Change!

After five months of silence, here I am with a new blog post for a new year.

It was while I was back in Scotland, at the end of November - collecting my dear wife! - that we visited the Riverside Museum in Glasgow. This is what used to be named the Transport Museum, but in a new venue! What an amazing experience! Things that we both remembered from even before our marriage were there in front of us, testifying to the changes that have been made in even that (mere!) half-century (+).

Before that, we had visited the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, at the University of Glasgow. I was speaking with one of the staff about the changes that had been made on campus, and of the many changes that have been made to the city of Glasgow itself, since my own days as a student at the University (before the member of staff with whom I was speaking had been born!).

Everywhere I go, I seem to discover changes, whether physical with regard to road layouts and buildings, etc.; or to social attitudes; or to fashion (seeing two young ladies who had just graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University and who, along with many others, were parading through the bus terminal in academic gowns and hoods - and tattooed legs! - was quite a shock to my conservative system); or to any of the other issues that seem to come under the general heading of "woke". You may wish to add your own "change" subjects/topics to my short list. However, change there is, and change there will undoubtedly be!

However, there is one important exception. In the letter written to Hebrew disciples of Jesus by an unnamed human author, is this amazing statement: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever." (Heb.13:8). Now, if someone is the same at all times, then there can be no change in, or by, that individual! By the way, this is also a reminder that Jesus is Almighty God. Speaking through the prophet Malachi, YHWH states: "...  I YHWH do not change;" (Mal.3:6). One hymnwriter wrote: "Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me".

But what is the practical outworking of this fact? Well, I would suggest that it is simply that we may depend on God. I am a lover of Gilbert & Sullivan light opera. In one of their productions, "The Mikado", (who, in the show, is the ruler of Japan) one of the characters who is in danger of being put to death, makes this statement to the Mikado: "When your Majesty says, ‘Let a thing be done,’ it’s as good as done – practically, it is done – because your Majesty’s will is law." In other words, the Mikado's will could be depended upon - and he is just a fictional character!

How, then, may I depend on God? His written Word, the Bible, is actually full of promises that He has made to His people. However, having spent almost five months with very limited physical human contact, the one that means most to me is the promise made by the Lord Jesus, to His disciples: "I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt. 28:20). Another hymnwriter penned these words: "No, never alone, No, never alone; He promised never to leave me, Never to leave me alone:" I actually prefer the French translation of that chorus which, in a reverse translation, (!) reads; "No, never completely alone; no, never completely alone. Jesus, my Saviour guards me, never leaves me alone. No, never completely alone; no, never completely alone. Jesus, my Saviour guards me, I am never completely alone."

As we move into this new year, that is a promise that I shall continue to hold - even with my dear wife back with me! It's a promise that you, too, may claim. However, you need to be in that saving relationship with Him that is made possible by His atoning* death on the cross at Calvary. That, in turn is, at its very simplest, accepting that none of us can ever, by our good deeds, achieve, or deserve, or purchase, eternal life in the presence of the Lord. We may only come to Him, in repentance* and faith*, and accept what He has already done for us. It is then that we become truly His, and begin to know eternal life, even now. But we must be walking with Him now! As someone has said: "If we do not have Him with us in this life, He will not have us with Him in the next."!

I wish each and all who read these words, a good new year, and pray that it will be in His presence.

* These words are explained in my book: Great Words of the Faith: - link at the top of the page. Remember that I receive no financial benefit - ALL royalties are sent, directly, to the bank account of Release International in support of the persecuted church.

Some things never change!

Last week I celebrated yet another anniversary of the day of my physical birth (my spiritual rebirth was some 15 years later!). This week, my wife celebrates another anniversary of her physical birth. Tempus fugit (Time flies, for those who missed out on a Classical education!!). 

