WE ARE IMMERSED

When we are saved, we are adopted into God’s family, or household. Another way to put it is that we are immersed, or baptised, into the Body of Christ. But what does this mean? Here are some pointers.

We are immersed into the family of God in the following ways:

1) We are immersed into a CONTEXT

The context is an eternal Kingdom, birthed in the heart of God, before the beginning of time. The incredible and deep meaning here is that God the Father, before the creation of the universe, had the future of His people mapped out completely. The day of your salvation was placed in the calendar of eternity, and the future history of the world began at creation. Within this plan, the Kingdom of God was birthed in Jesus Christ, and is now the living reality of the eternal age to come. 1 John 5 puts it this way:

^{1 John 5:11} And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

This verse shows God the Father’s plan, activated in Christ Jesus. And all who place their faith and trust in Jesus, turning from a life of sin, are immersed into this incredible, historical and futuristic Kingdom story.

2) We are immersed into a COUNTER-CULTURE

^{Acts 2:42} And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

We see the foundation here in these verses of a radical counter-culture. Different to the way of the world, and powerful in the extreme. A real and genuine force for change, and powered by the Holy Spirit breaking out through the lives of believers. It is good to remember how powerful and pure the early church was, how active and responsive to the needs around them, leading their cities by living out a different culture.

The values of this culture are clear: devotion, submission, prayer, faith, love, generosity, unity, rejoicing, worship, growth. Let’s walk in these values daily.

3) We are immersed into COMMUNITY

“No man is an island” wrote John Donne in 1624. He was a Christian, and was making the point by writing this, that human beings do not thrive when isolated from others. And this applies even more so to our spiritual well-being, not just our physical state. It is important to stay connected to the body, both in order to function in our gifts, but also to be ministered to by the body, within relationships that are accountable, honest and loving.

^{Romans 12:9} Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 

These verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans sum it up so well. As we live out the example of the servant and Saviour King Jesus, so we will mature as His Bride and the world will see His Kingdom in High Definition living colour!

When Darkness Falls

The essential nature of the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of God

 Twelve years ago my brother, with whom I was very close, passed away suddenly. He was taken from us and his family and children at 37 years of age.

This past week I attended a memorial service for an acquaintance who tragically died in a road accident recently.

In our own church family we have experienced recent tragedy.

A short while back I read a story that broke my heart, on the Sky News website. Police in Melbourne Australia, who were doing a routine welfare check, came upon the body of a 25 year old woman in a flat and next to her was her 15 month old son, who had been lying next to his Mom’s body for up to 3 days. I tried to process this as I have a 17 month old daughter, and I just could not think how that little boy managed through those 3 dark days, having lost a loving Mum at that incredibly tender age.

How do we even begin to make sense of tragedies such as these? Without some understanding of God’s Sovereignty, it is impossible to even begin to bring sense into such an incredibly dark event.

Often we will come across two regular responses when such things happen. The first is something like “God caused it, it’s His fault” and the other is “You can’t blame God, it was an accident.”

I believe both of these responses are flawed, and here’s why:

In the first instance, to say that God caused something like this is to say that He is the originator of evil, because death arrived as a result of sin. So in causing someone’s death, He has committed evil. The problem with this is that the Bible is clear in saying that Jesus defeated death, that God has come to save us from the consequences of sin (being death physical and spiritual) and giving us new life. We know who the one is that instigates these evil and unspeakable tragedies – the father of lies, Satan himself. God is not the cause agent of evil.

In the second instance, to say that we can’t blame God as it was an accident, is to say that God was not in control of that situation, and could do nothing about it. This is also flawed, as we know that God is Omniscient (all-knowing) and all powerful, and therefore He could have intervened and prevented whatever tragedy has now occurred.

