FamilleLaGrise

Reinvention

2012-02-12T02:20:00.000-08:00

1. God is continually reinventing. Our kids are growing up. What was good then is no longer ok with them. For example on Fridays we used to have ‘pizza and video’ nights. Now only our youngest child is interested in those, and then only sometimes. As we grow we change. Food was different before and after the flood – we went from being vegetarians to carnivores. Abraham was told to be a blessing to the nations, but the descendants of Jacob/Israel often forgot this. Eventually they asked for a king, not something that was at all part of God’s perfect plan. Having had a bad king they eventually had King David on the throne, who united the North and the South and expanded the territory of the nation. He was promised that a son of his would always be on the throne, but this went wrong and it was reinvented to being fulfilled in the ‘son of David’, Jesus the Messiah, whose kingdom is the Kingdom of God. Peter was very surprised, on meeting Cornelius, to see a dream where he was told to kill and eat all kinds of non-kosher animals (Acts 10). Once the gentiles had been baptised in the Spirit his (actually the apostles’) view of them had to be reinvented. Paul had a ministry to the gentiles, despite the fact that his real heart was for his own people to the Jews (his ministry had to be reinvented). The gospel is reinvented between the Old Testament and the New, it is a secret now revealed (1Cor 2:6, 4:1).

2. We continually need to adapt ourselves to new environments. We used to live in Central Asia, then we lived in St Petersburg Russian for a few years, and now we live in the UK. The customs, lifestyles, and how relationships work are different. Paul had to adapt his ministry to the audience he was communicating with. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Cor 9:20-22. Notice he also had to reinvent his view of the law (the teaching found in the first five books of the Bible). It is now teaching, not about how to be Jewish, but how to be at peace with God through Jesus the Messiah, and part of God’s new covenant people, made up of both Jews and Gentiles (‘people from every tribe, nation, people and tongue’ Rev 7:9).

3. This puts us in the firing line, but God’s grace is always there whenever we need it. ‘He gives us more grace.’ Jas 4:6. Without God’s grace we would never survive. Change can be tiring. Actually it is exhausting, particularly to those who value stability and cherish the status quo (I’m not one of these, by the way). We need God’s grace to make it through the hard times.

War in the Old Testament

2012-01-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

What about the Canaanites?

Introduction

Those of us who adhere to a classic form of belief in God —God is good, holy, loving, sovereign — have a problem: evil. Evil is a problemfor any thinking Christian — a serious problem. Simply put: if God is good, wehave to ask why there is evil. If God is sovereign, we have to ask why there isevil. And if God is good we have to ask if God is sovereign.

False Views

1. Setting the Two Testaments Against EachOther

This view goes back to Marcion, 2^ndCentury:

‘All these nasty things happened in the OT, but now we areNT Christians we know God was never like that (though the primitive Israelitesthought he was) or God has changed in the way he engages with us as seen inJesus.’

This won’t do:

It is a caricature of the OT which has much to say about thelove of God.

It is a caricature of the NT which has much to say about thejudgement of God.

It caricatures Jesus and the NT writers who do not reject theOT but fulfil it.

Bono on OT vs. NT

There's nothing hippie about my picture of Christ. TheGospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but loveit is. I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, carchases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder,adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that's whythey're so relatable.

But the way we would see it, those of us who are trying tofigure out our Christian conundrum, is that the God of the Old Testament islike the journey from stern father to friend.

When you're a child, you need clear directions and somestrict rules.

But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-onerelationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe,a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look acrossat a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes theCross.

OT vs. NT

There probably are some differences between the OT and theNT

But God is the same throughout the Bible

The New Covenant does not replace the Old Covenant, ratherit fulfils it

2. The Israelites Misunderstood God

Israel did the violence and attributed their actions toGod’s will. In other words, the ‘God told me to do it’ defence of theindefensible.

Alternatively God spoke the words as hyperbole but theIsraelites took them literally e.g. ‘We’re going to kill the opposition’(before a game of basketball).

This neatly gets God off the hook and the Israelites on it.

The problems are:

There is no hint anywhere that the conquest of Canaan was a‘mistake’. In fact the opposite is true, the refusal of the Exodus generationto go ahead are acts of disobedience

All through the Bible the Promised Land is celebrated as justthat – a fulfilled promise of God to his people.

3. It Should All Be Interpreted as an Allegoryon Spiritual Warfare

To dilute the reality of the Canaanite conquest byspiritualising the whole event. The story becomes a reservoir of spirituallessons:

Victory over spiritual enemies

Release from slavery to sin

Overcoming a wilderness experience

God fulfilling his promises

The arrival of Israel in Canaan is not an allegory but ahistorical narrative. ‘It was not allegorical Israelites who attacked orallegorical Canaanites who died.’ Chris Wright

“There are days Iwish,” he says, “this narrative were not in the Bible at all.” Wright’sapproach is to examine this issue in the context of three biblical frameworks —frameworks that do not “explain away” but do “set in context.”

Framework of the OT story

‘Yahweh war’ not holy war

Unique event in history

Framework of God’s sovereign justice

Canaanites were sinful

This doesn’t mean Israel was altogether righteous

Framework of God’s plan of salvation

Peace

Blessing the Nations

The Nations will Praise God

Conclusion

It is hard to reach firm conclusions

Any easy answers in this area (or in the area ofsuffering/evil) will just sound pat

Is it possible that we aren’t able to comprehend this issuefrom God’s point of view? We are finite, He is infinite. We are limited, He islimitless…

Bibliography

C.J. Wright ‘The God I Don't Understand: Reflections onTough Questions of Faith’ Zondervan 2008 (and available on Kindle)

http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2008/12/hard-questions-for-the-bible.html#ixzz1ilY6qKaU

http://faithinireland.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/chris-wright-the-god-i-dont-understand-6/

http://www.thepoachedegg.net/the-poached-egg/2010/09/bono-interview-grace-over-karma.html

Exuberance and Extravagance

2012-01-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we get the idea that our devotional life needs tobe quiet. The still small voice. Candles. Hushed voices. Songs sungunaccompanied, in unison during worship. And that’s all true, but ourexperience of God can also be exuberant and our giving of ourselves toHim extravagant:

· God is our model. He isexuberant in all He does:

In creation (Gen 1).Gen 1:20-22
In mercy and grace Exo20:6 showing love to athousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exo34:5-7 ⁵ Then the LORDcame down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, theLORD. ⁶ And he passed infront of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate andgracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love tothousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…"
In his relationship with His people – His covenant with us,His faithful love.

Also God gave himself extravantlyin Christ for us Gal1:3; 2:20; Eph 5:25-26. (Seealso 1Ti 2:6,14; Philippians 2 ‘Who being in very nature God…’).

· We are extravagant in ourgiving and exuberant in our worship because that is how we have been made. Ifwe weren’t those things in worship we would be in something else that mattersto us (cycling, golf, football…)

o A mission worker, singlelady, was retiring to the UK after many years of service in the Bhutan. Itbecame known that she didn’t know where she would live, but someone in thechurch gave her a house. A whole house to live in!

o Gifts needn’t be large –they can still be extravagant and life-changing. John Bechtel, a missionary inHong Kong, wanted to start a Christian camp to reach people for Christ. Abankrupt multimillion-dollar hotel and conference center became available forsale. He made an offer to purchase the property and then traveled around theworld to raise the millions he would need. But no one was willing to help andhe returned to Hong Kong discouraged. Then one day he got a letter from a younggirl that included $1 and a note saying she wanted him to use this to buy thecamp. John Bechtel prayed and took the girl’s $1 to the real estate closing andthe corporation decided to accept the $1 as full payment! Since the camp firstopened, over a million people have come and over 100,000 have accepted Christ.

o Here's an example of some football supporters showing some exuberance! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSbro76eX9s&feature=related

· Prayer and worship arespiritual warfare – hence the ‘battle-cry’ (Teru`a) in Psalms:

6 Then Iwill hold my head high

above myenemies who surround me.

At hissanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,

singing andpraising the LORD with music.

3 Sing anew song of praise to him;

playskillfully on the harp, and sing with joy.

5 God hasascended with a mighty shout.

The LORDhas ascended with trumpets blaring.

15 Happyare those who hear the joyful call to worship,

for theywill walk in the light of your presence, LORD.

5 Praisehim with a clash of cymbals;

praise himwith loud clanging cymbals.

o PSA 27:6;33:3 ;47:6; 89:16; 150:5 respectively (Hebrew verse no.s) all from NLT. Amazing that each is translated differently because ofthe different contexts.

o Psa 41:12; 47:2; 60:10;65:14; 66:1; 81:2; 95:1f; 98:4, 6; 100:1; 108:10 have the word rawa`which is a shout with joy or triumph. Likewise rina and ranan.

o So lots of words for loudshouting, and I think these need to be taken into account when we lead worship,however unpopular it may be with some folk who aren’t used to it.

