Explanation!

Well, I’ve started my blog and I think a little explanation is in order. I am an elder of a church in Keighley, UK, and am in the habit each year of reading through the entire Bible in my daily devotions. I find that often the Spirit will draw my attention to some particular verse or thought. I follow this up sometimes immediately, and at other times I make a note to follow up later. Quite often I use these musings as a short devotional comment in our church weekly bulletin/newsletter. I have done this for many years, and it has been clear that on occasions they have been a blessing to some people.

It has now been suggested by a friend, also a fellow elder in our church, that I need to make my musings available to a wider constituency – so here I am!

I am not a theologian. Nor am I trying to come up with some new spiritual revelation which will make the church more effectual. And I most definitely am not trying to make a name for myself. I am simply sharing my God thoughts. Sometimes they will be in the nature of worship, at other times they may be prophetic and possibly provocative – in the first instance to myself. Occasionally, they may be aspects of revelation by the Spirit to me.

I hope that you enjoy sharing something of my musings with Father.

George Jarvis

28 November 2013



Christmas

We are well & truly in the run up to Christmas, and no doubt most of us are planning for it in one way or another. But how much thought do we give to the heart of Christmas. Yes, we all acknowledge that it is far more than what present we will buy for so-and-so, or where we will spend Christmas Day. But how about thinking about the significance of Christmas so far as God us concerned? 

For me the outstanding element of Christmas is the 'incarnate Christ'. This simply means the Christ who became fleshly man. This was prophesied by Isaiah (7:14), and affirmed at the time of his birth by the angel (Matt 1:23). Jesus was born! And he was born of a virgin! Jesus had to become a man - otherwise he could not have died for our sins. Jesus had to become a man otherwise he could never have been tempted in every way as we are. He had to fully identify with us to become an effectual sacrifice. Jesus was fully man, and yet he was without sin. Christmas should focus our thoughts upon this. If we can truly grasp this then we can understand more fully the depths of his agony in Gethsemane, when he cried out to God, and sweat great drops of blood. Then just think of how vulnerable he made himself. He had to pass through the birth channel as we all did. He had to be nursed, and have his nappy changed. He had to be taken away from the threat of death as a few days old infant. This incarnation was no picnic for the creator of the universe!

What a Saviour!  

God's Generous Love

God delivers generous love, he makes good on his word. (Psa 57:3). Does he speak and not do what he says? Does he promise and not come through? (Num 23:19)This week I read the above verses in The Message, and, as I often am, I was arrested by them. I read them in the same 'session' but they are from different parts of the Bible.

What struck me was the definition of "God's generous love". This is that he makes good on his word. This is also confirmed in the second verse - when God speaks, he means what he says. And the fulfilling of his promises is his "generous love". For this reason, if we want to enjoy his love, we are to be people of & in the word. There is no substitute for knowing & taking hold of his promises, and for spending time walking in his word, even basking in it. No amount of listening to preachers will replace that. And in that basking, we abide in his generous love.

The ultimate expression of his word & promise is Jesus himself. He is the living word, and in him all the promises of God have God's YES! attached to them. And surely it is in Jesus we find God's generous love incarnate! 

Common Ground

It was said of Paul the apostle that he "turned the world upside down". What was his secret? Yes, I know, he functioned under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit works with us as we work with him.

 I believe that in 1Cor 9 Paul gives us an important strategy for sharing the gospel and its blessings. And I think this strategy would be effective for each of us - not just in the sharing the gospel with the unsaved but also in sharing the blessings of the gospel with other Christians.

As translated in the NLT, Paul said "I try to find common ground with everyone". He approached the Jew as a Jew, the gentile as a gentile, the weak person as a weak person. To each one, he became as they were. He looked for the common ground. This didn't compromise his gospel but the common ground was the bridge to reach the person. The classic case of this was when he went into Athens & saw all the various altars to the different gods. I know some Christians, and it probably includes the George Jarvis of years ago, who would take great pleasure in preaching against the idolatry. But Paul met them on common ground. He shared the gospel of Jesus from one of their own altars.

Common ground can often be an interest that someone has! Am I willing to learn a bit about cricket to reach my neighbour who is an ardent cricket fan?

Then what about others in the church? Do we expect them to find common ground with us? How about looking for the common ground we may have with that person in the church to whom we have never spoken? 

What is Love?

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1Jn 3:16)

When I put stuff on this blog, it is not because I have made it. Rather, it is because in my regular readings Holy Spirit has arrested me with the particular scripture being referred to. Such, most definitely, is the case on this occasion. We hear much about love - probably even more than we have ever heard before. And we hear much about what love is. But I don't often hear much about 1Jn 3:16 quoted above.

"By this we know love", and it doesn't recommend a particular conference or line of study. I only wish it did. It tells me love is delineated by death. A couple of verses later it says that love is not in words. True love has the strength of death, as Song of Solomon 8:6 says.

Well, of course, it doesn't really mean that! Well, that is what it says! And that is what it meant for Jesus! As I am writing this, Holy Spirit is bringing so much to mind concerning true love & death.

But such is God's sacrificial love that he doesn't demand the same by way of reciprocation. Note that in the verse above God says your response to my death/love for you is to express death/love for your brothers. And let me say, the Spirit has just reminded me that death/love is an act of will - "nevertheless not my will but yours" said the Lord (Mt 26:39).

This stuff is so radical, that we quickly dismiss it from our minds! But I somehow feel that a church of this kind of love will shake the foundations of Britain to their core.