Marching Forth!

As I read through Luke 5 today and jotted down notes for this week's Discipleship Course at Calvary Chapel Sydney , I was blessed with many gems.  Priceless truth can be gleaned when we spend a little time carefully reading God's Word.  A single word has great power to shed light to our understanding, dispelling incorrect assumptions. Take Luke 5:17 , for instance.  It reads, " Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them."   As Jesus taught, Luke focused on the Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by.  These men were eminent scholars, famous teachers themselves.  The following sentence should be a surprise to all - especially to those learned men - the power of the LORD was present to heal them .  Now these were likely able-bodied men, some having traveled gr...

Your perceived identity can shape your destiny.  Our identity is often founded on temporary, transitory things like the opinions of others, our history, personal appearance, friends, and activities.  It is important as Christians we not hold to an identity based on the opinions of others or even ourselves.  If we will become all God desires we be, it is critical we see ourselves through His perspective.  Instead of fostering pride, walking according to our new identity in Christ is humbling and satisfying. An angel came unexpectedly to Mary and said, "You are highly favoured among women, and the LORD is with you:  blessed are you among women."  The next verse reveals that Mary did not see herself this way.  Luke 1:29 says, " But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was ."  She didn't say, "I knew it!  Finally someone else realises what I have known all along!"  She found the sta...

People say it is what a person is on the inside which counts, and this is true.  This inner focus is likely pushing back against our human tendency to measure ourselves by externals.  We can obsess superficial and transitory aspects like the appearance of our body - the size of our nose or be self-conscious about a mole - more than the character of our hearts.  Jesus taught the words and deeds of a person is an extension of the inner reality:  out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks ( Matt. 12:34 ).  We can conclude therefore both the heart and conduct of a person is important.  Man looks at outer appearance, but God looks at the heart.  If the heart of a man is right before God, he should take intentional steps to see his conduct and words reflect that reality. Jesus told a parable in Mark 2:21-22 :  " No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse....

Head colds are common ailments usually caused by viruses.  Symptoms include a sore throat, blocked or runny nose, and sinus pressure.  There are many over-the-counter medications which can alleviate the symptoms in varying degrees.  It is important for the sufferer to realise the runny nose is a problem and an irritation, but it is not the source of the problem:  the runny nose is indicative of a virus the body will overcome in due time. It would be silly to think the source of the head cold was eliminated by jamming Kleenex in the nose or irrigating the sinus with a saline solution.  Treating the symptoms of a chronic illness or disease never touches the root cause.  It would be foolish to load up on caffeine to fight fatigue when the body is suffering anemia or heart disease.  Morphine is very good at numbing pain, but it does nothing to mend a broken bone or remove bowel cancer.  Unless the source is dealt with directly, all efforts to trea...

The strong negative stigma of having children or being born out of wedlock today has lost much of its former potency.  Not long ago even in western cultures children considered "illegitimate" or of dubious origin were mocked and shunned.  In the Bible we read that Jephthah was driven away from home by his brothers because he was the son of another mother.  Being deemed a bastard had legal consequences as well.  For instance, an illegitimate son could be denied an inheritance and could not be a rightful heir.  In Bible times there were strong consequences even in regards to worship.  Deuteronomy 23:2 :  " One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD ."  The exact meaning of the words translated "illegitimate birth" has been hotly debated by Jewish Rabbis, but the point is this:  the illegitimate nature of a person's conception had ...

As I reflect upon the trip I took to Cambodia in 2015, this image (courtesy of Vanny Phal, an amazing chemist and sister in Christ) is the one indelible memory of the trip.  To me it sums up the truth I realised in a very personal way.  I always want to be the strong one who helps others, but there are times when I am weak and need to be upheld by my sisters and brothers in Christ.  The sweet scene depicted in the photo played out for me as a literal parable. During one of our medical clinics in a mountain village, I noticed this little man starting to fade into sleep as he patiently sat on the bench.  His mother was having dental work done, so his big sister picked him up, held him, and gently rocked him to sleep.  I watched amazed for over an hour as this little girl held her brother who was half her size without complaint or visible discomfort.  I had no idea how this scene would unfold in a personal way and in dramatic fashion. Aft...

