2010 June » Southern Cross Presbyterian Church

Growup: day 168

Jun 172010

Hosea 1 – 4

Hosea is a pretty confronting book… A guy is instructed by God to marry a prostitute. Surely this would be a time where the guy was thinking “surely not Lord!”. Yet amazingly, he is obedient. Hosea takes Gomer to be his wife…

Why? Because God’s judgment is falling upon Israel for their unfaithfulness and adultery against God. Israel has prostituted themselves to other gods and forsaken the one who is their husband. Keep reading in the rest of Hosea to hear God’s charges against Israel.

BUT God doesn’t just leave it there. God restores his people, his adulterous “wife”, to himself…

“I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called, ‘Not my loved one’. I will say to those called ‘Not my people’, ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God’.”

Sounds a bit familiar… check out 1 Peter 2:9-10. God’s people are truly restored only in what Jesus did on the cross. God’s love was completely shown in Jesus. Praise God for his mercy that turns us from being an adulterous prostitute (please don’t be offended!), wallowing in our sin, to be his bride, dressed in Jesus’ righteousness… pretty amazing…

This Weeks Bible Talk, A Son’s Faithfulness

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Jun 162010

This week’s Bible Talk took us to 1 Sam 18-20 where we saw that Saul tries to hold on to the kingdom against God’s will while Jonathan gladly gives up his inheritance to honour God and his Messiah.

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

Click on the following link to listen or to download.

SCPC Podcast: Talk 8, A Son’s Faithfulness

Growup: day 167

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Jun 162010

2 Kings 15 & 2 Chronicles 26 – 27

After a brief stint in Amos, we launch back into the king chronicles and find a few kings who appear to be doing the right thing.

“He (Uzziah) did what was right in the eyes fo the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought after God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God…” 2 Chronicles 26:4 – 5

Why was he doing right in the eyes of the Lord? Because he sought after God.

Why do you think he sought after God…? Because he was being instructed in the fear of the Lord, the word of God, and he was living in response to that. Uzziah was hearing God’s word and living it out, not because he has a good heart but because God was enabling him, helping him live obediently.

You know this can never last… I mean, come on – this king is like us… sinful, selfish and… PRIDEFUL.

“His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after uzziah became powerful, his pride lead to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God…” 2 Chronicles 26:15b – 16

Uzziah’s pride led him to think he knew better than God… Uzziah defied God’s commands for the temple and burning incense. He was unfaithful and dishonoured God. His punishment – leprosy for the rest of his life so he was confined to his house.

It is so easy for us to delude ourselves into thinking that we deserve a relationship with God and that we deserve the things that God blesses us with. We delude ourselves into thinking that there is something good in us that makes God choose us, that makes God bless us and save us. We can all be a bit like Uzziah, who hear God’s word each day and start noticing a bit of fame – whether it is good at what we do at work, whether we’re good at sport, art or music, or even whether we are good at the ministry we’re involved in at church… It is shocking how pride seeps in and steals God’s glory for our own.

Praise God for Jesus, who was the true king that humbly served his people by dying on the cross. How amazing it is that he didn’t claim the glory that he deserve, the throne of heaven. Instead his throne was a cross. We have no basis for pride in our relationship with God because it is all about Jesus claiming that relationship for us.

Growup: Day 165

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Jun 142010

Apologies for the delay

Amos 4:1-6:14

Prepare to meet your God!

The depravity of Israel and her kings as we have seen in the accounts to date, has reached its limit. God will not tolerate it.

God has already revealed he is getting ready to act:

On the day I punish Israel for her sins Amos 3:14

Then in 4:12 this is an interesting little line:

“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”

Israel must be under no doubt where this judgment they will face comes from. Sure we hear that a nation will rise in 6:14. But once again we hear who’s behind all this “I am” says God.

Hundreds of years later God would come again. This time he would come in human flesh. This time Jesus would feel the full weight of the wrath of God. Judgment would fall on Jesus.

Because of our depravity the world would meet God. Jesus would come in human flesh and take our judgment.

Our judgment met by Christ.

World cup fever…

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Jun 112010

Have you noticed that there is slight anticipation in the air…? Like something big is about to happen…

Well, if you look around around you, you will see that some people around the world are going a bit crazy with a fever of sorts… SOCCER fever.

Its everywhere! On TV, a lot of the ads are building up the fever. In the shops, you will see weetbix boxes that have now come out in a special Socceroos edition. Its a pretty huge event and in some ways, it feels bigger than the Olympics.

I don’t know about you and whether you are a soccer fan – I’m bit of a fan. I remember 4 years ago, going on very little sleep for weeks on end, just so I could see the socceroos get closer and closer to the finals. The best ever performance of the socceroos… Still a bit bitter about the Italy game!!

It surprises me every time how much this captures the world’s attention. People are watching; people are cheering; people are talking about who beat who, who’s going to win overall. There’s just so much to talk about… I think this is usually where a thought comes into my head – where does the gospel fit into all this? It’s so easy to have conversations all about soccer and the world cup with friends of ours but what about the good news, the news that is worth world wide cheering about?

Just something to think about this world cup season… how can you use it for God’s purpose and glory??

