Preach : Embers & Ashes : 17-Feb

We had a pastor visit us at CCK today - he was from Switzerland (but spoke incredible English, with only a slight German accent). He started off sharing about a senior catholic pastor in Switzerland who had recently written a book about embers and ashes - that as a church, they (and other churches) may have become to focused on the ashes produced by the fire, and lost focus on the embers, on the fire.

Leviticus 6:8-13 (NIV) - The Burnt Offering

8 The Lord said to Moses: 9 “Give Aaron and his sons this command: ‘These are the regulations for the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. 10 The priest shall then put on his linen clothes, with linen undergarments next to his body, and shall remove the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed on the altar and place them beside the altar. 11 Then he is to take off these clothes and put on others, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean. 12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

1) The fire needs to keep on burning. A critical point drilled in by the fact that it is stated multiple times in the text.
2) Fire falls on sacrifice - sacrifice is dead flesh. Are we willing to let our flesh die, to sacrifice that at God's altar? Ultimately God is a consuming fire, and whilst we recognise his grace and love falling on our lives, we also need to recognise that his fire will also burn all that which is not important - are we open to that happening?
3) You cannot have continuous fire like without producing ashes - ashes are not bad, and should be treated with the due respect (the priest needed to change clothes for this, and place the ashes in a special place). However need to recognise the ashes are not the focus - they are not holy, the fire/sacrifice is holy, so the ashes were holy, but no more.
4) Do we recognise where we have lost focus - where we have become to focused on the ashes, on the rituals or other human creations, which were born out of something good, but are no longer good themselves.
5) "A third of my theology is wrong, but I am not sure which part it is" - NT Wright. Scripture can create ashes through own misinterpretation - are we open to being told by God, area's where our interpretation is wrong?

Choice or Feeling

I was at the School of Generosity (at City Church) today, and during the Q&A session somebody asked this lady who had difficulties with her father, how she had dealt with it. The way she summarised was that too often we try to feel our way into a choice, but rather we should choose a way into a feeling. Her point was that she had to chose to forgive her father for his failings (as all earthly fathers will fail), which might not have come naturally, or maybe wasn't what she wanted, but it was the choice she had to make. I felt it was a powerful and simple point about choosing how we feel, and not being a victim in our circumstances.

So how do I choose to feel today? How do I chose to respond to my wife? How do I chose to engage with people at my business? It is my choice, no one is control of me...

For interest, this lady has a blog - http://www.heartdoctorblog.com/ - go check it out.

Preach : Judah Smith : Heaven - Keep it Clear : 3-Feb

I was thinking back to Judah Smith's preach a few Sundays ago.

The church has been going through a series on heaven. The main message was how do we keep a perspective in our lives as to who and what is important. This was brought out buy Judah referring to the book of Revelation, where it talks about how so much of the city is made of gold, yet the gold itself is clear - allowing the light & glory of Christ to come into any structure or thing.

The point is do we live lives where we maintain that focus & purity, allowing God's good and powerful light to shine in us and through us. Do we keep that focus on Jesus, not allowing ourselves to shift our focus onto other aspects of our lives or the world.
I just recognised that I face distractions everyday (as everyone does), but am I able to keep shifting my focus  away from that distraction and look to Jesus - for inspiration, for direction, for security, for affirmation... but even more so am I able to look at him and enjoy him?

That might take us onto a separate point, so I'll stop here for now.

==========
Key sermon points:- John 3:13
- Luke 11:1-4
- Revelation 21:1-2,9-11,18-23 and 22:1
- Gold is not wrong, but keep it clear... our possessions should not possess us.
- Matthew 6:19-23 ... Do not store wealth up on earth. Keep your eye good (single / clear), so your body will be full if light, not bad (chaotic / unfocused).
- If your eye is clear and singularly focused on Jesus, your whole being will radiate with His light.
- Matthew 6:33
- Romans 5:17
- Galatians 5:22-23. Fruit of the Spirit - not fruit of ours but His.

School of Generosity #4

Day 4 of the course, I wanted to capture what JoAnne Ramos said in her session, which spoke to me deeply. She is an amazing speaker, and God has done an amazing work in her life, and I just want to honour her by this.

She was talking about how Kingdom Culture is created and established, specifically in 3 ways:

• What we believe about: God (Psalm 145:16), Yourself (Proverbs 23:7), Your resources.
• What we speak (Matthew 12:34)
• How we live (Matthew 5:16, 1 John 3:18)

She then interjected with these few nuggets:

• When we are in a state of self-pity, locked into a victim mentality, God doesn’t feel sorry for you – in the sense that he knows who he created you to be, and you being a victim is not who he created you to be [side note: please don’t feel like God doesn’t care if we are down and broken, the point is he knows who are.She said that at home they don’t allow any victim mentality, but rather create an environment where people are encouraged and built up.
• When sharing about resources, she said how her son had one day asked her why they didn’t have that much furniture (e.g. not enough sofa’s for everyone to sit on), and she said they didn’t chose to buy them. Her son had thought that they were too poor, whilst JoAnne said it was more how they chose to spend their money – on earthly things with limited lives and value, versus eternal things.I loved that point – it is all a matter of perspective, and choosing how to invest (and also sacrifice for the short term)

Genesis 8:22 (NIV): “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Joanne pointed out that of those 4 things (seedtime & harvest, cold & heat, summer & winter, day & night), only 1 part was in our ability to influence – seedtime & harvest.

