Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958) said…
The great mass of Church members are content to regard the Church as a conglomerate of private culture clubs, nice for christenings, weddings and funerals.
Ephesians 4: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
We are a community of believers because the Spirit of God made is one (Eph 4:3). The central value controlling this community is that God called us (4:1). Humility, gentleness, patience and love in spite of shortcomings are the results of this calling (4:2). These values can so easily be undermined when the church or congregation becomes a social club. Someone who left the church five years ago writes that the “Church has become a social club with gimmicks and cliques. Even pastors play favourites, while ignoring the spiritual life of the less acceptable members. Churches seem to concentrate on numbers rather than Spirit, church buildings rather than building a church for the Lord."
How should we answer to this accusation? We should answer by becoming a faith community where unity is not based on sameness, but on one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (4:4-6). When this is true, all people will be equal en no one will be anybody’s favourite. Then the church will not be a social club, but the body of Christ.
Spirit of God let our lives by worthy of your gospel, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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John Calvin (1509-1564) said...
Nobody seriously believes the universe was made by God without being persuaded that He takes care of His works.
Gen 1: 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning— the sixth day.
Like a chorus it sounds on the news bulletins of the world: war, AIDS, murder, theft, broken relationships, and child abuse. No, we do not want to live this way! While some people live in luxury, people, animals and creation are dying.
God's intention was completely different. After each day's work, he said that everything was good. When he finished his creation, he said it was very good.
There can be no doubt about the purpose God had for the world, the creation of for you. He has created a world of light, water, life, breath and people from the nothing of the chaos. His presence changed everything. He accomplished all of this by his word. He spoke, and it happened.
Jesus came into the world as God’s word. By his word, he drove away the darkness - disease, suffering and ultimately death. Yes, the chaos in the world may be our fault, but God does not give up on us. He has a new heaven and earth in mind. You may believe it, because the Spirit is God's guarantee that it will happen (Eph 1:13,14).
Therefore, we may not give up the world as a lost cause. If God loves the world (John 3:16), we should also love the world. We also need to alleviate the distress in which this world finds itself. Indeed, we are God's representatives (Genesis 1:26-28). Come on, God's Ambassador! Let us go into the world with the message of hope.
Lord, make me a representative of your care and love for the world, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
]]>William Barclay (1907-1978) said…
A conversion is incomplete if it does not leave Jesus Christ in the central place in one's life. The shortest possible description of a Christian - a description with which the New Testament would fully agree - is that a Christian is a person who can say: "For me Jesus Christ is Lord." (From: In the Hands of God).
Ezekiel 18:20 The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. 21 But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. 22 None of the offences he has committed will be remembered against him. 27 But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life.
What happens when we return to God? It is repeated several times in Ezekiel 18. There is no guilt or sin of the past – not our own or our ancestors – which can separate us from God (18:20-22,27). We receive a new beginning. When Paul speaks about our past, he says in Col 1:21-22 and 2:13,14, “At one time you were far away from God and were his enemies because of the evil things you did and thought. But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
When we say that we have no sin, John says, we make God out to be a liar. However, if we confess our sin, God forgives (1 John 1:8-10). Why, because Jesus, the only truly righteous and sinless person, is the atoning sacrifice for all, yes all our sin (1 John 2:1,2). We receive a new heart and a new spirit!
The same Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36) speaks later about the Spirit of God coming over us and changing our hearts to be devoted to God. When the Spirit of God takes possession of our lives, it becomes our deepest desire to love God, to serve God, because God’s will is written on our hearts. As Paul says, we are then in step with the Spirit of God (Gal 5). Then the fruit of the spirit flows from our lives.
William Barclay is correct when he says, “Any alleged conversion which does not leave one totally committed solely to Jesus Christ is incomplete and imperfect.”
Lord, I commit my life to you once again, in the name of the Righteous one, Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
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John Newton (1725-1807) said…
God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts.
Ps 137: 1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy.
Ezekiel 1:1: In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
One of the most painful experiences in the history of Israel was when they were taken into exile. Many people believed that Jerusalem would never fall (Ps 46,48). It is God’s dwelling! Then they were taken into exile. Did their God lose against the gods of Babylon?
