Dublin Dialogue

Is there such a thing as a Christless Christianity?

2012-01-19T05:58:00.000-08:00

What seems like a bizarre question needs a little clarification in what I mean here!

I have spoken to many in Ireland who refer to Christianity as the 'religion' that they adhere to, with the noteably inference being the church denomination or style that they are most comfortable with ie. 'my religion is Catholic or Church of this or that... or Pentecostal' and so on.

In writing this blog I am aware of many in our nation whose 'Christianity' is more about a cultural association or a style preference than about Christ. Nor is simply knowing there IS a God surely what Jesus came to achieve, even the demons know that a God exists, and tremble at His name!

If any of this is true of you, then don't hang up the phone just yet!

Jesus hated 'religion'! 'Religion' is what we might refer to as 'man's efforts to reach out to God' without the 'key to knowledge', that is Jesus Christ Himself! (see verse below)

"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering' Luke 11v52

In Luke 16v16 we have a record of Jesus saying...

"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it"

This means that Christ (whom John the Baptist was preparing people for)
was the end and the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophet's message. Put simply everything that had come before was pointing to the coming of 'the Christ', God's promised One,

"Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" Romans 10v4

The Key to Knoweledge, that is lacking in so many lives,even those who may refer to themselves as 'Christian' by association, is JESUS CHRIST and HIS GOSPEL (Good News)

- without this we have no true knowledge (literally intimacy) with God!

Christianity is not a set of moral standards or a mid-life improvement scheme! Christianity is not just some kind of association to a religious code or denomination. No, Christianity is about Jesus - the Saviour and the new life we find in Him.
He died and rose again from death not so that we could 'improve' morally but rather so that we could 'die' to our fallen/sinful nature and be 'raised' with a brand new 'heart' (or spirit) and then walk with personal intimacy with God in and through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. All this happens only as and when Christ's sacrifice is credited to us too through faith. Otherwise the cross is meaningless to us....

Any other Christianity is surely a Christ-less Christianity. We can learn moral lessons from Jesus' life and teaching and still remain 'Christless' by failing to accept His gift of Grace in faith. Nothing else will make us His 'child'. Everything else will leave us with a 'Christless Christianity'...

What about you?

Please contact me at jjshiels@gmail.com if you would like to learn more about how to make a true and deep connection with God - through Jesus!

JS

Be specific in your prayers

2012-01-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

“Time can talk you out of your dreams. Routine can weaken your propensity towards audacity” Steven Furtick

Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Listen to my preach at south city church, dublin 8/1/12 'Audacious Faith-filled living', may it bless you.
Click here!

“The bottom line is this: If you’re going to ask God to do something impossible in your life, you’ve got to have some clarity about what you’re asking for”

Steven Furtick

Broad praying and, for leaders, only 'general' vision casting is a very safe but often back-footed and weak way to lead - At least this way we won’t ‘appear as failures’ if nothing happens, we muse. This is not audacious leading or living. I have been guilty of playing it safe like this sometimes when limited expectations of God answering prayer is at work in my life.

It’s time to hear God for specifics. To pray specific prayers. To have clarity for specific things.

May 2012 be a year where we become more like children as far as our believing God is concerned. To have a 'sanctified naivety', will deliver us from tired and faithless living and cause us to trust God for amazing things

Just one final thing. This can only happen as you look to Christ. It is only as we see and behold Him and hear His Word that we will grow in faith. Look to Christ and the message of Good News otherwise who can believe God for such great, even impossible things? No one.

Imagine.....

2012-01-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

Imagine...

Imagine starting a new year like it was your first day as a Christian

Imagine starting a new year like it was your last day on this earth

Imagine starting a new year like it was not going to be circumscribed by past disappointments

Imagine starting a new year like it was an awesome adventure with Jesus

Imagine starting a new year like it was time to walk on your own personal lake of destiny

Imagine starting a new year like it was a chance to believe God like it was your first opportunity to do so

Imagine starting a new year like it was time to dump any excess 'load' or 'baggage' for the road ahead

Imagine starting a new year like it was a moment by moment chance to get to know Jesus better and deeper than ever before!

Imagine starting a new year like it was the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (He says it is!)

Imagine starting a new year like it was an epic new time to walk deliberately by the Spirit

Imagine starting a new year like it was time to fly in all that he has called you to

Imagine starting a new year like it was time to stop thinking, breathing and speaking the negative report

Imagine starting a new year like it was already predestined for you with good works prepared in advance, with plans to prosper you (and not to harm you!)

Imagine starting a new year like it was time to simply believe whether you see it or not as yet

Imagine starting a new year like you are a child

No ordinary child, God's child!

Is having a system of Bible reading legalistic?

2011-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

I believe that the answer to this is NO!

That is of course, unless you apply it legalistically! ;-)

I think there is way to much confusion these days between Godly order (or having a disciplined life that releases us into blessing)and legalism. It seems that anything with a degree of systematisation to it is automatically seen as being legalistic by many. This is absurd and unhelpful.

Legalism is that which seeks to displace the Gospel of Grace with a Law based, moralistic approach to EARN God's favour and approval and our subsequent identity. The book of Galatians is the most helpful study in the dangers of legalism. You cannot and do not earn God's love and position as a son - this is the gift of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We receive Him and this gift by faith as an act of mercy and grace.

Back to Bible study/reading.

Having some method to reading is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. I do believe though that we should allow such methods or tools to be our servant and not our master. Many of us are less disciplined these days and probably need a certain degree of planning and structure in our lives though in order to stay 'full of the Word'

If you have any thoughts on this issue do leave a comment. I am leaving you though with a link to a suggested Bible reading program for 2012 and some advise form Bible teacher Michael Eaton
BIBLE READING SUGGESTED FORMAT

Happy New Year!

Jason

Mary revisited

2011-12-21T03:19:00.001-08:00

Thank God for Mary, the mother to Jesus, who conceived Him by the Spirit and carried Him to birth, brought Him up, fed Him, clothed Him and no doubt performed so many normal motherly functions for Him...God chose to incarnate the Son of God as a man and to have Him born in the normal way, conceived in no ordinary way...So today, I want to honour Mary, to remember her and to thank God for her and for how she endured scorn, shame and the loss of a son on the cross...all for the Kingdom of God, quite a load to carry and from what we know she carried it well!

What a pity though that myths about Mary have been allowed to develop through church tradition that elevate her to a superhuman level and actually rob her and us of the true story of this humble servant - somehow in this there has been a sad loss of 'proper focus'. Mary is not God nor a deity of any form, nor can Mary answer prayers - according to Scripture. The Bible teaches that 'there is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ' (1 Timothy 2v5) Mary should be respected but the Bible gives us NO indication that we should ever pray to her or put our trust in her to help us out through interventions while we are alive. Repetition of 'Hail Marys', according to the Bible, are a waste of time and would surely cause Mary great distress if she were not enjoying the perfection of Heaven too much at this time!
Another myth about Mary, apart from her supposed ability to 'answer prayer' is the proposition regarding her 'perpetual virginity', even as a married woman! This is surely a complete myth developed on the back of dogmas developed under Plato's influence centuries ago by 'theologians'. The notion of Mary ever having had sexual relations with her husband has been rejected by a sector of the church because of philosophical reasons. This is the same logic and dogma that has left priests unable to marry in one major denomination and see what effect that illogical and unnatural imposition of philosophical belief upon God's divine order has brought about! Enough said. Mary was a normal woman, a normal wife, who went on to have other children. She was created as a sexual being and was a normal married woman no doubt in this regard. There is NO need to believe otherwise! Just because Jesus was immaculately conceived should not in any way presuppose that Mary had a restraining order from above imposed upon her to make her chaste. Oh what unnecessary foolishness. The final part of the 'dirty lens' that needs wiping regarding Mary is the dogma regarding her own immaculate conception. No! The very point Jesus chose to belong to a family of no great social standing or means, and to a teenage unmarried virgin - was that He is a God of GRACE! He chooses the weak and ignoble things of this world and kisses us with His favour inspite of these traits! One of Jesus' ancestors was a harlot called Rahab, David was complicit in murder, Abraham had betrayed his wife on fear of his life...should I go on? It is WRONG to think that Jesus had to belong to a 'perfect' mother, who is some super-sanitised otherworldly demi-God. The whole point of God's redemptive plan was to visit a guilty world in love. To visit the poor with the riches of His glory, and Mary was an ordinary young lady who was chosen, in no small measure for her 'ordinariness' I believe. She was chosen because she was chosen not because she was 'worthy' of being chosen.

Why pick a fight on this you may be asking? Well, this folks is important on a few levels. Twisting Scripture is never clever, creating your own dogmas and church tradition as authoritative on a par with Scripture is toxic and warned against by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament. My main point here though is simply this. Mary was chosen by God to carry the Lord of Glory in her womb because she was chosen, and because she was a normal 'imperfect' sinner. Yes, Mary too was a sinner. This only elevates my admiration of her. Imperfection rather than perfection seemed to qualify her to carry the Lord of Glory!
Lets see Mary through the lens of what is historically accurate and theologically sound. Lets admire her for her ordinariness and yet outstanding qualities of character. Lets resist the faulty premise that Mary needs to be 'elevated' to some other-worldly status and assigned the qualities of a deity type figure. She does not. Grace means we get what we DON'T DESERVE not what we do deserve, Mary must be longing for this to be revealed in relation to her own story.

The same is true for you and I. Resist the false teaching that claims you have to 'clean up your own life' in order to be saved by God. Resist the lie that you have to 'prove yourself' in order for God to accept you. No, the cross of Christ is the proving ground! Even our righteous acts are like 'filty rags' before God, in light of His holiness and glory. No. Accept your ordinariness. Accept your ignoble lineage. Accept your sinfulness and need of a Saviour. When you have done this, you are ready to believe upon Jesus in a new way, in a way that makes you desperate for His Grace, His blood for your sin, His life for your death, His eternity for your lostness.

Thank God for Mary, today I celebrate and honour her - mother to Jesus, and am so grateful for her life and example and thank God that He uses and accepts the weak and ordinary people of this world for His extraordinary and powerful purposes!
JS

posting comments

2011-12-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

In this all new era of learning how to use technology, I have amended this site to allow easy application of comments

JS

The lady of my dreams

2011-12-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Just a small tribute to my best friend and the love of my life Ali. This photo was taken to celebrate our 10th Anniversary as a church here in Dublin, since we began back in 2001

Ali has been an unbelievable support and encouragement to me and many others, a pioneer with a worshippers heart, great tenacity and the best story-teller I know....!

Thank you Ali, xoxxo

Jason

A JOYFUL noise!

