I am the gate

Exeter Temple Message notes

Sunday 11th August 2013

John 10:1-10

The city picture v 1-6
- a public sheepfold
- all local shepherds would come at night with their flocks.
- watchman guarded the door - only allowed legitimate shepherds in
- true shepherds knew their own sheep
- sheep recognised the shepherd through distinctive voice 
 
The truth behind the picture
 a)    Bogus callers
Not everyone who seeks entry into our lives is from God. 
Teaching in John 10 arose out of confrontation with the Pharisees over the healing of the blind man.  Their attitude and teaching showed that they were not the real shepherds of the people that they claimed to be. 
Their teaching was based on     - religion rather than relationship,
                                                   - salvation by works 
Such bogus teaching and wrong thinking is still around today plus such things as humanism
materialism and new age philosophy
b) Identification of the genuine
A true shepherd seeks entry legitimately.  If something is of God it does not need cunning deception, force or manipulation to get its way.
 Who is the watchman?
- John the Baptist- like the watchman in that he ushered Jesus, the true shepherd into his ministry.
- The Holy Spirit - acts on our conscience. Speaks truth and gives discernment to us.
- The Bible - everything that seeks to gain access to our lives needs to be measured against it.
All testify to the authenticity of Jesus as the true shepherd and will only open the door for him.   If something doesn’t measure up to the word and the witness of the Spirit then we must not let it into our lives.
 c)    Familiarity
The best safeguard is to know the shepherd personally.
Sheep were trained to recognize the voice or the tune played by their shepherd.
 
2. The country picture v 7-10.
- sheep herded into a low walled enclosure of piled rocks with small  opening.
- sheep returned to the fold at night after a day of grazing,
- shepherd accounted for, inspected and ministered to each   sheep as it entered.
- shepherd lay down across the doorway to protect sheep.
 
Further reading:     
Psalm 121                 Hebrews 10               Revelation 3:8

 Prayer focus

Think about the people who may come through or to your front door this week and pray for them. 
What are the doors of opportunity that have opened to share the love of Jesus recently?   What do you need from the Holy Spirit to help you walk through them?
Open Doors is an organisation which supports persecuted Christians, pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ, as they seek to bring the gospel in places that try to shut the door to them. 

God bless
Alan and Carol

 

I am the light of the world

John 8:25-40

In the Old Testament God is a God of light.
- appeared to Moses as a bright burning bush       Exodus 3:2
- appeared to the Hebrews as fiery, cloudy pillar  Exodus 13:21
- Shekinah light was seen in the temple                2 Chron 7:1
- Jewish teaching that the Messiah was "Light      Mal 4:2
The commemoration of God’s presence and the hope of the Messiah Light to come was celebrated at the Feast of Lights.
During the festival four large candlesticks called Menorahs’ were lit in the Court of the Women in the Temple. Their light was seen all over Jerusalem.  Jesus was in Jerusalem for this festival with his disciples. The incidents around Jesus’ statement that He is the light of the world help us to understand something of the kind of light.

1. A Penetrating Light                      
The incident
People hear that Jesus was teaching in the Temple and gather to listen to Him. The Pharisees arrive, dragging with them a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.
-the trap
They used the woman to trap Jesus. If Jesus refused to condemn her they could accuse him of flouting Hebrew law. If he followed Hebrew law he would be breaking Roman law, where stoning was not permitted.
-the Pharisees were:
Astonished at being outwitted
Shocked at his discernment of their inner struggles
Angry at their own exposure
If the Pharisees had believed that Jesus didn’t want to use His knowledge of their hearts to destroy them but to save them, their lives could have been different. 

2. The Transforming Light                    

-the woman
Her extra-marital affair is exposed in the light of day. And her sin is put in the spotlight by the Pharisees. 
The world loves to expose sin but exposure alone does not bring transformation.
-Jesus
The spotlight was on the woman but the light of Jesus’ purity, justice and grace shine brighter.
Everyone stares and points- Jesus looks away and writes in the sand. 
Everyone abandons her - Jesus stays.
Everyone else saw this as an ending- Jesus gave her a new beginning.
Jesus didn’t declare her innocent condone sin or justify her actions but told her to put her sinful life behind.

3. The Undiminished Light

The Menorah lights commemorating the God’s presence and the hope of the Messiah’s return had just been extinguished.  John 8:12 was an unmistakable claim to being the Messiah and that he had exclusive possession of ultimate truth.
Jesus enemies continually try to snuff out his influence through argument but couldn’t do it.  They wanted to argue legalities, discuss theology but not believe. They wanted a legal battle, not a saving moment.
Jesus is a light that those in the dark were so determined to get rid of that they had him killed.  As he died the sky turned black but resurrection brought new dawn. John 1 v 5 “The Life Light blazed out of the darkness and the darkness couldn’t put it out.” (The Message)
The condition for experiencing the full potential of His light in our lives is to follow him.  John 8:12b “He who follows me will never walk in darkness.”
Following implies a commitment of our life to Him
Following the light implies a daily walk.    See also Eph 5:8 & 1 John 1:7 
Unlike the physical sun we do not need to protect ourselves against harmful rays. There is nothing in the Son that can harm us and we need to be more exposed to the light of Christ.

God bless
Alan

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