Ps 137 is a struggle about this terrible crisis in their history. They weep as they think about Jerusalem. They cannot praise God in a strange land (137:3). The temple is destroyed. The place of God’s presence is gone.
This event in the life of Israel brought them to the discovery of a new idea. God’s presence is not confined to Israel, Jerusalem, the temple or tabernacle. The old beliefs had to make place for a new insight. God is present everywhere. The prophet Ezekiel begins with a description of the indescribable presence of God in exile (Ezek 1).
We long for the “good old days”. We think it was better. However, God teaches us through difficult and painful circumstances that his presence is not confined to the good old days. When we are down and out, He is there. He is the God of the broken hearted (Ps 147:3). He is the God who comforts us in all our troubles (2 Cor 1:3,4). Sometimes it is only through our brokenness and difficult circumstances that we discover this reality.
God who is always with us, thank you for the difficult times in my life when I discover your presence in a new way, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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It does not matter how bad the condition of humans is, Jesus’ year of mercy, the year of God’s favour dawned upon us when He came to the world.
Luke 4: 18 ‘‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
I can imagine why the people in the synagogue wanted to kill Jesus after his very short sermon. Jesus makes it clear that He is the fulfilment of the prophesy Isaiah. He reads form Isaiah 61:1,2, when the people of God were down and out, when the place of worship was destroyed, and they had no certainty about anything. Jesus, the ordinary man from Nazareth, the son of Joseph, is the one who eventually came to bring true freedom to the people. This is what he said. The year of the Lord’s favour refers to the custom that all land had to be returned to those who have lost it because of debt, when slaves were freed and all debt cancelled. The worst that Jesus could do, was to apply Isaiah’s words to those outside Israel (4:27). The man of Nazareth brings good news to the poor, the slaves, the people in prison, the oppressed – all the marginalised people of society! His year of mercy for broken people has now started!
The Dutch minister, Rupke, writes, "The year of the Lord’s favour is not only proclaimed to those who are materially poor, but they are included as well. It is not proclaimed to those who are in concentration or refugee camps, but they are included. All people are included. The spiritually and materially poor. The spiritually and bodily blind. The person who are physically and spiritually in prison and exile.”
God has a heart for the broken people in the world. You are included today if you feel broken.
Lord, thank you that I am included in your year of favour, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer said...
There are fragments (of our lives) which are only good to be thrown away, and others which are important for centuries to come because their fulfilment can only be a divine work. They are fragments of necessity. If our life, however remotely, reflects such a fragment . . . we shall not have to bewail our fragmentary life, but, on the contrary, rejoice in it.
2 Cor 4: 6 For God, who said, ‘‘Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
What is the meaning of our lives? We often struggle with this question. Why am I here? What meaning does my work have? What difference do I make? Just before Bonhoeffer died, he wrote from prison about the meaning of life. His own life did not make much sense at this stage. Our lives are like a puzzle. Where do the pieces belong? Where does it fit? Is it really part of a bigger picture? Yes, there are many things in our lives that we could never be proud of. Sometimes the things we have done or things that happened to us are just senseless. Even those things are not in vain. Other fragments make perfect sense. We feel that it was meant to happen.
Eventually, the question is not what makes sense to us or not, but what fits into God’s plan. Sometimes the fragments of our lives that seem to have the least meaning in our lives have the most meaning in God’s plan. Why? Because God is not put off by our failures and fragmentary lives. He is always at work and even uses our brokenness to let His light of grace shine over the lives of the people around us (4:6,7).
Lord God, thank you that you are building the puzzle of my life according to your plan. Use all the fragments of it to your glory, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) said...
When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn. He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare to complain of anything?
Matthew 10: 21 ‘‘Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 ‘‘Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 22 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
With Christmas just a few weeks away, we begin to enter the time of peace and goodwill! We hope that there will be peace in the world, in our families, circle of friends, work places and congregations. Jesus’ words are a bit disturbing in our context, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). What is he talking about? Is Jesus not a messenger of peace?