2011-12-11T09:47:00.000-08:00

South City Church making a JOYFUL noise at our local Stillorgan Shopping centre....

for Christmas....

connecting with our community...

and having great FUN in the process...

Releasing JOY!

JS

Self-sufficiency and the Gospel

2011-11-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

Video Blog

Self-sufficiency and a relationship with God?

Check this new experiemental posting out!!

You might like to recommend to a friend perhaps?

Jason

The Gospel gives us wings

2011-11-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

TRAINING FOR REIGNING
a message I preached at South City Church, Dublin 6/11/11

Trying to suck water from a dried up well in a desert is not what God intended for your life! He came to give you LIFE and LIFE MORE ABUNDANT!

God intends His children to have 'wings to fly' and He gives us them in His Gospel! He doesn't want us just to survive but to THRIVE in Him and to REIGN IN LIFE with our King Jesus Christ...

So have a listen to this vital message on Grace, I hope it blesses you

Jason

Let the unborn live!

2011-11-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

Let the unborn live!
"Abortion has an inescapable conclusion—a society in which the powerful determine which humans will live and which will die" Randy Alcorn

'I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.'
Psalm 139v14

You may have been violated and for that there are no words of outrage strong enough to express how wrong that is, or maybe others feel like they have made a mistake .... for some it just does not fit into their '5 year plan' but LIFE is precious, you have no right to kill a baby destined to live...life is sacred, choose life...and life more abundant!

JS

Home after ministry trips to Cork and Killarney

2011-11-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

We are just home from a wonderful 6 day ministry trip to both Cork and Killarney with Radical Life church www.radicallife.ie and Living Rock church in Killarney

We praise God for the wonderful friendships we share in those places and the ministry that took place...

God is on the throne!!

Jason

They fasted

2011-10-18T04:28:00.000-07:00

They Fasted

On Sinai's mount, with radiant face,
To intercede for heaven's grace
Upon a stubborn wayward race,
He fasted

Once lifted from the miry clay,
When opposition came his way
This soldier-King would often pray
With fasting

A seer, possessed of vision keen,
Who told the troubled king his dream,
Had light on God's prophetic scheme
Through fasting

The prophetess in temple court
Beheld the Babe the two had brought;
For Him she long had prayed and sought,
With fasting

He came to break the yoke of sin,
But ere His mission could begin
He met the foe and conquered him
While fasting

'Set these apart', the Spirit bade.
A spring, that soon vast rivers made,
Broke ope by men who as they prayed
Were fasting

So shall they fast when I am gone;
Was this no word to act upon?
Ask countless saints who fought and won
With fasting.

When we shall stand on that great day
And give account, what shall we say,
If He should ask us, 'Did you pray-
With fasting?'

Poem by Arthur Wallis, found in his book
'God's Chosen Fast'

Dublin you're shaking

2011-10-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

Dublin you're shaking
I can hear your heart quaking
There is no point in faking
I know your head is aching

From boom to bust, dreams have hit the dust
What used to be a 'must',
We can now see was 'lust',
Anxious minds are taking time to adjust.

Dublin you're quaking but hold on...
Could this be your making?
In this cold new IMF/EU undertaking
To which we are waking...

Isaiah 61 - The Saviour's Commission

Good news for the poor
The brokenhearted and captives set free
A year of the Lord's favour?
A new kind of dignity...

Thank God for His mission
Which He suffered to achieve
So that now all He requires
Is that I bend my knee to believe...

Dublin you're shaking
I can hear your heart quaking,
Could this be your making?
There is just no point in faking...

Whosoever

2011-10-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

For God SO loved the world (every nation, tribe and tongue, including this little girl selling Puja flowers on the ghats of the 'holy' river Ganges at Varanasi...) that He gave us Jesus His one and only Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not perish but will have eternal life...

2011-10-10T14:13:00.001-07:00

Christ died for All Nations....ask of me He says and He will make the nations as His/our inheritance...

Who will go?

Blown away........

2011-09-16T03:37:00.000-07:00

Since last Sundays amazing South City Church morning meeting I have been processing something so obvious and yet so deep within me that its only now that it is hitting me.

Last Sundays testimonies in church just blew me away! To hear of God healing Margaret's chronic knee problem and to witness Vitalija moved to tears and almost speechless at the power of God's hand in her family has left me mesmerised, blown away by the love, majesty and Grace of our great and awesome God who stoops down to bless people who look to Him (and even those who don't!)

Today, I just simply recognise that God is good. He is so so so so GOOD! Even when He hides His face from us it has never ever compromised one iota of His goodness or love. To have him reveal Himself in such ways last Sunday must never get 'lost' on us. God is love.

Lord, keep moving by your Holy Spirit in our lives and beyond our lives. Touch the city through us. Rescue unbelievers, shed abroad the knowledge of your Glory and Grace. Heal the sick, set the oppressed free, surprise us with joy and wonder at breakthroughs in impossible situations. Whisper anew in our inner ear today.

God is so Good! Can you see Him today? Wait...His goodness will pass before you!

JS

First love

2011-09-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

First love, but First His love.

Clamour, clamour and more clamour. No-one makes me succomb-I just do.
I'll get around to you Lord I promise myself but when this happens I
seldom do.
Information-age idol and busyness mix, why do I bow down to this below
the radar fix?
No demands are made from heaven just eternity's heart cry, no jilted lover syndrome, just our spirits that sigh.

Friends, time is short - to meet, our Maker in awe and liquid love
replete.
Arrest this day, apprehend this hour, arise anew to Christ our great High Tower.
The drug of sleep, its power can keep, us from our God with life most deep.

First love, first love but first His love.

Only then can we capture and make place for the Dove.
Throw off the guilt but not the call, from Father's heart,
first love, our all.

Sons of Yearning

2011-09-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

SONS OF YEARNING (God of Burning)

Flood our lives with hunger burning
Nations wait for sons of yearning
God of fire, Grace and Awe
We give to you, our lives our all

Lamb of God the Lion roaring
Deep to deep your Spirit calling
Heirs with Christ, in Promise stand
Arising called to take the land

Burn in your Kingdom bright
Christ the light giving sight
Hope of the nations, salvation is here
Visions that all may see
Glimpses of glory
With Signs & wonders, Your Heavens draw near

Marshall now your troops deploy
The works of satan to destroy
In Majesty you ride ahead
In victory risen from the dead

Til you again return one day
We’ll trim our lamps with oil and pray
Then angels praise will join our cries
And ring like bells from Heaven’s skies

The empty chair and prayer

2011-08-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

Brendan Manning told a story about a lady who called at his door, about 35 yrs of age, in tears. She asked him to go and visit her dying father and to pray for him, citing the fact that she had asked her Pastor three times and he said he would but always seemed to forget amidst his administrative duties and busy schedule...

Manning arrived at the hospital to find the father with an empty chair next to his bed as though he had been expecting a visitor. Seeing Manning's inquisitive look, the man said, ‘Oh the chair’ and went on to relate why the chair was by his bedside...

He had struggled with prayer all his life and confided this to Manning as a life-long struggle and had after many years approached his Pastor with courage and told him that he could hardly pray two words and also that he got little or nothing from his sermons on prayer as they seemed to 'fly over his head'. The Pastor gave him a theological book by a Swiss theologian that he couldn’t understand either which was returned the next week.

The dying man went on to relate how it was a good friend of his, by no means the most ‘spiritual person that he knew, that had given him some simple but profound advice on prayer....

‘Prayer’ he said, ‘is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus’. ‘All you do is sit down next to an empty chair and by faith see Jesus on that empty chair, and he has promised to be with you until the end of time, then just speak to Him and listen as you would in a conversation with your best friend’

2011-08-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

I am making a trip to INDIA and NEPAL soon

Your prayers are appreciated

My niece Bekkie Williamson will be there for 2 months

Check out the link below - thanks to Krista Burns for the video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi4cAniXqvc

Destabilize your unhealthy equilibrium (a link to my sermon)

2011-08-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Sermon I preached in South City Church Dublin - 21/8/11

"Disturb your unhealthy equilibrium"!

Whilst away on holiday in W and SW Ireland I really felt I heard God's direction and passion downloaded to me. Much of this applies to me personally but was also very much I believe for the 'Western Church' in general and the church in particular that I have the privilege of leading in Dublin!!

Its a message about courage, passion for God and breaking into your destiny. Its about recovering a freedom that causes us to live boldly, even wildly for Christ.

Hope you enjoy!

A walk on the Wilder Side

2011-07-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

Martin Luther King Jr. once observed that "the only real revolutionary is a person who has nothing to lose" There is a truth to this. Those of us with too much invested in the way things are will never embrace the revolutionary cause required for whole-hearted change.

Think Mandela, Gandhi, and as mentioned Martin Luther King Jr.......

"Free from reliance on the system they sought to overthrow, they were liberated to dedicate themselves to their revolutionary cause.

The submission to the threshold of a cross is at the root of our following Jesus; it changes the game completely. Now discipleship is not about mere attendance in church meetings; it is about how we develop, mature, learn, and relate to God. It is about divesting oneself of allegiance to a religious system or institution and embracing the freedom of having nothing to lose. Much of who we are as Jesus's people will depend largely on the quality of our discipleship.

A church as Jesus defined it ought to be comprised of disciples and not just admirers, or it is hardly a church"

Extracts from 'The Faith of Leap' by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch

Are we ready to 'take a walk on the wild side' as the song goes..? What are we truly reliant upon? How deeply is the Gospel imprinted on our own hearts, let alone upon our lips for others? Discipleship flows accidentally from lives that seek to walk intentionally by the Spirit. If you are a believer upon Christ that is great, but let us not allow a misplaced quest for security, convenience or a form of Godliness to become our raison d'etre, but rather Christ and Christ crucified, a life ravished by gratitude, revelling in and thankful for the Good News in which we stand! Found in Him. Watch what happens then!

Lets take a walk on he Wild side!

JS

My guess!

2011-07-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

What would Paul have written to the 'church' in Dublin?

