Why a thorn in the flesh?

" To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong".

                             2 Corinthians 12 v 7-10.

Many have speculated on what Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' might have been. I'm not interested in doing that here, but I would recommend an excellent book on this subject written by Dr R.T. Kendall, called not surprisingly 'The Thorn in the Flesh'. He covers in detail the various thorns that many of us have to live with, and is pastorally very sensitive in lifestyle application.
   My question on why the Lord allows these thorns is answered in the earlier verses where Paul speaks about being 'caught up to third heaven and paradise', hearing in vision 'inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell'.The Lord allowed the thorn in Paul's life to prevent him from becoming conceited. There is a weakness and endearing vulnerability in any man or woman who has spiritual depth in the Lord. Like Paul, they know that whatever has been accomplished in and through their lives has been a work of grace from beginning to end. There is no place for subtle boasting or attention grabbing headlines over their life's script.
    All who have known any significant measure of grace will at some point have come to that place of self awareness that ' this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us'. Jacob is one of my favourite examples of someone who learnt this secret. After his wrestling match with God, Jacob is left with a permanent limp, and his account of the event is very clear: 'For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved' ( Genesis 32 v 30). The next verse says how 'the sun rose on him (Jacob), and he limped on his hip'. This new day of favour for Jacob would be characterized with a limp. In his weakness God's grace would begin to shape Jacob's (Israel's) destiny to be the womb that would bring forth Abraham's seed...Jesus.
    The thorn prevents us from becoming conceited and falling into the pitfall of taking credit for that which belongs to the Lord alone. There can be a subtle smugness that can creep up on us when we have known the grace and power of God flowing through our lives. We can come to think of ourselves as indispensable and irreplaceable. Eugene Peterson gives this insight of human nature in his book 'The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction'.

  ' I want to appear important. What better way than to be busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself and to all who will notice- that I am important. If I go into a doctor's office and find there is no one waiting, and I see through a half open door the doctor reading a book, I wonder if he's any good. Such experiences affect me. I live in a society in which crowded schedules and harassed conditions are evidence of importance, so I develop a crowded schedule and harassed conditions. When others notice, they acknowledge my significance, and I my vanity'.

    The virus of pride is so deeply entrenched in all of us, that perhaps it does need at times something as strong as a 'messenger of Satan' to prevent conceit overwhelming us. This all seems very drastic, but the fruit that it produced in Paul's life (delighting in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties) should check any temptation on our part to relegate this episode in Paul's life to a peculiarity unique to him. In 'Mere Christianity', C.S.Lewis devotes a whole chapter to 'The Great Sin'-pride. It is worth looking at what Lewis has to say on this ' worst of all vices'.

    'It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices can smuggle itself into the very centre of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all. It comes direct from Hell. It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly. For the same reason, Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy's Pride, or, as they call it, his self respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity- that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self- controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride- just as he would be quite content to see your chilblains cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

     If Lewis is right, and I think he is, then perhaps there are times when drastic surgery is needed on our lives to prevent the spread of this spiritual cancer. Thorns in the flesh are not appealing- Paul wouldn't have pleaded with the Lord three times for his to be removed if they were appealing! However, the self evident fruit this produced in Paul's life is surely an encouragement to any of us who are currently struggling with any thorn in our flesh.
   If pride really is the Mount Everest of sin, then perhaps it does take a thorn in the flesh from time to time to 'keep our boasting in the Lord', and not in ourselves. Lewis finishes his chapter on 'The Great Sin', with the following insights:

   'If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed'.

    My conclusion is that 'every good and perfect gift is come from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows'. Whilst the thorn was clearly a messenger of Satan, the Lord clearly gave permission for this, not unlike when the Lord allowed Satan permission to torment Job. If the fruit of this thorn is to produce a greater dependence on the Lord, a safeguard against the cancer of pride, and a harvest of grace and righteousness in our lives and the lives of those we are serving, then perhaps it is no bad thing that the Lord doesn't always answer our prayers for deliverance in quite the way we want and expect.

Seven Tests of Authenticity

    'The nature of deception is such that we don't know we are deceived until after the event. We use the past tense, 'I was deceived', rather than the present tense 'I am deceived'. Rather like sleep, we only know how long we have slept when we have woken up, a retrospective insight'.

                                            Ray Mayhew.

   The warnings about deception are numerous in the New Testament, especially of false teachers and prophets that at the end of the age 'will deceive even the elect if that were possible'. Ultimately, we recognise a teacher or prophet by their fruit, and not simply their doctrine. In Jude v 11 we read the following warning:

'Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah'.

   All three examples had chosen a pattern and way of life that led to their destruction. When we walk in a 'way' of life, be it a love of money, sex, or power, that is contrary to the life and way of the incarnate Christ, then the letter that people read of our lives will be smudged and polluted beyond comprehension. It won't be the incarnate humility and grace of Jesus that the world will see and read, but rather the pride and selfishness of a world system that is the very antithesis of all that Calvary models to us.

    One of my favourite authors is A.W. Tozer. He died in 1963, but his insights are still relevant today. On this subject of recognising deception, he offers seven tests to evaluate authenticity of either a spiritual experience or teaching. These are as follows:

1. How do I view God in the light of any new teaching or experience?

2. Does this new teaching or experience in any way lessen who Jesus is?

3. Do I have a greater regard and love for the scriptures?

4. Does what I experience or am taught have any precedent in church history?

5. Do I grow in humility, or do I grow in pride and self promotion as a result of what I am taught or have experienced?

6. Does my experience or teaching divide the church?

7. How does this teaching and experience affect my attitude towards sin? Does it cause me to legitimize what the Bible declares illegitimate?

    He comments that it is quite often the zealous believer that can be more prone to deception. Sincerely wanting more of God, they can be seduced more readily than the half hearted person who has long since settled for spiritual mediocrity. All the more reason why those of us who have the privilege of teaching regularly in one context or another remain fully committed to 'watching our life and doctrine closely'.

Where is your joy?

    This is a question Paul asked the Galatians ( Galatians 4 v 15) and one that I ask myself from time to time. The Galatians lost their joy through a legalistic corruption of the gospel. We may not have that problem in our contexts, but the devil will still try to rob, steal, and kill our joy in the Lord. Sadly, we are often better at doing this to ourselves and one another without any assistance.
   Joy is one of those words, rather like 'blessing' and 'grace' that has been so misused and wrongly trivialized that it is in danger of being relegated to being a Christian cliche. Definition and meaning are important, and I have found The New Bible Dictionary definition of joy very helpful:

'Both in the Old and New Testaments joy is consistently the mark both individually of the believer and corporately of the Church. It is a quality, and not simply an emotion, grounded upon God Himself and indeed derived from Him ( Pslam 16 v 11, Phil 4 v 4, Rom 15 v 13), which characterizes the Christian's life on earth (1Pet 1 v 8), and also anticipates the joy of being with Christ for ever in the Kingdom of Heaven.'

   Jesus is the dictionary to interpret and understand all things, and the presence of joy is a clear litmus test that the Kingdom of God is at hand. In John 15 v 11, the gift of the Lord's joy is promised to all those who are abiding in the Father's love. This quality is evident even in Jesus's darkest hour on the cross, something picked up by the writer of Hebrews:

'Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God'.

                                     Hebrews 12 v 2.

    It is in those dark moments in life that we can sometimes lose our joy and peace in the Lord, but this verse suggests that even in those dark moments there can still be access to a joy in the Holy Spirit that goes beyond our circumstances. The Book of Psalms was Israel's 'Book of Common Prayer and Worship', and provides some excellent insights into how we can be real with the Lord in life's difficulties and still remain buoyant in the Lord's joy. It is worth looking at one or two of them.

1. Honesty with the Lord.

   The Psalmists didn't hold back on how they felt about life in all its complexities. Here are just a few references to look up:

a. Psalm 3 v 7. David asking God to break the teeth of the wicked.

b. Psalm 5 v 10-11. David being less than loving towards his enemies.

c. Psalm10 v 12-15, Psalm 73 v v 1-3. David and Asaph frustrated at the apparent prosperity of the wicked.

d. Psalm 41 v 4-9. David perhaps in one of his more melancholic moments.

     David and the other Psalmists were real about how they felt, and had no problem expressing that to the Lord. If you look at some of Jeremiah's laments the language is even more striking, on one occasion even accusing God of deceiving him! (Jeremiah 20v 7). This is spiritual therapy.
   Rather than burying our anger, hurts, and frustrations, we take them to the Lord first. When I am feeling angry or negative about something or someone, I have found that praying and talking it through with the Lord privately has been of enormous value. Once offloaded, you are then able to see more clearly and remain in the Lord's joy. As I pray and wait on the Lord, the reassurance of his presence becomes the foundation to my thinking again. I begin to see things and hear things from a heavenly perspective.
    This was the experience of Asaph in Psalm 73. Having offloaded his frustrations about the apparent prosperity of the wicked, he then enters the Lord's rest, and sees things from heaven's perspective their eventual end- Psalm 73 v 12-24. When we see things from heaven's perspective, joy and peace are restored to our troubled souls. Sometimes we may need a trusted friend to help us rediscover the joy of the Lord's presence, but we need to be careful that we aren't using friendship in an inappropriate way to wallow in self pity.

