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Reflection on Mark 6:14-29

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Scripture
The king deeply regretted what he had said; but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests he couldn’t refuse her.

Observation
Everyone is talking about Jesus and speculating about his true identity. Herod believes that Jesus is John the Baptist resurrected.

Some time before this, Herod had John the Baptist imprisoned because John had criticised Herod’s marriage to Herodias. Herodias’ daughter had danced before Herod’s dinner guests, and he had vowed to give her whatever she asked for. At her mother’s instigation, she asked for the head of John the Baptist.

Application
Speaking up for righteousness can still be punished severely in a world that is opposed to the gospel.

The current flash point for christians in the West is same sex “marriage”. Where christians in good conscience cannot comply with the demands of the dominant culture they are imprisoned, fined or forced out of their job or business.

When confronting a sinful society we need to be aware of our ultimate destiny. We are people who live and die for eternity and not just for this life.

Our words and actions always have to be measured by the requirements of our Lord and not by the approval of the world.

Prayer
Father please help em to stand firm in you, even when the cost is high. Amen.

Reflection on Ephesians 1:1-14

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Scripture
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

Observation
Before He made the world, God decided to adopt us into His family. He has poured out His grace upon us, purchasing our freedom with the blood of Christ.

Everything in the whole of creation will be brought under the authority of Christ. Because we are united with Christ we have an inheritance in Him.

God’s plan was to unite Jewish and Gentile believers together. As the sign that we belong to Him, He gave us the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our salvation.

Application
It is so easy to underestimate God’s grace or to limit it to salvation. The fact is that God has poured out , and continues to pour out, blessing after blessing into our lives.

We were chosen from before the world began to be a part of God’s family, and He gives us the Holy Spirit as a sign of our identity in Christ. This is a guarantee that we will receive our inheritance in Him.

The overflowing abundant grace of God never runs out.

Prayer
Help me to appreciate, Lord, how great is your love for me. Amen.

Reflection on 2 Samuel 6:1-19

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Scripture

Then the Lord’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.

Observation

David gathers his elite troops to bring back the Ark of God from Baalah of Judah (known also as Kiriath-Jearim). They put the Ark on a new cart to transport it.

As the Ark is going along, the oxen stumble and Uzzah outs out his hand to steady the Ark. Immediately he is struck dead.

David is angry at this and decides to leave the Ark right there. As a result, the people’s whose house the Ark stays in are greatly blessed by the favour of the Lord. David decides to resume his plan to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.

This time they do it properly as described in the Law of Moses. David dances and leaps before the Lord as the Ark moves onward.

Finally the Ark arrives in Jerusalem and is installed in a tent prepared for it.

Application

David’s love for the Lord was passionate and unrestrained. He danced before the Ark in a way that his wife Michal deemed to be undignified. But David didn’t care about her judgement as his heart was to praise God.

It was important for the Ark to be transported in God’s way. To do otherwise could be deadly.

When we come into God’s presence we need to do so with humility, awe and reverence as well as joy and passionate celebration. If we treat God with a measure of disdain or over-familiarity we may die- if not literally, then at least on the inside.

Prayer

Lord I love you, I worship you, I praise your name. Help me to retain an appropriate attitude of awe mixed in with the love. May I never take your mercy for granted. Amen.

Reflection on Mark 6:1-13

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Scripture
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Observation
Jesus returns to Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue. The amazement of the townspeople turns to resentment and anger. Consequently Jesus is not able to do many miracles there except to heal a few people.

Jesus then moves from village to village. He sends out the Twelve in pairs. They are not to take any extra clothes. When they go to a house they are to stay there until they leave that town.

The disciples go out and preach a gospel of repentance. They heal many sick people and drive out demons.

Application
Armed with only a partial understanding of the gospel, the disciples were effective in telling people about the kingdom. Although they were not yet filled with the Holy Spirit, they carried the authority and grace of Jesus to expel demons and heal the sick.

If they could do so much with so little, what can we do who know about the cross and resurrection, and who have been baptised in the Holy Spirit?

