I am the bread of life

Jesus and bread.
 

Bread is a staple.

Jesus is not the icing on the cake of life but our staple diet.
Bread is universal
Bread is everywhere, and so is Christ. He is universally available.
Bread is eaten daily.
Jesus can nourish our hearts daily.
Bread is served in many forms.
Jesus is adaptable to need.



Bible Reading:  John 6:25-40
The large number of people in John 6 are from the 5000 men plus women and children who enjoyed the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

 1. They are excited. 
Their excitement was based upon what they expected Jesus to do for them but this is due to a false assumption of who Jesus was and what he was offering.
Jesus would not accept their invitation to be their king, sent his disciples away from the influence of the crowd and withdrew to a mountain.

2. They are determined
They are passionate and aggressive in their search for Jesus, which is encouraged by Jesus at other times, (Matthew 7:7) however their motives are wrong.

The crowd falls into three categories:

a) Materialists          John 6:25

The people wanted hand-outs and provisions. They lived with material insecurity which exhausted them physically and humiliated them emotionally. A physical struggle can rob a person of the energy to meet needs of the heart and soul.  That is why William Booth said that it was no use preaching to a man whilst his belly was empty and their feet were cold.
Jesus advice           John 6:27
Jesus recognised that these people didn’t recognise spiritual need but assumed material wealth would satisfy them completely.  
In the west today we don’t deal with the fact that we are spiritually starving to death not because we are struggling with poverty but because we are so over stimulated by our outer senses that we can hardly hear our inner soul.  Many fear looking at the hunger within.  We should value our spiritual hunger as we do our physical hunger; a bad appetite leads to under nourishment and malnutrition.

 b) Legalists              John 6:28
This group wanted a list of rules because it is easier to be dominated by a leader than to responsible for your own inward spiritual life.  It is easier to make rules than to build relationships.

Jesus’ reaction: John 6:29
The LEGALISTS wanted the LAW but not the GIVER of that law.
c) Sensationalists  John 6:30
Even though they had witnessed the feeding of the 5,000 by the next day this group were eager for another sensation.
Many in the church today fall into the category of “keep them “wowed” and you’ll keep them around!”  It is fickle.
John 6:34
Jesus replied with, “I am the bread of life.”
The Greek could be translated "I am the bread of life and no one else is.
No more waiting required.  Jesus didn’t say “I’ll get onto the supplier.  I have arrived. Here I am.

Which group of people in the story do you have the most sympathy with?

Why wouldn’t Jesus settle for meeting the economic needs of people and abolishing hunger?

What is the most satisfying thing about your relationship with Jesus at the moment?

If Jesus came to meet all our spiritual hunger, why doesn’t every Christian experience full  satisfaction all the time? 

How do we know the difference between being satisfied with our Christian experience and being complacent?

What do you hunger for spiritually?  

Read the story of the baker below and pray about your own efforts to help people find Jesus the bread of life

 The Story of the Beggar and the baker

There was a beggar who came and sat before a baker. “I want bread,” he said. “How wise you are,” the baker assured him. “Bread is what you need. And you have come to the right bakery.” So he pulled his cookbook down from his shelf and began to tell the beggar all he knew about bread.
He spoke of flour and wheat, of grain and barley. The baker’s knowledge impressed even himself as he cited the measurements and recipe. When he looked up, he was surprised to see that the beggar wasn’t smiling. “I just want bread,” he said.
“How wise you are.” The baker applauded his choice. “Follow me, and I’ll show you our bakery.” Down the hallowed halls he guided him, pausing to point out the rooms where the dough is prepared and the ovens where the bread is baked.
“No one has such facilities. We have bread for every need. But here is the best part,” he proclaimed as he pushed open two swinging doors. “This is our room of inspiration.”
The baker knew the beggar was moved as they stepped into the auditorium full of stained-glass windows. The beggar didn’t speak. The baker understood his silence. With his arm around his shoulder, he whispered, “It overwhelms me as well.”
Then the baker leaped to the podium and struck his favourite pose behind the lectern. “People come from miles to hear me speak. Once a week my workers gather, and I read to them the recipe from the cookbook of life.”
By now the beggar had taken a seat on the front row. The baker knew what he wanted. “Would you like to hear me?”
“No,” he said, “but I would like some bread.”
“How wise you are,” The baker replied. And he led him to the front door of the bakery. “What I have to say next is very important,” he told him as they stood outside. “Up and down this street you will find many bakeries. But take heed; they don’t serve the true bread. I know of one who adds two spoons of salt rather than one. I know of another whose oven is three degrees too hot. They may call it bread,” the baker warned, “but it’s not according to the book.”
The beggar turned and began walking away. “Don’t you want bread?” the baker asked him. He stopped, looked back, and shrugged, “I guess I lost my appetite.”
The baker shook his head and returned to his office. “What a shame,” he said to himself. “The world just isn’t hungry for true bread anymore.”