2. Valuing the Lord's presence more than anything or anyone else.

    It is the Lord Himself who is our source of joy. When David's sin with Bathsheba was uncovered, his primary concern was that he would not lose the Lord's presence in his life. The Lord's presence meant everything to David. After being confronted by Nathan, he comes out with this amazing cry from the heart:

'Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me'.

                                 Psalm 51 v 10-12.

   David knew it was the Lord's presence in the Holy Spirit that brought the joy of salvation, and he didn't want to lose that at any cost. Sadly, if you read the account of Saul having his sin exposed by Samuel, you will see that Saul was far more concerned about what people would think of him than how the Lord felt..see 1 Samuel 15 v 24-30, especially verse 30.    David wanted the Lord's presence as priority. Saul was more concerned with saving face before people. David wanted the joy of the Lord's presence to remain, and to help others learn from the error of his ways (Psalm 51 v 13). Saul was only concerned with receiving the continued honour of the people.
   We lose our joy when, like Saul, we are more concerned with how people see us than how the Lord sees us. When we are wanting and striving for the affirmation of people over and above the Lord's presence, we lose our source of joy. All of us have to watch this. It may be our marriage, our parenting, our performance at work, our church service, our friendship groupings. We can all be tempted to be more concerned at what image we are projecting for the people audience, than desiring the Lord's affirmation and presence.
   Some of the most insecure people are church leaders, desperate to tell you how well their church is doing, how many people they have baptized, and who they know in the national church scene. When these words are in the mouth of one like David, it is a real blessing. When in the mouth of one like Saul they are toxic.

3. Not taking ourselves too seriously.

    'My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.' Psalm 131 v 1.

   David is the 'man after God's own heart', Israel's greatest King, one who was promised 'a house and kingdom that shall endure for ever', author of over seventy psalms, and ultimately a pattern of the Christ who was to come. For David to say that he didn't concern himself with great matters is a terrific understatement. He did concern himself with the Lord's matters, but in making the Lord his preoccupation David was able to put his life and insights into their proper perspective. No matter how great the experience or insight that David had, they were as nothing compared to him knowing and intimately enjoying the Lord's presence.
     The same is true of Moses who had some many shock and awe moments with the Lord, but his advice in Psalm 90 v 12 seems a little bit of an understatement in the light of those experiences:

'Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom'.

    Moses, like David and any man or woman of God, knew that no experience or revelation could ever be a substitute for personal intimacy with God Himself. When we have a glimpse of the Lord's greatness we begin to take ourselves a lot less seriously. As one wall poster pointed out in my university days, 'There is a God....and you aren't Him'. When we learn to not take ourselves too seriously, the joy of the Lord's presence becomes a greater reality.

4. Delighting in our salvation.

a. Psalm 16 v v 8-11.

     Fullness of joy is only found in the Lord's presence. We are the Lord's servant first before we are the servant of men. One of the primary causes of joy leakage is when we allow other people, projects, and purposes to be promoted before the Lord's presence in our priorities.

b. Psalm17 v 15.

An eternal perspective on life puts everything into its proper place. Seeking the Lord's face and not just the hand of His favour was David's priority. He knew significant favour from the 'Right Hand of God', but it was no substitute for the longing in his heart for face to face intimacy with the Lord. His hand had been trained for battle (Psalm144 v 1), but that was no substitute for delighting in the vision of one day seeing the Lord's face.

c. Psalm 37 v 3-4.

    Our salvation is past, present and future. We have been saved (Titus 3 v3-7), are being saved (Phil 2 v 12-14, 2 Peter 1 v 10-11), and will in the future be fully glorified in resurrection ( Romans 8 v 18-30). As we delight ourselves in the Lord's salvation today, we are thankful for the initial act of salvation in our past, and excited about the prospect of future glory. As we delight ourselves in the Lord, his desires become our desires, his priorities become ours and we never lose sight of our amazing and thoroughly undeserved salvation.

d. Psalm 84 v 1-2.

     We worship a living God who speaks and answers prayer. We enter into the joy of prayerful communion with the living God (Isaiah 56 v 6-7), into the joy of heaven's priorities (Luke 15 v 7, 10, 32), and the joy of Jesus's victory over Satan, sin and death (Luke 10 17-20). The Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14 v 17).        When we prioritise seeking first the Kingdom of God, joy will always be the hallmark of our lives. That joy is the Lord's presence with us, God Emmanuel, in every season of our lives. That joy is not first and foremost an emotion, feeling, or light hearted approach to life, but a person- Jesus Christ.
    His presence will bring laughter and light heartedness. He will also be the anchor of hope joy and peace in our grieving, hurting, fears, uncertainties and pain. In those more sorrowful moments, we can still know joy when we know that it is Jesus with us who is our ultimate source of comfort.
   I will finish with a personal testimony to that end. Some time ago the Lord revealed to me how he felt about something that had happened in my life. The pain, tears, and agony of soul came like waves of the sea throughout the day. I did not feel any joyful emotions at that time. However, by the evening the Lord had lifted this burden. The lightness and joy of the Lord's presence was so tangible that it was difficult to believe it was the same day.
   The Lord's presence was my joy. I can remember the day because it was so extraordinary, but also because we had a small fall of snow. The snow was significant, because I was under deep conviction of sin in my attitude to another brother, and when breakthrough finally came, the Lord used the snow to remind me that 'though my sin (my attitude toward this person) was like scarlet, it was now as white as snow' (Isaiah 1 v 18). On the back of conviction and repentance came a greater release of the Lord's presence, and with that His joy, in my life.

Jesus Is Our Theology.

   When Fiona and I were involved on the Ichthus Network programme in 1990/1, we had the privilege of sitting under some very inspired teaching. One principle consistently taught was the importance of seeing everything in the Bible through the lens of Jesus. I have recently been reading articles and listening to online teaching from Ray Mayhew, who was one of those who taught us back then. Alongside his insights and other reading material, I have put together in my own words a short and simple outline of why I still feel as strongly about this interpretive approach today as I did when first introduced to this back in 1990. I hope it is helpful.

1. All theological systems are flawed.

   
Systematic theological systems like Calvinism and Arminianism have their place, but Christology for me is the primary lens through which these systems need to be seen. We are converted to Jesus, not the Bible or a theological system.
    So, for example, the Calvinist can overplay the scriptures that indicate 'once saved always saved', but will often underplay the clear warnings and dangers of abandoning our faith. The Armininianist can overplay the warnings without giving sufficient attention to the promises of security. Jesus seemed to apply both the promises and the warnings in equal measure, according to the pastoral appropriateness of the moment.
     So in Matthew 5 v 22, Jesus warns that unbrotherly love can put us ' in danger of hell fire'. Likewise a similar warning is given in Matthew 5 v 29-30 in relation to adultery. It can be too easy to spiritualize away these warnings, as some do, as Jewish literary hyperbole. To balance the books, Jesus also speaks in John 10 v 28 of 'none being snatched from my hand'. If it is the Lord's hand that has a grip on us, then who can come against us?
     My point is that the circumstance should determine which truth is applicable for each occasion irrespective of our theological system. So, for example, if a man in church leadership deliberately commits adultery and is not repentant, then perhaps the warnings of passages like Matthew 5 will be far more pastorally relevant than the security promise of John 10. Promises of eternal security may encourage him to remain in sin, where as the warnings, gently applied, might awaken his conscience and bring him back to repentance.
   Equally, a young Christian struggling to come to terms with their sexuality wouldn't initially need to hear the warnings of Matthew 5, but rather the comfort of John 10. Growing into a secure knowledge and experience of God's love and faithfulness could inspire a desire to change.
  The warnings and promises are of equal weight, and need to be applied through the lens of Christ's wisdom to whatever the individual pastoral situation merits. Whatever our preferred theological system, without Jesus as the interpretive lens, we can very easily create a religious system that has the very opposite of being good news to the world.
   In his book 'Let's Start With Jesus', Dennis Kinlaw quotes William Temple, former Archbishop of Canterbury, on the importance of having a right concept of God in how we do life.

   'If our concept of God is wrong, the more religious we get and the more dangerous we are to ourselves and others. Our concept of God must be a true representation of the One Who Is, the God with whom all of us ultimately will have to deal. In fact, nothing is more important for anyone or for any society.'

    Bill Johnson puts it this way: 'If your theology about God doesn't look like Jesus, then try again.' This is not a simple cliche, but profound truth made simple. On another occasion, Johnson is on record as saying that 'Jesus is perfect theology.' Jesus said himself to the Jews of his day:

'You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they that testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.'   John 5 v 39-40.
 
