Believe the Good News

Join the invisible peacekeepers

February 14, 2022 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

FEB. 14, 2022 — BY IAN GREIG

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There are two current stories in the UK media which share a concern about injustice.

There the stand-off between Ukraine’s defence and Russia’s threatened invasion; and the UK public inquiry into the post office Horizon scandal which prosecuted people on false evidence for 15 years.

One threatens large numbers of casualties and a rise in political tensions all over Europe and beyond. The other is a major public historic injustice which has affected thousands of people, including imprisonment for some, for whom serving the public by operating a post office counter was their small business.

What are the attitudes which are playing out these events?

What stands out in both situations is what we might call hubris.

Hubris is a mixture of pride and arrogance, of the corporate over-confidence which refuses to consider rights and wrongs.

In Ancient Greece the word was used of violence used to humiliate or degrade someone.

Continuing to prosecute people for fraud for 15 years, when the Horizon IT accounting system was known to be flawed, carries a sense of arrogant violence. Russia’s action to annexe Crimea and continuing challenges to Ukraine’s sovereignty, including military incursion, comes out of a desire to make Russia great again by bullying its neighbours.

As individuals we may be very disturbed by what is being reported, but how should we respond? What can any one person do? The good news is that we can.

We can’t calculate whether the prayer and attitude of one person can stop a Russian tank or overturn a legal conviction, but we do know that nothing is impossible for God.

In this life we will never see the impact of taking a spiritual stand (and we should not try to share God’s glory) but in the continuing life it may surprise us!

The thrust of Jesus’ teaching in the gospels and the instruction of the letters to churches is about responding in the opposite spirit to selfish arrogance, judgement and violent injustice. Here’s what that looks like:

Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honour. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offence. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up. 1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-7‬ ‭TPT

Those people who refuse to acknowledge God and act defiantly in opposing His ways, have taken on something far too big for them.

Humble Christians who know and worship God, expressing praise for His love, truth and justice, and simply seeking to reflect His light in Spirit-led lives, are more effective than any of us knows — especially when acting in the spiritual harmony of agreeing and praying together.

The good news is that, through God’s spirit working with my faith, I can make a difference.

And even greater good news is that together and worldwide as people of faith, we can bring about the difference that God wants — His kingdom order.

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God’s Gracious Guidance is a Given

September 12, 2021 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11 NIV

In the middle of a chapter which is all about cause and consequence, “if” leading to “then”, this verse stands out as a promise. A gracious promise, a ‘given’ without any requirement on our part.

And it is true — there are countless stories told about how, looking back, God’s providential guidance was working in someone’s life. They didn’t have any real and personal faith (it often comes later) and they don’t remember praying. Yet the signposts appeared for them.

There is much more guidance going on, than we ever give thanks for.

But it starts with the Lord. The whole premise of what is promised is that the Lord does the guiding and the refreshing. This is His hand in our lives, not fate or fortune, not chaos or chance. And as we recognise that He is both ‘for us’, and ‘there for us’, we pause our busy lives and turn to Him. And find Him.

The good news is that the Bible here is saying that God is constantly guiding us and enabling us to grow. And the even more good news that it implies, is that in the moment we praise Him for who He is and thank Him for being there for us, we can ask for more. We can be guided more certainly — because we are now seeking, and listening, and expecting, and discovering that there is a partnership.

It will not be long into this journey of discovery that we encounter Jesus. Who is He? God’s unique Son who took on the flesh and blood form of living like one of us but doing it perfectly and lovingly. We may explore the Bible and read that Jesus is the perfect representation of God — as He taught Himself, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father”.

Jesus holds out an offer to us, not just guidance in this confusing life with all its burdens and difficulties. He offers to take that weight away, saying that His burden — what He requires from us — is not a heavy religious framework but a relationship that is light and comfortable by comparison.

By believing and trusting Him, our sense of divine guidance becomes a new start into life with a spiritual dimension — a life that goes on and on and grows in depth of experience.

It starts by receiving the simple truth the Bible gives us: “The Lord will guide you always…”

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For reference:
Isaiah 58
John 14:9 and context
Matthew 11:27-29
Hebrews 1:3
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Be courageous

September 1, 2021 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

A silhouette evening view of Table Mountain, above Crickhowell, Mon., Wales

… Joshua told the commanders of his army, “Come and put your feet on [your enemies’] necks… Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged,” Joshua told his men. “Be strong and courageous, for the LORD is going to do this to all of your enemies.”
Joshua 10:24-26 NLT

The Lord’s word that came through Joshua was not about what they must DO, but how they were to BE. “Be strong and courageous…”.

Where preaching has been minimised, in traditions which give greater priority to sacramental practice than hearing God’s word, it has often been replaced with a brief homily. The homily generally takes the form of exhorting hearers to do better, whatever the gospel passage for the day is about. That’s more about man’s effort than God transformative grace.