And herein lies the golden thread that we hold on to. Even though he could have intervened, He chose not to. Even though he could have prevented the death of that mother, I am sure he sent attending angels to look after that baby boy. Even though He had the power to prevent my brother’s death, He allowed it to happen. When I ask why, He responds saying “I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Those words, from the Father in whom I have placed my hope and trust, go beyond this world into the next. We often see that Scripture as being for this life as a prophetic promise down here, but I believe its greatest and most powerful outworking is in the next. Even though it was applied to Judah’s future after the exile, it speaks through the life of Jesus to us here and now. My brother is already there, and I can say with confidence along with the hymn writer Daniel W. Whittle in 1883:

But “I know Whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.”

Dig deep into a Biblical understanding of God’s Sovereignty, and you will have tools to work with, when darkness falls.

So what's the story? - The Middle East

My humble apologies for my blog going quiet. Goodness it’s been busy, but busy is no excuse!

The Middle East is a fulcrum of an ever increasingly fragile and tenuous atmosphere which seems to just become more and more entrenched and potentially volatile as the years pass. The ties to the Holy Land are claimed loudly and held fast, but where does the balance lie in this incredibly complex scenario?

As Christians, we know that Israel holds a significant place in the plans of God, but is it the historical Israel, or the true Israel, and what about the issue of the Land, promised and given. How was it promised, and how was it given?

I realize that this a massive and urgent subject, but the below blog from John Piper is an excellent and succinct blog about the current situation in that region: I’m sure you will find it insightful and helpful.

Israel, Gaza, 'Divine Right,' and John Piper

The Story: After eight days of bloody conflict, Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire, The New York Times reported yesterday. Five Israelis and more than 150 Palestinians have been killed along the Israel-Gaza border during the past week.

Such events raise typical and salient questions. Does Israel possess a "divine right" to the "Promised Land" in the Middle East? What is the "Promised Land," anyway? The interminable Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been freighted with biblical significance; Israel, after all, isn't calling their anti-Hamas campaign "Operation Pillar of Cloud" for nothing.

But are such appropriations legitimate?

The Background: In 2004, John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, delivered a sermon from Romans 11:25-32 titled "Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East." In it, he offers seven principles concerning the ever-contentious issue of "the Land":

1. God chose Israel from all the peoples of the world to be his own possession.

2. The Land was part of the inheritance he promised to Abraham and his descendants forever.

3. The promises made to Abraham, including the promise of the Land, will be inherited as an everlasting gift only by true, spiritual Israel, not disobedient, unbelieving Israel.

4. Jesus Christ has come into the world as the Jewish Messiah, and his own people rejected him and broke covenant with their God.

5. Therefore, the secular state of Israel today may not claim a present divine right to the Land, but they and we should seek a peaceful settlement not based on present divine rights, but on international principles of justice, mercy, and practical feasibility.

6. By faith in Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, Gentiles become heirs of the promise of Abraham, including the promise of the Land.

7. Finally, this inheritance of Christ's people will happen at the Second Coming of Christ to establish his kingdom, not before; and till then, we Christians must not take up arms to claim our inheritance; but rather lay down our lives to share our inheritance with as many as we can.

Why It Matters: Wherever you land theologically or politically, the events of the past week mark yet another distressing development in the Israeli-Palestinian saga. This is a prime opportunity to pray. Pray for the Israelis, image-bearers of God, that they'd search the Scriptures and find life in the Savior (John 5:39-40, 46). May they discover that the meeting point between God and man is no longer a place---whether reconstructed temple or geographical partition---but a risen and reigning and soon returning Person (John 4:21-26).

Pray too for the Palestinians, image-bearers of God, that they'd turn in droves to Jesus the King. Pray particularly for our Palestinian brothers and sisters in the faith; there are, after all, far more Palestinian Christians in the Middle East than the news headlines imply.

May the Prince of Peace reveal what's been hidden (Luke 19:41-42) and bring everlasting shalom to a Land flowing with blood and hatred---with little milk and honey to be found

DIGITALLY, DISTRACTEDLY, YOURS

There are many things that have been brought into our culture that either become loved or hated, lauded or demonized. In most cases, these things, in themselves, are neutral. By way of example, I am reminded of the furor that was caused by drums being introduced into the evangelical church over a period of time where some even said that drums were of the devil. The drum in and of itself, is neutral. The beauty or danger lies in its use.