Pray about your own efforts to share Jesus the Bread of Life with others  

 

Courage

Sunday 2nd June 2013
Exeter Temple Bible notes
Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 31:1-8

There are situations in life that require even more than just confidence. They need courage. Today we have witnessed the enrolment of a soldier in the Salvation Army. This is an act of courage, as is any stand we make in obedience to God and his word.

Deuteronomy 31:7b “Be strong and very courageous for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their forefathers to give them and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

1. Courage comes from a sense of call
Even though initially it was Moses who commissioned Joshua when everything was looked difficult or dangerous, Joshua knew that his involvement in the claiming of the Promised Land was God’s idea. It was not easy following the famous Moses and Joshua needed personal reassurance from God that he was the man for the job.
Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you?
The secret of courage is the knowledge that what you do is right. If we have a sense that God is behind us we can be filled with confidence. God has a particular purpose for all of us, which he promises to guide us into. For Joshua, it was to go with the people of Israel into the land and be responsible for allocating the areas where each tribe was to settle. Without the assurance of God within us, that what we undertake is what He commands, there will always be the fear that we ought to be doing something else.

How can we find that assurance?
 Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Guidance about what we should specifically do with our lives comes from him in a variety of ways. God speaks to us by His Spirit, into our minds, through the scriptures, through other people and in our circumstances, sometimes in more unusual ways, like dreams and visions – a variety of ways - but God does command us. We need to take time to listen. When we do a sense of certainty comes.

2. Courage comes from good company
Joshua is also told not be afraid. Fear is an immediate and intense internal alarm system that alerts us to the presence of danger. It prepares us either to flee from or fight against the perceived danger.
Almost every servant of God from Genesis to Revelation is at one time told not to be afraid. In most the Bible does not just instruct us not to be afraid but attaches promises to the instruction.

Joshua did not need to be afraid because, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you or forsake you.”
What fear to you battle with?
It was possible for Joshua to experience fear at the prospect of the way ahead and yet be a courageous man, for courage is not absence of fear but its conquest.

In Mark 6:50 When Jesus walked on the water towards frightened disciples they were more afraid than ever until Jesus reassured them with the words, “Take courage, it is I!”
In the tense situations of life we can become so absorbed in battling with them that when the presence of Jesus becomes real we fail to be comforted. We almost see it as another thing to cope with.

Yet often the difficult experiences of life only bring Jesus closer to us. The benefit of having Jesus close to us is immeasurable.

3. Courage comes from the strength of God’s word

The conviction that we are in God’s will gives us courage to step out, but we need strength to continue. Joshua is told not only to have courage but to be strong.
Courage and strength are not the same things. I might summon up enough courage to get in the water and swim with crocodiles but that doesn’t mean I would have what was needed fight them off if they got nasty!

How would Joshua be strong?

In Deuteronomy 31 Joshua’s call comes at the end of a great summit when all the people had been called together to renew their covenant with God. The people were reminded that their future prosperity lay in holding fast to God and obeying his instructions.

Deuteronomy 30:15 “See I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your god, to walk in his ways and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”

It is in the context of such an instruction that Joshua receives his calling to lead.

Joshua 1: 7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”

Joshua could rely on his own merits and do a good job but he is told to rely on the word of God given to Moses. Short cuts to strength are very dangerous. Athletes using steroids to build muscles and increase power are dangerous giving short-term success but in the long term affecting their health. Joshua, having been a popular sort of hero could be tempted to rely on his previous successes and on his famous name to follow in the footsteps of Moses, using military experience to conquer the Promised Land. However Joshua must not rely upon his own resourcefulness but should have confidence in the word of God.

The world has a very subtle way of making us feel foolish about believing in God and his word. We need to remind ourselves that we hold the most important message our world has ever and will ever know because sometimes Christians lose their confidence.

Laurence Singleshurst: “We have seen our society move away from one that was largely based on Christian morality where the church was an accepted part of the fabric of our communities. We have watch the church decline in numbers and influence. We have seen that it has become more acceptable to hold almost any other set of beliefs than those held by Christians. We realise that we cannot expect our friends and family to have even a basic knowledge of who God and Jesus are. Do we still believe that the gospel is the powerful message which has the ability to save?

He goes on to say, “Our society is involved in an epidemic of selfishness. Our whole post-modern way of thinking that says we decide what is right and wrong for ourselves out of our own experience; that we as consumers are the ultimate answer to what is right and wrong. Now our society gives us permission to be selfish, we are making choices dependent on what feels good to me. It is a manifesto for ultimate selfishness. Is there one of your friends who has not been damaged by someone else’s selfishness?
We can have confidence in the gospel because it has an answer to the deepest sickness in our society. Through Jesus there is a way to break free from the selfishness that can now be seen to be the curse of our families, communities and nations.”

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Joshua needed to rely upon the wisdom of the word of God but he was also commissioned to uphold it and pass it on to others. Would he be strong enough? Again the word of encouragement comes to him and to us. “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you.”

When Paul was giving his testimony in his letter to Timothy, he wrote,
2 Timothy 1:12 “I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”

The Message translation puts that same verse. ”But I have no regrets, I couldn’t be more sure of my ground. The One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he trusted me to do, right to the end.”

