The Trekkers Bible Blog

Today's Baptismal Service

2007-06-24T22:04:10+02:00

Today's service can be found here

Baptism of Nikki Gould and Christine Coakes. 24 June 2007. Mark 2:13-17. Includes Nikki and Christine's stories. Graeme talks about what Jesus offers us - and how accepting his offer will change and expand and enrich our lives.

Comments

And finally...

2007-06-23T07:54:03+02:00

Saturday's reading is Revelation Chapters 21 and 22

He said to me: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. - Revelation 21 vs 6 and 7

I shall ponder this today, and post some thoughts later. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Tim

Comments

He humbled himself

2007-06-22T07:08:09+02:00

Thursday's reading is Philippians 2 vs 5-11

We talk about 'being humbled'. It's not something that we usually have any control over. Infoplease gives the meaning of humble as "to lower in condition, importance, or dignity; abase."

But Jesus humbled Himself. He lowered His own condition, took Himself out of the continual presence of God the Father,and became a man. Not an important man, not a king or a priest, or a teacher; he became a normal workman.

But that was not the end of the humiliation. He was then humbled still further when He was handed over for arrest, when the crowds called for His death, when He was executed with common criminals.

He gave up all His glory and lay in a borrowed tomb, somewhere for the body to rot. It wouldn't take long in that hot climate, the owner of the tomb could bank on the process being completed long before he needed it back.

But that is not the way it worked out. Jesus did not rot in the tomb. He was not forgotten as a criminal, he was not left on this planet. God raised Him back up to His right hand. And it is this exalted Jesus that we worship, the Jesus that was not ashamed to die a criminal's death so that we might live with the Father in heaven forever.

Tim

Comments

Bringing all things together under Christ

2007-06-21T07:05:36+02:00

Thursday's reading is Ephesians Chapter 1

This is a truly wonderful passage! There's so much in it. God chose us before the world began (4). He gives us redemption by the blood of Christ (7), forgiveness of sins by God's grace (7 again!). Adoption in God's family (5), the gift of the Holy Spirit (14). Verses 3 to 14 in one way read like the index to a theology book. Themes are introduced and dismissed in two sentences, with a desperate hurry to get on to the next theme. And yet there is nothing list-like or indexy about the passage. It is full of the most amazing passion. This isn't a theological text, this is pure passion for Jesus shining through!

Paul goes on to tell the Ephesians about his prayers for them. He constantly gives thanks for them (16) - there's a challenge for us. How often do we simply give thanks for our fellow believes. He prays that the Holy Spirit might help them to know God better (17), and understand better the calling that they have (18).

Paul devotes the last 5 verses to the headship of Jesus. Christ was raised from the dead, and now sits at God's right hand (20) There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything or anyone more powerful than Jesus (21). He rules over everything (22) and He is the head of our church, which is called to be His body (22-23).

I doubt if there are another 23 consecutive passages in the bible that cover so much of our faith. If I were to be washed up on a desert island, and were to find one page of the bible washed up with me, my hope would be that it was this page.

Only three more days to go for our reading plan. Have people been finding this helpful? Would anyone like to carry on, maybe with choosing a book of the Bible to work through? If you have any thoughts, drop me an email.

Comments

We are all witnesses of the fact

2007-06-20T07:08:06+02:00

Wednesday's reading is Acts 2

Jesus had been risen from the dead, and the apostles had all seen Him. This was not some theoretical debate, they knew, they had seen it with their own eyes, and the Holy Spirit was moving amongst them, given them power to reach in to people's hearts.

Peter's words, backed up with the miracle of the Holy Spirit, convicts many listening of the truth of the gospel and their need to repent and be baptized. 3,000 people came to Christ that day. Were they all Baptized that day? I don't know. If they were, then it would have been a massive event that no-one could ignore.

Are verses 42-47 meant as a blue-print to how we should live our lives now? Some believe so, others say that they lived that way because they believed that Jesus would return within a few weeks. What do you think?

Tim

Comments

Children of God

2007-06-19T08:06:00+02:00

Today's reading is John 1 vs 1-18

Here we have detailed in a few verses exactly who Jesus is, and what the impact of Him coming to live with us is.

