New blog!

My wife has started blogging now. She'd love you to have a read and leave a comment.

Here's the link:

http://laughing-at-the-days-to-come.blogspot.com/

"...because you have obeyed my voice"

"...and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice" Genesis 22:18

What precedes this verse is a thoroughly moving account of how God tests Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son. I'm not going to get into the detail of that now. Suffice it to say that God never wants Abraham to actually sacrifice his son; instead this is a picture of how only God himself will provide the lamb, that is Jesus, who takes away our sins.

What I really want to emphasise here is that the nations of the earth shall be blessed through Abraham's obedience. I think these days we downplay obedience. I see this outworked in the school where I work: obedience just isn't the done thing. But from this passage it seems that obedience unlocks further blessing.

Now I use the term further because it is clear from elsewhere in scripture that God blesses because of nothing we do to earn it. In Genesis 1:28 we read that the first thing God does after he creates man is to bless them. God's character is the bless us because he loves us!

But I believe that there is a key to unlocking further blessing and that is when God tells us to do something then we should do it. Abraham obeys God and so all nations will be blessed! Genesis 12 shows us that God has already blessed Abraham, so this is further blessing.

In practice, we need to recognise where God has spoken to us in our lives and do what he says. Has he told you to help someone in need? Help them. Has he told you to move to a new area? Move there, trusting in him. Has he told you to pray for and lay hands on the sick? Then pray for them. There are many situations I could list - [insert yours here].

Obey and be blessed!

Sow, sow and sow some more!

I've been thinking over a Bible verse for a few weeks, on & off. It's a promise, one that I believe, and has practical application. It reads:

"And he (that is, God) will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous." Isaiah 30:23

God gives rain to water our seed when we sow it, and the produce will be of good quality and quantity. Where do we acquire this seed?

"He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness." 2 Corinthians 9:10

God gives us the seed as well. What an amazing God! He gives us the seed and he waters it so it will grow and multiply.

Now this applies to more than agriculture. What else can we sow? We can sow a smile to our neighbour, a handshake, a friendly conversation, a prayer for the needy; but we can also meet that need by sowing our time and finances. We can sow a scripture or word of encouragement to build people up; we can prayer for healing by the laying on of hands.

So what should our response be? Sow, sow and sow some more - for he will multiply it! Now is the time to sow and to see a harvest of righteousness, finance, health and souls for the Lord!

It started with a walk...

The date: Wednesday 11th May 2005.

Location: Durham, the Neville's Cross area.

Event: Mel and I went for a walk which culminated in the beginning of our relationship.

The date: God knows.

Location: Eden

Event: God walks with Adam and Eve and has wonderful intimacy with them (until that snake came along).

My relationship with Mel started with a walk. My relationship with God is a walk of life, eternal in quality and quantity.

Whenever I go for a walk with Mel it's because I love her, I cherish her company and I want to spend time with her. This is a mere shadow of how God thinks of us. He longs to walk with us so much. How much? Enough that he gave his only son for us (see my last post).

Maybe it's time you started a walk with God...

The date: Hopefully soon.

Location: Your heart.

Event: You start your eternal walk with God and never look back.

What did Jesus die for?

A simple and a profound question, one which I have recently found has a deeper answer: Jesus died so you could live in his presence every moment of every day.

But before that, Jesus died to save human souls for himself, to save us from our sins and wrong doings; to save us from living our lives our own way and for ourselves which only leads to death and an eternity apart from God. I think this is summed up very nicely by Isaiah the prophet who spoke of Jesus some 800 years before he was born:

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity[sin] of us all." Isaiah 53:6.

Now I think it's important we state what Christ didn't die for: Christ didn't die so that we could simply go to meetings or pay lip service to him once a week. Indeed the Pharisees, the religious people of Jesus' time were the ones who bore the brunt of his criticism.

So if Jesus didn't die for us to...

a) Keep living our own way,
b) Attend weekly meetings,
c) Be on the church commitee/PCC,
d) Chant liturgy,
e) Have a fish on our car,
f) Wave our hands around and praise him in meetings but not anywhere else,

...then what did he die for us for?

Jesus said it himself: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." John 10:10

That's it! Life in abundance! Not to slouch in a pew and look like some picked vegetable but to live with the joy of the Lord as our strength and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

You see in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had perfect fellowship with God being ever in his presence. When they did what God told them not to do, thinking they knew better, they hid from God in the bushes.

But now God has flung the doors open and invites us to live in his presence since Jesus has destroyed the power of sin if we will accept him. God longs to live among humans:

"Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." " John 14:23

Also God says in Ezekiel 37:27: "My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

So the God's purpose for you is to live with him, starting now. It's an adventure, so live it!

Chemistry teaching fun

Year 11 are leaving this week and so I gave the students a treat for their final lesson: a bunch of explosions. One of my students filmed and edited the demonstrations. Here's the youtube video.

The words of Matthew, of his wife, that his Father taught him.

An excellent wife who can find? Indeed I have.

She is far more precious than jewels.

I trust her with my life,

and I will never lack gain.

She does me good, never harm,

all the days of her life.

She brings my sustenance home after work,

and lovingly makes our dinner and feeds me.

She buys many gifts for me and others.

She irons my shirts late at night.

She keeps me warm when I am cold.

She dresses beautifully and I am proud she is mine.

She brings home money to keep us

and the future never phases her,

for it is in our Father's hands.

She speaks wisdom, kindness

and always tells me she loves me.

She cares for our house and is never lazy.

I say of her:"

Many women have done excellently,

but you, Melanie surpass them all."

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,

but my wife who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Adapted from here.

Storm the gates!

Jesus said this to Simon Peter just after he confessed the Lord as the Christ:

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:28 (ESV)

I was meditating on this scripture recently. I hadn't noticed until now the importance of Jesus speaking of the gates of hell. He didn't talk about a mobile army of hell that would attack us. Indeed He seems to imply that we, as the church, ought to be the one doing the attacking. Now I don't know about you but gates don't tend to do much walking around or attacking, at least not in my experience. The way I see it, gates are the ones that tend to be attacked and always on the defence. So the gates of hell, the established kingdom 0f darkness need to be attacked.

Church, we need to go on the offensive. Recall, though,

"we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)

So we fight against the devil not other humans. Indeed though living Christ-like lives, through prayer (Ephesians 6:18, intercession and declaring the Word of God (the sword of the Spirit - Ephesians 6:17) we storm the gates of hell to free the oppressed, give strength to the weary, bind up the broken-hearted and lift up the poor.

YOU ARE A WINNER!

I received this text message today:

YOU ARE A WINNER!

Call now to claim your guaranteed prize!

(it goes on...)

CALL NOW!

Most of us have the sense to know a scam when we see one. But has our hardness clouded our judgement when the offer of a lifetime comes our way?

It already has!

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere" 2 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

Jesus, through the cross and His resurrection has given us the victory. Now let's get this straight: His sacrifice for us doesn't just give us partial victory, it's total, guaranteed! Triumphal procession!

This is truth but it requires a response on our part: it needs to be claimed like the above text message said. And what are we claiming? A guaranteed prize! But we do need to CALL NOW!

How could we even contemplate going another day without receiving this victory into our lives?

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:13

Call Him - He's waiting to give you your guaranteed prize!