Latest Quiz - the answers!

Here are the correct answers to the wee quiz that I posted a few days ago:

1.   Andrew
2.   Isaac
3.   Ananias
4.   Aaron
5.   Elizabeth
6.   Elijah
7.   Uzziah
8.   Esther
9.   Obadiah
10. Agrippa
11. Absalom
12. Onesimus
13. Eli

Hope you managed to achieve a good score!!

Prayer!

The third of our four anchors should be, I would suggest, prayer.  Some might even suggest that it should be first - but, like the best competition results announcements, I am working in 'reverse order'!!

There is little hope for the ship that leaves for the open seas of life without this anchor aboard!  So many do - and many, who once possessed it, have long since cast it away.  It is sad, but true, that there are a lot of people - including some who would make the claim to be Christians - who seldom, if ever, pray except when in a tight corner.  One wit has commented that the most sincere prayer ever uttered is "God help me!"  I would dispute that conclusion - but I can understand it being made.

But how can God possibly be real to such people?  Even the Lord Jesus, as we read often in the Gospel narratives, "... continued all night in prayer to God." (Luke 6:12; KJV).  And if He, God the Son, the Second Persona (see the chap on the 'Trinity' in "Great Words of the Faith") of the Godhead, had need to pray - and to spend much time in prayer - how much more do we need to pray?!

It is, surely, much more than mere coincidence that great times of spiritual awakening have times when men and women have fervently sought God's face in believing prayer!  Someone has written that, "To neglect prayer is to play around with one's very soul.  Without it, we cannot commune with out Maker."

 James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, wrote: "The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.  Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit." (James 5:16-18).

But "None is righteous, no, not one;" writes Paul (Rom 3:10), referring to Psalm 14.  So where does that leave us?  Praise God, He has not left us helpless.  The same Paul writes to the early believers in Philippi: "... whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith;" ( Phil 3:7-9; emphasis added).

Be certain that you have that righteousness - that you may effectively make use of the anchor of prayer!

Hope - in the Lord Jesus, the Christ; Duty - steadfastly carried out; Prayer - that is fervent and believing.

It's Sunday - Friday is over!

Apologies to Tony Campolo who, as far as I am aware, coined the phrase "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming."  He was referring, of course to the fact that what we have named "Good Friday" was not the end of a story.  Sunday; the day after the Jewish Shabbat; the first day of the week; the day on which the Creator said "Let there be light"; the day that millions are celebrating; the day when the tomb in which the body of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth had been laid; brought the amazing news - that the tomb was empty!

The traditional greeting used by disciples of Jesus - and still used, albeit to a lesser extent, today - was "The Lord is risen!", with the response "He is risen indeed!".  What an amazing message!  What an amazing truth!  Some have tried to deny it - but that is only to be expected.  However, any honest, unbiased, investigation of the available evidence will surely lead to the conviction that it is true.  None of the proposed 'explanations' stand up to any scrutiny at all.  I deal with the topic, more fully, in my second book in the "Getting to know you ..." series - The Apostles' Creed - which is due to be published shortly! (watch this blog for further news!).

But why is the resurrection of Jesus of such apparently great importance?  Paul tells us in I Cor 15:17-19 that: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied."   Basically, the resurrection of Jesus is the claim on which the whole Gospel message stands, or falls.  It was the resurrection that marked Jesus out as the true Messiah - the Anointed One of God.  Oh, others had been restored from death - not only by Jesus Himself, but also by Elijah; Elisha; Peter; and Paul.  However, each of these had eventually died again.  Only Jesus "... is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." (Heb 7:25; emphasis added).  It is His glorious resurrection that assure me that, at the Last Day I also shall receive a new resurrection body as He "... will change [my] lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power which enables Him even to subject all things to Himself." (Phil 3:21).

Because of the pagan association of the word "Easter", many (including me) now refer to this day as "Resurrection Day".  However, there is a very real sense that every day is Resurrection Day.  This is because we may celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at any time, and in any place.  Today is a day of great hope - and, in Jesus, every day can be a day of great hope. 

Is your hope in Him?  It's that same hope that enabled 21 young Egyptian believers to die on a Libyan beach, at the hands of evil men, with the very Name of Jesus on their lips.  When students at the Garissa university in Kenya were being murdered, some are reported as having cried out "Lord Jesus, help me."  The scoffers - including their murderers - have asked "Where was He?"  I will tell them - He was there with them.  He was administering martyr's grace, for a martyr's death.  He was reassuring them that this mortal life is not everything and, if they were true disciples, they are now with Him in a way that they could never have been while in their mortal, decaying, bodies.

It's Sunday - Friday has gone.  The Lord is risen; He is risen indeed!  Hallelujah!

Time, and Eternity (2)

This is Part 2 of the final point of the message that I shared at Café Church in Bergerac, France, earlier this year.

Or what about Elijah?  Remember those words from the Second book of Kings: “When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were travelling from Gilgal.  And Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel." ... “As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.” (2:1-2, 11)

May I suggest that, once again, that veil had been parted, and this mighty servant of YHWH, was taken through to receive his reward?

Returning to the N.T., we go back to the Mount of Transfiguration.  Matthew, as we've already read, records: “Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus' appearance was transformed so that His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light.  Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.” (17:1-3)

What had happened?  I believe, firmly, that this veil between time and eternity had been parted; and that Moses and Elijah simply stepped through that temporary gateway between here and there.

The writers of the TV series "Stargate", if you're familiar with it, may have been much closer to reality than they would ever have believed to be really possible!

And how often have we read, or heard of a true saint of God who, on their deathbed, with face suddenly glowing, seems to be aware of those who have gone before, even of the Saviour Who awaits their homecoming?  The veil has been parted just a little for them, and they are being permitted that early vision of the glorious place to which they about to be taken.  It’s not a long journey – just a step through the veil.

(final part to follow!)