The American Election

Whatever the result of the American election next week let all Christian brothers and sisters remember they are children of God – that their salvation was decided and their names written down before the world began. The elect must not divide over a mere worldly election. Whether Trump or Clinton gets in we can surely expect hateful speech at the least and violence and sedition at the worst - we can expect this from the reprobate mind but not from hearts that are humble and softened and changed by God. Against the coming backdrop of evil may all Christians in America remember their own sure election and the prayer of their Lord and saviour:


John 17 (ESV)

17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them[b] in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

October the 31st

I also proposed on this day just over a decade ago - can't think of any other reason to celebrate it though.

Reap God's Love (an original poem)

When last did you plow this ground
walked over on the way to other fields,
disregarded beyond mere fallow,
a pavement that neither fruits nor yields?

Break it up, though it even blunts the plow.
Sprinkle it with water and with blood.
Forget the harvest you last planted;
sow afresh in this new mud.

Sow seeds that are right -
Sow a righteous seed
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes with the rains you need.

And then you will reap
the long neglected harvest from above,
from him who stands fast and is unfailing
Reap God's love.
Reap God's love.

A poem of repentance inspired by - 

Hosea 10:12

Sow righteousness for yourselves,
    reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
    for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes
    and showers his righteousness on you.

Sola! Tota! Perficio! Satis!

Sola scriptura – only scripture is authoritative.

1 Corinthians 4:6 
Tota scriptura – all of scripture is authoritative.

Acts 20:27; Jeremiah 26:2; Ezekiel 40:4; Matthew 28:20

Perfect scripture – only scripture is inerrant in its original language.

Matthew 5:18;  2 Pet. 3:16; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Timothy 2:15

Sufficient scripture – scripture has all we need to be saved and sanctified.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

When people – particularly leaders and teachers and councils – stray even a little from these four solid truths we get confusion, heresy and apostasy. We get false gospels and false religions.

The Serpent in the garden of Eden hissed: “Did God really say …” and thus began the doubt in the Word of God. (Genesis 3)

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' ” But God had only said: “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, so the woman, right at the start, began adding things to the Word of God by saying that the prohibition included the touching of the tree. It wasn’t long before she and her husband were inventing false religion and trying to save themselves: ‘so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.’ 

Build your future and your hope on the bedrock of Scripture and the Gospel it speaks of. Know and live out only the will of God as revealed in His Word. Otherwise you are building your future on the shifting sands of human opinion, discovery, experience, inclination, theory and tradition.

Would you really trust your eternal future on people??

Read the Bible!

Suffer The Street?

Outside the theatre there was a little stand covered with posters and t-shirts advertising the magnificent musical being performed within. Coffee mugs and flags depicted the sad face of the orphan daubed in the colours of France, the orphan who was one of the lead character’s in Hugo’s story now set to music. The stall was being run by a couple of men who loudly proclaimed the wonder of the performance and encouraged passers by to purchase from them, not just their merchandise but matinee tickets as well. All the while over some small tinny speakers the glorious music of the play wafting out in bold triumphant tones or sad soul-tearing melancholy. Occasionally the CD player skipped and had to be nudged by one of the men.

I watched as many in the rainy London evening crowd walked by without more than a glance at the colourful cart. Few even looked at the magnificent front of the theatre itself with its cherubs and golden windows and grand pillars.

Some people did came forward to handle the merchandise and asked questions about plot and character, but satisfied with mere description, then moved on taking with them nothing but a bemused smile. Strangest of all was a man who bought a t-shirt and a mug and stood by the cart listening for a long time to the music and the patois of the salesmen, but when offered tickets to actually go in to see the play – politely declined. I went up to him and asked: “Did you refuse the tickets because you have already seen the play?”

He replied that he had no interest in the play itself but liked the music and the idea of it. He’d once read a condensed version of the story and so he felt he had no need to see the performance.

I however, had a ticket and went within. The playhouse was warm, dry and luxurious unlike the cold wet street. I sat down in the comfortable seat, relaxing my street weary legs. The play started and the music was rich and expressive and deep, quite unlike the cheap stereo blearing on the cart outside and competing with the traffic. The story of the play moved me to joy and tears and back to joy in swelling surges of emotion that left me breathless, quite unlike the boredom of the ever-shifting crowd outside. The story was long but at its end I wanted more. Unlike the man who purchased his goods and walked away as if satisfied, I never wanted to leave.

Now dear reader consider: this world – this life we live - is the street. Why is there suffering and hardship in life? Why degradation and the gradual loss of paradise? Why the hint of joy but never a perfect unending joy? Why all the cold and the wet and the loneliness and indifference?