One great thing that is happening at church in a few weeks time is a combined kids church event. Our kids church team have organised “The world event”. Its all about teaching the kids that there is a greater world event than the world cup… Encourage your kids to come along and remember to ask them what they learnt! For more information, please speak to Stew Playsted on Sunday.

Growup: Day 162

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Jun 112010

2 Chronicles 25:1-28

Amaziah king of Judah is introduced and described in this way early in the chapter:

² He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly.

However following this, you see he allows his actions to be shaped by the Word of God:

^4bbut acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded.

It seems Amaziah has taken Gods word seriously because remembers what it says about the King way back in Deu 17:

¹⁸ When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. ¹⁹ It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees

Amaziah has heard the Word and acted in accord with it, I guess that is why the writer could say: He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Yet now we wait for the remainder of that verse.

It indeed arrives in verse 14. After a successful victory Amaziah does the unthinkable:

¹⁴ When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them.

Can you believe it!! A king who had been faithful to the Word of God, now despises what was at its heart, the love of God:

⁷ “You shall have no other gods before me. Deu 5:7

Now Amaziah must wait for the verdict of the Word:

⁸ “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me Deu 5:8-9.

In accord with the Word, Amaziah meets his end:

²⁷ From the time that Amaziah turned away from following the LORD, they conspired against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lachish, but they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there.

Isn’t it good, we don’t serve a half hearted king:

⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross! Phil 2:8

Growup: Day 161

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Jun 102010

2 Kings 13:1-14:29

Happy Birthday to the office salve – Happy 18th Joe K.

Two things struck in this mornings reading.

1) the first thing is that God is merciful, patient and faithful to his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (see 13:23). It really is a amazing that God doesn’t just wipeout both Israel and Judah. It is great to know that this it is the same God who promises eternal life through Jesus.

2) the second is more just an interesting observation. But how about Elisha? He is one weird dude, even when he is dead. The fact that the dead guy comes to life when he touches Elisha’s bones is weird (see 13:21).

Anyway keeping trusting in Jesus – the answer to all God’s promises and enjoy the cooler weather.

Growup: day 160

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Jun 092010

2 Chronicles 23:1 – 24:27 & 2 kings12:4 – 12:21

In some ways, you would think that a child growing up in the temple, hearing the ways of the Lord at such a young age would make a pretty good king. A king that follow the one thing that God commanded of the king – to read his words everyday and be obedient to them, living with God as the Lord and King.

Things were looking promising for Joash – he had Jehoiada looking after him, teaching him the ways of the Lord; he was presented with a copy of the covenant to read and look at every day…

“Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest…”

So what happened after Jehoiada, Joash’s teacher and guide, died…? He listened to officials from Judah and abandoned the temple of the Lord.

It is amazing how promising things look but then they fall into a heap because man sins, man rebels against God and forgets that God knows what is best… I was chatting with someone yesterday about how much it astounds me that Jesus was a man on earth, and he didn’t sin. He didn’t rebel against God and he was obedient to God because he KNEW that God has a plan, he knew that God knows what is best. I think it astounds me because it is such a stark contrast to our own human sinfulness and the sinfulness of the kings.

Jesus truly was the King who fulfilled all the commands of God that young Joash couldn’t fulfil.

Jesus truly was the King who fulfilled all the commands of God that WE could not fulfil. Praise God for his faithful plan that wouldn’t be corrupted by sinful man and that plan reached its climax in the cross.

Be cherishing all that God did through Jesus on the cross – that it may give you great joy and hope in the victory so you know that in Christ, you are more than a conqueror…

Growup: Day 159

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Jun 082010

2 Kings 10:1-12:3

Y’know I reckon one of the BEST things about reading the Old Testament is that it helps me to see just how terrible sin is, MY sin! – God’s judgment makes this so clear. I think it’s easy to get a distorted view of God’s grace from the fact that we currently live in the time of God’s great amnesty where he is, to a certain extent, withholding his judgment until the end. But we need to remember that the end will come and the judgment on sin that we witness in the Old Testament will seem like a pale thing in comparison to that final judgment! God really hates idolatry and he is really committed to his own glory. For a human being this would be inexcusable egotism but for God it is completely right and good and it’s only when God is honoured that good relationships are possible in his creation. God’s work in the world is the work of restoring everything to it’s intended order and this will only be achieved when sin is finally and fully eradicated.

Growup: Day 158

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Jun 072010

2 Chron 21:2-22:12, 2 Kings 9:1-9:37

The word of the Lord prevails.

In these chapters there is a lot of treachery and deceit.

Jehoram tries to firm up his kingship by doing away with all the opposition (his own brothers):

⁴ When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father’s kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the princes of Israel.

The word of the Lord is proclaimed and it prevails in verse 18:

¹⁸ After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. ¹⁹ In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain.

Then of course there is Jezebel, the wife of Ahab and a staunch enemy of the prophets. Even though she sought to attack these messages, who carried God’s word. It was God’s word which prevailed against her and brought her demise in 2 Kings 9:30-37.

In the conclusion to book of Acts Luke’s burden is to leave the reader a reminder of the unstoppable word of God. The open-ended conclusion of the book also seeks to draw us in, understanding that the mission is not complete. The spread of the word must continue.

We are encouraged to be committed to this ongoing mission of God and challenged to consider how we might be involved in the progress of the gospel through the mighty word.

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