adventure that will be rewarded with land on the other side of Jordan, then call me up will you, sign me up will you please, for I am a frontier person and I shall not die with boots under my bed. How about you?
Listen:- “The bows of the mighty men are broken, And those who stumbled are girded with strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, And the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, And she who has many children has become feeble. "The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. 1 Samuel 2:4-8 NKJV
Pray:- Lord, please give us all a frontier-like spirit, that we might spread your gospel to the ends of the earth. Lord, grant us land in your Kingdom! Lord if the rest of the world shall go to hell, then we shall choose to go to Texas, even if it should become our very own Alamo. So give us this spirit, so revive Your church. In Jesus name we pray, amen!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Aug | 26 | The Man Whom Jesus Let DIE
Dream Word – COST
Matthew 1:18-21 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” NKJV
The Man Whom Jesus Let DIE
Joseph referred to by the angel Gabriel as the son of David, gave to Jesus the Son of God, all the adoptive rights that a father could legally give. This same Jesus, then became the son of David through the adoptive declarations of Joseph. This primary declaration of Joseph is clearly seen in the enormous action of faith, when he took the divinely pregnant and virgin Mary to be his wife. Colin Kerr in the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, writes concerning Joseph that “If a type is to be sought in the character of Joseph, it is that of a simple, honest, hard-working, God-fearing man, who was possessed of large sympathies and a warm heart.”
‘Joseph The Just’ was so honoured by heaven that he is the three-time recipient of direct revelation from God. Yes indeed, ‘Joseph The Just,’ was an honourable and magnificent man of faith to marry Mary in the midst of all the then and no doubt continued gossip regarding the origins of Jesus. The Holy family, lived their lives under a cloud of suspicion regarding the faithfulness of Mary and the probable illegitimacy of Jesus. Origen suggests that this was to purposely throw the devil off the trail of the incarnation of the promised Redeemer, for who would imagine the ‘Word made flesh,’ living and being brought up under such a cloud of suspicion? Yet He was, and ‘Joseph The Just’ bore the brunt of all the ‘under the breath’ suspicions. Make no mistake about it, ‘Joseph The Just’ was an enormous man of faith, a pious man, a providing man, a precious man to Mary and to all the other children later born to them through her.
No doubt Joseph was also an older man and therefore in the scheme of this fallen world, was destined to depart its shores before the younger Mary. We know for a fact that Joseph was around as a faithful provider and practicing Jew when Jesus was aged twelve, but it is evident that Joseph is no longer around when Jesus begins His public ministry when then aged thirty. Sometime then, in those intervening eighteen years, ‘Joseph The Just’ died in the arms of Mary and no doubt in both the face and the presence of Jesus. Think about that. Why did ‘Jesus The Good’ let this seemingly bad thing happen to ‘Joseph the Just’ in His very own family, in His Holy family?
My very strong suggestion is that, because a time was coming when Jesus would publicly begin revealing but one Father, His true Father, His heavenly Father to the world. Then there could be no doubt whatsoever, that this revealing and proclamation made no reference whatsoever to an earthly father. At this point, not only would the mystery and all the gossip regarding the conception of Jesus add to the veracity of His heavenly claim, but the long absence of Joseph from his earthly life, would remove all possible pointers to an earthly father and so clearly indicate our Lord’s proclamation to be but of His one, true and heavenly genealogy. This was the plan, this was the purpose and in light of that, despite the grief and despite the pain, despite the loss to other loving children and to the loving arms of Mary, ‘Joseph The Just,’ just had to go.
The best of men may follow the greatest of divine purposes in faithfulness, quietness, piety and pain. Yet for whatever reason, should their continuance eclipse the revelation of the Father from heaven, then they shall be removed from the earthly scene. To that end, Jesus let this just man die.
I am sure that I am wrong, but I wonder if in heaven there shall be special gated communities, where adjacent to the fields of gold in the private gardens of God Himself, quiet, unheard of and quickly forgotten folk, magnificent men like Joseph, shall reside in such an honoured and well-loved bliss, that we well blustered and noisy disciples, could never enter in? I am sure I am wrong concerning this, but I am sure you also get my point.
Tonight, this will come as a shock to many of you I know, but your life, disciple of Christ, is not about you! The purpose of your life is to reveal the Son and so in turn, to reveal the Father. If you need to die to do this better, then friend, you simply need to die.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Listen:- “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Luke 10:22 NKJV
Pray:- Father by Your grace You have separated me from my mother’s womb and brought me into this world of Yours. Now Father, reveal Your Son in me, that I might preach Him amongst the Gentiles and amongst the Jews. I pray that in me, both He and You would increase and that I might decrease. I know this is a hard thing I ask O Lord, yet Father, make it so. Yes, amen, and make it so.
Matthew 1:18-21 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” NKJV
The Man Whom Jesus Let DIE
Joseph referred to by the angel Gabriel as the son of David, gave to Jesus the Son of God, all the adoptive rights that a father could legally give. This same Jesus, then became the son of David through the adoptive declarations of Joseph. This primary declaration of Joseph is clearly seen in the enormous action of faith, when he took the divinely pregnant and virgin Mary to be his wife. Colin Kerr in the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, writes concerning Joseph that “If a type is to be sought in the character of Joseph, it is that of a simple, honest, hard-working, God-fearing man, who was possessed of large sympathies and a warm heart.”
