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.

I want to be an instrument of your peace. a meditation on psalm 18 and St Francis' prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus I thank you that you are my rock and my fortress and my Saviour, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the strength of my salvation, my stronghold in times of trouble.

 Lord Jesus I would praise you forever. I called on you, and I was saved from my enemies.

I confess that I am your creature worthy only of your condemnation and destruction because of my rebellion and all my manifold sins and wickedness. However you bowed the heavens and came down in the shape of my rescuer and redeemer Jesus Christ. You became man and took on yourself all judgement and punishment that should have been mine and transferred me from the kingdom of darkness to the everlasting kingdom of the risen and ascended Jesus Christ, bringing me into the family of your church as your friend and witness.

Lord Jesus my soul pants for you, for more of you in my life the risen and life giving saviour.

Lord Jesus, help my heart to swell in gratitude and love for all that have done for me.

How I long for your kingdom to come not only in my own life but in the lives of my friends and family, my church, my town and my nation.

Help me to be an instrument of your peace to all I meet, that through the power of the Holy Spirit, working in my life, your kingdom and rule would be advanced and extended not only in my own life but in the lives of all I meet. Help me to be light and salt as I follow your path, guided and directed by your wonderful living and powerful Holy Spirit.

All these things I ask, through the powerful name of the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen  

Handing the apple back to God

On Sunday Steve preached a very moving sermon about  sin. Just as Adam listened to the silky voice of temptation and lusted after the gleaming bauble of a life led independently of God; so do we as we make choices which slowly but surely lead us away from our walk with God until we find ourselves lost and lonely in a terrible sin sick desert of a world.
Sin is a horrible thing which pollutes and destroys not only ourselves but our loved ones our children and all those with whom we come into contact, however the worst thing is how it separates us from the love and presence of God.
Our daily readings in WordLive are from the book of Joshua this week. After the great victory at Jericho one of the  Israelites disobeys God by taking some loot and hiding it this results in a terrible disaster not just for Achan the perpetrator but for the whole people. After much weeping and seeking God, God points the finger at the wrong doer who is ordered to be stoned along with his whole family and his property burnt. This is a accurate illustration of the consequences of sin and how it effects everyone with whom we have contact. It also shows how seriously God takes sin. Just as Adam and Achan sinned, so do we horribly and constantly. We too are under God's wrath and judgement.   However for us who have cast our souls upon the love and mercy of God in Jesus we receive a promise that when we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
A few days ago I had a moment when something clicked. A phrase in the creed is that after Jesus died on the cross, He descended into hell. Suddenly I had this terrible sinking feeling I imagined what my sins had condemned me to I was confronted with a vast abyss of hell (whatever that was) opening below me ready to engulf me; then  I fully understood what that phrase was about. Jesus had indeed descended into that place where sin is paid for and the soul is totally separated from a loving God. He bore all that punishment that I and every believer truly deserved and of which He was totally innocent. Once that reality dawns then you are thrown into a life of praise and worship overwhelmed by the love which each person of the Triune God has for you and you really do have to hand that apple back to God and not pick it up again.

Encountering the presence of God

Following Pentecost Sunday our house group met this week.One of the subjects we looked at was knowing the presence of God in our lives.
How do we encounter the living God in the person of the Holy Spirit;( that person of the Godhead sent by Jesus to be with his followers after he ascended to the right hand of the Father),  how and when does He fill us and make His presence felt deep in our lives?
Our bibles are more full of that encounter than anything else. From the early pages we see God walking in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. Friends walking together in friendship without fear or hindrance. However sin entered the garden and the first couple were banished from the presence of God. The rest of the Old testament is the story of the journey back into the presence of God culminating in the New Testament with the death and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit.
 In  the Old Testament we see how God made himself known to individuals for instance Enoch who walked with God.
 Moses who met with God in the middle of a burning bush, that initial terrifying meeting, growing into a relationship with God showing himself partially to Moses but shielding him from the full force of His radiant glory by placing him in a crevice in the rock, and the encounter in the tent of meeting beautifully retold here.

