Christ in all the scriptures.

Somebody asked me this week, "as Christians we don't have to study the Old Testament do we?"
In the same week we had a wonderful talk from Nick McQuaker from the Sussex Gospel partnership on the revelation of Christ in the Old Testament. In John 5:38-40 Jesus himself says the scriptures, (that is the Jewish books of the Law Prophets and writings what we call the Old Testament,) point to Him.
In Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus says the He comes to fulfil everything in the Law and The Prophets, and that He will accomplish all that is set out in the unchangeable scriptures .  So Jesus endorsed the Old Testament, as did God the Father when He raised Christ from the dead, endorsing not just Jesus' sacrifice but all of His teaching .
One of the key themes of the Old testament is outlined for us in the Eden story in Genesis.
God places Adam in the Garden of promise, he sins and is expelled but there is a promise of a seed of Eve who will crush the serpents head as the serpent strikes his heel. Finally accomplished in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

So we have this idea of the seed of promise, the liberator who will overcome the serpent and bring the children of God back to the garden of promise. Hence we have the seeming endless genealogies
which trace the descent of the seed as well as the numerous blind alleys. These are summarised in Matthew and Luke as the line of Jesus running from Adam through   Noah and Abraham and the patriarchs  onward through David and the kingly line to eventually arrive at Jesus.

So we have this theme of sin, exile from the Land, appearance of a redeemer and return to the Land of Promise. So we have these key figures called to rescue the people of God but all with feet of clay such as Noah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, culminating in the enigmatic figure of the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah and quoted by Jesus about Himself in Matthew 12:15-21.

 Which brings us to the theme of covenant. This is basically a solemn promise between parties especially between the creator God and His created beings typified in the agreements with Noah Abraham and the patriarchs and  with David. In the first chapter of Genesis God creates and blesses humankind and in Chapter 2 has a practical relationship with them as he walks and talks with them in the cool of the evening. However Adam and Eve rebel against this overwhelming generosity by seeking self determination and independence and cause a separation between themselves and God which forces them out of the garden.The covenants renewed that relationship, with people who God chose, to be his special blessing to the rest of mankind, by means of his protection, guarantee of a place to live, and guarantee of an eternal inheritance. Thus the need for a barren Sarai to become Sarah and produce a son or seed of promise  .   

One elaboration of this is the theme of a search for a King who will rescue the people and establish the Kingdom of God;  with God dwelling in the centre of the the King's Holy city in the Temple.
This was achieved by David and his son Solomon who established the kingdom and built the Temple where the  Shekinah glory resided. However the dynasty was still fatally flawed and sank from bad to worse until the exile. However God was faithful to His promise to David which was finally fulfilled as Jesus entered Jerusalem as the servant king.  Matthew 21:5

Going back again to Genesis 3  we see that the result of a broken relationship with God is separation and death. This is the righteous judgement of a Holy God who remains in loving harmony with His creation and wants to embrace them into the loving community of the Triune God. So there is a tension in the Godhead between the love that wants to unite and the Holiness which demands separation and death.

The problem is solved by the idea of a substitute who takes the place of the one under judgement.
In the old testament the life is always represented by the life giving blood., by which Gods covenants are sealed. We see the idea in the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 with a ram  provided by God as a substitute for his son.
This is greatly elaborated in the covenant given to Moses with the whole system of sacrifices and the picture of the scapegoat when the high priest places his hand on the goat's head transferring the sins of the people onto the goat which is driven into the wilderness. The high priest was like the king an inherited position. The high priest was the specially representative between God and man and Jesus was the Final Great High priest as explained in Hebrews 4ff
All this points to Jesus'  death on the cross and all that it achieved.

So my post has become overlong but I hope it at least whets your appetite to go and delve into the wonders to be found in the old testament itself.

The Bible: Mark, read and inwardly digest.

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Thomas Cranmer, 2^nd collect in Advent

This month in our Trinity teaching series we will be looking at the bible; so I thought I would give my personal slant on this massive subject. I was brought up on a daily diet of bible reading which I heard every day at school or Sunday School and am still able to quote whole chunks in the old King’s James version. However, it was not until I was converted in my first year at college that the bible really came alive as the living word of God.

As the living and active word of God, breathed throughout by the Holy Spirit, it is essential daily reading for every child of God who has a desire to grow and be more like Jesus. As we read it we should be actively praying that God’s Spirit should be with us to illumine what God is actually teaching us today through His word, to change how we think speak and act.