‘Joseph The Just’ was so honoured by heaven that he is the three-time recipient of direct revelation from God. Yes indeed, ‘Joseph The Just,’ was an honourable and magnificent man of faith to marry Mary in the midst of all the then and no doubt continued gossip regarding the origins of Jesus. The Holy family, lived their lives under a cloud of suspicion regarding the faithfulness of Mary and the probable illegitimacy of Jesus. Origen suggests that this was to purposely throw the devil off the trail of the incarnation of the promised Redeemer, for who would imagine the ‘Word made flesh,’ living and being brought up under such a cloud of suspicion? Yet He was, and ‘Joseph The Just’ bore the brunt of all the ‘under the breath’ suspicions. Make no mistake about it, ‘Joseph The Just’ was an enormous man of faith, a pious man, a providing man, a precious man to Mary and to all the other children later born to them through her. No doubt Joseph was also an older man and therefore in the scheme of this fallen world, was destined to depart its shores before the younger Mary. We know for a fact that Joseph was around as a faithful provider and practicing Jew when Jesus was aged twelve, but it is evident that Joseph is no longer around when Jesus begins His public ministry when then aged thirty. Sometime then, in those intervening eighteen years, ‘Joseph The Just’ died in the arms of Mary and no doubt in both the face and the presence of Jesus. Think about that. Why did ‘Jesus The Good’ let this seemingly bad thing happen to ‘Joseph the Just’ in His very own family, in His Holy family?
My very strong suggestion is that, because a time was coming when Jesus would publicly begin revealing but one Father, His true Father, His heavenly Father to the world. Then there could be no doubt whatsoever, that this revealing and proclamation made no reference whatsoever to an earthly father. At this point, not only would the mystery and all the gossip regarding the conception of Jesus add to the veracity of His heavenly claim, but the long absence of Joseph from his earthly life, would remove all possible pointers to an earthly father and so clearly indicate our Lord’s proclamation to be but of His one, true and heavenly genealogy. This was the plan, this was the purpose and in light of that, despite the grief and despite the pain, despite the loss to other loving children and to the loving arms of Mary, ‘Joseph The Just,’ just had to go.
The best of men may follow the greatest of divine purposes in faithfulness, quietness, piety and pain. Yet for whatever reason, should their continuance eclipse the revelation of the Father from heaven, then they shall be removed from the earthly scene. To that end, Jesus let this just man die.
I am sure that I am wrong, but I wonder if in heaven there shall be special gated communities, where adjacent to the fields of gold in the private gardens of God Himself, quiet, unheard of and quickly forgotten folk, magnificent men like Joseph, shall reside in such an honoured and well-loved bliss, that we well blustered and noisy disciples, could never enter in? I am sure I am wrong concerning this, but I am sure you also get my point.
Tonight, this will come as a shock to many of you I know, but your life, disciple of Christ, is not about you! The purpose of your life is to reveal the Son and so in turn, to reveal the Father. If you need to die to do this better, then friend, you simply need to die.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Listen:- “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Luke 10:22 NKJV
Pray:- Father by Your grace You have separated me from my mother’s womb and brought me into this world of Yours. Now Father, reveal Your Son in me, that I might preach Him amongst the Gentiles and amongst the Jews. I pray that in me, both He and You would increase and that I might decrease. I know this is a hard thing I ask O Lord, yet Father, make it so. Yes, amen, and make it so.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Aug | 25 | Nothing Great is Easy
Dream Word – COST
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. NKJV
Nothing Great is Easy
" As we stood face to face I compared the fine handsome sailor I had first met with the broken-spirited and terribly altered appearance of the man who now courted death in the whirlpool rapids. His object was not suicide but money and imperishable fame".
So was the comment of Mr. Robert Watson regarding his long-time friend, Captain Matthew Webb, who was soon to die in the whirlpool below Niagara Falls, as he pursued his $24,000 swimming attempt at fame and fortune.
It was today in 1875 that Captain Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel. Covered in porpoise oil, beginning at Dover he appeared out of the waves some 21 hours and 45 minutes later, wading ashore at Calais. From this point on,Webb became a legend in his own lifetime. The winning of other world-wide professional swimming races, coupled with extensive foreign lecture tours, brought in both the kudos and the cash this other Shropshire lad, so evidently craved.
No doubt, being almost assuredly aware of this grim attempt of his at Niagara falls, he was heard to say to himself “If I die, they will take care of my wife.” Die he did and they found Webb’s body way downstream, some four days after the start of his ill-fated swim. His head had been smashed by the raging whirlpool current into the jagged rocks below the surface. Webb had pierced himself and his family through with many sorrows.
Captain Webb’s personal Motto was “Nothing Great is Easy.” How true, yet this legend’s focus was in fact rooted in the passing greatness of worldly fame and fortune and when these two seas come together in any man’s heart friend, they will rip his hull in two. Our text for this evening says that the love of money and all its associated fortunes and fame is like impaling yourself on a roasting spit and torturing your own soul in all its attending, life-licking flames. So, we read from our text tonight that such a double-death pursuance, is indicative of a shooting star grossly off its course and destined for adverse grief, for severe and piercing, pounding and penetrating sorrow! Interestingly enough this same Greek word for ‘piercing’ is translated as ‘falling’ in Acts 27:41, where we read. “ And ‘falling’ into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.” What a picture for tonight, regarding the pursuit of fortune and fame, regarding the pursuit and love of money. 'Doing this,' says the Scriptures, 'is like swimming through a whirlpool of pounding seas, it is like impaling yourself upon jagged destruction, it is an eventual drowning in grief, it is the imploding of your life, leaving it like broken and washed-up wreckage on the shores of your epitaph.'
Now the Bible could not be any clearer on the destructive and deathly results of the final outcome of this love of money and this pursuit of all the confidence and comfort of this world's goods. Never the less, I tell you friends, the older I get and the less I have of money and of worldly security, the stronger becomes the desperate pull of this mad pursuance. The more I see my contemporaries seemingly settled and safe, then the more this measuring madness rises up within me. The possibility of deserting Christ and His call, of seeking my financial security rather than His Kingdom grows stronger in me with each passing day.
