Last Bank Holiday weekend I was at a wedding. Amongst the other things at a wedding that I love, the thing that stands out the most to me is something in the vows:
I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage.
With my body I honour you,
all that I am I give to you,
and all that I have I share with you,
What a vow. I liken it to my relationship with God. When you give your life to Jesus, you are in effect saying these things. You honour him with your body and surrender all you are to him. You see, he did that for us. Abandoning his majesty (Philippians 2:7) he came to Earth, giving himself fully to the work of the Father (John 4:34) and dying on a cross to make us right before God. Rising from the dead, ascending to God's right hand and pouring out the Holy Spirit, He gave us everything: we should give him nothing less.
When a man and a woman marry, they abandon their singleness and give themselves fully to each other. Jesus gave everything for us and he keeps giving. What will you give to him?
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Friday, 23 October 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
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/
Here's the link:
http://laughing-at-the-days-to-come.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
"...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!
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!
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
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!
"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!
Friday, 5 June 2009
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.
Monday, 1 June 2009
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!
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!
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