Ivy - and sin (Part 2).

Okay, so on Thursday I realised that the common plant, ivy, is a picture of sin in human beings.  However, this parasitic plant (I couldn't recall that adjective on Thursday!) had more to teach me.

As I hacked, and pulled, at the ivy surrounding the well-head in our front garden in Gardonne, I quickly realised that we did not have the plain concrete structure of our neighbours.  Someone had, at some time, built around that structure a beautiful, white stone, facade.  Suddenly, I knew that I had a magnificent feature just waiting to be discovered.   With almost all of the ivy now removed, I can assure you that it really is "something else"!

You and I were created by a loving God Who desires us to enter into a personal relationship with Him, through the Lord Jesus Christ (the Second Persona of the Trinity).  However, sin embraces us with its tentacles, and quickly begins to cover up what the Creator has created.   We require to have that sin dealt with before the beauty that is the real 'us' can be seen.  Of course, even that beauty is but a reflection of the Lord Jesus.  That was what some of us used to sing:

"Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me;
All His wonderful passion and purity.
Oh, Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine
'Til the beauty of Jesus be seen in me." (Albert Orsborn/Tom M. Jones).

There is a certain, self-styled, pastor who has a great following - particularly among women - and who has claimed that she no longer sins!  (Crazy mad Woman Joyce Meyer Claims She is no Longer a Sinner – Sinless Perfection Heresy).  However, in making such an outrageous claim, Mrs (Millionaire) Meyer is directly contradicting the written Word of God.  Listen to the apostle, John:  "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (I John 1:8).  Indeed, the 'beloved disciple' goes even further: " If we say we have not sinned, we make Him (i.e. God) a liar, and His word is not in us." (I John 1:10).  You see, Mrs Meyer has made a fundamental mistake (actually, she makes a lot of fundamental mistakes!).  The Bible does not teach that, as a disciple of Jesus, I am righteous and, therefore, sinless.  Yes, I am accounted righteous in the sight of Almighty God, but that is because I have been justified (see the relevant chapter in Great Words of the Faith) by His grace, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus!

This is the wonderful truth: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:9).  However, that confession needs to be a daily exercise, because I am a sinner.  Paul who, like John, may be considered to be more trustworthy than a millionaire (actually, multi-millionaire) 'prosperity-gospel' preacher, testifies: "... I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." (Rom 7:18-19).  The ivy of sin does not let go easily, and we need to come, on a daily basis (at least!) and seek the help of God the Holy Spirit that we may be sanctified (chap. available in Great Words!) - made more like Jesus!

When I get the study in our new home up and running, a little printed notice will be going back up on a wall.  I believe it to be a Brian Ross "original".  It reads, simply, "In this life, I will never be sinless but, by the grace of God, I may sin less"!  As I do, more and more of the beauty of Jesus will be seen in me.

There was one more lesson from my dealings with ivy on Thursday, but that's all for now, folks.  Just be sure that you deal with the ivy that is hiding what Father God wants you to be, seeking His help, day by day.

From the mouths of babes!

Okay!  The young girl in this video is, in fact, 12 years old.  But she is not an adult.  Yet she speaks on an emotive subject with passion, with articulation, and with evidence of having done more research than many who write comments on online newspaper fora.

It's a five-minute clip - but it's well worth watching, right to the end.

Where have all the flowers gone?

That old song from the 60s came to mind when I read one of my e-mails a few minutes ago.  However, I changed the words, ever so slightly, to "Where have all the Christians gone?"

The catalyst for that thought was this message from Open Doors - one of the organisations that supports persecuted Christians in many countries around the world.  You may find out more about them by following the link further down on this page.  The start of the message was:

"Tomorrow, thanks to the incredible 309,195 people who signed the Save Syria petition, the voice of Christians in Syria will be heard at the UN and in capital cities around the world.

We stand amazed and humbled. A wonderful 309,195 people in 99 countries around the world - including 74,002 from the UK & [the Republic of] Ireland - have signed the Save Syria petition. Each one has said that they want to stand alongside the church in Syria, ensuring that Christians there have a voice and are not forgotten.

Please join us in praising God for this wonderful response! Thank you so much to all of you who signed and encouraged friends, family, church and even people on the local high street to sign too!"

