Malta is hot!!!!

Just so everyone knows whats going on... am in Malta at the moment working For Oak Hall Holidays. We are looking at Galatians over our time here and learning about the way God in his grace has provided for sinners to be right with him through faith in Christ Jesus. Striking when you see alters and 15 foot candles (no exaggeration) in Catholic Cathederals out here...

Spurgeon in a house (2)

The next time Spurgeon was quoted over the weekend was another story he told... It was in defence of the fact that we should listen to God's Word above any other experience, and was given when he preached on Galatians 1:8 - "But if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed."

There once was a preacher who after giving his sermon was walking back to his seat in the congregation. As he did so an angel from heaven stood before him and in a loud voice proclaimed "I have a word for you!" The preacher said "I don't want you to tell me it". The angel replied "I have a very important word for you!" The preacher said "I suspect you are going to tell me it, but I do not want to hear it." The angel said to the preacher "your name is written in the Lambs book of life!" The preacher replied "I did not want you to tell me this word and now that you have I am very angry. For before you told me, I could trust that message from the Word of God, now I have you competing with my God for authority!"

...even if we or an angel from heaven...

Spurgeon in a house

I've been away with church this weekend, and here is a parable by Charles Spurgeon which was quoted/ paraphrased:

There was a man who lived in a kingdom. He was a vegetable grower and was growing a prize carrot. It turned out that this carrot was an amazing carrot, huge and worthy of first place in any horticultural show. The man uprooted his carrot and because of his love and respect for his king, took it to him and laid it at his feet. He gave his prize carrot completely over to his king. The king in return said 'thank you for this gift which you have given me out of the abundance of your heart, here I will give you a field in return'.

Now a noble man standing in the kings court overheard these things and said to himself 'I will get the king my prize horse, that is sure to get me a gift from the king'. So he went, found the best horse he had and laid it at the kings feet. He gave his prize horse completely over to the king. But the king took the horse and walked away. The noble man was furious with the king but the king turned around and said 'I gave the gardenener a field because he gave me a gift for the simple reason that he wanted to bless his king, whereas you gave me a gift for the simple reason that you wanted a field - you are a foolish man, but I will keep your horse'.

If we give to God so that we might inherit something (heaven etc.) we are doing it for our own sake, we are not doing it to bless the king...

Living with a giant

Over the next 8 months or so of my life on this earth I am going to be spending much time in the theory and practice of Richard Baxter in regard to church discipline. I hope to post much of my findings but here is a taste of why I am going to undertake this endeavour...

"Either we must have Churches without the Discipline of Christ," wrote Baxter, "or else we must utterly undo our people, body and Soul forever, and plunge them into a desperate state, and make all our following labours in vaine to multitudes of them." Or else," he determined, "we must take another course, than to admit all our Parishes to Adult Church-membership, as was formerly done, without preparation, and fitness for such a state"

Quoted in J. William Black, From Martin Bucer to Richard Baxter: "Discipline" and Reformation in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England page 662.

God rejoices over his Saints

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
- Zephaniah 3:17


as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
- Isaiah 62:5


Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
- Luke 15:10

Faith, hope and love in Paul's letters

it occurs, i think, three times

1 Corinthians 13:13 - "So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love"

Galatians 5:5-6 - "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love"

Colossians 1:4-5a - "since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven"

are there more?

A Clam Structure!!!

See the great way Paul orders his material around the acts of the sinful nature and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:14-26.

v15 biting and devouring each other and becoming destroyed.
...v16 command to live by the Spirit.
......v17 desires of the sinful nature and Spirit (opposed).
.........v18 led by the Spirit then you are not under law.
............v19-21 ACTS OF THE SINFUL NATURE.
............v 22-23a FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.
.........v23b led by the Spirit then you are not under law.
......v24 desires of the sinful nature and Christ (opposed).
...v25 command to keep in step with the Spirit we live by.
v26 provoking and envying each other and becoming conceited.

Notice that the acts of the sinful nature are plural and the fruit of the Spirit is singular

Both of these things must mean something awesome...

Edwardation, edwardation, edwardation

here he goes again...

"Roses grow upon briers, which is to signify that all temporal sweets are mixed with bitter. But what seems more especially to be meant by it, is that true happiness, the crown of glory, is to be come at in no other way than by bearing Christ's cross by a life of mortification, self-denial and labour, and bearing all things for Christ"

From Jonathan Edwards, Shadows of Divine Things

What mercy, what can we do but the same...

In Matthew 18:21-35 the question that comes to Jesus and of which Jesus' teaching is responding to, is this:

"Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?" v21.

Jesus' story is about "a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants". Note this is not saying the king wanted to forgive all his servants but that if their is any imbalance in the accounts he has with his servants, the king wants them sorted. God is a God of justice, he will by no means clear the guilty.

In the story the servant who is brought to the king owes him "ten thousand talents" (v24). The ESV helps us by pointing out in the footnote that a talent was "worth about twenty years wages for a labourer". So this man owed the king ten thousand x twenty years wages which equals... 200,000 years wages!

This is contrasted with the mercy of the king:
1. he had pity (v27a)
2. he released the servant (v27b)
3. he forgave the servant (v27c)

Later in the story, after the servant has been accused (rightly) of not forgiving a FELLOW SERVANT (for the reapeated use of this name in the story see vs. 28, 31, 33), the moral of the stroy shines through...

v33 - "should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?"

The punishment seems worse now than it would've been before he was forgiven...

before - sold with family until payment had been made (v25)
after - the master is acting "in anger" (v34a) and the servant was delivered to the 'torturers' (v34b - see ESV footnote).

