Listening to God

One of the ways in which you can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit is through the wise advice of others. Wise and knowledgeable people are invaluable.

Resurrection

‘This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body – but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever!

‘The corpse that is planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural – same seed, same body but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!’ (vv.42–44, MSG).
Jesus was still recognisable to his followers (with some help!). There was continuity and discontinuity in the resurrection body (Jesus could walk through walls, but still eat fish). What happened to Jesus will happen to you; you, like Adam, have a natural body. One day, like Jesus, the second Adam, you will have a spiritual body (vv.44–48): ‘Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly, so shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly’ (v.49).

Prayer

‘Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence,’ as Charles Spurgeon famously said. When we see the problems in our society and in the church, what is our first response?

Whole hearted

To be ‘fully committed’ with ‘all your heart’ means 100% commitment. It means seeking to do what the Lord calls you to do. It means rooting out anything that is bad – ruthlessly tearing down the high places and getting rid of the other gods in the midst of life. The Lord is looking for those whose ‘hearts are fully committed’ to him (2 Chronicles 16:9). The psalmist prayed, ‘Give me an undivided heart’ (Psalm 86:11). The expression ‘all your heart’ appears many times throughout the Bible. For example, you are to do the following things ‘with all your heart’: Love the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4–5; Matthew 22:36–38) Trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5) Obey the Lord (Psalm 119:34,69; 1 Chronicles 29:19) Praise the Lord (Psalm 111:1; 138:1) Rejoice (Zephaniah 3:14) Work for the Lord (Nehemiah 4:6; Colossians 3:23). This is how to enjoy life and life in all its fullness (John 10:10). It’s a life of love, trust, gratitude, joy and meaningful work.

Love and justice

Love without concern for justice is not true love, as love cries out for justice.

Peace

Peace is a great blessing. ‘Peace’ is a word of huge significance in the Bible. The Hebrew word for peace, Shalom, translated by the Greek word eirene, means far more than the absence of war or hostility. It is not just an absence of certain circumstances but the presence of God and his reign. It means wholeness, soundness, well-being, oneness with God – every kind of blessing and good. In order to bring peace to others, we first need to find and hold on to peace within ourselves.

Love

God is love. We deceive ourselves if we think we can love God and hate other people (1 John 4:20). Love should be number one on your spiritual priority list. It should be the main thing in your life. It is, in the words of St Paul, ‘the most excellent way’ (1 Corinthians 12:31).

Intimacy

We are created for intimate relationships. There is a hunger deep in our souls for an intimate relationship with God and with other human beings.

Because we need each other so much there should be ‘equal concern for each other’ (v.25). There should be such intimacy and love that ‘if one part suffers, every part suffers with it’ (v.26a). This is the community we need where people can process their pain. It is also a place where people can share their joys: ‘If one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it’ (v.26b). As St Augustine said, ‘Take away envy and what I have is yours too. And if I banish envy all you possess is mine!’

If we turn to God

After Solomon had built the temple, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘… if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land’ (7:14). This verse is justly famous and it is often used as a template for worship and prayer. In it we see the conditions for integrity in our worship. They are also the conditions necessary for revival. We see in this verse that we need to do four things: Humble ourselves Pray Seek God’s face Turn from our wicked ways Then God promises that he will do three things: Hear from heaven Forgive our sin Heal the land

Worship

‘I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It’s not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.’ In other words, worship is the consummation of joy. Our joy is not complete until it is expressed in worship. It is out of his love for us that God created us for worship. According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, humankind’s ‘chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever’.

Rights

‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’ – but not everything is constructive.
1 Corinthians 10:23 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/1co.10.23.NIVUK

How to lead your life

Everything we do must be ‘to the glory of God’. The whole aim of your life should be to use your freedom to seek God’s glory and the good of others. This is how the apostle Paul led his life, even as he tried ‘to please everybody in every way’: ‘For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved’ (v.33). This is the context in which he wrote, ‘Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ’ (11:1).

What you do is important

‘People do what people see,’ writes John Maxwell, the leadership expert. ‘The more followers see and hear their leader being consistent in action and word, the greater their consistency and loyalty. What they hear they understand. What they see, they believe!’

Integrity

Billy Graham said, ‘Integrity is the glue that holds our way of life together. We must constantly strive to keep our integrity intact. When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.’

A Christian

A Christian is someone who believes in Jesus, puts their faith in him, knows him and lives ‘in Christ’. It is also someone who follows his example. There is no greater example in human history than the example of Christ. Paul writes, ‘Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Temptations

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/1co.10.13.NIVUK

Discipline to win the race

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever.
1 Corinthians 9:25 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/1co.9.25.NIVUK

Serving God in everything

The preacher, Charles Spurgeon, was once talking to a cleaner in a house who had recently become a Christian. Spurgeon asked her what difference Jesus had made. Rather timidly she replied, ‘Well Sir, I now sweep under the doormats.’ She knew that in her job she was now ultimately serving and worshipping Jesus.

