Doing from being!

These are the notes of the sermon I preached at my Dad’s funeral. I kind of had the privilege of preaching what I wanted to but something had been on my mind for months, and I just want to share that here. 

I had become increasingly disturbed by the picture of who we are in the latter half of Romans 7. Here Paul paints a picture of a person who rarely does the good and often loses the fight against doing the bad. I thought I’d resolved the issue when I read in Eerdmans commentary that ‘most commentators now agree Paul was talking of his pre Christian experience’ and that a large part of the Greek is in the past tense. However, I then read that a number of commentators, including John Piper(for whom I have a great deal of respect), do believe this is part of normal Christian experience. You can look up this (good humoured) debate on Google, just type ‘Romans 7 John Piper’. That did help me a bit and I guess that I arrived at a view that says Paul was describing the pointlessness of struggling in our own strength, especially as at the end of Romans 7 when there is the huge sigh of relief when Paul says thank goodness we have Jesus Christ! Then he goes on to all the great stuff in Romans 8 ‘no condemnation’ ‘adopted children’ ‘no longer slaves of fear’, ‘God works all things together for the good’. We find a parallel in Galatians where Paul says, ‘O foolish Galatians’ in reference to their returning to living life in their own strength according to moral laws. Paul urges them to walk in the power of the spirit.
I was wondering whether there was anything else in scriptures that would help when I came across the wonderful hymn or saying, summarising the Christian life, in Titus 3. Paul instructs Titus, ‘ This saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist (repeatedly stress) these things so that believers in God will do good works’. In the preceding verses Paul talks of ‘the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit’. And I was like yes! There it is in no uncertain terms and Paul is instructing Titus to insist on it (repeatedly stress it)! So we are transformed at the core and we must be continually transformed by the renewal of the Holy Spirit. This way we can live powerful lives and begin to see happen the things of God we can’t even imagine! (Ephesians). That is a summary so please read on if you wish 😀
(The reading was John 1:1-14)

I want to concentrate on the two verses that describe our believing in his name and of our being reborn of God, that is John 1 verses 12 and 13

‘12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’

In the notes of the Passion Translation for verse twelve, Brian Simmons writes that believe in his name, or lay hold of his name or ‘those who are putting faith into his name’ ‘means to believe all that he represents and put into practice what he taught, all in the power of his name’. Now this belief in practice is intimately linked to who we are because John immediately goes on to describe in verse 13, that we both have the right to become children of God and that we undergo a process of rebirth, we become children born of God! Now I’m going to switch these two points around, faith in Jesus name in practice and our being reborn of God, because I want us to see the importance of who we are being the place from which flows belief in practice through the power of his name. Our doing flows from our being . .
Who we are:

In Titus 3:8 we read, ‘The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works’. Paul wants Titus to insist on these things so that believers will do good works, what things? Well we have to look to the verses before . . ‘4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’ We have a wonderful description of the Light coming into the world as the goodness and kindness of God appearing, then the fact that we are not saved by works but according to mercy and then, and this is what I really want you to take note of, we are saved ‘by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit’ And Paul in instructing Titus is saying ‘I want you to insist on these things so that believers will do good works’. Do you see the link here, who we are by regeneration or rebirth as children of God leads us to do good works! John talks of being born of God, Paul talks of regeneration, this is no mere accounting thing, not merely transactional explain. Paul says we must constantly stress these things, why? There is a danger sometimes that we think God looks at us with a special pair of glasses, with them on he sees us as pure holy and blameless, with them off he sees us as we are actually are, a bit messed up. When in Colossians 1:22 it says Christ presents us to God as pure, holy and flawless, in God’s presence. Is that just in the future? There is no tense here, it’s now and in the future, there is a definite sense here of who we are! 
Does that mean we are perfect, of course not! We are a work in progress and we know we struggle with sin often. But its too easy to conflate our mistakes with who we are and the devil would love to steal away our true identity by tempting us to think badly of our true being, trapping us in a cycle where we do sin he whispers in our ear, ‘see, that’s who you really are’. In Corinthians it says our spirit is united with Christ, also in Corinthians we are described as new creatures, something fundamental has happened to us! I like to think we have been transformed at the core, like molten metal, pure at the core, with the dross gradually being pushed to the surface to be cleaned away. And our washing by regeneration through the holy spirit is a continuing process! And an amazing one, because as we begin to realise who we truly are, transformed at the core, we start to live the powerful Christian lives God had/has in mind for us.
So when we operate in the name of Jesus Christ it’s not just a magic name. After all the priest of Sciva in Acts tried that and the evil spirits made the possessed man beat them up. The evil spirits could not see the spirit of a man united with Christ, so the use of Christ’s name was ineffective. As reborn Christians, united with Christ, we have real spiritual authority and power to bring the transforming gospel into people’s lives to save and to heal. It’s a wonderful thing to partner with God and see lives transformed, in our south Yorkshire days we saw people’s lives amazingly transformed as they believed in Jesus name, were washed and renewed through the power of the Holy Spirit. New believers immediately began to tell their neighbours and friends and within just a few years the church had grown by several hundred! My Dad wasn’t a charismatic at the time, but the Holy Spirit broke out delivering people from the power of the occult, bursts of creativity as people wrote songs, prophesy and speaking in tongues. My Dad was not offended, he did not resist the spirit and was humble enough to call on the help of the local Pentecostal minister on occasion. So scripture tells us we are transformed and experience tells us as well and I could tell you numerous stories of people from this church and elsewhere who have experienced transformation and healing and then gone on to be a powerful transforming influence in their communities and workplaces.
One other thing about my Dad, he had courage, he did it scared. If you’re waiting till its no longer scary, get over it! We can only learn this stuff by experience (are we over taught and under experienced?) and we have to do it scared, embarrassed, cringing and so on? What do I mean? Well when we look for opportunities and are prepared to behave differently, there comes a scary moment. For example, a year ago or so I offered to pray with a supervisor at Morrisons who had been telling the cashier about her bad back, we chatted I offered to pray, there was a horrible, scary moment and I nearly bottled it. Part way through the Holy Spirit broke in and we both became silent in wonderment. I spoke to her recently and she confirmed her back had been healed. So next time someone in church or someone at work or wherever tells you about a distressing situation, offer to pray with them! A simple prayer addressing the situation in Jesus name is all that is required. For example, ‘I command all pain to go in Jesus name’ We can all tell our personal story, practice it, so you are ready. We can all pray for healing and wholeness and we can all bless people with kindness. Because of who we are and the name of Jesus we can see powerful results when we are obedient and allow the Holy Spirit to move.
FINISH HERE?
I want to throw out a challenge to us evangelicals and say that all the theology that applies to saving also applies to healing. We wrongly step into the sovereignty of God if we tell someone, ‘you will be healed today’. Similarly if we say that someone will only be healed in heaven, we wrongly step into Gods sovereignty. As evangelicals the battle was fought to evangelise against those that said we didn’t need to because God was sovereign and he would just save if he wanted to . . apply that to healing! So we are left with two things, one we have to be obedient to the commissions, ‘heal the sick and tell the kingdom of God is at hand’ (it can be grasped) and even the great commission says and teach them all the things I have taught you. Second the scriptures are very firm in stating God’s goodness, hold onto the fact that he is good and his intentions are always the best they can be at all times . . . yes when we look around we have questions, but we not called upon to build theology on such questions or observations. So when you offer to pray for someone, believe that God is good and be obedient.
So, you are a new creation (for a new Kingdom)

God is good

Do it scared

Imagine and pray yourself into situations

Like Jesus you can be obedient to Father God and like Jesus you can operate in the power of the Holy Spirit and do the things Jesus did and greater things as John says in his gospel, Jesus also says in John, ‘as the father sent me, so I am sending you’

Finally, like Ephesians says we just can’t imagine what God has in store for us, it’s so exciting, we are on the brink of a new season – God’s on the move, get on board!

Just a Thought . .

Just a thought . . it’s ok to ask for God for joy!

¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
¹³ Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
and they will return to you.
Psalm 51 NLT

This is quite incredible! David wrote this Psalm after committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging the death of her husband! Why is it incredible? Just have a look at verse 12 http://biblehub.com/psalms/51-12.htm What David is saying to God is ‘give me joy and then I will obey you, or ‘give me joy to help me obey you’ or ‘give me joy which will help me have a free and willing spirit necessary to my obeying you’. How cheeky can you get? Not only that he also says that this process, Joy – Obedience, will lead to him getting others to follow God’s ways!

Joy – Obedience – Evangelism

David is revered for knowing God’s heart and what worship is all about . . so I think we are fine taking his lead!