Really good and accurate texts of the bible exist today in the original Greek and Hebrew, however few of us have much ability to read these so we need good translations. This is very much personal preference, there are two main methods of translation, one is word for word; translating the actual words into good English. The ESV is a good example which I enjoy personally, as it is very accurate and still maintains a lot of the beauty of the AV. The other is taking the meaning or thought of the original text and rendering the meaning in free flowing English, such as the New Living Translation.   The New International Version, the text we use in church, is somewhere in the middle of these two methods. There are also paraphrase translations which seek to capture something of the rhythms and idioms of the original text, such as The Message, which is a really exciting read and is helpful particularly in some parts of the Old Testament.

I think it is important to open and read the Bible as a daily devotion. I find the online resource WordLive particularly helpful, which comes with two commentaries on the passage and lots of other explanatory notes. There is also a list of readings to enable you to read through the bible in a year. This is very helpful as it gives you an overview and helps see how the Old and New Testament fit together and complement each other. On embarking on reading the bible through there are two books which I find particularly helpful “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” by Stuart and Fee, available online at: How to read the   and  How to read the Bible Book by 

There are a lot of other free helps online. There are superb bible apps especially the ESV for iPhone or Android which is very quick and easy. There are many translations at: Bible gateway and Bible Hub  which also has interlinear Greek and Hebrew Bibles which you can use as a concordance. Click on a word to get all the occurrences and how the word is translated into English. There are many other helps such as good Bible dictionaries both Baker and Easton here: Biblestudytools 

  

Biblical meditation.

As well as getting the big picture it is good to focus down on a small piece of text, learning, chewing over and meditating on a passage. One method is called Lectio Divina, Traditionally, it has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God. Again available online  at Lectio

I hope this blog has helped you to really get excited about getting into God’s word, as a way of listening to and obeying what the Lord Jesus has to speak into your life day by day.

Spiritual strongholds

I am writing this the day after a teaching evening on Spiritual warfare.

One of the things I came away with is how we all manage to harbour Strongholds of the enemy in our life that are not fully surrendered to God.  These are   the recurrent temptations and sins that we persistently succumb to in our daily life and try as we might they persist just making us feel more weak, guilty and useless and fuelling a persistent cycle of sinning repentance resolving not to do it again and yet again falling.  To quote St Paul in Romans chapter 7 ²¹

^" I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²² I love God’s law with all my heart.²³ But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me." 

So what is the big problem? Why are these lusts and desires so powerful?  I think the answer deep within our brains.  The things that we struggle with are highly pleasurable, they activate structures deep inside our brain which fire pleasure and reward centres. The more we activate these centres the more we crave; we become addicted as we need more and more stimulus to attain the same level of pleasure, eventually patterns of behaviour become learned and imprinted on the more ancient areas of our brain which only are partially controlled by our neocortex (our conscious minds).

So how do we break out of the stronghold? Paul has the answer, Rom 7: ²⁴ …Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? ²⁵ Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord…

We stop having a love affair with sin and start having a love affair with the person of Jesus Christ, to invite Him into our very beings through the power of the Holy Spirit flooding into every corner of our lives.  We discover (Romans 8) that there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus and because we belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed us from the power of sin that leads to death. As we fully comprehend the amazing love which dies on a cross for us we are enabled to put to death our sins and live for Christ and our deepest desires are to please Him and serve Him. Daily desiring to bring His Kingdom into our lives and neighbourhoods by acts of compassion and servant-hood empowered by the inner workings of His Holy Spirit. As we abandon the strongholds of Satan we discover complete rest in the loving arms of God.

 Psalm 91 (NLT)

1Those who live in the shelter of the Most High

will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2This I declare about the LORD:

He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;

he is my God, and I trust him.

3For he will rescue you from every trap

and protect you from deadly disease.

4He will cover you with his feathers.

He will shelter you with his wings.

His faithful promises are your armour and protection.

Why pray? Why pray in community?

So, what is the value of coming together in the middle of the week to pray?  If God knows our most intimate thoughts and desires, why do we need to come before Him in prayer?

We could ask: why does the stream need the spring, or the lover to speak to his beloved?  Prayer is about coming into an intimate relationship and meeting with our Creator and Saviour.  It is not so much about changing the mind of God; it is Christ changing us into effective agents for the bringing down of His kingdom from heaven to earth.

True intercession is a syncing of minds and spirits with the God of the universe and bringing heaven down to earth.  Prayer as a private devotion is the powerhouse of the Christian, but prayer in community is the powerhouse of the church. Jesus said that when two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst (Mat 18:20); in the same chapter, Jesus speaks of the power of binding and releasing things in the heavenly places.

