2 Corinthians 12:9

Hi Friends

You’ve probably realised by now that my podcasts are becoming somewhat infrequent. In all honesty, I’m probably only going to average about one per month for 2010, but I would encourage you to go back and listen to some of the previous podcasts.

I wish you God’s richest blessings for 2010.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Usually our weaknesses are the things that frustrate us, and the things we often try to hide from others, but Paul decided he was going to parade his weaknesses down the main street and make them something to boast about! Why would he do that? Because he wanted it to be evident to everyone including himself that any success he achieved was only because of God’s grace and power operating through his life.

We too can learn to embrace our weaknesses and realise that these are the very things that help to cultivate a close and intimate dependency on God and help us to avoid that most deadly of enemies known as self-sufficiency.

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Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

I think this is one of these verses we will grapple with all our lives. It’s a reminder that we’re not on this earth to live for ourselves. Our lives need to be centred around Christ and around serving others – a message that is in direct contrast to our consumer culture that tells us life is all about us and about the stuff we have or don’t have.

I think it’s good to say this verse as a statement of faith, even if we don’t feel we are the living embodiment of this verse! As Christians we’re on the way and the Spirit of God is working powerfully in us to achieve this end.

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Ephesians3:17-19

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Eph 3:17-19

It’s interesting that this verse makes no distinction between being filled with God and knowing his love, the two are so intertwined. It all got started with love (for God so loved the world), we received his gift of love when we became Christians and now we are constantly growing in our understanding of God’s amazing love for us. And the cool thing is, in the next age, our ability to understand and perceive the love of God will increase 1000 fold and will continue to increase throughout eternity. Once we’re filled to the measure, then the love of God will flow out of our lives into the lives of others and they too will experience the love of God, and finally the day will come when the whole earth is so full of the love of God, there will be no room for evil. Hallelujah!!

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Rom 12:9-12

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Rom 12:9-12

These verses are just packed full of goodness! I want to pick up on just two thoughts. Firstly the idea of honouring other people above ourselves. Everybody loves to receive recognition and credit for what they do and their accomplishments, but this verse encourages us to promote others ahead of ourselves. It’s a great way to practice dying to self!

Secondly the idea of keeping your spiritual fervour. There’s a line in one of my favourite songs called ‘Deep In Love With You’ from Michael W Smith’s worship CD ‘A New Hallelujah’ that goes “My love for You is deeper than it was yesterday”. For those of us who have been Christians for a while it’s easy to say to ourselves, ‘well I’m in a different phase of my life right now’. That may be true, but our love and devotion for God has to go beyond singing songs of worship. It needs to find an outlet in service of some description – something that is extending God’s kingdom. That too is worship that not only touches God’s heart, but keeps helps us to keep our zeal and fervour for God strong.

You’ve probably realised by now that I’m averaging one word to go per week, which I think will be the case for a while. I wish you all a wonderful week.

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Psalm 119:29-31

“Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD;
do not let me be put to shame.” Psalm 119:29-31

These verses contain prayers and a declarations. He asks for three things and he declares three things. There is much power in making a positive confession and we too have the power to change things and break things off our lives by the words we speak out.
Because of the choices he’s made, he is expecting God’s favour upon his life. You can sense his determination to follow God’s way no matter what the cost.
Try speaking out your commitment to follow Christ and ask God to help you maintain integrity in your Christian walk. God is faithful.

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Jude 24-25

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - To the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 24-25

Imagine if you wanted to meet the queen. You couldn’t just walk up to front door and introduce yourself. It would have to be pre-arranged and then you would have to have someone to present you. They would say something like – “Your Majesty, may I present to you John Smith.

In the same way these verses describe our first meeting with His Majesty God our Father. Jesus will present us confidently and joyfully before God the Father. We can have this confidence because we know that Jesus blood erases all our sin. And we can have confidence that we’ll make it because Jesus will keep us from falling. As long as we stay with Jesus and say to Him, Jesus I want you, He will be faithful to bring us into His glorious presence.

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Matthew 10:7-8

As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew 10:7-8

I’m back! Starting to find my rhythm again as I re-organise my routines to include my little treasure Lucy. So let’s take a look at these powerful and challenging verses.

These are Jesus marching orders to His disciples as they prepare to go on ‘outreach’. The way Jesus says it, makes it sound like He’s asked them to run down to the corner dairy and pick up a loaf of bread. But that’s the point isn’t it? The fact that these supernatural experiences are not part and parcel of our message should cause us stop and re-examine where the problem lies. Just because we’ve ‘tried’ this a few times and it didn’t work, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t persist until we get a break through. I’ve written this more for myself than anyone else. Right now I’m living in a country where people have heard all sorts of ideas and stuff about ‘the kingdom of heaven’ but what they haven’t seen is a live demonstration of the power of God in action to validate and verify the message. This is my current pursuit as I seek to align my life and message with the Word of God and not adapt the Word to fit my experience or theology.

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