Conclusion: let’s be extravagant in allwe do in service of God. Worship should be loud. Joyful. Giving (time andmoney) extravagant. Our times with God should be as envigorating as a 5-milerun. You should feel pumped afterwards. If you don’t, maybe it’s time to upyour game!

Human Rights or Justice?

2011-12-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

In our modern or post-modern Western cultures we tend to view human rights as the highest value, which means we like to fight for our rights, even though we mostly live in countries that are very free, and where there is little real poverty. This is not the case elsewhere in the world, and it is worth taking a moment to ask how the Bible addresses issues like the woman who was imprisoned as a result of having been raped:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16202577

Rather than talking about human rights, the Bible discusses such issues in terms of justice. God is righteous (has right actions) and just (fair) and expects us to behave in the same way. "Always judge your neighbors fairly, neither favoring the poor nor showing deference to the rich' (Lev 19:15). In the Psalms it is common for the oppressed to cry out to God for vindication:

They gape at me and say, "Aha! Aha! With our own eyes we have seen it." O LORD, you have seen this; be not silent. Do not be far from me, O Lord. Awake, and rise to my defence! Contend for me, my God and Lord. Vindicate me in your righteousness, O LORD my God; do not let them gloat over me.

Psalm 35:21-24

In Isaiah justice is emphasised in a new way:

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 1:15-17

What we need today is not human rights, but a fear of God who is just, and who carries out his just judgments against oppressors of the poor and weak and needy.

Is the God of the Old Testament a God of Wrath (Part 3)

2011-10-05T23:17:00.000-07:00

3. The God of the Old Testament
There aren’t that many statements about God’s nature in the Bible, actually. We usually find out about what God is like by what he does. He rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt – our God is a rescuer. But there are some statements in the Old Testament about what God is like. One can be found in the Psalms:

‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.’ Psalm 89:14, NIV.

The word used for ‘love’ is, of course hesed.

Even this verse, once unpacked, comes out to explain God’s activity. Righteousness is right living, right behaviour. Justice is right judgment, good decisions. Love and faithfulness describe God’s constant, faithful love, the love that will not let us go. Take a minute to read Psalm 89. Is it describing what God is like, His nature, or is it describing God’s actions? Surely it is the latter. And it is a well-known song about God’s covenant-agreement with David, that God would always allow a descendant (‘son’ or ‘seed’ in Hebrew) of David to sit on the throne. When David wanted to build a temple, a house of God, he was told that it wasn’t his job. In a brilliant piece of irony, God replied by saying ‘you will not build my house, I will build your house’ in other words God was promising David a dynasty, a line of kings that would always sit on the throne of Israel (2Sa 7). Or a king, the son of David, that would sit on the throne of the kingdom for ever.

Now you’re going to say to me, ‘It’s all very well talking about God’s faithfulness to David and to his people Israel, but what about his commands to kill all the foreign tribes living in the promised land at the time of Joshua?’ Of course we find such things difficult. Not that life has changed that much – we only need look at Ruanda, Iraq, or even Easter Europe to see that. But for God to actually command the genocide of the peoples living in Canaan seems much more extreme. Why would God do that?Well, I think we need to understand that God, in the Old Testament, is seen as the God of all the nations, not just the God of Israel. He has the right to sit in judgment on any nation. So if a nation were to disobey him, and oppose the Israelites, or begin to carry our terrible practices like human (or even child) sacrifice, then God’s wrath is bound to fall on that nation. Just look at the Amorites. Way back at the time of Abraham the Amorites were beginning to turn against God:

‘Then the LORD told Abram, "You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.) After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, when the sin of the Amorites has run its course." As the sun went down and it became dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, "I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River-- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites."’ Genesis 15:13-21 NLT

The conclusion of this story is found in Numbers 21. The Israelites ask to pass peacably through Amorite territory. The Amorite leader refuses, and the Amorites march out in battle against the Israelites, who defeat them and occupy their land.That’s not to say that we expect to occupy land in the same way today. How terrible would that be? No, we know that the kingdom of God is not that kind of kingdom. It is a kingdom advanced by prayer, and built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. But those who read parts of the Old Testament and judge them according to Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom or on loving our enemies are being anachronistic (out of time sequence). We don’t expect to find motorbikes in the Bible, or digital watches on the arms of Roman centurions. Neither should we expect to find Old Testament leaders following Jesus’ teaching. There was one Central Asian Bible published that only had the New Testament, Psalms, and Genesis – in that order. One old man was reading it through, got to Genesis, and said ‘Abraham was a bad prophet. He didn’t follow Jesus’ teaching!’

The other thing about the Bible is that it contains a whole range of genres, as I explained in part 1. When we read expressions of hate against the Babylonians (in the Psalms), these do not necessarily represent God’s view of those peoples. On the other hand anyone who unjustly oppresses another people, wipes out part of them, and marches the rest into captivity in their own country is bound, sooner or later, to find that they have been opposing God not man. They may find that God raises up another leader, or another people, to replace them. I’m talking about the Persians, who took over the Babylonian empire, and allowed God’s people back into Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple.

Well, what can we learn from all of this? It can be hard to understand all of God’s actions, but we have to trust that He knows what is right, and will always be true to those who follow Him. Those who turn against Him and start to carry out wrong or even evil behaviour will, sooner or later, find that they come up against the Judge of all the earth, who will do right (Gen 18:25).

More to follow…

Is The God of the Old Testament a God of Wrath? (Part 2)

2011-09-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

2. Faithful Love in the Old Testament

There’s a very important Hebrew word in the Old Testament.

Hesed.

It occurs 251 times. It’s primary meaning is love. A love that is faithful. A love that endures. The first time it’s used is in the story of Lot escaping the destruction of Sodom:

‘You have already been very good to your servant and shown me even greater love by saving my life, but I cannot flee to the hills, or disaster will overtake me and I shall die.’

Then Abraham uses it as he talks to his wife and half-sister, Sarah:

'So when God made me wander far from my father's home I said to her, "There is an act of love you can do me: everywhere we go, say of me that I am your brother." '

After that is used four times in the story of Abraham’s servant looking for a wife for his son Isaac. The servant travels to the old ancestral homeland of Abraham’s family, and prays hard before trying to find the wife intended by God for Isaac:

‘And he said, 'Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and show faithful love to my master Abraham.’ (Gen 24)

Once Rebekah has been found he prays again:

‘Blessed be Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, for not withholding his faithful love from my master. Yahweh has led me straight to the house of my master's brother.’

Rebekah is willing, but her father Bethuel and brother Laban still need convincing. So Abraham’s servant says this:

‘Now tell me whether you are prepared to show constant and faithful love to my master; if not, say so, and I shall know what to do.’ [here a synonym is used: emet, meaning constancy or faithfulness]

They give their permission and the story ends happily ever after – Abraham’s servant takes Rebekah back to Isaac to be married.

Yahweh has close relationships with some of his people. Joseph is one of these. We read that, ‘Yahweh was with Joseph. He showed him faithful love and made him popular with the chief gaoler.’ (Gen 40)

Another was Moses. When Moses asked to experience being in Yahweh’s presence, this is what we read:

Then Yahweh passed before him and called out, 'Yahweh, Yahweh, God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy, maintaining his faithful love to thousands, forgiving fault, crime and sin, yet letting nothing go unchecked, and punishing the parent's fault in the children and in the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation!' (Exo 34)

Yahweh is the God who revealed himself to Moses as the God who makes a covenant of love with His chosen people:

7 ‘Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples -- for indeed you were the smallest of all- 8 but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 From this you can see that Yahweh your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true to his covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep his commandments, 10 punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay; and it is in their own persons that he punishes them.’ (Deu 7)

But the crowning glory of this word is its use in the songs of David and of the people of Israel, the book of Psalms. Here is a brief selection of the 128 occurrences in their songbook:

Kindness and faithful love pursue me every day of my life. I make my home in the house of Yahweh for all time to come. (Psa 23)

Each morning fill us with your faithful love, we shall sing and be happy all our days…
(Psa 90)

As the height of heaven above earth, so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.
(Psa 103)

And in one Psalm the word is used as part of a refrain in each verse:

Alleluia! [Praise Yahweh] Give thanks to Yahweh for he is good, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Give thanks to the God of gods, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his faithful love endures for ever.
He alone works wonders, for his faithful love endures for ever… (Psa 136)

My favourite is probably this one:

Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,
my faithful love, my bastion, my citadel, my Saviour; I shelter behind him, my shield, he makes the peoples submit to me. (Psa 144)

It seems that Yahweh, the God who delights to have close relationships with His people, both Jew and non-Jew, enjoys it when we delight in Him and his faithful love for us. A God of wrath? Not by intention, only by exception.

(Quotes are from the New Jerusalem Bible).

Is The God of the Old Testament a God of Wrath?