 Jesus wants us to be a community of people who learn, like the woman at the well in Samaria, that Jesus is the only source of living water, and we have to come to Him and drink.  Jeremiah pointed out two sins of God’s people: they had forsaken God the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water Jeremiah 2:13  Community prayer is the sign that we are not relying on our own wisdom and organisation as a community, but on the creative power of the Holy Spirit in everything we do as church together, working to His agenda, not ours.

I often think of prayer as coming into the throne room of God. Just as God’s people of old entered into the tabernacle with songs of joyous praise (see the Songs of Ascent in the Psalms 120-134), so we start with a beautiful time of sung worship and praise. We enter through the gate into the Holy Place where the altar  of incense burns: the prayers of the saints, and we walk through the curtain which was torn in two by the death and resurrection of Jesus, into the presence of the throne of Grace where we can bring our requests in confidence before our enthroned  Father, hand in hand with our friend and Saviour Jesus, our high priest and friend of intercessors.

So will this little band of friends who meet together on a Wednesday evening change our selves, our church and our town? I will leave you with a quotation from Spurgeon 

Our prayers are God's decrees in another shape. The prayers of God's people are but God's promises breathed out of living hearts, and those promises are the decrees, only put into another form and fashion. Don’t say, “How can my prayers affect the predetermined will and plan of God?” They cannot, except in so much that your prayers are decrees, and that as they come out, every prayer that is inspired of the Holy Spirit to your soul is as omnipotent and as eternal as that decree which said, “Let there be light, and there was light;” ……You have power in prayer, and you stand today among the most potent ministers in the universe that God has made. You have power over angels, they will fly at your command. You have power over fire, and water, and the elements of the earth. You have power to make your voice heard beyond the stars; where the thunders die out in silence, your voice will wake the echoes of eternity. The ear of God himself will listen and the hand of God himself will yield to your will. He commands that you pray, “Your will be done,” and your will, will be done. When you can plead his promise then your will is his will. 

New Wine 2016

New Wine 2016

For us, the main joy was soaking in God's presence and learning more about cultivating a love affair with Jesus. We spent a lot of the week in the Hungry venue, which was a quieter, more meditative space than some of the other events on offer, although we also enjoyed the amazing corporate worship with thousands of others in the main arena. 

One of the speakers, Charlie Cleverly, has written a commentary on the Song of Songs, and I have really been enjoying reading this. Christianity is much more than a religion - it is an intense personal relationship with our Maker and Redeemer. It is being drawn into the vortex of love, servanthood and mutual adoration which exists between the three persons of the Godhead, with each person acting as servant and lover to the other two. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus, sublimating himself, like a spotlight illuminating Jesus. We see Jesus on earth always subservient to His Heavenly Father, always looking and pointing to what the Father is doing. Likewise, the Father’s voice comes from heaven, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus acts as the divine lover, with an intense desire to be in close relationship with His bride. Our separation from God at the fall meant that we could no longer walk with God in the cool of the evening, but the sacrifice of love on the cross means that we have been reunited with Christ, and we who were far off have been brought near. Lovers have a desire for closeness and intimacy; this is Christ’s desire for His relationship with us. However, we are ever wayward lovers: pursuing lesser gods and desires that glitter but lead only to death and separation from Christ.

We need to create an inner temple where we commune with our lover; a space - in our minds and in our activities devoted to seeking the one our hearts desire; seeking him in the pages of scripture, in our acts of public worship and private prayer; cultivating a meekness of Spirit and purity of mind that transforms us into the beautiful lovers that Christ requires. Slowly our ugly sin-filled selves are transformed by being in the presence of the one who is altogether beautiful, to be more like our wonderful Jesus who we love and adore.

Once we have tasted and seen that the Lord is indeed good, we share all the desires that Christ has for his world. We want to share the relationship which we have; to make our love affair known. As we worship the king we want to increase the kingdom, to bring heaven down to earth, and point others to the heaven of love which is loving unity with Christ.

Movement of Love

I really like the idea of this group : since the Brexit referendum debate and aftermath there has been an upsurge of race hatred and distrust of the Political class as a whole. What we need is people who are able to stand up and "stand in the gap" and declare a message of love and reconciliation.

 Jesus himself was a stranger and refugee in the land of Egypt. He was maltreated as a political extremist, and eventually executed because he spoke a message of love and turning back to God , pointing to Himself as the only way to reach the kingdom of  His heavenly Father. If we exclude the other we will be excluding Jesus from our lives and experience.

