Prayers for Eastertide.

Heavenly Father, your Christ has risen indeed! Dear Lord Jesus, because you are alive, I too shall live.

Lord Jesus, you were dead and now you live forever. Fill my heart with the joy and peace of your eternal life.  Dear Jesus, without you finding me, I would be lost. You called me by my name, even when I did not recognize you. I worship you, my Saviour and my Lord.

Lord Jesus, you are alive! Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God! You are truly alive! Grant me hope through the Word that shows me your hands and feet and your side and thus brings me faith and life.

Heavenly Lord, you made me your messenger to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. You truly bring good news to all who receive you in faith.   Oh holy Christ, my Lord and my God! In you I find the power to live, to be free of doubt, and to know you always.

Heavenly Father, on this day of joyful celebration, we pray for people in every kind of need;  that they too may know your power, your protection and your love.  Heal the sick, comfort the poor and console the lonely and forsaken. 

Make your ways known on the earth, your saving power among all nations.  We pray for the leaders of the world:  may they exercise their power with restraint.

Gracious Father, we pray for Your Church, which you love and for which you gave your Son.  Help us to serve the Church, and help us to love the Church, as Christ loves the Church and gives himself for her now and always.

Lord, we pray for our families.   Protect them from danger and from temptation.  We pray for our spouses and for our children. May they learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We pray for our parents and relatives:   teach us to honour and love them.

We pray for those who do not know the truth of the Gospel of the risen Christ, for those who seek you, but have not yet found you.   Lord, lead them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Guide us, o God, by your Word and Spirit that we may see your true light and in your Gospel discover victory, freedom and peace today. 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.    Amen.

Tenebrae

During the Tenebrae liturgy on Maundy Thursday, we are asked to meditate on the fact that it was on the Thursday evening before Good Friday that Jesus and his disciples were together for the last time, when he and they stood in the shadow of the cross, when he washed their feet and instituted the Holy Supper.

Tenebrae is the Latin word for dark shadows.  The gradual extinguishing of candles at our services will be symbolic of the advancing darkness that came over Jesus during the night of his arrest, the anguish of Gethsemane, the flight of the disciples, the bitter hate of his enemies, the looming shadow of the cross, the God-forsakenness. The moments of total darkness will recall the time when he was in the tomb.

We consider the immense sorrow that Jesus experienced.

Jesus knew that the judgment of God for all the sins of the world would be upon him! Not because he ever sinned, or disobeyed or transgressed, but because of the sins of the whole world.

But why dwell on this darkness? Why observe Tenebrae? What are we supposed to learn from it? What is the reason that this dark night is so clearly recorded?

In the darkness of Christ’s anguish we truly discover who we really are, without the grace of God and the redeeming work of Jesus, without the cross and the salvation and the forgiveness of God.

And we see the depth of the love and the mercy of Christ for sinners, for me and for you.

It is not without reason that the Bible records that in Gethsemane Jesus asked his closest friends, Peter, James and John, to keep watch with him while he prayed.

Moved by the overwhelming sorrow of Christ on that day and by the reality of what we are saved from, and the cost of it all, we too are called to keep watch and pray to not fall into temptation again.

We are called to keep watch with Christ, for the sake of the salvation of the world. Shall we forget the horror of those who die without forgiveness by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord?

After we saw what Jesus did for us, how can we not remember his commission?

Keep watch with me, and pray.

Go, he said, even to the ends of the earth, and proclaim the good news of salvation, make disciples of al. After we saw his love and saw some of his sorrow and his distress at Tenebrae, how can we not go!

Palm Sunday – triumphal entry of the Prince of Peace.

On Sunday 20 March 2016 billions of believers within the world-wide church will celebrate Palm Sunday.

We will remember a peace March in Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago and long for the Messiah of God to bring us peace and set us free, when we come to worship and sing our hosanna’s to the King of kings and prepare our hearts for commemorating his sacrifice of love and deliverance so soon to come!

Palm Sunday commemorates the Saviour’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem only days before his arrest and crucifixion — an event recorded in all four Gospels in the New Testament, emphasising its significance already during the time when the Gospels were written.