2011-09-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

1. The Nature of the Bible

The Bible was not written by God.

Not quite.

It was written by many many human authors, who were inspired by God.

There is a subtle difference. It means that the message is incarnate in the culture of whatever time the message was revealed in. In the case of Moses we’re talking about a long, long time ago. About 2,500 years. This is easily forgotten.

And Moses had an axe to grind, a people to lead, a fledgling nation to unite. So when we criticise his successor, Joshua, for genocide, we need to remember that if hadn’t been for that genocide there would have been no nation, no history of Israel, and no Messiah. How would that feel? What would that be like? It’s hard for us to imagine.

The Bible is written in all kinds of different genres. We have teaching (‘law’), prophecy, songs (‘psalms’), proverbs (‘wisdom’), parables (stories with a point), and letters, amongst others. None of these were written in a vacuum. Paul may have been aware that letter he wrote to, for example, the church in Corinth, was about to become scripture, but he still intended his message for that particular audience. Songs are not meant to be read but sung, or chanted. Parables are pithy sayings designed to make us think. They were designed to help us live. Practical stuff for us to mull over. Teaching is supposed to be followed – but like any good sermon, the teaching always gives us reasons for obeying. It is a mixture of divine wisdom from above, and grounded common sense.

Coming back to Moses, it is quite likely that his teaching was born from a life spent solving problems, as well as spending time in Yahweh’s presence in the Tent of Meeting. Eventually he appointed seventy elders to help him in his task. We can imagine him getting these elders together:

‘Hey, anything interesting happen today?’

And he would listen to them as they passed on the more interesting cases. From this wealth of experience Moses wrote some of the laws. Others were simply borrowed from the surrounding cultures, though adapted to fit Yahweh’s high standards of righteousness, justice, love and faithfulness (Psa 89:14).

So, when we sit down to read the Bible, we first need to take time to think ourselves into their time and their culture. Otherwise we may be guilty of jumping to conclusions.

The big issue, it seems to me, is this – do we take the authors’ views as God’s verbatim word to us now, as culturally conditioned, or something in-between?

By the way, this is how the Jews categorise their Bible, what we call the Old Testament:

• Genesis – Deuteronomy Teaching
• Joshua – 2 Kings Former Prophets
• Isaiah – Malachi Latter Prophets
• Psalms, Proverbs etc. Writings

The main difference is that what we blandly call ‘history’ is thought of as ‘prophecy’ by the Jews. This makes much more sense. Prophets spoke God’s word into the political situation they had to live in. If a leader (king) failed to follow God’s standards of righteousness, justice, love and faithfulness, they were eventually removed or replaced by someone who would. Or, rather, might.

More tomorrow...

Moses – Freedom to Serve (Part 2)

2011-08-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

Freedom means a different kind of life v5
We once had a landlord who told us, “I don’t think God would ever do no one no ‘arm”. There are different views of God. That's a view of a passive God who wishes all well. It's not quite accurate. In the Narnia book 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe', one of the children asks:

“Is Aslan quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just plain silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Before God could use Moses, Moses had to realise something about God – God is Holy. He is other, separate. There is no one like him. As we come to worship the LORD we stand on holy ground. Worship isn’t just going through the motions, a bit of singing, some prayers we all say ‘Amen’ to. It is coming into the presence of the LORD. And as we do that we may sense fear, a holy fear:

It’s good to be afraid. 1:17, 21 midwives feared God more than Pharoah. God rewarded them with families of their own.

Words spoken to the Israelites as thick darkness covered Mnt Sinai (cf v12): Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” Exo 20:20 NIV (!). Something of a paradox. We need not be afraid, because our fear of the LORD will keep us from sinning. Then we will have no fear of punishment. Jim Graham: ‘Where there are good morals, there we find good morale.’

The freedom the world offers is in fact slavery and results in an ever-decreasing sphere of spiritual involvement and influence. The freedom Christ offers us is true freedom. We find freedom in listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and living in obedience to that voice, if it is confirmed by the teaching we find in the Bible.

Many religious groups are based on fear. We have a relationship based on love, and freedom to serve. This means a change in our attitudes and lifestyle.

And there have to be rules. Society needs rules. Exodus had rules about, for instance, whether you can kill a burglar who breaks into your house (not if it’s daylight!) or what to do if someone is in debt to you (let him work for you until the debt is paid off then give him his freedom). Without rules we end up with chaos – as we found out in Pizza Hut last week!

Are you living a life of freedom? v8-10
Having said that, the Christian life is not a life of drudgery, of keeping to rules, of ‘being good’. Story: when I became a Christian (doing more washing-up). Who is the author of salvation? (God). Not us. God is the agent, the author, the initiator, the beginning and the end of our salvation. Where can we find out about that salvation? (In the Bible). God is the one who saves and redeems. He brought his people out of slavery to freedom. Moses tried on his own, and failed. With the help of the Great I AM, he succeeded. Are you doing this faith thing on your own? Or have you plugged into the endless reservoirs supplied by Yahweh, I AM? I mentioned Stalin earlier. His predecessor, Lenin, once said, ‘It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that it must be rationed.’ Freedom in Christ is not rationed! ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free... ’ Gal 5:1. See Col 2:9-17.

This leads to freedom from sin, and freedom to serve. Freedom to be holy. To be part of God’s chosen people. Do you know yourself to be part of God’s people? Do you know you are set free? Are you able to serve?

Jesus has a manifesto. It’s written in the Bible. It’s not like polititians’ manifestos (promise now, don’t pay later). Jesus’ keeps to his words, always. Do you know where his manifesto is? It’s in Luke chapter 4.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” [quote of Isa 61:1]

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus also proclaims freedom for the oppressed, today. We may not be under some kind of economic yoke of oppression, but many in the world are. What are we doing to help release them from their slavery? Let’s begin to have a world-perspective today!
What about the spirtually-oppressed? Those enslaved to fears to do with folk practices – charms, amulets, the evil-eye? When will they hear the Good News about Jesus Christ, who can free them from all of that?

Ultimately we find freedom in being part of God’s people, with our eyes fixed on heaven. He brings us into a land (Kingdom of God) of liberty:

My country, ‘tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountain-side
Let freedom ring. (America, 1831)

Do you feel:
• at peace?
• free?
• are you resting in Christ?
• able to serve?
• If you’re already serving have you run out of steam, because you’re doing it in your own strength?

Moses – Freedom to Serve (Part 1)

2011-08-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Introduction
What comes into your head when I say the word ‘Moses’? Leader? Law-giver? Redeemer? Burning-bush? Bricks without straw? ‘Pharoah’? ‘Miracles’? ‘Passover lamb’? For me it’s this: ‘Go down, Moses, way down Egypt land, tell old, Pharoes, let my people go!’ A ‘spiritual’ - song sung by African-American slaves.

God wants people to be free 2:24
We have seen and heard the appalling news from horn of Africa. And of course from Norway. Poverty and oppression.
Poverty and oppression -- the two are often linked. But God sees, and God cares 2:24-25, 3:7 . He was in special relationship with the Israelites through their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs. (Though God is a God who delights to bring liberty to all peoples: ‘"Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites?" declares the LORD. "Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?’ Amos 9:7). But here we see God about to make another covenant with His people: `You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." In Exodus 19:4-6 we see that freedom and obedience are linked.

God Calls us to a place where we are free to serve v4
Once before Moses tried to lead the Israelites. It all went badly wrong. He wasn’t at all in a place where he could serve God by leading the Israelite people.
The dark side of leadership: most leaders have a dark (driven) side to them. One thinks of Stalin – ‘Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union’(!), or Hitler – ‘One realm, one people, one leader’ . Moses was no exception. He liked to take charge, to take matters into his own hands. When things didn’t work out he ran. It took him 40 years of life spent in the Midian desert before he was ready to hear God’s call to be a servant-leader of the Israelite people. Have you got anything you need to be released from before you can serve?

And he felt very unworthy of this call:
‘Who am I?’ v11 It’s not a bad sign to feel insecure. It keeps us from pride (though a very low self-esteem can also be a sign of pride, or lack of faith).
‘I am with you’ v12 Reassurance from the LORD. The I AM (Yahweh – used to be Jehovah.) of the Bible – personal God. God who relates. God who remains the same – a loving, faithful God. Have you met him? Do you know him? Are you resting in God who you know loves you?

‘I am with you’. The I AM of the Bible is with us. It is our enemy who needs to fear. His fear should be of biblical proportions!

The Children of Abraham

2011-07-28T03:39:00.000-07:00

NT Wright says:

'What then is this vindication, this dikaiosis? It is God’s declaration that a person is in the right; that is, (a) that their sins have been forgiven, and (b) that they are part of the single covenant family promised to Abraham.'
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_New_Perspectives.htm

Many Muslims get hung up over the Jewish terminology in the Bible. Phrases like 'salvation is from the Jews' (John 4:22) are particularly difficult. Why 'from the Jews'? Why not 'from the Arabs'? Any Muslim would be far happier with the latter statement.

