Windows On The Soul

Two of the more difficult tasks at work are trying to hire the right people, and laying off the wrong people. Apart from the basic technical skills for a job, the factors that make the difference between hiring and firing, relate to character. High on the list comes co-operability, being a good team member, adaptable to the group, teachable and manageable. Then of course there is honesty, not just in dealing with customers and the company, but honesty about oneself - to me, a danger sign is when a person has a too high (dishonest) opinion about themselves. When Jesus calls followers, we are called to discipleship (students/apprentices) [ Mt.18:3 ], to an honest, sober opinion of our sinful standing under God's judgement [ 1 Jn.1:9 ]. Accepting Jesus as Lord, means submitting our life to His management [ Jas.4:7 ] - totally, no divided loyalties [ Mt.6:24 ]. And of course we are called to membership of His "body", the church, to be a team member [ Rom.12:5 ], fulfilling ou...

"I confess to you honestly that I have no wings with which to fly or even legs on which to run - but listen, by the grace of God, I am still on my feet! I have not fainted yet. I have not exploded in the anger of presumption, nor have I keeled over into the paralysis of despair. All I am doing is walking and not fainting, hanging in there, enduring with patience what I cannot change but have to bear. "This may not sound like much to you, but to me it is the most appropriate and most needful gift of all. My religion has been the difference in the last two weeks; it has given me the gift of patience, the gift of endurance, the strength to walk and not faint. And I am here to give thanks to God for that! "And who knows, if I am willing to accept this gift, and just hang in there and not cop out, maybe the day will come when Laura  Lue and I can run again and not be weary, that we might even soar some day, and rise up with wings as eagles! But until then - to walk and not ...

Thus goes this gem of potted philosophy advertising some already forgotten product.  First comes the dream, vision or hope of what could be - blessed are those who can see their need. Then comes the leap: what the motivational speakers might term "belief in yourself", or that "can do attitude"; what we call faith. With this attitude of faith, anything is possible: moving mountains, creating the vision. To the world, this is success, yet time and again, we hear of such self-made, successful people who are still unfulfilled. The apostle Paul, the greatest motivational writer of history, re-iterates the enduring importance of hope and faith. But greater than these is Love. Only in love does success find meaning, worth and true fulfilment of the heart's deepest desires. ----xxxXxxx---- Heb.11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen" 1 Cor.13:13 "These three things endure, hope, faith & love,...

As we studied Jesus' reply to Nicodemus, his description of the movement of the Holy Spirit being like the invisible wind ( John 3:8 ) reminded me of the sail-board riders on Lilydale Lake. As one who likes to keep his feet firmly on terra firma , I really admire people who can stand on a wind-surfer, manipulating the sail to catch the slightest breath of wind, to send them scooting across the surface of the water. This in turn reminded me of some of Jesus' very last words before His ascension ( Acts 1: 8 ) " When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be witnesses to me... ". But surely the disciples had been sent "witnessing" before? But this promise is additional - this is a promise of the ability to witness with confidence and power. Like the sail-board rider, it requires practice to stand up, to set the sail of our life and mind to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit, and let ourselves be driven by that invisible power source.

What a six weeks the disciples must have gone through - first the despair of the crucifixion, then the disbelief and slow-dawning joy of the resurrection. Now notice how in anticipation of His 2nd leaving (ascension), Jesus turns the disciples vision outward with the command to " Go into all the world ", to " Feed His sheep" . Not only that, but Jesus promised an abiding "comforter" through His Holy Spirit, as well as the source of power and drive to fulfill the "command". How appropriate then that our Missions Month spans this same period, drawing to a climax on Pentecost Sunday. For surely attempts at missioning without the power of the Holy Spirit is an exercise in futility, and a life "filled with the spirit" without a mission is a contradiction, for it is the Holy Spirit that gives drive and direction. ---===X===--- Acts 2 "On the day of Pentecost...they were filled with the Holy Spirit...they spoke as the spirit gave ...

“ What the Church needs are more ‘deep’ Christians ” (Richard Foster, “Celebration of Discipline”).  The Apostle Paul wrote, “ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!!” ( Rom.11:33 ) How does one become a ‘deeper’ Christian? It takes ‘Time’ and ‘Experience’. To know the depth of something, one must have ‘plumbed’ the depth, that is attempted some sort of measure. To have some knowledge of the depth of God, one must explore the consequences and implications of Christian faith on one’s life and society, and thus to start to see the vast possibilities. Such exploration, takes time in God’s word, time with Him in prayer, and time in constructive, exploratory fellowship together. But most of all, depth of understanding and knowledge of the wisdom, grace and ways of God, come from experience. We learn only a small amount from what we hear, a larger amount from what we read and s...