Last year, we celebrated our Golden Wedding Anniversary and, in our annual newsletter, I posted two photographs - one taken on Sept. 4th, 1970 (our wedding day!), and the other taken on Sept. 4th, 2020. I have to confess that each of has changed, quite considerably, during the intervening period! Every year; every month; every day; reminds us of the passing of time, and the changes it brings, be they major, or minor. We are changing; the world is changing (and, for many of us, the past ten months, or so, have seen some of the biggest changes that we have ever known); experiences are changing; our lifestyles are changing; the future is unknown! 

I can only speak for myself, but I can hardly believe that we are already more than half-way through the second month of 2021! Of course, like the New Year itself, it is only a mark in time; in the continuous journey of planet Earth around the Sun. Yet time is important to us. 

However, some things never change! Speaking through His prophet, Malachi, and using His Covenant Name, the Almighty Creator of all that is states: "... I, YHWH do not change;" ( 3:6). Writing to the early Jewish disciples of Jesus - Who, of course, is the incarnation of the Father - the anonymous author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes this astounding claim: "Jesus, the Christ - the same yesterday, today, and for ever." (13:8). Those words point us to:

The Unchanging Christ. What He was 2,000 years ago, when He walked this earth, He is today in the timelessness of Glory, and He will be throughout eternity. His atoning sacrifice remains effective for all who come to Him in repentance and faith. He opened the way into the presence of the Father, that even a sinner such as I may enter, and be received by Him - not because of anything that I might seek to claim, but purely because of His love, and grace, and mercy. I am forgiven as much as any of those who are "justified by faith" - in other words, because I have responded, positively, to the offer of salvation that was made at Calvary, the Father treats me "just as if I'd" never sinned at all. My sin is not only forgiven, but also forgotten! Hallelujah! Glory to God!

The Gospel message is the same. His covenant love never changes. His grace remains all-sufficient. His promises continue to be true. He is faithful in times of sorrow and distress, as well as in times of joy and laughter. His Word is the same. His presence, through the third Persona (not a typo! See the chapter on "The Trinity" in my first book - details above!) of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, is the same.

But there is also: 

An unchanging commitment. For the disciple of Jesus, that commitment is to worship God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is to proclaim the Gospel - the Good News that I have described, briefly above. It is a commitment to serve Him as He commands. It is a commitment to live my life in such a way that I am a good witness for Him. In His final words to His disciples, before He ascended to the Father, the Lord Jesus said: "... you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8). Please note, that this is not a call to every disciple to be an evangelist; but a command to every disciple to be a witness. There is a big difference but, if you are a disciple of Jesus, then you are (as I am!) a witness. The only question is "Am I a good witness, or a bad witness?" If, like me, you must confess to not being the best you might be, then you may turn to God the Holy Spirit, and seek His sanctifying work in your life.

Then, of course, there is:

An unchanging commission. That commission is recorded for us by Matthew, in his account of the Gospel record. "And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt 28:18-20).

Now, "... all the world ..." does not exclude your own family; your next-door-neighbour; your friends; your work colleagues; etc. This Great Commission ties in with the commitment to be His witnesses - everywhere, and anywhere.

There are many - myself included - who believe, firmly, that we are in the very last days prior to the Rapture of the true saints of God (there is also a chapter on that subject in the book referred to above. Remember, ALL royalties are sent, directly, to Release International, in support of the persecuted church). That being the case, there should be an urgency in the church. Those who are disciples of Jesus should be earnest in prayer; eager to serve; excited in their (our!) witnessing.

I would claim that, in order to do so, we must stay close to the Saviour, that He may be close to us. Henry Francis Lyte wrote the words of one of the best-known Christian songs: "Abide with me." In the second verse are these words - 
"Change and decay in all around I see:                                                                                                        O Thou Who changest not, abide with me."

May all who read these words know His unchanging presence at all times. It will be for your good, and will bring glory and honour to His Name.

From Hebraic roots to Greek philosophy! (Part 2)

Having just returned from Scotland, where my wife and I attended the funeral service for her mother, I am publishing this post quickly, as we return to Scotland on Tuesday for a wedding, and for our mid-year visit to family and friends.

