One morning I came across psalm 86:11 and found it rendered thus … “Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”
And then it made much more sense. An undivided heart cannot focus in two directions at once; it cannot be shared to any opposing parties – not fully.
Many people wear a cross, either as a necklace or pendant, or even a ring on their finger, which, I am guessing, is intended to signal to the world that they are a “Christian”. Of course, wearing a cross as some kind of identifying statement doesn’t make you a Christian any more than someone putting on a wedding ring makes them married, or sitting in a hen house makes them a chook. So, there are….
He was nearing his 81st birthday, but was still pretty fit and strong. He’d climbed the mountain several times in the last few months. It was not a long trek to the summit – not quite 3kms - but it was a very, very steep and rocky. It was a dangerous 3 kms. He’d been up and down the mountain three times in this last year, spending 40 days at a time there, just being with and talking to, Yahweh, the great “I Am”.
The idea of not (literally) shooting the messenger is disappearing in our world – particularly, in political circles. Why? I reckon that there are several reasons. One reason – a biggie – is hate speech. And hate speech is directed against anyone we don’t agree with these days. A person can be so hated and parodied in the public arena today, that whatever they say, even if it is 100% correct, is not believed…
In our post-modern age, to which I occasionally allude, truth is whatever anyone wants (or needs) it to be. “That’s my truth” is a phrase increasingly used these days, and it is really code for “That’s what I want regardless of whether it’s right or wrong, or works or not for anyone else.” However, as I have recently been saying, truth is…
Fast forward to present day Australia, and there are new, secular, albeit unofficial, inquisitors pointing their fingers at cultural and social “heretics”. This is no exaggeration, dear reader. There are many in our increasingly woke culture that refuse to live and let live, who refuse harmonious community and who object to any form of free speech that does not accord with their woke standards.
In our day, we Australians have become so busy and so tomorrow focused that we can barely live meaningfully in the moment anymore. Even families dining out and awaiting their meal order are not communicating with each other, not investing in one another, whilst fixated on their smartphone screens. Recently, I saw a video message…
I came across someone this week who professed to be a Christian, but is not part of any church - and hasn’t attended a church for many years. He was almost proud of the fact. “Nah, it’s not for me, mate”, he said, “You don’t need to be part of a church in order to be a Christian.” This person is an ex-preacher’s kid (he’s grown up now and has a family of his own), and he was proud of the fact that he was still “a Christian”, but did not “see the point of being part of a church, or organised religion”. I asked him…
These things are plain enough for Christians to see. But what we have not always seen – yet have probably suspected for some time – is the systematic imposition of sinful agendas upon the righteous. Concerning many of these, God is opening our eyes. And when God does so, it is a signal for His people to speak prophetically for righteousness’ sake.
Dear friends, we live in a world, a country, where shrill, aggressive and vindictive woke ideologies are wielded like baseball bats to club into silence anyone who dares to speak the truth about anything that is plainly wrong, or unrighteous, immoral or unholy – this has infected the church, in many places. Too many Christians are fearful when we should be bold for truth – intelligently bold, articulate speakers of truth, not rude, holier-than-thou, ungracious ranters and condemners.
There is a war going on, and truth is the first casualty – every day – from the school classroom, to the lecture room, to that media outlet, to (yes) even the pulpit. Truth is what you want it to be in our world. If black wants to identify as white, so to speak, that’s OK. My reality is not your reality; your truth is not my truth – and that’s OK.
But, of course, it isn’t.
There are a few things going on here, but I want to focus on just one phrase: “discerning the body of Christ”. Some churches teach the apostle is making rules for handling the actual elements used in communion – the bread and the wine. But this is not Paul’s point at all. He is about give his great illustration of the body of Christ – which is the Church…
So what kind of a Christian do you want to be in this COVID-impacted world? A centripetal one who loves the world more than Jesus, and whose witness is shrinking and diminishing as you blame COVID for everything? Or a centrifugal witness compelled by a passionate love for our blessed Redeemer, and thus empowered and propelled by Holy Spirit power? You have chosen already. Perhaps someone reading this needs to change their choice … while they still can …
At the Last Supper Jesus whispered to Peter that He and the other remaining disciples were in for a very tough testing time – a sifting, in fact. The word used by Luke is siniazō which means a “shaking as in a sieve”, and here, metaphorically, “an inward, violent shaking so as to try one’s faith to the point of collapse.” Oh, Peter and the others were in for a very hard time – a sifting. …
Reflecting on all that this morning when I was having a coffee and doing all my emails at my local coffee shop, I was alarmed to see the barista quite unconcernedly wiping her nose with the back of her hand as she was churning out the coffees. Erk! Then my mind turned to spiritual hygiene when my morning bible meditation focused on 1 John – here it is …
One night I zipped down to the store to get a video Anne and I could watch – and an hour and a half later I returned with a Clint Eastwood movie that she didn’t like anyway. I had spent more time trying to make a choice than the time it would take to watch the actual movie! Too many choices! This was not a once-off, either. I wasted so much time…
What do you want more than anything in life?
Ask that question of somebody who has been injured and finds their health irreparably damaged, and they’d probably say, “My health back”. In John’s Gospel (5:1-9) is recorded a moment where Jesus asked a crippled man what seems to be a very strange question…
John uses bread as a symbol here. Bread was the basic food staple of Jesus’ day. It was just so basic for sustaining life, as was water. Bread and water – it doesn’t get any more basic than that for one’s physical nourishment. Of course, you will recall that Jesus again pointed to this issue in what we call the “Lord’s Prayer” …
At most funerals I have attended, or led, the life being remembered usually has some elements in the eulogies that hints at some flaw, or negative trait. That’s not a bad thing, of course, it’s important to acknowledge these things if for no other reason than honestly remembering. Authentic memorials are really important. People appreciate that. Of course, that’s a question of degree. I have heard some very…