If we are struggling in the area of obedience or evangelism, why not try seeking out joy as a first step. In doing so we will find freedom from our struggles to obey as we flow in a new intimacy with a God who wants to deluge us with his love and joy . . from this experience we will have a strong desire to tell others!

Andy

Eagerly Desire

Fix Your Thoughts Before writing this blog I had to clear my iPad of photos and some videos, it was so clogged up I couldn’t do anything! Our lives too can get clogged up can’t they? So clogged up we have lost our joy maybe? May be not clogged up with bad things and we can be ever so ‘busy for the Lord’! This week I lost my focus a bit, well a lot really. Recently I realised that next January I am due a bit of pension money (Yes I am that old!). Enough to put down a deposit on a new or nearly new car possibly. So I have spent all week ogling cars. I’ve become obsessed to the point where I stopped enjoying it and lost my peace! Even my son Sam said, ‘Dad can we stop talking about cars now’? (Just in case you like cars I will put the two models I fancy below and you can vote which one you like best!) See, I can’t help myself . . I love Psalm 27 where it says: One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire[a] in his temple. Psalm 27:4 ONE THING! Everything we do must flow from one thing or else it will be all strain and push. Yes, there is grace and God always blesses, but if we are looking for abundant blessing in our ministries, in our work, family, whatever . . . it must all flow from one thing! At the centre of our lives, the top of our list, the thing we most eagerly desire must be  . . . to be in His presence! Desire only to be in His presence There is nothing wrong with desiring the joy that comes from being in His presence. Yes, sometimes it takes discipline, to get up and pray, sit still, put that worship music on, whatever. And yes, tough times can come, but even in the midst of these we can find peace and joy in His presence! There is such a thing as experiential learning . .the more we experience the Holy Spirit, the more we experience the Holy Spirit . . and yes it’s meant to be more and more, certainly not one off and rare experiences for a particular purpose. Yes, there is purpose, but it flows from relationship! It’s the same Holy Spirit! Recently I was in the Morrisons queue and the supervisor was chatting to the till person, saying how much her back hurt, then she wandered away. I said, ‘OK Lord if she comes back I will offer to pray with her’. She wandered somewhat closer as I put the last of my shopping in the trolley. I very nearly turned away, but just about summoned enough courage and went over to her and asked if I could pray for her back. She said yes, I was stood near her but didn’t feel it was right to ask to lay hands on her. I addressed the pain and the cause in Jesus name and suddenly we were both enveloped in the Holy Spirit. I can’t explain it but we were both stood staring at each other in a kind of wonder. And guess what? It was the same Holy Spirit I have encountered in worship! So not to be too mechanical or legalistic about it, is it possible these encounters come the more we seek to be in His presence, the more we seek the Holy Spirit? Is that the challenge for us and is that why David said, ‘One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after’, because he knew this was the secret to the rest of his life? Ok the cars . . just dreaming! Jeep Renegade vs Skoda Yeti Outdoor . . what’s your vote? (click the pictures for more pictures . .) ps we are having a bbq today at 3 food at 5 if you fancy coming . . let me know though 🙂 Andy

Warrior King

THAT’S IS MY KING … JESUS OUR LORD !!!

Posted by WARRIORS of GOD on Saturday, April 11, 2015

Religion Has Run Out of Wine!

Read John 2:1-11

Mary, Jesus and all the disciples are invited to a wedding, probably a Tuesday, the third day of the week (Resurrection Day!). No mention of Joseph here, some have speculated he died early, leaving Jesus to provide for the family . . . The wedding feast would last several days. It was the responsibility of the couple and their respective families to provide enough food and wine. In fact it was a matter of honour to do so. Running out of wine was a serious matter, the couple may even have had to go to a money lender to solve this problem, thereby starting their married lives in debt! Jesus provision means we don’t have to go into debt to fund His work and mission!

Mary asked Jesus to do something because the wedding feast no longer had wine. She was saying, ‘Religion has run out of wine.’ Religion alone cannot gladden our hearts! Jesus reply was, in effect, ‘what have we in common if I do this?’ In other words his status, how people perceived him would change dramatically, Mary’s not so much. Jesus already had disciples, what a miracle would do here is accelerate his ministry. Are we ready to have our own ministries accelerated, perhaps dramatically, perhaps by signs and wonders!?!?

Did Jesus drink this new wine?