I think to know the Presence we have to have both the fruits and the gifts of the Spirit. Jesus said that only the pure in heart would see God we need the application of the blood of the crucified Lord Jesus in our lives applied gently but thoroughly by the Holy Spirit before we can have hearts that are pure enough to see God.
We need the gifts of the Spirit so we can make something of that presence known to others. The Holy Spirit is the still small voice that whispers to us something of God deep in our own spirits.
Personally  I sometimes use imaginary pictures of the Temple, I imagine myself hand in hand with Jesus approaching the throne room of God walking through the curtain  which was torn in two at the Crucifixion. I approach that wonderful throne of grace where I bring my requests to my loving heavenly Father who  is only to pleased to welcome me and listen with an open heart.
Jesus seemed to always have a knowledge of exactly what his Father wanted Him to do. His prayers where answered because he was in exact step with his Father.
In our prayer time we need to spend time waiting and worshiping. When a group of Christians come together to pray they can expect the Shechinah glory to come down into their  midst. Jesus said  where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst Matt18:20 and He is that presence manifested through his Spirit.
Let us pray that we all know more of His abiding presence in our lives.

A prayer for renewal at Pentecost

 Trinity Church has been participating in the week of prayer for renewal leading up to Pentecost, 

Diane one of our leaders created a wonderful prayer space where we could use many different creative ways of praying. Also our little Antioch group has also been learning from each other about prayer. Here is an example:

Almighty creator, Lord of the hosts of heaven, we thank you that we can call you Father.

We thank you that we can approach you through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross for us, bringing us poor estranged sinners who were far from you close and able to bring our prayers and supplications to the throne of grace.

We know that of ourselves we can do nothing for you, we are incapable of advancing the kingdom, incapable of pleasing you, incapable of loving you or our neighbour, but we do have a deep desire to advance the kingdom, we want to please you, to show the wonders of your love to a sin sick world.

So dear loving heavenly Father we ask you to  pour the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives we plead with you for a fresh anointing, help us to grow the fruits of the Spirit in our lives and be so empowered by the gifts of your love and might that we would play our role as part of the army of your people to bring the love and joy of your kingdom into the dark and forgotten corners of this land. 

 

Help us to worship you not just with our lips but with every part of our beings. Help us to dedicate

the whole of our lives to you. We pray that you would invade those dark places in our inner beings where there are still fortresses of self will. We ask that you would help us to be totally devoted to you, anxious to listen to what you tell us through your word and bring it to life in our thoughts and actions.

So Lord Jesus we bring our requests to you, confident that you are able and willing to conform us to the image of your Son and we will  at last be able to stand before you clothed in the righteousness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Grant these our prayers through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

Amen      `  

The running hugging Father

I think the picture of the father's welcome of his wayward, disrespectful, outrageously awful son is one of the most beautiful pictures of the Christian life, as told by Jesus in Luke 15:11ff. The son's repentance is very self centred with a rather grudging view of his father's largess in contrast the loving generosity of his Father's welcome is totally unreserved. He is actually at home looking out for his son's return he hitches up his tunic and runs to embraces his son who still smells strongly of pig manure and clothed in tatters having wasted all the father gave him. He richly pours his mercy and love onto him in the warmth of his open arms.
This picture of God as this loving forgiving father is difficult to comprehend. It is a picture of total overflowing, free and generous grace; because our own forgiveness is often begrudging and conditional we find it difficult to understand that somebody as lofty and holy as almighty God can have this intimate and unconditional love for us.
How is this generosity of love possible? It is because His first eternal Son opened His arms wide for us on the cross bearing all the guilt shame and nakedness and rejection which is our desert. We who were far off have been brought near by this once and for all act of love which opens the way for our journey home to our loving heavenly Father.