Windows On The Soul

Have you ever considered your bible as God’s Valentine Card to you? That’s right. We were created in God’s image, and He is calling us to be His lovers. The God of the bible is a God of love. Christianity is not (just) a philosophy or set of teachings or laws. Our God is not a God of fear or one needing to be constantly placated. Our God is not distant and disinterested. Sadly, his desire that the object of his love should be beautifully pure, acceptable and set apart, is often interpreted as prohibition. Before you came to church this morning, did you check to see who was preaching, or weigh-up who did or didn’t speak to you last week, or check whether it was better weather for the beach? Or did you come full of anticipation of meeting with your Valentine? Could I suggest that “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul ” ( Mk.12:30-31 ) should NOT be seen as a “ command ”, but rather an “ invitation too good to refuse ” in the vein of “ Be My Valentin...

In chatting with a single friend recently, conversation drifted to his girlfriend, and his aspirations of marriage, but he felt a certain apprehension. I ventured that every person in history facing such a commitment has a time of apprehension. The basic reason is that one feels that one doesn't know the other well enough. And yet a limit is reached as to how well two people can ever know each other without making a step of commitment. The next level of "knowing" can only be discovered relationally. The way mankind "knows" God is the same. We can know about, believe in and understand his teachings, but we cannot really know Him until we take the step of commitment. We can never know the depth of His love, until we allow ourselves to become His beloved. In the written law, God's nature is only partially revealed, but through His incarnate son Jesus, we have the opportunity to start to know God relationally. May you have a most blessed Christmas and revitalis...

Among the many miracles of construction of the human body, is the wonderful structure of bones, muscles, flesh and skin. Without bones, we would be mere blobs of flesh, unable to stand or move. Without flesh and muscles, the bones would collapse into a heap. Although each individual bone is rigid, the skeleton being a jointed structure, is not rigid. It relies on pairs of muscles and sinews connecting pairs of jointed bones, with opposing muscles maintaining perfectly balanced tension. Further, the flesh and skin cover the harsh, hard bones, with the soft, flexible, cuddly exterior to the world. Paul's analogy of the body to the church, in many ways also applies to our individual spiritual "bodies". We must have a skeleton of doctrine, rigid in part, but jointed and movable, kept strong and in balance by the paradoxes of Righteousness and Mercy. Then our doctrine must be clothed with the warm, soft, tender "flesh" of love as our face to the external world. --...

One of my weekly chores at work, in proving our new system, is to assist the accountants in identifying and explaining any discrepancies in the weekly cash-to-sales reconciliation. Whether the discrepancy is $500 or 50c, it has to be tracked down what-ever the cost. At times it seems ludicrous to spend thousands of dollars to track down a few cents. But its a matter of integrity. Like the clock that strikes thirteen, not only is it obviously wrong, but it casts doubt on every other chime the clock has made. In man’s relationship with God, there are two extremes. Some people, full of guilt, can feel that God could not possibly forgive the horrible things they have done. But the much more common and insidious problem is when people think that they are basically good, and that they have no need for their occasional, insignificant, indiscretions (or whatever euphemism for Sin you care to use) to be forgiven ( 1 Jn.5:17 ). Both extremes are lies of the devil.  ALL h...

In earliest times, God appeared to dwell in nature, and made His presence known from time to time in fire, cloud and earthquake. As the Israelites settled down in the promised land instead of a nomadic life, a permanent ‘residence’ was built for God on Zion - The Temple. The time of building was a time of great joy as people sacrificially brought gifts of material, time and skill. When Jesus came on the scene, Temple tradition was upset, when Jesus claimed that God lived in him - Jn.14:10 (‘How can that be when God lives down the road in The Temple?’). Not only that, but Jesus declared and foretold the end of ‘Temple Worship’ ( Jn.2:19-21 ), in the rending of the temple curtain, the physical destruction of The Temple, and his own bodily death. In His resurrection, He instituted the era of God’s spirit indwelling the hearts of believers. But Jesus did not just bring about a spatial change, from centralised to distributed, but rather completion of God’s plan for His relati...

Said the robin to the sparrow, "I would really like to know Why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so." Said the sparrow to the robin, "I think that it must be. They have no Heavenly Father such as cares for you and me." Thanks Carol D. for this quote. We were privileged in the past week to again witness the miracle of birth with the arrival of a litter of 8 puppies. Our concerns about whether the rather immature mother would cope with her 1st litter, were quite unfounded. Seeing her hovering over her "brood" then gently settle down and gather them all in to herself, and the very protective growl when we got too close, told us that she would protect them. The same expression is used of the Holy Spirit "brooding" (moving) over creation ( Gen.1:2 ). When the Holy Spirit is called our "comforter", it is not the comfort of an acquaintance, but the deep feeling of a "parent". Thank God this week for his continu...

