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Luke 15

Outrageous love

Shakespeare, in the tragedy of Macbeth, captured the slippery slope of ambition. To gain the throne cost the death of one man. Macbeth murdered his King. Enter stage right a big serve of guilt, growing suspicion, deceptions developing into paranoia, tyranny and a growing list of further murders. Macbeth loses everything; his sanity, his wife, his kingdom  and finally his head.

“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” James 1:14-15

I know guilt. I know what it is to be lost and dead. I know what it feels like to be found and to breathe life. It is completely outrageous because I also know that I am unworthy of God’s love. That is what makes his love so confronting. It explains why the Pharisees were so disturbed by Christ’s love for sinners and tax collectors. They assumed God was pleased with their religious observances, traditions and good works. They felt entitled to their position before God and in society. They looked down on anyone who was not like them, as though their misfortune was their own fault.

Christ reveals God’s love as being given freely and lavishly to anyone who confesses their unworthiness. Even a son who could not have harmed or shamed his father more than the prodigal son. Perhaps you fear disappointing God. You feel bound to obey for fear of his judgment. DON’T. There is nothing you can do that will turn God away from you, or make him love you less if you confess your unworthiness to him and accept his free and outrageous love, in and through, the Lord Jesus Christ.   the Rev

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Luke 16

Money?

It is very easy for me to slip into thinking that money would be the greatest source of help to me. If I had more money then I would have a lot less stress. I would be able to afford a better car, to go on holidays, to pay my bills with enough left over to enjoy my hobbies. Before I was called into the ministry I had options to earn more, it was called over time or a second job. Work more and earn more.

But placing my hope in the security or the pleasure that money can buy is very illusive. I’ve found from experience that more money doesn’t mean less stress or more happiness. Money can buy things but life is not about things. Life is about God and people. Many Husbands and Fathers sacrifice time with their wife and kids in the pursuit of what money can provide and buy while missing out on what it cannot replace.

Christ warns me in Luke 16 not to follow the crowd, not to buy into the idea that money is the ultimate goal. Christ isn’t interested in how much or how little you possess but rather your attitude towards your possessions. Do you think of them as yours? Like a young child who doesn’t want to share his toy yelling out “No, it’s mine.”

The first step is to accept that all I have is entrusted to me by God. It is not mine. Not just my bank balance, not just what I possess but also my relationships; with Michele, my kids, church family and community. Secondly, Christ wants me to think in terms of using what he has entrusted me with for the benefit of others rather than myself. He wants me to be generous with all I have so that I can win friends for Christ. Only then will money lose it’s hold over me so that I will enjoy what money can’t buy.    the Rev

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Luke 14

Mission Impossible

I think that the Mission Impossible movies have been misnamed. They should be called ‘Mission Improbable’ or ‘Mission very unlikely.’ The audience knows that no matter how impossible the mission is supposed to be success is guaranteed because Tom Cruise never loses.

The hardest people to minister to are those who think they are ‘ok.’ The sick, the poor, the powerless, the confused, the disenfranchised all know their weakness and need. The religious leaders however think they are fine, they are right and Jesus must be wrong. They have worked hard to establish themselves religiously and socially amongst their own click. In Luke 14 we will see a growing resentment that will begin to boil over towards Jesus.

Christ’s Mission was to minister to those who didn’t believe they needed any help, to teach the wise, to give sight to those with twenty twenty vision, to heal the healthy and to grant forgiveness to those who were good according to their own standards. Though Christ spoke to the religious they weren’t listening.

I admire Christ for trying until they killed him. We find Jesus accepting an invitation to dinner only to be watched closely. One move, one word out of line and they were ready to pounce. But Jesus accepts this and runs straight through their trap, counter to their agenda and makes a concerted effort to engage them. They used his ministry to them against him when they put him on trial.

Luke 14 is both encouraging and confronting. First, Christ pursues those who are hard hearted. Second it makes me consider my own heart. I don’t want to be Christ’s mission impossible. the Rev

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Luke 13:18-35

Make sense of what you see

When I’m talking to an atheist it amuses me to think that we both totally agree about what we can see. We both see that we live on a planet called Earth, there are trees around us and we live in community with other people. Where we disagree is how we understand what we see. How I look at the world is very different to an atheist’s interpretation. I see a world created by Jesus Christ, they see a world brought about by chance. I see Christ at work in our history with a plan of redemption but they see the world governed by ‘survival of the fittest.’

I’m grateful that Jesus Christ came into human history to help me ‘look’ so that I can see him working in my life, in my family, in my church and my community. The culture that I live in teaches me to see and understand my life from the perspective that God doesn’t exist or that God is irrelevant. Christ came to teach us to look for him in such a way that we will begin to see him more quickly and more easily.

The Bible is God’s prescription glasses that enables us to see and understand the world we live in clearly and truthfully. But the Bible is not always easy to understand so Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to counsel us when we read his Bible. The Holy Spirit has also given teaching gifts to people in our church to help you and I understand the Bible and how you and I can live it in our everyday life.

Today I hope to share with you what Jesus teaches about his Kingdom so that you can see it and enter it yourself. I’ll also be encouraging you to get to know Christ in such a way that you will love him more deeply and want to share his love with others. Christ is the only one who can enable you to make sense of what you see. the Rev