"This took place," says Matthew (21:4-5), "to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” And: “Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road" (Matthew 21:8, quoting Zechariah 9:9-10).

And Luke tells us: "As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  (Luke 19:37-38).

The Old Testament background to this day is found in Zechariah 9:9-10:

“Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey. And he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth."

Jesus was no military leader - he rode a donkey, not a warhorse — and his concern was pastoral and not political, as we read in Luke 19: 41 – 42:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

Oh, we pray that we would find peace when we celebrate the glory of the King of kings who gave his life to love us, bring us eternal peace and set us free from all bondage!

There are two kinds of spiritual disciplines.

The first kind of spiritual disciplines are the ones we choose. We understand these disciplines. The reason why we choose spiritual disciplines, often during the Lenten Season, is because we have a heavenly Father who sees us, who longs to draw us close and who wants to bless us with his presence, his compassion and he wants to grant us the grace to grow in our personal relationship with him.

It is not easy to set aside more time, energy and money for prayer, worship, meditation and sacrificial outreach to those in need.

But we agree that these disciplines we choose are never as hard as the spiritual disciplines we do not choose.

Jesus teaches about spiritual disciplines we do not choose for ourselves in Matthew 5.  In Matthew 5:11 he says, "God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers."  We never choose these disciplines for our spiritual growth - yet our Lord allows these episodes and events into our lives. Why would he allow trials of many kinds in our lives?

First of all, the spiritual disciplines you don't choose are described by James in James 1: 2 – 9 as trials of many kinds. They come in very personal shapes and sizes. But they have this in common: they test our faith. We are asking questions like, "What possible value could this situation have for me?  " And our faith is tested!

Now, how do we deal with tests we did not choose in order to grow into the spiritual maturity God desires in our lives?  There are at least three ways we can respond.  

Sometimes we rebel!  The first way we could respond to trials and tribulations is to fight against it, to get angry with people, with the world – with anything and anybody who had something to do with this.  Yet, there is no comfort, joy or growth on this path.

Or we can respond by resigning.  You start to believe that you are powerless in this trial and simply surrender to its painful reality. And this leads to a sense of subjection without hope that brings despair.

Or you can rejoice, as Jesus suggests in Mt 5: 11 and James in James 1:2.

Jesus says, God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you. Here is how he says you deal with that:  "Rejoice and be glad."  I want you to face that trial by a power of remaining glad - the power of rejoicing!

James says in James 1:2, "Whenever you face trials of many kinds, the testing of your faith, this is what you do: "Consider it pure joy."

It is a hard journey, but not impossible! And it takes you to a place of "choosing what you did not choose."

It is painful, it hurts and it remains hard.

But you say nonetheless "I choose to accept this situation as a situation in which God can work, in which I believe God's love cannot be stopped and he can work through this for my good and for his glory.

James teaches that because we choose to grow spiritually during this time of trial and tribulation and testing of our faith, it will bring us to a place of maturing spiritually and we will receive the gift of perseverance as a result of this choice.

And suddenly you notice an insightful difference on how you look at what happens to you! Instead of merely enduring it, you receive the freedom to grow as a disciple of Christ and to become stronger through God’s gift of perseverance.

Instead of something being taken from you, by choosing to grow within a situation you did not choose as a discipline, you see that because you have to mature through it, it is becomes a gift – a gift that makes you glad and rejoicing!

What was a dark prison without a door becomes your paradise in the presence of the Lord who sustains you, matures you - and most of all, loves you till the journey’s end!

Go to dark Gethsemane

Go to dark Gethsemane,

ye that feel the temp’ters power;

your Redeemer’s conflict see,

watch with Him one bitter hour;

turn not from His griefs away,

learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

Follow to the judgement hall;

view the Lord of life arraigned;

O the bitter cup, the gall!

O the pangs His soul sustained!

Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss;

learn of Christ to bear a cross.

Calvary’s mournful mountain climb;

there, adoring at his feet,

mark the miracle of time,

God’s own sacrifice complete;

it is finished, hear Him cry;

learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Why observe Lent?