Jesus enables us to be different. The sense of BEING new creations, learning to live in a new identity as disciples of Jesus helped by the new spirituality brought by the Holy Spirit, is foretold in the Gospels (and in the OT).

But how this new way of BEING is experienced, comes mainly from the Acts narrative and the letters to the churches written by Paul and others.

That’s why we need all the three perspectives: God’s overall purpose in the OT, Christ’s mission as set out in the four gospels, and the Holy Spirit’s enabling of that mission learned from the NT letters.

The OT points to Jesus’ coming, and the gospel accounts point to Pentecost, the life of the Spirit and Jesus’ return.

Joshua’s words were good news to his hearers: and for us, they form part of a harmony, like the bass line of the Good News ‘melody’ which we are part of, as those who have made a choice to say ‘no’ to the old independent life and belong to Jesus.

“Be strong and courageous” points to Jesus as the One in whom we get our strength and courage. So as Christians we are able to “be strong and courageous” by turning to Jesus as our Lord and relying on Him.

There is a longer version of this post Be courageous — Fresh Bread Today with a story of how this was done by the early believers, giving us a model we can follow.

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Belonging

August 30, 2021 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and He has identified us as His own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first instalment that guarantees everything He has promised us.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NLT

Becoming a Christian is a transition, to a new identity and a new life stretching on into eternity — and a new belonging, a new sense of ownership.

Paul described it as being Christ’s slave. That doesn’t sound appealing to our ears, but some bond servants were well treated and looked after.

A previous generation knew about being “in service” as a career option. To be such a servant in the grand residence of one of the aristocracy was as close as we get to that sense of ownership. This was the age of duty, and personal freedoms came second to serving the needs of the household. But to “belong” had its own security, together with the honour by association of being identified with a high-ranking family.

It was the age of duty in another way. Many people did a spell in one of the armed forces. This kind of service was respected. There was a discipline and the needs of the service came first — as is still the case for a posting in the Royal Navy, assigned to a ship for three years and at sea for nine months at a time. However, the uniform spoke of both the duty of belonging and the honour of belonging.

On making the decision to make Christ our Lord, we are given a uniform that identifies us as belonging to Him. That is part of our spiritual authority — the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation. Paul used the picture of a Roman legionary that was familiar to people of that time. The uniform cannot be seen with human eyes, but it is plain as a pikestaff in the connected spiritual realm. We have no rank and no title on earth, but we are championed by every angel in heaven and feared by every demon belonging to the devil’s dark realm.

Christians also recognise fellow Christians. There is a spiritual bond, a one-ness in Christ, that celebrates our belonging to Christ, never mind what stream or denomination or worship preference we hold at the time. Christian unity and fellowship flows across man-made party lines.

He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.

That seal of ownership cannot be described or pictured, but it is real in another way that every born-again Christian can recognise. This is the fellowship, the koinonia so valued in the early church and also the communion we celebrate in sharing bread and wine — belonging to each other because we belong to Christ.

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Tangled up in our opinions

March 29, 2021 by Ian Greig Leave a Comment

This is Part 2. See also Part 1 that leads into this.

He mocks proud mockers but shows favour to the humble and oppressed.
Proverbs 3:34 NIV

To have Christ enthroned in our lives means unseating the pride that sat there before. And pride is keen to display its splendour — through us expressing and insisting on our opinions.

What is your story about coming to know God personally? You may remember, as I do, the struggle that went on in trying to make a response to the Good News. I came up with every reason I didn’t need to be born again, from the hypocrisy evident in the church (fair reasoning ) to my ritual initiation and living in a country that espoused Christianity as its established religion (false reasoning).

The point is, the “I” in me — my ego — didn’t want to bend and defer. Until it did, and then I saw a whole lot I hadn’t been able to see before. Not quite a window into heaven, but certainly turning a light on in dark room and being able to see where things were.

We all start by being guided by ‘our science’ — led what we know. It’s a fair starting point, but not a good continuation. The Christian move should come easy because we get a lot of practice at it. We take an early decision that we have come to the end of what we know and what we think. Only then, and prayerfully, will real wisdom get the upper hand and change our perspective.

The Lord is gracious to the humble…
God’s grace and favour flow to the meek…
Proverbs 3:34 in The Passion Translation

God has grace and favour for those who are His. Divine Holy Spirit-inspired wisdom is part of that grace and favour. We can get God’s leading in a situation but it absolutely depends on us needing it. And we can’t make that case convincingly while we are still trying out what we think we know.

I knew a man who could not ask for directions. If he was lost, on a country crossroads where all the roads look the same, He would avoid passers by and try every way, then come back, before looking for a map.

That’s like us with God. We try every way, rather than ask Him, or see what Bible verse might pop up to be a map to us. It’s easier to just try what you know, but it’s quicker and better to be humble, and ask.

The essence of what keeps us from knowing God is independence, and He calls it sin. Once we realise we were MADE for relationship, and it’s a lie that it is restrictive and keeps us from satisfaction — we ask, and we receive.