Blessings
Carol

The Eyes of God

1. THE ALL SEEING EYE OF GOD

We live in a surveillance society and we are at times comforted and disturbed by this. Is it a comforting or a disturbing fact that God has such remarkable eyesight that He never misses anything, ever?

Isaiah 29:15: “Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in the darkness and think, “Who sees? Who will know?”

Nothing can be hidden from God. Unless it is dealt with, there will come a day when God, who has seen all our sin will judge it all.

God is a God of justice who wants to see justice done. Because God sees everything we can trust Him as our judge. He sees not only actions but motives, not only deeds of the moment but the history that built up to it. He sees not only what we have done but what has been done to us. When he does declare us guilty, that verdict is not His final word, there are other words that He offers to speak over us, such as forgiven, healed, redeemed or restored.

The all seeing eye of God is not something to fear but to trust.
Genesis 16:1-16
Whilst waiting for God to fulfil his promise that Abraham and Sarai would have a son Abraham had a son by his wife’s slave Hagar. Instead of this being a solution it caused tension. Hagar ran away. In the desert God came to this desperate and lonely woman.
Hagar finds a new name for God. She calls Him; “The Living One who sees me”. Rather than this terrifying Hagar, it gave her the strength to go back and face the situation she had run away from.
Hagar was bullied by Sarah. Bullying is so often done so subtly. It seems to happen when no one else is there to defend us.

Hagar tried to escape her but God’s angel would not let her hide or deny what had happened, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” (v8)
God already sees our past but he will often take us back to acknowledge the pain and look at it again but this time through His perspective.
The angel’s second question is also vital, “Where are you going?”
Hagar knew what she was running away from but she had no idea where she was heading. But God could see and God knew and then instructed her to trust Him and go back so that she could have a future.

This story also shows us the possibility of our own eyes being opened. Hagar said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

It is great to be the object of someone’s care. It is even better to know that you are.

2. THE SEARCHING EYE OF GOD

2 Chronicles 16:9: “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”

Every day, God watches out for an opportunity to do a great thing for us when our hearts are devoted to him.

In 2 Chronicles 16 Asa had defeated the Ethiopians in open battle but he now he sought only a human solution to his problems by making alliances with pagan nations. When confronted by the prophet Hanani about is rebellion Asa threw him in prison and began to oppress his own people.

It is not sin to use human means to solve our problems but it is sin to trust them more than God. Instead of there being commitment in his heart there was rebellion. And that is serious.

When Samuel confronted King Saul about his rebellion he used strong words, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”

Now not many of us would contemplate getting involved in witchcraft but how many of us can say that there have not been times when we have kicked against God’s way in our life and stubbornly refused to accept His will or do it?

God is looking for people with a right heart attitude. God can do great things through those whose heart is right

1 Corinthians 2:9: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

God begins to work in our lives at the level of our hearts. The heart is the place of conscious decision making, the place of spiritual activity. Our hearts are our personality as a whole. It’s our desires, our passions and our will. It is where God meets us.

God is not impressed with externals. It’s possible to be religious and devout on the outside, and to be hollow and empty spiritually inside.

Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties. See if there is any wicked way in me annd lead me in the way everlasting.”

God’s eyes are moving back and forth across the earth looking not only for individuals to bless but for congregations of His people that are fully committed to Him. The most important characteristic of a God-blessed church is a passionate unquenchable love for God and when God finds that He blesses and He strengthens.

3. THE GUIDING EYE OF GOD

Psalm 32: 8:“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you”.

The AV translates this as “I will guide thee with mine eye.”

v9: “Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you”.

When our children are small we often need to put them on reins because they may not understand the instruction to stop at the kerb, look both ways etc. As they grow older they are given more freedom. Perhaps they are allowed to walk to school alone, but the parent stands at the gate and when they are given the nod, they can cross the busy main road.

Or the contrast could be a puppy that must be taken out on a lead, with the sheep-dog, who only needs a signal from the shepherd to perform the complicated task of rounding up the correct number of sheep into a pen.

God does not want to bark instructions at us or have to force us to do His bidding. God wants a people who know Him well enough to move at His slightest urging. He wants us to have that kind of rapport that is there between people who work closely together, for whom a glance is enough.

Half of the time though we may not even be looking in His direction. We really do need to turn our eyes toward Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”.

Many believers do not spend enough time in God’s presence to know Him in this way. Instead they go about their business and don't know what it is their trusted leader would have them do.

God bless

Alan

Going deeper:

In what ways has God’s watchful presence been comforting or disturbing to you?

What stands out for you in the story of Hagar?

How would you answer if God were to ask you, “Where have you been and where are you going?

How assured are you that we are the apple of God’s eye?

What example could you give of God’s guidance in your life?

Where do you feel you are in relation to your sensitivity to God’s will?

The Arms of God

In art, in literature, in music arms provide images of strength, welcome, protection, rescue, tenderness, and comfort.
The Bible shows us that those are things that God offers us. The Bible also often uses the symbolism of arms to describe God’s character and activity.