Jesus is of course teaching on the Father's response to covenant members who do not forgive their brothers from their hearts (v35), it seems it would've been better for them not to be forgiven if they were going to be such wicked (v32) servants.

Let us not be wicked, strangling our brothers and demanding recompense (v28) by not forgiving our brothers from our hearts. Let us be like the Father in heaven who has had mercy on us, let us forgive our brothers seventy times seven times (v22).

Edwards' three stage awakenings

Marsden notes the three stages in an awakening as noted by the Edwards family:

1. A 'sense of a persons sad estate with reference to eternity'.

2. Humiliation: A backsliding into sin that would lead them to realize the terribleness of their sins and that God would be entirely just in condemning them to hell.

3. If God graciously granted it - God's regenerating 'light', or a 'new spirit created in them,' so that they truely repented and sin would no longer reign in them, but rather they would be guided by the Holy Spirit 'dwelling in them' and they would receive the gift of faith in Christ alone as their hope of salvation and would experience a 'glorious change' to a life dedicated to serving God.

Jesus, in his glory

When studying the transfiguration today, another moment of Jesus in glory came to mind...

Transfiguration: Matt 17:6 - Peter, James and John fell on their faces and were terrified
Revelation 1:17a "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead"
Transfiguration: Matt 17:7a - Jesus touched them
Revelation 1:17b "But he laid his right hand on me"
Transfiguration: Matt 17:7b - Jesus told them to have no fear
Revelation 1:17c "saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last'"

Jesus, standing in his glory, loves to bless and to tell his followers not to fear.

Jesus is God in Luke

Luke's use of the name Lord For Jesus Christ on earth and God in heaven provokes our faith to see that Jesus Christ is God....

2:9 - "an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them"................2:11 "unto you is born this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord"...........................................2:15b "let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us".

5:12 - "when he saw Jesus he fell on his face and begged him, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean"......5:17 - "and the power of the Lord was with him (Jesus) to heal".

cool. :)

faith of a Canaanite woman.....(Matthew 15:21-28

Well first of all she is from Tyre and Sidon (v22 - "from that region") so just read Ezekiel 26-28:24 to see her chances of being in God's good books. Then see the attitude of the disciples to her (v23b - "his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us"). See Jesus' attitude to her (consistent with Ezekiel might I add - v23a "But he did not answer her a word" v24 "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" v26 "It is not right to take the childrens bread and throw it to the dogs")

But look at her faith....
Jesus is her Lord v22, 25, 27
she kneels before him v25
she cries out to him v22, v23b
Jesus is the Son of David v22
He can have mercy on her v22
He can free her daughter from demons v22
He can help her v25
Jesus has a right to call her a dog v26-27a
Jesus is master v27b
Jesus is such a great master that she would even eat the crumbs from the table v27

So Jesus says "O woman, great is your faith!"

fear of..... (Matthew 14:26-33)

When the disciples were in the boat, Jesus walked on the water... they were scared of different things at different points during this episode... with different results

fear of the spiritual world (v26)......result.....cried out in fear (26b)
fear of the Lord (v28).......result..........walking on water (v29)
fear of the natural world (v30a)......result.......sinking (v30b)

I don't need to tell you which we should do, the results do that themselves

N.B there may be two others going on in this passage... (v24, v32-33) but have not worked that out yet..............

Jeremiah 18:18

"Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor councel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words"

Here we see a people proclaim that words will not perish from the prophet... little do they realise Jeremiah is the true prophet... so set out themselves to do what they want not to be done - "let us strike [Jeremiah] with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to his words"

W. Churchill

Sail on a ship of state,
Sail on O union strong and great,
humanity with all its fears,
with all the hopes of future years,
is hanging breathless on thy fate.

What of my Affections for Christ?

Have been reading through the Religious Affections by one Jonathan Edwards...

"The world was ready to wonder what strange principle it was that influenced them to expose themselves to so great sufferings, to forsake the things that were seen, and renounce all that was dear and pleasant which was the object of sense. They seemed to the men of the world about them as though they were beside themselves, and to act as though they hated themselves; there was nothing in their view that could induce them thus to suffer, and support them under, and carry them through such trials. But although there was nothing that was seen, nothing that the world saw, or that the Christians themselves ever saw with their bodily eyes, that thus influenced and supported them, yet they had a supernatural principle of love to something unseen; they loved Jesus Christ, for they saw him spiritually whom the world saw not, and whom they themselves had never seen with bodily eyes"

He was working from 1 Peter 1:8

Piper's majestic blurb

Read the back cover of "Don't waste your life" by John Piper:

"I want to tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider this story from the February 1998 Reader's Digest: A couple 'took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play soft ball and collect shells....' Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgement: 'Look, Lord. See my shells.' That is a tragedy.... "

He is right isn't he?

Zechariah's King Priest

Zechariah 6:9-13 .....

And the word of the LORD came to me: "Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. And say to him, 'thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honour, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both."'

At his birth...

When Jesus Christ was born he was given a few names to help us understand who he was and that he might get the glory due him. Matthew records his names alongside the names of others in chapter 2:1-2... are we meant to compare them?

Jesus is: humans are:

king of the Jews (v2) - Herod the king (v1)
Shepherd of Israel (v6) - Cheif priests/scribes of the people (v4)
Ruler (v6) - Herod (v7)
a worshipped child (v11) - a mother (v11)

Let us respond like the WISE men : "When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him" v10-11a