It was those numbers that hit me!   74,002 from the whole of the British Isles!  That is out of a total population of approximately 65 million!  Now, of course, that includes children, as well as people who would not sign anything unless their own life literally depended on it.  However, if we deduct even 50% that still leaves more than 32 million - which would mean that only one person in approximately 440 cared enough to add their name in support of those who are suffering so much in Syria, even as I type.  

I thought a little more.  If even less than a quarter of that 50% were Christian, we have a scenario in which, if my calculations are correct, only 1 in 100 (1%) of people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ signed.  Let's be very generous, and assume that half of them didn't know about the petition (in which case I would encourage them to forget East Enders, Corrie, and the X Factor, and check up on what is happening in the world beyond their own living rooms!).  However, that would still mean that only 1 in 50 (2%) could be bothered.

So forgive me if I am not as "amazed and humbled" as are the good folk at Open Doors.  Personally, I feel rather ashamed that so few in the British Isles were willing to support Syria in a time of great need.  I won't even start on the rest of the world!

If you didn't sign, then I urge you to pray - with passion, with persistence, with pertinacity. 

Oh, and do look out for further opportunities to support those who suffer privations such as most of us can barely imagine.  You know that you should!

Spiritual Warfare!

Today is the National Day of Prayer for the Police Services and this morning, along with a few others, I participated in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (Communion/Eucharist) in the High Kirk of Glasgow - commonly referred to as Glasgow Cathedral.  After the celebration of the Sacrament, some of us went downstairs to one of the small chapels where, as a group with a particular interest in the Police, we spent some time in prayer for our colleagues both within Strathclyde Police, and in other Forces throughout the United Kingdom.

As we chatted together, afterwards, I noticed that the particular chapel in which we had met, was dedicated to Bishop Robert Wishart.   This particular clergyman was a supporter of Robert the Bruce and, indeed, it is said that he supplied the robes - from his own wardrobe - in which the Bruce was crowned King of Scots, at Scone, in 1306.  His active participation in the Wars of Independence (from the English! - nothing changes!!!) by, for example, taking personal charge of the assault on Cupar Castle, in Fife, 'like a man of war', gave rise to the nickname that is displayed in the chapel: "The Battling Bishop"!

How appropriate, I thought to myself, for a place of prayer.  To so many, prayer is little more than a series of vocalised platitudes, and requests, made to a God with Whom they have no vital relationship.  Yet this is not the picture that we find in the pages of God's written Word!  Prayer can be exhausting.  Jesus, we read, when in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed with such passion "... that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood." (Luke 22:44; NLT).  Read the prayer of Daniel, in Daniel 9:4-19 - and imagine (if you can!) that godly man speaking those words to his God in calm, impassionate, tones!  James assures us that the great prophet, Elijah, "... prayed earnestly/fervently/passionately ..." (5:17).

Someone had said that much of our prayer has no power in it because there is no heart in it. If we put so little heart into prayer, then the legitimate question arises: "How can we expect God to put much heart into answering?"

We don't need to go into a physical battle, like Robert Wishart.  We can all be "Battling Bishops" (or, at least, battling disciples!) in prayer - Prayer Warriors, as used to be said.  Rather than offering up some casual, "God save everybody, and bless all the missionaries; Amen" kind of prayer, we need to pray specifically. We need to pray fervently. We need to pray continually (I Thess.5:17).  Pray with energy. Put your heart into it. That is what really matters.

Spiritual warfare, whatever else it involves, certainly involves passionate praying!

The Christmas Message

The Gospel according to John doesn't tell us anything about the birth of the Christ-child.  John commences his record long before that - indeed, right at the beginning of everything!  "In the beginning was the Word (the Son - Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Yet John provides us with the Christmas message in just one well-known verse.  It's the verse that is sometimes referred to as "the Gosple in a nutshell" - John 3:16.  "For God loved the world so much that He entered it, in the Persona of the Son, clothed in human flesh; that every single individual who places their trust in Him, and Him alone, for salvation from sin, might have, here and now, God's life within them" (Ross expanded vesion!).

It's a verse that speaks of three things.