Jesus is the key to understanding 'the inside of God.' On the Emmaus Road, two disciples encounter the risen Lord Jesus and what is opaque in the Scriptures comes to life when interpreted for by the Lord:

' Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, 'Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?'
Luke 24 v 32-33.

   When Jesus is doing the interpretation our spiritual eyes are opened and we get heartburn from the Scriptures. Where Jesus is absent as our interpretive lens, a veil remains over our hearts. We will become progressively more religious in our thinking and outward behaviour, but lack the reality of inward transformation that personal revelation of Christ brings.
          The incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ is the prism through which we understand all the Scriptures. Jesus is the exegesis of God ( John 1 v's 14-18, 10 v 30, 14 v 5-7), the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1v 15, Hebrews 1 v 3), and the power and wisdom of God ( 1Corinthians 1 v 18-2 v 5). When you have seen Jesus, you have seen God. If you haven't met with Jesus, you haven't met with God. If our theology and practice doesn't point to Jesus, we are in danger of falling into the religious trap that William Temple spoke about.

2. Humility is our hallmark.

   Humility is the incarnational attribute of Christ that we are called to imitate (Philippians 2 v's 1-11) as the prerequisite to accessing God's grace. Interestingly humility isn't recorded as one of the ninefold evidences of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 v 23-23. However humility is the soil in which the ninefold fruit of the Spirit can grow. Without this foundational soil there will be no authentic and lasting spiritual fruit on the surface. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
   The author Joyce Baldwin commented that Israel's history could be summarized in four words- Chosen, Privilege, Presumption, and Rebellion. Israel was chosen for a purpose, and given the privileges that accompanied that election. In time, Israel became at 'ease in Zion', taking privilege for granted, and not living out their responsibility to be 'a light to the nations'. Presumption of God's grace took root, and the slide into rebellion and exile was the inevitable consequence.
   In the same way, as chosen people, we can enjoy the privilege of living in our little piece of land here in Southampton. However without that foundation of humility we too could fall into the presumption and pride that sadly characterized Israel's last days before exile.
   This humility principle is particularly important in seasons where we are experiencing significant levels of grace and favour. In the Philippians passage quoted above, Paul is at pains to press home the importance of walking in humility in every context of blessing and favour.

'Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship in the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.'  Phil 2 v's 1-3.

    When we are experiencing significant seasons of grace and favour, the need to press deeper into the humility of Jesus is of even greater importance. It can be tempting in seasons of marked grace and favour to credit any success and fruitfulness to ourselves, rather than to the Lord. We can begin to slip into a prayerlessness and reliance on ourselves, rather than a daily dependence on the grace of God. Learning to 'stand in the gap' is one of our safeguards. Despite all the demands on his time, Jesus remained intentional in prayer, and that is to be our pattern for life as well.

 
3. What does it mean to 'stand in the gap'?

  'So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.'

  Ezekiel 22 v 30.

     One of the more helpful definitions I have come across is that of prayerfully bridging the gap between where we are now, and where we believe the Lord wants to take us. No matter how great our experience of the Lord, there is always more of Him to know and enjoy.
  Isaiah thought he was doing pretty well, until he had a fresh life changing encounter with the Lord, that most of us are familiar with in Isaiah 6. Likewise John, as intimate with the Lord as any of the early disciples, was struck to the floor in wonder and worship when receiving a fresh revelation of the Lord on Patmos. No matter how great our experience of Jesus, there is always more of Him to know and worship.
  It is important to put this Ezekiel scripture through the lens of Christ to understand what it might look like to stand in the gap today. Jesus has now bridged the gap between man and God. Through his incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension, he has now become the 'mediator between man and God', a mediation spoken of in verses like Isaiah 52 v 10:

' The Lord has laid bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God.'

   Jesus as the exegete of God, reveals God as Father, with nearly two hundred references to the Fatherhood of God in the gospels. The other great emphasis in Jesus' teaching and practice is that of the Kingdom of God. These twin themes of Fatherhood and Kingdom come together of course in what we call the Lord's Prayer.
   Taking Jesus as our model for standing in the gap between fallen man and God, we pray 'Father in Heaven....,Your Kingdom come.' These two themes are like knitting needles that knit together and bridge the gap between where we are now, and where we want to be in the Lord.
    Back in the late 1980's, I became increasingly aware of the credibility gap between what I read in the gospels in relation to Jesus' authority over demons, and the distinct lack of that reality in my own life.
   It was being exposed to a radical Kingdom of God theology and practice at Ichthus that helped begin to narrow that particular gap in my discipleship. Needless to say, 'standing in the gap' the Jesus way was part of that transition.
   The writer to the Hebrews gives us a unique insight into the prayer life of Jesus. It is the exact opposite of some of the cold, pious, formulaic repetition that is so often the characteristic of the religious spirit that William Temple warns about.

'So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: " You are My Son, Today I have begotten You." As He also says in another place: " You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek", who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which he suffered."

Hebrews 5 v's 5-8.

   I find these windows into the prayer life of Jesus both inspiring and challenging. There were five things that moved Jesus to compassion, prayer, and then action. These were:
Death - (Luke 7 vs 12-24)
Hunger -(Mark 8 v's 1-3)
Sickness-(Matthew 10 v 14)
Lostness -(Mark 6 v's 33-34
Loneliness- (Mark 1 v's 40-42)

  These five windows of human suffering are all around us. For the loneliness and isolation that the leper felt in Jesus' day, read today in the face of the involuntary single parent, widow, and many young people out of work. I could give countless other examples to illustrate the other four windows of compassion.
  It is also interesting to note in the Ezekiel verse that the Lord was also looking for someone to stand in the gap who would make a wall. Why a wall? What was the significance of walls?
  Nehemiah is the book most associated with wall reconstruction. Walls seperate, and there has to be a clear seperation between the people of God and the world. That seperation is not exclusivity. The Jerusalem Walls rebuilt by Nehemiah still had gates in them for people to enter the city.
  In the same way, Jesus is the gate today for anyone to enter the Kingdom of God. There is still a clear wall of seperation between the narrow road that leads to life, and the broad road that leads to destruction. Jesus is the only gate through which anyone can enter to change lanes from the broad road leading to destruction, to the narrow one leading to life.
   One of the buzz words doing the rounds at present is 'inclusivity'. At it's heart is a belief and commitment to include everyone in the purposes of God. The Inclusivity manifesto reads something like this-

'No one must feel excluded on any grounds of sexual orientation, gender, race, or class from the Kingdom of God , and the language of 'them' and 'us' must be abolished.'

   There is a lot I would endorse in this manifesto. No-one should feel excluded from the Kingdom of God for any of those reasons above. However, whilst the manifesto of Jesus is an inclusive and universal invitation, there is a very clear condition that all must enter through the Narrow Gate. Jesus is the Narrow Gate in the wall that all can enter, but few choose to do so ( Matthew 7 v's 13-14).
   There is a distinction the Lord makes between sheep and goats, wheat and tares, those on the Way and those who are not. Without conviction of sin, regeneration by the Holy Spirit,and repentance and faith in Christ, you cannot , in Jesus' own words, see let alone enter the Kingdom of God.
  In following Christ's example of standing in the gap, not only do I want to identify with those things that moved Him to compassion, but I also want to ensure that the clarity of the gospel is not lost in a well intended but misplaced understanding of inclusivity. Perhaps the final words on this can be those of Jesus Himself in Matthew 23 v's 37-39:

'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! "See! Your house is left to you desolate; " for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

  The invitation to the people of Jerusalem is universal and inclusive of all.... but the blessing is dependent upon their willingness to respond to that invitation. The Lord will not include anyone who doesn't want to respond to Him. Tempting though it might be in some quarters to 'remove the wall', preach a social gospel, and wrongly believe that everyone deep down wants to love God, we must resist any such deception. Incarnational love, revealed in Jesus, gives everyone the dignity to freely receive or reject the Gospel of Christ. Jesus doesn't condemn anyone. We condemn ourselves by rejecting Him- John 3 v's 17-21.
  As those committed to seeing people through the lens of Jesus, we do not condemn anyone on the basis of their skin, race, gender, or sexual orientation. We seek to model the life of Christ in self giving love and humility. Those who are condemned, are those who have condemned themselves by rejecting the narrow gate that leads to life.

Recognising the Fat Cat of Legalism.

  Then He said, "To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade."

                                            Mark 4 v 30- 32.