The Season of Lent leads us into a deeper spiritual relationship with Christ. Remembering all that Jesus did for us, it should lead us from knowing about Jesus, to loving and following him wholeheartedly.

It is a dark journey in which we confront the strongholds of evil in our lives, deeply ashamed of what we became as a result of the lack of godly discipline that should be an integral part of being followers of Christ.

It is also a journey that leads to the light of God’s presence when the cross, the blood, the suffering, death and the grave of Jesus grant us hope, forgiveness and a deep sense of joy about the love, grace and the mercy of God.

Lent is also a Season for paying attention to our own lives. We remind ourselves that we are bound for death — and that we are bound to the death of Jesus Christ. Lent provides a time to focus our attention on the mystery at the heart of the Christian life: that through death, the death of Jesus Christ, we have entered new life.

As Paul says to the Corinthians, “We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying, and see — we are alive.”

This is the paradox of Christian life. We have been joined to Christ’s death once when we were redeemed, but we spend the rest of our lives growing to live into that union.

We have already died once, with Christ.

Yet the light of the resurrection waits for us at the end of the journey.

Lent invites us to turn again, take up our cross, and move ahead on the way to meet the one who shapes us, marks us and claims us as his own. Because after dying in Christ comes the miracle to be resurrected in Christ.

May a meaningful journey into the life that Jesus Christ gives, be granted to all God’s people during this Season.

Take heart - our God is in control!

It sometimes feels as if there is one big conspiracy to make the weight we carry on our shoulders, unbearable. 

If it does feel like that, listen to these inspired words in James 1: 16 – 17:

“Don't be deceived my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows”.

We are warned: Don't be deceived by cynicism and negativity. Do not believe the world that evil is out of control and nobody can help you! Do not be caught up in the despondency coming from those who are blind for the gifts of God!!

Do not be deceived by those who do not believe that nothing is impossible with God.

Pray for spiritual eyes that can see and appreciate that “every good and perfect gift comes from above, from our heavenly Father.

There are lots of good and beautiful experiences in life and it happens neither by random nor by chance. It comes from an unchanging gracious, merciful and good God!

Excitement about your future comes from the Father who made the heavenly lights: sun, moon, and stars! These awe inspiring creations of God show us stability, beauty, light and life and our God is the Father, the Creator, of these comforting, warm and beautiful “lights”. Just as he created lights, God is also much more than a “shifting shadow” – in other words, nothing. He is the almighty Creator, Sustainer and unchanging Provider of every good gift!

Therefore – never be deceived! Never become a victim of the propaganda of evil that everything is spinning out of control. Look at the great works of God in the sky and remember how great your God is! He is in control, he rules and he reigns – and he gives us every good and perfect gift!

We are called as children of our God to venture into the future with the confident knowledge that the “Father of the heavenly lights” is ready to provide us with every good, perfect, exciting gift we need in order to embrace our opportunities and with much joy and faith worship the Giver, the Provider, the Protector of us all!

The Gospel of Christ is aimed at mobilising each one of us to become living testimonies of God’s gifts of salvation, love, joy, peace and hope!!

Take heart - our God is in control, and you are always in his hands!!!

Covenant Renewal: God takes us back!

How committed to God do you want to be?  The answer to this question depends overwhelmingly on one’s view of God, who he is and what he did for me and you.

And nobody sees the glory of God directly, apart from how that glory is revealed in God the Son, Jesus our Saviour, by the work of the Holy Spirit.   Any other true view of God is simply impossible!

In Exodus 34 we find an encounter of Moses with God who had for some 40 days been in exceptional fellowship with this same living, holy God. Moses heard God saying wonderful things; he also heard God saying things that terrify.

We read in verses 5 – 7:  Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, the LORD.  And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Yet in the end Moses learned first and foremost how small he was before God, how weak, how completely dependent on our almighty Creator – and Redeemer. And that he is not the God of our subjectivity, our feelings, our imagination and our worldly ideologies.

This God is in no one’s pocket and no human mind has ever come near to grasping his greatness, his majesty, and his glory.