But if NT Wright is correct, then justification, or vindication as Wright calls it, is not only to do with our individual relationship with God, but also to do with our membership of the community of believers that goes right back to Abraham. And we need to remember that Abraham was the father, in physical terms, of not only Isaac but of Ishmael too (the ancestor of the Arabs). In spiritual terms he is the father of us all. Either way the Arabs are included in the grace of the gospel, and need not fear exclusion on the basis of race. The only condition of becoming a believer is being able to state, with Paul, that 'Jesus is Lord'. Since Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, it is only a small step to also believe in him as king.

The more extreme followers of a militaristic form of Islaam need to be careful, however.

'The united multi-ethnic church is a sign of God’s healing and remaking of the cosmos and also thereby a sign to Caesar and his followers that his attempted unification of the world is a blasphemous parody.' (ibid.)

The attempted unification of all earthly powers into an Islaamic Ummah ('community') with Sharia being enforced on all citizens is a modern-day parody of the multi-ethnic people of God. This, we must resist, by boldly stating 'Jesus is Lord'. No earthly leader, king, or system is above Jesus.

Articles on MIT

2011-07-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

I've just uploaded a couple of articles on M Idiom Translation to google docs. You will need to have permission to view them - write to me at yishayogly@gmail.com and I'll set it up for you. Here are the links:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DefpcgYoEzaBKOpWNVAPcUXaFK1KzyVwIrhee9pV70I/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p7eEpSDGMuYVLO0J_1xKTzVjcBesFQHHN87Mjh3gDyw/edit?hl=en_US

Those Pesky Foreigners! (Exodus 12)

2011-06-08T02:44:00.000-07:00

When the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, it turns out that there were non-Israelites among them! This is a wonderful preview of how it would be in the New Age (of the NT) when God would create one man/race out of the two (Jew and Gentile):

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)-- 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. Ephesians 2 NIV

And when the Israelites celebrated the passover feast, in haste, to remember how they had been brought out of Egypt in a big hurry (hence naan bread being the only bread available! The first curry houses in the world?!), there would have been some foreigners eating it with them. But those who took part in the feast had to be circumcised to show that they were counted as being among God's people. This means that today, despite our eagerness to include one and all, we do need to remember that as we gather for communion, it is believers that are welcome. Those with circumcised hearts, as Paul puts it in Romans 2.

Take a moment to read Exodus 12, especially verses 43-51:

43 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the festival of Passover. No foreigners are allowed to eat the Passover lamb. 44 But any slave who has been purchased may eat it if he has been circumcised. 45 Hired servants and visiting foreigners may not eat it. 46 All who eat the lamb must eat it together in one house. You must not carry any of its meat outside, and you may not break any of its bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate this festival at the same time. 48 "If there are foreigners living among you who want to celebrate the LORD's Passover, let all the males be circumcised. Then they may come and celebrate the Passover with you. They will be treated just as if they had been born among you. But an uncircumcised male may never eat of the Passover lamb. 49 This law applies to everyone, whether a native-born Israelite or a foreigner who has settled among you." 50 So the people of Israel followed all the LORD's instructions to Moses and Aaron. 51 And that very day the LORD began to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, division by division. Exo 12 NLT

True Worship

2011-06-07T04:10:00.000-07:00

John 4:19-26 19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." 25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." 26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Where?
Lots of discussions about the building. Development cttee. PCC. But is the building really that important? (The Grk word for ‘church’ means ‘gathering’). Illustration – royal wedding (Westminster Abbey wasn't really in focus, was it?).
Samaritans (N kingdom of Israel, deported to Assyria, those left behind intermarried with foreigners who had been encouraged to move there, who only had the Pentateuch, and who’s worship was focussed on Mount Gerizim – 400BC rival temple, now destroyed) were looking for ‘one like Moses’. Their word for a Messiah figure. That comes out in the woman’s dialogue. She says, ‘I can see that you are a/the prophet?’

Who
Not a place. 'Neither... nor...' v21.
Yet salvation does come through Christ, the Messiah, who was a Jew. ‘…we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews’.
He came full of grace and truth (1:14, 17). He is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (14:6).
After the resurrection and ascension, Jesus sent his Spirit, the Holy Spirit (Spirit of truth 14:17, 15:26; 16:23). The Spirit leads us into truth.

How
The Father seeks worshippers. Normally we seek God (e.g. in Psa ‘I seek your face’). Here, and in parable of lost sheep (Mat 18:12) and in the parable of the lost coin (Luk 15:8), both showing us that ‘the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost’ (Luk 19:10) we have God seeking us.
Sacred Romance – Brent Curtis and John Eldredge is a great book to read on this subject.
Romances are pretty up and down. Fairly unpredictable. Relationships with people in general can be unpredictable. The word for ‘Spirit’ in the NT is the same as the word for ‘wind’. When explaining how to be born again to Nicodemus, Jesus says: ‘The wind [=Spirit] blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound [=voice], but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."’. 3:8 Let’s be ready for the unpredictable!
Are places important?
That isn’t to say that places are unimportant. The place where you met your wife, or had your honeymoon. But they are places connected with a person, not a religion.
So we need to think more about our relationship with Jesus Christ. We can do that as individuals, but also as a community focussed on Him. He is our life. He, by His Holy Spirit, leads us into all truth. He shows us the way to the Father.

Questions:
1. How are we doing in our relationship with Jesus Christ:
a. What gets in the way?
b. What could be improved?
2. How are we doing in our relationship with each other – are we encouraging each other to follow the Lord more closely?
3. Are we ready for the unpredictable? (On Sunday, Malc was talking about our lives being more out of control, as God begins to work).

The Spirit

2011-03-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

In the Old Testament there are at least sixteen ways of talking about the Spirit coming on people:

(the Spirit) rested on

(the Spirit) was put on

in whom is the Spirit

(the Spirit) came on

(the Spirit) stirred up

(the Spirit) clothed

(the Spirit) rushed upon

(the Spirit) carried

(the Spirit) caught (him) up

(the Spirit) lifted (me) up

(the Spirit) was poured on

full of (power and) the Spirit of the LORD

I have put my Spirit on

(the Spirit) entered into

(the Spirit) fell upon

in the Spirit

Many of these are in little-read books like Numbers, Judges, and Ezekiel! What a lot we're missing out on by neglecting these wonderful books...

Today I've been checking these in the Old Testament - if you want a list of references I can send them to you, and you can study them for yourself :)

As we translate

2011-01-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

As we translate the Old Testament, we are not bringing a message from God for the ‘xyz’ people (contemporary people group). We are, instead, translating a message from God for the Israelite people, and allowing the ‘xyz’ people to listen into that message.

What difference does that make? A fundamental one. It means that we do not have the liberty to change that message. The message remains the same (to rephrase an old song title); it is the hearers who have changed. This can be represented diagrammatically. God (agent) inspires author (instrument) like so:

Author writes [Message A] to Israelite people:

Author =[A]=> Israelites

Translator translates [Message A] so that people group ‘xyz’ can understand it:

Translator =[A’]=> People ‘xyz’

In doing so the [Message A] becomes [Message A’] i.e. it resembles Message A but may have some subtle differences due to the fact that people ‘xyz’ live at a different time and have a varying culture (with its associated language). But, and do notice this, Message A is still fundamentally the same message. We cannot and should not change this message to make it communicate more easily. If there are things that people ‘xyz’ do not understand, because of the time and culture differences I mentioned earlier, we should explain those, but not in the text. To do so would change the message – it would no longer be message A but would be transformed into message B.

Therefore it is important that translators understand that they are not in the business of bringing a message of God for their people, as if they were some kind of prophet. The prophet lived centuries ago in Israel or Judah. The translator is a faithful witness to the oracle that the prophet delivered, they do not themselves receive a message for the people, however inspired they feel in their work and by the words they are translating. That’s why Bible translators need to know the history and culture of the books they are translating. They should be encouraged to dig deep into God’s word and books that explain it, in an effort to be able to read the Old Testament book as if they were one of the original recipients of it in Ancient Israel. Only then can they begin to think how they can express that message in their own language, and to people of their own culture. To give a concrete example, when someone in Ancient Israel received some bad news, they would take off their clothes, put on sackcloth, and sit in dust and ashes to show the fact they were mourning. The translator will realise that people of their culture do not do this, but will still want to talk about sackcloth and ashes in the translation. If necessary they will put in a footnote or write some other kind of explanatory text, saying that Israelites used to practice this when mourning. What the translator cannot do is change the expression of mourning to something from their own culture. This is because to do that would be to change history.

Broken Cisterns

2011-01-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

(Jeremiah 2:1-13)

Have you ever tried to make a pool at the seaside? No matter how often the children bring buckets of water from the sea, the water seeps away into the sand.
Broken cisterns. They are no good. Their purpose is to hold water, yet they don’t.