What is holding me back?

Prayer
Make me bold, Lord, in telling others about you and in healing the sick. I renounce all fear today in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Reflection on 2 Corinthians 12:1-20

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thorn-in-flesh

Scripture
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

Observation
Paul tells of an experience he had in which he was caught up to the third heaven (the place of the very presence of God). He heard there things that no human is allowed to tell.

He could boast about this experience, but he refuses to do so. He will not boast about such revelations because he doesn’t want credit that is not his to have.

The Lord allowed Paul to have a thorn in his flesh, a messenger from satan. He asked God to take it away, but the Lord said, “My grace is all you need.”

Paul will soon come to Corinth and he will not be a burden to them as some have accused. Rather he will spend himself for them.

Application
Our revelations, giftings and experiences of the Holy Spirit do not validate who we are as christians. What matters is our walk with Christ- how His grace is working in our daily lives.

Likewise a tormenting spirit or physical weakness is not necessarily a sign of spiritual inferiority. What matters is how we seek the Lord daily in adversity and in blessing.

Many signs and wonders were performed at Paul’s hands, but he refused to boast about them. Paul’s life was about love for people and faithfulness to Christ not about superior revelations.

Prayer
Lord please help me to serve you in all the things I do today. May your grace be seen in my actions and heard in my words. Amen.

Reflection on 2 Samuel 5:1-10

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Scripture

David became more and more powerful because the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies was with him.

Observation

The tribes of Israel come to David and anoint him as their king. He had already been king of Judah for seven and a half years and he would reign over the united kingdom for another 33 years.

David then goes to Jerusalem and captures it from the Jebusites. David makes the fortress his home and calls it the City of David.

David becomes more powerful because of the blessing of God.

Application

The blessing of God brings a particular favour to move forward in our work, relationships, finances, indeed every part of our life.

In many ways there was nothing our of the ordinary about David. His success was entirely due to God’s favour.

How do we experience God’s favour? For David, the key was an intimate relationship with the Lord. He was known as a worshipper who was passionate in his love for the Lord.

When we worship God with our whole heart and devote ourselves to a passionate, intimate relationship with Him, obeying Him in all things, then we know God’s favour.

Prayer

Lord help me to set you at the centre of all things so that I can walk in your favour. Amen.

Reflection on Mark 5:21-43

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Scripture
And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

Observation
Jairus, a leader of a local synagogue, comes to Jesus and asks Him to come and heal his dying daughter.

As Jesus goes with Jairus, the crowd pushes in around Him. A woman in the crowd who had suffered bleeding for over 12 years, comes and touches the hem of His robe. She thought to herself that just to touch the hem of His garment would be enough to heal her. The bleeding stops and she knows that she is healed.

Jesus turns around and asks who touched Him. Trembling in fear, the woman tells Him what she has done. He says, “Your faith has healed you.”

Meanwhile Jairus’ daughter has died. Jesus goes anyway, taking Peter, James and John with the child’s parents. He commands her to get up. Immediately she stands up and walks around.

Application
Faith in Jesus changes everything. For the nameless woman it brought healing, relief from physical weakness and an end to social and religious exclusion. For Jairus, faith restored his daughter, binging life from death.

Faith is reaching out to Jesus, knowing that if we can just touch the hem of His garment, things will change- salvation, healing, restoration, resurrection.

It’s in the darkest times when God seems distant that we need to reach out more urgently, trusting Him to bring His light.

Prayer
Help me Lord to trust you, to reach out to you and touch you. Bring light into my darkness. I trust you to do this. Amen.

Reflection on 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

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Scripture

But just as you excel at everything- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in you love for us- see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

Observation

Paul notes that the church in Corinth excels in many things and he now encourages them to excel in the grace of giving generously.

Christ put aside His riches to become poor so that though His poverty we can become rich. The Corinthians had been the first to give, now Paul encourages them to finish the work of generosity.

