NT Wright quote

“Albert Schweitzer, a century or more ago, used another strong image. Jesus, he said, was like a man convinced the wheel of history was going to turn in the opposite direction. He waited for this to happen, but it didn’t. Then he threw himself upon the wheel, and it crushed him—but it did indeed start to turn in the other direction.” ― N.T. Wright, Simply Good News

Apart from the fruit-tree there is no fruit

Many times the words 'peace is a Person' on Ann Voskamp's blog A Holy Experience has made me stop in my tracks.  I can almost hear God whisper through the storm of this difficult period in my life, "Remember where peace abides".

My peace is Jesus.

He is our Lord of peace. (2 Thess. 3:16)
He is the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

He is peace in my home. He is peace with my children. He is peace in my comings and goings. He is peace amidst the storm. He is peace in my solitude. He is peace in the chaos.

I might be a raging storm of grumpiness and irritability, but he is always there - my peace.  If I fix my eyes on the stress I am stressed, if I fix my eyes on him I am peaceful.

As I thought about the Person of Peace, I thought about the other fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Fruit only comes from a fruit tree, without a fruit-tree no fruit is produced.  When separated from the fruit-tree the fruit rots.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is fruit produced by the Holy Spirit, not by me, not by anything else.  It isn't my fruit, it is his fruit produced when I abide in Jesus just as he promised. I can't be loving or peaceful in my own strength...as a perfectionist I have tried I promise you, but the result is always despondency and a deep feeling of failure. Without Jesus I have no fruit; when I move away from him and try to depend on my own resources my fruit rots and it kind of stinks.

Jesus is...

...my love.
...my joy.
...my peace.
...my patience*
...my kindness.
...my goodness.
...my faithfulness.
...my gentleness.
...my self-control.**

Fruit can only be produced by a fruit-tree.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 

~ John 15:4, ESV

Notes:

*The word from the Greek translated patient means: endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs.
**The Greek word translated self-control is the attribute of one who does not let desires or passions have control or mastery of them.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

"The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the elder-brother type does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders ‘the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you’ (Matthew 21:31)." ~ Tim Keller

The more I learn about Jesus the more his life makes me consider my walk with God and how I view the world and church-life.  It fits in with the verse from Hosea quoted by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and Matt 12:7, which has been in my mind a great deal recently: "I desire mercy not sacrifice".

From: Keller Quotes
Hat tip to this post: Christianity and Respectability

There is no formula for life except Jesus

The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to do good. The Christian thinks any good he does come from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us. ~ C.S. Lewis

It is damaging when I reduce my Christianity to formula.

Too often I rely on orthopraxy and not Jesus.

Too often I fear rejection by God because I cannot follow the formula someone has prescribed for 'a great Christian walk' - despite the fact that God says He will never forsake me or leave me.

There is no formula for life except Jesus.  He gives His life to those Who ask.

It's all about Jesus.

Jesus loves me.

I love Jesus.

Enid Blyton, C S Lewis, and Mother Teresa

How's that for a guest list to an interesting party?

Firstly, Enid Blyton.  I'm reading the first book in the Famous Five series, Five on a Treasure Island, with Squidge.  I'm reading The Ship of Adventure with Chatterbox.  These books tend to follow a bit of a formula and I was amused that we are almost up to the 'Prisoners!' chapter in both books.  I have a great affection for Blyton, I think it has to do with nostalgia mostly.

Secondly, C S Lewis.  I think C S Lewis was an awesome (see how I am using 'awesome' instead of 'cool'? That is because I am both hip and with-it!) writer.  I really resonate with much of his thoughts on Christianity, not everything, but a good deal.  So there I am perusing the internet and doing some blog hopping - you know where you read one thing and think, "What's that all about?" so you Google it, and then the next thing you know you're five links away from where you started and you haven't actually finished a whole article due to the hopping issue.  Anyway, I digress, I came across a post that has annoyed me so much I'm not even going to link to it - though if you're desperate I'm sure Google will obligingly find it for you - in which the writer claimed that CS Lewis was not in heaven because he wasn't a Christian.  Seemingly for three main reasons, he didn't accept Biblical Inerrancy as the author of the post defined it, he was a universalist (he wasn't) because he didn't subscribe to the post author's particular Calvinistic viewpoint, and because Lewis didn't describe the atonement in a manner acceptable to the author.

Thirdly, Mother Teresa, the article about CS Lewis reminded me of a number of negative things written about Mother Teresa when she died, some going so far as to say that she wasn't going to heaven because she was Roman Catholic.

I get so confused by the opinions of Christendom.  Why do we like to condemn the person and not the doctrine? Who gets to decide who is or isn't a Christian? Disagreeing about Christian doctrine is one thing, but condemning someone whose soul is not in our hands is another!