1. God at the ready                             Isaiah 52:10

Psalm 8:3-4 “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”
As marvellous as the creation of the heavens is, they were just the work of his fingers. However when God saw the damage our sins brought about the Bible says the “Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations.” It’s as if creating the world was easy but when it came to solving the crisis of our sin, God had to roll up His sleeves and he really got down to business… This is a serious matter for Him. God intervenes and he is going to act to save his world.
In Luke 1:46-55 Mary saw that her own miraculous pregnancy and that of her cousin Elizabeth was a sign that God acted to fulfil his promise to save.
“From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; (v48-51)

All this activity of God is intricately bound up with the birth of Jesus. His incarnation is the indication that God has done something, that far from being indifferent to the world he stepped right into it.

Strangely not everyone wants a God who is so concerned. They would rather he minded his own business.
Why do people reject the idea of God reaching down into our lives? It is probably because they want to hold on to the arrogant assumption that they can fix the world themselves. God will never accept that the world is not his business. He will never accept that you are not his business. He is and will ever be not only our creator but our Father.

We delude ourselves if we think human beings can sort out this world wn it is we and our sin that is the problem. The old hymn Stand up, Stand up for Jesus has the line, “The arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own. We need outside help. We need a Saviour. Praise God, we have one.

The image of the Lord baring his arm is a picture of a soldier making ready for battle. Any warrior in Bible times would of necessity remove an upper garment, and free his arms of all encumbrances in order to fight effectively. Usually, this meant wearing some type of sleeveless upper garment so that the arms were totally unhindered in battle. The Bible shows us that God is a warrior ready to go into battle for us.

2. God at work

It is of course one thing to be willing and ready to get involved in trying to save and rescue. But are his arms long enough to reach us and are they strong enough to win the day?
Isaiah 59:1 “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”

The flexing of muscles immediately conveys power and strength.
In the Bible God is described like this, “Your arm is endued with power, your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.” Jeremiah once said to God, “Ah Sovereign Lord you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you”

Such verses give us tremendous hope because there are millions of things that we find too hard to do.
However a question that raises itself is, “If God is all powerful why do we still see such suffering in the world?”
If he is all powerful why does he let bad things happen?
Where do we begin to answer such a question? Where we start is actually the crucial thing. If we start with the bad things and try to reason back to God we will never make it.
If we start with lung cancer or divorce or rape or murder or earthquakes it is hard to find God. He is there but he is hard to see.
It is far better to start with God and what you know about him and then go back to the bad things. In our personal experience God has shown us his love, and his power we know his presence with us. What we know of him tells us that God will find a way of redeeming the seemingly impossible situations in the world.
We need to start with what we know about God and then look at the world. And what we know about God is best expressed in Jesus. Jesus said, “He that has seen me has seen the father.” When I look at Jesus I see someone who cares, who loves without limit and who ultimately overcame the greatest enemy of men, death itself.
Jesus is represented by the ‘hand’ and ‘arm’ of God. We have heard the expression: “He is my ‘right arm’, or my ‘right hand man’.” These expressions indicate how valuable this person is to us, and how necessary to accomplish the desired results—the person described in this way is an extension of ourselves to help carry out our plans.
Psalm 89:13 “Your arm is endued with power.”
Matthew 28:18 “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me.”
And so let’s not forget that when we say God is a God at work the culmination of that work took place on a hill outside Jerusalem where the Saviour God sent, bared his arms and had them stretched out and nailed to a cross but such was his power that he rose to life three days later.
And we can obey the request of the psalmist; “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” (Psalm 98:1)

3. God at my side

Are we able to have an individual relationship with such a powerful being or is he just too overwhelming to know personally?
Human beings have done everything to provoke the Lord to anger.

When faced with the holiness of God and his own sinfulness the prophet Isaiah cried out, “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)

Yet Isaiah was not destroyed but cleansed and then commissioned by God to speak for him.
The Victorian preacher, Spurgeon said, “What a mighty arm of grace it must have been which held back the anger of God while we were in a state of rebellion and impenitence! For God to rule the angry sea seems nothing, to me, compared with the power which He exercises upon Himself when He endures the provocations of ungodly men, the hardness of their hearts, their rejection of Christ and, oftentimes, their blasphemous speeches and their unclean deeds. O Sinner when you are sinning with a high hand and with an outstretched arm is it not a wonder of wonders that God does not cut you down and end your insolence?” (Spurgeon)

Yet God does not just refrain from destroying us his is an outstretched arm that gathers.

Isaiah 40:11 “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

Deuteronomy 33:27,"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.



We must realize that God is for us. God is not the angry avenger who is peering at earth looking for wayward sinners that he can condemn. God is constantly working to renew and to restore.

It is really saying that human strength is not enough to meet our needs. We need the mighty arm of God around us to redeem us, restore us, comfort and strengthen us.