Dear believer in Dublin,

You are dearly loved by me and more so by our Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank God for you, for each one of you and remember you in my prayers. God sees all your good deeds, your perseverance, your faithfulness to the call in Dublin, your love one for another and stewardship of your lives. Most of all you are a people who love our Lord Jesus Christ.
I urge you though to remember the manner after which you first became a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. You realised how far short you had fallen of deserving God’s grace and in many ways felt undeserving of the free gift of righteousness that has been bestowed upon you. You were undeserving, and in many ways still are, except that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all unworthiness and imputed to us a righteousness that we get for free! Now live this second chance well and stop double guessing whether you are good enough, you are not of yourself, but in every way you are now as a New Person through the Grace and righteousness of our Lord and His finished work on the cross.
Amidst all the clamour of modern life in Dublin, and the vast number of opinions that the media, society and religious culture project all around you each day, I commend to you like never before to have ears to hear what the Holy Spirit would say unto you. Abide in the true vine and bear fruit to God. He is your Shepherd, your guide, you His church and Bride. I urge you specifically in this day to be reminded of the Gospel of our Lord and that the price paid for you was not just an entrance fee to get you to the party in Heaven but is also the daily bread by which you can grow up in Him and the bread that you break for others. We are no longer our own for Christ died for us to make us His own. So don’t believe those who tell you its all about you, and all about your every want, whim or convenience. Let me let you into a secret, its not! Don’t get me wrong here, our Father really is our Father! He loves to give good gifts to us His children, He sees the details of our lives and knows our prayers and heart cries before they even leave our lips! Its just that we can so easily make the focus and point all about us, often due to fears we may have or insecurities about our lives or our future. Remember that word of counsel that recalls the Father’s love for each one of us, ‘How great the Father’s love for us that we might be called children of God, and THAT is what we are!’ As children of GOD though, lets remember how we got to be His Sons, lets remember the price He paid for our adoption, the uncountable cost and suffering so that we could be counted His very own, and that is what we are. We say we are Christ-centered but what does that look like in our daily lives? Are we ravished by the Good News of His Grace or just trying to lead a life of virtue and principle? Are we living in an overflow of amazement for the Gospel and Kingdom in which we stand or just trying to survive another day in the race? Do we tell others about our Lord and their need for salvation? If not, are we ashamed of being different, of being considered a Jesus freak? May it never be so. Come back to where you first began, and pray that I too do so, come back to your first love. The Gospel is about Christ and His Kingdom not our every whim. Reject the lowest common denominator of SELF, and in this you too will find rest and your needs will be met in Him, by your Father in Heaven. Make Christ and His Glory your crowning glory. Make Him famous, seek His Kingdom first, and as our Lord taught us, He is indeed faithful to grant us all the ‘other things’ and to add them unto us.

The instinct of faith

2011-07-13T03:34:00.000-07:00

23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. Hebrews 11v23

Did you ever feel like you had a gut feeling about how to deal with a situation but instead you did nothing in case you made wrong choices? Perhaps you only expect God to work in one way or another...?

Joseph's circuitous journey had allowed God time to cultivate a faith in Him that helped him see beyond his own lifetime. As such he made arrangements for his bones to be relocated along with the exodus of the Israelites that he knew 'by faith' would come to pass. Faith trusts and expects. Living by faith means preparing for what will come to pass! No ifs' or maybes'!

I come now to the remarkable verse highlighted above - verse 23. The plan of God that Joseph and the Patriarch's had foreseen began to accelerate under Moses. There is mention here however of a faith contribution that can so easily be overlooked in this whole episode of God's redemptive history. We can reflect momentarily that, as per Moses' parents, some lives and contributions of faith will only gain acknowledgement in Heaven. Moses' parents had faith in the most traumatic of situations. It seems that faith arose in the hearts of Moses' parents when they saw that there was something special about their child. We would I am certain all agree that all children are special and unique but this is not what seems to be implicitly referred to in this verse.

It seems that God gave Moses' parents faith that the little bundle in their hands had destiny upon His life. There is no mention though of a specific 'word' or 'prophecy' spoken over him, just an 'instinctive knowledge' that led to fear-defeating faith inspired actions.

Michael Eaton says this about this passage,

'This is a good example of the way in which faith is not so much based upon a specific word from God but on a kind of instinctive knowledge of what God's will is. They knew that there was something very special about this child. They knew the character of God was against child-murder. This was the kind of situation where they needed no special further word from God. Their faith was instinctive.'

Is it possible that believers like you and I are nullifying the God instilled ability to take steps of faith in our lives because we are waiting for a 'neon sign' type of revelation before acting? Listen, I agree, 'Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of God' however, are: the distilling of every Word we have heard in the course of our lives, the ongoing schooling and guidance of the Holy Spirit, maintaining 'faith and a good conscience' and the ability to interpret God's dealings in circumstances, any less important factors in our ability to walk and act by faith? Surely not.
Moses' parents had an instinctive faith impulse.

I believe that too often we outwit ourselves by over-reasoning situations when it would have been better to go with our gut reaction that is born of faith

not fear or the laws of probability. In outwitting ourselves we are robbed of the ability to act as people of faith who take appropriate actions at the appropriate times. The men of Issachar of old 'Understood the times and knew what to do' Our friends the Thomsons, in our home-group, highlighted this point shrewdly last week, rightly pointing out that a prophetic people not only can 'discern the times' but also know 'how to respond'. They understood the times but then also knew what to do!

This kind of instinctive working of faith empowers believers to make courageous choices that appeal to God on the basis of his known character.

Moses' parents knew there was destiny on this boy and that somehow God would make a way where there was no way. God did. The result of this was the protection of a deliverer leader through whom God would emancipate a nation.

Are you waiting for 'writing on the sky' when deep down you 'know' what you should do through 'instinctive faith'? If so, remember you have 'no ordinary destiny' as a child of the Living God. He will help you to understand the times and situations that you face and show you what you need to do.

JS

Market-place Ministers - feedback

2011-06-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

I have just finished a meeting with Rick Heeren, who serves alongside Ed Silvoso in 'Harvest Evangelism'. This meeting and the Arise Dublin seminar we hosted yesterday were packed full of testimony and teaching of how God wants to transition his church to becoming more effective as 'Market-place ministers'. Here are the themes and thoughts in note form for you to peruse...these are just brief notes, let me know what you think.

* For too long church has expected the world to come to us. Its time to wake up to the need for the church to live well in the world and that the kingdom will come!

* The 'Market-place' refers to the business world and spheres of society where most people spend much of their life!

* Too many Christians dread Monday and live for the week-end. Week-ends are fun and necessary but we need to understand God's plan to use us in the work-place and to help bring Kingdom transformation.

* For this to happen we need a PARADIGM shift, our frame of reference as Christians must change eg. God's purpose for His believers (church) is to impact the world. This happens in different ways...from ethics at work, to using Godly prosperity to the benefit of employees, to evangelism and Kingdom demonstration or simply by praying for someone in need. Another paradigm shift is to understand that you have not 'arrived' when you become a full-time Christian worker...please! God has a unique DNA for each person and only the few called to this task should aspire to this. It is my opinion that it is a Godly ambition to excel and shine for God in the 'market-place'. This is not only normal for the Christian, it is where you can be most effective.

* paradigm shifts in brief (as taught by Ed Silvoso and his team)
- disciple cities and nations
- Reclaim the market-place
- Work is part of your worship
- Take the Kingdom of God to the gates of hell
- nation transformation is seen tangibly in the elimination of systemic poverty

* Pulpit and market-place ministers must work together in unity of spirit and faith for the Kingdom to come. Pastors equipping and blessing business and market-place ministers and the latter dedicating their work for the Kingdom and to the benefit of the local church

* Prayer is the foundation. Christ must be central with his Gospel. We cannot and must not try to effect city transformation without God! The concept beggars belief! Unity between Pastors is vital (as seen with Arise Dublin) This is unity with a purpose though, otherwise unity will eventually fade. Covenantal friendships with the King and His Kingdom the goal are an irresistible force for transformation of nations. Intercession is vital. No prayer, no change.

* Luke 10 gives a few key principles in evangelism the Jesus way (as taught by Rick Heeren)
- bless - speak your 'peace' (or Shalom), speak life...
- fellowship - some doors of God (and hearts) will open...stay around
- pray - look for ways to release the power&love of God eg. healing, needs.
- proclaim - speak the Gospel to open and receptive hearts

* believe and act toward God using the market-place as a place for His Kingdom to come, in various ways...no longer hiding but rather shining.

More to come soon...
JS

The deadly cocktail of mixing Law and Grace for the believer

2011-05-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

It is becoming a better known fact to many Christians that they are not to serve and live for Christ through the Mosaic Law (Ten commandments and Old Testament commands) but rather to properly understand by revelation and subsequent life transformation the New Covenant, purchased by Jesus Christ our great High Priest!
Should this be news to you then you really really do need to look into this and study the fact that as a believer in Christ you are ‘no longer under law but under Grace’ and to fully begin to live in this reality.
For the purpose of this blog I want to assume that you know this. However I also want to assume that like me you may be finding the subtleties of living in the fullness of life that Christ has purchased for us sometimes elusive. Let me give you an example from my own life...
By and large I understand and can preach New Covenant realities for the child of God, our freedom in Christ, our great privileges, the fact that we are no longer under the curse of the Law, that Christ was the END of the Law and so forth. That means that God accepts and receives me as His son on the basis of the blood of Christ – His atoning sacrifice and not on my own merits. I understand that as I have started (under Grace – unmerited favour by the mercy of God) then so am I to continue ie. That Grace is not just the means of my Justification but is also the means of my Sanctification and to fulfil my destiny!

Along the way though I have discovered though that I can still end up living in a subtle fusion of Law and Grace

when revelation begins to wane or fleshly living starts to creep up and bite me from behind! Paul told the believer that there ‘is now NO CONDEMNATION’ for those in Christ Jesus....

how often have I told myself that I am living and believing correctly under Grace by the Spirit of God only to have to re-evaluate when the crippling power of condemnation or a sense of failure starts overtaking me. Its only when the effects of living under this for a while accumulate and overwhelm us that we realise that the cumulative effect of even a small amount of ‘Law based living’ will eventually cripple us like a pebble in the shoe of a weary traveller

. Perhaps you feel a sense of unworthiness and an inability to move into the calling and prophecies that you have received?

Maybe like me you have discovered that 'starting' is the easy part and you have lapsed back for seasons, even unconsciously, into adopting the Old Covenant approach of 'do and live' again rather than the life-giving 'live and do' of Grace?

By Grace we understand that we entered the Kingdom by faith (through Grace) apart from works and as such must continue in this manner, not abandoning Grace in favour of once more earning God’s favour and acceptance through our own efforts – surely the great default of many of us.

A revelation of Grace through a renewed mind appreciates that even a little bit of Law based thinking for the believer will bring condemnation and guilt and fail to lead us into the Spirit led and filled life we desire.

It takes one rotten apple to spoil the barrel. What I have discovered is that much of this Law based thinking comes through 'old defaults' from our past. We lurch back toward ‘human performancisms’ rather than allowing ourselves the right to receive by faith what we don’t deserve and enjoy the full rights as sons – unmerited favour and position by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection – apart from works.

