Month: October 2015

Reflection on Hebrews 5:1-10

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Scripture
Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Observation
Jesus is our great High Priest. Every high priest is chosen from men to stand between people and God. The high priest offers sacrifices for sins and also deals gently with sinners because he understands their weakness.

A high priest is called by God, not appointed by self through pride and ambition.

Jesus was appointed by God to be our High Priest. He offered up prayers and petitions on our behalf, and became our perfect sacrifice to give eternal salvation to all who trust in Him.

Application
Jesus is our great High Priest. He is the one to whom every high priest in the history of Israel pointed.

Jesus makes intercession for us, forever pleading His own blood as the means of our forgiveness.

Jesus is both the High Priest who brings gifts to God, and the sacrifice that is offered to Him.

Now no other sacrifice is needed because Jesus has paid for every sin of every sinner.

Prayer
What a wonderful High Priest you are Lord Jesus. Please help me to walk in obedience and fellowship with you. Amen.

Reflection on Isaiah 53

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Who is this man Jesus
Son of Man
Son of God?
Who is this servant
Who bears the sins of the world
Who binds the wounds of all?

—

You were beaten and killed for me
Crushed under a load of sin
Broken on a cross and buried
Raised to life again.

—

You are my Lord, Jesus
Son of God
Son of Man.

Reflection on Mark 10:17-31

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Scripture
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Observation
A rich man comes to Jesus to ask Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him he must sell all he owns to give to the poor and then come and follow Jesus.

The man goes away grieving because he has many possessions. Jesus tells the disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.

Jesus tells them that anyone who leaves all he has to follow Him will receive much more- including persecution- and will obtain eternal life.

Application
Following Jesus means a daily choice between God’s kingdom and our own kingdom. We have a plethora of idols, but for most of us the greatest of these is what we own.

Our possessions, including money, give us security, identity and status. Jesus requires us to find these things in Him alone.

Faith means that I choose to find myself in Christ not in the things that I see, own and control.

For many people that is a choice that is too hard.

Prayer
Thank you Lord Jesus that in you I have everything that is important. Help me to stand firm against the false promises made by material possessions. Amen.

Reflection on Hebrews 4:12-16

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Scripture
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Observation
The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces deeply into our spirit. The word judges our thoughts and intentions so that no one can hide from God.

We have a great high priest who is just like us, tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Because of Him, Jesus the Son of God, we may boldly approach the throne of grace to find mercy, grace and help.

Application
God’s word brings both judgement and grace. The word reads us as much as we read it, and It sinks in deeply to reveal the true state of our soul.

But Christ who is both the living word and the great high priest, provides both grace and mercy, so that our sins, even the ones we hide most carefully, can be brought out and forgiven.

Jesus doesn’t just provide forgiveness for sin, He empowers us to stand form in Him and to resists sin’s claim on our life.

Prayer
Thank you Lord for the grace and mercy I find at your throne. Amen.

Global poverty almost history!

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Great news about global poverty from the World Bank and IPA: (And it’s good news about market forces, development and economic freedom not protest marches!)

Global poverty now down to single digits

by on October 7, 2015 in Economic freedom

One of the most important of human achievements has been the very significant reduction in extreme poverty experienced by men, women, and children throughout the world.

And in what is sure to be good news, the World Bank has just released a study informing us that one billion people rose out of extreme poverty since 2000, and that in spite of the global financial crisis a few years ago.

The same study reveals the heartening news that the global poverty rate, calculated as the number of people earning $1.90 or less (on an purchasing power parity international dollar basis), is estimated to have fallen into single digits this year.

In 1990, the global poverty rate was a sobering 37.1 per cent but has precipitously fallen since. This is what the World Bank had to say about this amazing achievement, in a press statement:

The number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10 percent of the global population in 2015… giving fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic goal of ending poverty by 2030.

Full article here

Reflection on Job 23:1-17

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My God, my God

Why have you forsaken me?

Like Job sitting in the dirt

Scraping his skin

Seeking relief

From pain within

I look everywhere

You are gone

—

My friends say

“You have sinned”

My theology of suffering

Looks very thin

I know you’re here God

I will not let you go

This is a test, and tests end

I will see your face again

Sarah Bessey: Go ahead, wave your flag

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I just love Sarah Bessey’s writing about the special weirdness of christians.

Go ahead, wave your flag

On the weekend, I did one of the most Vineyard-y things I’ve ever done in my life: I took two of my tinies to a worship flagging workshop. Like, it was a class about great big coloured flags and how to wave them well during church as part of the worship service.

So we have flags. We wave flags.

I know.

It’s weird to outsiders, and I get that. But I guess I can admit now that most of what we do as Christians is a bit weird to outsiders and so just roll in the weird altogether.

I’m not a flagger myself but I have an unreasonable love for people who wave the flags. I’ve reached the point in my story when I want all the crazy. All of it. I want the sloppy prayers and the hope and the flags and the unreasonable and embarrassing expectations for the voice of God to break through my life and the unprofessional dancers and the praying in tongues and the Eucharist and the Book of Common prayer being read aloud like it’s slam poetry in an old warehouse. I want anointing oil in my purse and ashes on my forehead.

Part of my own story is that I went for a big wander outside of my my mother Church, encountering different and new and ancient ways of experiencing and knowing and being changed by our big and generous God as if I were encountering occasional cups of water while in the desert, drinking each one down as if they were sustaining me for the next leg of the journey. But at the end of the story – or at least at the point of the story where I am right now, who can say if this is the end? – I came home.I came home to the school gyms and the folding chairs, the humble people of God also thirsty for the inbreaking of the Holy Spirit, imperfect and sometimes disappointing and unabashedly sincere and utterly beloved to me. 

Read the rest of the article here