The forest is in the seed:

• Seed – we have itCorinthians 9:8-10God gives seed, which you can then give away
• Season – the right timeEcclesiastes 3:1
• Soil – where to sowJohn 12:8We sow because we live a God life motivated by his compassion.

At the end of the talk at a Q&A she had a question about giving, and specifically if spouses disagree about how much to give or what to give. She responded by saying if you disagree on something, pray pray pray, and the Lord will reveal to both of you what he wants. However if one partner’s heart isn’t in a specific area (maybe they aren’t saved) then give of something else - it doesn’t need to be just finances, it can be of your time, your skills, your hospitality…

'Jesus Is ___' music project : Jesus Is Loving Barabbas

I was incredibly moved by this track on the 'Jesus Is' album from City Church. Below I have captured what pastor Judah Smith spoke. Read it and let the words minister to your soul, and maybe listen to the track in the background, check it out here on YouTube (and if you like it please purchase it from Amazon, or iTunes, or wherever else). Be blessed!

We see the story of Jesus going to the cross, and everything seems to be hand in hand, and then there is this one character who seems to interrupt the narrative, his name's Barrabas. We don't know much about him, except that he is a murder, a leader of an insurrection, a rebel, and why he is even mentioned sometimes I am not so sure - this is about Jesus on the cross.

So in this moment Pilot thinks 'I hold the destiny's of these two men in my hand' and I know the jews have a tradition that on a holy day I will release one of the prisoners on death row. Pilot stands on this audacious stage, who now presents Jesus, son of the living God, versus Barabbas the thug and rebel. He says 'Alright, who do you want?' This is blasphemy, this has gone to far, there is no comparison. This is a rightful prisoner, a man who should be on death row, he is a rebel against Rome, he leads a rebellion, he murders people, he is a bad man a thug and a crook - he deserves the chains and he deserves the crucifixion. Jesus, what has he done, but heal, restore, deliver, set free, open blind eyes, open deaf ears, heal the lame and the leper. What has Jesus done? 'Who do you want?' 'We want Barabbas. Yeah, give us Barabbas.'

The roman soldiers come up, and they unlock Barabbas from his chains and shackles, and he walks down the platform, welcomed by all his thug friends 'Yeah, the people love me, yeah, that's right, I don't know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is that my people love me.' There seems to be no conscience of Barabbas, there is no record of him turning to Jesus and saying 'I owe you everything now, for you have set me free.' No, I don't see any of that in Barabbas.

And God knew that. Jesus stood there silent, for he knew the will of the Father, he said 'It's fine Father, let them have Barabbas', for Jesus knew that the father would have to treat Jesus like Barabbas, so he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the people that set him free, but no no, it was the love of the heavenly Father.

When I look at this story, I realise who Barabbas really is ... that's me, that's you, that's us.
I was reading this the other day and I felt God speak to me.
'I love Barabbas, I love him'
'But God, he is a bad man!'
'I love him, and I wanted him to go free.'
'But didn't you know that ... he probably would never acknowledge the free gift-'
'Yeah, but I love Barabbas.'
For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God sent his son for Barabbas, even one he knew he would walk away from Jesus and his free gift, and never come back.

He loves him, and the nerve, the audacity of believers to think that I got saved by grace but now that I am in this deep dark place of bondage, I have to work to get myself. What!? That's the opposite of the gospel. Are you bound? Are held under the power of this temptation, this sin, these sexual urges? Do you feel like it is controlling you? What are you going to do? 'I am going to shake myself free'. Stop it! No you won't, you are no match for the powers of hell, for the urges of sin and sexual temptation, you will not overcome and you will never overcome it ... you will just be another statistic. There is no answer within yourself. Your own marriage, your own goodness, your own discipline, your own devotion will not save your marriage and will not save your kids. There is only one, and he is the one who took your place, he is the one who stood silently on the platform with pilot and said 'Yes, let them have Barabbas, take me.'

How many times have I stood on that platform with pilot and Jesus, and I am the Barabbas, and they started to take my chains off.
I say 'No no, I deserve this, I deserve the guilt, I deserve the shame, I deserve the consequence, I deserve it'.
Jesus seems to look at me and say 'No son, let me have it, let me have your sin, let me have your pain'
'No God I did it to myself, I deserve it, my marriage won't make it this is what I deserve, I deserve divorce I deserve poverty, I deserve sickness, I deserve it all.'
No!!!
'God I am so ashamed, but God what if I do it again.'
'I'll still be here.'
'Oh God I don't want to hurt you, I love you, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this anymore.'
'Give me your sin son.'

This is all we got, this is all I got, this is all you got. We can play games, we can play church games, we can pretend like some people are better than others and that is why they are blessed, or we can come to the honest conclusion that it is God. It is God alone. The greatest challenge is not your discipline, your devotion, your focus. Your greatest challenge is believing the gospel couldn't be that there is a God with a love so scandalous so wide so deep so vast so high so expansive, so welcoming, so inclusive.

'Let me have your sins son.' I give him my sin and I stand in this empty space of forgiveness and acceptance, whilst Jesus walks off to the cross that I deserve. I see him, I see him walking, to the post to be whipped, as I stand a free man, all the attention is turned now, and I feel the love of God saying 'Go Son, live your life, I'll pay the price.' Where did we get off thinking that we were going to set ourselves free? It's still Jesus, it will always be Jesus, it will never stop being the power of Jesus. If his blood is sufficient for your salvation, his blood is sufficient to sustain you through every challenge and every sin and ever temptation, Jesus is enough!