The Heartbeat of God

Exeter Temple Sermon notes

Genesis 12:1-9

Sunday 5th May 2013

Those of us who have had children will know what a thrill it is to hear the heartbeat of your unborn child for the first time. It perhaps drives home to you that you are actually going to be a parent of a REAL LIV CHILD. It is both exciting and a bit frightening at the same time.

In the news very recently has been reports from China and from Bangladesh of disasters which left victims buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

There is a high probability of survival of an uninjured healthy individual with a supply of fresh air if they are recovered within 72 h of becoming trapped. Survival rates decline after 72 hours of being trapped under a collapsed building, and without access to water most victims are unlikely to survive longer than 120 hours

The success of the whole search-and-rescue mission eventually depends on accurate and rapid location of survivors within the collapsed structures. Acoustic devices work by using specialist software which separates sounds like voices, breathing or the heartbeat from other background noises.
Those sounds including that of a heartbeat indicates that there is life still holding on in the midst of the surrounding chaos and devastation. The hope and joy such a sound brings is immense.

More than 4000 years ago in a country many miles away was one of the most modern cities of that day. It had well developed industries and good opportunities. It was also a centre for worship. There were two prominent temples dedicated to the moon god Nannar and his wife Ningal.
Despite the elaborate buildings and the well-developed worship system there seemed to be, there was no heartbeat of a divine living being, coming through in generation after generation.

In the midst of all this lifeless idol worship and in the centre of city life one man discovered that there was a REAL God who wanted to be known and wanted people to know Him. And so in Genesis Chapter 12 verse 1 we have these words, ‘The Lord spoke to Abram’.

1. Hearing the heartbeat of God
It doesn’t seem that dramatic to us but for Abram to claim that he had heard from God, in a city that had never heard anything from their god’s was incredible.
Abram was convinced that God was real and was speaking to him. And this same God was going to use Abram to show the world what a real living God could do compared to lifeless idols.

We often think of the great figures of the Bible as people who encountered God in a different way from us. If only we had their faith, if only we could hear God as clearly as they did then, we too would be great saints. Yet we are not told that Abram heard God any more clearly than we do. God called him into a relationship with Himself out of a civilisation just as decadent, just as complicated, just as difficult to live in as we live now. The heartbeat of God that Abram heard is still detectable today, if we will only listen for it.

How do we do that? There are two ways and at first they seem opposite. The first is to remove ourselves from the hustle and bustle and busyness of life. It is very hard to discern the presence and the life of God around you when you are distracted by everything under the sun so taking time out at regular intervals is essential for us. That is what Jesus did

Mark 1:35-36 (NLT)
Proverbs 1:23-24 (NLT)

There is a danger when we start talking about creating separate space in our lives, which we set aside for God to think that God can be compartmentalized and that some parts of our lives are sacred and other parts are not.
If we believe that every aspect of our life should be brought under the Lordship of Jesus then we need to be able to connect with him in the midst of our activity, to detect his presence in the ordinary tasks, remember he is as real and alive when we are doing the washing up as he is when we are here on a Sunday morning.

If our awareness of God is reduced to a certain time and place, namely a few hours a week inside a church building we are missing out not only on precious times of fellowship with the living God and also fail to discern what God is doing by his Spirit in the world.

if we listen hard enough we will discover God is still ahead of us. In the rubble of man’s inhumanity to man, in what looks like a wasteland of secularism and atheism and in the chaos of our confused value systems there is the heartbeat of God. In it all he is still there, waiting to be found.

2. Living in step with the heartbeat of God

“One of the most important things about prayer is that we are transformed through the experience. We draw close to the heart of God. We hear the heartbeat of God, the things that God is after, the rhythm of God. We learn how God works.”

~ Richard Foster

Abram had to make a choice.
The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land that I will show you’.
These days the current trend is to want a kind of spiritual buffet, where we have a little bit of a lot of dishes rather than choose one main course.

Abram learned quickly that that was not what was required. To keep in touch with this living God who spoke, he had to stop being an idol worshipper. He had not only to believe he had heard the heartbeat, he had to follow it. And that involves trust.
Abram was sure of one thing. He had heard the call of God. But he had no idea where that would lead him.

Hebrews 11:8: “Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going.”

Abram started out NOT knowing where he was going, only who he was going with. And even his knowing God was bound up with his on-going trust and obedience.

3. Understanding and receiving the heart of God.

We’ve talked a lot about the heartbeat of God, in terms of it being an analogy of God being alive and active. But we also use the term to mean what motivates a person. We ask. “What is their heart?” God’s heart is to bless.
The word to bless has been down-graded in our language and become a little sentimental but it is actually one of the great words of our faith.
The ancient meaning of the word was “TO TRANSFER BENEFICIAL POWER WHICH RENDERS LIFE FRUITFUL.”

The heart of God was to redeem His creation from waste and barrenness and see it reach its true potential. It wasn’t to diminish Abram’s life that God called him way from Ur but to enlarge it.
Abram was to discover that God’s heart is loving redemption. Abram would settle in a new land to build a great nation and be a channel through which all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Even though God had begun His redemptive reclaiming process with Abram, who was just a single individual he had a world view. He had a plan, a clear purpose for the centuries ahead, a plan that reaches even to us today. The heart of God embraces the whole world with his love.