God in his mercy has made this fallen world thus so that we would not cling to it like the man to his merchandise. God has given us sufficient revelation to know that there is something so much better within Heaven. Will you ever be satisfied with merely a mug and a t-shirt and a CD of the music but never go in to see the actual grand show?

Heaven swells for all eternity with ever increasing glory and joy and as it expands, for those God has loved, their capacity to enjoy it utterly expands with it. Forever.

Are you just collecting the merchandise but missing the ticket?

Are you in love with the street?

Do you think you know the story well enough to miss the play?

Are you satisfied with the tinny speaker competeing with the sound of buses?

Next time a Christian tells you about Jesus - listen to the salesman!

Bullseye!

This meme says it all ... think on it.

There are saints and then there are Saints.

Most people don't really know much about Mother Theresa. They snap react in accordance with half remembered ideas they heard or read in biased reports and highly inaccurate biographies. But even if she was all they said she was - she still fell short of the standard of holiness required by God. Only one person has ever loved and obeyed the Father in Heaven sufficiently enough and perfectly enough to deserve Heaven. It is the most profound blessing, and indeed a gift of grace that cannot be earned or repaid, that a wretch like me can be given the record of that one Man - and He, in his love for me, takes my sinful record with Him to the cross. No glory to me for anything I do that is even remotely good. No glory for ever choosing to believe in him. No glory for me when I obey the Word and live righteously (all too rarely I am sorry to confess). But - ALL glory to him who is my saviour, my Lord, my hope - all glory to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world - including mine. It is doubtful the Theresa knew this truth nor lived it.
Don't miss double imputation and the truth of grace by trying to work your way into Heaven through religious folderol. God's love is given not earned. All true Christians are saints not just those declared by Rome.

Trinity problem for Allah.

Allah HAD to create the universe in order to love! Allah is one god in one person and so there was a time when he could not love another. Allah is called a god of love but clearly there was a time he wasn’t able to love – having nothing to love. BUT Allah is also called unchanging and so clearly, if he is a god of love, then he must have changed – clearly he needed to create to love. And so Islam has a big problem.

Similar things can be pointed out to the Jehovah’s witnesses and Unitarians or anyone who denies the trinity doctrine.

But the true God of scripture is three distinct persons in one God. Therefore into eternity past they always loved each other fully and never needed to create in order to be loving. Not only that, but love is best expressed in worship and praise which is always at a minimum a corporate activity between two persons referring to and lifting up the virtues of a third. Only the triune God not only loved but also enjoyed and praised and worshipped and agreed within the Godhead for all time. The Father and the Holy Spirit praising and loving the Son. The Son and the Holy Spirit loving and worshipping the Father. The Father and the Son loving and enjoying the Holy Spirit. 
Only the triune God has not needed to create nor needed to change.

Trinity Proof (not exhaustive)

All three are called God

Gal.1:1, Eph, 4:6, Gal.1:1 Phil.1:2

Rom.9:5, Col.2:9, Jn.1:1, 1 Jn. 5:20, Rom. 9:5 Isa. 9:6, Col.2:9, Heb. 1:8

Gen. 1:2, Acts 5:3-4, 1Cor.2:11, 1 Cor.6:19, 1 Cor3:17, Isa. 11:2

All three simultaneously exist

James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, Micah 5:2, Heb. 9:14, Matthew 3:16-17

All three were responsible for creation.

Eph. 3:14, Mal. 2:10)

Jn.1:3, Heb. 1:2 Col. 1:16

Ps. 104:30, Job 26:13, Job 33:4

Genesis 1:26

Genesis 19:24

Prayer (an original poem)

I have nothing to give

That you do not already own
I have no information
That you have not known.
What can I say
That would change your mind?
What or where can I hide
That you cannot find?
How can this creature
Come face to face
With the Lord - the Redeemer-
So generous in grace?
Only you Lord, you draw me
Keep and restore me.
What foe can have victory
With you fighting for me?

Roller coaster

When I was about six years old I went on my first roller coaster near the beach in Durban, South Africa. It was a simple up and down roller coaster (no loops) but I remember that it scared the life out of me and made me feel ill and so, there and then, I made a stubborn declaration that I would never again ride another one. I’ve made quite a few self-promises that I quickly forgot but this one I persisted with right into adulthood. As the years rolled by every time my friends and family were at a place that had a coaster I would simply refuse to go on it. I was the guy holding the bags and candyfloss while others flew around above me on metal tracks – and I was quite happy with this.

I went to college and then became a primary school teacher in Johannesburg. One day my year group went on a field trip to Gold Reef City, which is, I suppose the South African Equivalent of Thorp Park or Six Flags. We watched them pour gold and went down a mineshaft and visited the museum but near the end of the day we went to the rides section of the park where there was a towering, multiple-inversion, feet-dangling, orange roller coaster. Of course the pupils wanted to go on it. I took one look and decided that I would not. Other teachers could do the ride – I would hold the bags as usual.