I don't know how many different ads I have seen, but I've read belly fat can be reduced by a series of "weird tips."  It's a strange thing:  I have never seen an ad for removing fat from my hips, arms, or chest, but it appears we must make every effort to target that cursed belly fat.  The truth is, there are people who pay money to re-arrange their fat - to make parts of their bodies slimmer and other parts fuller.  I wouldn't have known sin without the mirror of God's Law, and I wouldn't have known belly fat was such a big problem without those ads constantly popping up.  I'm sure magazines and Photoshop doesn't help either.  And then there are my pants which always seem to be shrinking...moving on! :) It occurred to me that even as we long to target our body fat selectively, so we can do the same with sin.  We can come to a place spiritually that as long as we can fit into our pants the growing belly isn't a big deal.  We might be a b...

The Bible provides spiritual milk and meat for the soul.  Those who teach God's Word have a duty of care to supply food for the soul, not empty chaff blown about by hot wind.  It would be a tragedy to have the tender fillet steak of God's Word available and set only bones before hungry souls.  Spurgeon wrote in Lectures to My Students , " Better far give the people masses of unprepared truth in the rough, like pieces of meat from a butcher's block, chopped off anyhow, bone and all, and even dropped down in the sawdust, then ostentatiously and delicately hand them out upon a china dish a delicious slice of nothing at all, decorated with the parsley of poetry, and flavoured with the sauce of affectation ." (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to My Students: Complete & Unabridged . Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 1954. Print. page 75 )  The hypocritical Pharisees were ones who ignored the bread, meat, and Living Water offered by the wisdom of Christ and fought ove...

I have been the happy recipient of the unexpected gift of trust.  It profoundly affected me.  Trust is something the world figures must be earned, but the impact of trust is greatest when it is all of grace.  Years ago I had an experience confirming this I will never forget.  The battery on my wife's car had gone flat, so during my lunch break I took it over to Viking Battery in Santee, California.  I knew the shop carried the type of battery I wanted.  When I walked into the tiny shop with a handful of batteries on display and a dog lazing on the dirty floor, it was far from the polished displays of conventional retail stores. A friendly man (who I assumed to be the owner), supplied the battery I was looking for as I handed over my old one.  But as I pulled out my credit card to pay, he surprised me:  "Sorry, we don't accept credit cards here.  Only checks or cash."  I was flummoxed.  Having left my checkbook at home, I found my...

Paul desired to be found in Christ so he might experience the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings ( Philippians 3:9-10 ).  He wanted to be conformed to the death of Jesus Christ so he could partake of His life and resurrection.  All men, Christian or not, are lured by a desire for power.  Most people would love to possess the miraculous power displayed in the life of Jesus Christ.  But very few people have any interest whatsoever to share in the sufferings of Christ.  All people suffer, and to increase our degree of suffering seems to have little upside from an earthly perspective.  It is important to recognise it is impossible to have the power of Christ without suffering with Christ.  And if you are content to have one without the other, there is a disconnect between God's will for your life and your own will. When you think of suffering for Christ's sake, it is likely persecution which leads to suffering by unbelie...

Whilst driving today I was caught in a massive downpour.  Traffic inched forward with very limited visibility as lightning flashed.  Asaph wrote in Psalm 77:17-18 :  " The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; your arrows also flashed about. 18 The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook ."  There is something awe inspiring in the power of nature, and God put souls in men with the need to worship what is greater than themselves.  For this reason men have worshiped nature, the sun, moon, stars, and things God has made.  Men bow before their human idols in appreciation and admiration.  A violent storm cell brings men uniformly back to those common feelings which can become unfamiliar to us:  awe, fear, and the understanding we are small and our existence is precarious indeed. As I cheered on God for the powerful display, my mind went to the passage in Psalm 29:1...

I have ramped up my reading of late and have been delighted with a book bought years ago but never actually read:  The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton.  I encourage you to open and read your own books.  Many treasures sit unknown or forgotten on our own shelves as we place another online order of books.  Spread your branches far, but recognise depth of root is needed to support the growing weight of knowledge.  In the priceless gem that is Spurgeon's Lectures To My Students , he gave this exhortation:  “ Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them…digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled fro...

" I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.  The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it ." C. H. Spurgeon A man must see the enormity of his sin and his offense before God before he can truly repent of it.  There may be many clever analogies used by preachers unfortunately without a basis in scripture, but this is not one of them.  Paul wrote, "I would not have known sin except by the Law." ( Romans 7:7 )  Sin is so natural to a human being we would never recognise it as wrong without the clean mirror of God's Law.  Without knowledge of sin there can be no repentance, and without repentance there is no hope for forgiveness or salvation.  A man must submit to the reality of his deadly disease before he will seek and receive the cure.  Unless a man submits to his condemnation under the Law, spir...