November Bible insights
25/11/2015 - Matthew 10:29-31
'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.… So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.'
'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.… So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.'
How much do you think you are worth? Pause a moment and think about that question. We often talk about our value – but what does that mean? Can you put a price on it? What makes us valuable? As a Graham Kendrick song puts it:
'Is a rich man worth more than a poor man?
A stranger worth less than a friend?
Is a baby worth more than an old man?
Your beginning worth more than your end?'
Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. The truth is that we just have value. We instinctively know that the new-born baby, even if it wasn’t wanted by its parents, has incredible value. We would be better simply accepting that this is how it is – we have value because we are human. That is how God set it all up. In the same way that we miss the point if we try and explain the beauty of a flower or dissect the nature of love - so with our value. And if we settle this then a lot of other things will become clear.
We do not have value because we are loved. The fact that we are loved demonstrates that someone has recognised our value. That is not the same as saying we deserve to be loved but it is saying that at the heart of that love is the recognition on God’s part of the value he gave us at creation. Our verse tells us that God cares for every single sparrow but Jesus went on to reassure his disciples that they needn’t be afraid because ‘you are worth more than many sparrows.’
I do not have value because of any external reasons – my background, my friends, family, or achievements. God gave us value at creation. By giving us his beloved Son he demonstrates our value beyond a shadow of a doubt. Nothing we can do can take that away – or add to it.
So, are we saying that we don’t need salvation and we just need to discover that we are good after all? Certainly not. Herein lies our sin. We were made good, we are still good, but we have made choices that are inconsistent with how good God made us. Paul says that we instinctively know that God’s ways are good – but we don’t walk in them (Romans 7:14-25). Is that because we are bad? Paul writes that ‘nothing good lives in me…’ but then qualifies it so there can be no confusion, ‘…that is, in my sinful nature’ (7:18). There we have it. Our sinful nature drags us down and we don’t make decisions that are consistent with who we are and what we desire to be and do. We have sinned because we have fallen short of God’s glory – and we, above all else in creation, are meant to show his glory (Romans 3:23). This is why we need saving. We need rescuing from our own sinful nature and to be set free to follow the ‘law of the Spirit of life’ (Romans 8:2).
It is important that we rightly apply Christian truth here. We can come dangerously close in the way we present the good news about Jesus to giving the impression that we are all rubbish. Even in our darkest moments, we are not rubbish. When we make our most awful choices, we are not rubbish. We are making choices that are inconsistent with who we are but now, through faith in Jesus, we have been set free from our old sinful nature. Now we can live in a way that demonstrates the value that God has always given us.
Those who have done the Step One course will remember that a child gains a sense of his worth through parental discipline because, when he misbehaves, the parent is sending the message that ‘you are better than this.’ We now have to self-discipline and remind ourselves that ‘I am better than this.’ I am better than the slump I am now going to indulge myself in because ‘I can’t get anything right.’ I am better than the angry argument that is nothing more than a guilty cover-up. I am better than allowing myself to sink into disillusionment and cynicism. I am better than all of this because that is the way God made me. I don’t need to self-harm or to punish myself. I am better than the fearful anxiety or arid negativity that focusses on what I can’t do rather than on what I can. When I am tempted to behave badly, it should jar with the sense of who I am. Letting someone else set my agenda or dictate how I respond should clash with my sense of value.
By God’s design and grace, I have value. Now I must live by it.
To explore these thoughts further listen to the Sunday talk 'Knowing your value' - 22/11/2015.
'Is a rich man worth more than a poor man?
A stranger worth less than a friend?
Is a baby worth more than an old man?
Your beginning worth more than your end?'
Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. The truth is that we just have value. We instinctively know that the new-born baby, even if it wasn’t wanted by its parents, has incredible value. We would be better simply accepting that this is how it is – we have value because we are human. That is how God set it all up. In the same way that we miss the point if we try and explain the beauty of a flower or dissect the nature of love - so with our value. And if we settle this then a lot of other things will become clear.
We do not have value because we are loved. The fact that we are loved demonstrates that someone has recognised our value. That is not the same as saying we deserve to be loved but it is saying that at the heart of that love is the recognition on God’s part of the value he gave us at creation. Our verse tells us that God cares for every single sparrow but Jesus went on to reassure his disciples that they needn’t be afraid because ‘you are worth more than many sparrows.’
I do not have value because of any external reasons – my background, my friends, family, or achievements. God gave us value at creation. By giving us his beloved Son he demonstrates our value beyond a shadow of a doubt. Nothing we can do can take that away – or add to it.
So, are we saying that we don’t need salvation and we just need to discover that we are good after all? Certainly not. Herein lies our sin. We were made good, we are still good, but we have made choices that are inconsistent with how good God made us. Paul says that we instinctively know that God’s ways are good – but we don’t walk in them (Romans 7:14-25). Is that because we are bad? Paul writes that ‘nothing good lives in me…’ but then qualifies it so there can be no confusion, ‘…that is, in my sinful nature’ (7:18). There we have it. Our sinful nature drags us down and we don’t make decisions that are consistent with who we are and what we desire to be and do. We have sinned because we have fallen short of God’s glory – and we, above all else in creation, are meant to show his glory (Romans 3:23). This is why we need saving. We need rescuing from our own sinful nature and to be set free to follow the ‘law of the Spirit of life’ (Romans 8:2).
