Tag: God

Early Thoughts: What do you do with your gift?

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Holy Spirit dove window
Image by hickory hardscrabble via Flickr

Yesterday, I was asked to preach at a service at a Uniting Church. Although Initially being asked to preach in April, due to other commitments, it’s been moved back to June, and the day that I’ve been given just happens to be the day of Pentecost. Now, the sermon is a long way off, but I still have some ideas on what I may speak on.

For those not in the know, Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of flames, and allowed the disciples to speak in other languages. One of the readings for the day is 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, which says:

No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

There are varieties of gifts – but these all come from the same spirit. Varieties of services, but the same lord. Varieties of activities, but the same God who activates them. It doesn’t matter what gift you have, they are all important, and they are all from the Holy Spirit.

The important thing to take away from the day of Pentecost is that we have been given this glorious gift – the Holy Spirit. Now that we have this gift, what are we going to do with it?

Below is the Parramatta Songsters doing an awesome version of Send the Fire. The last line of the first verse always gets me: “We need another Pentecost! Send the Fire today!”

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His love endures forever

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Life

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.

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The Perfect Sunday

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

The perfect Sunday comes in finding balance. Balance between sharing time with God, and finding time to have a sabbath. So often, our Sunday will be absolutely packed – for example last Sunday, when we went from Church in the morning, to a nephew’s birthday on the other side of the metro area, to a friends 22nd on another side of the city once again. It was literally non-stop. And while we had great times while we were there, when we fill our weekends with days like these, we get to Monday and think, where did our weekend go?

Sometimes, I think that the perfect Sunday is actually a Saturday. A day when we get the time to really sit and relax. Wake up slowly. Enjoy that first coffee. Maybe see some friends or family in a relaxed environment. Have no rush about anything – it can always get done tomorrow.

What’s your perfect Sunday?

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God’s Love

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Life

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?

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An interventionist God?

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

The topic from The Daily Post today is a tough one. Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Why or why not? It’s a tough topic to look at, as a Christian.

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile on Pexels.com

See, as Christians, we believe that we have free will – God gave us free will, which led to the fall of man, and the need for Jesus to come to forgive all our sins. Yet, God is all-knowing, and all-powerful, and knows what we are thinking before we even think it. So does that change things, for although we have free will, God knows what we’re going to do before we do it.

There are also Christians who believe that God is an interventionist God – basically meaning he is still active and changing things in the world, and others who don’t. I tend to lean towards the non-interventionist God in a way, believing that he’s still active in our lives, but not controlling such things as the weather. This would not sit comfortably with those Christians who believe that the floods in Queensland were a message from God.

So, do things happen for a reason? Yes and no. Some things happen because we cause them – cause and effect. I know that if I pour a beer over someone, I’m likely to get punched in the face. Or if I help someone out who’s struggling with something, I’m likely to get warm fuzzies. However, somethings happen because it’s the way the world is designed, and there’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t stop the wind blowing, the rain raining, or the sun shining (although sometimes I wish its UV was a little less potent to my skin). What we can do is control how we react to these situations. Do we want to use natural disasters as an excuse to judge people, or do we want to use them as a catalyst to spark Christian action, helping those we do not know?

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God Forgets

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith

I’ve been reading my bible again, and going through the book of Job. I’d gone into this book with the assumption of knowing what happens. Job, an upstanding and outstanding man of God, is tested by God and Satan, when Satan causes a whole heap of bad stuff to happen to him. Job goes on a kind of “Woe is me, woe is this, woe is that” spiel for a while, and eventually God appears and explains what happened. Probably not quite right, but that was my understanding of it, not having read the book before. Continue reading “God Forgets” →

Crucified By Email (via Mark Sayers)

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temp...
Jesus drives the money changes from the temple - or drives the merchandise sellers from the church/revival/crusade? (Image via Wikipedia)

I found this blog while looking at blogs for work (what a wonderful part of my job) and I thought it was fantastic. It’s a theme that has been hashed out in different formats through different people at different times and basically proposes the question: Would Jesus fit in at our church? Would he be the type of person to fit in at any church? Are church structures too strict sometimes and do we lose our perspective?

When I read this out at my bible study tonight, someone else got me thinking on this. God is too vast, and too immeasurable, too infinite to fit into our churches. He is also someone who judges what the audience wants, what they desire, and gives them what they truly needs. Like in this post, He gets sent to the youth church, where the pastor thinks he’ll fit in – and then changes and gives them something different. Then sent somewhere else based on this latest change, and he changes once again. Each time, he upsets many people, and leaves many people asking questions. All the time, he affects people’s lives, often in ways they do not expect.

Do our churches need to look past our traditions (which are often done because someone once did it for a certain reason, and a church did it ever after), and start looking at what our church – and more importantly, our communities – truly needs?

Crucified By Email On 07/06/2010, at 3:34 PM, Pastor@BelmontCommunityChurch.org wrote: Dear Jesus, I have been praying that you are sensing God’s presence during this difficult week for us all. Last night the Church board and I held an emergency meeting and I am writing to inform you that we have come to a difficult decision. Writing this email is one of the hardest things that I have had to do at my time here at Belmont Community Church. Before I tell you of our d … Read More

via Mark Sayers

Esther, prayer and planning

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith

I’ve been reading through the book of Esther just recently, and it’s a fantastic book. It tells the story of Queen Esther, an exiled Jew who was made queen by King Xerxes. It came to a time when Haman, an Agathite that the King had elevated, took exception to Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, because he refused to bow down in Haman’s presence. So incensed was Haman that he decreed, via the King that all of the Jews were to be destroyed, killed and annihilated on a certain date. Continue reading “Esther, prayer and planning” →

Confession

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith

In my morning coffee time, I follow the form ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication – in my prayers. This morning, I was in the confession part of the form, and I used the group confession that is used in the Liturgy of the Anglican Church. Continue reading “Confession” →