Its the subtle mix of Law and Grace based living that is the most difficult animal to catch and the most dangerous

It takes time to realise that as a believer there is no such thing as a balance between Law and Grace! We must go the whole way and cast out the slave woman Hagar (a ‘type’ of the Law) and embrace fully living as a child of Promise after Isaac (a ‘type’ of Grace) Cast out the Slave woman Paul told the Galatians! It sounds so harsh but this is what we must do to any ‘law based’ thinking. So if you catch yourself trying to earn God’s favour, or battling with a Spirit of condemnation due to feelings of unworthiness or other PERFORMANCE related means of living for God and possessing your inheritance then STOP and reconsider.

You start by Grace and you must continue by Grace. Your faith is the key.

Will you believe the scandalous freedom you have in Christ or not? Will you accept him and the New Covenant in all its fullness or not? Don’t think that by mixing Law based and Grace based living you can hedge your bets. No, it will ruin you.
Learn to identify what is going on in your mind by the fruit of your life. Condemnation, feeling a failure, fed up, drivenness...all BAD! Hope, courage, assurance, buoyancy and joy ...all GOOD!
Watch your life transform in Christ by living in and through the Gospel of Grace today in all its fullness, leave no stone unturned and identify those places where you have tolerated that deadly mixed cocktail of L & G for too long. Discover the difference!
JS.

Willow Creek website blog entry by J Shiels

2011-05-26T07:20:00.001-07:00

A 'Guest Blog' response on a Willow Creek website in response to request for giving advise to young leaders (by Jason Shiels)

FIND LINK BELOW,

http://www.willowcreekevents.org.uk/leadership/lessons-for-young-leaders-you-are-never-too-young-to-start-jason-shiels/

My Quietness

2011-05-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

A poem by Amy Carmichael

O Thou who art my quietness, my deep repose,
My rest from strife of tongues, my holy hill,
Fair is Thy pavilion, where I hold me still.
Back let them fall from me, my clamarous foes,
Confusions multiplied;
From crowding things of sense I flee, and in Thee hide.
Until this tyranny be overpast,
Thy hand will hold me fast;
What though the tumult of the storm increase,
Grant to Thy servant strength, O Lord, and bless with peace.

Beyond the motive of Jesus for an easier life

2011-04-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

Revelation and beholding Jesus the radiant majestic Son of the living God takes us beyond just living for the sole motive of having an 'easier life' The latter is bound up in self-absorption or perhaps fear. Living for the will of God may sound nauseatingly virtuous to a secular person or a fleshly engrossed Christian but it is actually the natural consequence of true affection for Christ. Love and obedience cannot be separated. Increasing love of God leads to increasing obedience and so on. The Judaistic believers in Hebrews were being tempted to see Jesus as an angel or equal to an angel. It would have made life easier to have believed these rumours and to remain within the framework of Judaism - repectability assured. However life in Christ will not necesarily be easy. A wrong assumption at Gospel uptake can lead to a life where this is the governing expectation and raison d'etre. Jesus my problem solver and bringer of comfort and security? Living out of revelation of Jesus as the Son of the living God will ruin us for this basis for living. The whole of Hebrews chapter 1 is a commentary on the fact that Jesus IS the Son of God and in His radiance and divinity is superior to all the angelic and created realm. Accordingly dangerous living becomes way more attractive, indeed a reflex, in light of such a great salvation and God than 'easy street' Do you have a majestic and glorious King in view, a Gospel that continues to make you want to 'reckon yourself dead to sin' (Romans) and to live a dangerous life of adventure for God that will echo in eternity?!
Any comments...?

Deeper Discipleship the Jesus way

2011-04-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

http://sc.fhview.com/sc_customplayer/seriesitems/1/118278

Who do we say that Jesus is?
What is our actual revelation not our projected one?

3 legs of discipleship:
* truth that sets free
* love experienced from the Father that compels
* fruitfulness and favour from abideing in Christ

Do we have ears to hear what God is wanting to speak into our heart? Are we open and receptive?

Words of Grace (Acts 20) build us up and project us into our inheritance. Do we have the good soil of the Parable of the Sower or is the seed stolen?

We can be a child of God but not a disciple....may it not be so for you or I in the future...

Spiritual warfare in Ireland is different from Africa or India...listen and come out from under the spell of satan's 'slow death' approach...

Just a few points from the above sermon.

JS

Amazing Grace

2011-02-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Towering introspection is often the product of failing to reach certain invisible but tangible expectations we have of ourselves, others and life in general. For Christians, many still live with 'Law Consciousness' as the means of measuring their worthiness without truly understanding that 'Christ was the end of the Law' and has opened up a 'new and living way' through the finished work of the cross!
Unhealthy degrees of introspection based on 'point scoring' (or 'own goals'!) against some performance code we imagine God to have, leads to a privatised outlook on life that is bereft of sowing ourselves into the 'field of the world' as the 'good seed' that Jesus the 'sower' has declared us to be! Dizzying degrees of self-analysis, God questioning and the vacuumous effect of introspection are right where satan 'the enemy of our souls' wants us to be! They produce man-consciousness rather than God-consciousness and narrow vistas of small thinking that renders faith like a box of wet matches.
The drive for 'success' has been instilled in us from infancy. Society is built upon it. From prize-givings to beauty pageants to the selection of teams in PE class, all of us have at times felt the need for affirmation and 'success' crushed, leaving us feeling like 'also-rans'
Until the last number of years, much of Christian ministry was also founded for me on the faulty foundation of worldly success psychologies, that is until God allowed me to experience a sense of 'failure' often enough and 'delay' long enough to know that something was not right here in my 'cause and effect' lens for the Kingdom of God. Surely if the inputs were high enough into the systemic nature of ministry that sub-consciously we had understood then the outputs would role down the production line. Not so.
It has only been experiencing the sheer power of God's Grace and love inspite of my weaknesses and sins that has taught me that its less about us than I had at first understood.
The connection between our achievements and perception of success can be a self-limiting factor that sets the barometer for our inner world. If we are accomplishing and doing great then we feel all the more loved, but when we aren't we can feel alone and unloved. Experiencing failure may seem like a horror show when it happens but on reflection I am learning to see that there is something much more precious at stake than the performance based litmus test. Failures in and through our lives can be the door to experiencing and dispensing new levels of God's mercy and Father's heart - and all that inspite of us!
When you experience a sense of failure, as I have often done, please understand that God does not reject you. Thats what puts the 'amazing' into Amazing Grace (how sweet the sound that saves a WRETCH like me!) So often we have thought if only I could be better, do more, have more to show for my effort THEN I would be valuable and significant. Dear friend, that is not so. The cracks in our squeeky clean and 'together' lives are testament to the fact that we are not the finished article nor should be spend our lives expecting to be either. That is too exhausting. Grace will lift you. Our need of God is based on humility. Humility deveops through failures and delays along the rough-road of life. As His light shines through those cracks in the armour of our not-so-perfect lives then let Him love you anyway, because that love was never based on your virtue in the first place. Its Amazing Grace.
JS

God's remedy for the worry and anxiety prone

2011-02-07T08:55:00.000-08:00

Ireland in 2011 faces a huge uphill struggle on a few fronts. Unemployment, rising levels of debt, negative equity, marital disharmony and breakdown, depression, Governmental failures, to name but a few. However, even in good times it seems like circumstances are not the only factor that affects one's outlook on life.
Sniffing out as yet non-existant potential pitfalls or negative outcomes on the horizon is a common characteristic of perceived wisdom amongst some of types of people. Some make a career out of squashing almost any shred of hope or glimmer of possibilitarianism out of life. Even when things look bright and rosy its almost as if this mind-set refuses to enjoy the moment, seeing it as weakness given the looming dark shadows of expectation that always seem to overshadow the present. With this mind-set a constant restlessness exists from the uncanny knack of turning positive situations into a bitter struggle for survival, a 'battening down of hatches' approach in case we 'get ahead of ourselves' and end up more disappointed in the end. A sorry way to live life.
Not all the worry prone are so dramatically negative though! Others just live with a low grade and ongoing gnaw of stress and anxiety. In this type of mentality there is no deep-seated negativity just a deficit emotionally that comes from feeling overwhelmed by the barrage of plates that need spinning, bills that need paying and expectations we place upon ourselves (or live under) of how life is supposed to be, and the sinking sense that we are not quite 'making it' or must always be 'doing more' to succeed - a vacuumous demand upon the human soul.
The portion of Scripture below was spoken by Jesus to teach us that there is a Father in Heaven who is NOT detached and discompassionately removed from His children here on earth. God sees and knows whats going on in our hearts and the practicalities of our lives. Not only that but He wants to Father us through this situation as a God of immense love. He sees the pain of the mother with an autistic child, He is touched by the pain of a bereavement, the loneliness of a divorcee, the helplessness of the indebted and poverty stricken and the agony of the sick and infirm. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, having lived amongst us but now ascended to the Right Hand of the Father (a position of honour and authority) is also 'touched with the feelings of our infirmities'. He is touched by your pain, confusion, worry and whatever else that describes the turmoil of the human heart and mind at any given moment. Touched!
Jesus provides a simple but radical cure to the disease of worry, stress and anxiety. It involves getting to know God as your Father, not only as some 'Higher Power' amongst the clouds! Jesus was speaking to His disciples and interested parties about the key of logical thinking. He describes how His Father looks after the sparrow and clothes the lily of the field and rebukes them for their lack of understanding and TRUST for imagining that He would treat them, His children, any less than one of these. This was a common ploy of Jesus. He uses here an argument from the lesser (sparrow) to the greater (us) to show the folly of imagining that He as our Father would desert us or withhold the provision of a loving Father!
Worry and stress by and large comes from a lack of trust in God. It means we have not yet learnt about His faithfulness, or have perhaps forgotten it. In many of us there is a default setting that tends us toward worry and anxiety as part of a 'coping mechanism' Unfortunately this is a reversal of how God intended for us to cope, by relying upon him and letting Him achieve in us and through us what we could never do in our own strength. This is NOT a vote for laziness or carelessness, that is not what is intended here by me, or by Jesus. This is about really believing in and relying upon our Father in Heaven for our lives here on earth.
Why not test this out? Allow God to reset your worry default (if you have one) and learn to live by faith and not by mere natural instincts. That is the way of PEACE and the fruit of handing over the ultimate control and provision for our lives and hopes to the Father!
Any comments?

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Mathhew 6 (Jesus Christ)

Personal insights on 'Handling the emotional component of being involved in ministry'

2011-01-18T15:29:00.001-08:00

* Its a Theological issue - What goes on in my head and heart is largely the key to walking in emotional freedom or stress. I have found that there is a large difference between truth we have heard and truth that resides in the inner sanctum of our lives. As a deeper Theology of Assurance and Inheritance has grounded me in a more profound trust there has been MUCH less room for worry and anxiety, the ugly sisters of leaking emotional tanks.