In our day technology has a constant presence in our lives which is pervasive, and very often results in extremes, either with technology in total control over us where we fill every minute with it, or where we use it in such a controlling fashion that others suffer as a result of our use of it.

As is often the case, a Biblical balance is what we need in order to deal with the issues that we face with the incredible explosion of technology within our culture. What is particularly disturbing currently is the propensity that we have to live in a perpetual state of distractedness. During meetings people are constantly trying to discreetly check their phones to stay in touch, update their Facebook profiles, post their latest pictures to the web, or check again just in case they have missed the latest news tweeted into the electronic ether. The problem is, if we catch this train and don't control it, we live in a world of digital distractedness.

What does this mean?

•   Our personal relationships suffer.
•  We do not complete our thought processes.
• We do not deal with issues with depth and sure knowledge.
• We learn to communicate in bits and sound bites.
• We battle to complete tasks.
• The quality of our work and leisure time suffers.
• Our time management becomes more and more difficult.

And when it comes to our relationship with God, this is once place where this issue has had a major impact. Our lives are so full of technology and other things that distract us that we spend less and less time with God daily, in order to grow our relationship with him. A while back I walked past a bench in a shopping mall where two young people sat right next to each other, ignoring one another and intently working their phones. I felt a profound sadness at this scene which embodied much of what has happened to our culture. We have many acquaintances, but it seems, few real friends.

 

We are now used to catching clever one liners and sound bites which take the place of meaningful thought and speech. In order to accommodate this new "rush culture" we now have bite-sized daily meditations for us to feed from. Fast food in our natural world has morphed into fast revelation in our spiritual lives. I am even told that blogs should not be long, they should be short.

Our life in God is the development of a relationship. And the fuel of relationships is time. Lots of time. As we spend time in His Presence, in His Word, in His Love, in His Power, we will grow as spiritual beings, strengthened by Him and utterly confident of our future in God. If our time with God is minimised, we will be weak, double minded and fearful in the face of life's challenges.

When we know Him through time spent with Him, then the end of our life simply becomes graduation day, and not something to face with fear and trepidation. As the Apostle Paul said, (Phillipians 1:21) "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” 

Bring It On...

The Extraordinary Strength of the Gospel.

Many Christians feel intimidated by the world snapping at the heels of their faith, or even embarrassed by the questions that they may feel they cannot answer. The cause of this can be varied: they may be new in their faith walk, they may feel intimidated by the world's aggressiveness against the Gospel, or even that they feel inadequate to answer tough questions.

When we understand Who is behind the Gospel, the full truth of what the Gospel represents, and what it's future looks like, we have a Rock on which to stand for every day, and for always.

1) The eternal Creator God is behind the Gospel.

^{1 Thess 1:4} For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

The Gospel arrived in Word, and in reality, this was Jesus, the Word made flesh. God Himself, encompassed in the Divinity of Christ, brought the Gospel to earth Himself. He demonstrated the power of the Gospel in and through His life, culminating in His victory over a criminal's death on the Cross. The result is that we preach the reality and power of the Gospel with conviction. Because it remains the truth of light in the darkness of a lost and confused world.

2) The Gospel represents nothing short of ongoing revolution, life by life.

The miracle of salvation is something that will exist until the end of this earth's existence. The essence of the glory of salvation is Jesus taking a lifeless, rebellious spirit in a man or woman, and breathing new life into it. The depth and power of this miracle is, literally, death to life.

^{Ephesians 2:5} even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

We are the miracle, along with all who make the same decision for Christ.

3) The future of the Gospel.

This Gospel looks towards a gathering set out in Revelation chapter 4 and 5 where we see the completion of the ages, after pain and sorrow are far gone, and where the saints are celebrating the fact that Jesus is still on the throne, and will always be.