If you haven't read the first instalment, I would recommend that you do so before you read this second part!

So, let's jump into our personal Tardis (I hope that you know at least that much about Dr Who!), and fly back some 400 years! Malachi, the last of the prophets whose writings are recorded in the Tanakh, has recorded his message – and then there is silence, until the angel Gabriel appears to a Jewish priest named Zechariah, and informs him that, in their old age, he and his wife, Elizabeth, are going to have a son.

But that 400 year-long gap is important. Malachi spoke of the coming of “… Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of YHWH comes.” (4:5). But there was no timetable issued! It was to be a long wait – and still is!

Meanwhile, Artaxerxes II was ruling the mighty Persian empire; the Romans were slowly building up their republic; the Carthaginians were suffering defeats – and, in Athens, a man named Socrates, the first great philosopher of the modern age, was soon to drink the hemlock that ushered him out of his controversial, and influential, life.

And it is on Greece that the spotlight shines during those years of silence. There were many clever people around; people who thought deeply about the world around them, and what made it tick. Following Socrates was his pupil, Plato, whose ideas were to become almost as influential as those of Jesus Himself in the development of Western Christianity – especially his “Theory of Forms”. This is something that is difficult to explain in just a few sentences but – here goes my attempt!

He explains that most human beings live as if they were in a dimly-lit cave. We are chained, and facing a blank wall, with a fire at our backs. All that we can see are flickering shadows playing across the wall of the cave, and this we take to be reality. Only if we turn away from the wall, and the shadows, can we hope to see the true light of reality.

Or, to put it in slightly more philosophical terms, Plato taught that everything we perceive around us – sailing-ships and sealing wax; and cabbages and kings – is merely appearance. The true reality is the realm of ideas, or Forms, from which this appearance derives. This true reality is perfection; what we see is but a poor reflection.

Plato did think that it was possible for a man to escape from the cave of shadows. Those who did would be the “guardians” – specially gifted and trained individuals; the philosophers, of course! These guardians would be rewarded by being granted a view of the “higher Good” – the source of all truth and reason

This “Higher Good” is the ultimate Form – top of the Forms. It is, effectively, Plato’s concept of God – an eternal reality that exists in a higher realm. Our senses are not equipped to see any more than a pale reflection of this “Higher Good”. Plato likens the concept (for this is not a ‘personal’ God, i.e. a God with personality) to the sun. Both, he taught, cause things to exist and grow; and both are sources of light.

Just one more important point (although we have missed out so very much). Plato believed that we are a body and a soul, but that these are totally separate entities, temporarily bound together during a person’s physical lifetime. This is the concept of the duality of man. In Plato’s view, the soul is good and the body is bad (again, this is the basis for some of the teaching of the later Gnostics). If you forget everything else I’ve just shared on Platonic philosophy, please remember this. It’s the Big Consequence of Plato’s Big Idea: Soul = Good; Body = Bad.

We're not even going to look at Aristotle, but merely mention him as a pupil of Plato, who may be thought of as the father of the academic discipline of logic, as he gave himself the task of thinking logically about every aspect of human life.

So, a brief summary of all of that: in the four-century gap, a whole flood of new ideas and ideals was pouring out from Greece – a Hellenistic mind-set as opposed to an Hebraic mind-set. I recently came across this comment in an SU Commentary on Revelation: “As soon as the Hebrew Christian was squeezed out of the church, and the OT was increasingly neglected, Christian theology was poisoned by this Greek concept.” That, I would contend, was the beginning of the corruption of the Body of the Christ! We'll move on in the next section!

Get back to the Maker's Manual!

This is the last of my wee series based on the writings of the Old Testament prophet, Malachi. We may consider ourselves to be indebted to him for underlining the importance of living in obedience to the commands, and principles, of Almighty God. There were those among his contemporaries - as, indeed there are many today - who attempted to achieve happiness and success by ignoring the moral laws that God has built into the universe. But such a way - then as now - was a way of failure and discontentment. 