So here are some questions that have arisen after reading a couple of articles:

• Do those who profess it truly believe that it is by faith alone that a man is saved?  
• Do we believe that we have to believe in the doctrine of 'faith alone' to be saved?  That is, are we saved by the doctrine of faith alone?  If so, if I have faith in Jesus but do not accept 'faith alone', am I condemned?
• Are we saved if we have faith, but also believe we need other things as well?
• If someone believes that we need to believe other things with faith (like faith + works) does that negate the fact that they have the faith?  Or does God say, "Well, you have faith but you believe you need works also to be saved so your faith is negated?"
• Do we have to believe that the Bible is inerrant in order to be saved (like this particular chappie did)? Therefore was he saying that the Bible alone saves us? Or is it the Bible and Jesus? Is Jesus, the living Word of God, less powerful to save than the written Word of God?

Please understand, I am not dismissing that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.  Neither am I dismissing the perfection of God's Word.  I am just wanting to know why people who state that they believe that you only need faith in Jesus Christ in order to be saved*: 'That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.' (Romans 10:9); how such people can then claim someone is NOT saved just because they have a number of doctrines that you disagree with. ONLY God can see a person's heart, whether their faith is genuine, whether their love for Christ is real.  Speak out about sin, about what you see as incorrect doctrine, fine - but don't condemn the man to hell because he isn't from your brand of Christianity.

[*NB: This is faith in Christ to save - not a simple belief that He existed or that God exists - the demons know these things (see James Chapter 2) I'm speaking of faith in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and His glorious resurrection into new life.]

Jesus saves - JESUS!  Doctrine is important, yes, but it is JESUS Who saves.

I love Jesus.

That's My King!

I wonder if you know Him today?

Jesus: The Lord is Salvation

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
~John 17:3

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
~1 John 5:20

For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the Lord;
~Proverbs 8:35

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
~Psalm 73:25

Knowing You Jesus ~Graham Kendrick 

All I once held dear, built my life upon, 

All this world reveres and wars to own; 

All I once thought gain I have counted loss, 

Spent and worthless now compared to this. 

 Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You 

There is no greater thing. 

You're my all, You're the best, 

You're my joy, my righteousness, 

And I love You Lord. 

Now my heart's desire is to know You more, 

To be found in You and know as Yours, 

To possess by faith what I could not earn 

All surpassing gift of righteousness 

Oh to know the power of Your risen life, 

And to know You in Your sufferings; 

To become like You in Your death, my Lord, 

So with You to live and never die.

The Pharisees and Jesus and Me

I was chatting to Chatterbox and Squidge last night about the Pharisees.  Chatterbox wanted to know what the Pharisees did wrong and why they didn't like Jesus.  I love talking to my girls about Jesus because they ask pretty difficult questions sometimes that really make me think. On this occasion it made me think about Jesus and how the Pharisees reacted to Him, and also how this applies to my life.

One of the things we talked about is that the Pharisees (also the teachers of the law and the scribes) constantly criticised Jesus and most of their interactions between them and Jesus were them testing Jesus in order to trip Him up.  Why didn't they like him?  Well, it was as if they were jealous of Jesus (intimated in John 4:1-2).  They loved their position in society and were fearful that Jesus' popularity would usurp that position and so they plotted to kill him (John 11:49-53). Jesus totally turned their understanding of the law upside down, He called them hypocrites because they kept the letter of the law but inwardly they were steeped in sin, ""Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean" (Matthew 23:27).

The Pharisees had totally misunderstood the purpose of God's law, which was twofold: to show mankind the perfection of God and mankind's inability to measure up to perfection - thus showing man's helplessness without God and man's need for a saviour (if there is no measuring stick how do we know if we fall short); to show the need for cleansing from sin (the sacrifices); and it was also instituted to protect the ordinary man and woman in a very volatile and difficult world.  For the Pharisees though, the keeping of God's law was a way of trampling on others, of flaunting their own ability to keep the law, and to weigh the people down with impossible burdens that they refused to help them with.  They weren't interested in God, they were interested in looking good, these white washed tombs looked great on the outside all clean and holy looking, but they had no love of God, no love of their fellow man, and certainly no humility: "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;" (Matthew 23:5)

Across the centuries God's voice has thundered out against this religious wickedness:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally." Ezekiel 34:1-4

Then I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel. Should you not embrace justice". Micah 3:1

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

'To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice'. Proverbs 21:3

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings". Hosea 6:6

"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" Deuteronomy 27:19

"Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless." Isaiah 10:1-2

As the Old Testament prophets often cried out, it wasn't the actual keeping of the minutiae of the law that impressed God, but it was the heart of the person that God cared about.  You could sacrifice a thousand bulls with great ceremony, use all the right words, go through all the right cleansing ceremonies, but if you were just doing it to show off, to go one better than your neighbour, then it was no sacrifice at all.  As St. Paul wrote in the years after the truest sacrifice in history, the crucifixion of Jesus, it isn't the sacrifice which impresses God but the act of love (1 Corinthians 13). The Pharisees, though they could recite the law, they didn't keep it in its truest sense, they could tell Jesus that the most important laws were to love God and their fellow man, but they didn't live it.  They knew the scriptures like no-one else, but they didn't know the Spirit of the scriptures.  The law didn't light their hearts, it was simply a set of rules to act out, it was a way to keep themselves in power and keep themselves 'above' the rest.

