The Portable Seminary

“The Portable Seminary”, edited by David Horton, is a big book (784 pages): “The Breadth of a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies – complete in one volume”!  If you want to learn a lot more about the Christian Faith without going to a Bible College, this is a book worth getting!

Chapter 3, Verse 16 – The Saviour, the Scriptures, the Spirit

Here are some thoughts from three “3:16” verses – from John, 2 Timothy and Colossians. The first emphasizes the Saviour. The ministry is not about us. We’re only servants. It’s about Jesus. He is the Saviour. The second emphasizes the Scriptures. The ministry is not about what  “the minister” says to the people. It’s about what God says to all of us. The third emphasizes the Spirit. The ministry is not about the personality of the preacher. It’s about the presence of the Spirit. Let’s pray, for one another, that your faith will be centred on the Saviour, grounded in the Scriptures and empowered by the Spirit.

In The Valley (Isaiah 22:1-25)

Here, we read about ‘the Valley of Vision’ (1, 5). The Lord Himself is to be our Vision: ‘Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping Thy presence my light’ (Church Hymnary, 87). Down in the valley, the mountain-top experience seems a long way off. What are we to do when everything seems to be hard-going? When there seems to be no way out of the valley, no way back to the mountain-top, we must keep on ‘looking to Jesus’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). In the ‘valley’, we must learn to say, ‘My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, nor even blessing, but Himself, my God’. Let your ‘valley’ become your ‘valley of vision’, the place where you are learning to ‘turn your eyes upon Jesus’ (Mission Praise, 470,712).

“All the people praised the Lord” (Ezra 3:11).

At the heart of God’s work, there is worship – ‘praising and giving thanks to the Lord.’ This is our first priority. We must not forget the Lord. We must remember that ‘He is good.’ We must remember that ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’ Nothing can take the place of worship. This is where serving the Lord begins. It begins with worship. Without worship, we cannot serve the Lord. He must be at the centre of everything we do. This is what serving the Lord means – keeping Him at the centre of everything you do. We look for ‘more love’, ‘more power’, more of God’s blessing in our lives. We must give ourselves – more fully and more truly – to Him: ‘I will worship You with all of my heart… with all of my mind… with all of my strength’ (Songs of Fellowship, 392). The blessing will come down as the worship goes up!

Remembrance Sunday, the Lord’s Supper and Christmas

Just before Remembrance Sunday, 2008, my thoughts turned towards the words of a song entitled, “People Tend To Forget” (from Pantano and Salsbury’s LP, “Hit The Switch”). This is a song about remembering the many who died for us. It’s also a song about remembering the One who died for the many. It’s a song about our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We look beyond Remembrance Day to our celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We will be remembering Jesus Christ, crucified for us. We will be remembering that His body was broken for us. We will be remembering that His blood was shed for us.

Here’s the song: “People Tend To Forget.”

“I was just a young boy and he an old man. He was sitting in the park on that summer day. He said, “Do you see that cannon over by the tree?” I said, “Yes, It doesn’t work. It’s just for play.” He said, “Has anyone told you? Have you ever heard about the war, the blood and pain that old gun stands for?” But I just looked at him and finally nodded, “No.” But I waited for him to tell me ’cause I wanted to know. And he told me of a war for freedom and final victory. And he told me of the many lives that were lost for him and me. And he said, “Let that old cannon remind you and me that freedom is never cheap just because it’s free.” Some prices are so high. They’re only paid in blood – an empty helmet in the snow or still boots in the mud. And to the many ones who died we’ll always be in debt.

But people fail to remember. People tend to forget.

Well, many summers have come and gone, but I was in that park the other day. And I remembered that old man and the words he had to say. Then I looked up at that old white church with the wooden cross on top. And as I sat there in the park alone, to myself I thought – all about a war for freedom and final victory. And I thought about a life that was lost for you and me. And I almost heard that old man ask if that cross reminded me that freedom is never cheap just because it’s free. Some prices are so high they’re only paid in blood – a lifeless body, hanging still, His garments in the mud. And to the One who gave His life, we’ll always be in debt.