It is important that we rightly apply Christian truth here. We can come dangerously close in the way we present the good news about Jesus to giving the impression that we are all rubbish. Even in our darkest moments, we are not rubbish. When we make our most awful choices, we are not rubbish. We are making choices that are inconsistent with who we are but now, through faith in Jesus, we have been set free from our old sinful nature. Now we can live in a way that demonstrates the value that God has always given us.
Those who have done the Step One course will remember that a child gains a sense of his worth through parental discipline because, when he misbehaves, the parent is sending the message that ‘you are better than this.’ We now have to self-discipline and remind ourselves that ‘I am better than this.’ I am better than the slump I am now going to indulge myself in because ‘I can’t get anything right.’ I am better than the angry argument that is nothing more than a guilty cover-up. I am better than allowing myself to sink into disillusionment and cynicism. I am better than all of this because that is the way God made me. I don’t need to self-harm or to punish myself. I am better than the fearful anxiety or arid negativity that focusses on what I can’t do rather than on what I can. When I am tempted to behave badly, it should jar with the sense of who I am. Letting someone else set my agenda or dictate how I respond should clash with my sense of value.
By God’s design and grace, I have value. Now I must live by it.
To explore these thoughts further listen to the Sunday talk 'Knowing your value' - 22/11/2015.
9/11/2015 - Philippians 2:14
'Do everything without grumbling or arguing'
'Do everything without grumbling or arguing'
One minute Joseph is getting on with life in his posh coat and the next he is in the bottom of a pit. Then he is trundling his way down into Egypt to be sold in a market place. Sold as a slave into Potiphar’s house he pushes through all his natural feelings and the Lord blesses him and gives him success in everything he did. He refused the advances of his master’s wife and acts in total wisdom towards her. She falsely accuses him of trying to seduce her and he ends up on the receiving end of Potiphar’s rage (‘he burned with anger’) - and Joseph was thrown into prison. How would you have felt? Phrases like ‘kick in the teeth’ might have come to mind. But what did he do? Got on with the job of organising the prison – and he succeeded in everything he did.
Joseph was that kind of person. A good man, or woman, simply refuses to lie down and give up - they push through. They don’t simply brush the difficulties aside in some superficial way; they still have their feelings and thoughts but they use those experiences to go deeper, to learn wisdom, to grow stronger.
I am going to quote JB Phillips translation of James 1:2-5 because it is the best commentary on this point. Read it slowly and carefully, absorbing each phrase:
‘When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence. And if, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God - who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty - and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him.’
‘Let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed.’ We instinctively say, ‘Get me out of here. Please don’t let the process go on.’ Can we really welcome the difficulties ‘as friends’? The problem is that if we ‘resent them as intruders’ we will grumble and argue. If we feel that this kind of thing shouldn’t happen to someone like me then we will huff and sigh at the difficulties of life as if someone somewhere is conspiring against us to make life as difficult as possible. We will try and elicit sympathy instead of seeing it as an opportunity for a spiritual and emotional workout.
Whoever decides to test our patience, child or adult, welcome them as a point of growth. Whatever tests us, from the silly little things in life like the printer breaking down or getting a flat tyre, don’t grumble, instead give thanks for the challenges of life that make you grow. Push through and gain maximum benefit from every situation.
If Joseph could do it against the odds that he faced, then we can do it in our everyday situations, because we walk with the same God that he trusted.
Tim explored similar thoughts in his talk on 8th November, 2015 - click here to listen to the talk.
Joseph was that kind of person. A good man, or woman, simply refuses to lie down and give up - they push through. They don’t simply brush the difficulties aside in some superficial way; they still have their feelings and thoughts but they use those experiences to go deeper, to learn wisdom, to grow stronger.
I am going to quote JB Phillips translation of James 1:2-5 because it is the best commentary on this point. Read it slowly and carefully, absorbing each phrase:
‘When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence. And if, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God - who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty - and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him.’
‘Let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed.’ We instinctively say, ‘Get me out of here. Please don’t let the process go on.’ Can we really welcome the difficulties ‘as friends’? The problem is that if we ‘resent them as intruders’ we will grumble and argue. If we feel that this kind of thing shouldn’t happen to someone like me then we will huff and sigh at the difficulties of life as if someone somewhere is conspiring against us to make life as difficult as possible. We will try and elicit sympathy instead of seeing it as an opportunity for a spiritual and emotional workout.
Whoever decides to test our patience, child or adult, welcome them as a point of growth. Whatever tests us, from the silly little things in life like the printer breaking down or getting a flat tyre, don’t grumble, instead give thanks for the challenges of life that make you grow. Push through and gain maximum benefit from every situation.
If Joseph could do it against the odds that he faced, then we can do it in our everyday situations, because we walk with the same God that he trusted.
Tim explored similar thoughts in his talk on 8th November, 2015 - click here to listen to the talk.