The people of Israel have committed two evils (v13, cf 5, 11):

1. They have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. It is the Lord who satisfies. We can drink our fill at the fountain He provides. In fact there is no other fountain. Our hearts are restless, till they find their rest in you. He is the centre, the sun in our planetary motion. So Q1 is ‘are you close to the LORD? Do you hear from Him, walk closely with Him?’

2. They hewed out (dug) broken cisterns for themselves. v20-25 paints a pretty vivid picture of what this means. We can’t blame anyone else. When we go away from the Lord we sin. (It’s amazing how children try and blame parents for their bad behaviour. The parents do everything they can for the children. The discipline them for their own good, but when the children are given just a little leeway they go off and do something stupid. They then come home and say, ‘You brought me up to behave like this. It’s your fault.’) No, we alone are responsible for the turning away. These cisterns cannot hold water – the very job they are designed to do, they cannot do. BTW when it rains, who provides the water? Is rain something we can control? Even if you hew out a cistern, you are relying on the Lord’s provision. Though it would be better to go to the fountain. But it’s no good building a cistern if it’s cracked, and the water seeps away.

Yet that is what we do all the time We replace the genuine (presence of the Lord) with the artificial (methods, music and other kinds of madness). No sane person would do this. If you found a source of something good you’d hang onto it. If you found a seam of gold you’d go and buy the land. You’d sell the shirt off your back to buy it, then you’d mine that seam for as long as you could. But we run away, and make something up ourselves. Like a down-and-out who, having found a soup kitchen that opens every day of the week, goes back to foraging in bins because he’s too proud, he doesn’t want to be provided for.

Q2 – is our ministry bringing others closer to Christ? If not, it’s worthless.

Q3 – is our use of time/gifts/money Christ-centred? Even business in the Lord’s work can be me-centred – I need it to feel good about myself. What about time with the Lord?

Let’s all think about our focus – is it on the Lord, or on our own needs and ministries?

Development - Cultural Sensitivity Needed!

2011-01-11T01:16:00.001-08:00

When we were in Central Asia an advisor from the EU was posted there to advise on how to run a butcher's shop. Pretty soon a small shop appeared in the corner of the market, next to all the women's clothes shops and so on, and diagonally opposite the main butcher's area in the market where you could buy huge hunks of meat for a few thousand Manat (a few dollars). The new butcher's shop had little cuts of meat, chops and son on, with plastic signs stuck into them, just like you'd see in Dewhurst's here at home. Within six months of the EU advisor leaving, there were about half as many cuts of meat on display. Within twelve months the shop had shut down.

What lesson can we learn from this? That we need to observe the local culture, and listen carefully to folk as to what they want, before we try to 'improve' things. What we see as an improvement (no messy hacking up of carcasses in front of the customer) may seem like a retrograde step to the local people (small bits of meat they don't have a name for, costing more). This is true of any change we try to introduce. If it is top-down, initiated by Westerners, it is almost bound to fail. If it is bottom-up, initiated by the indegenious people, and owned by them, it will almost certainly succeed. This means we have to let go a bit when we sponsor projects overseas. All too often we have our own agendas, and tie funding to those agendas. Instead we should be finding out what they want, and helping them achieve it. I remember one story from Africa, where the village elders were asked what they most needed to improve their village. A well for clean water? A better road to the market? No, they wanted a football pitch. The next-door village had one, and they were feeling left out. The next-door village could host football games, they couldn't. This meant their prestige was lowered. The football pitch was constructed, the village self-esteem improved, and pretty soon they were working on a well (with outside help) and whatever else was needed to improve their lives at a practical level. Let's talk, let's listen, let's learn!

Paul in Athens

2010-12-09T04:53:00.001-08:00

Acts 17:16-34

Introduction
Background: ‘Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.’ v21. It was, perhaps, like one of our great Universities, an intellectual ivory tower of a place where they loved talking about the latest ideas.

Epicureans: they were materialistic, doubted the existence of the ‘gods’, and believed in moderation in all things. Sensible people! They would have fitted in on QI, the TV show.

Stoics: they were pantheists (they thought the world has a soul) and believed in exercising self-control in order to overcome destructive emotions. They would have done well as monks, who deny themselves sleep and conversation in order to gain closeness with God (On this theme ‘The Big Silence’ is worth watching!).

For the Areopagus – see the picture above.

Perhaps Paul had grown up longing to see the famous Acropolis with its view of the Areopagus. But if he did, he didn’t stay in tourist mode for long:

Paul’s spirit ‘was provoked within him’ v16. The same Greek word is used in the Septuagint (OT in Greek) when the people ‘provoked’ God by grumbling or worshipping idols (Num 14:23; Deu 32:16 ). What is our reaction to the overt Atheism so popular in the media (Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry… )? Are we equally provoked and upset by what we hear?

So, having spent time analysing the situation, picking up the atmosphere of the place, and engaging spiritually (and emotionally) with what is going on, Paul then preaches a message that fits them in their context:

Paul’s Message
His initial attempts at communication seem to fail (v18), despite being one of those who was reputed to have ‘turned the world upside down’ (v6)! ‘It would be hard to imagine a less receptive or more scornful audience.’* So he has a rethink and comes up with a message that does get through (to those receptive of the Good News)…

1. He starts where they are: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What a brilliant introduction. He has grabbed their attention, and showed his own intellectual ability, while remaining focussed on the things of God. He also begins where they are. Like a Sat Nav. It doesn’t ever say: ‘If I were going there, I wouldn’t start from here!’ It always starts where you are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFBxFond-vw (please ignore last word!)

2. He declares a clear message using language they will understand.

‘What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.’

Notice too the focus on humankind. Paul’s message is written from a universal (rather than universalistic) perspective. He does bring in some good teaching – that God is creator and Sustainer, and determines where we all live on the earth i.e. He’s in control of nations (This doesn’t mean that harsh dictators have God’s support (Nebuchadnezzar was removed from office by God), rather that God is in control of the movements of nations. Cyrus, Emperor of Persia, is called ‘the LORD’s anointed’ (literally ‘Messiah’) in Isaiah 45:1 because he brought freedom for the Jews to go back to their land and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple cf. Amos 9:7 "Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?" declares the LORD. "Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?). These are parts of the Good News that we often skip, assuming that people already know the basics. But in many cases they don’t. Notice that Paul doesn’t preach a message that only appeals to individuals. His gospel is always one for people groups, whether Jewish or ‘Greek’ (gentile) in orientation. One reason we only see ones and twos come to the Lord is that we pretend that the gospel is for individuals (and the ongoing effect is that many think they can be a Christian but not go to church). It isn’t! It’s for humankind! The sooner we preach that the better – the more biblical we will be, and the more true to the Good News about Jesus the Messiah.

3. He quotes their poets and philosophers (v28-30). What he doesn’t do is start quoting the Bible (Old Testament) at length, though he does allude to it frequently. There would have been no point, as the Athenians wouldn’t have known it! The quote about being God’s offspring is particularly interesting – Avatus (the poet), was referring to Zeus, not Theos (God). So in a sense Paul is acknowledging the glimmer of truth in Avatus’ saying, but at the same time gently correcting it. ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ would have appealed hugely to the Stoics. Paul takes this quote and applies it from within a biblical framework:

4. Having quoted their poets and philosophers he brings out some great theology from them:

‘Being then God's offspring (genos: offspring, descendants), we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”’

Notice how he doesn’t shrink from sharing the Good News about Jesus, but he shares it in non-technical language. The resurrection would have been a particular challenge to Greek philosophers, just as it is today for atheists and agnostics.
For those worried about Paul’s lack of explicit preaching about the cross, let me reassure you by saying that Luke’s recording of Paul’s words are probably a summary rather than a verbatim report of Paul’s speech. We can imagine that prior to speaking about a ‘resurrection’ Paul must have mentioned Jesus’ death. In any case it is implied even in the summary we have.

5. The response was varied. Some responded, others did not:

‘32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed…’

Most Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul, but wouldn’t have been so receptive to Paul’s teaching about the resurrection of the body.

We should not expect everyone to respond. But if we take the attitude that it is all up to God, and not at all up to us, then we are in error. A simple comparison of Paul’s message to Jewish audiences e.g. 13:16-43; 17:3 shows that Paul did in fact adapt his message for a purely gentile or ‘Greek’ audience. But we shouldn’t be discouraged when some don’t respond. The Good News is near (as we were seeing this morning from Deuteronomy), the message is in our hearts – but not in the hearts of all. Not everyone is ready. Some, very sadly, will never be ready.
How then should we Share?