The idea of Standing in the gap comes from Ezekiel 22 ; 30And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD.” ESV

You can find a fuller explanation here 

Basically it is someone who will stand up on behalf of the poor, the widow and the oppressed and pray for righteousness, reconciliation and sacrificial love for "the other" whoever they may be. 

There is a basic human trait which tends to distrust or hate anyone who is outside their recognised community group excluding and persecuting anyone who is considered an outsider. This is exploited by any slightly dodgy political group to gain influence. The Nazis and the Jews par excellence but in many other instances such as the Rwandan Genocide. 

This idea of breaking out from the citidel of fear and hate with which we surround ourselves to protect us from the imagined danger of the other and instead reaching out in embrace is fully explained in a book by Miroslav Volf called "Exclusion and Embrace" Abingdon press 1996 ( you can find a precis by Googling: Exclusion and Embrace: Reconciliation in the Works of Miroslav Volf Corneliu Constantineanu)
So how are we able to break out from the prison of fear in which we have incarcerated ourselves?
That prison wall which is separating us from the joy of giving and receiving love from every one of our fellow neighbours either friend or stranger. Humanly it is practically impossible to do this by our own efforts but only through the work of the Holy Spirit of the Triune God of love working in our lives

1 John 4:18 says" There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

Would you like to join in a prayer with me to take hold of the hand of Jesus and breakout of our prison of fear, anger and self concern and step out to embrace the world of Sacrificial love embodied in the life, death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. in so doing stand in the gap which separates us from those who are in desperate need of love.

(C)hesed loving kindness. חֶסֶד

I am fascinated by the concept of Hesed in the old testament. The term is found many times in its various forms and there is no exact English equivalent. Myles Coverdale, one of the first translators, coined the word loving-kindness ( "louinge kyndnesse" ), it speaks of the unconditional love which the creator God bestows on his created image, humankind. This love is guaranteed by God's covenant relationship and promise with His people.

The hesed of God is firm and dependable because God is firm and dependable. God chooses Abram to receive his blessing which he heaps  upon this totally undeserving, barren, nomadic shepherd. Abraham responds with faith and totally commits himself into God's promise leaving everything that provides any earthly security to follow the commands and promises which he has been given. Because of his faithful response Abraham is given the family and blessing which God promised him.His seed finally comes to total fruition in the person of Jesus Christ and all who are adopted as His sons through faith.
Hesed expresses the primary character of the Trinity in their relationship with each other. Each preferring the others and offering unconditional honour and service to each other. Primarily demonstrated by Jesus' servant relationship with His heavenly Father,  and the Father's response "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased" .  His ultimate act was the sacrificial act of love on the cross, which restored the creator's universe to its ultimate glory; so it and the God image of human kind within it, express the perfect character of the trinity of love.
Yahweh, the great I am, is always revealing himself to those who seek Him. This is  characterised by God's relationship with Moses, first revealed as "I am", at the burning bush. Then slowly over Moses' life until that moment of divine revelation on the mountain, Exodus 34:6 the The Hebrew is shown here
  

  The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,(ESV)

The true God of the old testament is the exact opposite of the usual caricature of a vengeful angry old man. Our problem is that so often we create an image of God who is like us and this is always a false idol.
One of the lovely images of God is that of a loving husband   as found in Hosea 2

"The LORD’s Mercy on Israel

14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor^e a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish^f the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. (ESV)."

In fact the very best of human relationships, found often between husband and wife, show us something of the divine covenant love of God. The wonderful book of love poetry called the "Song of Songs" was often allegorised by the early Church Fathers to represent the love relationship between Jesus and His disciples, which include all who believe.

Loving-kindness should be one of the main characteristics which mark out God's people and is the sign of God at work through His church. It has a wonderful attractiveness which draws people into the Church of Christ. 

The book of Ruth is one of the best places to find examples of Hesed in the old testament. This is yet another beautiful love story.This is best demonstrated in the relationships between the main charactors in the story who all show this Hesed love to each other. Ruth refusing to desert Naomi clinging to her and her God. Boaz shows his love to Naomi through his loving-kindness to Ruth and Ruth shows that  to Boaz by marrying Him out of family devotion, above the prospect of marrying a younger more sexually attractive man. Finally God shows his ultimate love by providing a baby for Ruth; Obed the ancestor of David and ultimately Jesus Christ. There is a lovely fuller treatment here .

So what does this mean for you and me, we receive Hesed love from Jesus and we pass it on to our friends neighbours to the foreigner and stranger and even our worst enemies and we will be truly children of our Heavenly Father.