The six pots of water . . six stands for ‘man’ or ‘human’. The pots represent our human efforts, at best the water washed the outside of people, their hands and feet, faces perhaps. Yet the water would have been dirty, unclean, even though the pots were ceremonially dedicated to their purpose. Our religion is ceremonially dedicated to its purpose, what if we suddenly found it full of new wine? Would we taste, would we drink and how deeply would we drink? Did Jesus drink this new wine at the feast I wonder? Did he laugh, did he dance?

Exercise
Read the passage again slowly and as you do imagine yourself a guest, there at the wedding feast. What happens? Perhaps Jesus invites you over for a chat, maybe he even invites you to dance with him and his disciples. Imagine his face, perhaps he takes hold of your hands and spins you round. Perhaps he offers you a cup of the new wine, will you drink? Weird huh? Maybe . . .

Amy

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"You are faithful, You never give up– never give up on me. You are able, to finish the work You started in me." Amy is part of our Bethel Church, Redding worship team and family. For nearly a decade, Amy and her husband, Jason, journeyed through infertility and recently received breakthrough. Two weeks ago at church, Amy sang out her story in spontaneous worship, sparking a powerful moment of prayer, declaring that our circumstances are overcome by the h o p e & p r o m i s e of everything He is.Read Amy's story on the blog: bethelmusic.com/blog/breakthrough-in-infertility-amys-story

Posted by Bethel Music on Thursday, April 30, 2015

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Get Your Crown!

Invitation to Your Coronation!

‘Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things that no one can imagine.’ From the film The Imitation Game

I like this quote because it speaks to me of how God is toward us. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 2:9: It is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has known what God has prepared for those who love him.” We humans are often the opposite, we seek to judge and limit. I’ve noticed myself and others do this, perhaps in conversation about other leaders. It starts off with faint praise, ‘so and so is good at . . , but, will never . . .’, all intended to sound very clever and wise. Yet our words will only come back to judge ourselves when we do this! We will have falsely bigged ourselves up and then when we see the amazing thing that God did with that person we will falsely big ourselves down!

We need to have the mind of God about ourselves and others . . always seeking to honour the best and speaking well of ourselves and others.

There is a call of God deep within you, that in one sense, no one can say anything about! There are unique purposes and plans that God has had for you since before the beginning of time! Don’t compare yourself with others, therefore, it makes no sense!

In the story of the crowning of Jeshua the high priest (Zechariah 6:10-15) crowns are made and there is the promise the temple of the Lord will be rebuilt and the glory will reside there, in the person of Jeshua. There is a sense that other folk are ‘crowned’ (a prophetic picture of Jesus and us). I love how the KJV version uses the word, ‘even’, ‘Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon’. As if to say, ‘even so and so, that no one thought anything of’. The first returnees from Babylon were poor folk, not nobles or royalty. The amazing thing about this story is that honour is given to these same folk before they have done anything! There is hardly a stone on top of another as far as the temple is concerned. So you can imagine people saying, ‘hold on a minute, them ?!?! and crowns?!?!?’. And Jesus honours you before you have done anything! It’s like he is going round heaven right now introducing you here and there, so pleased, so proud . . and you haven’t even done anything! That’s where we need to operate from, sons and daughters of the King, crowned, honoured. And that’s how we need to treat each other, honouring the best, only speaking the best!

So if that is the truth about our person and God’s plans. What about our position ?
Well, this is what verse 15 says, ‘And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.’ First there is the promise and then what our position is to be . . . Obey. The Hebrew word here means listen and obey. Our position is to be facing Father God and listening. Laying down our own ideas and eagerly listening, seeking to discern what God is up to. Then comes the fun part, joining in! Actually, listening is also fun, because, we are spending time with Father God, enjoying His presence, developing intimacy. It’s out of this intimacy that we get to know God’s heart. When we get to know God’s heart we start to get an idea of what he wants us to do

So don’t start with the doing. Start with affirming who God is, his Holiness, His perfect goodness toward us. Let the Holy Spirit affirm who you are, honoured, crowned as a brother/sister of Christ. Then spend time worshipping and enjoying God, developing intimacy, listening. Finally, comes the doing . .