Everything changes when we once again see the true greatness and glory of our God in his salvation plan through his only begotten Son, Jesus. When we allow the divine glory to drain our hearts of all its trivial, self centred preconceptions and preoccupations and excuses about God.  

The foundation of every Christian’s life is the discovery of the greatness of God and especially, the discovery of how immeasurably small our thoughts, our ideas, our wills, our plans and even our lives are in comparison to the reality of the greatness of the one and only living, loving, gracious, holy God.

We are in awe that this God deeply cares about us and our lives, our thoughts and our feelings. Although we too often break away, God continuously reconfirm this covenant of grace with us, when we affirm our response to his grace with repentance, faith, love, awe and renewed commitment.

And that our Lord “takes us back” always remains the most amazing of it all.

May our love be sincere...

Paul emphasizes love as our main responsibility within the Church of Christ.  Whether it is our love for the Lord, fellow-believers, my neighbour or even my “enemy” – our love must be sincere and genuine.

If love is faked it consists of empty words and we must take care that “our deeds do not speak so loudly that others cannot hear our words of love”.

Romans 12: 9 “Avoid what whatever is evil; cling to whatever is good.”

Whenever Paul thinks of the faith community (or congregation), he teaches that they are a family in the Lord.

Romans 12:10 says:  Be devoted to one another in family love. Honour one another above yourselves.

We have one Father. The bond that unites the members of the family in the Lord has pre-eminence to any other bond or loyalty. The members of the “Christ-family” should do all in their power to be and remain devoted to each other in tender affection.

This family affection implies compassion, unity, peace, support, faithful worship and respect –especially for the sake of “those who are of the household of faith”. (Gal 6:10).

But we know from 1 Corinthians 13:4 – 8 that “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

Jesus-love is our standard and Jesus’ love our example!

The Epiphany – an almost forgotten celebration in the West.

In Eastern Christianity and in Spanish speaking countries the Feast of the Epiphany is still celebrated on 6 January with more outstanding liturgies and dazzling church services than Christmas. 

It is only in recent years that the Epiphany was again included in the celebrations and seasons of some branches of the Western Church, including some of the Protestant churches.

Epiphany celebrates that with the visit of the Wise Men from the East, the Messiah was revealed to the Gentiles, while Christmas, the birthday, is celebrated as the day when Jewish believers, such as the shepherds, worshipped the new born King.

This is why  Gentiles in the East took ownership of a Gospel moment, the visit of the Magi, where they, as non-Jews, were enlightened and received the revelation of the coming of Christ to our world and our lives.

What makes the Eastern Feast important is the understanding that enlightenment about Jesus as Messiah and the revelation of his light and glory is only possible when our thinking and prayers go beyond the Christmas story!

The glory of the Son of God, as it was revealed to his followers through his miracles, parables and teachings should help us understand who the King is that came to reconcile both Jew and Gentile with God! 

And the radical, complete and final epiphany of the glory of Christ can only be understood when we consider the meaning of his eventual suffering, and his glorious resurrection and exultation.

An epiphany of who the Son of God really is, requires a new path in life for followers of the King that was born on Christmas day.  

In the end, God is the ultimate actor. God has moved ahead of the church to embrace the entire world.  Indeed it is God's initiative that sets the apostles of biblical times and the church of every century to the monumental enlightenment where we clearly see that the true Messiah is not only the Saviour of a few Jewish believers – but equally so, the Redeemer of the entire world.

The wise men from the east have no other message to tell, than the Gospel that we should embrace the Jewish Messiah as our own Christ, our Lord and our Saviour. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

The shepherds received a remarkable Christmas experience from God. They shared a heavenly Christmas service with God’s angels and went to see the Child. And they did not treat the message thoughtlessly and indifferently.

No, they knew that what they saw, heard and experienced, was really important. “And they made known the statement, which had been told them about this Child. (Luke 2:17)

The significance of Christmas escapes some. Yet others cannot wait to proclaim it.

It is a true and life changing encounter with the Lord Jesus that moves us to live for him the whole year round. Our personal relationship with Christ certainly makes the difference.

And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen ... (Luke 2:20)

Celebrate Christ!  And your worship will glorify the Lord!  