It is easier as a young man to be sold out to Christ, when the seeming safety of time yet to pass, allows the possibility of there to be yet some gathering in. Ah, but when time passes and all the planting seasons with it, when other’s crops are gathered in before your watching eyes, it is hard then not to sell out Christ and it is easy to bear the now sad and now pale and poxy face, of a once strong faith now gone. " As we stood face to face I compared the fine handsome sailor I had first met with the broken-spirited and terribly altered appearance of the man who now courted death in the whirlpool rapids. His object was not suicide but money and imperishable fame".
As we get older the call of Christ must get louder. As we get older the pull of His kingdom must get stronger, as we get older the focus of our eyes must get more laser-like and then, like old war horses, we must be blinkered in the slips, so that no distraction should take our feet from the sure path we have been walking on for so long.
Where is your focus tonight young person? Where is your focus tonight old man? Do you hear the rush of water and the pounding of waves, are you in the thrashing middle of the crush of two seas clapping their salty hands around your ears? Remember, “Nothing Great is Easy”, but consider and consider well, just what it is, that is God’s considered greatness!
Listen:- But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honour and everlasting power. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Pray:- Lord, some of us tonight are desperate enough to throw ourselves under Niagara Falls. Lord some of us tonight have thoroughly lost our focus. Would You please once again throw into our lives that ever buoyant promise, of seeking first Your kingdom and with it, the promise of the addition of all things necessary for this life and this calling of Yours on ours? Help us tonight Lord to get that ring of rescue around our waist and underneath our armpits, then will You lift us safely from these raging torrents and deliver us safe to Your most settled shores of goodness, we pray this in Jesus name, amen!
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. NKJV
Nothing Great is Easy
" As we stood face to face I compared the fine handsome sailor I had first met with the broken-spirited and terribly altered appearance of the man who now courted death in the whirlpool rapids. His object was not suicide but money and imperishable fame".
So was the comment of Mr. Robert Watson regarding his long-time friend, Captain Matthew Webb, who was soon to die in the whirlpool below Niagara Falls, as he pursued his $24,000 swimming attempt at fame and fortune.It was today in 1875 that Captain Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel. Covered in porpoise oil, beginning at Dover he appeared out of the waves some 21 hours and 45 minutes later, wading ashore at Calais. From this point on,Webb became a legend in his own lifetime. The winning of other world-wide professional swimming races, coupled with extensive foreign lecture tours, brought in both the kudos and the cash this other Shropshire lad, so evidently craved.
No doubt, being almost assuredly aware of this grim attempt of his at Niagara falls, he was heard to say to himself “If I die, they will take care of my wife.” Die he did and they found Webb’s body way downstream, some four days after the start of his ill-fated swim. His head had been smashed by the raging whirlpool current into the jagged rocks below the surface. Webb had pierced himself and his family through with many sorrows.
Captain Webb’s personal Motto was “Nothing Great is Easy.” How true, yet this legend’s focus was in fact rooted in the passing greatness of worldly fame and fortune and when these two seas come together in any man’s heart friend, they will rip his hull in two. Our text for this evening says that the love of money and all its associated fortunes and fame is like impaling yourself on a roasting spit and torturing your own soul in all its attending, life-licking flames. So, we read from our text tonight that such a double-death pursuance, is indicative of a shooting star grossly off its course and destined for adverse grief, for severe and piercing, pounding and penetrating sorrow! Interestingly enough this same Greek word for ‘piercing’ is translated as ‘falling’ in Acts 27:41, where we read. “ And ‘falling’ into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.” What a picture for tonight, regarding the pursuit of fortune and fame, regarding the pursuit and love of money. 'Doing this,' says the Scriptures, 'is like swimming through a whirlpool of pounding seas, it is like impaling yourself upon jagged destruction, it is an eventual drowning in grief, it is the imploding of your life, leaving it like broken and washed-up wreckage on the shores of your epitaph.'
Now the Bible could not be any clearer on the destructive and deathly results of the final outcome of this love of money and this pursuit of all the confidence and comfort of this world's goods. Never the less, I tell you friends, the older I get and the less I have of money and of worldly security, the stronger becomes the desperate pull of this mad pursuance. The more I see my contemporaries seemingly settled and safe, then the more this measuring madness rises up within me. The possibility of deserting Christ and His call, of seeking my financial security rather than His Kingdom grows stronger in me with each passing day.
It is easier as a young man to be sold out to Christ, when the seeming safety of time yet to pass, allows the possibility of there to be yet some gathering in. Ah, but when time passes and all the planting seasons with it, when other’s crops are gathered in before your watching eyes, it is hard then not to sell out Christ and it is easy to bear the now sad and now pale and poxy face, of a once strong faith now gone. " As we stood face to face I compared the fine handsome sailor I had first met with the broken-spirited and terribly altered appearance of the man who now courted death in the whirlpool rapids. His object was not suicide but money and imperishable fame".
As we get older the call of Christ must get louder. As we get older the pull of His kingdom must get stronger, as we get older the focus of our eyes must get more laser-like and then, like old war horses, we must be blinkered in the slips, so that no distraction should take our feet from the sure path we have been walking on for so long.
Where is your focus tonight young person? Where is your focus tonight old man? Do you hear the rush of water and the pounding of waves, are you in the thrashing middle of the crush of two seas clapping their salty hands around your ears? Remember, “Nothing Great is Easy”, but consider and consider well, just what it is, that is God’s considered greatness!