The Bible uses a number of different analogies to describe The Church, such as a ‘body’ ( 1 Cor.12 ), a ‘garden’ ( Isa.61:3 , Jn.15:5 ), a ‘family’ ( Jn.3:29 , Rev.21:9 ), or a ‘building’ ( 2 Cor.5:1 , Eph.2:21 ). All of these images illustrate multi-faceted growth, extension and adaptation, and all apply equally to The Church, any individual congregation or individual Christians. I’ve always liked the slogan, “ Please be patient. God hasn’t finished with me yet ”. When a ‘lost soul’ finds Christ, there is a sense of completeness in that a void has been filled. But as we grow in Christ, there is another sort of sense of incompleteness, not like an emptiness that needs to be filled, but rather being called onward in constant improvement. As God is constantly revealing areas of our lives that are not ‘up to scratch’, we are challenged to renewal. As our lives encounter new experiences and situations, we are challenged to meet them like Christ, with love. We are called to st...

One of the greatest inhibitors to personal and church growth is the FUD factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). After the horror of Christ’s crucifixion, the incredulity then ecstasy of His resurrection and His times of sharing with His disciples, Jesus ascended to heaven. What did the disciples feel then? I’m sure they must have felt very “flat” after their mountain-top experiences, and probably uncertainty and doubts crept in - “ What do we do now?” , “ Why has He left us like this?” . In many ways, these phases in the birth of The Church mirror the phases in the birth and growth of our children. The teenage years are times of much questioning, of moving out from under the sheltering presence of parents, to discover one’s directions and goals in the ‘real’ world - these are the “Why?” years. Then the young adult blossoms, the world is at their feet and they are prepared to take on anything, with courage and determination. Just as parents must hold back in order to release thei...

What a sad pair of words they are - “If only...”. Often expressed as a matter of ‘fact’, they really express an attitude . It can be an attitude about the past , expressing regret about some-thing that did or did not happen. It can also express an attitude about the future - an attitude of not being able to progress in the here-and-now until some perceived future “need” has been met. Both attitudes run counter to the Bible’s teaching. Our failings and omissions of the past are covered, dead, buried and forgiven through Christ. In the present we are called to live by faith, not worrying about tomorrow ( Mt.6:25-34 ) . We are called to be good stewards of what we do have , even though we are all given different talents, opportunities and challenges (obstacles?). When we are good stewards in the use of the talents we do have (instead of whingeing about what we don’t have), then we will be blessed with further talents, opportunities and challenges ( Mt.25:15-29 ). If ...

What a paradoxical metaphor Peter uses ( 1 Ptr.2:4-5 ) - "Living Stones"! "Stones" conjures thoughts of hardness, solidness, deadness: the very antithesis of "Living". Yet in the hands of God, the master builder, the passive "stone" is chosen and fitted into the correct place in the building of His spiritual temple.  Just as Jesus " the living stone rejected by man as worthless but chosen by God as valuable " submitted to God's plan, right to the cross and the grave, so we are called to obedience. Just as no two stones are exactly the same, so we all have our own shape and niche into which we fit - to one the door-step, to another the lintel, another the underground foundation, yet another the carved capping stone.  Then in the beauty of the whole, the very stones "will proclaim the wonderful acts of God". ----xxxXxxx---- Ps.118:22 "The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most...

One of the marks of the Bible that gives it its ring of truth, is its portrayal of God's people in real life - the good, the bad and the ugly. As Nehemiah describes the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem, the human detail shows through. In 3:5, the leaders of the town of Tekoa refused to do any manual labour, but in 3:12 we find that the daughters of Shallum get a special mention for working with the men. Then in 3:27, the men of Tekoa rebuild a second section (did the men, ashamed of their leaders offer to work double, or was it a punishment?). The descriptions of various jobs (stone workers, wood workers, lock-smiths, metal workers, etc) also reminds us of Corinthians 12 , that in the Church there is a myriad of skills and gifts that we bring in our service for The Lord. ----xxxXxxx---- Jas.4:17 "He who knows what is right and does not do it, is sinning" Pr.31:30 "Charm is deceptive, beauty disappears, but a woman who honours God should be praised...

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...