Organisers told the Manchester Evening News they felt like hypocrites but had been forced to use the generator because it would have been too expensive to get a solar panel made
That’s exactly what you are- no feeling like it at all!
The protestors actually admitted what they normally refuse to say:
Solar power is more expensive
Solar power (especially in northern England!) is unreliable and requires backup by traditional reliable means.
From The Manchester Evening News:
Climate change protesters admit using a diesel generator to power their stage
Organisers told the Manchester Evening News they felt like hypocrites but had been forced to use the generator because it would have been too expensive to get a solar panel made
A diesel-powered generator is being used to run the music stage at the Extinction Rebellion protests on Deansgate.
Organisers told the Manchester Evening News they felt “like hypocrites” but had been “forced” to use the generator because it would have been too expensive to get a solar panel made.
The protest – which has brought one of Manchester’s busiest shopping streets to a standstill to highlight the threat of climate change – is on its third day.
Graham Buss, 63, said: “We were desperate to get a solar panel specially made for the demonstrations but it would have cost us £8,000.
“That’s money we simply don’t have.
“Even if we’d been able to get a solar panel made, we would have still had to have had a diesel-powered generator as a back up.
“It’s something we really do regret having to use and we feel like hypocrites, but this is the point.
“We’re part of a system that has made it incredibly difficult to use solar panels for these sorts of events and we feel like we’ve been forced to have to use the diesel generator.
“Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives
birth to spiritual life.”
Observation
A Pharisee called Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night time.
Nicodemus says that he can see that Jesus’ miracles are a sign that
God is with Him. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born again
in order to see God’s kingdom.
Nicodemus can’t understand this phrase, so Jesus explains that we
must be born of the Holy Spirit to have spiritual life. Just as we
can’t see what drives the wind, we cannot see how the Spirit works.
As Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness, so too will
Jesus be lifted up to bring eternal life to people.
Application
We
can only enter into eternal life by being born again. People
can reproduce biological life, which is quite a miracle in itself.
But spiritual life, eternal life, can only come through the Holy
Spirit.
This means that we cannot force anybody into the Kingdom. It is
between them and the Holy Spirit. Clever selling techniques,
evangelism programs, incentives to attend church services, and the
like will bear no fruit unless a person is born of the Holy Spirit.
It also means that we cannot force our own way into the kingdom.
Whether by determination, good works, or by playing the role of the
good christian, we cannot prove ourselves worthy of eternal life.
Our spirits must be born of the Holy Spirit.
At the heart of salvation we must have a relationship with God
through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be born
again.
Prayer
Thank
you Father for the gift of eternal life. Thank you for causing me to
be born of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here is my commentary on Ephesians 1:10. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site.
Ephesians 1:10
… as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
The fulfilment of God’s plan is a unity of heaven and earth. In the previous verse we read of God’s will and God’s purpose. Now we read of God’s plan.
This world is not blindly evolving by chance and random mutation. The events of history are not meaningless. Our lives are not driven by fortune and misfortune.
God is behind all of these things. It does not matter whether you believe the world was made 6 thousand years ago or 6 billion years ago. It is God who made it and continues to shape it all for His purposes.
Political leaders may manipulate nations for their own aggrandisement, but they are on a leash that is held by the hand of the Lord.
If we feel that our personal life is out of control, we should remember that God is in control of all things.
He is working on a plan that began before time and involves a Kingdom of people who will worship God and serve Him to His glory.
It is not that we are like pawns pushed around on a chessboard. No, we have agency and will. We are accountable for what we do, but God weaves the will of countless millions of people into His plan.
This plan is a plan for the fullness of time. The word for time is kairos which means the appointed time. There is a time for planting and a time for reaping. These are appointed times.
Jesus was born at a kairos time and died at a kairos time
There is a time appointed by God for things to happen. The kairos times are the critical times, the moments of destiny.
And God has a time for the most appointed of all times, the fullness of kairos, the time of the end of this present age.
At that time the fulfilment, the climax, the end point of all of God’s plans will occur. This is the end point or destiny of everything, the whole purpose of the created order.
On that day (or time), all things will be united in Christ. The whole of creation will find its purpose in Christ.
This is a reversal of the Fall. When Adam and Eve sinned, one result was that creation became opposed, or at least resistant to people’s attempts to harmonise it. Until then Adam and Eve had a garden to tend, but after their sin everything was held back by thorns and thistles.
So on that day, all thing will again be united in Christ. The world will no longer threaten human beings.
As I write this the world is enthralled by a drama of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a cave. The oncoming monsoon rains threaten to make their rescue more difficult. In Japan at the same time there are floods which have killed many people and destroyed whole towns. In Australia we are enduring a long drought.
In each of these situations, the natural order Is opposed to human well being. Even as we pray for relief, nature resists.
But in the fullness of time, this will no longer happen. People and the whole of the created order will be under the reign of Christ,
This raises the issue of judgement. It is Christ who will rule the re-created order. We will be united “in Christ.” Jesus assured us that even the rocks and stones will praise Him.
What of those who refuse to be “in Christ”? What of those who, because of their broken desires, have no wish to be united with “all things” in Christ?
They will not and cannot be a part of the unity of all things in Christ. There will be a Judgement where the sheep are separated from the goats and the weeds from the wheat. Those who exclude themselves from Christ in this age will be excluded from Him in the age to come.