* Its a success issue - our whole view of 'success' has needed to change. Deep in the heart we need to make the transition from 'God writing our story' to 'us writing His story' and the journey into this is inevitably through trials and delay. Its the best thing that could ever happen to us. When we find our 'success' in God Himself and trust at a deeper level, joy and peace replace Arminian drivenness - a relentless inner unrest that is an emotional slave driver.

* Its a people issue - ministry is about people and building lives, team, reaching the lost and so on. For me knowing how to 'switch off' and relax, and rest in the perpetual 'unfinished business' of lives and church 'in process' has taken time and is again related to a deeper trust. Handling criticism is another big one and living free of people's moods and 'issues' with us at times has meant that we sleep well, fret less and laugh more. Relational disharmony is highly draining and learning greater honesty, confrontation and listening skills has helped to reduce 'passive aggressive' and unsettling escalation of disharmony. We must learn aswell to live well in our own 'shoes' and not live under our own or other people's comparisons of ourselves.

* Its a lifestyle issue - I have found the following important: rest, protecting a day off, having good holidays, having a date night with Ali and building our marriage is VITAL to emotional well-being, good sex life in marriage is most helpful to our emotional state, taking exercise and keeping in shape helps how we feel about ourselves, getting enough sleep, eating well and general health well-being, Having a hobby and enjoying a glass of wine and fun with friends is necessary to avoid constant intensity and being drained. Laughter breaks fear.

* Its a Spirit issue - quite simply the anointing of the Holy Spirit breaks 'yokes of bondage' of our lives. Emotions get damaged in this trench warfare. I have had to work hard (and still do) to maintain a decent prayer life and enter the 'rest' of God. Entering the 'santuary' of God (Psalms 73) also brings proper perspective to us amidst unsettling emotions and helps ground us in the Sovereignty of God that brings peace even amidst temporary 'defeats' and choppy waters.

* Its a friendship issue - I have found this vital. Having friends that we can be real with and who don't judge us for opening our 'under-bellies' has been a key to remaining emotionally stable. Ladies in particular need this but so do men! Laughter and the joy of friendship is deeply therapeutic to one's emotional state, I believe.The opposite of this is just bottling things up inside and leads to harmful repression of emotions that will one day mount up to the point of breakdown unless dealt with.

The tussle for transparency

2011-01-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

"Peace, peace, when there is no peace" — Jeremiah 6:14

"MINISTERS ARE FEARFULLY GUILTY if they intentionally build up men in a false peace" Charles Spurgeon.

Read more in his 'Blast of the Trumpet against False Peace'

www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0301.htm

Cards on the table, none of us wants to be labelled as the insensitive fundamentalist screaming down a loudspeaker to some poor defenseless bystander!

When I first arrived in Dublin to establish a Gospel frontier post(and in the process a church) I made the point of telling everyone I was from Co.Derry (we never called it Londonderry!) and that I was not a 'Paisley type' bigot or narrow minded sort! All true, but the point was that we live in a country blighted by religious stereotypes the perceptions of which had left me back-footed trying to explain what I 'was not' rather than what I am and believe. It takes time to establish trust and I hope that has happened...and that I too have grown up to be less 'perceptions' conscious and more God conscious, less of a man pleaser and more of a God pleaser!

Spurgeon's trumpet blast here is an outcry against Christian people, especially leaders, who have believed the Gospel and received Christ as their Saviour but do nothing to challenge the religious stereotypes of people around them....and in doing so leave people with 'false peace'

Religious stereotypes are nothing new. Jesus had to face them from Jewish leaders who refused to listen to his truth claims and rejected Him for who He truly was ('the Saviour' sent by God to reconcile men to God) This is a great tragedy that continues to happen in our day. Rejecting Jesus' truth claims, hiding behind stereotypes and a 'form of godliness' but denying the need for a truly God saved and tranformed life leads to current and eternal separation from God (in a place that Jesus called Hell) - and dare I say it, a wasted life.

I'd say thats a tragedy worth getting brave for, persevering with stereotypes for, and laying our lives down for.

WWW.SOUTHCITYCHURCH.ORG

Mary in proper focus

2010-12-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

The Myth of those who ‘believe’ and those who ‘don’t’

2010-11-22T08:59:00.000-08:00

There is a myth that 'believers' are only the ‘religious types’! We are of course all 'believers', it’s just that we may believe contrastingly from one another. Every one of us has a worldview, a grid through which we view the world and its affairs, matters of faith or the absence of it and so on...
However, lets hold it a minute because we all put our ‘faith’ (trust) in something don’t we? Oh, I know you are now feeling like I am trying to corner you and most certainly are considering switching to read something less in your face, I understand if you do as there are moments for everything. If however, my deliberate play on words causes even a modicum of intrigue, then I invite you to read on.

None of us live in a vacuum. We have all had our ‘lens’ misted’ by something. The relativist tells us that ‘all roads lead equally to Rome’, the moralist that life’s deeper meaning is too mysterious and that all that really matters is being a good citizen and decent human being.

None of these thoughts developed in a vacuum.

Even Kevin Myers, the gnarly social commentator (Irish Independent) recently admitted in his column (September, 2010) that the opponents and detractors of protagonists of ‘Creationist’ views of the world’s origins (‘Intelligent Design’) are way less credible than the views of their ‘fodder’! It takes someone as ‘worldly’ as Myers at times to get people to sit up and ask some serious questions of what we believe and why we believe it.

The Biblical expression of how to interpret God's place in the affairs of His will can be summarised in the word Sovereignty. God being a Providential God who has ultimate control and power over His creation but has refused to harness the creation in a tight fisted grip of robotic dictatorship. No, the ultimate accolade we can give God is simply to recognise and respond to Him as He truly is, not because we have to but because we want to. That was the ‘risk’ of a Sovereign God granting human freedom.

Common worldviews or faiths that many hold in differing measures, even sub-consciously, in our day:

1. Atheism – the belief that eminates from evolutionary theory, that there is no God or higher power. Remember Atheism is surely also a ‘faith’ in something, even if it leads to a ‘faith in nothing’!

2. Polytheism – the belief in many gods or higher powers. Hindus’ pay homage to a host of gods and idols and may at times offer worship to one in order to appease another. Some Christians have suggested that idolatry is no less prevalent, albeit in a more sophisticated form, in 21st Century western society, a problem God lambasted Israel for in the Old Testament writings!

3. Deism – a belief in God that is based on reason based on nature and science. Sees the universe like a machine, believes in God but as a distant and remote being who is not involved in earthly affairs. The Bible and Christianity in general are based upon God having revealed Himself through Jesus Christ, to witnesses, in His Scriptures (inspiration) and so on. Deism refer to any ‘revealed religions’ as they call them, as ‘superstition’, including Christianity.

4. Astrology – star signs etc given a platform of inspiration and guidance from ‘other-worldly’ cosmic sources. Witchcraft and Satanism are also faith based practises active today.

5. Chance and fate – many believe in ‘Murphy’s law’, some in a haphazard ‘happy-go-lucky’ way, others have a deeper sense of ‘Fatalism’ which can have a more sinister effect on people’s lives. Even religions such as Islam and Christianity can be steeped in fatalism eg. The will of Allah as a carte blanche statement following events, Hyper-Calvinism which has twisted the Bible’s teaching on pre-destination and given it a fatalistic bent.

6. Relativism - a common post-modernism, that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that it is a subjective matter. In this case there is no one way to salvation for example, no one God to believe in, we can all chose our path, take whatever medecine 'suits us'. According to the Christian worldview this makes a mockery of the work of Christ on the cross as the only means of salvation.

7. Moralism - this puts faith in man's own 'goodness' and worth. It involves measurement against some subjective perception of right and wrong and often comparison against others, as the means of 'righteousness'. Many from nominal Christian backgrounds base their lives upon such assumptions. Again, the work of the cross is side-lined under such a view.

These are just a few of the worldviews that shape what people believe today. Even if a person wouldn't label themselves as belonging to any one of these ideologies (or others) it is most likely that there are at least trace elements or in some cases dollops of some of these influencing worldviews. Everyone believes in something, no one exist in a vacuum, my question is:
Do you believe that what you believe to be real is really real at all?
Jesus Christ spoke plainly of Himself. He said, ‘I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life. No man may some unto the Father but through me’

This was an exclusive claim. He came to bring salvation to a world of all kinds of worldviews. Many rejected Him and continue to. Is what you believe to be true still really true to you, or true at all?

Any comments?

Compassion in your gut

2010-11-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

Brendan Manning tells a story about going to down to pray for a dying man in hospital. The man's 35 year old daughter had come to his house in tears because she had three times asked her Pastor if he could go down to do the same, three times he agreed, but three times got side-tracked in busyness and administrative duties and forgot or overlooked this most urgent and vital of pastoral duties. What a tragedy!

God is a God of compassion. He is surely longing to release His compassion upon a hurting and broken world, through us his 'compassion bearers'. Are we too busy or distracted or discouraged to notice what is happening around us? The flicker of sadness in an eye, the depth of despair or loneliness in a look....do we have eyes to see and ears to hear what is happening around us, or are we too self-involved to notice? May it not be so Lord...

The Gospels record that Jesus was 'moved' with compassion. Not only was he 'moved' with compassion but he allowed the compassion to 'move him' to take action, and bring healing and comfort and dignity to the broken and shamed. The original word for 'moved' is rooted in a language that is literally - a pain or wrenching deep within the bowels and gut! Now that is graphic and descriptive alright!

Brendan Manning offers this stunning but most provocative challenge to all believers of the goal of our faith being to be expressed in love and compassion. I leave you with the quote and may God meet you today in your need and out of the comfort you receive cause you to be a blessing to the hurting and broken. God is love.

Quote by Brendan Manning,

"You are never more Christ-like than when you are choked with compassion upon the brokenness of others"

Any comments?

A prophetic word given by Ali Shiels March 2010

2010-11-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

Prophetic Word – Arise Dublin March 2010
Ancient Wells Prophetic word:

The following word was given at an 'Arise Dublin' meeting and was sent around the Arise Dublin network at the request of the Arise Dublin team:

While worshipping, the Lord showed me a picture of Ireland, and dotted all over our nation were WELLS. The Lord showed me that these are Ancient wells…. Wells that have been dug by saints of old.
But as I looked closer, the Lord showed me that the wells were stopped up. They were filled with grit and sand and mud…… where once pure fresh water flowed, now the water was stagnant, and dirty and not flowing.
The mud I believe symbolizes TRADITION, RELIGIOSITY, and SELF!!
The mud symbolizes where we have clouded and ‘dirtied’ the pure fresh water of God, by living lives that have been focused on SELF, on chasing after the things of this world, and not after Him…….