Listen:- But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honour and everlasting power. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Pray:- Lord, some of us tonight are desperate enough to throw ourselves under Niagara Falls. Lord some of us tonight have thoroughly lost our focus. Would You please once again throw into our lives that ever buoyant promise, of seeking first Your kingdom and with it, the promise of the addition of all things necessary for this life and this calling of Yours on ours? Help us tonight Lord to get that ring of rescue around our waist and underneath our armpits, then will You lift us safely from these raging torrents and deliver us safe to Your most settled shores of goodness, we pray this in Jesus name, amen!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Aug | 01 | The Cost of Cutting & Counting The Cost
Dream Word – COST
Isaiah 56:3-5 Nor let the eunuch say, "Here I am, a dry tree." For thus says the Lord: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. NKJV
The Cost of Cutting & Counting The Cost
In my second of three thoughts on sexuality, tonight I want to look at this passage in Isaiah 56. In this text, a eunuch is not a transsexual, neither did bearing the title of ‘Eunuch’ necessarily mean that you had been mutilated in that way. In other words, being a eunuch did not necessarily mean that your testicles had physically been taken away. The term and title of “Eunuch” you see, could also be used figuratively. Here in Isaiah however, I believe it us used quite literally!
This act of mutilation (this radical cutting of permanent destruction) was sometimes done voluntarily. Yes, it was a voluntary practice even in the early history of the church, but more often than not, it was done purposefully and as an act of domination and forced servitude. Today, we would call this an act of abusive domination and servitude . This text refers to those people upon which this violation has been inflicted. Never the less, such violent actions and the resultant large group of people who had been put under the knife at a very early age, who had on the whole been robbed of their ‘dangly bits,’ now had become so ‘common,’ that God particularly addressed them here in this text.
In that cultural context where children were seen as a sign of blessing from the Lord (when mine were teenagers I would have contested that viewpoint most energetically) and where children were seen as being a cultural comfort and a sign of personal continuance, for the eunuchs then , NOT to be able to father children, was an opposite sign of God's blessing, even a sign of cursing, seemingly saying that they were not to be able share in the covenant blessing, as it expressed itself in cultural comfort and personal continuance.
These words to Eunuchs in Isaiah 56 are from the mouth of the God of all comfort, who says to them in effect, “You please me! And you do this by keeping my covenant and my Sabbaths and by consistently choosing to live to please me. Thank you! I am sorry about ‘your bits’ your lack of ‘home,’ your lack of personal comfort and personal continuance but don’t worry, you wont lose out! No, even better than that, ‘Mi cassa essu cassa,’ and also, I shall give you an unforgettable and everlasting name. Yup, you might have had yer bit’s cut off, by I shall make sure, your name, the full embodiment of who you are and who you shall become in me, that is, all you ever hoped to be, well that, will never be cut off! So in light of this, don’t lose hope, don’t give up honouring, obeying and pleasing Me, for in that, there is great reward, even if it not yet stood before you on two legs.”
Yes, our text for tonight is for those who have seemingly been robbed of the blessing of the covenant by the loss of the cultural comfort and personal continuance, which a pair of testicles might have brought them. What a word of encouragement for folk so abused. Hallelujah!
The general application of this promise here is very clear then for us all I believe. “Whatever your condition, whether you have been robbed by others, whether you have robbed yourself, whether sin, situation or circumstance has robbed you, if you now begin live to please Me,” says God, “To honour Me in the keeping of my laws, then I shall bless you, and bless you WAY BEYOND your capacity. You will by no means lose out in following Me.”
Listen: - Then Peter said, "See, we have left all and followed You." So He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life." (Luke 18:28-30 NKJV.)
Pray:- Lord, restore to me all that I have trashed, all that I have been robbed of, all that I have lost. Father, let Your redemption rule in my life, yes in all its fully redeemed and fantastic fullness. In Jesus name I ask it, amen.
Isaiah 56:3-5 Nor let the eunuch say, "Here I am, a dry tree." For thus says the Lord: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. NKJV
The Cost of Cutting & Counting The Cost
In my second of three thoughts on sexuality, tonight I want to look at this passage in Isaiah 56. In this text, a eunuch is not a transsexual, neither did bearing the title of ‘Eunuch’ necessarily mean that you had been mutilated in that way. In other words, being a eunuch did not necessarily mean that your testicles had physically been taken away. The term and title of “Eunuch” you see, could also be used figuratively. Here in Isaiah however, I believe it us used quite literally!This act of mutilation (this radical cutting of permanent destruction) was sometimes done voluntarily. Yes, it was a voluntary practice even in the early history of the church, but more often than not, it was done purposefully and as an act of domination and forced servitude. Today, we would call this an act of abusive domination and servitude . This text refers to those people upon which this violation has been inflicted. Never the less, such violent actions and the resultant large group of people who had been put under the knife at a very early age, who had on the whole been robbed of their ‘dangly bits,’ now had become so ‘common,’ that God particularly addressed them here in this text.
In that cultural context where children were seen as a sign of blessing from the Lord (when mine were teenagers I would have contested that viewpoint most energetically) and where children were seen as being a cultural comfort and a sign of personal continuance, for the eunuchs then , NOT to be able to father children, was an opposite sign of God's blessing, even a sign of cursing, seemingly saying that they were not to be able share in the covenant blessing, as it expressed itself in cultural comfort and personal continuance.These words to Eunuchs in Isaiah 56 are from the mouth of the God of all comfort, who says to them in effect, “You please me! And you do this by keeping my covenant and my Sabbaths and by consistently choosing to live to please me. Thank you! I am sorry about ‘your bits’ your lack of ‘home,’ your lack of personal comfort and personal continuance but don’t worry, you wont lose out! No, even better than that, ‘Mi cassa essu cassa,’ and also, I shall give you an unforgettable and everlasting name. Yup, you might have had yer bit’s cut off, by I shall make sure, your name, the full embodiment of who you are and who you shall become in me, that is, all you ever hoped to be, well that, will never be cut off! So in light of this, don’t lose hope, don’t give up honouring, obeying and pleasing Me, for in that, there is great reward, even if it not yet stood before you on two legs.”
