2010 May » Southern Cross Presbyterian Church

Playing Our Part

May 312010

I was thinking about Ephesians 4:15 & 16 again this morning and was reminded that GROWTH in Christ’s body, the church, is dependent on each PART doing its work.

¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

I was thinking about how the word “part” finds its way into so many other words like “PARTicipate”, “PARTner” and “PARTake” and realised just how essential it is that every one of us is connected and engaged in relationships with the PARTicular goal of building one another up by “speaking the truth in love”.

Dear friends, I’m praying for you all today that you will be genuine participants in this supreme work of God and that our whole church will experience the incredible blessing of growing up into Christ.

Growup: Day 151

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May 312010

1 Kings 19:1-20:43

A faithless king!

In the closing verse of chapter 20 we hear the death of Ahab predicted. A king who doesn’t really get the best wrap. Remember this description:

³⁰ Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 1 Kings 16:30

Under the kingship of this perverse kingship, Elijah truly believes there are none who trust in God, as king.

However even in this low point of Israel’s history, God had still reserved those who are faithful to him:

¹⁸ Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel– all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18

It is amazing that God in midst of unfaithful kingship, is still faithful in his covenant to his people.

Even when faced by the rejection of the Jews, the crowd and even his closest friend Jesus also remained faithful.

And it was while we were faithless, that God granted us faith: Eph 2:1-10

Let us then rejoice then in our faithful king, who went to the cross and fosters within us saving faith.

This Weeks Bible Talk, The King to Come

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May 302010

This week’s Bible Talk took us to 1 Sam 15-16 where we saw that Israel and Saul rejected God as King, now God rejects Saul as king and chooses a king after his own heart.

Click on the following link to listen or to download.

SCPC Podcast: Talk 6, The King to Come

If you’d like to join the conversation, just add your comment below.

Growup: Day 148

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May 282010

1 Kings 13:1-15:32

Long live the king!

Well maybe not.

Jeroboam son of Nebat is judged for his shocking apostasy. Apostasy so great that it would ultimately bring Israel’s downfall. No one from his line is left. For Baasha:

killed Jeroboam’s whole family. He did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all, according to the word of the LORD given through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite 1 kings 15:29

Unfortunately, not all is real well with Judah either.

The son and grandson of Solomon aren’t going great:

He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been. 1 kings 15:3

Finally some good news comes in verse 11:

¹¹ Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. ¹² He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made. ¹³ He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life. 1 Kings 15:11-14

The story of the kings of Judah however continues to be a roller coaster of good and bad kings.

Thankfully we serve a king who is immune to the failures of man, and does not have to contend with what brought the rule of the great kings of Israel to an end, death. We have a king who rules eternal:

³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1:3

Long live the king!

growup: day 147

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May 272010

1 Kings 12:1 – 33

2 Chronicles 10:1 – 12:16

Good morning. I hope you are all bathing in the glory of the mighty maroons.

Anyway enough gloating. This mornings reading is sign of things ahead. After David and Solomon things start to go really pear shaped. The kingdom has now split into Israel (northern kingdom) and Judah (southern kingdom). Most of Israel are now worshipping idols and Judah ends up abandoning the law of the Lord. Egypt invade and well honestly things look bad. God’s people are in his land but they are not living under his rule. Stay tuned to find out just how bad the situation gets but also how faithful the LORD is to his promises. Especially his promise of a King who will reign on David’s throne foever.

2 Chronicles 12:14 summaries Rehoboam’s failure in one neat verse.

He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.

Have you set your heart on seeking King Jesus and him alone?

growup: day 146

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May 262010

song of songs 5 – 8

Its weird reading song of songs because it feels like we are reading something so personal and intimate between two people, the most intimate relationship that humans have… It was like reading someone’s love letters…

I read through Song of songs last year and really struggled to see how it pointed to Jesus (possibly also struggled because I wasn’t married and didn’t really get the whole intimacy of marriage). So before reading this section, I read through Pete’s blog for yesterday’s reading and I found it a really encouraging read… it helped me keep this passage in perspective and remember God’s great gift of marriage on earth but more importantly, the GREAT gift of marriage to God.

In this passage, there are so many moments where the beloved is greatly anticipating the arrival of her lover. The beloved was yearning for the lover’s arrival… this made me think of how we need to be anticipating (yearning for) of our marriage to God in heaven, yearning for the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ to take us home with him.

The purpose of our lives on earth – to be living for our “husband” in heaven (sorry if that sounds weird for you men out there…), resting in his great love for us, growing from that great love and mercy into a bride that is holy and blameless.

This is something I never thought I would learn from Song of Songs but I need to remember that its all God’s Word. God’s word is powerful in convicting us as well as powerful in pointing us to where we find our eternal hope (JESUS) and powerful in giving us shelter from the looming sight of sin.

Growup: Day 145

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May 252010

Song of Songs 1-4

Ooo-err… this is the part of the Bible you hope your kids don’t stumble upon until they’re happily married adults!

While some have tried to pretend it’s about something else, it really is about love in general and about sex in particular.

It contains both warnings:

“do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (3:5)

and encouragements:

“how delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! etc etc etc etc… (4:10)

and is very realistic about love – it’s beauty and it’s dangers.

On the whole, it is an exchange between a lover and her beloved and is a great reminder of how passionate a love between a man and his wife should be. It’s so easy to settle for less and fail to put in the hard yards that are required to prioritise vitality within marriage.

But it is also about something else too. Because ALL human love, and especially the passionate, devoted love of a good marriage is nothing if not a reflection of God’s great love for us in King Jesus. Isn’t that what Ephesians 5 teaches us? passionate love is not a human thing. When it is expressed appropriately within the context of marriage, passionate love is a wonderful reminder of God’s passion for his people. He loves us intensely and he loves us sacrificially and he will never stop loving us.

So read Song of Songs with one ear open to what it’s saying about the sort of lovers we should be and the other ear listening carefully to what it means to be God’s beloved, the bride of the King.

This Weeks Bible Talk: The King Who Takes

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May 242010

This week’s Bible Talk took us to 1 Sam 12-14 where we saw that trusting God is never easy and sometimes seems impossible. We need a king who trusts God even in those times.

Click on the following link to listen or to download.

SCPC Podcast: Talk 5, the King who Takes (1 Sam 12-14)

If you’d like to join the conversation, just add your comment below.

Growup: Day 144

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May 242010

Ecc 9:1-12:14

It seems both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes reckon to really know wisdom is to fear God.

Remember Prov 1:8:

⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge

and then this is how Ecclesiastes ends:

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 12:13

I wonder whether this fear thing is going on because we don’t!

Listen to what Jesus has to say:

⁴“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Luke 12:1-5

Often we can live in fear, but it’s directed in the wrong place. Jesus gets it and says don’t worry about other people. What can they do?

We think they can do alot and so we fear them instead of fearing God.

Let us then be fearless as we boldly proclaim Gods ultimate wisdom:

1 Cor 1:18-31

This Weekend…

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May 212010

Don’t forget that the North Coast Christian Convention is on this weekend which means that church on Sunday morning will be at Evans Head K-12 School and NOT at Lismore High – why not come and join us for the morning session at Evans Head… Sunday night will still be on as normal at 6pm! It’s also pizza night so remember to bring some $ for dinner.

Also on Saturday night, women from all ages are invited to Evans Head RSL for dinner with Naomi Reed (who is the speaker for the women’s seminar at NCCC) and afterwards she will present a monologue from her fourth book…you can arrive anytime from 6pm! There will be cars coming back to Lismore so carpooling might be a good option.

Hope to see you at NCCC!