“Gentlemen, there are only two things on earth that will last forever—the Word of God and the souls of men. Give the rest of your life to these two things.” Dr. B. Gray Allison, past president of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.
These words were reported in a recent blog post I read. I agree with them. (To be gender-inclusive I would say the souls of people.) This is the essential nature of my own calling into ministry: a relational commitment to God, The Bible and People, and the place where they intersect. It's a complex place. Of course The Bible is the written word of God, and The Lord Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. So wherever the Bible is being read/heard then Jesus is especially present, inspiring the reader/hearer, just as he did when those words were being written, and transmitted to us through the centuries. The words lift off the page, and enter our hearts. Not just the words, but the very presence of God Himself.
So I am bold to say that if you need God, crave God, seek God, then read the Bible. Better still, read the Bible in the context of a worshiping community that honors Christ and the Bible. That could be a church, a Bible study group, a simple group of friends.
www.ChristTheWay.org
Friday, March 27, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
A poem from my Family: Andy
Andy
That grey day it was raining on the cobblestones of Oxford
We hugged and kissed my brother before he stepped on the bus
His long hair and blue corduroy jacket
and all his worldly goods in a duffle bag
Off to Spain and the rest of his life
We stood silently after the bus, and he, had left our sight
And our lives, knowing it would never be the same
That by any definition we were now three, plus one in Spain.
Dad suggested fish and chips for lunch and we tried to be
cheerful
As the mugs of steaming tea fogged the café window while
People outside were shopping, their lives having not taken
Any irrevocable turns today.
That summer came photos falling out of letters sent with
foreign stamps.
Of a sunlit
apartment, a beach, blue sea, a pretty girl.
Then the news we already knew – they had decided to marry
Mum cried and Dad tried hard not to.
And they decided to be happy for him.
And he wrote I could have his guitar if I wanted it.
Which I didn’t, because it was his stupid guitar.
And anyway, he was too dumb to know I’d already bought one.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Be Sanctified - Christ's Very Purpose.
John 17:19 ends with 4 words that describe Christ's desire for us, that we be 'be sanctified in truth'. Four little words. Four colossal words. The first two words are the topic for this blog post: be sanctified.
Sanctified: The Greek word here is 'hagiazo'. It is a perfect, passive verb-participle and plural, nominative and masculine, just so you know! Let's unpack what that means and why it is so dynamite:
This is a participle, form of verb, a doing word. The tense of this word is 'perfect'. "The basic thought of the perfect tense is that the progress of an action has been completed and the results of the action are continuing on, in full effect. In other words, the progress of the action has reached its culmination and the finished results are now in existence. Unlike the English perfect, which indicates a completed past action, the Greek perfect tense indicates the continuation and present state of a completed past action."
So my friend, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, Christ wants that you will have already been sanctified, that He wants this work to be complete in you, so that the full effects of your sanctification will reverberate on in full beauty throughout all of your life! If you have not been sanctified, or if your life is only partially sanctified (made holy) then this falls short of what Jesus wants for you. he wants for your sanctification to be complete...that is fully... and ongoing.
The passive voice of this verb-participle means that we are NOT the one doing the sanctifying, but rather that we are the one's receiving the sanctification. The sanctification is being done to us, or perhaps in us. Our work is to receive/accept the sanctification. Chris is the subject, we are the object. Christ is sanctifying us. To be more exact, this connects back to verse 17 in that Christ is asking The Father to sanctify us. That Christ declares he is consecrating Himself to this end makes it clear that God the Father is achieving our sanctification through Christ's consecration. Connecting this to the rest of John's gospel, it is clear that the cross and the empty tomb - Christ's death and resurrection - provide the necessary means and power for the Father to sanctify us through Christ. Wow.
It is a participle, which means it isn't the main verb, but accompanies the main verb. The main verb is 'be'. Jesus wants us to 'be'. It's about what we are, not what we do. How does Jesus want us to be? Well, he wants us to be sanctified. The 'sanctified' here is modifying the verb 'to be', acting as an adverb that describes the verb 'to be'. It answers the question 'how are we to be? (It is an instrumental adverbial participle, and adverbial participles are always nominative case.) The type of being Jesus wants for us is 'sanctified' Sanctification is what Jesus wants us to be. It's not our work, but our condition, our way of being, our mode of existence.
It's plural - Jesus wants this not just for one of his disciples, but for all of us. This is a universal desire for all those who follow Christ, love Him and belong to Him. Sanctification is not for the select few, the top-class Christians, but for each and every one of those who are following Jesus.
In summary, to 'be sanctified' is a beautiful way of being that Christ wishes for us, and that we receive from Christ. We can't get their ourselves, it is something that is done in us, from The Father, through Christ's work, in Christ's personhood. The work of sanctification is not the point really. The point is that the 'state of being' or ongoing condition that Christ wants for all of us is to continually be sanctified. That is Christ's desire, prayer and action. Christ's very purpose is that we be sanctifed.
Sanctified: The Greek word here is 'hagiazo'. It is a perfect, passive verb-participle and plural, nominative and masculine, just so you know! Let's unpack what that means and why it is so dynamite:
This is a participle, form of verb, a doing word. The tense of this word is 'perfect'. "The basic thought of the perfect tense is that the progress of an action has been completed and the results of the action are continuing on, in full effect. In other words, the progress of the action has reached its culmination and the finished results are now in existence. Unlike the English perfect, which indicates a completed past action, the Greek perfect tense indicates the continuation and present state of a completed past action."
So my friend, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, Christ wants that you will have already been sanctified, that He wants this work to be complete in you, so that the full effects of your sanctification will reverberate on in full beauty throughout all of your life! If you have not been sanctified, or if your life is only partially sanctified (made holy) then this falls short of what Jesus wants for you. he wants for your sanctification to be complete...that is fully... and ongoing.
The passive voice of this verb-participle means that we are NOT the one doing the sanctifying, but rather that we are the one's receiving the sanctification. The sanctification is being done to us, or perhaps in us. Our work is to receive/accept the sanctification. Chris is the subject, we are the object. Christ is sanctifying us. To be more exact, this connects back to verse 17 in that Christ is asking The Father to sanctify us. That Christ declares he is consecrating Himself to this end makes it clear that God the Father is achieving our sanctification through Christ's consecration. Connecting this to the rest of John's gospel, it is clear that the cross and the empty tomb - Christ's death and resurrection - provide the necessary means and power for the Father to sanctify us through Christ. Wow.
It is a participle, which means it isn't the main verb, but accompanies the main verb. The main verb is 'be'. Jesus wants us to 'be'. It's about what we are, not what we do. How does Jesus want us to be? Well, he wants us to be sanctified. The 'sanctified' here is modifying the verb 'to be', acting as an adverb that describes the verb 'to be'. It answers the question 'how are we to be? (It is an instrumental adverbial participle, and adverbial participles are always nominative case.) The type of being Jesus wants for us is 'sanctified' Sanctification is what Jesus wants us to be. It's not our work, but our condition, our way of being, our mode of existence.
It's plural - Jesus wants this not just for one of his disciples, but for all of us. This is a universal desire for all those who follow Christ, love Him and belong to Him. Sanctification is not for the select few, the top-class Christians, but for each and every one of those who are following Jesus.
In summary, to 'be sanctified' is a beautiful way of being that Christ wishes for us, and that we receive from Christ. We can't get their ourselves, it is something that is done in us, from The Father, through Christ's work, in Christ's personhood. The work of sanctification is not the point really. The point is that the 'state of being' or ongoing condition that Christ wants for all of us is to continually be sanctified. That is Christ's desire, prayer and action. Christ's very purpose is that we be sanctifed.
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