Jesus was with God the Father before the world was created, and was a involved in that creation process, and yet, when he came into the world He had created, that world did not recognize Him. But verse 12 goes on to say that anyone who does recognize Him, who receives Him in to their lives and believes in Him, will become a Child of God, born again, but this time of God.

We don't always like the term 'Born Again Christians', but that is all the New Testament has to offer, there is no other way of being a Christian. Jesus tells Nicodemus

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

In our society, being a "born again" Christian is usually taken to mean playing guitars, clapping in church and insisting on turning every conversation round to Jesus. But this is not the Bible's view of being Born Again. To be Born Again is to place Christ central in your life, to die to yourself and to live for him. It's got nothing to do with what songs you sing or the style of worship you enjoy.

Being born again is like having a heart transplant. You no longer live for yourself, but Christ lives in you. But the practical outworking of this can be a slow process, slowly becoming more like Jesus. How-ever, we do need to ensure that our progress, whether slow or fast, is in the right direction!

Tim

Comments

Who you are looking for?

2007-06-18T06:56:02+02:00

Monday's reading is John 20

"Who is it you are looking for?" That was Jesus' question to Mary Magdalene, and also the question that the gospel asks us today.

Mary knew exactly who she was looking for. She just was able to recognize Him when she saw Him. Why was that? Was it because Jesus, who she had seen dead with her own eyes, was the last person she expected to see. Was there some protocol that said women do not make eye contact with strangers, which kept her from looking and seeing. I don't know, but for a couple of seconds, Mary did not recognize her Lord, but when she did, she was filled with joy and rushed to tell the other followers.

And what about us? Who are we looking for? Oh, we know that the person we are looking for is Jesus. The key question is, are we looking for the Jesus that Mary and the disciples knew, or are we looking for some idea of Jesus that we have made for ourselves? Are we looking for a Jesus who will tell us to take no purse on the journey, or one who will tell us to play it safe. Are we looking for a Jesus who will over-turn the tables in the temple, or one who won't impact too much on what we choose to do. Are we looking for a Jesus who demands we give our lives to Him, or one who makes us feel good about ourselves on a Sunday morning?

Comments

Fathers' Day Service

2007-06-17T23:34:46+02:00

Today's sermon can be found here.

A Father's Legacy. Lynn Green (17 June 2007). 1 Kings 1:1-12. On Father's Day, Lynn examines David's advice to his son (and successor as king), Solomon. It is important to remember the advice we have been give, but it is more important to filter that advice through our knowledge of what God wants for us. Sometimes we are less than perfect in our fatherhood, we don't meet even our own expectations. But God loves us, understands us, and is with us - he understands us and is able and willing to help us bridge the gap between reality and our expectations. So we can have hope for the future.

Comments

The Last Supper

2007-06-17T07:07:10+02:00

Sunday's reading is Matthew 26 vs 17-29

These are some of the most familiar verses in the Bible, repeated weekly in churches around the planet, it is hard not to become over familiar with them.

Here the true purpose of Jesus' life and ministry become clear. Finally the disciples should have understood. Jesus' body would be broken, his blood shed for the forgiveness of sins, and the result would be that his followers would celebrate with Jesus in Heaven.

These words have a massive impact on our lives, on what will happen to us, and on how we should live our lives as a result. We should never grow comfortable with these words. This is where we have to be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can present you with a bible passage that you have literally read a thousand times, and present you with a new, deeper understanding of it.

Tim

Comments

Following Jesus

2007-06-16T07:38:46+02:00

Todays readings are Matthew 26 vs 36-38 and Matthew 27 vs 11-54

It is hard to believe that this is the same Jesus that the crowds were following in such great numbers that he had to get in a boat, or climb a hill so that everyone could hear. This is the same Jesus that the crowds had watched raising Lazarus from the tomb, and the same Jesus that they had thrown palm branches in front of on the road to Jerusalem.

Now it was clear that the powers that be had turned against Jesus, and so it was far safer to play follow-the-leader and turn against him themselves.

This is a very real choice for some people in the world today. In the last century it was a choice for the people of Russia and China, give up your faith because that is what the government decrees. Now in parts of the world it is dangerous to remain a Christian as Islamism, the radicalization of Islam, takes over the function of government.

We live in a time when it is very easy to follow Jesus. No one excludes us from school because we follow Jesus, health care is not denied us. My prayer is that if this situation changes, my faith may be firm and I will not deny Jesus - whatever the cost.

