David: Humility in Strength - extra questions

As well as the key question this week:

[IN] Am I making myself vulnerable to others?

we also asked what situations do we face. Are we in a red, yellow or green situation (very difficult, dodgy, or doing find):

• What ways/situations may you need to show gospel leadership?
• Do you need to respect people who are in positions, even if it seems they don't deserve it?
• Is your confidence in God … let Him work it through in His timing

David: Humility in Strength - 1 Sam 24 and 26

Both Saul and David were anointed to lead, but Saul goes off on one and wants to remove David as a threat. He hunts for his life. On two occasions David has the chance to kill Saul but deliberately does not do so - instead choosing to call on Saul for a change of heart.

[IN] Am I making myself vulnerable to others?

Found out in the end - Matthew 24:36 to 25:46 (second part)

God has made us human beings, not human doings! Yet who we are is seen through what we do. The same is true of God - we know of Him through what He does. Our faith is solid and certain by what Jesus has done: 'Jesus has died for me' - died is a verb, a 'doing' word!

Found out in the end - Matthew 24:36 to 25:46 (first part)

Rather than pull an individual story apart look at the bigger sweep. Jesus gives a long speech from Matthew 24 through to the end of 25. He talks about 'the end' when time as we know it is wrapped up.

Things pick up in v36 where he bids his followers to learn to live on the edge, expecting Jesus to return at any moment. All that follows then seems to make the same point: what will Jesus find you doing in the end?

[UP] Is our faith static (like a museum piece), or dynamic (seen in action)?

Poles Apart Luke 16:19 - 31 Part II

The continuation of the story begs for a warning to be sent. Of course Jesus is actually warning his hearers by telling this story. The deal is already spelled out in the Law and Prophets - which we spent the whole earlier part of the year getting to grips with. So if we haven't twigged it yet, will we ever?

But note the interesting twist: the request to send someone back from the dead - to allow God's bigger picture to somehow break into the present.

That's exactly what happens in the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

God's right way up becomes visible through Jesus, with the ultimate and powerful good news story. God's purpose for us is to live in that same resurrection power.

Now we are finite and limited, so we will struggle. Yet having glimpsed the good news we will be restless with the gospel, longing to see the power manifested and situations put right. That is what we work for, even amongst setbacks and frustrations.

Yet sadly even with the resurrection, some peope just can't seem to see it. I wonder if a symptom of not breathing is blindness: not able to see the plight of the poor, not able to see that a change of heart is called for.

Hence the key question this week:

[OUT] Restless with the gospel … or blind?

Poles Apart Luke 16:19 - 31 Part I

The Good News of Jesus has a way of turning things on their head. Just in the introduction to this story this is wonderfully demonstrated: normally we all know who the rich and famous are, whilst the poor remain as a faceless statistic. Yet for Jesus it is the rich man who is anonymous, and the poor man is named - Lazarus.

The Good News turns things upside-down, or should that be the right way up.

The fact is there are two serious indictments against  the rich man:

1. He obviously saw the plight of the poor, yet did nothing
2. Even after death he still assumed Lazarus was there to be his servant - his heart was still just as hard as ever.

The first is also an indictment on us in the West: we know our unfair trade and other practices hold others in poverty, we know our relentless carbon consumption converts to climate change which hurts the poorest the most, and we know there is more slavery than ever - with many snared into a hideous sex trade.

Yet generally the society and political will is not there to change it.

As Christians we must wrestle with this, striving to live differently to turn things the right way up, e.g. through Fair Trade, living more eco-responsibly, and campaigning wherever we can against people trafficking.

Six months ago this series got going with the following key question:

[IN] How might your sensitivity/awareness of the poor be related to God speaking into your own life?

It is kind of echoed in our more recent question 'Are you able to breathe God's goodness in and out?'

It's worth thinking to yourself how much has your attitude changed this year, or is it that you can't or won't let God speak into your life on these issues?

[OUT] Restless with the gospel … or blind?

Foolish Riches - Luke 12:13-21

We can all hold our breath, but of course we can't hold onto it for very long or we will die. To breathe properly we have to let the air out before we can take the next breath. People who live by faith for finances/possessions discover this principle: God often seems to let them get to rock bottom before the next phase of finance appears.

Jesus uses an interruption to lift the imagination of the crowd to Kingdom life. But note the problem with the rich farmer in the story is not that he was rich, or that he had a bumper harvest. In fact it wasn't even really that he upgraded his barns to properly store the bounty.

The problem was that the farmer wasn't breathing!

Verse 20 is interesting: 'your life will be demanded from you'. We know our lives are a gift from God, but are they also in some sense 'on loan' from God? Given for a purpose, they can receive God's goodness but also are to give it on to others. One day Jesus will call each of us to account for how we have used our lives.

To swim under water we have to hold our breath of course. Yet many of us seem to spend our whole lives 'holding our breath' when it comes to wealth and possessions, as if we were in some kind of toxic atmosphere, desperately trying to hold onto what we have got. We need to learn to breath! Surely as Christians we exist in the atmosphere of God's grace, able to receive God's abundant blessing, and so also able to pass it on freely to others.

Hence the key question this week:

[IN] Are you able to put God's abundance in you at His disposal?

Or to put it another way: Are you able to breathe God's goodness in and out?

This doesn't mean we can't be prudent with money or wealth, or we can't have savings or pension provision. But it does mean not allowing these to control our lives, instead having faith in God as our baseline principle and sitting light with all the rest.

Jesus didn't say it would be easy, but your life is a gift from God with a purpose. In His purposes you can discover the abundant riches of His Kingdom, and share them with those around you ... IF you learn to breathe!