Paul mentions two realms in particular that will once again be united- the heavens and the earth. The implications of this are hard to imagine
The heavenly realm is the place where God and His angels dwell. People are created to dwell in both the physical or earthly realm and the heavenly realm. We are body and spirit.
Sin blinds us to the reality of heaven. We know that God is there, even that He is in us after our conversion. We can conceive of the reality of heaven, but we can only see it through a very dark and distorted lens.
On the other hand, we see, feel, smell, hear and taste very clearly the physical environment- so much so that it often feels that it is the only part that matters.
At the moment, we perceive the spiritual reality by faith which is the confident trust in God. At the fulfilment of God’s plan, in the fullness of kairos time, all things in heaven and earth will be reunited. At last we will see God face to face and we will see all the spiritual realities as clearly as we now see the physical reality.
What a day that will be!
Key points in this verse:
God has a plan and a purpose
All things will be united n Christ
This will happen in the fullness of God’s appointed time
But Jesus didn’t trust them because he knew human nature. No one
needed to tell him what human nature was really like.
Observation
Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. He sees the
merchants selling animals for the sacrifices and the money changers.
He makes a whip and chases the animals and the traders out of the
Temple.
The disciples remember the Scripture that says, “Passion for your
house consumes me.”
The leaders demand a sign that Jesus has done this under God’s
authority. He tells them if they pull down the temple, he will
rebuild it in three days. They don’t realise that he is talking
about His body.
Application
Many people were claiming to trust in Jesus, but He didn’t trust
them. He knew human nature.
People claim to be disicples of Jesus for all kinds of reasons.
Sometimes it is for social standing or to make business contacts.
Sometimes it is out of a religious spirit.
There
are many people who, to all outward appearances, are dedicated
christians. They believe the
gospel, and may even do many good works in the church. For some
reason the head knowledge of the facts of the gospel does not
translate to the heart. When pressure comes on, they don’t cope as
we might expect, because the outward behaviour has changed but their
heart has not changed.
When
Jesus comes in He changes our heart. Our life is changed for ever
from the inside out.
Nobody
can live the christian life out of their own strength. We need the
new heart and the new mind that only Jesus can give through the
indwelling Holy Spirit.
Prayer
Lord, I thank you for not just forgiving my sins but for giving me a
new heart. You are making every part of my life new. Thank you. Amen.
This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus
revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Observation
Jesus and His disciples are invited to a wedding celebration in Cana
in Galilee. The wine runs out, and Mary, Jesus’ mother, tells
Jesus. She then instructs the servants to do whatever He tells them
to do.
Jesus tells the servants to fill with water the jugs used for
ceremonial washing. They do this, and when the water is sampled it is
found to have been changed into wine, in fact the best wine.
This is the first sign in which Jesus showed His glory.
Application
In the first chapter, the story is about people testifying about
Jesus. Now the focus changes to be about signs and glory.
Jesus revealed His glory through changing water into wine. That is,
the miracle pointed to the fact that Jesus is God, not just a human
religious leader.
Wine is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, for the joy and peace that come
from the presence of the Spirit in us. Jesus is the one who gives the
Holy Spirit to His disciples.
The wine is literally new wine and is a sign of the new things that
God is doing in His kingdom.
Turning water into wine without the benefit of grapes is truly a
miracle, and shows that Jesus is the Lord over creation.
All of this takes place at a wedding, the symbol of God’s ongoing
love and commitment for His people.
Jesus is Lord of all creation. He is the giver of the Holy Spirit and
the bringer of God’s Kingdom.
The disciples believed in Him as a result of this sign. Perhaps they
previously accepted that Jesus is the Messiah, a human being anointed
by God for the restoration of Israel. But after this, they believed
in their hearts that Jesus really is God’s Son.
Prayer
Lord, you take the ordinary things of life and make them
extraordinary. May my life today be a sign of your glory. Amen.
Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will see heaven opened and
the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is
the stairway between heaven and earth.”
Observation
Philip goes and tells Nathanael that he has found the Messiah.
Nathanael is sceptical at first because nothing good comes from
Nazareth. But he goes with Philip anyway.
Jesus greets Nathanael with the words, “Here is a genuine son of
Israel.”
Nathanael is intrigued and asks Jesus how He knows about him. Jesus
replies, “I saw you under the fig tree when Philip found you.”
At this word of knowledge, Nathanael recognises that Jesus really is
the Son of God.
Application
This story illustrates a three step process for a person coming to
faith in Jesus:
1. Somebody brings a person to see Jesus,
2. There is a supernatural encounter
3.
The person recognises and confesses that Jesus is the Lord.
It is not enough for a person to come to a church service. They must
have a genuine encounter with the Lord.
Jesus goes on to reveal that He is the stairway to heaven. He enables
angels and people to ascend to heaven on Him.
This is clearly a reference to the encounter that Jacob had at Bethel
(“the house of God.”)
Jesus is the one who enables us to get to heaven. He is the one and
only way of salvation.
The way to heaven is not a religious observance or a belief system.
We can recite the Apostles’ Creed, learn the whole gospel of John
by heart, even fast for forty days. These are all good things, but
they will not, of themselves, get you to heaven.
The way to heaven is a person- Jesus Christ. When we put our trust in
Him, then we will be saved.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, through your death on the cross, you became the stairway
that joins heaven to earth. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Amen.