Tim

Comments

Wot - no Inn-Keeper?

2007-06-15T07:04:47+02:00

Karen: So what's this big news, then?
Daisy: [excited] We've been given our parts in the nativity play. And I'm the lobster.
Karen: The lobster?
Daisy: Yeah!
Karen: In the nativity play?
Daisy: [beaming] Yeah, *first* lobster.
Karen: There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?
Daisy: Duh.
Love Actually - 2003

Todays readings are Luke 2 vs 1-7 and Matthew 2 vs 1-12

When you read the Nativity account in the bible, it's amazing how short it is and how few details there are, compared with the rich tradition we have built up over the years. There must have been an inn-keeper, but while in our plays he may be like the Porter in Macbeth, in the Bible he is only implied. There were shepherds, but I doubt they brought a lamb with them.

I love the Nativity service, getting all the children dressed as shepherds and kings, or angels, but as teachers it's good to go back to the bible and remind ourselves of the original text.

After all, it's a dramatic enough story, an immaculate conception, a birth in a stable, angels appearing, wise men from the east and the slaughter of what Catholics refer to as the Holy Innocents Matthew 2 vs 16-18.

It was an amazing series of events, but it leads to a more staggering realization. God had come to live among us, to teach us and to eventually die for us, so that we could live with Him forever!

Tim

Comments

Then I prayed to the God of heaven

2007-06-14T00:27:27+02:00

Today's reading is Nehemiah 1-2

Nehemiah had something that he was passionate about - the state that Jerusalem was in - but there seemed nothing that he could do about it. But notice how he reacted when the king spoke to him. He couldn't have expected to put on a sad face and to have the king ask him what the matter was. Life doesn't work like that. But when the opportunity arises, Nehemiah is ready. First he prays, inviting God in to the situation, and then he uses his powers as a motivational speaker to convince the king to release him and grant him safe-conduct.

We catch up with Nehemiah again in Jerusalem. Here we learn that he knows how to wait for the right time, and he knows the importance of taking stock before acting. And again we see his ability to convince people to follow him. He tells them what needs to be done, and inspires them with the story of how he was allowed to travel there, and he wins their hearts.

Some times we can try to go it alone. We'll do it our way and without any help, and that way it will be done properly. Sometimes we're not even too keen of having God helping us. We can manage - thank you!

Sometimes we think we are better than that, and we seek to get God involved in our plans. But Nehemiah knows that this is also wrong. Chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 show us that he has studied God's word, and he wants to get involved in God's plan. That's the difference. Find out what God's doing and get involved!

Nehemiah knew that rebuilding Jerusalem was within God's will, he was pushing at an open door. And when God started moving in his life, Nehemiah had no trouble convincing others to get involved too.

Tim

Comments

The Branch of Jesse

2007-06-13T06:41:32+02:00

Wednesday's Bible Reading is Isaiah 11

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

What a beautiful picture of our Lord. As a team, this is who we are tasked with introducing our children to. How do we go about reflecting this wonderful person in our lives and in our teaching?

Verse 10 speaks of people rallying to Him, and in verse 15 we read that he makes the way easy for people to come to him. He dries up the seas and rivers that act as barriers to people.

We need to be aware of the barriers to children finding faith. We need to be praying for our children, that the barriers will be broken down, that the rivers will be dried up to allow them to cross. But most of all, we need to know that our wonderful Lord is able to do all this even without us!

Tim

Comments

A New Covenant

2007-06-12T07:13:48+02:00

Tuesday's reading is Jeremiah 31:31-34

This passage is about a liberating relationship, a freedom from living life by a rule book.

This got me thinking about the rules concerning addressing our Queen. I can't pretend to know an awful lot about it. From what I understand the first time you are brought in to her presence you call her You Majesty, and after that you say Ma'am. The only other thing I know is that you mustn't turn your back to her.

How different it must be for other members of the royal family. They are still, in theory, the Queen's subjects, but they enjoy are far more informal relationship with her.

The difference is that when we address the Queen, it is her office that we are addressing. When a close friend or relative addresses the Queen, it is the person that they address. They will still show respect, but it is the respect due a respected friend.

This is what God is seeking for us. God wants us to move from a situation where we study a rule-book in great detail, trying not to offend our Might Creator, to one where we live our lives to please our Heavenly Father, because we love Him, and because we love that He loves us. When we are in this sort of close relationship, we won't need rules. Not because 'anything goes', but because we will be living to please God anyway.