    We are fortunate to have a small wood backing on to our garden. Different birds will often be seen resting in the branches of the trees. When the neighbour's cat joins the party, the birds take flight. Birds rather wisely don't rest in branches alongside cats.
  The picture in this parable is of the birds of the air resting securely in the branches of the tree that grew from a mustard seed. There are no unfriendly cats lurking in the branches. As Christians, we are called to rest in the branches of the Kingdom of God, finding in Christ that 'yoke that is easy and burden that is light.'
   Why do so many Christians live outside that place of rest? Why do so many of us live in the branches of the Kingdom of God with agitation, insecurity, and unhealthy activism as the characteristics of our lives? What cat has got amongst the pigeons?
   I would like to suggest that the fat cat of religious legalism is the most destructive spirit which the devil has used to rob many of us of the joy and peace of resting in Christ. Many of us are more the slave to religious piety and human tradition, rather than the 'doulos' of Christ.
   At its heart legalism is the exaltation of law, formula, and red tape as a doctrine of justification by works, rather than a justification through faith alone in Christ. I have listed a number of ways in which this legalism appears, and some of the spiritual insights that can help us catch this cat and keep it off the back of our lives.

1. Promotion of knowledge over love.

     There are five references in the New Testament to 'knowledge puffing up, but love building up.' These are 1 Corinthians 4 v 6, 4 v 18, 8 v 2, Colossians 2 v 18, and 1 Tim 3 v 6.
      Knowledge is not a substitute for love. We can have great knowledge of the Bible, and have had great personal insights in the Holy Spirit, but without love we gain nothing. One of the characteristics of a knowledge or experience driven legalism, is the desire to impress others with what we know or have experienced, rather than inspiring people into a greater passion and personal revelation of Jesus for themselves.
    True spiritual knowledge is the fruit of love, and will in turn inspire others in their pursuit of Jesus. In the Colossians 2 v18 reference, the issue is a false parading of spiritual experience as a sign of the Lord's approval. If the temptation in more conservative circles is the displaying of Bible knowledge in a wrong way, in charismatic circles it can be the wrong displaying of experience and inappropriate use of spiritual gifts as a means of securing our authentication.
   A measure of true spirituality is how much is concealed, not how much is displayed. What we share needs to be the tip of the iceberg, not the hidden roots. The hidden life is the rewarded life, but the legalism cat will often tempt us in an opposite direction, that of performing and displaying our knowledge and experiences to win the approval of men. When we do this, our motive is not love, and we can become 'sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.' Birds won't rest secure for long in these type of branches.

2. Misunderstanding of covenant.

      The basis on which God accepts us is unconditional covenant grace. If the story of the Prodigal tells us anything, it is that we can't earn our passage or ticket to grace and favour. Even when we are in ' the distant land', far away from the Lord, His love for us is not based on our getting our act together. The Prodigal returns with a pre planned script of intent, only to see it effectively ripped up in the loving embrace of his father.
    The 'ifs' and 'thens' of scripture in relation to covenant are there to help us grow in the quality and depth of our relationship with the Lord. They are not contractual obligations that need to be kept in order to secure God's grace and love, but rather our invitation to respond to, and live in the benefits of, that love and grace.
    Take the verse in 2 Chronicles 7 v 14, often used as a rallying cry for prayer and revival.

'If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.'

     This promise is given to a people who are already redeemed. Israel had been set free from Egypt, not because they had kept the law ( it was given after their deliverance), but on account of the Lord's grace and mercy towards them. Promises like the one quoted in 2 Chronicles are given to an already redeemed people. Even if the Israelites ignored the Lord's word, (and they frequently did), it would not change the basis on which He loved them, beautifully defined in Deuteronomy 7 v 7-8:

' The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.'

     The foundation of our relationship with the Lord, is unconditional grace. We embrace the 'ifs' and 'then' clauses of scripture to grow in the depth and quality of that relationship, but not as a means of trying to earn our ticket or right of passage. God's love for us is not conditioned on whether we read the Bible, attend church meetings, pray, fast, tithe and so on. The subtle cat of legalism tries to convince us to the contrary. It is because God loves me unconditionally, that I can and want to change. I don't change in order to secure God's favour; rather His unconditional favour inspires me to want to change.

3. Preoccupation with externals.

   'Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations- "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," which all concern things which perish with the using- according to the commands and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.'

                           Colossians 2 v 20-23.

   Legalism preaches external conformity and behaviour, without internal transformation of the heart by the Holy Spirit. Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart. Legalism will disciple people into a system of living, but not into the Author of Life. The Psalmist cries out to the Lord, 'With you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light.' Legalism sheds light on our behaviour, but does not impart the life that brings true light to all men.
   It is too easy to point a finger at outward behaviour and habits, and ignore the appalling pride and covetousness that can be hidden in our own hearts. We can forget how patient and gracious the Lord has been with us. We can easily fall into the trap of 'straining out a gnat, and swallowing a camel.' We can strain out a gnat on dress code in church, for example, but ignore the camel of injustice that endorses a theology that silences women from participating fully in the life of that church. The birds of the air will not rest in peace alongside these sort of cats in the branches.

4. The finger in every pie syndrome.

    One of the motives behind legalistic drive is the desire to be in a position of control and influence over people. Sometimes this can be insecurity; we simply want to be needed as 'God's Fixers', putting things right in a way that no one else can. Our identity is driven by the need to make ourselves indispensable, the very opposite of what we should be doing.
   Two of the signs of this syndrome are the inability to say 'no', and the inability to delegate to others who are better equipped to do the task in hand. Self protection often lies at the heart of the 'finger in every pie syndrome.'
   Why were the Jewish leaders so afraid of Jesus? What motivated Herod to have put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under? What motivated David's brothers to pour scorn upon him when he went to confront Goliath? What motivated Tobiah and Sanballat to ridicule Nehemiah? Why were Darius' officials so angry with Daniel? It was a combination of fear, self protection and insecurity.
    Fear that someone more important, or more graced than them was now on centre stage. Defending their own self interests, rather than promoting the interests of others. Insecurity, in that they would not necessarily know where they would now fit in to the overall scheme of things. We are the Lord's servant first, and only secondly the servant of men. The finger in every pie syndrome turns this principle on its head. We become a slave to what people expect of us, rather than prioritising what the Lord has called us to. We become more concerned with what others think about us, rather than how the Lord sees us. Saying 'no' becomes impossible, and delegating to others is seen as a potential risk too far.

5. Rose tinted view of history and tradition.

   Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For you do not enquire wisely concerning this.

                                   Ecclesiastes 7 v 10.

   This is one that I particularly have to be careful of. In a nostalgic way, I often look back on the past through rose tinted glasses remembering all of the selective Match of the Day highlights, but conveniently overlooking the less attractive elements of history.
    It is only very recently that I took the plunge into social networking, emails and mobile phones. First class letters and landlines were my primary means of keeping in touch with anyone outside a one mile radius from my home. That has now changed. My regret is that it took so long to make the change.
    The primary reason I backed out of doing school assemblies back in 2005, was that all the schools I went into were replacing the old fashioned overhead projectors with laptops and projectors. I was intimidated by technology, and reasoning that the old ways were the best ways, I bowed out, and let others go in.
     I would justify not having a mobile phone, or not using email with all kinds of silly nostalgia. The reality is that I was getting caught in a time warp of my own tradition, and I needed to change. The rest is now history. I've even found myself going back into one or two schools to take assemblies with YouTube clips and the like.
   The reason I give this personal example is to illustrate how powerful and stubborn we can all be in resisting change, citing history and tradition as our convenient get out clause for change. You wouldn't be reading this short paper if I hadn't thrown off the shackles of my own prejudice against technology... I write these blogs on my smartphone during the in between moments of the day. If we are not careful we can become a slave to our own little institutions and mindsets, rather than be a servant of the Holy Spirit.
     What self made institutions and mindsets are perhaps preventing you from being a more fruitful servant of the Holy Spirit? Legalism is defined as the exaltation of a formula or red tape at the expense of life and grace. One of my potential red tapes and formulas is 'the past is best.' Getting progressively freed up from this is helping me to sit more comfortably on the branches of the tree. The legalistic cat of 'the past is best', is slowly being starved to death.... I hope!

PS.   This will be the last blog until September. Thanks.

Prophecy in the Local Church

An old man was relaxing at his hundredth birthday party when a reporter went up to him. "Sir, what is the secret of your long life?" The man considered this for a moment, then replied, "Every day at 9.00pm I have a glass of port. Good for the heart." The reporter replied, "That's ALL?" The man smiled, "That, and cancelling my voyage on the Titanic."

     Quite a handy insight! There are times when having inside information is helpful. Prophecy is one of the ways in which we get to hear the inside of God's heart.
      I have found the following principles helpful in navigating the waters of testing and responding to prophecy in the local church. These are coming from the perspective of someone who eagerly desires the gift of prophecy, and for that gift to be regularly exercised in our  discipleship.