If you receive a similar real-life experience from God this Christmas, like the shepherds did 2000 years ago, will you not sing his songs, pray his prayers and serve the majesty of Jesus every day of your life?

I wish all my readers a merry and blessed Christmas!

As you seek the Lord’s face, may you know his gracious, merciful heart and may this Christmas restore hope, peace, joy and love to your journey with our Saviour.

Fourth Advent Sunday: God so much loved the world...

God shared his love for us, and for all of his creation, by “sharing” his Son with us.  Sending his Son to become one of us, to be born for us, to teach us and guide us, to die for us and conquer for us, is God’s amazing love declaration to an entire human race in dire need of the light of the Lord.

God so much loved the world that he gave his only Son...

And the Son of God demonstrated sacrificial love during his ministry on earth, showing us the loving character of his Kingdom that will never end.  Advent is a season that reminds us to do what Jesus does, as we remember what he did when he ministered on earth. We are reminded to be kind, selfless and sharing.  It is a time to practice how to love as God loved us, by giving us his most precious gift, his only Son. Because our God is love, let us become love too.

The Gospel according to John says: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  – John 13:34-35

During the last Advent Sunday we express our need, even our desperate want, for God to love us in spite of whom we are and what we became. The Child in the manger is the confirmation of the divine love of God for his people.

It is his love and his mercy that brought us home and made us family, sons and daughters, of our Lord too. 

His is the love that reconciled us with Godself, in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer.

Joy to the world! Third Advent.

On Sunday 13 December 2015 we will light the pink candle of joy in church as our call to worship the Lord.  I am preparing a sermon on how Advent and Christmas joy should be part of our celebrations and excitement about the coming of the Kingdom of God through our lives and testimony as children of God, in Christ.

But I find it hard to focus on joy and gladness right now!  Deep concerns about the way our country’s finances is managed, the plummeting of confidence and of hope that our politicians will be wise and good in handling anger and despondency as a result of poverty and hunger, inequality and corruption – and many other issues - cloud my vision of a congregation passionately singing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come”, with sincerity!

While the drought is diminishing any hope of providing food security and irresponsible wasteful spending by apparently apathetic leaders overshadows one’s contemplation of Christmas cheer and gospel-joy, it is hard to look deep enough into the gospel to find the meaning of the “good news of great joy” the angels sang when Christ was born.

So why does the expected level of joy during this season seem to be absent from my heart and from the lives of many around me? Why do these endless concerns dominate so much of our thinking, leaving little time or energy for reflecting on the good and kind nature of God and the coming of his Kingdom in the world?

The much loved hymn that proclaims “joy to the world” encourages “every heart to prepare him room”. My struggle to allow godly joy to excite me must be because I haven’t comprehensively considered why I’m called to such (supernatural) joy.

Do I truly realize who God is? Do I comprehend the love shown by him coming from heaven and living among us in poverty for 33 years, giving his life for us on the cross that we could live with him in heavenly riches forever?

Do I truly see that despite my fleeing from God because I live in selfish decadence, he still came to seek and to forgive me at the cost of his suffering and death? Because if I earnestly did, my heart would prepare him room and find rest in the profound peace and joy that we sing about during this Season.

If I in faith saw God’s love and compassion as proven and illustrated by my Lord’s sacrifice and pain, concerns would not have impaired my convictions and cheer by trying to carry all these burdens that saddens me so much.

I really can do very little, if anything, to dry the many tears from countless eyes. But then, I do not rule the world with truth and grace. I do not have all power and authority in heaven and earth!

No, Jesus “rules the world with truth and grace …” as the hymn so boldly claims.

So I pray for myself and all my brothers and sisters that our Lord deepens and enlightens our understanding of Christmas, of the birth of the Son of God and I pray to understand the profound message of great joy the angels sang when he was born!

I admit I have been too focused on my own concerns and fears to prepare my heart to fully receive Jesus during this festive time. I have not done what I should have, to prepare room for the joy the Word promises to those who are in Christ Jesus!

“O God, help me to lay all my concerns at your feet, and in your mercy, open my troubled heart to make room for godly reflections on the grace you have in stall for me, freeing my mind to believe what Jesus has done for me and to fully and unconditionally receive my Lord’s intended Advent Joy and Christmas cheer.