But while my mind was on this thought a soft warm little hand wormed its way into mine and I looked down into the big frightened eyes of Lindiwe. In a trembling voice she said: “Mister H I am scared – will you sit next to me on this ride?”

How could I say no?

So we joined the line and though I was putting on a brave face, I was genuinely terrified. I had avoided these things with great success for nearly twenty years and now I had no choice to go on the biggest fastest one in South Africa!

Soon we were moments away from being strapped in. I began to point out the safety features to little Lindiwe. “Look how confident the staff are. Look how strong the rails are. Think of how many hundreds of people have ridden this ride and survived. Look how thick the seatbelts are and how strong this seat is.

Then the ride began–

I screamed and laughed and cried.

So did Lindiwe.

What a rush!

Then it was over.

Boy I have never felt so close to a pupil! We came off that thing high fiving each other and gushing with adrenalin. We were literally shouting at each other as we pointed out our favourite parts – that corkscrew section and then whoosh that loop. For a few minutes we were total equals in the conquest of our fears. We must have made quite a picture: 10 year old and 24 year old with wet eyes and wide smiles.

Of course we went again.

Now I look back fondly after all these years and I think I begin to understand worship and praise.

When we worship God we point out his saving features – his strength, wisdom, power, unchanging nature, his Divine love. We look at his History in the scripture and in the church and mission field. We might even talk of his work in our own lives. This encourages us and gives us hope. It empowers us to face the enemy and the struggles of life because we have refreshed our knowledge of the truth of our victorious God by telling each other these things in song, prayer, testimony and sermon.  Just like I the elder pointed out the safety features and history of the roller coaster ride to Lindiwe.

When we praise God we celebrate his faithfulness and his sure hand in our lives. We are filled with joy and love that we have a Father in Heaven who has given everything to bring us home. Just as Lindiwe and I enjoyed the ride all the more for being together and talking about it – or even shouting about it. When you think of it the church – the communion of the saints – is a gift from God. No roller coaster ride is that exciting unless it is shared with someone we care about.

Let us never treat praise and worship like a habit or an obligation. Let us never just go through the motions. Our God and our walk with him in this life is far more dangerous and exciting than any roller coaster. But our God will never fail us.  Let us remember him – all he has done – all his attributes – by describing them to each other and celebrating his past, present and sure future blessing upon us.

Finally – the rapture is imminent – strap in. If you think the ride you have had in this life has been exhilarating, wait until you are caught up together in the clouds to meet with the Lord in the air. The sad thing with coasters is that they come to a stop. Heaven is the eternal Joy of God – worship him now and enjoy him forever.

Inheritance

 

 

 

Life and the treasures and good things of this world are all only a finite inheritance given to all people. Haunted by the impending loss and the mad desire to gain the largest share of this inheritance we grasp everything we can and tear each other apart to gain more. Sadly we do this when there is an infinite blessing offered by the love of God expressed in the work of Jesus on the cross. Eternal life in paradise and peace with God and with each other is the unending, overflowing gift that so many reject. Yet our lives pass like mist on a morning breath and the world’s resources cannot keep up with humanity’s capacity to swell in population - all the while greedily hoarding wealth and excess. Can you not see the writing on the wall? (MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN – the words of smaller and smaller value in Daniel 5). The diminishing numbers that count down to the end? Can you not see your own death and the creep of age and weakness and loss in your own life that points to the finititude of what you have? 

But now take heart and hear the words of Christ spoken to those he loves:

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matthew 6)

Are you an infinite inheritor in Christ?

Water Pots

Pray for results – work for results – but be encouraged even when results are lacking, slow in coming or different from what you expect. Apostasy is when God in his justice gives people over to their sin; revival is when God in his mercy brings people to obedience to his Word. In both these cases the work is Devine. In times of apostasy and revival the people of God must and will pray and work and wait on the Lord. Look at the Prophets and the Judges – were their ministries successful? Lasting? Jesus laboured for three years with miracles and vast sermons – how many believers were there at the end of his ministry? 120? The ministry (what ever ministry you are called to) – bathed in prayer and soaked in scripture - faithfully done in love for the saviour is what counts, not the numbers it affects. For all the servant and friend of God knows, his or her life’s work may be to reach and see converted just one person – and that person may go on to reach thousands. Be encouraged because you are not judged by the notches on your Bible but on your faithful obedience of it.

Hubert Reeves Got It Wrong

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

Ephesians 5:6

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on the sons of disobedience.

1 Timothy 6:20

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called "knowledge,"

1 Corinthians 1:19-20

For it is written, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 3:19-20

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God For it is written, "He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS"; and again, "THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS."

1 Corinthians 1:21

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.