060311 morning service at bbc

The first miracle in Cana

Jesus said to his mother why ask me now? Yet she said to the servants "do whatever he says." Was she being disobedient to God or was she being a mother? What does this tell us about faith and the response of God to our faith?
For most of us growth is slow, gradual, developmental.
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, develop us, enlarge His place in our person to envelop and absorb all that we are and will ever be. Too often we ask God to help with the big things and forget to ask his help with other simpler areas. There is nothing ordinary about spending time with the Creator of the universe. An ordinary day is changed by us giving it back its Creator.

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Mary at the feet of The Saviour

28.06.09 CFC D?

Luke 10:38-42

At the home of Mary and Martha

Jesus is teaching us from his life and relationships.

Preparations in those days were not possible in advance. Hospitality is important and a vital biblical teaching. C.f. Elisha and the Shunamite woman. She had thoughtfully prepared all he needed to live and work. Job never let a stranger lie in the street. (Neither did Lot.)
The preceeding passage (Good Samaritan) tells us to be servants of all.

Martha - busily did the preparations, but the Bible tells us that she was distracted by them. Note that she went and told Jesus off for distracting her sister. She probably saw Mary and got irate wih her for a little while until she decided who to complain to. We think we are doing the best thing for people when we are so busy _ when all they may need is presence.
Mary is mentioned 2/3 times in scripture and each time she sits at His feet...(fond, following, faithful, fearless, fellowship and foundational.) Determined to undertand the man she loved, her Saviour. She honoured Him rightly.
Jesus said only what God would have Him say. Controlled by Father's will and for His Glory. Therefore we must trust them and look to ourselves for areas to correct in order to align ourselevs to His words.
Jesus came to be heard and Mary was listening to Life which was so important for her to hear. Mary understood who he was, she knew how to behave with Him.
We must listen to Him and spend jealously guarded time with God and not let even doing a good thing prevent us from doing the best thing.

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29.03.09 BBC PT

The cross beckons...

Luke 9:18-27

18 Once when Jesus was praying privately and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
19 They answered, "Some say you are John the Baptizer, others Elijah, and still others say that one of the prophets from long ago has come back to life."
20 He asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, whom God has sent."
21 He ordered them not to tell this to anyone.
22 Jesus said that the Son of Man would have to suffer a lot. He would be rejected by the leaders, the chief priests, and the scribes. He would be killed, but on the third day he would come back to life.
23 He said to all of them, "Those who want to come with me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses every day, and follow me.
24 Those who want to save their lives will lose them. But those who lose their lives for me will save them.
25 What good does it do for people to win the whole world but lose their lives by destroying them?
26 If people are ashamed of me and what I say, the Son of Man will be ashamed of those people when he comes in the glory that he shares with the Father and the holy angels.
27 "I can guarantee this truth: Some people who are standing here will not die until they see the kingdom of God."

Turning point in the gospel. Jesus here starts to speak of his death. All in contrast to the earlier parts of Luke. Luke created a backdrop of Jesus' life and then starts to paint; "Who do people say I am?" and "what about you, what do you think?"

Penny dropping moment. And they had a grip of who they were talking to. Jesus said to them, "say nothing of this."

Then Jesus talked about who they were and who they were to be. "...must deny himself and follow...whoever looses his life for my sake will find it."

Once they saw who He was, they had to follow in His way there was no option. It is obvious really, Jesus followed God's way to death but we only have to look at His success to realise that it makes good sense to do life His way. c.f. Ernie Shackleton, who put an advert in the paper. 'Men wanted...' [link to article on this tale]

1 Cor 2:9 No eye has seen...what God has prepared...

God wants us to be all that He intended back when "all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be..."

We swim against the tide and are not to ask how much can I get, but how much can I give.

Jim Elliot said "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to get what he cannot lose"

All of us benefit when we live sacrificially. And this can even be carefully planned just like it is in home life. What if we went about helping each other to live and work well. Think how well resourced the Church would be if it made low interest mortgages to each other, what if we shared costs and tools, skills and talents. Think how much of our earning could be re-directed for much greater good if we were not wasting it on the escalating costs of running an independent life. Building instead the framework and relationships of a/n (inter)dependant one instead.

God knows our needs and trusting his direction is better than listening to our own opinions. Living his way is often our only defence against the madness of the world around us. Not living with someone who hasn't made a public commitment to you may defend you from a horrible existence sadly experienced by people each day.

God offers us a free choice but has made sure we know the route that's right.

Meeting our Maker?

Everyone gets to meet their Maker.

The real question to ask ourselves is. "Will He let me stay once I realise He was telling the truth about Himself?"

130708 BBC PT - Decisions, Decisions.

Genesis 13:5-18
What are you like at decision making?

Abe's second big point of trusting God.
The two men had to spread out or allow havoc to reign. A. trusted God and allowed Lot to take the choice. Effectively saying to Lot, "which part of my land would you like to live in, choose the best." He knew that God was good for keeping His Word (N.B.: Lot's line struggled almost immediately after the destruction of Sodom.) How rare is the attitude, of taking what is left, knowing God is powerful and knows best and is fully reliable, Abe wasn't going to do his own thing again, not after the Egypt (Egyas) experience. It is common for us to aim for a position, one we may not be right for and yet God has made us for His glory, not ours. Go ahead, have grand dreams and great goals, but place the burden of fulfilling them squarely into His hands.

Lot was, by contrast, more selfish and he chose in a way which we now know to be unwise. Not surprisingly all the riff raff had chosen the same location. His life was marred and ultimately ruined by his choice. He married into Sodom, His daughters behaved in error with him and their offspring, the Ammonites, were excluded by God's people, see Deut. 21:3)

All of our decisions have consequences and only God knows the end from the beginning only He is well placed to advise us. We can have no better advice than to call for God's wisdom.

V14 God reminds A. that the whole land in every direction would be his home. God loves to give and He knows that nothing will stop Him, He is God and will not be thwarted, it was to be many hundreds of years before His people moved out of the desert and crossed the Jordan into the land promised them.

Seek first God and His kingship and all these things will be piled in on top. Put God first and trust in Him to do all for us that His love for us wants to achieve.

What a tangled web...

060708 BBC PT What a tangled web...
Genesis 12:4-20

Difficulties do not necessarily mean that we are not called by God.

God had called Abraham and he had followed, then trouble came, and Abraham Exited the land of God's promise and headed out to the big lights of Eygas, determined that he would fix the difficulties himself. We too can be tempted to do God's plans our way when He seems to be going too slowly for our liking. Yet we can see His plan running through time and we simply have to trust Him, we prefer to trust our own feeble abilities and God wants us to trust the best person for the job.

Abraham became Ensnared in a tangled web based mostly on his own fears for himself because of the direction he took away from God's plan. This dragged him down, from being God's obedient servant to a man prepared to pimp his wife in return for financial gain and recognition from the richest nation currently on earth.

Abraham was Emancipated by God because God was not unfaithful, He had Pharaoh return Sarai to Abe.

There is danger in "going it alone". The wages of sin are death. But the gift of God is eternal life. This story reminds us that He is good and gracious, merciful and Just, Jesus took on our failings and has paid for everything even our darkest error. Abe probably learned a lot about faith from this episode. It makes more sense now we see Jesus, Our messing up doesn't have to be the end, He is the God of second chances (even up beyond the 77th chances.)