And if God is the creator of the universe and knows what is best for this world and if as Abram discovered this God has a heart to bless not destroy, then what better way to live that to live in harmony with the rhythm of that heart by listening for that heartbeat in the quiet place and also in the chaos of the world. What better way to live than to follow that heartbeat and trust it to guide our lives?

Even more than this, God does not want us just to hear his heartbeat, walk in step with his heartbeat he wants to put his very heart in us so that we become one with him. He promises his mind, is heart, his purposes will not something just outside of us but within us.

Ezekiel36:26
Romans 6:17
2 Peter 1:4
This is the promise that God, will give us inward transformation so that our heart so resonates with his that His desires become our desires, His passions become our passions, His priorities become our priorities.

God has always had people from Abraham to the present day who despite the clamour of city life, despite the numerous lifeless idols that are about can hear the heartbeat of the Father. They know His reality, they trust Him with their very lives and they are experiencing the fruitfulness of life in His presence.

Abram teaches us that what we see with our eyes is not all there is to see, all that we hear is not all that there is to hear. If we listen carefully we can hear the heartbeat of God, patiently working His purposes through history and if we let Him, in us and through us.


God bless
Carol

Exeter Temple Corps Anniversary Message

Sunday 21st April 2013
Bible Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Our text today may seem a strange choice for a Corps Anniversary. On such an occasion as this we have a tendency to look back and concentrate on giving thanks for past blessings, when this text looks to something that has not happened yet. Whilst wanting to avoid the speculation and controversy that surround Jesus’ promise that he will come again, we are wrong to react to some people’s foolishness by overlooking such a central part of  our faith.

The past, that we celebrate today means nothing if it is does not lead somewhere. The future we anticipate, the hope we set before us powerfully influences the way we live, the way we invest our time and energy, the way we conduct our lives. We cannot afford to avoid passages such as this, if we believe that we are called to continue to fulfil the work of God that began here many years ago.

There is a future aspect to the reign of Jesus Christ. The New Testament points to a time, when the rule and reign of Christ will be seen both in heaven and on earth. This hope hinges on the promise given to the disciples. “This same Jesus who has been taken form you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)
Early Christians longed for and expected the return of Jesus Christ when that Resurrection power would be unfolded in its fullness. In our text Paul is explaining that event to the Christians at Thessalonica. He has two essential objectives. One is to bring comfort to those who have lost loved ones. The other is to inspire holiness and service to the Lord.

1. The Comfort Resurrection brings
Christians in Thessalonica expected that Jesus would return and bring the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. However some of them were getting a bit anxious that as time went on some Christians were dying before this great event had taken place. Paul writes to reassure them that everyone who belongs to Christ whether alive on earth or alive in heaven will be part of the event and they will come together to usher in the final stages of the coming of the Kingdom.

Read verses 13-18 again.
This is a great thought on an anniversary Sunday when we think of all the saints of God who have gone before us and whose names fill our history book. They will all be there at the biggest reunion that will ever be.
Note the words: “in him.” God will bring those whom we love who have passed on ahead of us with Christ when Christ returns and that means that they are with Him right now at this very moment! They are not in limbo waiting for the party. They are with him.
It is hard to imagine how this will happen. The Corinthian Christians asked the same question, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?

Paul replied in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “Christ has indeed be raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes through a man. For as in Adam all die so in Christ all will be made alive.”

Ashes to ashes dust to dust are the very final sounding words spoken concerning the physical body at a funeral. But there is one person whose dead body, the words ashes to ashes dust to dust were never spoken over. The body of Jesus was not returned to dust but returned instead to everlasting glorious life!
Death could not hold him destroy him or decay him and the promise is that to those who are his can be part of a new humanity that lives for eternity with God. For all who are Christ’s there is the certainty not of immortality, that is survival as we are now but of Resurrection in which all the vestiges of the weak limited sickness prone, pain experiencing run down, mortal body will be gloriously changed.

What will that body be like? Paul gives his reply in 1 Corinthians 15:37
“When you sow you do not plant the body that will be but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.”

God would one day give everyone who is a Christian a new different kind of body, one that in the present is beyond our understanding. It will as different a seed is from the flower it becomes, as different as a caterpillar is from a butterfly. It is impossible for us to envisage what our resurrection body will be like. What we do know is that the Bible says it will not be subject to decay. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:52 “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.”

2. The Call that the Resurrection announces.
Jesus will return and bring all the saints from heaven with him. What for? Ultimately it will be to finally establish this kingdom here on earth.
The picture that Paul paints in 1 Thessalonians of Jesus doing this is rooted in his ancient culture. When an emperor visited a colony or province the citizens of the country would go out to meet him at some distance from the city. It would be disrespectful to have him arrive at the gates as thought his subjects couldn’t be bothered to greet him properly. When they met him they wouldn’t stay out in the open country; they would escort him royally into the city itself from where he would remind everyone who was it was that was really in charge.
Jesus is king, he is coming back to claim the earth for it is rightfully his. He will involve all those who have already given him their allegiance in the process. For those who are not ready for this, it will be a shock but the Bible tells us “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.”