Tim

Comments

External Religion

2007-06-11T06:57:33+02:00

Monday's reading is Isaiah 1

Our religious practices and behaviour should be an outpouring of the love for God that is going on in our hearts, both as individuals and collectively. God doesn't mind if we try out a new prayer activity in church and it falls completely flat. He loves the fact that we tried, that we were looking for new ways to be close to him. How we spend our time and money should reflect the love we have for God, not just the love we have for ourselves (Because I'm worth it!).

What breaks God's heart is when people skillfully execute a church service, be it one with a written liturgy, or one where the liturgy is built on decades of people's expectations, but the worship and the prayers fail come close to touching our hearts.

God wants to set the agenda, and he wants to rule our lives 24x7, he's not looking for a time-share agreement. Verse 15 - 17 read:

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

We can't turn up to church on a Sunday, nominally engage with what is going on, and go home feeling a little more holy, only to forget all about it for the rest of the week. Neither can we spend £5 a week on Fairtrade tea and coffee and feel that we can tick the 'Seek Justice' box.

Worshiping God and advancing His kingdom on earth needs to be the primary focus of our lives. Lighting that spark for Jesus in the hearts of our children should be a primary focus on our activities. And when we decide how we spend our time and money, seeking God's will should be automatic. "Not just my tea and coffee Lord, but my whole bank account should glorify you!"

Comments

Sunday Morning's Sermon

2007-06-10T22:10:25+02:00

Today's sermon can be found here

Grieving Friendship. Graeme Fancourt (10 June 2007). 2 Samuel 1:17-27. Graeme uses David's lament for his dead friend Jonathan to help us understand how grief affects us and how we can find help.

Catherine and I have just listened to this, and it's really worth downloading.
Tim

Comments

DIY Religion

2007-06-09T23:32:37+02:00

Sunday's reading comes from 1 Kings 12.

Rehoboam takes the hot-headed advice of the young men, ignoring the more considered advice of the older men, and this results in a state of near-civil war. This is office politics on a massive scale!

So we end up with two camps, Rehoboam with the houses of Judah and Benjamin, and Jeroboam with everybody else. And on the face of it, Rehoboam is the bad guy, the one who takes bad advice. But he also happens to be the King in David line, so in a very real way, he had God on his side!

Jeroboam is worried that if the people were to go back to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices, they would go across to the other side and join Rehoboam's camp. So he comes up with a plan. Unfortunately that plan is to take him and the people who follow him completely outside of the will of God.

Jeroboam makes up a new religion! It's no longer required that you offer your sacrifices in Jerusalem, he's got a couple of golden calves that you can sacrifice to. And he invented a special holy day, a day he chose, nothing that God wanted!

We have so many new religions around us, made up by men, not instituted by God. Crystals that give you powers or ward off evil, books that appeared from nowhere written in sudo-Shakespearian English, special translations of the bible that will convince you that you can only go to heaven through knocking on so many doors a week.

We need to be certain of our faith if we are not to be misled, we need to be grounded in the Bible and in prayer. And more so if we are teachers, we need to be leading people in the truth, not in some false idea that we picked up from somewhere.

I remember a sermon I heard years ago. The preacher had come from a banking background. He explained that early on in his training he had had to spend hours studying genuine bank notes. The object was to help him spot forgeries. It was explained that it was pointless getting him to study forgeries, because no two forgers produce identical notes. But if he knew the real thing inside out, he would never fool for a forgery!

The analogy is clear, don't waste your time learning everything about this cult or that cult. Immerse yourself in the real thing (no - I'm not advocating using coca-cola in baptisms, that could be a whole new cult!). And when you have it straight in your own head, teach others to do the same! We need to be followers of the truth, not followers of a fake.

Comments

"Is born of David's line"

2007-06-09T07:59:35+02:00

Today we 're looking at 2 Samuel 7

There's nothing quite like mentioning the Christmas Narrative in June to lose you friends! But that is what came to mind as I read this passage. We sing those words every year, but here we have the promise to David that he would have a line - verse 16:

Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.

Incidently, today's passage has a parallel passage: 1 Chronicles 17.