1. The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.

    Taken from Revelation 19 v 10, it is always Jesus' life and testimony that is revealed in prophetic ministry, and not the channel of that blessing. John was so impressed with the angelic channel of blessing, he was tempted to worship the messenger rather than the Lord. We are no different. We honour those who serve faithfully in the prophetic, but it is the Lord alone who takes centre stage.
      The Testimony of Jesus is one of edification, encouragement, and comfort (1 Cor 14 v 3.) We are now under the New Covenant, and our prophesying should reflect that covenant of grace and truth (Hebrews 1 v's 1-4, 8 v's 7-13.) The emphasis in 1 Corinthians 12 is on gifts demonstrating the Lordship of Jesus, Chapter 13, the Love of Jesus, and Chapter 14, the Life of Jesus. So, for example in Chapter 12, the gift of healing is a demonstration that Jesus is Lord over sickness.
   Sadly, gifts can be used outside the remit of love, but 1 Corinthians 13 gives us the Mount Everest of motivational attitudes to aspire to in our use of spiritual gifts. Prophecy is to impart the Lordship, Love, and Life of Jesus. It is not to be used to try and wrongly correct or coerce people onto our wavelength. It is a gift to inspire greater love and worship of Jesus.

2. There will be different ways in which the gift is administered.

    There are different gifts, different ways of administrating those gifts, and different effects that those gifts have on people. Some will prophesy with a reflective and cautious tone, others will be very direct, others will offer a scripture, others might write down what they felt God was saying to them in a prayer time, and read it out.             There are a variety of different channels reflecting our different backgrounds and temperaments.
     We must not reject what the Lord is saying because we don't like the channel through which the prophecy is packaged. We are called to test, weigh and the embrace what the Lord is saying, and many a time the Lord has spoken to me through channels that I would not have chosen. It is a measure of His Lordship and grace that He can and often will use the least likely channel to bring blessing.

3. Resting in the Lord's Presence.

     One of the hindrances to hearing the Lord is being over worked and stressed. We need to cultivate rhythms of sabbath rest, where we intentionally seek the Lord in prayer. The Lord can give words in meetings without us having spent time in prayer, but growing in the prophetic is more the fruit of intentional prayer than anything else. Prayer is not simply the place where we speak to the Lord, but also where He speaks to us.
   Many of us who pray are probably a lot more prophetic than we think. How often have you heard someone pray and thought that what they were praying was as much a prophetic word from the Lord, as it was a prayer to the Lord? Jesus was intentional about prayer, and we all need to find the life rhythms that best fit our circumstances. Prophetic ministry is speaking out revelation rather than speaking out accumulated information. The Lord loves to speak to us and through us to one another, and a sustainable prayer life is foundational to that end.

4. Where we sit determines what we see.

    If you are sitting at level two in a block of flats you will see more than if you are on the ground floor, but less than if you were seated in the penthouse. The Psalmist asks the question, 'Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?' He then answers his own question by listing certain qualities that when established in our lives, enable us to ascend that hill. These qualities are:

Clean Hands
Pure Heart
Not worshipping idols
Not swearing by what is false

Psalm 24 v's 1-4.

   As we prioritise values that honour the Lord, we grow in spiritual sight. We begin to see prophetically at a deeper and higher level.
   It is also important that prophecy sits under rather than alongside scripture. As we submit prophetic insights, dreams, pictures, words, and visions to scripture we will get greater depth of clarity and insight. The prophetic gift is not in competition with the scriptures. The scriptures will help us get greater clarity in testing and weighing what is said.
    That clarity will also come as we sit alongside godly men and women who will help shape our understanding of the prophetic. No one has a monopoly of revelation. We all prophesy in part. Submitting to others what we feel God is saying is a safeguard, and they may add helpful insights to what we have seen (Proverbs 15 v 22, 18 v 17.)

5. Wisdom on timing and application.

   When we see or hear something, we need to ask for the Lord's permission to speak. Sometimes what we sense is to be kept in our own heart for further reflection. We sometimes need to know the right timing and context to share something.
   If what we are sensing is directional for the church, then we need to leave it with those entrusted with the pastoral oversight to weigh and, if appropriate, to implement. There are also times when we receive a word in one context, but its fulfilment is in the distant future and in a totally different context.
    Take the dreams that Joseph had in Genesis 37. He received authentic revelation in Canaan, but it would be over thirteen years later in Egypt that these dreams would come to fulfilment. Joseph had in mind being top dog in his family setting, but the Lord had in mind him being Prime Minister of Egypt.

6. We prophesy in part.

       We are panning for gold in prophetic ministry. There will always be packaging from the person that needs separating from the nuggets that are from the Holy Spirit ( Proverbs 25 v 4, 11.) Some of that packaging can be what I would call an old covenant fear factor, a fear that if I get it wrong I have become a false prophet.
    We will get things wrong. Preachers and teachers of the Bible will get things wrong as well. Our fear of being wrong needs to be displaced with a love, faith, and conviction that the Lord wants us to eagerly desire the gift of prophecy. We can learn from mistakes, in the safety that if we are following the way of love no real damage will be done.

The Hand that Signed the Paper

The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath, Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.

The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The finger joints are cramped with chalk; A goose's quill has put an end to murder That put an end to talk.

The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came; Great is the hand that holds
dominion over Man by a scribbled name.

The five kings count the dead
but do not soften
The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven; Hands have no tears to flow.

Dylan Thomas 1914-1953.

    The hand that signed the paper has often with the stroke of a pen changed the entire destiny of individuals and nations. Wars have been declared, death camps sanitised, racial prejudice legalised, religious crusades commissioned, political ideology imposed, and nation rebuilding rationalised, through the power of the 'five sovereign fingers'.
   Today a more subtle but equally sinister hand has signed the paper authorising a social reconstruction and redefinition of marriage. In the name of that all important cross party ideology 'Inclusivity', the Government has considered it necessary to change the whole meaning of marriage. Is it the responsibility of elected members of parliament to redefine what constitutes marriage?
    Marriage is sacred. It is an institution created by God that predates secular government. In Eden, the first marriage was between a man and a woman, who both reflected the image of God together. Adam and Eve were called, as joint image bearers to:

  'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

                                            Genesis 1 v 28

    Eve walking alongside Adam is the full expression of God's image, and a healthy reflection of that image to children growing up in the family. As two different but complementary image bearers, marriage defined this way becomes the primary foundation for a healthy society. This definition of marriage instituted by the Lord, preceded the introduction of government.
    Government is given as a gift of common grace after the Fall. It is part of the medicine that God injects into a fallen world to slow down the inevitable spread of sin and lawlessness. Sin is presented in the Bible as a spreading virus that will continue to mutate until the Lord's return. Paul spares no punches in painting a picture of what society will look like at that time:

   'But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.'

                               2 Timothy 3 v's 1-5.

   We are exhorted to pray for government and those in positions of civic authority in order that... 'we might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour' (1Timothy 2 v's 2-3). God's desire is for government to endorse His principles for life as part of the restraining order on the spread of sin and lawlessness.
     The inclusivity card played by the Government in relation to gay marriage is beyond that jurisdiction. Civil partnerships protecting their liberties and human rights as citizens is permissible, but not the redefining of that which is sacred. The hand that signed the paper has bred a fever, one that will mutate into something far more destructive as the years of reaping what has been sown evolve. What price would you give me on us discussing the plausibility of legalised polygamy in five years time?
     Whilst concerned at what the Government has legislated, of greater concern is the acceptance of this new arrangement within supposed evangelical churches. I can understand an unregenerate politician playing situation ethics with God's design for marriage, but not someone from within the Body of Christ.
     The problem I think is in a misunderstanding of the nature of inclusivity. We can be in danger of seeing universal inclusivity as meaning the same as the universal, conditional invitation that Jesus offers to everyone to follow Him. That invitation is conditional to all, irrespective of sexual orientation. The popular strapline that people need to 'belong before they believe' is only true to a certain point. All are welcome in a local church, but belonging to a local church is not necessarily an indication that anyone is following Christ. Some of the conditions to following Christ as His disciple include the following:

1. We are called to repent.

'From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
                              Matthew 4 v 17. 

    Repentance is far more than a one off historic act in our conversion experience. In 1 John 1 v 9, we read: 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' The word 'confess' is continual present tense, and conveys a posture of living continually under the renewal and cleansing of the blood of Christ. As we grow in grace we are sanctified through and through, and are grateful for the unlimited access to the Lord's mercy seat in Christ to ongoingly cleanse us from those attitudes, motives and actions that are not worthy of His Name.

2. We are called to take up our cross daily.

  'Then he said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.'
                                           
                                        Luke 9 v's 23-24.

    Paul spoke about carrying the death of Jesus in his body, in order that the life of Christ might be revealed through him ( 2 Corinthians 4 v's 10-12). Elsewhere Jesus spoke about entering the Kingdom of God through the narrow gate, 'for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.' He goes on to say that ' narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.'
     We are not promised an easy ride, and spiritual growth is often painful. It is not without reason that Jesus spoke openly about weighing up the cost before choosing to follow Him. David Pawson speaks of a number of things to look for in what he calls the 'normal Christian birth.' These include conviction of sin, repentance and regeneration, baptism in both water and the Holy Spirit, and a full and visible active serving in the Body of Christ. We can be far too hasty in accepting confessions of faith that are not genuine works of the Holy Spirit.

