Ephesians 5:19-21: The Church-shaped Spirit Filled Life
How do you know your life is controlled by the Spirit? It is not by having visions and dreams, prophecies and tongues, or casting out demons, Judas could do all these and was not Spirit filled. Paul outlines for us in verses 18-21 what a Spirit filled life looks like. The imperative of being filled with the Spirit if obeyed results in us ‘addressing one another in psalms’, in us making melody to the Lord with our hearts, a pervasive atmosphere of thanksgiving arises, mutual submission and reverence. Test yourself to see if you are Spirit filled or walking...
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Luke 9:46-50: A Lack of Humility
Jesus Christ is the greatest example and the greatest teacher of humility in human history. And the disciples like ourselves are in constant need of teaching on the evil of pride and the value of humility. We are in a section that is focusing in on the immaturity of the disciples and Christ’s attention to their discipleship and development. Christ has just addressed them on the matter of their lack of faith, as well as their lack of understanding, He now turns to the area of their lack of humility. If you look up a definition of pride today,...
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Ephesians 4:1-6: The Unity of the Body
We have reached the half way point in the letter to the Ephesians and Paul does a typical thing that happens in most of his writings. In chapters 1-3 he laid out the doctrine of the church, now in 4-6 he lays out the proper practice flowing from these truths. This pattern is gospel shaped, it starts with what God has done, and then focuses on what we should do. In technical terms we say that the imperative is rooted in the indicative. Our doing is only possible because of God’s doing. Paul begins the exhortational part of the...
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Ephesians 3:7-13: Preaching the mystery of Christ
The Bible is full of little people being given big jobs. Imagine you were Abraham for a moment. God has given you a new name, it means father of nations, yet you have no children. God wants to bless the whole world through the offspring of a couple who cant have children. Or think of Moses, he used to be in favour with the Egyptian court until there was a warrant out for his arrest because he murdered someone. And now God wants to use this man who has been away from Egypt for 40 years to go as...
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Luke 7:1-10: The Faith of the Centurion
There is a lot of confusion around the idea of faith today. In our post-religious age faith is now a form of ungrounded optimism towards the future, a keep-your-chin-up sort of attitude that helps motivate you. Some see it as a self-development tool in a materialistic age. Since we have impoverished ourselves in an age of consumerism we need to have some spirituality, and any sort will do. Biblical faith is something different, Biblical faith is informed by the Bible, and it has an exclusive object—Christ. In the Scriptures we come across those who have no faith, those who...
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Habakkuk 3: A Song of Faith
Imagine yourself as the prophet, you know that one of the worst tragedies in human history is coming, a holocaust against your nation in which many will die and suffer terrible atrocities. What do you do? Most of us would pack our bags and run away. Instead Habakkuk writes a song to equip Israel for the coming trial. As a shepherd and teacher of the people, Habakkuk shows the righteous what their own response to God should be in the coming times. The relevance of a song is immense. Many truths that have impacted our lives have been those...
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Luke 3:15-22: The Baptism of Jesus
Many people have claimed to be or have been thought to the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. For example, ‘Krishna Venta (1911–1958), born Francis Herman Pencovic in San Francisco, founded the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love) Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California in the late 1940s. In 1948 he stated that he was Christ, the new messiah and claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to Earth from the extinct planet Neophrates. He died on 10 December 1958 after being suicide bombed by two disgruntled former followers who accused Venta of...
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