Follow Christ

P 2813 Avoid stumbling blocks.

/ DVH

Matthew 23:1-3 “Now Jesus turned to address His disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behaviour. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.”

And onto  …Matthew 23:8-10: “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let Him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and He’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—CHRIST.”

So, I have decided to comment on the second scripture Matthew 23:8-10 first — the Apostle Paul also very carefully addressed the issue of people choosing one person over another to follow —- because that situation happened to him. (1 Corinthians 1:10-17)  The point is, we follow Christ, and we remain open to correction. Meanwhile, we also do our best to remain in an attitude that is flooded and guided by love.

There are ordinary people who have extraordinary gifts and these were given to the Body, and made available for all of us. These supernatural gifts, are to lead, heal, and demonstrate His love to everybody around us. But please remember – HE is the Giver. Each one of our leaders is a gift. There is no room in Christianity for cult followers. Nobody is right all the time! We will always need each other.

And every single member has something to contribute. However, some people have quiet unobtrusive things to do and some don’t. Actually, I think the hidden people should rejoice. There is nothing like praise, notoriety and excitement to puff up somebody’s head. Walking in step with the Lord, unsung and unseen, is one of the safest places on earth – as long as other people can see Him through you. Sadly, Christianity today seems to have created an environment of Christian super-stars. We love people’s theology, their gifts, and the excitement that surrounds everything these people say and do. 

But, the truth is, each one of our own day-to-day lives needs to mirror and demonstrate the scriptures. Otherwise that is dangerous for us – and the people around us. There is only One Who is perfect and it is not Brother or Sister-everybody-knows-their-name!  It is the Lord. He alone is worthy of worship and praise. If we are not careful we can become quite faddish – suddenly, this preacher is IN and that one is OUT.

I love fresh insight, it means that I can see the Lord in a brand new way, and that’s good for my spiritual health – but we are not, nor should we ever be, an exclusive club, with human heroes in charge. Laziness on our behalf, has caused us to encourage others to hear for us. We all need the skill of personal hearing, otherwise we will not have the complete picture of the glory of Jesus Christ to present to this world.

The second stumbling block, is in Matthew 23:1-3. What the Lord mentions here is the precious fruit of a life lived for Him. It is not good to be a Pharisee, spouting this and explaining that – and not allowing the Word of life and hope to work IN us. I know from experience that whatever I write about in this blog, the Holy Spirit challenges me time and time again – “Are you living what you say?” I hate it when that happens but of course it is good for me. His people need to be especially careful because the utterances of God can be heady and so profound we can pretend that understanding stuff is the same as living it. IT ISN’T.

Let’s remember, the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Teachers of the law look like the bad guys in the gospels from our POV in time. But they were actually revered and esteemed in their own time by the people around them. Their mistake appears to be that they thought they were above the law – simply because they knew it so well. Anybody can fall into that trap. Knowing what the bible says and doing what it says are two very different things. 

One of those things has a huge cost. It means you choose to die, daily. Plus you get to deal with loads of stuff that other people merrily ignore, and the same people will probably jump all over you while you are doing it. That’s is not fun. I decided long ago, whatever He gave me to do, I would do it as He empowered me and led me. So my faith gets a good work-out every single day. But if or when He tells me to stop, then I will. None of us want to end up a stumbling block to the people Jesus dearly loves. Bye for today, 👋

P 2640 When you get stuck, ask for help!

/ DVH

The bible tells us over and over again that fearing the Lord is to be expected and embraced. Think about that for a minute – teeny, tiny man in comparison to incredible, wondrous, holy, pure and righteous God! He’s so astonishing, the Universe He made a long time ago – is still expanding!  In Proverbs 9:10 it says this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One increases understanding.”We need both!

So now let’s take a peek at Romans 3:10-17 – this passage levels the playing field for everyone: “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”That is the Apostle Paul talking, he lived in awe of Almighty God and His ways.

There is a school of thought that wants to render the Old Testament less relevant than the New. Actually, there is no truth in that idea. In the OT we see how men and women obeyed God and things changed, supernaturally.  They are a visual aid for us today. Personally, I think if it is in the book, then it is there to help and instruct us. Instead of diminishing the OT’s value, we need to ask questions, wait for answers, and maybe put some things in our pending file. He’s God – He has a timetable, the Old Testament shows us that!

The marvellous thing about Romans 3 is it is telling us that all of us stand upon a level playing ground. NONE of us get it right. We can see that the people in the Old Testament managed to muck things up! That thought alone throws competition out of the window. This life is not about striving to get things right, we are simply following Jesus! We live like He did, and we have written instructions about how He did it! As we follow Him, we will find we come into harmony with one another. He’s in you and He’s in me – and He won’t fight with Himself! If we fight – one of us is not listening properly – they are probably acting out of their heads. The first one to sincerely say sorry wins! That’s a joke BTW.

Paul, the writer of Romans, was a brilliant student of Gamaliel but back then as a student, he was full of information. Information puffs up – it makes you self-righteous. But knowledge of Christ and His ways will humble us. So much so, we end up loving our enemies!  So when Jesus stopped Paul in his tracks, this man was humble enough to realise he knew nothing and he said so. Paul was not interested in factions or parties – He simply followed Christ and was obedient. Later on in the book to Corinth, he dismissed the idea that people should follow him, or some other teacher. He made it clear we need to follow Christ … only. 

Our bible cannot be carefully digested unless we ask the Holy Spirit to explain it to us and show us how we are meant to ‘eat it.’ This book is for eating … as we do what it says, we become like it, through our obedience. It is not for information, so we end up thinking we know everything!! The same verse that turns out to be veggies on your daily plate, could be meat and potatoes for a month for me! That’s the beauty of this book – the Author sits with us to explain it personally!  This life of faith we lead operates by … wait-for-it  …  …faith!

There are times that the Lord’s timing won’t always suit us – we’ve lost our humility. The truth is, if we constantly push back against His instructions and our circumstances – and refuse to wait for His timing, then the other guy will be absolutely delighted to turn up and deliver his pack of lies and misdirect us. The bible is to be believed, its instructions are there for us to follow. It is not there to be critiqued by the likes of us, even if we did come from a High School up a hill, and we have more degrees than a thermometer! Sometimes the smarter we think we are, the dumber we actually are. Paul was a clever person, but he humbled himself and learnt from God.

The saints in the Old Testament have taught me so much about faith. They’ve encouraged me when I’ve wanted to quit. They’ve shown me that my mistakes are not terminal because, unlike them — I know I have a Saviour! Praise God!! Those men and women of old who served God, are fantastic illustrations of what our wonderful Father can do with someone who simply follows instructions. Almighty God gave them instructions and they went away and did stuff!! Many people go searching for this easy method, and that clever way to get God to do whatever they want …when the easiest way of all is to be obedient.

I have found that the Old Testament adds enormous depth to everything the New has in it. Let’s always remember – Jesus never read the New Testament – HE WAS WAY TOO BUSY DOING IT, while somebody else wrote it down! Romans 3 teaches us that nobody can ‘lord’ it over someone else. We stand on a flat plain, together. Now we choose to follow Jesus Christ – He IS the book come alive. Digestion is so much more important than knowledge! In our lifetime we can become His book to others by doing what it says. And when we get stuck – we ask for His help. Bye.👋