First of all, it decares a fact.  "For God loved the world so much ..." Not just the nice people; the good people; the charming people; the people who go, regularly, to church; but the world – the unlovable and the unlovely; those who are loved by no-one else; those who never give Him a thought; those who rebel against Him, and use His name as nothing other than a profanity. Love, according to the Christian Gospel, is the very mainspring of the Being of God. “God is love”, writes the early apostle, John. (I Jn.4:8,16). And part of the wonder of this is that it’s not a scientific theory to be changed in the light of fresh evidence or experimentation; it’s not a legal speculation to be argued over in a judicial court; it’s not some popular idea to be maintained only while it’s fashionable. It’s a Biblical fact - “God so loved the world”.  

So, it is God's infinite, and unique, love that is behind the Incarnation.  And it's that same love that is the motivating force behind the Passion of the Christ, His crucifixion, and His resurrection.  'God loved the world so much' - the greatest fact in all of history, and the one with the most far-treaching results.

But the love, even of Almighty God, if it were merely passive and uncommunicated, would not be sufficient. And so, after directing our thoughts towards the fact, this well-known verse goes on to speak of an act.  “God loved the world so much – that He gave His only-begotten Son…” And here is the love of God being put into action. God so loved, that He gave. And He gave sacrificially – even giving Himself in the Persona of the only-begotten Son.  Love always wants to give - and we tend to give the best to those whom we love the most  At that first Christmas, the eternal Creator of all that is gave the very best that He could.  He gave Himself, in the Persona of the Son. (for further clarification of my use of the word 'Persona', please listen to my audio message on The Doctrine of the Trinity at revcbross.blogspot.com).  Amazing love; amazing grace; amazing God! 

Christmas is traditionally a time for giving. And isn’t it wonderful to remember that, at the very first Christmas, the greatest and best Gift that could ever be, was given? Almighty God gave His own Son; putting His love into action; giving the very best that He could; giving all that He is.  It was a Gift so termendous that even Paul, with all of his learning and education,was unable to find words to describe it, and so spoke of God's "inestmable Gift"; His "inexpressible Gift"; His "Indescribable generosity"; His "Gift beyond words" (II Cor.9:15; various translations).

A fact; an act; and a pact. That’s the third thing of which that well-known verse speaks. “... that everyone who has faith in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” God’s love; God’s Gift; are not mere handouts. Free they may be – but the Christian faith teaches that they are only so to those who are willing to enter into a living relationship with that same God through the Son; only to those who have faith in Him; who put their trust in Him; who receive Him with humble and thankful hearts.   But this eternal life, given to those who believe, is not merely life that never ends.  What is really stressed is a different quality of life.  "When one really possesses this life, he experiences close fellowship with God, in Christ." (William Hendriksen).  It's the life of the age to come, of which disciples of Jesus already have a foretaste, as they come under the influence, and direction, of God the Holy Spirit - although the full consummation, and enjoyment, of it lies in that eternal day.

A simple fact; a gracious act; an eternal pact.

And that’s the true heart of CHRISTmas!

Terraces v. Pews

It's been a day of mixed emotions - and I am not referring to the disillusionment that the devotees of Mr Harold Camping must be experiencing as, at the time of writing, 1800 hrs have come and gone over a major part of the globe, with no indication that it was the Father's time for the Rapture; or to the relief that some might have experienced that yet another prediction has been shown to be false!

No, the emotions to which I refer are those of the respective supporters of Motherwell Football Club (c'mon ye 'Well!!), and Celtic Football Club.  The former will, in spite of their team having apparently played well (no pun intended!) be somewhat despondent that the Scottish Cup was not returned to Motherwell this evening, while the latter will, doubtless, be relieved that they have, at last, picked up some silverware for this season.
I didn't watch the match, but am confident that, in spite of the inclement weather conditions, tens of thousands did so - and who knows how many were glued to their television sets in the comfort of their own homes.  I am also certain that there was a display of passion for the game of soccer that puts most of 'western' Christianity to shame!  Men, women, young people - all with an obvious knowledge of 'the game', and no embarrassment about displaying their emotions!

How different it will be in church buildings up and down the country tomorrow.  So many with sparse congregations - the majority of whom will be in the later stages of life; many of whom will know little/nothing of the basic doctrines of the Faith, or even of much of the Bible; few of whom will do more than 'go through the motions' of worship - "... holding the form of religion but denying the power of it." (II Tim 3:5; RSV).