Then the Lord showed me that the time was now upon us, where He was going to unblock and unstop those Ancient wells. Where once again, the fresh pure water of God would flow through our land and wash over our land bringing new and fresh water to a thirsty and dry nation. As I looked, the wells did not just begin to flow, but the water EXPLODED up and out of the wells (much like when we strike oil, and the oil shoots up meters into the sky), and flowed out through the streets….. I saw clean, pure water flooding our streets and flowing through this city and this land……..

I believe that the Lord is encouraging us, that we have served him in a time of drought, and have proven faithful, but that now a time is upon us where we will experience an ABUNDANCE of His Spirit, where thirsty hearts and lives will ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’. It is a time of REFRESHING for the church in this nation. A time where we will begin to reap from the foundations of the wells that were dug hundreds of years ago…….

Ali Shiels (South City Church)

Beyond Hope Deferred

2010-11-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

A Proverb of Scripture says

'Hope Deferred makes the heart sick'

Every one of us knows that horrid feeling of deflation where hope seems to have ebbed from our souls like a sagging party balloon. From being over-looked when teams are picked in the play-ground, the teen-age crush turned heart-break, a redundancy that comes out of left-field - 'restructuring' - a recessionary term that classically understates the trauma caused, to the greatest diappointments life can throw at us - marriage dreams shattered, tragic deaths...the list goes on and on. The potential for 'Hope deferred' seems endless.

Bill Johnson has described the HOPE God gives as 'the soil faith grows in'. It provides the necessary spiritual context for faith to take root and grow . Clearly despair is metaphorically soil that has gone toxic, the heart has grown sick as hope has been deferred.

Hope is the light that shines the way ahead for us. The Bible portrays many promises that seem utterly elusive amidst 'wilderness' experiences of utter despair and darkness.

History tells us that God is not a God though of heartless and tantalising mirages

but rather a God of substance,faithfulness and justice who is true to His Sovereign plan even when life appears to take detours and descend into dark times.

Many are indeed experiencing those 'dark times' in our times where 'Hope deferred' has made their hearts sick. Its a horrible place to be in. The Gospel is Good News and is found in the Person, the Hope of the Nations, the Promised One, Jesus Christ. The Gospel by definition is hope for the hopeless and in this more than some 'comfort blanket', but more substantially - mercy to the undeserving, Grace to the lawless, all because of one PERFECT SACRIFICE for sin.

Any of us who regard ourselves as followers of Christ are supposed to be the mid-wives of this hope into the world, ambassadors of another kingdom. For this to happen, dear friends, let us throw off the chains that bind us, and drink the delights of our God, even in tough times, that will help make sick hearts rejoice! Look beyond the mists and drunken confusion of your own disappointment and hope once more...its Christ in us that is 'the hope of glory'

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Romans 4v18

The Name Above All Names

2010-10-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.
Psalm 115v1

Its incredible how many times the theme and reality of the NAME of the Lord is spoken of in the Bible. Bible names so often embodied a message, made a point in some way, were used to honour or sometimes the opposite (Jabez for example means 'pain' because of what his mother suffered in child birth!), (names) spoke of the prophetic sense of destiny over a child's future life, (a name) was changed at times to represent the change in favour or status of a person (Jacob became Israel after struggling with the Lord and overcoming) and of course (names) identified the character or mission of a person and much more. No greater example than the name of Jesus (from Joshua - means Saviour)

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" Matt. 1v21

"He said to them, "When you pray, say: " 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come" Luke 11v2

"All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled". John 17v10-12

30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20v20/21

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Acts 22v21

15You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. Acts 3v15-17

6Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" Acts 4v6-7

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Acts 4v18

15But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Acts 9v15-17

Do we live to 'make hallowed' the NAME of the Lord? Do we long to see the NAME of the Lord consecrated and set apart by people as the NAME above ALL NAMES - whom He actually is?

Do we understand the authority of the NAME of the Lord and the faith that comes through believing in and acting upon that NAME?

The 'NAME' and NAMES of the Lord represent WHO God is and who we are IN CHRIST, and what our mission is into the world.

Lord, make YOUR NAME greatJS

God of Burning

2010-10-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

God of Burning

Flood our lives with hunger burning
The nation waits for sons of yearning
God of fire, Grace and Awe
We give to you, our lives our all

Lamb of God the Lion roaring
Deep to deep your Spirit calling
Heirs with Christ, in Promise stand
Arising called to take the land

Burn in us your Kingdom bright
So Christ is seen not out of sight
Hope of nations, your Presence is here
So fill us now, as we draw near

JS

The Episcopal Church of Scotland decides God can be female...read here for reaction to this

2010-09-06T00:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7982904/God-no-longer-male-Scottish-Episcopal-Church-rules.html

The Episcopalian church of Scotland have decided that in order that no-one gets offended by the nature of God, they are making provision that you can make Him to be 'what you want Him to be' - in this case a woman. This is largely to cater for female priests who felt excluded on the grounds of the long held view that God is masculine in nature.

The thing that interests and concerns me here is this, the folly of political correctness that will change a doctrinal belief of such fundamental importance to appease and make God seem 'nicer' and more 'egalitarian' to all. The problem with this modern stance is that it filters belief and Biblical interpretation throught the lens' of apparent 'progressive thought' which is rooted in a reaction to global inequalities toward women.

The root of the issue is the statement of belief (and non-belief) that asserts 'To me God is like this or that....' The problem with this is that God's character, attributes and nature are not dependent on what you and I think about Him! I'll sometimes hear people say things like 'To me...God is like an angry school teacher in the sky', or 'To me God is like a big cuddly Santa Claus..' or 'To me...God is a feeling called love...' The list of 'lens-filtered' popular ideas of self appraised perspective on God is endless. However, here is the deal. God revealed Himself to Israel and said, 'I AM who I AM' and refered to Himself as the 'I AM'. Thats fairly emphatic isn't it? God will just continue being God. He is absolutely delighted in being Himself. He is fully satisfied in His masculine identity and surely doesn't need any of us to try and 'popularise' Him. Indeed, I would hold the view that trying to 'market God' is a huge mistake. Love Him, proclaim His Gospel, witness of Him, but for goodness sake don't try and make Him into a discounted special offer just to keep everyone happy, no, a thousand times no.

The Bible provides a living record of the nature of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If we take that away as our reference point all we have left is human wisdom or in many cases what the Bible calls folly. Using the 'To me, God is like this/that...' approach is all about us, making God fit into our needs, wants and comfort zones where we can pull Him out in a crisis but reject the transforming influence of the 'I AM' in favour of what suits us and appeases our sensitivities. Dear reader, Ladies and Gentlemen, this should not be so. Any comments?
JS.

Ireland team for Autumn International

2010-08-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

OK, our annual attempt at World Domination begins this Autumn against South Africa (whom we have beaten on their last 2 trips here!) I have always loved picking teams and am posting here my proposed Ireland team for the game against the world champions, assuming full fitness (always unlikely)

15. R Kearney
14. T Bowe
13. BOD (thats BOD not God!)
12. L Fitzgerald
11. K Earls
10. J Sexton
9. T O'Leary
8. J Heaslip (all is forgiven Jamie!)
7. D Wallace (Last hurrah and no ready made replacement)
6. S Ferris (every team needs an enforcer)
5. D O'Callaghan
4. P O'Connell (but will he be fit?)
3. T Buckley (Time for Bull to go out to grass)
2. J Flannery
1. C Healy (Hopefully ate well over the summer)

Anyone buying or selling a ticket?!
JS

Why pray? Another angle...

2010-08-24T08:35:00.001-07:00

I am currently reading RT Kendall's amazing book 'Did you think to pray?', yes you guessed it - on prayer! I won't go into it but just want to leave you with one amazing thought that He starts the book with. So often books on prayer are written from the primary perspective of what WE the 'prayers' get out of prayer, all of which are valid points (peace, joy, wisdom etc.) However, the front-loading of this angle on prayer is often to the diminishment of Kendall's proposition regarding prayer and the heart of God. In this he makes the point through the Father-Child analogy of how children unconsciously 'spell' LOVE as quality T-I-M-E with their parents and suggests that God too (Father to those who have become His children) is no different in this regard, in that He too LOVES us, LOVES BEING 'with' us and LOVES spending T-I-M-E with us! This is not a 'need' it is a 'want', God is not insecure or 'needy' but is jealous for our love, not in a petty teenage kicks kind of way, but with the jealous love of a Father!
So here's a thought to leave you with. Try thinking of prayer not only from the perspective of what you get out of it and remember that God too longs to be with you, it is the earnest desire and longing of a loving and 'jealous' Father. Just by spending T-I-M-E 'being' with the All-sufficient God will bring Him so much delight... - surely another angle, even a motivation for prayer...
JS

Jayden rocks - Happy Birthday son!!

2010-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Jayden turns 6 Wed 18th August. We can hardly believe it! Born in Dublin back in 2004, he has been an absolute delight to us these few years since he entered the fray. Jayden is a lover of life. He loves life too much to waste time in bed beyond 6.30am most mornings. He likes sponge-bob, lego, playing with Abi his cousin, breakfast, peanut butter sandwiches, lasagne (his chosen birthday dinner), rough and tumble with Dad, golf, church, ridng his 'No Fear' bike, being bare-foot and Jesus! Jayden is vibrant, fun (he loves to laugh), intense and passionate. At times he needs reining in a bit and being our third child I am aware that the tendency can be to become more and more permissive and that we won't do him any favours if don't bring clear and strong boundaries when necessary.
A visiting prophetically gifted person recently spoke over Jayden that he would 'enjoy his youth' but that he would also rise and 'grow in leadership' into the future. We found the bit about 'loving his life' both funny and reassuring because that is him to a 'T'. The strength he has is there because its meant to be there, although like everyone who has something they are born with, he is learning how to live with it! We are incredibly proud of Jayden. I want to honour him today as his Dad and say that Jayden is the boy I always dreamed of after two amazing daughters. Jayden - you are a one in a billion, you were made to walk this earth with joy and yet to be a straight arrow. There is much ahead for you my son, God loves you, your family all adore you, you were made for this hour and I have a feeling that you are going to make the most of every minute! Happy Birthday 'sonny Jim'!! Your Dad and Mum and big sisiters are SO PROUD of you!! You rock...

Dad

'Accountability Fraud'?