I was reminiscing with a colleague the other day about how much things have changed in our industry since we started in the early 70’s.  And I know some of you have seen many more changes in your life time - two world wars, motor cars, electric light, refrigeration, aeroplanes, wireless, television - the list goes on. And yet in human relational terms, nothing much has changed since Genesis. Greed, pride, sloth, envy, jealousy, avarice, anger, rebellion, etc are still rampant. Sometimes I think we focus too readily on specific incarnations of sins and forget the fundamental SIN of human nature. Thank God that His accepting love, forgiveness and gift of eternal life have not changed either, that they are the same yesterday, today and forever. Interestingly, the words ‘fundamental’ and ‘radical’ mean the same thing - pertaining to basic, core things. Let's be radical in exploring ways in reaching out to the world with God’s fundamentals of love, forgiveness and Life.

As we think of mother's today, the primary images we have are of giving birth to life, of nurturing and tending, of the earliest formative years, of learning all our basic life skills - talking, walking, feeding ourselves, and a fundamental sense of love. In our spiritual life, Jesus is the Prince of Life ( Acts 3:15 ), in fact He is Life itself ( Jhn.14:6 ). It is by the power of His resurrection life that we are born again. Our sustenance comes from the very word of God ( Deu.8:3 ), in fact Jesus is called the Bread of Life ( Jhn.6:32 ). He tends, guides and protects us like a shepherd of young lambs ( Jhn.10:11 and 1 Ptr.2:25 ). He teaches us that our spiritual talk should be in truth and love ( Eph.4:15,21 ). Then as our spiritual walk matures, it is the word of God that lights our pathways ( Ps.119:105 ). But fundamentally, it is through Jesus that we learn the full depth and breadth of true love, even greater and more wonderful than the love we learnt on our mother...

We often speak of the principal roles of Jesus in His worldly ministry as those of "Prophet, Priest and King".  But Jesus never used these words directly. In His wonderful way with words, Jesus described His roles in active form.  He said, "I am the way (priest), the truth (prophet) and life (king)". The only way to eternal life, is through Christ's priestly work of intercession and the sin-offering of His life. As prophet he came to teach, to proclaim God's word, to lead us into all truth. In His resurrected kingly splendour, he is the first-fruit, the guarantee of our hope of eternal life, and sustainer of all life. In this season remembering His incarnation, meditate on these reasons for His coming. ----xxxXxxx---- Jn.14:6 "I am the way the truth and life: no-one comes to the father but by me" Jn.8:2 "All the people gathered round Him and He sat down to teach them" Jn.1:1 "Before the world was created, ...

" The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion...no religion has ever been greater than its idea of Go d" (A.W.Tozer). One of the wonders and apparent paradoxes of the Christian religion, is that God is both the almighty creator king, and at the same time our approachable loving heavenly father indwelling us by His spirit. A church that errs one way by its reverent solemnity can become cold and unfriendly. But there is the opposite danger that in emphasising the relational and "familiarity", we loose the sense of awe and majesty of the most high God. ----xxxXxxx---- Isa.48:13 "My hand has laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand spans the heavens" 2 Sam.7:22 "You are great O Lord: for there is none like you" Ps.48:1 "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised" Eph.1:19 "Understand how incredibly great His power is to help those who believe Him. It...

Have you ever considered that God Himself has a constant personal struggle? It could even be called an enigma on the horns of a dilemma. Martin Luther, the proponent of " Justification by Faith " was once challenged as to the true basis of Christianity, faith or righteousness. He responded " Righteousness " - our faith simply appropriates the redemptive work of Jesus in dying on the cross in our stead to satisfy God's basic righteousness - " The wages of sin is death ". Here then is God's dilemma in being both perfectly righteous and holy, and also infinitely gracious and lovingly forgiving. This is why prayer can be effective, why it is possible to ask God to turn away his righteous anger in favour of His grace. Thus the enigma of Christianity is that it is both but neither legalistically (self)righteous, and unconditionally forgiving (all you need is love)! ---xxxXxxx--- Ps.85:10 "Mercy & truth are met together; righteousness ...

One of the most frequently asked ‘spiritual’ questions among all people through all of time, is “ Why does God let that (death, illness, injury, evil, inhumanity, etc.) happen?” . Firstly, such questions are usually inherently ‘selfish’ because it is usually asked about one-self or some-one close - ie. “ I’m feeling sad/sorrowful/let-down/hurt! Why me? ”, as if it doesn’t matter that everybody else in the world suffers the same feeling at some time or another. But at the heart of such questions, is a wrong understanding of God and ‘nature’. Decay, pain and death are very much the ‘norm’ in the natural world. Scientists have a ‘law’ of thermodynamics that says that any system left to itself will ultimately decay chaotically, losing its ‘order’ or entropy. When the Bible says that sin entered the world and that nature has ‘fallen’, it is saying the same thing as the scientists, only 3-4000 years before them. Now God’s nature is quite the opposite. His nature is of love, redempt...