Yes, our text for tonight is for those who have seemingly been robbed of the blessing of the covenant by the loss of the cultural comfort and personal continuance, which a pair of testicles might have brought them. What a word of encouragement for folk so abused. Hallelujah!
The general application of this promise here is very clear then for us all I believe. “Whatever your condition, whether you have been robbed by others, whether you have robbed yourself, whether sin, situation or circumstance has robbed you, if you now begin live to please Me,” says God, “To honour Me in the keeping of my laws, then I shall bless you, and bless you WAY BEYOND your capacity. You will by no means lose out in following Me.”
Listen: - Then Peter said, "See, we have left all and followed You." So He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life." (Luke 18:28-30 NKJV.)
Pray:- Lord, restore to me all that I have trashed, all that I have been robbed of, all that I have lost. Father, let Your redemption rule in my life, yes in all its fully redeemed and fantastic fullness. In Jesus name I ask it, amen.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Jun | 19 | An Open Heart, An Open House & An Open Wallet
Dream Word – COST
Nehemiah 5:14,15 From the time King Artaxerxes appointed me as their governor in the land of Judah — from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of his reign, twelve years — neither I nor my brothers used the governor's food allowance. Governors who had preceded me had oppressed the people by taxing them forty shekels of silver (about a pound) a day for food and wine while their underlings bullied the people unmercifully. But out of fear of God I did none of that. (from THE MESSAGE: by Eugene H. Peterson.)
An Open Heart, An Open House & An Open Wallet
Nehemiah the Jew, cup bearer to the King of Babylon was on a good ticket. Wiley, wealthy, healthy and settled, there was no reason he should be moved from his sumptuous and most prosperous position. Except that he was a practical man, a patriotic man and above all a prayerful man and friends, any spiritual mathematician will tell you, that the product of prayerfulness and practical patriotism, will always produce problems in the heart in which that equation unfolds itself. Go ask Cromwell.
So one day, Nehemiah receives some Jews from Jerusalem, his own home capital city, and hears the lamentable tale of the sorry state that both it and its people are in. The equation starts to unfold, and moved by this Divine and mathematical injunction, Nehemiah has the courage to gain the permission of his earthly potentate, to return home for a time (a well thought out and planned for time by the way) for the sole purpose of restoring the people of God and their capital city, to a place of protection for them, a place of prayer for them and a place of prosperity for them. The personal cost to Nehemiah was substantial.
From the superb heights of Babylonian safety, Nehemiah was returning to a blitzed city, a city of broken walls and a city of broken spirits. He was returning under suspicion from his own people and his enemies, even under attack, from his enemies and his own people, yet bringing to their beleaguered table, his wisdom, his wiliness and his wealth. It is the latter I wish to talk about this evening: Nehemiah’s wealth.
Nehemiah was not backward in coming forward in laying out the personal cost to himself of such a radical restoration and I am glad of it, for be sure, such radical restoration is exceptionally costly. Following Nehemiah’s own practicality then, let us do the same and highlight that for twelve years, he did not take what was rightfully his. On the contrary, from his own substantial pockets, he financed and fed a multitude of projects and people. This was not an unplanned, frittering away of personal resources, but rather a well-led example of sacrifice for the purpose of focused rebuilding. Every penny was both well spent and accounted for. I think the we might consider installing Nehemiah permanently in No11 Downing Street!
The time has come in my own country of Britain to have a purposeful and focused rebuilding of the church of the living God, for all its walls are broken and breached, and for all the talk of fire, the only fire of any effect is that which has burned down all our gates. Indeed, the enemy has their storehouses in our very temple courts and the two assassins of Sanballat and Tobiah, have already unsheathed their swords among us. Today, right now, we need a multitude of Nehemiah’s, all consumed with zeal, who shall at great personal cost, give their lives in the form of their relocation, their leadership, their expertise and most practically and most especially, their wallets. Without them, Jerusalem shall not be built again in this most green and pleasant land. Are you a Nehemiah?
Listen: - I had work to do; I worked on this wall. All my men were on the job to do the work. We didn't have time to line our own pockets. I fed one hundred and fifty Jews and officials at my table in addition to those who showed up from the surrounding nations. One ox, six choice sheep, and some chickens were prepared for me daily, and every ten days a large supply of wine was delivered. Even so, I didn't use the food allowance provided for the governor — the people had it hard enough as it was. Remember in my favor, O my God, everything I've done for these people. (from Nehemiah 5:16-19, THE MESSAGE: by Eugene H. Peterson. )
Pray:- Work out Your equations in the hearts of them that can do Jerusalem good O Lord. In Jesus name we ask it, amen.
Nehemiah 5:14,15 From the time King Artaxerxes appointed me as their governor in the land of Judah — from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of his reign, twelve years — neither I nor my brothers used the governor's food allowance. Governors who had preceded me had oppressed the people by taxing them forty shekels of silver (about a pound) a day for food and wine while their underlings bullied the people unmercifully. But out of fear of God I did none of that. (from THE MESSAGE: by Eugene H. Peterson.)
An Open Heart, An Open House & An Open Wallet
Nehemiah the Jew, cup bearer to the King of Babylon was on a good ticket. Wiley, wealthy, healthy and settled, there was no reason he should be moved from his sumptuous and most prosperous position. Except that he was a practical man, a patriotic man and above all a prayerful man and friends, any spiritual mathematician will tell you, that the product of prayerfulness and practical patriotism, will always produce problems in the heart in which that equation unfolds itself. Go ask Cromwell.So one day, Nehemiah receives some Jews from Jerusalem, his own home capital city, and hears the lamentable tale of the sorry state that both it and its people are in. The equation starts to unfold, and moved by this Divine and mathematical injunction, Nehemiah has the courage to gain the permission of his earthly potentate, to return home for a time (a well thought out and planned for time by the way) for the sole purpose of restoring the people of God and their capital city, to a place of protection for them, a place of prayer for them and a place of prosperity for them. The personal cost to Nehemiah was substantial.