O my God, grant me insight and faith that I can proclaim your eternal joy under even the harshest challenges and remain happy because you love me and all who receive your Gospel of forgiveness, release and power! Amen.”

Peacemakers travel on the highway...

Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace comes to us and to our world.

We need to change our ways.  Instead of being crooked paths of anger, vengeance and making trouble, we should become peacemakers.  Peacemakers travel on the highway of the Kingdom to spread the news and the reality of the coming of Christ’s rule and reign!

Jesus gave us a new way to live. He gave us the ability to not only forgive (as we are forgiven by God) but to release others from the consequences of their sins (as God releases me of mine).

Jesus gave us a new way to deal with violence – to resist it by being peacemakers.

Jesus gave us a new style of leadership - by drawing on the spiritual gifts of each member of the Body of Christ.

Jesus gave us a new way to deal with an immoral society – to build a new order in every sphere of influence we have.

Jesus gave us a new way to deal with relationships – in marriage, politics, civil society and our economic life,  where we share true humanity with each other and base the restoration of our associations on forgiveness, release of past divisive actions and moving forward in the unity of true peace.

Let's make a straight path for the coming of the Kingdom of our Lord. Let’s, like John the Baptist, become agents of repentance, forgiveness, release and a new life in Christ Jesus.

Let’s brand our lives with the words of the Christmas angels:  “Peace on earth!”

(See Luke 3: 1 – 6) 

Second Advent: Peace! Shalom!

On Sunday 6 December 2015 the Church observes the Second Advent Sunday and considers the peace that Christ, the Prince of peace, brought to our world and to us.

The apostles greeted the churches in the New Testament with the words, “grace and peace be with you!”  They were thinking of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that brought the “shalom” - the peace of God and peace with God - into our lives.

Divine peace describes the very way that God exists. It describes the heart and character of God.  It is all about the eternal love, grace and unity within the Holy Trinity since before time began.  God in perfect joy takes pleasure in peace within Godself.  This is the peace he shares with his children.

When our relationship with God is restored, he removes the warring madness and makes us peacemakers and peace- beneficiaries again!

God came to us in Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, to be with us always. God comes through his Spirit into our lives to restore peace with him and each other.  Christ comes again one day to perfect eternal peace as we share eternity with him.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world came to us as Immanuel to stay with us and grant us his peace with God and also with each other!

Season of Advent.

The Season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas Day, starts on Sunday 29 November 2015. The word “Advent” essentially means “coming” and “expecting”.

We remember during Advent that Jesus Christ promised to physically come to us again, to create a new heaven and earth in which we will live for all eternity!  His first coming, celebrated on Christmas Day, inspires us to believe that the next coming of our Lord brings hope, peace, joy and love to our lives, our churches and our world!

1. During the Advent Season we in faith are looking forward to the day when the kingdom of the Lord Jesus will bring all distress to an end. And Jesus who promised to return to us says: “Yes, I am coming soon." (Rev 22:20).  It is a season for hope.

2. During this season we also remember that Jesus wants to come into our lives, here and now, through his Spirit’s work in us, and through us come to a lost world in dire need of him.  It is a time for peace with God and each other.

3. It also is a time to be filled with joy, because God became a human being and was born as a baby on that first Christmas, to become our Redeemer and King!

4.  Ultimately it is a time for love.  God so much loved us that he sent his Son, that we may not perish but have eternal life.  This love we share with our fellow believers and with the whole world.

Central Message of this Season:  God gave his Son

During the Advent Sundays, until Christmas day, we will remember that Christ took on our weak, human nature and became one of us.   As the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Cor 5: 21:  God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

This is what Jesus Christ did for us on that first Christmas day. In taking on ”weak human flesh”, he associated himself with our dilemma which is the result of our mistakes, disobedience and sin.

Let’s put our trust in God the Son. Let’s rejoice, because he did everything we could not do to save us! Let’s pray that he will come soon to dry all our tears and grant us peace.  Let’s wait with the same urgent love of the believers in the New Testament Church for the victorious and conquering return of Christ, our King.