What is the impact of what God is saying on David? He now has a sure promise that everything he is striving for now will have some permanent value. I don't think that David wouldn't have thought about God himself braking in to David's family line and establishing a King who would rule forever, but to be told that your line would continue to serve before God for ever was more than enough for David.

David's response is brilliant: vs 25-26

And now, LORD God, keep for ever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, so that your name will be great for ever. Then men will say, 'The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!' And the house of your servant David will be established before you.

David doesn't say 'Do this so that MY name will be great forever', even though this is very much in line with God's promise to him. David says 'Do this so that YOUR name will be great forever'.

David didn't know the end of the story, he didn't know that God himself would come to earth out of David's line, "a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord". God's blessing on David's line was even greater than David could imagine, and as David prayed, it was for the glory of God.

Comments

Be strong and very courageous.

2007-06-08T06:52:27+02:00

Today's reading is Joshua 1

There's a brilliant Powerpack song based on verse 9.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

I've been teaching Trekkers for coming up to three years now, but I still consider myself new to the role, and if I'm honest, I still get nervous before a Sunday morning session. I'll usually get up early on the Sunday morning and pace about, making sure I know what I want to cover, and I'll get down the church early to set up and just try to clear my head. I'm fine once I'm teaching, but the run up to a session is quite stressful, I'm outside of my comfort zone.

The Israelites could have been in a state of crisis. The leader that they had followed for forty years in the desert had died. The Bible even tells us that Joshua wasn't as good a Moses, not a great start to his career! Deuteronomy 34 tells us:

Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses.

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt— to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no-one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Joshua knew that he was no Moses, in the same way that when I started teaching I knew that I could not step in to Jone's shoes. I couldn't gain that rapport with the kids over night.

But Joshua knew that he wasn't called to be as great a Moses, Joshua knew that they had a great God, and so long as they followed their God, they would take possession of the land that God had promise to them.

So even when I am nervous about teaching on a Sunday, I need to remember that I don't need to be superman, because the Lord my God is with me wherever I go!

Tim

Comments

Putting God where God belongs

2007-06-06T21:25:36+02:00

Thursday's reading comes from Exodus 20 vs 1-17

We call them the 10 commandments, but I have to admit that it took me a couple of goes reading through the passage to find all ten!

The last 6 commandments are pretty much a list, but the first 4 are a little more interesting. It could have read:

1. Don't worship any other gods than Me.
2. Don't make idols.
3. Don't mis-use the name of the Lord.
4. Keep the Sabbath

That would have been easier to read, but I'm wondering it we are suppose to read verses 1 to 11 as a list of commandments. To me it is more a description of who God is, and what our response should be to who God is. God is so brilliant that you must not have any god but Him. You can't substitute Him with a block of wood, He is so Holy that even His name is to be respected. And He did such a brilliant job of making everything so perfectly that we should put aside a day a week to remember how great He is.

So to me, the essence of the first 4 commandments is: "Never forget who God is, and respond accordingly".

Yes, they are commandments, but they are commandments that if we were only to appreciate who God is, we would have no trouble in keeping!

Tim

PS - just a reminder, if you're following these reading, we are using the plan that you can find here

Comments

The right person for the job?

2007-06-05T22:11:00+02:00

Today's reading is Exodus 3

We've skipped a lot, even when it comes to the story of Moses. So when Moses says 'Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?', it doesn't sound too unreasonable.

But wait, Moses was uniquely placed for this task. He was the only Hebrew that had been brought up in the palace; when all the others were facing slaughter, he was enjoying the comforts of Pharaoh's daughter's home. He had been saved by God for a purpose, and now was the time for him to take his place on the world stage.

I'm not saying that it was easy for Moses, but he was the right man, and must have known that he has received special treatment.

Are there times when we know in our hearts that it's time to step forward? I had never seen myself teaching Trekkers, but when the time came, I knew it was the right thing to do, God's Spirit convicted me of it. And when I gave up the magazine editing so that Matt could take over, it was a burden off my shoulders. But again, at the right time, I knew that I was uniquely placed to pick it up again when Matt and Karen moved to Bracknell.

Sometimes you have to accept God's calling on your life. It might be a little thing, like editing a church magazine, it might be a massive thing, like selling your home and working over-seas. And it's fine to ask God to show you how He wants you to proceed. But if God's Spirit shows you that you have been called to a task, don't quiz God as to whether He's chosen the right person for the job!