Interestingly, the copy of a denominational magazine that arrived with my post this morning, was asking about the absence of men in the church.  Perhaps part of that problem is that we men who are "in the church" - especially we who have a personal, saving, knowledge of the Lord Jesus - are failing to display "Cup Final enthusiasm"!  It's just not seen as 'manly/macho' to allow our emotions to be displayed - unless we are on the terraces!

There was nothing un-manly about Jesus.  He showed the full range of human emotion as He walked this earth.  Yet He was, undoubtedly, a "man's man".  A carpenter, 2,000 years ago, had no power tools, but depended on physical strength.  Those hands that were to be nailed to a wooden cross were, already, hardened by years of working with wood.

Many years ago, the then Clerk to the Presbytery of Glasgow (Church of Scotland), the Rev Andrew Herron, published an article that, regretfully, I seem to have lost.  However, I do recall that he also drew this comparison between the attitude of football supporters on the terraces, and 'church members' in the pews.  He bemoaned the "animal passion" of the former - insofar as it was totally lacking in the latter!

When the Rapture does take place, it will be a momentous event.  And the heavenly dimension to which the true children of God will be instantly transported (see I Cor.15:52) will not be a place of sombre traditionalism.  It will be filled with the praises of His people as we worship the Lamb in that endless day that we call eternity.  It will, I suspect, be much more like 'the terraces', than like many of 'the pews' with which I am familiar!

In the Garden

It was Thursday night. Jesus and His closest disciples had celebrated the Passover mean together. Judas had left and gone into the night (John 13:30). Then Jesus, and the other disciples, had gone to the olive grove that was named Gethsemane. There, He took Peter, James, and John and told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here, and watch with me." (Matt.26:38).

Matthew continues his record of the evening: "He went on a little farther ..." (v.39). Distance is a strange thing! It can sometimes be difficult to judge. If you have the opportunity to visit the Highlands of Scotland, you will quickly discover what I mean! That mountain that looked to be so close, turns out to be a half-day's walk away.

Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, may have gone, in literal terms, just "... a little farther ...". Certainly, the disciples were able to see, and to hear Him for at least part of the time (until their eyes closed as they dozed off). But, in a more figurative sense, He couldn't have gone any farther!

How far He went in His suffering. The crucifixion that He knew He was soon to undergo, is considered by many to be one of the most cruel forms of executing the death penalty that the twisted mind of fallen mankind has ever invented. The condemned man died in multiple ways - loss of blood, from the wounds made by the nails; hypothermia, as the naked body was left hanging there through the bitterly cold night; suffocation, as the blood rose in the throat. But for Jesus, the suffering was not only physical, but also spiritual. The holiness of God is such that the Father could not even look upon sin and so as, on the cross, Jesus took the sinfulness of mankind upon Himself, the Father had to turn away. The eternal relationship between Father and Son was, for a brief moment of time, broken. Little wonder that He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"

How far He went in His solitude. "There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only (i.e. He alone; no-one else) could unlock the gate of heaven, and let us in". This sinless One; this One Who could challenge even His enemies to convict Him of sin; this Man Who drew others to Him by the sheer force of His character; "... was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on Him, and looked the other way when He went by. He was despised, and we didn't care." (Isaiah 53:3)

And how far He went in His shame. The human body was designed by Almighty God and is, therefore "very good" (Gen.1:31). Nakedness is not 'bad' of itself. But if I am hanging, naked, on a cross, while others who are fully clothed stand around mocking me - then that can bring great shame. And, of course, He was hanging there, not because of any wickedness of His own, but for you and for me. "... it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God for His own sins!" (Is.53:4)

He couldn't have gone any farther in His submission; submission to the will of the Father. Yes, He could have asked the Father for thousands of angels, and He would have sent them instantly (Matt.26:53). But He had already uttered that prayer: "Not my will, but Yours, be done." "There was no other way a God of love could find to reconcile the world, and save a lost mankind." (John W.Peterson)

"He went on a little farther ...", and we may rejoice that He did. But, of course, His great sacrifice was in vain, if we fail to respond, positively, to it, and accept the great salvation that He has won.