But people fail to remember. People tend to forget.”

We look beyond our Communion service. We looki forward to Christmas. It’s another time for remembering. We have many happy memories of Christmas time. We think back to our childhood. We receive Christmas cards from people we haven’t seen for years. These cards bring back precious and treasured memories. The Christmas season takes us back beyond our own lifetime. We remember Jesus. We rejoice in the “good news of a great joy” – the birth of our “Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). We look back to Jesus’ birth. We remember why He came to the world – “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). The Christmas season takes us beyond our own lifetime. It takes us forward. Looking back to Jesus, we learn to look forward. We find our true happiness in this: “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Let us remember our Saviour. Let us rejoice in His love.

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LINKS TO SERMONS FOR REMEMBRANCE DAY

Special Days: Remembrance Day – Micah 4:1-8; Psalm 9:9-20; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5; Luke 1:68-79

Special Days – Remembrance Day: Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalm 20; Revelation 22:1-5; Matthew 5:38-48

Psalm 115

‘Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your Name be the glory because of Your love and faithfulness’ (1). God loves us. He loves us with a faithful love, ‘an everlasting love’, a ‘love that will not let us go’. His love ‘never comes to an end’. Nothing can separate us from His love (Jeremiah 31:3; Lamentations 3:22-23; Romans 8:38-39; Church Hymnary, 677). What have we done to deserve such love? Absolutely nothing! We are ‘sinners’. We do not deserve to be loved by God. We have done nothing to earn His love. Love begins with God. It comes from Him. How do we know that He loves us? Have we proved ourselves worthy of His love? No! – ‘God shows His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’. ‘To God be the glory!’ (Romans 5:8; Church Hymnary, 374).

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)

Outside of a Gospel Hall, there was a wooden noticeboard – with a wonderful message! It was a verse from the Bible – Romans 5:8. What a wonderful message there is in that verse! It’s the Good News of God’s love: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

One day, the noticeboard had gone. The hall had been demolished. Had the words gone? Did these great words disappear when the hall was demolished?  Day-by-day, many people walked past the hall. They read the great words of Romans 5:8. Was the Gospel message silenced the moment the hall was brought to the ground? No! God’s Word continued to speak to the hearts of the many people who had walked wpast the hall without really thionking very much about the words on the noticeboard. The Gospel Hall had gone. The message of the Gospel remained. The Gospel tells us that God loves us. The Gospel tells us that Christ died for us. This is Good News for sinners.  Long after the noticeboard had gone, the Word of God continued to speak as people remembered the words that they had read so many times. The Gospel Hall had gone. The ministry of the Holy Spirit continued. The noticeboard had gone – but the love had not gone!

There’s a Communion hymn which speaks to us of the “symbols” that disappear and the “love” which remains forever – “the symbols disappear; The feast, though not the love, is past and gone” (Church Hymnary, 573). The noticeboard was like the bread and the wine. It pointed away from itself. It pointed to the love which never comes to an end. The noticeboard, like the bread and the wine, became a thing of the past. The love of God never becomes a thing of the past. The love of God is always forward-looking. Long after the “symbols” have disappeared, God will continue to work in the hearts of those to whom the wonderful message of His great love has come.

God has given us His promise: “My Word will not return to Me empty, but will … achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). The story of the noticeboard tells us this: God is always doing far more than we ever realize. The “ministry” of the noticeboard did not end when the Gospel Hall was demolished. The Lord continued to work in the hearts of those who had read its message of love.

This story about the noticeboard takes me back about forty years. Its message gives us confidence to face the future with the assurance that God loves us with an everlasting love. The Communion service invites us to look back. We remember “the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us” (Galatians 2:20). It also invites us to look forward – “Feast after feast thus comes and passes by, Yet, passing, points to the glad feast above” (Church Hymnary, 573).

The way to God’s glorious future begins here-and-now. We hear about God’s love for sinners. We remember Christ’s death for sinners. We make our response of faith. We receive God’s gift of forgiveness. Here is Good News for every one of us: “There’s a way back to God from the dark paths of sin; there’s a door that is open and you may go in; at Calvary’s cross is where you begin, when you come as a sinner to Jesus” (Mission Praise, 682). This is Good News for today and every day.