Tim

PS Sorry this posting is a little early, I've got to be in work at 8:00 tomorrow , so I've no time before I leave the house.

Comments

The Promise

2007-06-05T06:30:56+02:00

Genesis 12 vs 1-7

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

In a society like Abraham's, to be without children was a disaster. It still is in many parts of the world. Who will care for you in your old age? Nomads don't expect social services to come round. Abram and Sarai did have their nephew, Lot, but a very least they would have been objects of pity. Abram was wealthy, but that wealth could be snatched away from you if you didn't have the strength to defend it, and God was calling them to move away from the people that would have been their friends, and in to the land of the Canaanites.

That God used this situation to make Abram and Sarai into a blessing is wonderful, amazing! It is not just that they were blessed, but that all the people on earth would be blessed through Abram and Sarai! But it is only when we get to Matthew 1 that we fully understand this blessing!

Tim

Comments

In the garden

2007-06-03T23:11:00+02:00

Genesis 3
Reading this passage, the following thoughts stike me:

Crafty Serpents (1) - this indicates me that we are dealing with myth and fable. This doesn't mean I dismiss the passage, but that I have to read it more carefully to pull out the message, to find out why it was written.
The woman is very clear on the boundaries, even if she is unclear on the consequences. - (2-3)
What would it be like to not know the difference between good and evil, I find it hard to think of this in a positive way (5)
Sinning look appealing! (6)
They acted together (7), but as soon as there was blame to apportion, the man tried to blame the woman (12). Is he blaming the woman "She gave me it" or God "You put her here"
Man knows the difference between good and evil (22) - but our own self interest stop us from acting upon this knowledge

What else can people draw out from this chapter?

Tim

Comments

Today's Service

2007-06-03T21:00:57+02:00

Just a note about today's service download.
You can download the mp3 here.

God's Love is Like... Clare Hooper and Graeme Fancourt. 2 June 2007. Graeme and Clare look at some fun ways to help us visualise what God's love is like.

I was away at my niece's Christening today, so I'm looking forward to listening to it while I do a little ironing.
Tim

Comments

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy

2007-06-03T08:01:51+02:00

Hi Trekkers

Today is the first day of our 21 days through the Bible.

Genesis 1 and 2

It's easy to read these two chapters as a science text book, to spot things in them that are obviously wrong from our modern-day perspective, and to dismiss them as out of date. But these chapters are not written as a text book, it is an ancient text written by an ancient people trying to understand our relationship with our creator, and it covers some amazing themes:

When God created us, He created us to rule and he blessed us. One of the first things that God does in the bible is to bless us! If we are created to rule the Earth, what sort of rulers are we called to be?
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Do we still see it as holy? What does that mean practically? Does that limit what we should or shouldn't do on a Sunday?
God didn't just place man the Garden of Eden as a holiday home, He placed man there to work and take care of if. How does that affected our attitude to work and to the environment? Sometimes our work is in conflict with the environment.
By the end of chapter 2 God has come up with marriage, the bible, the original authors of the passage, and God who is controlling the writing consider it important enough to be mentioned in the chapter 2 of the bible. Today people consider it so important that otherwise normal people spend ten or fifteen thousand on a single wedding day, but we often spend more time maintaining our cars than our marriages! What does this passage teach us about marriage?

Loads of questions today. I'll be interested to hear what people think. Any major themes I've missed? I'm sure there are, I can't do it all for you!

Speak to you all soon.

Tim

Comments

Trying not to be too comfortable

2007-06-02T08:30:21+02:00

Hi Trekkers Team
Tomorrow is the start of our 21 day bash through the bible. If anyone has lost the reading plan, I've posted it to http://www.lovewokingham.co.uk/bibleoverview.pdf

My Bible notes today take me to Psalm 119:49-56.

Reading this at first glance, I think "that's not me". There's loads of talk about suffering and being comforted in that suffering, and it makes me acutely aware that actually, as things stand at the moment, I'm in a pretty good place right now. But when I think about it deeper, is this in itself is the Holy Spirit working in me through God's Word? Maybe that is part of God's word for me today. "Tim - you are blessed, blessed beyond the imagination of over half the planet, accept this blessing, and remember it in the future, when times are harder".

And what about verse 53:

Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law.