From the superb heights of Babylonian safety, Nehemiah was returning to a blitzed city, a city of broken walls and a city of broken spirits. He was returning under suspicion from his own people and his enemies, even under attack, from his enemies and his own people, yet bringing to their beleaguered table, his wisdom, his wiliness and his wealth. It is the latter I wish to talk about this evening: Nehemiah’s wealth.
Nehemiah was not backward in coming forward in laying out the personal cost to himself of such a radical restoration and I am glad of it, for be sure, such radical restoration is exceptionally costly. Following Nehemiah’s own practicality then, let us do the same and highlight that for twelve years, he did not take what was rightfully his. On the contrary, from his own substantial pockets, he financed and fed a multitude of projects and people. This was not an unplanned, frittering away of personal resources, but rather a well-led example of sacrifice for the purpose of focused rebuilding. Every penny was both well spent and accounted for. I think the we might consider installing Nehemiah permanently in No11 Downing Street! The time has come in my own country of Britain to have a purposeful and focused rebuilding of the church of the living God, for all its walls are broken and breached, and for all the talk of fire, the only fire of any effect is that which has burned down all our gates. Indeed, the enemy has their storehouses in our very temple courts and the two assassins of Sanballat and Tobiah, have already unsheathed their swords among us. Today, right now, we need a multitude of Nehemiah’s, all consumed with zeal, who shall at great personal cost, give their lives in the form of their relocation, their leadership, their expertise and most practically and most especially, their wallets. Without them, Jerusalem shall not be built again in this most green and pleasant land. Are you a Nehemiah?
Listen: - I had work to do; I worked on this wall. All my men were on the job to do the work. We didn't have time to line our own pockets. I fed one hundred and fifty Jews and officials at my table in addition to those who showed up from the surrounding nations. One ox, six choice sheep, and some chickens were prepared for me daily, and every ten days a large supply of wine was delivered. Even so, I didn't use the food allowance provided for the governor — the people had it hard enough as it was. Remember in my favor, O my God, everything I've done for these people. (from Nehemiah 5:16-19, THE MESSAGE: by Eugene H. Peterson. )
Pray:- Work out Your equations in the hearts of them that can do Jerusalem good O Lord. In Jesus name we ask it, amen.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Jun | 16 | Of Betty Crocker Brioche & Tired Sweaty Bakers
Dream Word – COST
Nehemiah 9:15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, and told them to go in to possess the land which You had sworn to give them. NKJV
Of Betty Crocker Brioche & Tired Sweaty Bakers
It is the infamous Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of France and Navarre, who when confronted with the poverty and starvation of her people through lack of bread, is reputed to have replied , “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” or, “Let them eat Cake!” I find this a most resonant statement, for in these strange days, one of the reasons I go to many churches is for the indulgence of cake. For other people it is good coffee or sweet overly iced donuts, but for me, it is cake! Chocolate cake, gooey cake, angel cake (always best served at charismatic churches), fruit cake, (if your going to get some of the latest 'new thing' that God is supposedly doing now, especially in North America) millionaire shortcake, (for the prosperity minded among us) indeed, any kind and combination of cake will do for me! Especially, yes especially if there is no bread! Are you listening now?
I am always amazed at what substandard fodder we Christians can become satisfied with. So much grotty grey gruel, each Sunday, simply slopped down on our empty and not so white, waiting plates. Yes, thank God for cake, because it’s the only thing that keeps me going back to church!
I am perpetually pleased though, at seeing the onset of wide eyes and open mouths on the faces of malnourished Christians when first encountering real bread, for when gruel-fed saints eventually get a taste of some real bread, some heavenly brioche, burgeoning fat with the goodness of God, they’ll change restaurants, yes, they will start a revolution and chop of the heads of all the lazy chefs who gave them grey gruel and Betty Crocker, quick served cake as a substitute for hard earned study bread.
Whenever I take on a pastorate I am always a little perplexed at the known workload that is about to come upon me once again, for I desire to be a good baker, and with good bakers that make the best of breads, there are no short cuts, yes, despite me being only 5’ 6, there are no short cooks. For me, this means rising earlier than most, to light my oven. It means maintaining my yeast at just the right temperature, and much more than this, it means finding the right fertilizer for my soil, it means digging, ploughing, sowing, reaping, milling, and God help me, it means a lot of unseen sweat, shed in lonely fields. Preparing bread is the hardest work I have ever done.
Preacher, if your folks are going to church mostly for the cake, then you’re a lazy slob and a disgrace to your baker race. You’re a Betty Crocker crook, serving up sugary rubbish that isn’t even your own and frankly, you needs must get out of the kitchen. Friend, if you are a member of a congregation and all you are going to church for is some of that gooey cake, then eventually, your teeth are going to fall out, and your paunch will grow lopping belt fat, and cover any reproductive organs you might have had. You’ll die of spiritual diabetes!
It is only silly queens that cry “Let them eat cake!” Remember that. Selah.
Listen: - In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread (Genesis 3:19 NKJV.)
Pray:- Lord, we pray for our bakers, that they would rise early to their tasks, labour long on their production, and serve us well with the bread from heaven. Lord send us workers and not shirkers, we Your hungry people pray, amen.