May God help each one of us to come to the Saviour and receive His forgiveness.

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Revelation 2-3

Every church in every nation and every generation has so much to learn from ‘what the Spirit says to the churches’ (2:7, 11, 17, 29). Christ is to be our ‘first love’. We are not to ‘abandon’Him. We are to ‘keep right on to the end of the road’- ‘faithful until death’ (2:4,10). We are to ‘remain true’ to Christ, pressing on with Him to a life of real spiritual growth (2:13,19). Let your commitment to Christ be very definite. He stands at the door of your heart. He says, ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in…’ (3:20). He is waiting for you to open the door of your heart to Him. He waits with great patience. He keeps on knocking. He waits to hear your prayer: ‘Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay’. This must be your own prayer. No one else can pray this prayer for you. Open your heart to the Lord, and remember where your prayer really came from: ‘The Lord opened my heart…’ (Acts 16:14).

‘By grace you have been saved through faith… for good works’ (Ephesians 2:8-10).

God calls us to live a ‘holy’ life. We cannot make ourselves holy. We are spiritually ‘dead’. We need to be ‘made alive’ – by God. Holiness does not come from ourselves. It comes from the Lord. Long before we ever thought of loving Him – He loved us. Our love for Him is so changeable. His love for us is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable. It is eternal. He loved us ‘before the foundation of the world’. He will love us ‘in the world to come’. This is the love of God, the love which inspires us and enables us to live a ‘holy’ life (Ephesians 2:1; 1:4; 2:7). When we realize the truth concerning ourselves – ‘nothing good dwells within me’ (Romans 7:18) – and God – He is ‘rich in mercy’ (Ephesians 2:4) – , we will ‘praise His glorious grace’ (Ephesians 1:6).

We ask our questions. God gives His Answer.

A number of years ago, I enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon, walking along a rocky beach. I had taken on the responsibility of making sure that my 4 year old nephew didn’t fall and hurt himself on the rocks. “Make sure Jamie doesn’t fall and hurt himself” – This seemed to be the main thing on my mind. Jamie had other things on his mind. As we walked across the rocks, Jamie kept asking questions. It was one question after another. As soon as I had answered one question, Jamie followed it up with his next question. Why? Why? Why? From early childhood, we ask questions. From early childhood, we are looking for answers.

We ask questions. The answer must always be God’s answer. We ask the question. We cannot give the answer. In ourselves, there is no answer. We know about our sin, but we cannot give to ourselves the forgiveness of sin. We know about the emptiness in our lives, but we cannot fill our own hearts with the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can only come to God in our sin and our emptiness. We come in our sin, praying for God’s forgiveness. We come in our emptiness, praying that God will fill us with His Spirit. When we come in our sin and emptiness, God speaks His answer. God’s answer is addressed to every one of us. God’s answer comes to us in the Name of Jesus Christ. God’s answer comes to us with the promise of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

God’s answer is for every one of us. He doesn’t say to some of us, “You need to repent” and then turn to others, saying, “You won’t need to repent. You’re good enough already.” To every one of us, He says, “Leave your old life behind. Step out into the new life with Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord.”

God’s answer comes to us in the Name of Jesus Christ. We must think about what Jesus Christ has done for us. He has taken our sins upon Himself. He has died for us so that we might be forgiven by Him. The Name of Jesus Christ is the Name of our salvation. Through the power of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, we put the old life behind us and begin the new life of the Spirit.

In Jesus Christ, God’s answer comes to us with the promise of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through faith in Christ, we put the old life behind us. Our sins are forgiven. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through faith in Christ, we receive the strength we need to maintain our confession of faith – “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Once we have put our faith in Christ, everything changes. “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Everything has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). There is a change of direction in our life.

Our priorities change. Life is no longer centred upon ourselves. It is centred upon Christ. Christ has given us life – abundant life, eternal life. Let us live this life for Him, giving all glory to Him and taking no glory for ourselves.