This has huge implications for us as we share the Good News with others. There are many places in the world where people already have strongly-ingrained beliefs. To ignore those is foolish. Like Paul we need to speak and live in one way for one group, and another way for another group (1Co 9:16b-23, perhaps taking on ourselves extra restrictions so as not to offend them – after all, our own culture is fairly ‘Greek’ these days i.e. laissez-faire in terms of its morality and cultural taboos, or, rather, lack of them). This is not to say that we change the Good News. Far from it! But we do try to use fewer religious or technical terms that would need explaining. One such term is Messiah – it means a lot to a Jew, and something to a Muslim, but very little to anyone from a non-Theistic background. Even those living in the post-Christian West understand little by the term. Another is the whole idea of cleansing by blood sacrifice. In Central Asia it was difficult to use language involving kings and thrones to explain the gospel – they actually preferred to talk about lambs being sacrificed – it was part of their culture. So we need to think of appropriate metaphors, ones that are current and link into people’s existing world-view.

Often we think that the more we quote scripture, the more powerful our message will be. That is true for those with church backgrounds, but for the un-churched and those from other religious backgrounds it makes little sense to do this. We may in fact be putting them off. Better to find some kind of ‘hook’. One that some folk used in about ’99 or 2000 was the sense of pointlessness of Mr. Anderson’s life in the Matrix world, and his joy at escaping (down a sort of rabbit-hole) to reality, grim though it was, to become the person he was chosen to be – Neo, ‘the One’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbYirSi08m4
followed by:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmIiT4OvDp0&feature=related.

A more current one is the film Avatar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1_JBMrrYw8,
where ‘Jake’ who is without the use of his legs, can experience the freedom of life via an avatar as a Navi, a people with stronger legs than ours, in a place called Pandora. The Navi are more in touch with their nature than we are. He eventually joins Navi of the world he is living in as an Avatar to fight his own people as they try and plunder this idyllic world for its natural resources. This raises all kinds of issues (not least the harmful power of multi-national companies who have the backing of Western governments to plunder e.g. rain forests), but one might ask the questions,

 ‘How can we be free from our restrictive and technology-focussed cultures?’
 ‘What does it mean to be truly human?’
 ‘How can we be more in touch with nature?’

Some have found that they found this world grey and flat after the watching the film. They felt depressed and wondered what the point of life was, if you can’t life in Pandora (the planet where this idyllic world is):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzk_-4Cmo_o.
This gives us an ‘in’ – a way in to share the Good News that Jesus offers life, and life in all its fullness (Psa 16:11; Jhn 10:10 ).

At the same time, as well as being culturally appropriate in the way that we share, we also need to remember that God is provoked by idolatry. Those who say, ‘I don’t make any claim to be religious’ are in fact stating their unbelief, and need to be called in no uncertain terms to change their way of thinking. As Spurgeon pointed out, no thief has ever gained points in front of a judge and jury by saying, ‘I make no claim to be an honest person.’! The court is likely to be much more lenient towards those who can show that they are usually honest, but slipped up on one occasion. The same is true with faith – let’s not reward honest fools by acknowledging their unbelief – rather let’s call all we meet to the truth about Jesus Christ as revealed by God through the Holy Spirit and in the message of the Bible.
(quotes are from the ESV)

*Stott 1990: 284

What is the Bible?

2010-12-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

Is it a book? It’s name in Greek – ho biblios – means ‘the book’. But if it is a book, then we’re in trouble because nobody reads any more. At least young people don’t. They play computer games, watch videos, go on social-networking sites like Facebook, do anything that involves technology, but they don’t read.

In June 2002, the Office for National Statistics Omnibus survey found that:
- Nearly half of adults had read at least five books or more in the previous 12 months
- A quarter of adults had not read a book during the same period, including almost half of males aged between 16 and 24.
- 96% said they had read something in the past seven days, whether books, magazines, newspapers or text messages. Reading material varied according to age: 70% of 16 to 24-year-olds had read a magazine, compared to 59% of 55 to 64-year-olds; 33% of 16 to 24-year-olds had read fiction, compared to 43% of 55 to 64-year-olds.

The Bible Jesus Read
- What we call the OT they would have called the Bible (or Tanakh).
- Jews split it into: Torah (teaching), Prophets (inc. ‘history’), and Writings – so, roughly speaking: Teaching, Prophecy, Other.
- The book most quoted by Jesus was one of the books written by Moses, the man of God – Deuteronomy (in fact it’s an extended sermon by Moses). Deuteronomy is from the Torah, and possibly the same book found by priests and scribes in the time of Josiah (‘the book of the law’) 2Ki 22:8 cf. Deu 30:10. It is the book that not only describes how to live, but it teaches us about the LORD:
- Deu 30:19-20 19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." or: ‘…for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country’ NJB

Shiny Happy People
- What guarantee to you have that you will live a long, prosperous, and happy life? The Israelites had a covenant with the LORD. They would have Israel, the promised land, as their inheritance, and the LORD would have them as his inheritance (his possession) Deu 4:20-21 cf Psa 78, 106. What do we have? Our citizenship is in heaven (Phl 3:20), that is our inheritance – the Kingdom of God. But we have to remember that we are His inheritance – we belong to Him, we’re God’s people. And He will not forsake us:
- Psalm 94:14 For the LORD will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance.
- Jesus quoted the book of Deu when being tempted by Satan Mat 4:4 ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God ‘; 4:7 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God'; 4:10 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' (Deu 8:3; 6:15; 6:13-14 respectively).

Conclusion
The Bible is message. It’s purpose is to bring us as God’s people into closer relationship with Him (2Ti 3:16-17). It is also powerful, and able to save those who believe it (Rom 10:17 ‘and hearing by the word of Christ’ probably means ‘hearing the Good News about Jesus Christ’).

We need to think a lot harder about the format we use to present this message to young people. Blogs are better than books. Videos, short clips on web-pages, are better still. For much of the world these clips are accessed on mobile phones rather than laptops. The sooner we move into the world of digital media the better!

The Gift of Prophecy

2010-04-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

(1 Corinthians 12-14)

• Our son James and a friend were once having a conversation in the back of our (very long) car. It went something like this: 'God is big!' 'Yeah!' 'No, he's really big!' 'I know!' 'He's so big, he wouldn't even fit in this car!' 'Wow!' God is much bigger than we can imagine (cannot be reduced to a human construct, or put in a box). Colin Saxelby was talking a bit about this in church yesterday.
• God speaks all the time. Primarily through His Son (Heb 1:1-2). Also through creation (Psa 19:1-6; Rom 1:20), and through the Holy Spirit (1Co 2:13; 12:8).
• God uses the Holy Spirit to speak to us through other believers using words of knowledge, words of wisdom and prophecies (1Co 14:6, 12:8). These can include appropriate words from scripture, or a sense of what is right for a person (wise spiritual advice). Sometimes it is much more than that, and will be confirmed by the person as a direct word from God.
• Prophecy, as a gift, is highly valued in the Bible (1Co 12:28ff; 14:1-5). It will never end this side of heaven (13:8-12). Nor will tongues, but I'll write about tongues another time. The basic rule is that tongues are for an individual’s benefit, unless there is interpretation, in which case the whole church can benefit (14:4-5). Once when visiting a thriving free evangelical/charistmatic church in the South Downs God gave me a very clear message to give them. I said, 'Lord, I can't, I don't even know these people. You'll have to give me a sign to make it clear.' We had a time of worship in song, and some prayer time, then a leader stood up and said, 'Unfortunately our speaker this morning was double-booked, and is speaking elsewhere, so if anyone feels they have a message for the church, please speak up now...' !!!
• All these gifts need to be used, not in an atmosphere of chaos, but in an orderly way (14:26-33). If someone senses that God has a message for the church, or for an individual (as yet unknown) in the church, what should they do? The church leadership need to be involved, either before the message is given, or afterwards to confirm it or otherwise.

Insider Approaches

2010-01-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

Introduction
There has been much debate on insider movements on the web, in certain Western church movements and missions, and especially in the St Francis Magazine published by Interserve. Here is a brief statement on what the Insider Movements are, and some pros and cons of the approach.

What are Insider Movements?
These are movements that begin within a ‘cousin’ people group without much encouragement from ‘outsiders’, such that the movement continues without the adherents having to leave their socio-religious group. They have accepted Isa al Masih (Jesus the Messiah) as Lord and Saviour, but continue to call God ‘Allah’, pray five times a day, meet with others either in homes or in the usual religious meeting place, and read the holy books sent by God. They avoid using Christian terms such as baptize, church, Christian.

Bible translations that are ‘insider’ tend to translate the parts of the scriptures considered to be offensive using dynamic equivalents, while keeping the more literal versions in introductions and footnotes. They also take out most of the ‘language of Zion’ (Jew, Israel, temple, synagogue) and replace them with generic terms such as ‘meeting place’ for ‘synagogue’ or insider terms such as ‘Beytul Makdis’ for ‘temple’. One contentious issue is how to translate ‘Son of God’ in such translations. Arguably it mainly has the sense of chosen and beloved of God i.e. it is more Messianic in background than Trinitarian (for which ‘Son of Man’ with its Daniel 7 background is arguably much better evidence). Since our cousins think we believe that the Trinity consists of God, Mary (mother of God), and their son Jesus, as the result of a physical union between God and Mary, there are good arguments for translating the phrase dynamically, much as other biblical phrases are. The reason this is contentious is because many creeds take ‘Son of God’ as the starting point for defining who Jesus is as the 2nd person of the Trinity.