Nehemiah 9:15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, and told them to go in to possess the land which You had sworn to give them. NKJV
Of Betty Crocker Brioche & Tired Sweaty Bakers
It is the infamous Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of France and Navarre, who when confronted with the poverty and starvation of her people through lack of bread, is reputed to have replied , “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” or, “Let them eat Cake!” I find this a most resonant statement, for in these strange days, one of the reasons I go to many churches is for the indulgence of cake. For other people it is good coffee or sweet overly iced donuts, but for me, it is cake! Chocolate cake, gooey cake, angel cake (always best served at charismatic churches), fruit cake, (if your going to get some of the latest 'new thing' that God is supposedly doing now, especially in North America) millionaire shortcake, (for the prosperity minded among us) indeed, any kind and combination of cake will do for me! Especially, yes especially if there is no bread! Are you listening now?I am always amazed at what substandard fodder we Christians can become satisfied with. So much grotty grey gruel, each Sunday, simply slopped down on our empty and not so white, waiting plates. Yes, thank God for cake, because it’s the only thing that keeps me going back to church!
I am perpetually pleased though, at seeing the onset of wide eyes and open mouths on the faces of malnourished Christians when first encountering real bread, for when gruel-fed saints eventually get a taste of some real bread, some heavenly brioche, burgeoning fat with the goodness of God, they’ll change restaurants, yes, they will start a revolution and chop of the heads of all the lazy chefs who gave them grey gruel and Betty Crocker, quick served cake as a substitute for hard earned study bread.
Whenever I take on a pastorate I am always a little perplexed at the known workload that is about to come upon me once again, for I desire to be a good baker, and with good bakers that make the best of breads, there are no short cuts, yes, despite me being only 5’ 6, there are no short cooks. For me, this means rising earlier than most, to light my oven. It means maintaining my yeast at just the right temperature, and much more than this, it means finding the right fertilizer for my soil, it means digging, ploughing, sowing, reaping, milling, and God help me, it means a lot of unseen sweat, shed in lonely fields. Preparing bread is the hardest work I have ever done. 
Preacher, if your folks are going to church mostly for the cake, then you’re a lazy slob and a disgrace to your baker race. You’re a Betty Crocker crook, serving up sugary rubbish that isn’t even your own and frankly, you needs must get out of the kitchen. Friend, if you are a member of a congregation and all you are going to church for is some of that gooey cake, then eventually, your teeth are going to fall out, and your paunch will grow lopping belt fat, and cover any reproductive organs you might have had. You’ll die of spiritual diabetes!
It is only silly queens that cry “Let them eat cake!” Remember that. Selah.
Listen: - In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread (Genesis 3:19 NKJV.)
Pray:- Lord, we pray for our bakers, that they would rise early to their tasks, labour long on their production, and serve us well with the bread from heaven. Lord send us workers and not shirkers, we Your hungry people pray, amen.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
May | 05 | God The Iconoclast
Dream Word – COST
Psalms 2:7-9 I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" NKJV
God The Iconoclast
When open fires were all the rage, standard issue on the hearth was a poker, quite literally, a rod of iron. These were heavy and dangerous pieces of equipment for a small child with chicken wing limbs trying to handle them in the face of ceramic-tiled hearths, for together with the ornaments gently settled upon the dusty mantle piece above, both were always want to be accidentally cracked, knocked and broken. Now, place that poker in the hands of an angry and drunken Scotsman, late on a Saturday night, and a poker then turns into a room destroyer, where with just a couple or three, sword- cutting and decapitating swipes, it could leave the memories of a lifetime lying on the floor and broken all to pieces. Rods of iron are dangerous things you see, especially when swung in anger, around pleading, kneeling, little pots of clay.
It was Spurgeon, commenting on Jeremiah 16:20, ‘Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods?’ NKJV, who so poetically said that, “If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, then let them dote upon their dear ones.” In other words,
Spurgeon was suggesting that iconic doting, would lead to cataclysmic Iconoclasm, for not only would those dearest feet of clay, most always and most surely let us down, but if we were to set them up in our hearts as idols, then God the angry poker man Himself, would maybe come and smash them down. Indeed, in all my own idolatrous worship of family, friends and fellow workers, I have found this to be true.
Do not let the family altar become the place of Baal, lest in the future you stuff your sleepless pillows with broken pieces, of thoroughly poker’d pottery. Do not make idols of neither your parents nor your children. Remember, “If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, then let them dote upon their dear ones.”
Listen: - Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Psalms 2:10-12 NKJV.
Pray:- ‘Above all others and all things, we love You O lord our God.’ Lord, we cast down our idols and ask you not to test and try us, in this our daily declaration. Amen.
Psalms 2:7-9 I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" NKJV
God The Iconoclast
When open fires were all the rage, standard issue on the hearth was a poker, quite literally, a rod of iron. These were heavy and dangerous pieces of equipment for a small child with chicken wing limbs trying to handle them in the face of ceramic-tiled hearths, for together with the ornaments gently settled upon the dusty mantle piece above, both were always want to be accidentally cracked, knocked and broken. Now, place that poker in the hands of an angry and drunken Scotsman, late on a Saturday night, and a poker then turns into a room destroyer, where with just a couple or three, sword- cutting and decapitating swipes, it could leave the memories of a lifetime lying on the floor and broken all to pieces. Rods of iron are dangerous things you see, especially when swung in anger, around pleading, kneeling, little pots of clay.It was Spurgeon, commenting on Jeremiah 16:20, ‘Will a man make gods for himself, which are not gods?’ NKJV, who so poetically said that, “If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, then let them dote upon their dear ones.” In other words,
Spurgeon was suggesting that iconic doting, would lead to cataclysmic Iconoclasm, for not only would those dearest feet of clay, most always and most surely let us down, but if we were to set them up in our hearts as idols, then God the angry poker man Himself, would maybe come and smash them down. Indeed, in all my own idolatrous worship of family, friends and fellow workers, I have found this to be true. Do not let the family altar become the place of Baal, lest in the future you stuff your sleepless pillows with broken pieces, of thoroughly poker’d pottery. Do not make idols of neither your parents nor your children. Remember, “If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, then let them dote upon their dear ones.”