3. We are called to confess Jesus to others.

  'Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven.'

                               Matthew 10 v's 32-33.

  We are not called to some private hidden religion. Our faith is personal but not private. One of the ways of authenticating faith, is to go and tell people what the Lord has done for you. When you have met the Lord, you want to tell everyone about Him!
   In my own conversion, I can remember saying to my friend that I wasn't going to tell anyone that I had become a Christian, and neither was I going to church. Within a few days I was telling everyone who would listen, and the following Sunday began attending church. I had no church background, but when you have met with the Lord you want to tell others, and be around others who have experienced the Lord's grace.

4. We are called to change.

  'Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.'

                                  1 John 3 v's 9-10.

We shouldn't read into passages like this a striving for religious perfectionism. Pelagius was a British monk who wrongly taught that man can attain perfection through his own effort. Whilst most of us don't believe that, many of us still live as if it were true. What this passage means is that those who have become Christians will no longer have the primary desire in their life to sin, but rather to please the Lord. When we slip up it will be out of character with who we are. Living for sin is no longer the motivational drive in our lives, but rather living for the Lord.

5. We have to stumble over the offence of the cross.

'Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, " The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense" They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.'

                                    1 Peter 2 v's 7-8.

   Pride is the biggest obstacle to entering the Kingdom of God. All of us need our pride to be broken on 'the rock of offense'. The spirit behind the hand that signed the paper on redefining marriage is one of pride and arrogance. It is man effectively saying that we no longer need the Lord as our reference point, and that we have now come of age to go it alone without Him.

6. Entering the Kingdom of God is conditional on regeneration.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

                            Colossians 1 v's 13-14.

   This has already been touched upon. Entering the Kingdom of God is a supernatural act, a transferring out of the darkness of satanic bondage, and into a place of forgiveness and belonging to Christ (Acts 26 v's 17-18.) Universal unconditional inclusivity is a political and social construction, and not in my opinion, a Biblical one.
   Sooner or later we have to recognise that belonging to the Kingdom of God is conditional on repentance and belief, irrespective of our social standing or sexual orientation. We are called to respond to the invitation of Christ, and we can all freely receive or reject that invitation. This conditional universal invitation is wrongly being reinterpreted to mean unconditional universal inclusivity.
     The cross is God's great boundary statement, and we would be foolish to ignore the conditional 'ifs' of scripture on the call to discipleship. Jesus includes all in His invitation to follow Him, but few seem to choose to live up to that invitation and calling:

'For many are called, but few are chosen'

                                        Matthew 22 v 14.

  Unconditional inclusivity is more the fruit of a social reconstruction of Christendom than it is a calling to discipleship. The language and culture of political correctness seems to be the motivational drive behind it. The hand that signed the paper has sown a wind that will reap a whirlwind. Thankfully the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God, can't be felled by the hand that signed the paper. In all the present confusion, God will still have the final word.

Jesus: Israel's Pearl of Great Price.

'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it'
                       Matthew 13 v 45-46.

    The Parable of the Pearl would not have been lost on Jesus' Jewish audience. Israel as a nation was like the rich merchant in the parable, with a string of fine pearls in their spiritual history. In the Book of Romans, Paul cites a string of pearls that should have paved the way for Israel to have received Jesus as their Pearl of Great Price.
'What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God'- Romans 3 v 1-2.

Later in the book Paul recites these oracles as including 'the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises' - Romans 9 v 4. Despite having such a fine string of pearls, Israel rejected their Pearl of Great Price- Jesus.
    One of the consistent themes in Matthew's Gospel is that of fulfillment. With respect to Israel, Jesus is revealed as the one fulfilling all that Israel longed and yearned for, and all that she represented typologically as a type of Christ. These fulfillments include:

1. Jesus is now God's Presence with Israel - Matt 1 v 22-23.

   To know God now is to look to Jesus as the 'fullness of the deity in bodily form.' Israel was the womb preparing the way for Jesus to step into human history - Isaiah 49 v 1-3. Israel's calling as the servant to the nations is now fulfilled by Jesus, 'the true Light which gives light to every man' - John 1 v 9.

2. Jesus is Israel's Shepherd -Matt 2v 5-6.

    One of the greatest images in the Old Testament is that of God being revealed as the Shepherd of Israel - Psalm 23 v 1, Isaiah 40 v11, Ezekiel 34 v 11-31. Jesus is the Good Shepherd- (John 10 v 11), the one who fulfills all the pastoral imagery of the Old Testament. Jesus will  not only fulfill all that Israel longed for in a shepherd, but will also be a shepherd to the Gentiles as well. In John 10 v 16 we read: 'And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.' There is no division between Jewish or Gentile sheep.... one flock, and one new man in Christ.

3. Jesus fulfills Israel's Sonship- Matt 2 v13-15.

This quote is taken from Hosea 11 v 1, where the original quote is in relation to Israel - see also Exodus 4 v 23-23. Matthew sees Jesus as fulfilling Israel's sonship. The parallels are strikingly similar.
  Both Israel and Jesus were called out of Egypt. The infanticide that accompanied the birth of Moses under the tyranny of the Egyptian Pharaoh, mirrors the infanticide instigated by Herod around the time of the birth of Jesus. Israel had forty years of wanderings in the wilderness, Jesus forty days of fasting in the wilderness. Israel went into the land of Canaan with God's power and anointing on them, Jesus came out of the wilderness with the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Him. Israel went through the Jordan into their promised land, Jesus was baptised in the Jordan and heaven opened over Him. Canaan is the earthly inheritance foreshadowing Israel's (and our) spiritual inheritance in Christ - (Ephesians 1 v 3, 1Peter 1 v 3-5). Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the promised land.
    When the woman at the well was conversing with Jesus about worship, she pressed the point on whether geographical location with respect to Jerusalem was important. -( John 4 v 19-20). This was a question of major significance. We are familiar with the phrase that 'all roads lead to Rome', but for the pious Jew living in Jesus' day, all the roads of spiritual reality pointed to the temple in Jerusalem. Temple worship and the Torah were the glue that held Judaism together, and would have been the focal point of regular Jewish pilgrimage.
     When Solomon's temple was dedicated, the Lord placed His Name and ownership on it- (2 Chronicles 7 v 12-22). Jewish pilgrimage to Solomon's temple would have been synonymous with seeking the Lord's Name for His favour and blessing. Solomon's temple was destroyed during the Babylonian exile, but the temple of Jesus' day ( called Herod's temple), was still seen by religious Jews as the place where you met with God. It was still, along with the Torah, the focal point that held Judaism together.
   What Jesus said to the woman at the well is ground breaking. His pronouncement that 'the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father' is seismic in its implication. The true sons and daughters of God will worship the Father 'in spirit and in truth', without the need for any geographical centre in Jerusalem. The physical temple would no longer be a place of mediation between God and man, but rather He, Jesus, would now be the temple - the mediator between man and God-( 1 Tim 2 v 5-6).
   In John's account of the temple cleansing Jesus makes reference to His own body as being the new temple where God dwells:
'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty six years to build this temple, and You will raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.' ( John 2 v 19-21)
        The church is now the new temple where God lives by His Spirit-(Ephesians 2 v 19-22,1 Peter 2 v 4-10). One of the pearls that the majority of Israel held onto was the mistaken belief that they still had a privilege of sonship outside the new covenant that Jesus ushered in. Jesus is the fulfilment of their sonship.

4. Jesus fulfills Israel's calling as the Light to the Nations- Matt 4 v 12-1, Matt 28 v 16-20.

     In Isaiah 49 v 6, Israel is referred to as a 'light to the gentiles'. Israel was to be the elect nation that would reveal God's glory to all the nations. Israel's calling as that light foreshadows Jesus as the Light of the World. When Jesus declared 'I am the light of the world', he was taking that mantle off Israel and placing it onto Himself, rather like the Olympic torch being passed on from location to location.
    That torch has now been given to the church to be the light of the world, a point not lost on Paul. In Acts 13 v 47, he takes the very quote in Isaiah refering to Israel as the light to the Gentiles, and redefines its application in relation to his own church planting mission amongst the Gentiles.

  5. Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah's Suffering Servant- Matthew 8 v 16-17.

     Perhaps no race has suffered more persecution than the Jews. Jewish culture was all but wiped out in parts of Europe during the Holocaust. The word Holocaust means burnt offering, and to many that is exactly what was happening to the Jews in Nazi occupied Europe.
    For many Christians, that burnt offering resulted in God establishing them again as a nation in 1948. This remains a controversial claim, but no Christian could seriously doubt the depth of Jesus' empathy with the suffering and pain the Jewish people endured in those satanic years. On the cross Jesus' final words, 'My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me? ', reveal how much Jesus can identify with those who are suffering and feel God forsaken.
   Jesus is the only burnt offering that makes peace with God possible. Whatever our view of the land and the modern political State of Israel, it is only Jesus who can fully restore and heal them as a nation. Land for peace will never bring peace to the Middle East. Only Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and Suffering Servant can do that for both Jew and Gentile alike.

