Travelling

Apropos of nothing.....

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito, but I hear no one recognizes you there so it must be a good place to go if you want some privacy.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport. You have to bedriven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, familyand work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not toomuch on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. Some people visit often, I think. I'm not sure.

I've been in Flexible, and I have to say, it felt as if I hadn't gotten very far.

Sometimes, I find myself in Capable. I don't know how I got there, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart!

Jesus Also Had Unbelieving Family Members

When we've got family members who don't share our faith it's really painful.   It's not like one person likes gardening and someone else likes golf.  It's  a whole different worldview that has implication for eternity.  I thought this article by Jon Bloom gives a really encouraging perspective that I certainly hadn't come across before.
Do you, like me, have family members who do not believe in Jesus? If so, we are in good company. So did Jesus. And I think this is meant to give us hope.
According to the Apostle John, “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). That’s incredible. Those who had lived with Jesus for 30 years really did not know him. Not one of Jesus’ brothers is mentioned as a disciple during his pre-crucifixion ministry. But after his resurrection and ascension, there they are in the upper room worshipping him as God (Acts 1:14).
Why didn’t they believe? And what made them change?
The Bible doesn’t answer the first question. But I’ll bet it was difficult to have Jesus for a brother.
First, Jesus would have been without peer in intellect and wisdom. He was astounding temple rabbis by age 12 (Luke 2:42, 47). A sinful, fallen, gifted sibling can be a hard act to follow. Imagine a perfect, gifted sibling.

Second, Jesus’ consistent and extraordinary moral character must have made him odd and unnerving to be around. His siblings would have grown increasingly self-conscious around him, aware of their own sinful, self-obsessed motives and behaviour, while noting that Jesus didn’t seem to exhibit any himself. For sinners, that could be hard to live with.
Third, Jesus was deeply and uniquely loved by Mary and Joseph. How could they not have treated him differently? They knew he was the Lord. Imagine their extraordinary trust in and deference to Jesus as he grew older. No doubt the siblings would have perceived a dimension to the relationship between the oldest child and their parents that was different from what they experienced.
And when swapping family stories it would have been hard to match a star appearing at your brother’s birth.

Jesus out-classed his siblings in every category. How could anyone with an active sin nature not resent being eclipsed by such a phenom-brother? Familiarity breeds contempt when pride rules the heart.
More pain than we know must have been behind Jesus’ words, “a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household” (Matthew 13:57).
So as we assess the role our weak, stumbling witness plays in our family members’ unbelief, let’s remember Jesus — not even a perfect witness guarantees that loved ones will see and embrace the gospel. We must humble ourselves and repent when we sin. But let’s remember that the god of this world and indwelling sin is what blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The story of Jesus’ brothers can actually give us hope for our loved ones. At the time his brothers claimed that Jesus was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21), it must have appeared very unlikely that they would ever become his disciples. But eventually they did! And not only followers, but leaders and martyrs in the early church.
The God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” shone in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of their brother, Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6).


So take heart! Don’t give up praying for unbelieving family members. Don’t take their resistance as the final word. They may yet believe, and be used significantly in the kingdom!
And while they resist, or if they have died apparently unbelieving, we can trust them to the Judge of all the earth who will be perfectly just (Genesis 18:25). Jesus does not promise that every parent, sibling, or child of a Christian will believe, but does painfully promise that some families will divide over him (Matthew 10:34-39). We can trust him when it happens.
It is moving to hear James refer to his brother as “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James 2:1). Can you imagine what this phrase meant for James? The Lord of glory had once slept beside him, ate at his dinner table, played with his friends, spoke to him like a brother, endured his unbelief, paid the debt of his sin, and then brought him to faith.


It may have taken 20-30 years of faithful, prayerful witness by the Son of God, but the miracle occurred: his brothers believed. May the Lord of glory grant the same grace to our beloved unbelievers.

The Best Trips Last a Lifetime

Am so loving the new Halfords advert: The Best Trips Last a Lifetime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtjDai7H2-E   

Free Martyn Lloyd-Jones Sermons

Martyn Lloyd-Jones is widely regarded as the greatest English speaking preacher of the last century and one of the greatest preachers of all time.  His decision to quit a promising career in medicine in his mid 20's in order to pastor a small chapel in South Wales was so extraordinary that it made the front page of the national press.  This decision, unbelievably foolish in the eyes of the world, proved to demonstrate the wisdom and greatness of God as Lloyd-Jones went on to have an incredible impact on literally millions of people all over the world.