This corps was one of those raised up in the very early days of the army. Indeed William Booth himself presented the first flag. One of the passionate beliefs of both William and Catherine Booth was that their work in their present was working towards a goal of winning the whole world for Jesus.
They firmly held on to the promise of the Old Testament that the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and the idea that surely Jesus wouldn’t teach us to pray a prayer that God would be unwilling to answer. We are taught to pray, “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

This gave purpose to the very existence of The Salvation Army, and it was the passionate belief of early Salvationist that that the Army was raised up for that very reason. They were big picture people. The image before them was of the risen and victorious Christ, leading from heaven his earthly troops, who were going in to take ground from the enemy.

The battle was to see men and women boys and girls brought to faith in Christ, so that they could share in and know the power of the resurrection in their lives. They did this by seeing individuals redeemed and restored through the gospel.
Sheer compassion led the army to take care of those who were hurting but stepping in to battle against injustice, immorality and abuse was never just about trying to create a more comfortable environment.
Social action was always linked to fighting the devil himself who uses such things as greed, violence, exploitation, abuse, lies and many other evil ideas and practices as weapons to deceive people into believing that God is against them, that they are of no worth, that good cannot triumph and that there is no hope. And the Salvation Army should never lose that focus. We are not called to be social workers but soldiers.

And William Booth believed that the battle was winnable. He asked,

“Why should not Jesus Christ have all the world? Has anyone got any sufficient reason? Do any of our readers know of any?” He then went on to note that there was no reason to be found in Hell, nor in Heaven, or even in the “mind of God why His salvation should not cover the earth as completely and as plenteously as the rolling ocean covers the mighty deep.”


3. The Confidence that the Resurrection brings

Do you still believe that we can win the world for Jesus? Sometimes we see so little fruit for our labour we can lose heart and we can start to think that our labour is in vain. The encouragement from our text this morning is to keep going, don’t give up, Jesus is risen and he has promised to return. He will return personally. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven and he will return in power. The word translated in the NIV “with a loud command” is a military commander’s authoritative cry to direct his troops. Jesus will return with such authority and “with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.”
How can we trust that Jesus will keep his promise? Well we can trust him because Jesus has proved faithful to every other promise he made.
The resurrection is not simply a guarantee of our personal survival after death. It does assure us of that but it does more. It also shows us that all that Jesus said and claimed for himself is true. It assures us that goodness and love are indestructible.

Here is what Paul has to say about that in 1 Corinthians 15:56
“The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labour is not in vain.”
Tom Wright (Surprised by hope)
"You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that is about to fall over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown into the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are, strange though it may seem, accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, or comfort and support for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creatures, and of course every prayer, all Spirit led teaching, every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world all this will find its way through the resurrecting power of God into the new creation which God will one day make. God’s recreation of his wonderful world which began with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of the Spirit means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted.”

Saviour and Lord, we pray to thee,
Thy people ever would we be;
To thee whose love our lives has sealed,
To thee our lives we gladly yield.

A people called by thee to fight,
We stand united in thy sight,
One in our aim to vanquish sin,
And bring thy glorious Kingdom in.

In this glad moment while we sing,
Thy Army, we salute our King;
By thee we live, on thee rely,
By thee, we'll conquer or we'll die.

Our strength for warfare is thy might,
Our hope of guidance is thy light;
Pour out thy Spirit while we wait,
And let thy love thy will dictate.

Beneath thy standard still we'll stay;
Thy cause shall every purpose sway;
Nor will we lay our armour down
Till we exchange it for a crown.
(Thomas Hodgson Mundell)
(SASB  692)