Am I right in reading this as a command? Is God's word telling me to feel indignation? I know that there are times when I do. Leviticus 19:35 commands us to be honest in our transactions and Psalm 11:1 tells that that God detests unfair trading practices. So clearly it is not enough for me to sit back and thank God that I'm in a comfortable place right now. Today's reading tells me that, even while I am finding comfort in the Lord, I need to be indignant to the point of action over those who are denied even a tenth of the comfort I enjoy because of unfair and ungodly trading practices.

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A Faith As Precious As Ours

2007-06-01T07:04:15+02:00

Todays passage is considerably shorter than the chunks of Isaiah that my Bible notes have been getting me to read of the past few weeks. 2 Peter 1:1-2 reads:

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

It made me think, do we always treat our faith as a highly precious thing? It reminds me of The man who found treasure in a field. In this story the man sold everything he had to buy the field, and it says that he had real joy!

Do we always show 'Joy' to those around us that we have a precious faith? Or do we sometimes tone it down for the people around us, so that they don't think we're crazy? Does the image we project of going to church make people want to find out more, or does it make them glad they can stay at home and read the papers? If we are to show the children (and adults) the love of God, we need to understand how precious what we have is, and show that we understand it in the way we talk about our Christian life.

TBB

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False Religion and a very real God

2007-05-31T07:11:27+02:00

Morning all,
My notes today ask me to read Isaiah 65 and 66. There are loads of stark images in the passage, the wonderful imagery of living in Jerusalem in prosperity, and worshipping God forever in the new heaven and earth. But the section that caught my eye was:

Isaiah 66 vs 1-4
This is what the LORD says:
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being? declares the LORD. This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations; so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no-one answered, when I spoke, no-one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.

This is a warning for us all, that going through the actions is not enough. Think how it must have been received by the first readers.

"whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol."

These people are making what appears to be the correct response to God, everything looks fine, but their hearts are far from God. Why is God offended by their sacrifice, because it is superficial. They bring the right things in to the temple, but they have "chosen their own ways", no-one listened when God spoke.

God does not call us to go through the motions. He calls us into a living relationship. He calls us to listen to Him and to follow His ways. There is no room for false piety or going through the motions. God is looking for followers who will seek His voice daily and follow His leading.

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How much of my life belongs to Jesus?

2007-05-30T07:00:08+02:00

Today's notes ask me to read Isaiah 62-64. I admit that when I saw that, I felt my heart sink, surely that's not what Bible Notes are about? I mean, three chapters of Isaiah before I've even had a cup of tea?

There's a danger that we abuse the idea of covenant. Surely I have a covenant with the Bible Note writers? I read a few verses of scripture, they provide me with some mildly uplifting (and hopefully funny) notes, and we both feel that we've done a good job. I can feel good about myself, I've done my duty.

I know that I have approached Bible notes like this in the past, and I pray that I will never do so again. I read my three chapters of Isaiah, and there are some wonderful messages in there.

Isaiah 63 verse 1-6 is one of those passages of the Bible that makes your stand in awe. The vision of the Mighty Saviour with his robe soaked in the blood of the oppressors, and the fact that he was appalled that no-one was there to help.

For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come. I looked, but there was no-one to help, I was appalled that no-one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me. I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground.

I don't claim to fully understand this passage, but I do know that I don't want Jesus to be appalled by my lack of action or understanding. We are given one life, and have chosen to use that life in the service of Jesus. There is no room for superficial religion to comfort ourselves. Either we are in service or we are not!

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Isaiah 61 - Which Good News

2007-05-29T06:41:09+02:00

Todays Bible reading - Isaiah 61, and my Bible notes, talk about the Good News, but Philip Greenslade warns us that the Good News is not a blank cheque. We can not grab anything that we might like and call it good news. In his words, 'the Gospel that comes from Isaiah into the New Testament is already freighted with meaning and content.'

I wasn't too sure about the word 'freighted', but I guess it just means loaded, we can't 'load up' the gospel with false claims - a bigger house, a better car, a wife that will always love you, good health for all our lives. God doesn't promise us that! God promises to walk beside and comfort the broken hearted, not to wave a magic wand and make everything better again! But it does promise us that He will comfort those who mourne.

He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.

God will restore the dignity of the poor, the downtrodden, the widowed.

And that is good news indeed!

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