Posted by Gareth Matthews | Posted on 31-10-2005
Category : Bible
I was at a prayer meeting this week and the person leading this came out with a comment which blew me away just a little bit. The comment was nothing new, but was expressed in such a way as to make me marvel a little bit more at how amazing God works things out. The comment was simply that, “God took away the sins of the cosmos, by placing some cells into the womb of a virgin”.
Isn’t it just incredible how God uses the smallest possible way to do the hugest possible things? We see also in Genesis 2 where God made the first human being by taking a bit of dirt and breathing on it! You would think that the all powerful God would have started off His cherished human race in a more spectacular fashion wouldn’t you.
The truth is I love it – I love the way that God does things in ways that seem absolute madness to the so called intelligent ones among us. I love the way God says (in 1 Corinthians 1):
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised thingsââ?¬â?and the things that are notââ?¬â?to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
These verses are of great comfort to me – because they speak of a power that is part of the very core of who God is – and that power can be worked out in our lives through the simplest, most minute thing. In an age where every person, every business, every politician, every television programme is fighting to be the best, to be the biggest, I take heart in knowing that it is God who makes something great, it is God who makes things happen – and He could do any of those things with a bit of dirt that He picked up off the floor.
Posted by Gareth Matthews | Posted on 20-10-2005
Category : Bible
Ever think that a few miracles a day would make the people around us turn to God? Ever think that a few miracles every Sunday would put bums on seats in our churches?
I was reading Psalm 78 this morning and was reminded of how the great nation of Israel, led by Moses, still turned against God on numerous occasions even though God performed miracles every day by dropping Manna from heaven and putting fire in the sky at night. And they still decided that worshipping things like gold calves was a good plan.
Now this seems crazy to me – but reminds me that it is what Jesus has already done that turns lives around. A miracle or two may woo someone for a second, but the realisation of Jesus’ sacrifice will cause us to fall in love with the saviour of the world – and that change is everlasting.
But then, Jesus’ ministry was pretty much miracle-city. Everywhere He went He healed the sick and cast out demons. However I think there was one difference and that was that Jesus was performing the miracles to meet peoples needs – and through doing that was showing people what the heart of the Father was like. It is kinda challenging to me as it makes me realise that I probably desire to see miracles because I have not seen one in a while – when really I should be desiring to see miracles because they benefit the people around me. Maybe if I had that attitude of compassion that Jesus had I would see more miracles. Maybe I need to take the focus off of seeing miracles and look to have that compassion first and foremost – and then see what God does.
Posted by Gareth Matthews | Posted on 18-10-2005
Category : Cell / Sermon notes
A while back at cell group, we got round to discussing some well known characters in the bible. One character intrigued me a fair bit and I started reading through the first eleven chapters of 1 Kings to find out a little more. The character here is David’s son Solomon – who became king after David died. Solomon really impressed God by asking for wisdom rather than riches or long life and Solomon’s life and kingdom was blessed richly by God. However, Solomon had an interesting pastime which is alluded to in chapter 11: Women. The message puts it brilliantly as it opens chapter 11: King Solomon was obsessed with women. In fact, reading on, his obsession with women meant that he had over 1000 women at his beck and call and this eventually led him to worship their god’s instead of the true and living God of Israel.
There are other characters in the bible who are regarded as great and yet have some pretty serious blemishes on their record:
- David, Solomon’s father, was an adultery and was guilty of conspiracy to murder.
- Moses, who led the nation of Israel from captivity in Egypt was a murderer
- Paul, the new testament evangelist was a long-term persecutor of the new Christian church
I could go on…
So why did God choose to use such people in such mighty ways? How would we react to someone with a record like one of the people mentioned above came into our church? It’s a challenging thought – I myself can think of recent thoughts such as “they can’t be that good a Christian if they smoke and drink like that” or “God will never use them until they sort out that issue”. When I take stock of myself I start to understand that what I have infact done is inserted a mile wide plank of stainless steel into my eye it really starts to open my eyes to the way God’s heart works.
And it is the issue of heart that is important, I believe. Solomon’s heart was “Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil.”; David is described in the Word as “a man after God’s heart” and I feel that what God is teaching us here is that He is longing for people who hunger and thirst after His heart and long to live out His will for their lives, no matter what state their lives are currnently in.
Quite recently, I have started to become interested in the music of U2. I quite enjoy most of their music but more than that I have become interested in the writings of their songs and the background that has led them as a band to become what they are. Bono is quite a contraversial character – while he doesn’t openly publiscise his faith, it is pretty clear from his song writing that he has a rock solid belief in God and is a man who is hungering to do God’s will and see God move. Yet I have also heard a lot about “how Bono can’t be a Christian” because of his lifestyle, his choice of language and his enjoyment of cigars. It seems apparent that it doesn’t matter what you do, if you are not perfect in every way possible you cannot possibly be annointed by God to do it.
But that goes against everything we have just learnt from characters like Solomon and David! I really believe God can do things with any person whose heart yearns after God’s. Whilst I can understand the points of view that some people have about the sins in people’s lives – and I am not in anyway condoning the sin – but if God can look past it and work with it, why can’t we? Who are we to judge what is a sin that needs sorting out anyway?
Of course things like accountability have to also come into play here as well – it is so valuable to have people around us that can challenge us on the things going on in our lives. But isn’t it about time we put a bit more effort into living the life God wants us to lead rather than simply leading lives that ensure we are in better shape (in our eyes) than other people around us?