The Pharisees obviously believed that it was the rules in themselves which were of benefit, and so they were obsessed with rules and their own keeping of those rules, and everyone seeing them keeping the rules, and making sure that everyone kept the rules to their own obsessive standard.  They had forgotten God and they had forgotten His love for His people.  They weren't interested in the poor, they weren't interested in the sick, they weren't interested in anything but themselves (See Matthew 23).  As Jesus pointed out, yes the keeping of the law was right, but it shouldn't stand in the way of mercy and justice.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" Matthew 23:23-24.  You can almost imagine them spending hours faffing about measuring out their herbs and spices, keeping an eye on one another hoping they could catch their brothers with a mistake, whispering amongst each other, "Did you see Dave last week?  Totally forgot about his Oregano, totally didn't tithe it properly! What a waster." - because that's obviously what Pharisees talked like in the 1st century, honestly, scholars told me so. :) Meanwhile outside their window a beggar dies for want of food or water.

Tithes and offerings to God were for whom?

'And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do'. (Deuteronomy 14:29)

God didn't ask for tithes just to make a bunch of holy men rich or to give them a reason to be extra special and religious in their giving, but so that the community was supported and that no-one would go hungry.  The money went to the priests because it was their livelihood to serve in the Temple, but also for the stranger (immigrants who were without money to support themselves), the fatherless and the widow.  Tithing was not an arbitrary rule of law, but was meant to be for the deeper reason of mercy and justice for the weak and the poor.

The Pharisees even turned fasting into an exhibition. The Pharisees liked everyone to know that they were fasting - acting all somber with such pain on their faces! I can imagine them, one eye out for an audience, "Ohh, so hungry, ohhh, so weak, ohhh but it's all for God, oh yes, oh how I suffer, oh can I just sit down for a moment in prayer for God to keep me going, ohhh I'm so weakened". This was another example of how they had misunderstood the reason for the things of God, they were fasting for show - and by gum if they see that someone else wasn't fasting they'd be whispering and pointing the finger straight away.

As Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before:

“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord?

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail."  (Isaiah 58:3-11)

Why did God want them to fast?  To understand what hunger is.  To draw up in their souls an empathy for the poor and hungry.  That they might set aside their own food to feed those who cannot feed themselves.  Not to make an exhibition of yourself, not to point your finger at others and make them work extra because you are too busy being holy and fasting yourself to do anything.

In fact, as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees (another time after they had criticised Him), that they followed traditions made by men that seemed holy but were in fact against the very commands of God.  The Pharisees were claiming that they were doing the works of God by giving to God instead of helping their family (Matthew 15:7-9).  But Jesus said that their hearts were far from God.  Their parents may have needed financial or practical help but they pretended that what they would have given to them was actually given to God - thus acting like they weren't helping for 'holy' reasons. For the Pharisees to not help their family was to dishonour not only their parents, but also goes against the command to help the needy.  Again their religiousness broke God's holy law of mercy and justice.

One of the accusations leveled at Jesus many times by the Pharisees (and all their 'holy' mates the Scribe and teachers of the law) was that He broke the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath:

Mark 1:21-28 Jesus casts out a demon
Mark 1:29-31 Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law
Mark 3:1-6 Man with withered hand
John 9 Man born blind
John 5:1-18 A man healed at the pool of Bethsaida. Carried his mat.
Luke 14:1-6 Man with dropsy healed
Luke 13: 10-17 Woman with spirit of infirmity healed

Again they do not understand the reason for the Sabbath, for the Pharisees it is another rule to show off about and to burden others with. In Luke 13 and 14, where people are healed on the Sabbath and the religious dudes get the hump about it, Jesus points out that if a donkey falls into a pit on the Sabbath the most decent thing to do is to pull it out - why would you therefore not rescue a child of God from his own pit?  The Sabbath is God's day of rest, and what better rest than to be loosed of sickness, infirmity, spiritual oppression?  If you had seen a blind man healed would you not be impressed?  But bizarrely instead of being amazed the Pharisees are annoyed that Jesus has healed on the Sabbath.  This is incomprehensible obsessiveness on their part.  A person is healed from a life-long infirmity and all they can obsess about is whether or not Jesus should have healed on the Sabbath!  Equally, despite being well versed in the scriptures, they were unable to see that releasing people from bondage and its relationship with the Sabbath is something God speaks constantly about in the scriptures - the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee being one such example.