Christ the King - part two

If Jesus is King and Lord, why are so many things still wrong, impure and painful in this world? If the Messianic Kingdom, promised in the Old and New Testaments, came about when Jesus went to heaven to be crowned King of the universe, of heaven and earth, and if he is in control of everything, how must we understand the experience that so much of our lives is still about injustice, sadness, sin and death?

The answer simply is:  Until Jesus comes again there are both goats and sheep in the world.

First of all, the truth is that there one day will be a separation of the sheep and the goats. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left!  See Matthew 25:31-46.

There will be a judgment day. King Jesus is coming again. The Son of Man will come in his glory and he will sit on his throne as the royal Judge of all. He will come “to judge the living and the dead.” (Apostles Creed) And in this judgment of all people, there will be a separation: “He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left.” There is no middle ground.

Secondly, the truth about sheep and goats is that this judgment will be on the basis of whether we showed the nature of being one of Christ’s sheep, or if we lived like a goat! He will say, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.”  And then, on the other hand he will say, “I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.” 

Paul also teaches in 2 Corinthians: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Thirdly, we all know that it is only faith in Christ that can produce the Kingdom works that righteous sheep do. Notice what the King says “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Everything is centred on our relationship with the King and the person of the King. If our works of love are done as a result of our faith relationship with Christ, then it is regarded as works of his Kingdom. If we have is no relationship with Christ and has not been done for him, then even what is considered good works in the unbelieving world, make no difference to our status in the Kingdom of Christ.  

We must be linked to Christ and his goodness. We must live as a sheep in his fold and therefore receive the gracious gift by which sinners are accounted as good-in order for there to be any works of love and mercy for Christ. Faith in Christ is the key as to whether our lives will be judged to be works of his Kingdom, or not.

Finally, it is faith in Christ the King that saves. Following the King, accepting him as King and Lord of our lives, turns our lives around and the evidence that our lives have been turned around form being goats to sheep, is a free gift! Pure grace! 

Only Jesus Christ the King gives us this miracle, that we are redeemed from belonging to the flock of goats and turned into his sheep.  His precious blood washes away our sins. His righteousness is imputed to us as a gift. His perfect holiness purifies our imperfect lives, and his Spirit turns us into people who do everything for him in obedience to our majestic King and Lord!

Faith alone saves by grace, but the faith never stands alone. It is always accompanied by the works of the Kingdom of the King that saved us.

Faith works. Like a good tree, it bears good fruit.

The righteous do not proudly keep score of their Kingdom works. They look to the finished work of Christ, who alone can produce works in us that are accepted as good in God’s eyes.

The key to living and experiencing the Kingdom of Christ is to have a relationship with Christ.  It ensures that our sins have been forgiven, washed away by his blood that was shed on the cross. This is the only way through which our impure, selfish lives can be wiped away and be replaced with the very works of Christ the King: your Judge is also your Saviour!

This is how we glorify Christ the King!  We live for him. 

We do things similar to what he did when he was on earth.  Then others can also believe that Christ the King, the Messiah, indeed reigns!  They can believe that they too may believe in him and be saved through faith in him, by grace. 

Christ the King – part one.

Sunday 29 November 2015 is the first of four Advent Sundays.  It means, amongst other things, that Christmas comes after only 6 more Sundays.

Between Pentecost and Advent we learn about the matters of the Kingdom of God. So before Advent starts we consider a few focused thoughts on “Christ the King”.

We know that the kings of Israel failed to live up to God’s standard. Yet the true believers continued to trust in the Messianic promise of a just and righteous king. This promise helps our understanding of Christ as king. Whereas no human being was ever completely able to fulfill the expectations of a king (or government) that ruled justly, for Christians “Christ the King” is the fulfillment of all the prophecies.

Christ does not and did not come as an earthly king.  He is not going to overthrow earthly rule. His kingdom is not one of swords and military, economic or corporate and organizational might.

His sovereign power comes from bearing the truth: The truth of salvation, the truth of love, righteousness, and eternal life that ultimately is the only power that is sustainable and lasts eternally.