Discipline

Ask yourself these two questions: How can I ensure that I am not enslaved by my own desires? How can I serve everyone I come into contact with today? Lord, help me to go into strict training in order to win ‘a crown that will last forever’. Help me to avoid falling into temptation. Help me to worship and serve you, and you alone.

Worship and service

Worship and service are very closely connected (the same Greek word latreuo is used for both). All human beings are worshippers. You either worship the one true God, or someone or something else. All human beings are servants – to God, to yourself or to someone or something else.

Influence

As the African proverb puts it, ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito.’ The mosquito makes a difference in an annoying way, but the principle is the same. One person can stop a great injustice. One person can be a voice for truth. One person’s kindness can save a life. Each person matters.

Time and chance

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.
Eccles. 9:11 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/ecc.9.11.NIVUK

Moreover, no-one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
Eccles. 9:12 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/ecc.9.12.NIVUK

Judging others

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
1 Corinthians 4:5 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/1co.4.5.NIVUK

Knowledge

Knowledge is, on the whole, good. As Bill Hybels says, ‘the facts are our friends’. Education is good – reading, learning and discovering are all good activities. However, as Lord Byron wrote, ‘The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.’ We need to see ‘knowledge’ in perspective. Our knowledge is very limited. The more we know, the more we realise how little we know. God is our creator and he alone knows everything.

There are also different types of knowledge, and they are not all equally valuable. In French there are two different words for ‘to know’. One (savoir) means to know a fact, the other (connaître) means to know a person. God is more interested in us knowing people than facts.

The most important knowledge of all is knowing God and being known by him. Even this is not the end though. It is never enough simply to have knowledge – you must also have love.

Although knowledge is a good thing, it has inherent dangers. It can lead to pride and a ‘know-it-all’ superiority. ‘Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up’ (8:1b).

Knowledge is not in itself a bad thing. It is like underwear – it is useful to have, but not necessary to show it off! Instead of trying to impress others with what we know, we should be trying to encourage and build them up in love.

Knowledge can so often lead to pride and arrogance: ‘Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know’ (v.2). What really matters in life is loving God and living a life of love: ‘But whoever loves God is known by God’ (v.3).

As Eugene Peterson translates, ‘We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know in answer to these kinds of questions – butsometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognise that God alone knows it all’ (vv.1b–3, MSG).

But knowing isn’t everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn’t that insensitive’ (v.7b, MSG)

Love is more important than knowledge. When God measures a person he puts the tape round the heart, not the head. It is no good just knowinglots about God; get to know him and let him fill you with love for him and for others. In other words, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

FOMO

One of the key issues for our generation is the anxiety and listlessness which comes from constant comparison and FOMO (fear of missing out). The answer to FOMO is found in the words with which Paul starts the passage for today: ‘Don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you’ (v.17,

Enjoy life

Learn to enjoy life in the present. If you do not, life will pass you by and you will never enjoy where you are right now.

Holiness

It has been said that everyone has three lives – a public life, a private life and a secret life. Holiness is about living an integrated life, rather than a dis-integrated one. Holiness is where there is no difference between our public, private and secret lives and no difference between what we profess and what we practise. Holiness is linked to wholeness. When God calls you to be holy, he is saying ‘be wholly mine’.

Levels of greatness

Our magazines and TV screens are filled with stories of the rich, the beautiful and the strong. Our culture places these things on a pedestal and many of us aspire to achieve them. There is nothing wrong with these things – but they are not everything. The French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, spoke of three orders of greatness. Riches, beauty and strength fall into his first category of superficial ‘physical greatness’. Above this is a higher, second level of greatness. It is the greatness of genius, science and art. The greatness of the art of Michelangelo or the music of Bach or the brilliance of Albert Einstein – these stand way above superficial physical greatness. However, according to Pascal there is a third kind of greatness – the order of holiness. (And there is an almost infinite qualitative difference between the second and the third categories.) The fact that a holy person is strong or weak, rich or poor, highly intelligent or illiterate, does not add or subtract anything because that person’s greatness is on a different and almost infinitely superior plane. It is open to every one of us to become great in the order of holiness. The word ‘holy’ (hallowed, holiest, holiness) appears over 500 times in the Bible. God is holy. He gives you his Holy Spirit to sanctify you, and you are called to share in his holiness. The word ‘saints’ means ‘holy ones’. In the New Testament it is applied to all Christians. You are ‘called to be holy’ (1 Corinthians 1:2). Holiness is a gift you receive when you put your trust in Jesus, receive his righteousness and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Seek to live out a holy life in grateful response to God’s gift, through the imitation of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom of this World is foolish

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become ‘fools’ so that you may become wise.
1 Corinthians 3:18 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/1co.3.18.NIVUK

Spirit to Spirit

God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit’ (vv.15–16, MSG).