6. Jesus is the fulfilment of Israel's prophetic calling as the Servant of Justice and Mercy to the nations- Matt 12 v 15-21.

    This quote from Matthew is taken from Isaiah 42 v 1-4, the first of four servant songs recorded in Isaiah. Despite the flaws in all of our theological systems, most would agree that a commitment to justice and righteousness are central to Jesus' life and teaching. Those who have surrendered their lives to the Great Pearl- Jesus, are to walk as He walked.
    The Jews of Jesus' day were offended by His commitment to righteousness, justice, grace and mercy. He extended privilege to women, honour to children, and respect for aliens and strangers that put Israel to shame. For example, He commends a Roman centurion for his faith, and in so doing exposes the unbelief and lack of faith within Israel (Matt 8 v 5-13). He is happy to receive financial support from women ( Luke 8 v 1-3), something unheard of for a rabbi to do. He honoured children and set them as an example of how we are to receive the Kingdom of God.
   Jesus demonstrates to Israel what it means to be the embodiment of justice and mercy, and in so doing fulfills the Law. Without Jesus at the centre, the pearls of the Law and the land lack both life and fulfilment.

7. Jesus fulfills the office of Israel's King - Matt 21 v 1-6, 27 v 37.

    Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant God made with David, that covenant bring summed up in the following verse: 'And your house and your Kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.' 2 Samuel 7 v 16.
  Did this ever happen in Israel's history? Where was their king and their kingdom when in exile? Who was their king in their post exilic return to the land? Where was their king during the four hundred silent years between the two testaments? The answer is that only in Christ is the Davidic Covenant fulfilled. There was no king in Israel after the Babylonian exile, and hasn't been ever since that time. It is Jesus alone who fulfills the office of Israel's king.
    Don Carson in his book 'Scandalous' points to the irony of the sign placed over Jesus at crucifixion, 'THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS'. He comments that 'this very Jesus who is being mocked as a king, is INDEED a king'. Israel was holding on to the pearl of a wrong hierarchical understanding of kingship, rather than surrendering to the servant king revealed in Jesus. How hard it can be for any of us to give up a wrongly entrenched belief system, when confronted with the opposite of what we were hoping for!

    Alfred Edersheim was a 19th century scholar, and messianic Jew. In his work 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah', he comments that Israel began with one man Jacob, and ended with the one man Jesus Christ. All of Israel's calling and election is fulfilled in Christ. In Christ, God is now constructing one new man, where there is no historic divide between Jew and Gentile -Ephesians 2 v 11-22. Jesus and His church are the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament temple was pointing towards. All who have faith in Christ, Jew and Gentile, are fulfilments of the promise given to Abraham, that he would be the 'father of many nations'-Genesis 17 v 5.
   The reason Israel rejected Jesus was because He didn't conform to their own theology of a messiah. There was no place for suffering and death in the Jewish concept of Messiah. When Jesus spoke openly about His pending crucifixion, Peter tried to persuade Him otherwise. Peter had no concept of a crucified Christ, and his well meaning but ultimately demonic wisdom had to be openly challenged by Jesus-Matthew 16 v 21-23.
   As a nation they had completely misunderstood the nature of Jesus' calling and election, as well as that of their own. Israel was called to serve as a light to the nations, to be the seed bed through which Abraham's Seed ( Jesus) would be born, through whom all the nations would be blessed. They were to be the firstfruits of what would ultimately be a harvest of 'all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands'- Revelation 7 v 9.
   When Jesus walked amongst them, they had 'eyes to see but couldn't see, ears to hear but couldn't hear.' We all have a selectivity switch, where we switch off from anything we see or hear that doesn't conform to our world view. The Jewish view of their messiah was of a conquering emperor, not a suffering servant dying on a cross. How could they have constructed that view in the light of such a clear portrait of the Suffering Servant recorded in Isaiah 53?
    The Jewish nation rejected their Pearl of Great Price- Jesus, clinging instead to the lesser pearls that were all intended to point to Christ. In Jonah 2 v 8, we read 'that those who cling to worthless idols, forfeit the grace that could be theirs.' In Jesus' day, Israel's religious system had become an idolatrous self serving system. The language and actions of Jesus couldn't be more explicit.
    He cleared the temple of those who had reduced religion to an opportunity for financial gain. He likened Israel to a fig tree having plenty of religious foliage but no spiritual fruit (Mark 11-12-19). Israel had a form of godliness, but no power. Rather than being the House of Prayer for all Nations, Israel's religious system had become a demonised, idolatrous, and self serving institution. Jesus was a threat to those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. It was the desire to preserve their own self interests that lay behind the Jewish religious leaders' decision to conspire with the civil authorities to have Jesus crucified.
   It is easy for any of us to relegate Jesus to being the 'best in the line of' pearls. He is far more than that. Jesus stands in a unique category of one. He is not simply the best in a line of options open to us, He is the Pearl of Great Price. Israel had a string of precious pearls, but without Jesus at the centre, those lesser pearls had no eternal value. My prayer for Israel today is that they discover Jesus as their Pearl of Great Price, and that the long suffering Jewish people come back to Christ as their true source of peace.

Why a dove?

    It was while listening to a download from teacher and theologian Ray Mayhew, that I was prompted to think around this question that he posed; 'Why did the Holy Spirit fall as a dove on Jesus at His baptism?' He went on to comment that John the Baptist had spoken of Jesus coming to 'baptise with fire', and that at Pentecost tongues of fire had come to rest upon the disciples in the upper room. However, at Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus not as a tongue of fire, but as a dove. Why a dove?
    With these questions in mind I have reflected on what spiritual realities those looking on at Jesus' baptism would have seen, and how we bridge cultures to apply what is relevant for us today. These reflections are not in any order of importance and are intended to provoke us to think what our lives could look like as men and women upon whom the Spirit rests.

   1. An image of mourning. -Isaiah 38 v14, 59 v 11, Ezeikel 7 v 16.

'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted' Matthew 5 v 4

    In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus promises that those who mourn shall be comforted. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and loves to respond to those who are aware of their need and dependency upon Him. He dwells with those who have the broken and contrite spirit of Isaiah 66 v 2, humbly responding to the Lord's word, the very opposite of self sufficient pride and man made religion.
    In recent weeks I have found myself mourning and lamenting the state of the nation. I have felt tearful, and at times angered over how much of our Christian heritage we have thrown away, and have found Psalm 11 v 3 a source of comfort- 'If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?'
   The answer is found in the next verse. As the church we are now the temple of God, ( 1 Cor 3 v 16-17, Ephesians 2 v 19-22, 1 Peter 2 v 4-10). We can pray and intercede for our nation, that God would continue to grant us grace and mercy. I am not one of those who subscribes to the doom and gloom school of prophetic intercession, and believe it is always God's desire for mercy to triumph over judgement, and that He wants to reveal His glory again in these islands. However, I have felt the Holy Spirit's grief over the pollution and destruction of so much of our Christian heritage.
      For example, I grew up in a school system where the Lord's prayer was prayed daily without any awkwardness. Prayer provides a covering over our governmental and educational ininstitutions, inviting the Lord's favour and blessing to rest upon them. Whilst acknowledging the pockets where this heritage still remains, the majority would now feel awkward having prayer at the centre of our government and education systems.
     As I pray and lament the apparent ongoing loss of our Christian inheritance, I am also inspired by the conviction that all is not lost. As I mourn and lament in the Holy Spirit, I am also convinced of the incredible grace and compassion of the Lord towards this nation, and firmly believe lamenting will be turned into the laughter and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

2. An image of atonement honouring the poor.

'And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons- one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean'

                                               Leviticus 12v 8

   Luke records that Mary offered the pair of doves for her purification after the birth of Jesus (Luke 2 v 23-24), the sacrifice of the poor. From the cradle to the grave Jesus is identified with the poor, and any serious move of the Holy Spirit will have the poor at the heart of it.
  The only cautionary note on this is to ensure that our serving of the poor is a response to the love that God has put into our hearts. That love will manifest itself in a variety of political and economic actions, from the micro level of caring for an elderly neighbour, to the macro level of confronting injustice and corruption in government.  
     My cautionary note of ensuring that we are responding to the love of God is because it can be easy for some of us to become zealots who end up cursing rather than praying for those who are the instruments of injustice. Our fight is not against flesh and blood,and we need to remember that Christ died once for all men. The one who died for the thief on the cross, and blind Bartimaeus, also died for the Herods and the Pilates of this world. Only when the dove rests on us can we love and serve the poor, and at the same time pray for the perpetrators of injustice.