Another pioneering method is to use storying, especially a series of audio-visual media called ‘Lives of the Prophets’, which focuses on characters in the Bible already accepted by our cousins. The stories are excerpts, allowing potentially offensive passages to be left out. Sometimes substitutions are made e.g. ‘Abraham’s son’ for the same referent ‘Isaac’.

Terminology:
MBB M (cousin) background believer – someone who has left Islm and joined a church
Insider Someone who still calls themselves a Mslm (one who submits to Allah) but believers in Isa al Masih
Outsider Foreigner or ethnic ‘Christian’
C1-C6 scale A scale of contextualization starting from completely Western (un-contextualized) to secret meetings of believers that cannot, by definition, be counted. Not many ‘insider approach’ adherents like to use this scale, but if they do, C5 would normally be considered as insider – Christ-centred communities of ‘Messianic Mslms’ who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour

Pros of this approach
* The believers are able to meet with others from a similar background rather than with foreigners of those of ‘Christian’ origins, and they have more opportunity to witness to others
* Avoidance of ‘extraction’ of new believers (though this is seen by some as a straw man – new believers are often excluded by their own families rather than extracted by those who shared the gospel with them)
* Avoidance of all the political issues to do with America and Israel vs. the Islmc world etc.
* Is highly sensitive to the cultural background of the believers and allows them to continue to respect God’s word, pray, and meet in ways they are used to
* Has worked fantastically in certain part of the world, where there are large movements of insiders
* Take account of the fact that ‘Son of God’ is a metaphor. Translations do keep the original sense in the footnotes
* Allows our cousins to begin to interact with the Word of God without them getting highly upset at some of the terminology or ideas
* Is arguably more in line with the teaching of the Bible that the Trinity is economic (to do with what Christ achieved and therefore who he must be) rather than immanent (ontological – who Christ is by definition). See: http://erniedurbin.com/Theology_files/What%20Is%20the%20Difference%20Between%20the%20Ontological%20Trinity%20and%20the%20Economic%20Trinity.pdf for more info

Cons of the approach
* Upsets MBBs and more traditional churches and mission groups by seeming to move away from classic 4th-century definitions of Christian orthodoxy
* Is considered to be ‘one step too far’ by many involved in contextualised mission to our cousins. These workers accuse these approaches of resulting in syncretism (though one person’s contextual approach is another person’s syncretistic approach or even heresy i.e. who defines what is ‘too far’?)
* Hasn’t worked (yet) in all contexts
* Some translations not only translate ‘Son of God’ dynamically, but take out all the Father-Son language in the gospels. The Father-Son metaphor may be one that is intrinsic to life and to our understanding of God
* Insiders tend to keep themselves to themselves and find it hard to relate to the wider body of Christ (the Messiah)
* Cousins can see what is going in and a) see it as a con b) use it as proof that we have ‘changed’ the text (as orthodox Islm teaches)

Conclusion
Insider approaches are to be commended for their cultural sensitivity and jettisoning of the colonialist mission paradigm. They are, however, rather experimental in that we will only see the results of such efforts in time. Will they lead to positive church growth or syncretistic groups of pseudo-believers/cousins?

Apart from me you can do nothing

2010-01-26T02:27:00.000-08:00

(John 15:1-16)

• We need Jesus:
Like the branches need the vine
Like an infant needs its mother
Like plants need the sun
Like a plane needs its wings

• We need Jesus!
We often think we can do without Him
We live in our own strength
We rebel—one of the OT words for ‘sin’ (‘transgression’) has ‘rebellion’ as one of its primary meanings
When we rebel, we fall into self-doubt and begin to doubt God’s love for us, and His grace—like the prodigal son we say “I am no longer worthy to be called his son” - yet God, like a caring father, is waiting and longing for us to return:
"18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20 So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luk 15, NIV)

• Jesus is our model—his dependence on His Father was complete:
John 5:19 19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
The Son has the Father’s approval (Jhn 6:27), ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ (Mat 3:17). We are also sons (Gal 4:6) and have that same approval from the Father. We need to rest in that relationship

• What does it mean to ‘remain in Him’? Two disciplines of prayer and obedience.
Prayer—We need to learn to ‘wait on the Lord’
The Psalmist pictures a person in prayer as like a watchman waiting for the morning:
Psalm 130:5-6 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
When we pray, we need to pray in expectation:
Psalm 5:3 3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
Not like those praying for Peter’s release—they obviously didn’t have much expectation—when Peter knocked at the door and the servant girl rushed to tell the others who were fervently praying for his release, they didn’t believe her! Acts 12:15 You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."
This is related to hope:
Isaiah 40:31 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

• Obedience—we need to obey his commands to love one another, and to bear fruit.

• We need Jesus:
Like the branches need the vine
Like an infant needs its mother
Like plants need the sun
Like a plane needs its wings

Mega Church?

2010-01-17T06:19:00.001-08:00

We have friends who run a church of 20 or so members on a tough housing estate. They must at times feel threatened by the idea of Megachurch (churches of 2000-3000). Yet there are many such churches in the States, and a few in Britain too. One thing I have heard said is that if about three thousand people turned to the Lord at Pentecost (Acts 2:41), why shouldn’t the same happen today? Well why not, indeed! But we do need to remember that the context was very different. Jesus had just risen from the dead, ascended, and sent the Holy Spirit for the first time (in the new age, at least). Those listening to Peter preach were Jews and God-fearers:

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews [Greek: Jews, devout men] from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; 11 both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Acts 2:5-11 (NIV)

God-fearers weren’t just people who fear God, but rather Gentiles (from Greek: ho ethnos – the people or nation) who had turned to Judaism, but because of their ethnic background were unable to convert fully to become ‘Jews’. They followed the Jewish religion as much as possible, but there was no point in being circumcised, since that was a mark of being a Jew, rather than a way of becoming one (contra. Baptism, which is a sign of having become a believer in Jesus). Since Jews were now spread all over the civilised world* – and even to some regions not conquered by the Romans (such as Parthia, part of what is now known as Central Asia). Despite the fact that most of them would have known Greek, the lingua franca and language of education, they heard the disciples speaking to them in their various mother-tongues. This will warm the heart of any Wycliffe members out there who believe strongly that God speaks to us in the language of our hearts. I remember asking a Dutch friend why she didn’t fill in her doctrinal statements in English, since that was the language she was using to study Theology. She replied, ‘You don’t understand, I believe in God in Dutch!’ ‘Told!’, as my son would say. The fact that the Holy Spirit was leading the disciples (a bunch of Aramaic-speaking fishermen from Gallilee) to tell the wonders of God in their own mother tongues proved to them that God cared for them, and so they turned and became believers in Jesus the Messiah. But they were already open to the things of God before Pentecost.

The point of Acts 2, therefore, is not that God likes Megachurches (though I’m sure He does), but that the Holy Spirit was doing a new thing in now moving amongst those from all over the world. This was to fulfil the prophecy in Isaiah 2:3 ‘Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” Israel was always supposed to be a ‘light to the nations’ (51:4; 61:3). What we have here, is a lesson in centrifugal (or is it centripetal?) mission, not megachurch.

* ‘The preaching of the gospel was preceded and prepared for by the dispersion of the Jews, and a world-wide propagandism of Judaism. In the 5th century BC the Jews had a temple of their own at Syene. Alexander the Great settled 8,000 Jews in the Thebais, and Jews formed a third of the population of Alexandria. Large numbers were brought from Palestine by Ptolemy I (320 BC), and they gradually spread from Egypt along the whole Mediterranean coast of Africa. After the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (170 BC) they scattered themselves in every direction, and, in the words of the Sibylline Oracles (circa 160 BC), "crowded with their numbers every ocean and country." There was hardly a seaport or a commercial center in Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, or the Islands of the AEgean, in which Jewish communities were not to be found. Josephus (Ant., XIV, vii, 2) quotes Strabo as saying: "It is hard to find a place in the habitable earth that hath not admitted this tribe of men, and is not possessed by them."’ ISBE

A Messiah Figure

2010-01-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

We all need a Messiah-figure to lean on!