Listen: - Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Psalms 2:10-12 NKJV.
Pray:- ‘Above all others and all things, we love You O lord our God.’ Lord, we cast down our idols and ask you not to test and try us, in this our daily declaration. Amen.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Apr | 18 | Of Obstinate Heretics & Tri-Fold Fetters
Dream Word – COST
Acts 23:1-2 Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." NKJV.
Of Obstinate Heretics & Tri-Fold Fetters
Today in 1520, Martin Luther finally got his opportunity before the assembly of Nobles and Judges at the German city of Worms. This assembly, or this Diet of Worms, is one of the most important places in Western history, for here, a man triple bound by the Scriptures, his conscience and good reason, would so stand against demonic authority that he would split the fat and weighty heavens with the humble but sharp scimitar of his mighty tongue and from this bulbous bladder of bad Romanism, from this stench filled and foul pestilent cloud of Medieval Papist domination, would rain down principalities, powers and dominions, yes, demons of every kind would all come tumbling out and begin running about Europe in wild and wanton madness, each one vying for new positions and in the so doing, as Melvyn Bragg puts it, begin "tearing countries apart, setting nation against nation, felling kings and plunging dynasties into suicidal bouts of infighting."
At Worms, Luther let a lot more than the cat out of the bag, that’s for sure. Thousands upon tens of thousands would die in the ensuing years as the ‘not flesh and blood forces,’ furiously battled it out amongst flesh and blood people. Between darkness and light, new boundaries were being drawn, new fronts were opening up, as light in all its blood stained-glass redness, shone along the floor of Europe’s once so darkened continent. Since this day in 1520, it seems the tumult has rarely ceased.
There are three things of note for us this evening:-
Firstly, that the free men of the Kingdom of Christ are indeed, still today bound by Luther’s same tri-fold fetters. Those being the Scriptures, conscience and good reason.
Second, that it is indeed most dangerous for the individual to break these bonds from around themselves, and
Lastly, that being bound in such a way and in being vocal with it before authority that demands compliance, shall indeed bring down the fearful and condemning curse of ‘Obstinate and Heretic’ upon our own bald and vow-shaven heads.
'Imagining all the people', Lennon was wrong. For without the conflict that darkness always brings against these tri-fold fetters of light, there shall reign over all the people as one, such blackness, such bondage, and such brutality, that Hitler’s Third Reich shall seem like a kindergarten soft toy punch up at a middle class Christmas nativity play.
Oh, bondservant of Jesus Christ, count your fine fetters tonight and if all three are still intact and your mouth is ready to give an account for the hope that is within you, then you had better get ready for trouble!
Listen: - Now when there arose a great dissension, the commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks. But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome." And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than forty who had formed this conspiracy. Acts 23:10-14 NKJV.
Pray:- Lord, unless we shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason, then we shall never step on the unsafe ground of acting against conscience. This is our testimony to You this night then, for Christ’s sake we shall now say to you, “Here we stand, we can do no other. So God help us. Amen.”
Acts 23:1-2 Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." NKJV.
Of Obstinate Heretics & Tri-Fold Fetters
Today in 1520, Martin Luther finally got his opportunity before the assembly of Nobles and Judges at the German city of Worms. This assembly, or this Diet of Worms, is one of the most important places in Western history, for here, a man triple bound by the Scriptures, his conscience and good reason, would so stand against demonic authority that he would split the fat and weighty heavens with the humble but sharp scimitar of his mighty tongue and from this bulbous bladder of bad Romanism, from this stench filled and foul pestilent cloud of Medieval Papist domination, would rain down principalities, powers and dominions, yes, demons of every kind would all come tumbling out and begin running about Europe in wild and wanton madness, each one vying for new positions and in the so doing, as Melvyn Bragg puts it, begin "tearing countries apart, setting nation against nation, felling kings and plunging dynasties into suicidal bouts of infighting."At Worms, Luther let a lot more than the cat out of the bag, that’s for sure. Thousands upon tens of thousands would die in the ensuing years as the ‘not flesh and blood forces,’ furiously battled it out amongst flesh and blood people. Between darkness and light, new boundaries were being drawn, new fronts were opening up, as light in all its blood stained-glass redness, shone along the floor of Europe’s once so darkened continent. Since this day in 1520, it seems the tumult has rarely ceased.
There are three things of note for us this evening:-
Firstly, that the free men of the Kingdom of Christ are indeed, still today bound by Luther’s same tri-fold fetters. Those being the Scriptures, conscience and good reason.
Second, that it is indeed most dangerous for the individual to break these bonds from around themselves, and
Lastly, that being bound in such a way and in being vocal with it before authority that demands compliance, shall indeed bring down the fearful and condemning curse of ‘Obstinate and Heretic’ upon our own bald and vow-shaven heads.
'Imagining all the people', Lennon was wrong. For without the conflict that darkness always brings against these tri-fold fetters of light, there shall reign over all the people as one, such blackness, such bondage, and such brutality, that Hitler’s Third Reich shall seem like a kindergarten soft toy punch up at a middle class Christmas nativity play.
Oh, bondservant of Jesus Christ, count your fine fetters tonight and if all three are still intact and your mouth is ready to give an account for the hope that is within you, then you had better get ready for trouble!
Listen: - Now when there arose a great dissension, the commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks. But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome." And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than forty who had formed this conspiracy. Acts 23:10-14 NKJV.
Pray:- Lord, unless we shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason, then we shall never step on the unsafe ground of acting against conscience. This is our testimony to You this night then, for Christ’s sake we shall now say to you, “Here we stand, we can do no other. So God help us. Amen.”
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