In celebration of 30 years of the Martyn Lloyd Jones Recording Trust, set up to restore, promote and distribute the audio sermons of "The Doctor" the Trust have decided to release every single sermon they have, on line and for free.   This is an incredible move and will be a huge blessing to many.  

Visit http://bit.ly/eqxMYF to find out more. 

Religion V Gospel

I was sent this link recently - love it!

We've got to be continually aware of the creeping insidiousness (is that a word?) of religion. we lapse so easily into the elder-brotherishness of Luke 15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY&feature=related

Doubting with Confidence

On Sunday we were talking about John the Baptiser. Jesus was having a massive go at people for being unbelievably childish....wanting God to dance to their tune "you're too serious"/"you're not serious enough" etc...and he holds John up as a great example of an authentic follower.

In fact he said that no one greater had ever walked the face of the planet. That's a pretty bold claim to make and it certainly gets your attention. (I remember listening to Gordon Ramsey on Desert Island Discs and hearing him say that his all time favourite book about the world of catering was Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. That got my attention so I bought the book and took it on holiday in the sure knowledge I'd get to hear someone really worth listening to.) But then we hear that John, for all this tremendous accolade, was full of doubt, confusion and disappointment.

"Go and find Jesus", he tells two of his own followers, "and ascertain whether he really is the One because it sure doesn't feel like it from this prison cell in Machaerus Fortress...." He wants to know what on earth is going on. Don't we all face that. "God, what are you doing with all the power you have because I don't get it!"

Jesus doesn't offer any explanation for the confusing stuff but simply says, "Look at what I am doing not what I'm not - you know the stuff you think I should be doing." Jesus lists the things he's doing and invites John to focus on that. The lesson is simple. it's OK to have doubts and confusion about the stuff that we see around us but we need to focus on what Jesus is doing and supremely on what he has done on the Cross.

Verse 23 of chapter 7 is a stinger: Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me or...

Blessed is the person who doesn’t give up on God because they’re disappointed with the way I choose to operate.

How many of us give up or are tempted to give up on God because he doesn't dance to our tune delivering what we think he should. The antidote....focus on the amazing grace of God shown to us in the Cross, the work he has done.

Game-Changer

"Based on what we know of God, what would God expect of us".

That was the question Nigel put to us the other Sunday morning and it's an absolute stonker! Rightly understood and rightly applied, with faith-ful confidence, humility, wisdom and courage it is, as they say, a game-changer.

All we do, everything we say, think, believe....it should all come out of what we know of God and the grace he has shown us in Jesus. When we've got that properly squared away and we're living "under this" then what God expects is pretty obvious and the implications huge.

We get sidelined for a promotion or we miss out on something we think we deserve:
based on what we know of God....we feel the pain and the disappointment but trust that God is totally for us and he will provide what we need.

We're let down by someone close to us, we feel hurt and betrayed:
based on what we know of God....we feel the pain, the sadness and the anger but remember that we serve one who experienced all the betrayal we have experienced and the knowledge of this helps us to forgive, extending grace instead of hate and we move on.

We suffer a financial loss and we're not sure what the future may hold:
based on what we know of God.....we feel the fear and the anxiety but we believe that if God did not spare his own Son but gave him for us he will, therefore, certainly supply all our needs.

We see someone screw their life up through a series of ridiculous life-style choices:
based on what we know of God....we acknowledge the brokenness and the wrong choices that led to it but we realise that if God extended radical grace to us when we deserved utter condemnation we can never, ever disdain or disparage another person.

We feel disappointed with ourselves and our repeated failures to be who we want to be:
based on what we know of God....we make our confession, naming our sin (where appropriate) but rejoice in the fact that God accepts us at our worst (and this is all by grace) and so we move forward with confidence.

We feel really rather pleased that we're doing so well for God:
based on what we know of God.....we give thanks for what he has enabled us to do but we remember that any good in us is only by his grace and that without his undeserved intervention in our lives we would be nothing (at best). And so, we move forward with humility.

The work of God in Christ - the gospel - changes everything. It means we do the radical, unexpected thing. The stuff of Luke 6 and Matthew 5-7 in fact.