Do you like sunrises, or sunsets? As a West Australian, it’s hard not to love sunsets. We get incredible sunsets here in Perth, which I think is in part caused by living on the west coast of a country, with no land between us and the horizon. In summer it is brilliant, because the sun goes down so late, that you can get home from work, drive out to the beach and have a walk along as the sun goes down. It’s incredibly humbling, to stand there in front of something so massive, so beautiful. It’s a brilliant reminder of God’s handiwork, his creativity, his brilliance.
But, as the Perth sunrise is often no-where near as spectacular as the Perth sunset, I kind of regard sunrises as very special moments. I remember one from when I was a teenager. My family was on holidays in Albany, and as I was up early – and it was still dark – I thought I’d walk out to a special lookout, where I could see the sun rise over water. I have no recollection of it being incredibly beautiful, or stunning, but that moment, that space, has stuck in my memory, and most likely will for some time to come.
I have often heard people describe sunsets and sunrises as “thin places” – where the gap between heaven and earth becomes very thin, and we can see some of the glory of God’s kingdom. I would not doubt this for a second.
Woe to you, blind guides! You say, “If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.” You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, “If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.” You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar which makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
Matthew 23:16-22 (NIV)
This passage comes in the middle of a passage titled in my bible “Seven Woes” and it reads as possibly the most scathing criticism about the pharisees and teachers of the law that comes out of Jesus’ mouth. The passage above got me, which was in my readings for today, thinking. It’s the Church that makes things holy. It’s the altar that makes it holy. It doesn’t really matter what you bring, by giving it to the Lord, he makes it holy.
How often would we hold back in our lives, because we’re not sure if it’s the right thing to do? When you listen to God, and you dedicate it to him, he will make it holy, and work with whatever you can bring. Remember that Jesus worked with as little as 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed five thousand, and 7 loaves and a few small fish to feed four thousand. Whatever you have, God will work with. All you need to do is give it to him$
Had our youth meeting on Sunday. This was the first Youth Meeting since taking over leadership of the band. Haven’t had much time to work the band as I’d like to, but I’m hoping over the course of this year, I can start to implement some good changes into the youth band. The first service was based upon Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Started with Blessed be your name. A song that we know well, and has an awesome message: “Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise.”
Then One Way – a song that we love to pump out, but haven’t done for a while. I love this because I can get away with some grungier effects on my guitar.
Then this beautiful song by Nathan Rowe from the Australian Southern Territory – Let Justice Roll. Very powerful lyrics here
I’ve fallen in love with Chris Tomlin’s Amazing Grace (My Chains are gone) – start with a powerful song, add a powerful chorus, and it’s brilliant.
We love The Stand, and perform it often. I’ve heard it go into a Hallelujah before, but it’s not quite the right setting for that, so we just do the Stand.
And then we finished off with One Way again.
All up, it was a great service. I’m looking forward to our next service in March, and looking forward to start challenging the band musically with slightly more difficult songs, and get us really working together as a band, while still preserving the fun, passion and energy that we have when we praise the Lord.
Jesus shows in this parable (Parable of the Wedding Banquet, Matthew 22:1-14) the sorts of people who will get into heaven.
Then he said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.”
Matthew 22:8-9
God invited the pharisees, but they weren’t willing to listen. So he invited everyone. But once invited, there are certain responsibilities. In the banquet, the one who didn’t put on the wedding clothes got the boot. Likewise, when we become followers of Jesus, we need to put on the clothes of Christ.
You’ve been invited to Christ’s banquet… What are you going to wear?
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.
Matthew 21:44 (NIV)
I’d never heard this verse before, but it really stood out today for me. Just before this, Jesus has quoted Psalm 118:22-23 and told the parable of the tenants. It’s obvious in the parable that the land owner is God, and the son is Jesus. Likewise the stone that the builders rejected is Jesus. He has become the cornerstone that is marvellous in our eyes.
The contrast in verse 44 stood out to me. “He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces” When you fall at the foot of the cross, when you come to Jesus, he will break you into pieces. He will break down the wall that we have constructed, and he will start to work in our lives through the broken pieces.
“But he on whom it falls will be crushed.” Jesus is warning the chief priests and the Pharisees that the only way to God is through him. Whoever doesn’t come to God through Jesus will be crushed by the cornerstone when Judgement comes.
So what do we do by knowing this? We go to the cross, allow ourselves to be broken and allow Jesus to build our lives into one that will produce fruit for the kingdom of heaven.
I wasn’t going to write about the New Zealand Earthquake, because quite honestly I didn’t think that I had anything to offer. There were plenty of things that I could write about this terrible tragedy, but should I use such a tragedy to get views on my website? It just didn’t seem quite right.
So while I don’t want to address the earthquake itself, I want to look at a couple of pieces of scripture that come to mind. First from 1 Kings 19.
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
1 Kings 19:11-12 (NIV)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
Two thoughts relating to these passages. Firstly, the passage from 1 Kings. God was not in the great and powerful wind, nor the earthquake or the fire. After all of that came a gentle whisper – and the Lord was in the gentle whisper. When you think about what has happened in Oceania in the past few weeks, we have had floods, fire, cyclones and earthquakes. All disasters. All things that we wouldn’t wish on our enemies. But after all of these, what comes? Growth, renewal, revitalisation, rebuilding. Sometimes, you need to go through the pain to get to the point of growth. After the disasters, God is there. That is evidenced by the multitudes of Christians (and non-Christians, I must point out) making themselves available to help out. Whether that’s serving the emergency services workers food and drink when they’re working, or whether it’s donating proceeds of Op Shop sales, or holding retiring offerings as donations to relief funds, God is there in the recovery.