John writes about our King in the Revelation Book: “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”   Rev 1: 5.

John proclaims that Jesus is the faithful witness of the salvation truth. “He is "the firstborn of the dead," meaning the first to rise from the dead and we will all follow. He also is the ruler of the rulers of the earth. He made us a kingdom of priests serving his God and Father in all circumstances.

Proclaiming that Christ alone is Lord and King is a counter-cultural choice to make. The unbelieving world will never accept his authority.

But neutrality is not a choice. We either serve the world or serve the truth that is Christ.

It is the only way to true living.

I am failing physically, emotionally and spiritually! “But God!”

Psalm 73: 26: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

“My flesh and my heart may fail" defines despondency, meaning an experience of failure, unhappiness, sadness, hopelessness and misery. There are three parts to this little phrase.

"My flesh" – there is a physical component to failure.  The body weakens; there are aches, pains, fatigue and eventually the risk of serious illness as a result of constant despondency – ulcers, diabetes, strokes, heart decease and many more. And when “my flesh” fails me, there always is exhaustion.

Secondly, "and my heart may fail" – which means that there is an emotional-spiritual dimension to my despondent experience of being a failure.  We experience emotions that can be described as feelings of being discouraged, depressed, gloomy and burned out.

Thirdly, there is this word, "fail" in this verse. It means that I have come to my wits end, depleted of resources and of a vision for my life and the future.

Is it a sin to feel that I am failing physically, emotionally and spiritually?

Under sad and hopeless circumstances it is no sin to feel despondent. Many of the exemplary believers in the Scriptures experienced deep and dark sadness - and even hopelessness. Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow in Gethsemane.

But, what is a sin is to yield to despondency. To make it your partner for life, to refuse to counter-attack it and to think that God cannot reach you in that dark space – or to believe that God cannot do something new in your life and change your broken heart into a source of fresh gladness and joy!

The most important 2 words in this verse are: "But God..."

Psalm 73:26 contains this truth: "My flesh and my heart may fail":

And then we launch the spiritual counter attack by saying:  “but God.”

So here we are. Often feeling that life left us failing, empty and without vision, plan or joy.

The Scripture reminds us of the counter attack we are called to:  “But God”. 

God is the strength of my life.

And God is my portion forever!

God is my help, my salvation.  In Jesus Christ I am saved from even my failures, sadness and hopelessness.

Despondency comes from many places.

But faith comes from one place only. It comes from the willingness to say: “but God.”

But God can fill me with gladness again – in and through Jesus Christ, my almighty Lord.

God liberates from sin’s tyranny.

Humanity’s biggest problem is that death reigns. We need miraculous interventions to be liberated from the tyranny of death!

We read about this in Romans 5. In verse 14 Paul says:  Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

The reason that we need to talk about being delivered from sin's presence, penalty and power, is because sin must be reckoned with.  We see the extent of sin’s power in the little phrase "death reigned" found in verse 14. And death has reigned in all ages and among all people. Everyone dies. The one thing that we can say about sin's power is that it is remorseless.

Our problem is that through the legacy of sin, we live to die. We are dying while we are alive. The reality of the presence, penalty, and power of sin cannot be avoided by human or natural effort.

This is why we all need to be saved from sin’s consequences.  This is why our deepest possible human need, is for God’s miraculous interventions in our lives!

The answer lies in the power of a supernatural life!!

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:15-21

The solution to our problem, struggling with a life infected with death and its consequences,  is not to be found by redoubling our efforts to be better people.

It is only to be found by looking outside of ourselves to a power greater than ourselves:  the power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Unless we received the supernatural life in Jesus, given to us by the intervention of a supernatural God, we will never be free.

Instead of liberty, we will experience death. Sin is merciless and the reign of death has exempted no one.

But the gift of sharing in the eternal life of Christ Jesus has released us from our burdens.  

We are told that through the gift of righteousness we shall reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

It means is that Jesus Christ is more powerful than the reign of death. He causes us to reign in life. We are released from the bondage of the power of sin through Jesus Christ.

His gracious gift of life has set us free from the tyranny of sin and all its consequences!