His desire is for equality. At this time the church in Macedonia needs help so that the Corinthians’ plenty can help them. But later the Macedonians’ plenty will be able to help the Corinthians in a time of need.

Application

The world encourages us to hold tightly to what we have because resources are scarce and there might not be enough to go around.

Christians are to share for precisely the same reason. This is not a communist approach where the state determines who gets what. Rather it is a spirit of generosity where those who have plenty share with those in need.

In practical terms, I have discovered that as long as we keep sharing what we have and keep money circulating, nobody ever notices that there isn’t enough to go around. Somehow God takes the little that we have and multiplies it in the process of generous giving.

Prayer

Lord, give me a generous heart so that I see all the things in my possession as opportunities to bless others. Amen.

Christology and Sexology

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From Ministry Matters:

REUNITING CHRISTOLOGY AND SEXOLOGY

June 23rd, 2015
 By Talbot Davis
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Don’t you hate it when your strongest disagreement is with your closest friends?

Here’s how that’s working in my life. In the same-sex relationship, intimacy and marriage debate that is currently dominating United Methodist news, I have a collection of colleagues with whom I am in substantial agreement on almost every theological issue.

That is, we hold to a high view of the authority of Scripture, an ongoing concern for the salvation of all people, a belief in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, and most essentially, a commitment to what is commonly called a “high Christology.”

By “high Christology” I mean an understanding that Jesus is not godly. He is God. He is not a great man. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is not one of many. He is the one and only. Along with my friends, I treasure the truths we read in John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:1-4 and Philippians 2:5-11. Every knee really will bow and every tongue really will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And yet a number of those same “high Christology” colleagues also embrace a new relational ethic in which same-sex marriages would ultimately be approved by and occur in United Methodist churches. With great passion and convincing articulation, they claim that you can at the same time affirm the historic creeds of the Christian faith and an evolving understanding of human sexuality. The list of these friends includes people likeSteve Harper, one of my seminary professors,Adam HamiltonandMichael Slaughter, Methodism’s highest profile voices, and the voices you hear among the new cadre of colleagues from theVia Media Methodistssite (an organization which, to be clear, has taken no official stand on changing the language in the Book Of Discipline.)

So I want to share a few lines with you on why I believe such a view is both intellectually and biblically untenable. In short, why a high Christology must be reunited with an ancient sexology. My points below will center primarily-though-not-exclusively on Paul’s texts, as he is the source of both the strongest language and the greatest disagreement in the same-sex marriage debate. 

Read the rest of the article here

Reflection on 2 Samuel 1:1-27

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Scripture
Oh how the mighty heroes have fallen! Stripped of their weapons, they lie dead.

Observation
After the death of Saul in a battle against the Philistines, David returns from his own victory over the Amalekites.

A man who escapes from captivity in Saul’s camp comes to David’s camp with the news of Saul’s death. He is an Amalekite who, as he tells the story, killed Saul who had requested him to put him out of his misery.

David and his men are devastated by the news. David has the Amalekite put to the sword for killing the Lord’s anointed man.

David then composes a song of lament for Saul and Jonathan.

Application
David had been on the run from Saul for years. He had been anointed by Samuel to be the king and was seen by the people as the natural successor to Saul.

It would have been entirely natural for David to delight in the news of Saul’s death.

Yet David mourns the man who had repeatedly tried to kill him. Despite their enmity, David recognises Saul as the Lord’s anointed one and is convinced that it is wrong to go against him.

There is a principle here about our attitudes to fallen leaders, or those with whom we have a disagreement. Regardless of their sins and failings, they are still the Lord’s anointed.

Too many christians derive pleasure from the faliings of leaders. Rather than rejoicing when people fall, we should mourn the fall of someone who was called by the Lord for a role of leadership.

This is not to suggest that pastors are above criticism, disciplinary action or even legal consequences for their actions. But when it happens we should mourn as David mourned.

Prayer
Father, too many pastors and leaders fall into sin and betray their calling. Help me Lord t mourn when this happens and not to cheer the downfall of another. Amen.