As for the passage from Isaiah, God’s ways are different from ours. We can pray for things to change, and we should be encouraged to do so. However, we should not be disappointed when our prayers seemingly go unanswered. Our ways are not God’s ways. God’s ways are higher than our ways. As my officer put it, The deepest, most insightful, most brilliant of our thoughts is foolishness to the Lord, and the Lord’s most foolish thoughts are still far beyond our understanding. I believe that God’s heart would have broken over the lives lost in these recent disasters. Could he have stopped the earthquake? Absolutely. He is the one who created the world. However, as I share a thought from my dad, The Lord is the one who put this world in motion. He is the one who created the world. He created the laws of nature. If he was to come and stop an earthquake, or a flood, or a cyclone, he would be saying that the laws that he put in place we not perfect, as he is perfect. It would make everything that our world is based upon based on a lie. Whether this thought is how it works or not, I don’t know. And I’ll probably never know. However, it is through this thought that I can make peace with God when I get angry that prayers go unanswered. He knows what he’s doing. He has my life in his hands, and I will trust him completely. Though it may be painful, though it may be beyond comprehension, I will trust in him, and pray to him, and praise him whatever the outcome.
I was reading Psalm 2 yesterday, as I decided it was time to start acting on this crazy idea that I had a while ago of writing a song based on every psalm. I got one written for the first psalm, but then stopped. So I thought that I’d read the first psalm, and then let it mull for a couple of days. The links between this psalm and current events sure crossed my mind when reading it.
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the LORD and against his anointed, saying,
“Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
“I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”
I will proclaim the LORD’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
You will break them with a rod of iron;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
With the revolution in Egypt, and now in Libya and Bahrain, the political world in the Middle east is undergoing a radical transformation. The most crazy thing is that all of this is happening all at once. Generally what has happened is that the leaders have stopped listening to the people, just as the leaders at the time of this psalm had stopped listening to God. The results are the same. The people will be angry, and it will lead to their destruction. As we’ve seen, the wrath of the people can flare up in a moment.
Will I be able to turn this psalm into a song? I don’t know. I’ll need some more time to mull on that issue.
I’ve recently been asked to lead the Youth Band at my church, and it’s got me thinking about songs. There are some songs that we sing in worship that absolutely touch the soul, while there are others that are neither here nor there.
For example, take a look at Amazing Grace. What an amazing song, a powerful testimony for everyone. Yet its composition is incredibly simple.
Where as the song “Yours Forever” by Hillsong is a rocking song musically – but do the lyrics move you?
As I choose songs for the Youth Band to learn, I’ll hopefully be able to choose a mixture of songs that are moving in both music and lyrics.
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
This passage is really full of meaning here, full of hope and more. It really could be the subject of a few blog posts, but there are a few things I really want to share with you today.
These words come at the end of the first letter to the Thessalonians, and in the NIV are headed “Final Instructions.” This is basically a list of things that Paul needed to share with the Thessalonians. It’s a great list of goals for a Christian. Acknowledge those who work hard, hold them in the highest regard. Live in peace with each other. Encourage the disheartened (sometimes interpreted as “Strengthen the disheartened”), help the weak, be patient with everyone.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. Those last three are wonderful calls to what we should do. We should always rejoice in what the Lord is doing in our lives. We need to pray continually as it’s through praying that we establish and maintain our relationship with God. We need to give thanks in all circumstances. Not just in the good times, but also in the bad times. Romans 5 says that “we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope.” So in the bad times, in our sufferings, we should give thanks because we know that it will create character and hope. That doesn’t make it easy, but knowing that gives us hope. Thanking God always gives us hope, because we have God’s love, that “has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5)
Finally, Paul shares this benediction: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” We don’t know when Jesus will come. It’s difficult for us to make ourselves blameless. We must humble ourselves before God and allow him to chip away those things that keep us from being the reflection of Jesus.
My officer shared this video on the Sunday Night service yesterday. There’s all this stuff that we have in ourselves that keep us from being God’s original masterpiece. It’s like those paintings that are hundreds of years old. They need to go through restoration, and the difference at the end is incredible – it is the original masterpiece once again. Are you willing to let God chisel away all the things that have been added to your life, and allow yourself to be God’s original masterpiece once more?
Forever God is faithful. Forever God is true. Forever will his mercy flow to you, and forever will he embrace you, and be willing to restore you. Be faithful, because the one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.
God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God does not dishonour others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV, Paraphrased by me)
I love this passage, especially with this paraphrasing. I preached on this passage last year at a youth service. The basic premise of it was that God is Love, and when we look at the passage above in that light, we see what God’s love for us is like. God is patient – he will wait our entire lives if necessary to share in the joy of us accepting him as our Lord. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. But the most hope-filled verse comes right at the end: God never fails.
When you trust in God, and fully rely on God, how can you not be full of hope, because you believe, just like I do, that God never fails. He can do the impossible, and the improbable, and the unexpected. How can anyone be filled with anything other than hope when they know that?
Ben Clapton 