Further study Jeremiah 29:11-13 Joel 2:25

Note Taking Bible Review and Tips

Note Taking Legacy
I have become fascinated recently with the idea of a bible to highlight and put notes in. I’m also attracted by the idea of making my note taking, ‘legacy’, ie to pass on to my children. Some of these bibles have extra pages for prayers/letters you can write to/for your children or use for extra notes. I did an obsessive amount research, (the fascination with pens did start to worry me) so I thought it might be worth sharing. Please feel free to email me any questions J

The Bibles:
Translations wise I’m going toward literal ie ESV NASB NKJV KJV . . ESV a more flowing read than NASB apparently . . I also like NLT for a legacy note taking/journal. I am going ESV, though you can find other translations for note takers . .

If you like the KJV, fantastic quality wide margin leather bibles here at very low cost (they only do KJV because of a particular theology they have, that’s fine though . . ) http://localchurchbiblepublishers.com/bibles/

My Favourite low priced option: Nice Leather Journaling Bible, no cross references though, review here buy here and have seen it as low as £24 on Ebay

An interesting option is Hendrickson’s loose leaf A4 Esv bible with massive margins, buy D shaped big binder, add A4 printed sermons or whatever, grow by adding binders over the years take out sections for a study or preach etc, buy here http://tinyurl.com/mhs3rky

My Favourite mid/high priced option: Crossway Wide Margin Black Top Grain Leather. There is a cheaper version of this bible, however this one has better paper and therefore can take the notes/highlighting with less bleeding and show through. Good review here buy here from Crossway at £105 or search Amazon/ebay/Barnes and Noble etc I am seeing it as cheap as £70 from the USA if you are prepared to wait longer for delivery . . eg Youtube review here

Crossway:

My favourite higher priced option is the Cambridge Wide Margin Reference Bible (£140). You can get a lower price Brown leather version which has red letters for words of Christ if that’s your thing (£55) – the three they do here Review here again search round for prices . .
Cambridge Black Leather Goatskin:

The Pens
The Pigma Micron is an archiving pen . . permanent, yet doesn’t bleed through!

Get several colours of above inc black
http://www.cultpens.com/i/q/SK21084/sakura-pigma-micron-drawing-pen

These highlighters are the best apparently for least/no bleed through

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ZEB75005-Eco-Zebrite-Double-Ended-Highlighters/dp/B001PMGARE/ref=pd_cp_office_1

If you do find yourself attracted by this idea, then happy hunting!

Andy

Courageous Thankfulness

I have been thinking about being brave. Wondering whether courage is something we muster up or is it something divinely given to us by the Holy Spirit? I’m still thinking . . And I was encouraged when I saw the title of the new Bethel Worship album, ‘You Make Me Brave‘.

Anyway while I was thinking about this it occurred to me how brave we have to be, sometimes, to thank God, to have a thankful heart in all circumstances. Sometimes it’s difficult enough to remember to thank God for the good stuff, and it’s really good to do this, ie ‘count our blessings’, every day. In fact, in the new so called, Science of Happiness or Positive Psychology, of the list of around ten or so things these people recommend, Gratitude/Thankfulness/Count Your Blessings always features (and interestingly, having a spiritual life).

But what about thanking God in difficult times or even for difficult times?

4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy 4: 4-5 (NIV)

John Wesley, had a list of instructions for the small groups that he set up all over the country. One of these instructions was to, ‘Thank God for everything as if it all comes from His hand.’

Why on earth would we want to do this?!?!?

1. When we thank God for something we consecrate it. We submit it to God’s authority, we draw it into His kingdom, it now  has the possibility of being used for good
2. We experience a deeper, unconditional, submission to God, whilst still believing for His good purposes to work out in our lives.
3. Thankfulness turns our attention toward God, it’s the doorway to entering His presence, leading to worship. When we are in His presence we can begin to receive His love, care, healing, wholeness, provision
4. As we come into God’s presence we are more likely to hear His voice and obey Him in a right direction – how often when something bad happens do we rebel and make a bad decision? Thankfulness is how we stay open to getting Godly wisdom for good decisions . .
5. We can begin to see the restoration of Joy or moments of Joy in the middle of bad times. A paraphrase of James 1:2 could read, ‘let Joy lead the way when you are faced with trials of many kinds’. Perhaps that really is possible when we consider having a thankful heart?

There are times when thankfulness takes tremendous courage and often we are left with unanswered and painful questions. Yet to draw close to Father God in this way by thanking Him in every circumstance, making our requests in faith, trusting in the constancy of His goodness, has to be the way to go. See Philippians 4:6

Why not stop for moment and Thank God today?

Andy

Link to positive psychology http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/
Link to thankfulness verses. http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/thanksgiving-bible-verses/