That begs the question: "What is involved in living responsibly in an age in which moral issues are somewhat vague, and blurred? An age is which, to refer to the apostle Paul, the bugle is definitely giving an indistinct sound (see I Cor. 14:8). An age in which sexual deviants are deferred to at every turn - in spite of the statistical fact that they make up less than 5% of the population. An age in which so-called "foreign aid" goes from the UK to countries that have nuclear and space programmes, and a despicable record on even the most basic of human rights."

May I suggest that it means developing a set of values based on the written Word of God - and sticking to them even when it is difficult, and costly, to do so? In our 'modern' society, it is often easier to conform than to resist. But we are enjoined to "... not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom.12:2). We live at a time when it is more comfortable to compromise than to disagree - but the duty of those of us who make the claim to be disciples of Jesus, is to obey God, and follow His principles, regardless of the personal consequences. By the way, if that sounds even remotely hard, or legalistic, let it also be said that God not only raises the standard to great heights - He also provides, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the power by which we may attain it. 

The fourfold standard that Malachi raised, almost 2,500 years ago, surely needs to be raised again today. Until we learn to honour God as God; until we make up our minds to expound, and explain, in our congregations and fellowships the importance of walking in His ways; until we resist the pressures of today's society and view marriage as a solemn and binding relationship between one man and one woman; until we recognise that our material possessions are not ours to own, but ours to use; we will remain, and become increasingly, spiritually impoverished and indolent. The time has come - indeed, it may be said to be long past - for disciples of Jesus to have our vision refocused. This can happen, only when we get back to the Bible - the Maker's Manual.

It's about the money, of course!

The previous three posts have been about the word off YHWH to His people, the Children of Israel, through His prophet Malachi - and some lessons that we may learn for our own situations today, especially if we claim to be disciples of the Lord Jesus, the Christ.

The last of YHWH's criticisms concerned the failure of the people to give to Him their tithes and offerings. Indeed, He had a name for such people - he called them "robbers"! "Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me. But you say, ‘How are we robbing You?’ In your tithes and offerings." (3:8).

As its Creator, everything that exists belongs to God. He is the proprietor; we are the stewards. The giving of the tithe (one-tenth of our income) is an acknowledgement of His ownership over all that we have - including the other nine-tenths of our income! I recall, very clearly, when I was a student at the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow, over fifty years ago, the then Superintendent of the Tent Hall - I think that his name was Stanley Collins - came to speak to the student body. The topic he chose was "Tithing"! It was the day that I determined to adopt this Old Testament practice - even although he pointed out that some of us might think that being Bible College students meant that we were giving greatly to the Lord's work, and that with College fees to pay, most of us had little spare cash with which to play about! "You might be given £1 towards your College fees, and think that that was okay. But 2 shillings of that £1 is the Lord's, and should be given directly to His work outwith your College courses. The other 18 shillings may go towards your fees!"

There are, of course, some disciples of Jesus who claim that tithing, as an Old Testament principle, ought not to be carried over into New Testament teaching on the subject of money. After all, they would claim, we live under grace, not law - and that, of course, is correct. However, tithing is a good place to start with one's giving as it establishes a principle that, when learned, opens up the way to bigger and better things. As a disciple of Jesus who has some awareness of what my salvation cost my Saviour, I do not tithe as a matter of law, but as a response of love!

The tithe, of course, is only the starting point! After that comes the freewill offering! Anyone knows that my tithe (in practice, "our" tithe, as my wife and I tithe together!) is 10% of my income. However, the freewill offering is between me and the Lord! One Christian businessman reportedly commented that "God has prospered me so much - now I want to know how much of God's money I may legitimately keep for myself and my family." That is the New Testament order - "How much of God's money may I legitimately keep for myself?" There are those who give their 10%, and think that the remaining 90% belongs to them. It doesn't! Everything that we have, and are, belongs to Him - and if we are to grow and develop spiritual values, then this is something that we must recognise. 