3. Resting on a new creation and humanity.

    In Genesis 8 v 8-12, the dove that is released from the ark came to rest upon a new post flood creation. At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit found a place of permanent rest upon Jesus. In placing Jesus' genealogy immediately after His baptism, Luke deliberately makes a connection between Jesus, the second Adam, with the first Adam of creation.
    At His baptism Jesus is pointing to the cross where the old order of humanity in Adam will be buried with Him in death, and a new humanity ushered in through His resurrection. We are brand new creations in whom the Holy Spirit dwells (2 Corinthians 5 v 17).The old life of sin and death has been buried with Christ in baptism.
     We are now united with Christ in resurrection, and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now living in us! We live as joyful new covenant men and women, at peace with God and one another. Our emphasis  is growing into the new humanity that Christ has ushered in through His resurrection. We live as saints in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

4. Image of innocence and purity.

    'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God'.  
                           Matthew 5 v 8.

   Later on in his gospel Matthew records Jesus' words to the Twelve to 'be as shrewd as serpents, and as innocent as doves'. Purity of heart will attract the Holy Spirit.
    The lesson Samuel was taught when anointing the successor to Saul, that God looks at the heart not outward appearance, is one that can take a lifetime to learn. All of us can have an outward hit list of sin and behaviour that we find irritating, but how many of us have pride, carnal ambition , covetousness, lust, jealousy, manipulation, and self righteousness hidden behind a foliage of outward conformity to a right way of living?
    Jesus operated on a different playing field. He knew what was hidden deep inside the heart. A priceless passage for me personally, that has spared me time and time again is in John 2 v 23-25. It reads:
'Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and He had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in a man'.

    A caution and reserve in relationships is no bad thing at times, particularly with people you don't know very well. I have often been misunderstood for being aloof and one step back at times before committing myself to people. There are times when the Holy Spirit has simply been saying 'Not this one'.
God looks at the heart, through all the good and not so good outward behaviour, all the impressive and not so impressive testimonies. How discerning are we? Do we believe everything we see and hear, or do we probe a little deeper through the way things appear, not as self appointed sheriffs, but as watchmen growing in the insights of the Holy Spirit?

5. The dove is an image of sensitivity.

     Unlike a pigeon that will think nothing of eating of out of your hand, a dove will fly away at the slightest noise or movement. They are highly sensitive birds. Dr R.T. Kendall picked up on this comparison between doves and pigeons in an address he gave. He commented on how insensitive all of us are at times, practising what he coined 'pigeon religion'.
   He would quote amongst others the example of Samson. As Samson slowly gave in to the temptations of Delilah, he gave away the secret of his strength. When the Philistines attacked him, he got up and thought that he could shrug them off as he had done before. On this occasion he 'knew not that the Lord had departed from him' -Judges 16 v 20.
   We can easily offend the Holy Spirit, often with the type of unchecked motives and attitudes we have already touched on. Tongues and prophecy without love in our hearts soon become clanging gongs and clashing cymbals. Gifts of the Holy Spirit, lovely works of grace, can be seen to wrongly promote those we think have the Lord's favour over those we think don't have that favour. The dove that fell on Jesus remained on Jesus. We want the Holy Spirit to remain on our lives, not simply to touch us from time to time in meetings. The Holy Spirit found a permanent and sensitive place to rest and be at home with Jesus. That would not have gone unnoticed by those watching on at his baptism.

The Sociology of Knowledge applied to Biblical Interpretation

      'Our understanding of Scripture must always be open to refinement. All interpretations of Scripture need to be tentatively final. They have to be final in the sense that obedience cannot wait for the disciple to read yet one more technical article in biblical studies. At the same time, all efforts in biblical interpretation are flawed. Our interpretation of Scripture, therefore, must never be closed to correction and revision.'       
Ken Bailey -'Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.'

The Sociology of Knowledge encourages us to look at the influences that have shaped our thinking, and how those influences are then transfered on to our interpretation and understanding of the Bible. Ken Bailey goes on to quote Lesslie Newbigin's insights about the "plausibility structures" through which we see the world, so to quote again from Bailey's book: "What he, (Lesslie Newbegin), means is that each of us perceives reality through the lenses of our language,culture,history,politics,economic theories, religion and military."

  We often talk about the 'clear,objective meaning of a passage', but our problem as interpreters is that we are often very subjective in our exegesis, unaware of the subtle influences that our own personal contexts have brought to our interpretation. A young man growing up in a culture where women are dishonoured, patronized, and considered second best, could easily read into 1 Timothy 2 v 12 a convenient censorship on women taking a full and active role in the teaching faculty of the church. A theology of restraint on womens' ministry is then constructed, which is more the product of a skewed cultural lens rather than a commitment to Biblical integrity.
The illustration of attitudes to women is a helpful one. Jesus came into a Jewish culture that had the most appalling attitude to women. Jewish men of Jesus'day would be known to thank God that they had not been born a woman. Rabbinic schools were male only territory, with many embracing the often quoted motto 'that the scriptures would be better burnt than be handled by a woman.' Into this type of hostility, Jesus openly affirms women, even allowing them to support his ministry financially ( Luke 8 v 1-3). It would have been unheard of for a rabbi to openly receive this kind of support from women.
  He had no problem with Mary sitting at his feet, opening up a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well, or instructing a woman to go as the first witness of His resurrection and to inform the rest of the disciples. My point is that whatever our present conclusions might be on womens' ministry, the lens through which we interpret the scriptures needs to have Christ at the centre, and not any social or cultural stereotypes. This is true of everything we interpret in the Scriptures.
  A person may have grown up with an alcoholic parent whose alcoholism led to significant hardship in the family. Understandably, we might construct a temperance theology, but one that has more to do with our negative experiences than on on what the Bible actually has to say about the drinking of wine. Drinking to get drunk is clearly out of bounds, but the drinking of wine in itself is not.
     All of us have blind spots, where personal history has shaped our world view. What we might think is 'the clear objective teaching of the Bible', may actually be more a case of me reading into the Bible what I want it to say in order to legitimize my own personal preferences. A person born with a silver spoon in their mouth , growing up in an environment where they had everything they wanted on a plate, could easily misunderstand the nature of Christ like servanthood. Serving others in the spirit of Mark 10 v 45 is a lot more costly than giving people the time and resources from your life that you will not miss.
     The Western Church has been significantly shaped by Aggressive Capitalism. We can all quote the well known verse that 'a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions', but how many of us live as if the opposite were true? Why is it that a corrupt version of the 'Health and Wealth Gospel' can thrive in the Western Church, but would be laughed out of court in the North Korean or Chinese Church?
    I found this quote from Graham Johnson's book 'Preaching to a Post Modern World' more than struck a chord. He writes:

   "The Book of Job shows how God will not be pressed into an apology or explanation. Yet how often have Christians confused the living God with a vending machine? Are we looking to put in the coin and get the answer? When the machine fails, we kick it and demand 'Why?' "
   In the West we can so easily reduce our Christian faith to the vending machine illustration. When things go wrong, particularly in relation to life's comforts, we can be tempted to throw a tantrum. We read into the Bible that we are,as Christians,able to be immune from life's unpleasantries.
   A friend of mine observed that the persected church will pray courage prayers to see them through life's hardships, whilst in the West we will generally pray comfort prayers to get us out of life's hardships. Both types of prayer are fine- it's just that in our culture the comfort prayer rather than the courage prayer are more the norm.
  
      In one of the chapters of 'The Act of Bible Reading', edited by Elmer Dyke,the contributor Craig Gay,encourages us to have 'a little healthy suspicion toward all of those who are so anxious to tell us how we ought to read and understand Scripture.' The church pastor who is always talking about tithing, and whose salary depends upon the generosity of the church he pastors is an obvious example. Who is empowering who when the salaried pastor constantly reminds his church of the blessing that will come to them when they give their tithes to the local church?
    What is not so obvious are the subtle pressures that can be used to legitimise everything that the nation of Israel does and stands for in the Middle East. This will be the subject of a seperate blog, but suffice to say that the whole subject needs serious and objective rethinking. Who is empowering who when we are told that God will remove His blessing on the nation or person that doesn't pray for Israel? Where is that kind of fearful persuasion found in any chapter of the New Testament?
   I will leave the final word with Eugene Peterson. In his foreword to 'The Act of Bible Reading', he comments that 'Historically Christians have been concerned about how we read the Bible as that we read it'. He goes on to say 'that those who don't know the world of the Bible are likewise dangerous to themselves and others.'
  The world of the Bible is a far cry from the Western Culture that I live in. I couldn't determine the times and seasons for my birth and upbringing, but I can attempt to increasingly approach the Scriptures like a child, aware that I am so dependant upon the Holy Spirit, and the cumulative wisdom of others to find the life of Jesus within them.