Pits, Prisons & Palaces

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SUNDAY 30 JULY 2017

The Old Testament is full of people - real people; whose lives are messy, their families dysfunctional and their obedience not always full or immediate, yet God used them.  Our study of their lives is to bring perspective, hope and instruction to ours - to recognise that at times we are tempted to sanitise or selectively interact with their stories and in that way make them heroes.  The reality is that their stories are powerful because they are human like us and face the same temptations and frailty that we do - yet God used them.

God has a dream for each one of us - that dream is for us to represent God in our world. Each of us is entrusted with a piece of God’s Kingdom to bring to earth. This representation is multi-faceted and is defined by your wiring, gifting, personality, passions and life stage. This representation is vital - as only you can reach the people in your sphere and only you can create the ideas or products or atmosphere in your specific field.

We see in the life of Joseph some transferable principles for ensuring that we live out the dream God has for us. 

Joseph's dream revolved around him - he was young and arrogant and confident in his sense of how it would play out. God has a dream for each of us - a piece of His kingdom to be extended - in homes or workplaces or further afield. However, there is a way in which it gets extended - God places these dreams in the hearts of people and then he takes them on a journey of learning to trust and follow Him in order for them to be realised.

What we see in the next chapters & 20 years of Joseph’s story is the transferable principles to our world. We see PITS, PRISONS & PALACES.

Jacob the Deceiver

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SUNDAY 23 JULY 2017

The Old Testament is full of people - real people; whose lives are messy, their families dysfunctional and their obedience not always full or immediate, yet God used them.  Our study of their lives is to bring perspective, hope and instruction to ours - to recognise that at times we are tempted to sanitise or selectively interact with their stories and in that way make them heroes.  The reality is that their stories are powerful because they are human like us and face the same temptations and frailty that we do - yet God used them.

Murray breaks down the story of Jacobs life into six episodes of an interesting saga :

1. The Birth (Genesis 25:19-26)
2. The Birthright (Genesis 25:27-34)
3. The Blessing (Genesis 26:34-27:4, 27:19-29, 36-41)
4. The Dream (Genesis 28:1-5, 10-17)
5. The Marriage (Genesis 29:16-27)
6. The Encounter (Genesis 32:3-8, 22-31)

God had this great purpose for Jacob, he'd spoken to Rebekah about it... Jacob's great problem in life was that he was impatient, He wasn't prepared for God to work out His purpose in His way. Jacob was always grasping for something he didn't have.

Although God's promise was eventually fulfilled, the tragedy of Jacob's story is we will never know how the story would have gone if Jacob had the patience to trust God and wait for God to work his plan out in His way.

Jacob has to be humbled and broken. When he looks back on his life he describes it as short and troubling. it didn't need to be like that. God had this wonderful purpose for Jacob, but due to his impatience he couldn't wait for God to work out his purpose for him.

This can happen to anyone who is a believer. you can know that God got good things for you but so often people can't wait, not have the patience, to trust God to work things out in His way and His time. It's one thing to know God's purpose but it's another thing to trust his timing. But it's worth doing, because if you don't you end up like Jacob, trying to make things happen and it always goes wrong. Far better to trust God, so when you come to the end of your days you don't look back on your life as see them as few and difficult.

Technology and Tsaaq (זָעַק)

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SUNDAY 16 JULY 2017

The Old Testament is full of people - real people; whose lives are messy, their families dysfunctional and their obedience not always full or immediate, yet God used them.  Our study of their lives is to bring perspective, hope and instruction to ours - to recognise that at times we are tempted to sanitise or selectively interact with their stories and in that way make them heroes.  The reality is that their stories are powerful because they are human like us and face the same temptations and frailty that we do - yet God used them.

The Bible has a lot to say about technology. It can be so easy to skip over simple lines, without asking some questions. But a great question to ask is, why did the writer include that detail? Because that one sentence is actually alluding to a pretty profound new technology and a significant shift in society at that time...

We have tremendous power and ability as humans. We can invent things and build things and dream things up and then make them. Its extraordinary and it is to be celebrated and enjoyed!

However we also have tremendous capacity to use our energies and minds and power and abilities to further OUR OWN purposes through greed and empire building at the expense of those around us. We can use technology to make the world a better place, but we can also use technology to make the world worse. We can use the power that we have for good, to care for people like Jesus implores us to, or we can use our power in destructives ways that can dehumanise ourselves and others.

• We can become slaves to our technology
• We can develop a technology induced anxiety
• We can forget our true identity
• We can bring heaven to earth, or we can bring hell to earth

Listen to James as he unpacks the impacts of Technology in the Old Testament and in our lives today...

Legacy

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SUNDAY 09 JULY 2017

The Old Testament is full of people - real people; whose lives are messy, their families dysfunctional and their obedience not always full or immediate, yet God used them.  Our study of their lives is to bring perspective, hope and instruction to ours - to recognise that at times we are tempted to sanitise or selectively interact with their stories and in that way make them heroes.  The reality is that their stories are powerful because they are human like us and face the same temptations and frailty that we do - yet God used them.

Jesus loves you, likes you and is inviting you into an incredible adventure.

One of the great things about the Bible - particularly the Old Testament, is that it doesn’t sanitise or minimise that those incredible adventures are really mixed. The people within them - who are loved, liked and called on the adventure don’t get it right all the time - they lie, cheat, embezzle, commit adultery, worship idols, murder, circumstances don’t work out, steal, fall into temptation, wuss out when God speaks, get bored, depressed, discouraged, frustrated… and that’s after they have seen miracles, provision, visions, dreams, acted in the power of God.

How we remember that God loves us, likes us and has an adventure for us even in the middle of circumstances that look the opposite is so vitally important. How we position our heart is key. How we recognise and respond is vital in shifting frustration and battle.

Our legacy is formed by the steps we take in those moments - David could defeat Goliath because he learnt how to be overlooked in a field. Deborah could lead a nation cos she learnt that God’s point of view was more important than humans. Joseph could see his adventure to the end because he learnt how to negotiate the pit and the prison.

Frustration & Battle are places where our heart and character is revealed and opportunities to form within us the character that will carry the adventure.