When, especially in the materialist society in which most of us live, you can let go of all of your possessions and let God have them, life takes on a sense of stewardship. Suddenly, you realise that you are handling something on behalf of Another! That does something to the whole of life - it puts sacredness into the secular. Money becomes a message! Jesus said: "You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matt.6:24); but you may certainly serve God with mammon!

YHWH throws out a challenge to the Children of Israel: "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put Me to the test, says YHWH Sabaoth, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing." (Mal.3:20). This, I suspect, has been interpreted by some disciples of Jesus as a form of financial investment! However, treating it as such is, I believe, a certain way for the principle to fail - and fail utterly! As mentioned above, we must give because of our love for Him Who has given - and continues to give - so much to us.

Have you been robbing God? Perhaps it's time to take a careful look at your finances - and even realise why they may not be as healthy as they might be!

Only the best is good enough!

Throughout my increasingly long life, I have often been informed - in a negatively critical manner - that I am a "perfectionist"! I was reminded of that when I read these words, in a blog from David Robertson: "... please send us your best – no other sacrifice is good enough for the Lord."

The reason why those words resonated with me is that it is in that area that I willingly plead "Guilty", as charged. The Old Testament prophet, Malachi (he whose book is the final one in translations from the Hebrew), had something to say about the subject. The literal translation of his name is "my messenger", and his ministry consisted of calling God's people - the Children of Israel - back to their spiritual responsibilities, and to a fresh commitment.

Malachi wrote his prophetic message about 450 B.C., at the time when the Children of Israel had returned to the land of Judah, in Canaan, and had succeeded in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. However, once this had been achieved the people, as had happened so often before in their long history, had become backslidden and idolatrous. Malachi is the prophet, chosen and called by YHWH (the LORD) to reawaken them, and to challenge them to live up to their God-given responsibilities as the Chosen People.

The prophet criticises the people in four main areas, the first of which was their failure to put God first in their list of priorities. They had begun to take Him for granted, and had lost their sense of spiritual need. Worst of all, it was the priests - those who should have been teaching the people and ensuring that they kept the Torah (which is much more than "Law" in our modern, Western, sense) - who were most guilty! Malachi's accusation is specific: "A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a Father, where is My honour? And if I am a Master, where is My fear? says YHWH Sabaoth (the Lord of hosts) to you, O priests, who despise My Name." (1:6). He goes on to make the accusation even more specific by pointing out that the priests, instead of offering unblemished animals for sacrifice, were palming off, on the Almighty, cheap and worthless beasts. "You say, ‘How have we despised Thy Name?’  By offering polluted food upon My altar. And you say, ‘How have we polluted it?’ By thinking that YHWH's table may be despised.  When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that no evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that no evil? Present that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favour? says YHWH Sabaoth." (1:6-8).

Today, of course, animal sacrifices are unnecessary - certainly for disciples of Jesus whose voluntary death has fully paid the penalty for our sin. We are still obliged, however, to honour Almighty God as Father and Master. If we fail to do so, and neglect to give Him His due - in time, money, energy, talents, concerns - then we are no different from those priests from 2,500 years ago. If we are, indeed, disciples of Jesus, this may be the very moment in which we should re-establish our priorities! 

At the end of this section - what we know as the first chapter of the prophecy - are these words of YHWH: "Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to YHWH what is blemished; ..." (v.14; emphasis added). A man who offered an unfit sacrifice in Old Testament times was referred to, by Almighty God, as a 'cheat'! We, too, fall into this category when we refuse, or fail, to give Him our best. As David Robertson said: "- no other sacrifice is good enough for the Lord."

As up-to-date as tomorrow's newspapers!

Those who read the Bible with any level of understanding will appreciate what used to be often claimed that, in its basic teachings, it is not a bundle of irrelevant ancient documents, but is, as the title of this post says, as up-to-date as tomorrow's newspapers!