Blessings
Carol

Wake up O Sleeper

Exeter Temple Message notes:  14th April 2012
Bible Reading:  Ephesians 5:14


1. Wake up- God wants your attention
Sleep in the Bible is often used to indicate spiritual indifference and avoidance of God. The Bible gives us many examples of how God awakens the indifferent or the rebellious to his presence, plans and purposes. Jonah, asleep on a boat as he travelled in a different direction to the one God wanted him to go in was sharply woken up by a storm. Shepherds sleeping on the hills surrounding Bethlehem were startled into alertness by heavenly choirs and strange instructions. It is not always obvious to other people who is spiritually awake and who is actually asleep. John Wesley warned that the “quiet, rational, inoffensive, good-natured professor of the religion of his fathers and the zealous and orthodox Pharisee were just as likely to be spiritually asleep as each other, despite the difference in their outwards behaviour.”
How do we know when God, through his Holy Spirit wants our attention?
a) Inner restlessness
What is it that wakes a baby up apart from a wet nappy? It is hunger. When we begin to feel a longing for answers, when we start asking ourselves, “Where is my life going?” When we cease to be satisfied with material things, it really could be that the Holy Spirit wants your attention.
b) Pain
Do you know that in a reversal of what I am saying our pain gets God’s attention? Long ago when the Hebrew people were in slavery in Egypt, God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and he said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them.”
When we are suffering, for whatever reason, know this; you already have God’s attention. God had to use a burning bush to let Moses know that he was on hand to help. It is not a method he uses often. But maybe he is saying the same thing to you. I am here and I want to help. Turn to me.
CS Lewis: God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
c) Guilt
Our modern world of course doesn’t like guilt. It almost always portrays it as a negative thing, unless we feel we are the ones sinned against and then we want someone to feel really bad about what they’ve done.
The Bible sees guilt as God’s way of drawing attention to the fact that we have crossed a line we should not have. It is an in-built alarm system. Sometimes culture and our own attempts to override the system mess it up a bit but it is there for our benefit. Jeremiah lived at a time when the people of Israel were living in a state of low morality. Jeremiah said that it was lack of conscience/ guilt that would be their downfall. “Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; “(Jer 6:15)
We know when it is the Holy Spirit who is activating our conscience because he will always be specific. The devil will try to make us feel bad full stop, the Holy Spirit only to help to the place where we seek forgiveness and cleansing from God.
d) Repetition
God is actually very patient and he will often send us the same message through various means. We might read something that impacts us in the Bible, then go to a meeting and someone will quote the same reading, someone raises the same issue. Eventually it dawns- God must be trying to say something.
If God is trying to get your attention in any of these ways please don’t turn off the alarm or fail to pick up the receiver. Wake up O sleeper and rise from the dead!

2. Wake up- God has something to say
One of the things that I have felt a burden to speak about to God’s people is about how we respond to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe the simple message is, “Stay awake!”
I believe our annual focus on the cross and resurrection of Jesus is much more than sentimentality. As we remember the sacrifice and the victory of Christ I believe we genuinely lift our hearts in adoration at the grace of Christ. That’s really good but if that is all we take away from Easter, we need to wake up. Easter for us is not a commemoration of Christ but complete identification with him. The truth is that it is not only Jesus who had to die and rise again but each one of us. We are called to Resurrection life. There is huge value in following an annual Christian calendar so that we think about different aspects of our faith at some point during the year. Holy days and special focus Sundays are important but there can be a tendency for us to fall into the trap of celebrating Christmas and we have “done” the incarnation, we celebrate Easter and we have done the cross and resurrection, we celebrate Pentecost and we have “done” the Holy Spirit. The truth is we have to live in the light of these momentous things every single day.
Paul wrote in Ph 3:10 that his ambition was this. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. “ And in Ephesians he prayed that the Church would know God’s “incomparably great power for us who believe. The power is like the working of his might strength, which he exerted in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.”
Will the enthusiasm of Easter week-end be translated into committed prayer, consistent holy living and radical obedience? There is no reason it cannot be because resurrection power is ours. The thing that will stop us is, is falling asleep again, when a week or two has gone by.
The interviewer asked, “What’s it like to wake up one day and realize you are a great success?” The reply was, “That doesn’t happen; if you are a success you haven’t been asleep.” (source unknown)

3. Wake up and get up.
God may have got your attention. You have woken up and it’s necessary to stay awake. What keeps us awake? - Arising
Remember the story of Prodigal Son. He goes off to spend his father’s money on wine, women and goodliving. Then there is a credit crunch and he ends up, destitute. But the sinking down into further degradation is halted when Jesus uses a significant little phrase in his story. V 17 “Then he came to his senses…” In other words he woke up and realised that he didn’t need to be in this mess. He could go home. But the real turning point comes when the prodigal says, “I will set out and go to my Father.” And v 20 says “he got up and went.”
There is a difference between awareness of need and action. Paul does not just say, “Wake up O sleeper” he also says, “And rise from the dead.”
Following awakening to any word from God there must be an arising.
It is so easy to wake up, smell the coffee, even drink a drop or two but remained entrenched in the old ways. We must trust and obey or we will go back to sleep.
Is that a bad thing? Absolutely. Spiritually speaking, sleeping is as neglectful as a sentry closing his eyes on duty. He fails to protect himself or others. It is as dangerous as allowing someone who has taken an overdose to doze off. They may go into a coma. It is as deadly as a lorry driver having forty winks at the wheel. There will be a crash.

The phrase “Wake up” in the Greek comes from the word “Ginomai” Its direct meaning is “to become.” When we wake up spiritually it is to enter into something and become the person God plans for us to be. It is not about losing who we are but fulfilling the potential God has put within us.
Whilst in Kenya, the mission team were deeply moved by the singing of the choir at Thika School for the Blind. Their leader is himself blind and writes all the songs for the choir. One of their songs had a particular impact upon us because it was so full of desire and hope, that they would become all that God wanted them to be.
I want to be a message for others
Faithful among ourselves
Ready to carry a message of love
That we all may glorify you
So revive my heart
Renew my vision
Prepare my heart for your purposes alone
Take me deep into your presence and your power
That we all may glorify you
May that be the prayer of every one of us.

God bless

Carol