2010-08-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

This term has gripped me as I prepare for some teaching and training that I will be conducting. The term has come out of a conviction that true accountability is less easy to come by these days, even amongst us believers! I am not talking about the fraud of financial dealings here, but rather the 'fraud of pretence' - that is that we are way LESS open to correction, listening to the advise of a friend, to personal transformation than we may care to admit. I have seen how easy it can be to hide behind slogans of accountability, to talk the right talk and project the right demeanour, but to lack the substance of true accountability. 'Who are you accountable to' is an easy point to make but a difficult question to answer for many! The answer clearly lies, I believe, in humility and also in deep friendships. Another factor is the skill, motive and attitude of 'friends' (ask Job!)

Humility is that attitude of heart that seeks not to elevate oneself at all costs and is open and willing to grow rather than to guard the priority of self-protectionism. Jesus was gentle and humble of heart. Deep friendships are those where two-way depth of communication and honesty can flow. They take time, effort, vulnerability and a sense of trust and safety. A true understanding and experience of sonship and freedom from a performance based personality mindset are surely key to unlocking the prison we make for ourselves in pretence and self-imposed isolationism. By comparing ourselves to others we end up competing, even sub-consciously, either intimidating or being intimidated. Christ came to set us free.

'Accountability fraud' then is living the lie that you are an accountable person when you are truly not. It is an image, a front, a manicured lawn, a picketed fence, that hides us away but creates the aura that we are truly open and willing to be more than an island and King of our own domain. This is not meant to be harsh but I hope it stirs the question, 'Am I truly accountable - firstly to God, and secondly, to people that are strategically positioned by God in my life'? Any comments?

Political Correctness and the Gospel

2010-08-04T03:51:00.000-07:00

I am at times astonished at the strength of the perceived need in our society for 'political correctness'. I am not speaking so much in a specific sense about politics, although the term betrays the deeper rationale behind such attitudes and actions. Here I am rather more about talking about spirituality and communicating the Christian Gospel in 2010.

Paul's first letter to the early Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians) begins with repeated exhortation by the apostle for them to rise above the 'cultural spirit level' of the well established ideological building blocks of that city at that time. Society measures out an 'inherent plumb line' to which we become so well accustomed, particularly when we have grown up there. Ideas are passed down from generation to generation, become institutionalised and enshrined as the norms and unwritten rules by which locals live in a 'civilised society'.

My contention, and indeed that of the Apostle Paul as seen in his writings, is that many faulty premises underpin such 'laws of reason' and leave us spiritually bankrupt. A vivid and descriptive term that Paul uses is to call them 'strongholds' of the mind, 'imaginations' that exalt themselves against the Knowledge of God, idols of thought and deed that become the 'norm' in a society where 'crowds lie' rather than lead in paths of greater enlightenment. As Tim Keller, a preacher and writer puts it,

‘When we are completely immersed in a society of people who consider a particular idolatrous attachment normal, it becomes almost impossible to discern it for what it is'

Paul's courage and forthrightness stands in stark contrast to much of my own political correctness, which, thank God, is changing. He is never rude but rebukes the Corinthian believers for being seduced by the Corinthian obsession with 'wisdom','speech and knowledge', oratory flamboyance and in general the applause and accolades of men. The cross, says Paul, must NOT BE EMPTIED OF ITS POWER, and should not be preached with 'eloquence alone' but with boldness and in a 'demonstration of the Spirit's power'. God was drawing the 'foolish' in the eyes of the Corinthians, taking the 'weak' and common man and shining His Gospel deep into their hearts. Although, the preaching of a simple but profound Gospel of Christ crucified as our Saviour was an apparent folly to the 'strong' it would only serve to 'shame' the 'wise' in the long term for running with the crowd.

It seems to me that Paul was afraid of the believers falling back under the spell of 'trying to BE and look like somebody 'important' and culturally palatable' and was exhorting them to follow the rhythm of a different drumbeat, the drum master of which - Christ, transcends the cultures, crowds, opinions, fashions, ideologies and political correctness of that, this or any age.

As for them, so for believers today in 2010, amidst the cities and cultures in which we find ourselves. To hell with political correctness, we should not be rude, but neither silent nor compromised.

When Wonder is less than full!

2010-07-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

‘May the ‘Wonder’ of God fill you today! When we let the ‘Wonder’ get leeched from the soil of our understanding we are left with the 'right' word and posture, ie. that ‘God is wonderful’, but lack the conviction to back it up! Too often I have felt a fraud when using superlatives about God without having waited long enough in ‘Sabbath rest’, abiding, drinking, in order to comprehend and commune with the One whose Glory and Grace puts the 'Wonder' back into my day. When I do, I notice the sparrow who has found a home, the lily of the field in splendrous array, my working takes on Wonderful-purpose and my life becomes liberated from mundanity and fatigue to Wonderless living.’
JS

'Dragons Den' God moment?

2010-07-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

OK so you are mildly but not wildly interested by the title, anything to get a few readers, no, I'm serious, I had a moment the other day watching the Dragons Den that I can only describe as a 'God moment'...
A young lady, aged 24, appeared before the snarling, fire-breathing dragons, all ready to devour another 'wanna-be' entrepreneur'ling! What bright idea had this one come up with?! What followed stunned me and reminded me so much about Father God's heart, stunning, absolutely stunning...
The young lady gave a humble 'pitch' seeking investment of £65,000 for 15% share of her enterprise. She had developed a healthy alternative to ice-cream, a dairy free frozen yoghurt type product that would also be accessible to many people seeking a healthy alternative. She had appraoched Tesco, the supermarket giant, and had been given great encouragement by orders promised to her. Her presentation was simple, her sincerity shone through. The Dragons seemed stunned. In a 'Susan Boyle' moment you could sense impending cynicism just melt away on a wave of admiration that manifested in awed silence and open-mouthed amazement. The questions came gently, somehow mirroring the momentum of admiration that instinctively they felt for this young lady, 'Had anyone helped her on the project?' 'Surely she had not done this all by herself, had she?' The humble retort was affirmative. She had worked two and a half jobs as a single Mother developing her business sideline in her 'spare time'...Three Dragons made her an 'offer' and she ended up leaving the Den with her 2 preferred Dragons and the dream deal in the back of her pocket. Stunning! They had looked beyond her frailties, her lack of experience, the fact that she was a young single mother, her lack of pedigree, and saw the awesome resonance of potential being pursued, the innocence of a young one who believed almost naively that the impossible COULD happen. Here was an underdog who was actually getting a break.
I felt emotional and shed some tears as this encounter unfolded. Its amazing how an event like this can produce such a depth of emotion in us. Where did the tears come from? I know instinctively this was a response that came forth as a result of experiencing something so much like our Father's Grace! Have your ever noticed how emotional you feel in a 'Susan Boyle' moment? How honour stirs something deep within you that you know instinctively is from a 'higher agency', something transcendant that raises its head above the mundanities and ordinaries of life.
I thank God today for a God who favours the underdog. A God who wants to bring dignity for shame. A God who sees the treasure buried deep within us and allows us pass through the furnaces of life to bring forth pure gold. A God of opportunity and second chances. Do you know Him?

Dream of a man hanging on a cross

2010-07-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

In a few weeks time I am looking forward to catching up with a good friend now back residing in his native homeland in Nepal. I will be visiting some friends and churches there and speaking at a Youth conference in Kathmandu.
Chandra was from a Brahmin background. Despite this status in the 1990s he was forced through economic circumstances to migrate to Northern India and seek employment. He ended up as a labourer breaking rocks, a laborious back-breaking task necessary in Indian labour intensive road construction. During this period Chandra had a recurring dream. In the dream , he saw something he had never seen before, what appeared to be a man hanging on a wooden structure - a cross. Chandra sought guidance from a Hindu guru through whose knowledge of spiritual matters he hoped he would get some kind of interpretation for the dream. The Sadhu's response was that this was the 'Christian god' and his advise was to journey to Mussoorie, a hill station in the Himalayas, known for its Christian presence, and to seek out advise and information there. Chandra did just that and continued his working as a labourer breaking rocks by the roadside. This is an amazing story of God's leading and Sovereign plan! What happened next is that Chandra met our dear friends there who gave him the answer he sought about the meaning of the man hanging on the cross fully and properly explained to him for what it means. Many people know about the cross Jesus hung on but not enough realise the full significance of it. Christ became a substitute, a penal sacrifice to atone for the sins of anyone who will believe in Him and receive Him as Saviour. He did for us what we cannot achieve by our own merit.
Chandra received this gift and became a new believer fully experiencing the new life and Grace in the Holy Spirit. He is now married with children and has preached this same Gospel to many others. He has now begun, raised up and handed over 2 vibrant churches, travels in support of similar pioneers as himself and is now back in his native Nepal doing the same again, pursuing the next chapter of his life, living simply, humbly but 'dangerously' for God. I look forward to seeing Chandra as he journeys on...
JS

No Franchising

2010-06-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

I don't want to be part of a movement or church that franchises God's Presence....

I would rather wait, preferring to invite fellow journeymen in life to partake of delacacies at the table of the One I have already dined with. This invitation though is not a marketing exercise, rather more about a tale of wonder. Less about what I have to say and more about the soft whisper that speaks loudly of a private and compelling affection.

From Journal, 25/6/10

The Will To Do God's Will

2010-06-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

"So Jesus answered them, 'My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority'" John 7v16-17

There is a simple reality in the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus as Christ and Saviour.

Unless the orientation of the heart of the person hearing the truth is OPEN to finding God's will, there is an inability and more importantly an UNWILLINGNESS to respond to Him. That is why Jesus deliberately spoke in Parables, the truth of which were hidden from the proud. No amount of pressure, force of personality or any other human means will work to break this down. Arguments, persuasions, apologetics, pleadings will all fall on 'deaf ears' until the heart opens, like Snowdrops in early Spring sunshine, to the necessity of God. So, saint of God, present God and His Gospel as reality and truth, then wait, wait for the Spirit to blow, wait for God to do what only HE can.....to turn a heart away from self-preoccupation toward a higher calling - the 'will to do God's will'.

The good news is that God HAS gone ahead of us, He IS turning the hearts of men toward Himself, He has appointed many for salvation, we cannot do it without Him, nor were we ever meant to. God has gone ahead of us!

Take His hand

2010-05-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

The commonly spoken mantra 'Seeing is believing' is understandable when the visible realm is the sole arbiter of a persons perception of life. Christ though, followed the theme headlined by Abraham centuries earlier, 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe' A life of trust is about learning to lean on the Person of God through the storms and routines, through plenty and lack, living beyond what our senses and sensibilties perceive, reaching out for the hand of the invisible God. As such, 'Believing is Seeing' brings us to true North, the Holy Spirit and God's Word the magnetic field, Father and Son cheering us on, along with a great cloud of witnesses who have finished their race..