This was, once again, brought home to me during my personal devotions this morning.  Having completed my time in Paul's letter to the disciples of Jesus in Galatia, I decided that I should return to the books of the Minor Prophets, in the Old Testament.  These are the closing books of the OT, starting at Hosea and going through to Malachi.  I should perhaps point out that they are referred to as the "minor" prophets, not because they are less important than the 'major' prophets, but merely because their writings are shorter!

It is always useful, I would contend, to familiarise oneself with the background to any Biblical text before attempting to read it, and learn from it.  Accordingly, I picked up a commentary by Warren Wiersbe - in my opinion, one of the finest Biblical commentators of this generation.  In his introduction to Hosea, I read the following: "Israel was enjoying great prosperity, but Hosea could see that the nation was rotten to the core; for honest government, pure religion, godly homes, and personal integrity had vanished from the land.  Judgment was inevitable."

The book was published in 1996.  Twenty years later, those words are, surely, even more true of most of the so-called "western" countries, than they were back then.  I read my daily (online) newspaper; I receive additional information through e-mails; I am inundated by Facebook messages that also inform me as to the state of the world in which we live.  Sadly, I see that "... honest government, pure religion, godly homes, and personal integrity ..." are in as short supply today as they were in Israel [the northern kingdom; the southern kingdom, at that time, was referred to as Judah] at the time of Hosea.   In the UK there is a Prime Minister who appears, to many, to be an inveterate, almost pathological, liar.  The major, traditional, Christian denominations are almost indistinguishable from the world to which they should be an example, and a prophetic voice (like Hosea!).  Godly homes are almost as rare as hen's teeth.  Personal integrity seems to have become little more than a phrase from antiquity.

Is it too much to suggest that judgement is inevitable?  Indeed, is it possible that we are, in the 'western' world, already tasting that judgement?   When child sacrifice, under the name of "abortion", is practiced on a scale that would horrify even those who practised it millennia ago in an attempt to appease the 'deities' they worshipped, but merely because a pregnancy, and the responsibility of a child, would be "inconvenient", what right have we to claim that we are the civilised ones? When deviant sexual relationships are accepted as being perfectly normal, even although they are incapable of producing children, what allows us to call our selves "progressive"?  When people are murdered, under the label of "euthanasia", because they have reached a certain age, and are no longer 'productive' members of society, how on earth may we call ourselves loving, caring, and compassionate?

All of the above - and there is so much more - is in total contradiction of the teachings of the Bible, and the will of the Creator God Who, through His servants, authored it (see II Tim.3:16).  However, Paul, writing to those Galatian believers in the letter that I have just finished reading again, warned them: "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." (Gal 6:7-8).  As a society, I fear that we are beginning to reap what we have sown - and it is not pleasant!

A mighty man of God named Moses, spoke to the Children of Israel shortly before his own physical death.  Listen to these words, spoken towards the end of that discourse: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life , that you and your descendants may live, loving YHWH your God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deut 30:19-20).

Have you chosen life?  It's readily available to you, and in a measure greater than was offered to those people all of those millennia ago.  Because the life that is offered to you is the very life of Almighty God - eternal life, here and now.  It is something that you can never deserve; never purchase; never earn.  It is offered, as a free gift, to those who are willing to confront, and confess, their sins - and their total inability to do anything about them - but who come to the foot of the cross of Calvary, and accept, by faith, that God has done it all, in Jesus the Christ.  He has paid the penalty that you and I ought to pay, that we might know salvation, full and free.  When you take that step, you become His child, adopted into His family: "How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own through what Christ would do for us; He decided then to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault - we who stand before Him covered with his love.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And He did this because He wanted to!" (Eph 1:3-5; TLB; emphasis added).

Like me, you may live in a world that appears to be "going to the dogs".  Like me, you may enter a new relationship; a new family; and have a new future.  The choice, always, is yours.  Make the right one!