Spiritual truths

The apostle Paul makes the point that you can only understand spiritual truths with the help of the Holy Spirit. The person ‘without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2:14). When God is with us by his Holy Spirit he gives us understanding, ‘that we may understand what God has freely given us’ (v.12).

Holistic gospel

His proclamation of the gospel was holistic. Like Jesus, his preaching with words was accompanied by a demonstration of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. It involved three things: Words The gospel is the most powerful message in the world. Paul proclaimed the gospel: ‘by what I have said…’ (v.18). Works Fully proclaiming the gospel involves not only words but actions: ‘by what I have said and done’ (v.18). For example, Paul acted on behalf of the poor as we see here. He writes, ‘Take up a collection for the poor… to relieve their poverty’ (vv.26–27, MSG). Wonders Paul’s proclamation of the gospel involved a demonstration of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit: ‘by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit’ (v.19). People are more affected by what they see than by what they hear. It has been said, ‘One in the eye is worth two in the ear.’

Hope

Many people see only a hopeless end; but with Jesus you can enjoy an endless hope. Hope is one of the three great theological virtues – the others being love and faith. As Raniero Cantalamessa writes, ‘They are like three sisters. Two of them are grown and the other is a small child. They go forward together hand in hand with the child hope in the middle. Looking at them it would seem that the bigger ones are pulling the child, but it is the other way around; it is the little girl who is pulling the two bigger ones. It is hope that pulls faith and love. Without hope everything would stop.’

Do not argue

Follow the words of the medieval writer Rupertus Meldenius: ‘On the essentials, unity; on the non-essentials, freedom; in everything, love.’

Renew your mind

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/rom.12.1.NIVUK

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/rom.12.2.NIVUK

Sincere,,,, sacrificial love

Sacrificial love involves allowing God to transform us by a complete change. Our love must be sincere (v.9). The Greek word for ‘sincere’ means ‘without hypocrisy’ or literally ‘without play acting’ or ‘without a mask’.

Maybe say nothing!

For example, ‘fools… delight in airing their own opinions’ (18:2), whereas the wise use words with restraint. In fact, ‘Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues’ (17:28). As American historian Will Durant (1885–1981) once said, ‘One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.’! The writer then touches on other characteristics of the wise: friendliness (18:1), listening (v.2) and justice (v.5).

Mercy

Hosea 6:6 ‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ The dictionary says mercy is ‘compassion shown to enemies or offenders in one’s power’. Shakespeare said of mercy: ‘It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.’ Our world needs more mercy.

Not what I was

John Newton wrote: ‘I’m not what I want to be. I’m not what I should be. I’m not what I one day will be. But thank God I’m not what I once was.’

To serve is freedom

St Augustine wrote that God was the master ‘whom to serve is perfect freedom’. This is a great paradox. Many people think that if they serve God they will lose their freedom. In fact, it is the very opposite. Living for ourselves is, in fact, a form of slavery. Serving God ‘in the new way of the Spirit’ (Romans 7:6) is the way to find perfect freedom.

Grace

One definition of grace is ‘undeserved love’. There is a mnemonic used to explain grace: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. We see today how Jesus Christ makes just grace available for you and me.

Justice

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5:24 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/amo.5.24.NIVUK

Faith that justifies

John Calvin once said, ‘It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies can never be alone.’ Our natural response to what God has done for us should be to act in line with his will.

Justification

In the legal system of Ancient Israel, a dispute put both parties at risk of the judgment of the court. The court’s process had a redemptive role; the judge was meant to help the party in the right to correct the wrong. At the end of the case, one party would be declared righteous and the other in the wrong. Successful performance of this function meant ‘justice’ had been done. The Hebrew word for righteous is tsaddiq, which some versions of the Bible translate as ‘innocent’ or ‘just’ – one whose status is right. This is the Old Testament background to being ‘justified’. The child’s definition of justified is ‘just as if I’d’ never sinned. Jesus died for our sins. If you put your faith in him then you are justified. You are acquitted. You are declared righteous in his sight. Sin no longer separates you from God. You can live in a right relationship with him and with others. This is ‘justification’.

Soft hearts and hard feet

Jackie Pullinger has spent nearly half a century working with prostitutes, heroin addicts and gang members. I remember so well a talk she gave some years ago. She began by saying, ‘God wants us to have soft hearts and hard feet. The trouble with so many of us is that we have hard hearts and soft feet.’ Jackie is a glowing example of this, going without sleep, food and comfort, to serve others. God wants us to have soft hearts – hearts of love and compassion. But if we are to make any difference to the world, this will lead to hard feet as we travel along tough paths and face challenges.

Mercy

One of God’s amazing characteristics is mercy. Mercy means being kind and good to people who do not deserve it. God has extended his mercy to you and me through Jesus Christ and his mercy never runs out.