It is astonishing to imagine the Pharisee's short sightedness - and yet sadly I see such obsessiveness in Christians today.  Even in secular law, for example, if someone was sick lying in a house and a person had to break into their house to save them, technically, the person breaking into the property has broken the law, however, most reasonable people would say that there was a just reason for breaking in.  It would be ridiculous for a judge to convict someone who had done this in order to save a person's life (there have been instances of such craziness, but such action is widely held to be an unacceptable application of the law).  So equally, even if you think that Jesus has broken a law, why should Jesus be chastised for healing on the Sabbath?

I've even read articles online where people, even atheists, have hit out at Jesus for not keeping the Sabbath - in their eyes thus proving He wasn't who He said He was.  Madness!  So the miracles prove Jesus isn't the Son of God?  How does that work?

I believe Jesus is Who He said He was (I am after all a Christian) and His actions on the Sabbath are in keeping with the heart of God not against it.  Firstly, He is the Son of God - Who else would have the authority to do whatever He pleased on the Sabbath?  Secondly, though God instituted the law He is above all else a God of mercy and justice, the law is good, but mercy and justice must be placed as the ultimate aim.  Thirdly, Jesus gives us a picture of the Kingdom of God where there is no longer sickness and death - a beautiful type of Sabbath rest.  Fourthly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is our new Sabbath rest - indeed Jesus Himself is our new Sabbath rest - for just as the Israelites were promised the land of Canaan so we have the promised hope of Heaven and we gain this hope through Christ.  Fifth, just as God rested from His work of creation on the seventh day we now rest from works of righteousness, for that righteousness is given to us in Christ - we are a new creation!

So how do I apply all this to my own walk with God?

So, what did I learn from all this?  What compromised the Pharisees religion?

It is a little confusing that Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees we will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).  Does this mean that the Pharisees were righteous?  I don't believe so, I think that Jesus is saying that it is impossible without God to enter the kingdom of heaven. Even if you spent your whole life following the law and following every jot and tittle, you would not be righteous enough.  We need God.  We need the love of God in our hearts and to extend that love to others - justice and mercy.  It is the heart that God cares about, the actions mean nothing without love.  That is why we need Jesus.  We need the life of God within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and that life enters us when we are born-again - new life, new creation, washed clean, new beginning.

It's not about the rules, it's about receiving and living out the life of Christ.  And to receive Christ we need to be humble.

This is where the Pharisees, the Scribes and the Teachers of the Law didn't understand.  They saw rules, and then they made extra rules on top of rules to ensure that the rules didn't get accidentally broken.  They were so focused on the rules they couldn't see the reason for them.  They didn't see tithes as a way of protecting those who had no money, they just saw rules.  They didn't see the Sabbath as God's way of making sure they weren't overworked by hard taskmasters - they got at least one day's rest a week - they just saw it as another rule. They didn't pray for the sick, they just saw them as unclean, and an inconvenience.  They didn't see sacrifice as the need for atonement, they saw it as a way of showing off and a way of making money from visitors to the Temple.  They seemed to do all the right things, to the ordinary man, but inside they were dirty, arrogant, unforgiving, critical, obsessive, greedy, and blasphemous.

They saw rules, they saw a way of being better than others, they saw a way of controlling others.  They couldn't hear the heartbeat of God.  They couldn't see the love of God reaching out to his children.  They made worshipping God for the ordinary man and woman a chore and a burden.  They didn't recognise His only Son because they were so fixated on maintaining their popularity, ensuring that the rules were kept, and controlling people.

They missed the point.

Oh Lord, may I never miss the point.  May I follow Jesus in my heart as well as my actions.

Making me think about Making me think

 

I wrote a post called Making Me Think the other day - I'd watched and read a couple of sermons by Paul Washer and had gone into a bit of a decline.  In my flesh I am a worrier and fearful and I had fallen into fear.  A comment made on that post today reminded me that I have given into a spirit of fear.  A number of scriptures came to mind:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.(2 Timothy 1:7)  

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:15) 

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18).

It is quite correct to feel godly sorrow for wrongful actions - but this brings life compared to the worldly sorrow that brings only death and depression:

Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:9,10).

Jesus didn't die on the cross and rise from the dead to give us new life and then have us wandering around full of fear and misery.  Oh we'll have trouble, but praise God because Jesus has overcome the world.  What a beautiful, joyous hope we have in Christ.

I ought to write those scriptures out and post them about the house! :)