So we say we believe, good stuff. Its worthwhile remembering though that even the demons believe in Christ, though they quake at His Presence and are driven out in His Name! 'Saving faith' is about understanding that we cannot save ourselves, indeed this instinct to self-determinate has been the barrier between us and God. Jesus' date with the cross paid and opened a way for the possibility of our reconciliation with God, it was costly beyond measure and will never need to be repeated, complete, offering a doorway into His Kingdom and a whole new way of living, but have you taken hold of that invisible hand?

'Inheriting faith' (faith for living, maturing, taking possession of promises God has made to His sons and daughers) continues the theme of 'Believing is Seeing' There are many warnings in the Bible about unbelief that comes from a 'sinful unbelieving heart' that lapses back into self-determination and has caused many people's hearts to grow cold. Inspite of their position at the Father's table, the 'old ways' prove troublesome to walking with and 'dining' with God in His Kingdom...

Here are a few suggestions prefaced by an important statement. 'To inherit all that is bequeathed to us as sons we need to align ourselves in a life that is compatible to our destiny'

* Thought life - a famous book told us we 'are what we eat', nothing could be more true of our brain food! God's Word has proved innumerable skeptics wrong and speaks truth into our minds and hearts. Jesus rebuked illogical thinking, cut across traditions and sacred cows, so that people could know the truth and the truth would set them FREE!

* Conversation - do we speak what God's Word teaches us? Its so easy to read something at 9am that brings LIFE and then by 9.30am be speaking and conversing to friends from a 'glass half-full' (or empty) position. What we confess with our mouths is important. It becomes a declaration of truth in the face of circumstances that is very powerful.

* Prayer - in communication with God, our prayers need to align with the revealed will and plan of God. His character and attributes are the foundation for His will and we receive fresh revelation and impartation as we spend time with God and experience, yes experience, His Presence. 'Give thanks to the Lord for His Love endures forever' was a song sung before and after battles we read of in the Old Testament. As a friend said to me recently, 'This is the anthem of a generation that take possession of their inheritance!' Powerful stuff, ponder and meditate on this and may it become a constant in your prayer life, not for mindless repetition but from a position of revelation of its awesome truth!

Is your lifestyle compatible with your destiny? Are you sowing into it? If Believing is Seeing, then 'Seeing' will involve us thinking, speaking, praying and living a life aligned increasingly with the Lord...take His hand today and watch what happens next!

Getting to the end of reason

2010-02-26T06:29:00.000-08:00

Abraham and Sarah both laughed at God's reaffirmation of His promise that in their old age they would bare a son and through Him blessing would come to the nations, fulfilled ultimately in the Messiah. The situation was absurd to them. Daft.

Nevertheless, God fulfilled His promise to them and Isaac was born to them at an age reserved for Great Grandparents! This for me, is one of the most powerful and encouraging accounts of God's covenantal nature in Scripture. Absurd it may seem but God we must remember is super-(above) natural!

Then the most unexpected and agonising part of the story unfolds in God's instruction to take Isaac, the child of promise, to the mountain (Moriah) and offer him as a sacrifice (he didn't know this at the time but this prefigures the atoning sacrifice of God as Father sending His only Son to the cross) How understated to read these accounts from a page! What agony of soul must have prefaced and been felt on this long walk?! Abraham's obedience, even in this extremity, was not required. God did not want this sacrifice, he loves children!

The thing that has been grabbing me this past week is this, can we just BELIEVE God - period? Is our belief based on probability factors, what happens when all seems lost - what left then to believe in? Nothing unless we are 'fully persuaded'. God wants His children to BELIEVE...
The Book of Hebrews sheds light on this further where it states,

"Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death". Hebrews 11v19

Abraham got to the place, beyond incredulity and laughter, where he really and truly BELIEVED in and trusted God. Romans tells us that he was 'fully persuaded' that God had the power to do what He had promised - however absurd! Less reasoning, more believing and resting and leaving God's work to God. This was a major shift, worth the pain.

Abraham's 'journey in faith' is an extreme one but he is the 'father of us all' in terms of faith. It seems that faith beyond reason is the foundation God desires to build on. Today, as you hear this word, may you realise that no matter what your situation looks like, however absurd or laughable, there is a place of rest and certainty beyond reason that is utterly reasonable.
Any comments??

Winter that doesn't want to leave?

2010-02-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

As I write snow is falling hard in the longest, most persistently cold winter I can remember. It got me thinking....If after pleading with God to take you out of a situation (like waiting for Spring?) is it possible that He wants you to be as you are - for now, to experience hope and peace in the midst of chill, and then to distribute it to all the others who can identify with you in the same situation? It doesn't mean its forever! Strength in weakness speaks volumes of an inner Grace, often louder than words. Ever spent time and effort in feverish intensity of effort to position yourself in the brightest possible position in life or any season (especially Winter!)? Could it be that as we try to place ourselves in strength God spends time repositioning us in weakness? Have we missed something? Is there a deeper agenda here than external comfort and internal control? Its only in the vulnerable place that we really need Him, that we truly learn to reach out for the anchor (hope) of ours souls and allow faith to grow from seed to harvest - no matter what the chill of our spiritual environment...Any comment?

Believing is Seeing

2010-02-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

Put yourself in old Abraham or Sarah's shoes....no heir as indicated and promised by God, bodies 'as good as dead' (love the descriptive language of the Bible!) and the fertility prospects of a eunuch!Three options were open to Ab and Sarah. One, believe God and wait. Two, wait as long as you can stick it and then make your own plan (sound familiar?). Three, just give up and settle for whatever 'the cards' are dealing you!!
Abraham and Sarah eventually arrived at non-negotiable believing via a journey in 'the flesh' making pragmatic haste through Hagar, the servant help to Sarah. To criticise this lapse in faith and patience would be harsh knowing our own frailties as we do, but interestingly God EXPECTS us to believe Him ('And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him' Hebrews 11v6)

The world that we live in abides by the mantra of 'Seeing is believing', this walk with Christ is such that His order is reversed to 'BELIEVING IS SEEING'!

Over some years of pioneer mission and ministry in the Indian-Sub Continent and Ireland, I have to say that I have found that the rational mind has little to do with my ability to stay on track through 'Faith and Patience' and avoid 'Hagarisms' and stay moderately sane!! (ask Ali for confirmation!!) So many circumstances we face(d) contradict the desired outcome and Promises of God's New Covenant in which we 'stand'. Hindu tradition, extreme poverty, idol worship, traditional, nominal and institutionalised 'christianity', materialism, apathy, hedonism, moralism, relativism, self-sufficiency, to name a few. Trying to 'manage outcomes' ( a la Hagar/Ishmael) in our own strength just does not work and leads to problems. God has initiated His love toward us in that while we remained in a 'lost' condition He died for us (on behalf of us) This is the Grace through which we 'enter' and by which we 'walk'. Will we dare to believe?

Having done all, God calls us to continue to stand and to really believe, to know that He is FOR His children and to defy logic and circumstances - which can have no solid basis for ongoing belief. The rational mind is at emnity with believing, trusting faith, the faith of a child who knows that Father God won't let His kids down!? Any comments??

Six Nations predictions

2010-02-04T08:03:00.000-08:00

Six Nations results this week-end

Shiels prediction

Scotland to beat France (sorry Seb and Elvina)
Ireland to make spagetti from the Italians
England to beat Wales (this will be tight)

Tournament Prediction:

1Ireland
2France
3England
4Scotland
5Wales
6Italy

Filling the National Stadium

2010-02-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

April 21st this year I turn 40 ;-) On that night I am delighted to announce that we will be fully involved in 'There is Hope' a city wide outreach to Dublin involving ourselves and the other Arise Dublin churches www.arisedublin.com

This night will feature Life stories (one of which is from my brother in law Dave), Multi-media, well known boxer Katie Taylor, and we hope some rockin' music that will blow a few stereotypes to smitherenes (is that how you spell it???) including Moya Brennan and perhaps Bluetree (God of this city). There will also be a speaker communicating Christ - the Hope for Ireland, that is Tony Stone, a 70 yr old man that we know will do the event justice. We as city leaders are teaming together in expectation of great things!

Not a bad way to spend my 40th I reckon!!! ;-)

Sanctified by Grace

2010-01-25T14:36:00.000-08:00

I love the part in the Bible where the 'heroes of the faith' messed up big-time, go on admit it coz you do too! I think Abraham is one of my big favs...the times when he lied about Sarah being his sister to save his own neck are dodge enough but how about the little tangent taken with a certain lady called Hagar, that one is a real howler!
I hope its not some sad sadistic part of me that enjoys Ab's failure here, truth is its just plain sanity to know that these guys are human! The panic button got pressed with Hagar, big-style. This highlights a theme in Scripture in relation to sanctification for believers in Christ that is exemplified by this slave woman. Hagar symbolises the path of self-determination, Sinai and the Law, trying to realise destiny in our own strength, the 'flesh' and slavery. This comes into focus in light of the contrasting Covenant God had cut with Abraham. It was a Covenant of Promise. Abraham's heir and all His descendants would be 'Children of Promise' and paradoxically as if to emphasise the point God gave them a problem, a very big problem - infertility, causing them to hope 'against all hope' over many years that somehow God could turn Sarah's wrinkly old body into the incubator for destiny.
It seems like the scale of this problem was orchestrated to make the statement loud and clear for Abraham and his descendants - 'Trying to work out your 'walk' before God and man and negotiate obstacles self-deterministically and in your own strength in the 'ordinary way' is fruitless in comparison to living as and living for 'the child of promise' - symbolised in Isaac. Abraham believed and by his belief he was justified (it was credited to him as righteousness) Believing God's outrageous claims is a very big deal to God. He is not vain, its just that any dad wants His kids to trust them. Not only that - 'The things that He has called us to are bigger than us'. Children of Promise work beyond the limits and finite capacity of 'self-determination'.
Our 'HAGARISMS' as I refer to them here, may satisfy panic or impatience, but ultimately they leave us in bondage to our own incapacities when God had intended to make a way for something so much better. All children of God enter His Kingdom by Grace through faith - by believing. Too many move on from here in a cocktailed lifestyle of law and grace. The lesson of Hagar is that the way of self-realisation, a man-centred Gospel, makes Christ of no advantage or value to us in living, even if we are His. Sarah, a free woman is 'the mother of us all' amd her son symbolises the path way to fruitfulness and Sanctification as a Christ-follower in our day - being born of the Spirit means growing up in the Spirit, trusting Him for what we can never manufacture in our own strength.
Hard times and impossible situations, of which I can recall many in my years in ministry, are there to help remind us that there is no other way than to believe the Promiser. This was the original design, nor should it be any other way.

Thoughts from a sermon 'Sanctified by Grace' preached in SCC 31/1/10