No, there is a false peace. This kind of peace can cost us our relationship with Christ. Jesus describes the price for human peace: Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (10:37). The peace that we seek can cost us our relationship with Christ.
To live in communion with Jesus Christ and his gospel, is our highest loyalty. Even our most intimate relationships are less important than our relationship with Christ. Even our best friendships are less important. This is extremely difficult, but do we have anything to complain about when we look at Jesus? His best friends abandoned Him when He was faithful to God. Do we have the right to expect better treatment?
It is wonderful to be loyal to friends and family while we are loyal to Jesus. When we have to make a choice, we will have to decide what we treasure more: to be worthy of Jesus or people.
Lord, enable us to love you above all people and all things, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Cyprian (220-258 AD) said…
He cannot have God for his father who has not the church for his mother (from: De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate)
Eph 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
There is doubt that people are drifting away from the church. There are people who say they believe, but they do not need the church. It is one of the greatest myths that exists. The author of the letter to the Hebrews says we should not neglect our meeting together, but that we should encourage each other to go (Hebrews 10:25).
Paul says that the community of believers is the creation of the Father (3:14,15). It is not an impersonal Father. It is the Father of Jesus Christ, who lives by faith and through the Spirit in our hearts (3:16,17). Earlier in his letter, Paul emphasises that all those who were saved by grace, through the blood and body of Jesus Christ, now have free access to the Father by the Spirit (Eph 2:1-22). We talk with our Father. We are part of the body. We are part of God's family. We are part of God's building. We are no longer strangers and foreigners. We are brothers and sisters of each other. It is very strange when people call God “Father”, but avoid contact with their family members. This attitude reveals that the family is dysfunctional.
We call God our Father through Jesus and the Spirit. The church is like a mother with many children. We are part of this family of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. We discover his love more and more together with other family members (3:18).
Can we have God as Father without being part of the church? It is a Biblical impossibility.
Lord, let me love you and your church, for Christ's sake. Amen.
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To begin by praising God for the fact that in this situation, as it is, he is so mightily God—such a beginning is the end of anxiety. Thanksgiving means giving God the glory in everything, making room for him, casting our care on him, letting it be his care.
Philippians 4: 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul invites us to bring our worries before God in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Gerald Hawthorne writes that it may be that the real emphasis of the sentence is not that the people have to pray, but rather on the attitude with which they do it, namely with thanksgiving.
Howeever, it is quite possible to pray with thanksgiving in an unbiblical manner. We can use it to twist God’s arm. With our thanksgiving, we can try to impose our solution to the problem on God. “Thank you, Lord, that you will give me a new job” and “Thank you that you will improve my financial circumstances” are both examples of twisting God’s arm with our thanksgiving. We thank God in prayer for the solutions we have to our problems and believe that He will therefore do what we thanked him for. Then prayer and petition with thanksgiving is nothing more than controlling my own world.
Thanksgiving is rather to say, “Thank you that you are the almighty God even in these difficult circumstances and financial problems.” The Lord then knows what my problems are. He also knows that I recognise that He will handle my problems in His way. It will be the best way. It brings real peace, not our ways.
Lord, thank you that you know my circumstances, and that you are present in it. Teach me to trust you, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
To plan our day is not an easy task. We have to sleep and we have to work. At least two thirds of our day is taken up by this! What fills the other third of your day? Where do your family, the church, personal spiritual growth, exercise, relaxation and friends fit in? Here it becomes clear what our priorities are. Yes, it is true that our priorities also become clear by the commitment to our job and the respect we pay to our bodies by giving it sufficient rest.
John gives us valuable advice. Do not let your life be determined by the values of the world (2:15,16). The craving to have more, to have better positions or more status, and to climb the ladder of success, all have the potential to take away our rest, to cause that our job becomes a god, and to swallow up the little time we have left for those we love.
Life is actually very simple: The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (2:17). The will of God is also simple: Let your love for Him determine everything (2:15). If you do that, you will overcome the power of the values of this world.
God of love, teach me to love the world the way you love the world, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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