We have no reason to be intimidated by the world when it comes to the Gospel. In reality, the world battles with answers to the deep questions that life poses, but the Gospel itself brings those answers in love and freedom!

A Gospel Of Prosperity?

Jesus Christ lived the most prosperous life that has been witnessed on the face of the earth, and yet he died dirt poor. 
To try and make a case that the main goal of the Gospel is to make individuals wealthy, is to create an entirely different Gospel from the one for which Jesus died. The essence of the Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with riches on earth, but it has much to do with spiritual inheritance.

 What did Jesus die for? He died in order to restore all of creation back to God His Father. He died to pay the price for the sin of a rebellious world which was loved so much by His Father that He left the Glory of His throne in heaven, and died the death of a criminal, to set us free. 

For me to respond by saying “thank you, now make me rich” is to reduce the Gospel to a pathetically small, twisted and unrecognisable facsimile of what it actually is. 
 I just am unable to understand how any honest reading of Scripture can produce such an aberrant teaching. The Prosperity Gospel is aberrant because:

• It is unbiblical (Matt 6:19-24). I cannot make the focus of my life the collection of riches, because, as God clearly says, I cannot serve two masters. Money is useful, but the love of money is deadly.

•  It brings false hope (Prov 13:12). When a “Prosperity on demand” Gospel is preached, and for many nothing in their lives makes a change, the result is hope deferred, which Proverbs says, makes the heart sick. The language of the Bible is that of genuine hope, of hope that is realised in the context of an eternal future and inheritance in another realm, not the distraction of a few rands on earth. 

• It takes to Gospel’s focus off Christ, and onto money. In Galatians 1:8-9 Paul makes it clear that the Gospel message must remain clear and untainted by other things. Presenting wealth as a high priority for a Christian to have, is a different Gospel.  

• It is idolatry (Luke 16:14-15). When we love money, it controls us, and becomes our god. Let’s trust for the death of the Prosperity gospel, and live toward the inheritance that “can never perish, spoil or fade. 

 
"This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,  who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:4-5)

Removing The Label

Continuing with a clothing theme, for as long as I can remember I have cut out and removed the neck labels of shirts where the label is irritating and scratches when wearing the shirt. And this got me to thinking. Paul the Apostle wrote the following words to the Corinthian church;

1 Cor 1:11 My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

It seems that we have perfected the tribal model in our ecclesiology over the past 2000 years. Starting in Paul's day people began to follow personalities which in turn have morphed into denominational expressions of our faith.

It is understandable that the development around denominationalism originated in an attempt to stand for the truth of God's Word and revelation, but often it seems that the stand was for a particular identifying truth to which a particular tribe subscribed, and there a camp was built, a fence put up around the truth to defend it at all costs. And so we became Methodists, and Baptists, and Catholics, and Lutherans, and Mystics, and Charismatics, and Fundamentalists, and Anglicans, and Presbyterians, and many such tribes. When this becomes the identifier, the Supremacy of Christ can get lost in the legalism of keeping the tribe's identity in place.

 And so a religious system is established by men and women, and often perpetuated as such. A number of years back Chris Wienand, speaking at a City Celeration in Cape Town, mentioned that, on average, each denomination achieves just 10 years of maximum effectiveness once mature, before decline sets in.

And so Paul's words ring true. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised into the name of Paul? I am seeing increasingly in these days, that the denominational fences are coming down, albeit slowly, and hands are being held across these previously imperious divides. Let me be clear: I am not suggesting a syncretisation of truth so that we all just "get along". But I am suggesting that we stop milking our sacred cows, put them out to pasture, remove the labels and get on the same page, the page of Jesus Christ, and say as Paul did,

Phillipians 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

When we successfully remove the labels, we find that our only identifier is Jesus, and all we need is to adhere to His Word and be obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.

And we find then, surprisingly, that we are truly free.

Love

Malcolm