1. Many claim to be Messiahs (fulfilling the prophecy in Mat 24:4)
2. Many are made to be Messiahs after their death e.g. Moh. (PBOH), by some sects of Islm
3. Many stories contain a messiah-figure

The film the matrix had some parallels with Jesus as Messiah:

* The Matrix is the Gospel of Neo, the coming of age of the postmodern messiah, his death, and his resurrection.
* The Matrix Reloaded perhaps corresponds to the Acts of the new messiah and his disciples, chronicling the next stage of their struggle with the machines.
* The Matrix Revolutions concludes the trilogy with the Apocalypse According to St. Neo, where during the apocalyptic final battle between humanity and the machines, Neo ends the war and brings the final realization of the messianic age of peace between humanity and machines.1

The Matrix, despite all its philosophising, is a story. Matthew clearly saw Jesus as fulfilling OT prophecy for a Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of God, (and most strongly) the Son of Man – the figure in Daniel 7, who is given authority over all nations – hence the end of Matthew (‘All authority has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations…’). One of the questions that comes up is, ‘What now do we make of the law and the prophets, now that Jesus the Messiah has come?’ Notice that the question is not, ‘What do we make of Jesus, in the light of the law and prophets?’, but, ‘How do the law and the prophets apply, now that Jesus has come?’ In fact, Jesus taught his own version of Moses’ law, in the Sermon on the Mount.

Often we focus too much on carrying out Jesus’ command to go to all nations, without realising who Jesus is, and the authority He has been given. Without Him, and his authority, we are nothing, and can do nothing.

Also, when we do go, the message we take is often to do with a set of faith doctrines, a philosophy (almost), that people have to sign up to. We forget to tell them the story of the Old Testament, the need for a Messiah, and Jesus coming to fulfil that expectation. We also forget to tell the ultimate happy ending of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, focussing too much on our guilt and its need for forgiveness, or some other me-centred gospel (that can sound like a spiritual insurance policy or alternative spirituality). The good news about Jesus is that he is ‘the One’, the one who came to make us the human beings God wanted us to be, and to bring into being the Kingdom of God focussed around a new community of followers of Jesus, no matter what their background or past. Good news indeed!

1 http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol9No2/StuckyMatrixMessiah.htm accessed 12th January 2010

Going digital

2009-12-11T01:58:00.001-08:00

Digital Media is the latest thing in the Bible Translation world. Everyone's talking about it! The fact is that whether those of us over 40 like it or not, most of the younger generation inhabit a virtual world that intersects more or less with the real world. To them the virtual world is real. This means they are far more likely to spend time interacting with others online than sitting watching TV. If they are into gaming they game with others, online. The question is, will we soon be moving in the direction of virtual Bible studies, and virtual worship? Hmmm... Most of us are not too sure about the latter. But virtual churches do exist, and are likely to become more and more popular in the future. I think it might work as long as folk get together periodically. To be only virtual would be odd. How can you truly interact with each other?

As for virtual Bibles - you can now read or listen to the Bible online, download it for your computer, PDA or mobile phone, read and listen to it on your DVD player, or get it on an MP3 player. There are even tiny solar-powered mp3 players with Bible readings on them for places where electricity and batteries are hard to get hold of. This is all very exciting! It means that speakers of languages all over the world will be able to access the scriptures in a format that suits them, wherever they live. A lot of us are going to be putting a great deal of work into making sure that this is done in a good way. Please remember us all!

Jesus the Messiah

2009-07-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

I was reading in the paper the other day that there is a group of orthodox Jews called the Haredim who don't approve of Zionism. This may seem rather odd until you realise that they are still waiting for the Messiah, and don't believe that God will give them the promised land back until the Messiah comes. Any attempt to fulfill the Messianic promise without the Messiah is therefore doomed to failure, in their view.

In Jesus day there was a similar expectation of a Messiah to come and throw out the Roman invaders by taking over as a Jewish King. Hence the title attached to the cross 'This is Jesus, King of the Jews'. [The name Jesus is the same as Joshua in Hebrew, and means 'Saviour']. Jesus himself did not easily fit into this box. Although he fulfilled Moses and the Prophets, he did it in his own way. When on trial before the high priest, the following exchange took place:

Matthew 26
59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward 61 and declared, "This fellow said, `I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.'" 62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" 63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, {Or Messiah; also in verse 68} the Son of God." 64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?" "He is worthy of death," they answered.

Jesus agrees that he is the son of God (i.e. the one chosen by God to rule), but then moves the goalposts by using the title 'son of man'. This comes from Daniel 7, and refers to the one coming with the clouds of heaven, who is given authority over all nations for ever (cf. Mat. 24:27). Jesus' kingdom is not an earthly kingdom!

A similar thing happens in Acts 1. The disciples want to know if Jesus is finally going to kick the Romans out, after all, that is what everyone has been waiting for:

Acts 1:4-9 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptised with {Or in} water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit." 6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Jesus gently rebukes them, and gives them a new commission. Then he disappears into the clouds - a kind of reverse of Daniel 7, if you like. He also promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will lead them into sharing the gospel to all nations. All of this goes to show that it is the covenant with Abraham that is more important than the one with Moses. Abraham was promised that all nations would be blessed through him (Gen 12). So Jesus' coming was a fulfillment of that promise, and we are also called, before anything else, to be witnesses to the ends of the earth (Mat. 28:19-20). Mission! And not just in our local community, but worldwide. In these end times we are called to be the people of God, and witness to all nations before Jesus returns as the glorified Son of Man, coming with the clouds...

Fulfillment in Matthew

2009-07-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

I've just done a quick study on the word πληροω 'fulfill' in Matthew, and found that it occurs fourteen times in the sense of fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. Now, those of you who know a bit about Matthew will realise that fourteen is a significant number. Apart from being twice seven (the perfect number), it is also the number of generations listed in the three sections of the genealogy of the Messiah:

NLT Matthew 1:17 All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.

This means that the word 'fulfill' is key to understanding the whole gospel! Not only is fourteen used in the introduction, but it is also the number of times the Greek word occurs, in the sense of fulfilling scripture.

Here are the references, for you Bible scholars: Matt. 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 3:15; 4:14; 5:17; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 26:54, 56; 27:9. Enjoy!

Now, you may be wondering what on earth the relevance of all of this is. I was just reading in Philip Yancey's 'The Bible Jesus Read' that he saw some graffiti saying 'Jesus is the answer', then somebody had scrawled underneath, 'Yes, but what's the question?' The question is pretty much framed by the Old Testament - Moses and the Prophets, as Luke calls it in Luke 24, the Emmaus road.

Luke 24:25-27 25 He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ {Or Messiah; also in verse 46} have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Later the two disciples say, Luke 24:32 "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

I believe that much preaching today lacks the biblical foundation of the Old Testament necessary for understanding the New. Chris Wright says that some evangelicals are 'Practising Marcionites' - Marcion being a 2nd Century heritic who believed that the Old Testament wasn't inspired by the Holy Spirit, contra. Paul (2Ti 3:16) and Peter (2Pe 1:16-21). We need to keep the message of 'Jesus is Messiah and Lord' relevant but also rooted in Moses and the Prophets, where it has its foundation...

Bible Translation is bigger than you think

2008-04-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

Just in case you think Bible Translation is a back-room activity for the seriously academic, here is a blog from a Bible-translation type who thinks otherwise. For one, these days it is mostly carried out by mother-tongue speakers of the language. In many parts of the world these are believers, and in a few areas they might be quite well-educated. In areas where the church is well-developed, the Bible-translation programme is sponsored by the church, and church leaders are involved in choosing who might be suitable to work as translators. If expatriates are involved, they are usually helping out as coordinators, exegetical-advisors (know biblical languages), and linguistic researchers. The team is made up of quite a few people then:

Mother-tongue translators
Advisors who know biblical background and languages
Project Coordinator
Linguistic Research person
Tester(s)
Literacy worker(s)?

Much of what they do has to be decided as a team, especially when the consultant visits and helps them by checking books and other materials just before publication. Oh, and there might well be involvement in non-print media such as videos, CDs and tapes, and even some encouragement of song-writing. In larger languages radio work relies on materials produced by the translation team.

For the expatriate(s) the project begins with a period of language-learning, which starts small, but eventually involves the language-learner in lots of social contact. Without this their language-learning will plateau-off at a fairly mediocre level.

While language-learning, the person will also begin discussing how to set up the project with church leaders, if they exist in the area. So from early days there is a certain amount of PR involved in the work. During the translation the church leaders are involved in reviewing books of the Bible already translated, making suggestions for changes, and perhaps using trial editions in Bible-studies and for sermons.

So there is a certain amount of back-room work, research, study and so on. But there is also a need for Bible translators to be team-players. Which brings me to another point. Often the expatriates involved are from organisations other than Wycliffe. Why? Because people who go out intending to do other work realise that without a Bible translation nothing much is going to happen. And some people just love language work, and can't get away from it. These folk often have a maths or engineering or physics background, but not necessarily. Sometimes they just have the right minds for the job, and love it! So Bible translation these days involves partnership between different mission organisations.

Vision 2025 brings all these visions together, and with the goal of getting a translation up and running in every language that needs it by 2025. Quite a challenge!