And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

The account of Moses and the burning bush is well known by Christians. It features regularly in my kid’s children’s bibles. But what is curious to me is I wonder how many burning bushes that didn’t make it into the bible?

In other words, I wonder how many opportunities to encounter God, burning bush moments like Moses’, we just miss.

There is a very key phrase in the above passage. Moses says, “I will turn aside to see this great sight…”. Moses saw the burning bush, but then he went a step further and turned aside to pay it some attention.

It is one thing to notice a sign and a wonder from God – a healing, an experience in worship, an answered prayer. But it is another to stop what you are doing, divert your focus for a moment and “turn aside to see” what it is God might be up to.

I love that we’re told “When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”. When we turn aside to see, it grabs God’s attention! In fact, it was only when God noticed Moses turning aside to see, that He spoke clearly to Moses.

What this tells me is amazing.

God gives us hints at His working throughout our life. God bisects our world regularly, peeling back the layers that we might catch a glimpse of eternity. But that is not the end of it. Rather, it’s a means to the end, the end being a face to face encounter with Him.

When you notice a burning bush – that is, God at work around you – don’t waste it! Stop what you’re doing, turn off the TV, change your schedule, move away from the phone, because God is waiting for you to turn aside that you might encounter Him in a life-altering way. Just like Moses did.

But there is one overarching purpose to our faith that we must never lose sight of. And that is to passionate, wholeheartedly love God.

Mark 12:28-30

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Jesus tells us this is the first and greatest command He has for us; Love our God with everything we have! Loving Jesus is our greatest command and our highest call.

I believe our world is crying out for people who are passionate about their God. People all around us are seeking the real deal. Not hollow religiousity, not gentle platitudes, not two-faced living, not luke-warm spirituality. But whole-hearted, passionate people truly in LOVE with their God.

Because this is so critical, we need to continually gauge our passion and love for Jesus and we can do this according to Mark Chapter 12:

• Heart: Where do your deepest affections lie? What moves your heart? What matters to you, thrills you or angers you?
• Soul: Our soul will follow either the flesh or the Spirit. So are you walking according to the Spirit or flesh? Which captures your attention throughout each day?
• Mind: What does your thought life reflect about you? Are you becoming more like Jesus through the renewing of your mind?
• Strength: What does your life outwardly say about what you love? What does the way you spend your life’s resources (time, talents, finances, relationships etc) say about your love for Jesus?

Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica

There a fine line between enjoying the pleasures of the world God gave to us, and forsaking the higher calling of God BECAUSE of the pleasures of the world he gave us.

One of the great things about living where I do, near the expanses of Indian Ocean, is the awesome lifestyle and options we are blessed with. For many this present world in which we live can be very attractive. Weekends away, afternoons at the beach, the good times with friends and food, enjoying your favourite TV show, supporting your favourite team; none of it is bad, so long as it doesn’t seduce you.

Demas was a young leader in the church, travelling with the apostle Paul. In all likelihood he did many great things for the kingdom of God alongside Paul. But at some point the pleasures of life became greater than the pleasure of God. And it ended up costing him his call.

We are citizens of heaven, this present world is just a temporary posting along the way. We should enjoy the life God has blessed us with, but never at the expense of our calling and the higher purposes of God.

To understand what it is to be radical we need to understand the essence of the word, which is to be “related to or proceeding from the root” (*). A person of radical faith is one who understands and lives by the root of their faith.

At this time of year we celebrate Christmas – the birth of Jesus. I love this time of year for many reasons; the celebrations, the holidays, the family time, the summer and all its sights and sounds. But above all of that Christmas brings to mind the undeniable fact that Jesus came to us, born as a child but with the incredible purpose of redeeming humanity through his death, burial and resurrection.

To be a ‘radical’ may have some different connotations for some, but I believe its actually to recall and re-embrace the foundation of Christmas – the root of the season which is Jesus.

If nothing else Christmas reminds us about Christ. To be radical in our faith and in our life is to live in relationship with the Jesus of Christmas; to believe in Him and His word and to live in the power of His Spirit. Go radical!

Note: Image Courtesy of Camberley FAS

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Have you felt like you were out of your depth? Have you felt overwhelmed by what is before you? Don’t stress, it is actually a part of faith and growing in God. I believe we come to seasons in our life where it IS too hard for us, but it is never too hard for Him. And that is the point. We are compelled to draw near to Him to build our faith.

So, how do you build yourself up in the faith?

1. Pray in the Spirit – God has given us the baptism of the Holy Spirit to enable us to pray the powerful and timely prayers of the Spirit. Praying in tongues builds your faith and inner man enabling you to walk in the Spirit and not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (Gal 5:16-17).

2. Keep yourselves in the love of God – God is love (1 John 4) and if we are in relationship with Him we too can and should walk in love. Check yourself, your attitudes, motivations and thoughts – are they grounded in the love of God? If not repent and return to Him and His love for you.

3. Wait on the mercies of God – make time to unplug from the rush of life to be still in the presence of Almighty God (Ps 46:10). Allow His grace to flood your heart and mind before getting back into it.

Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore.

God’s plan for extending His kingdom involves two distinct phases; scatter and gather.

First, he scatters His people. The Israelites were exiled into a foreign land. The early church in Jerusalem was persecuted and scattered. But in so doing, it began to fulfil God’s heart all along, “you will be my witnesses… to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Where you are today God has put you – your family, your workplace, your school, your circle of influence. He scattered us to those places for a reason, that we know and others do too, “…that I am the LORD their God”.

Secondly, God gathers. God brings people together. Being scattered into the world has a purpose, but too does being gathered together again. When we gather as the church we are “assembled” together to be His fully operational body in the earth.

Wherever God’s people are, we are called to gather together, for worship, for fellowship, for training, for encouragement. This is the rhythm by which churches are planted and God’s kingdom on earth is extended. God scatters us to our mission field and gathers us together by His Spirit, before we do it all over again.

Go and come. Sent and return. It’s His way. Today, let’s do it with purpose!

I came across this very good quote recently –

“The purpose of the gifts is to call attention to the Lord … The second object of the gifts is evangelistic … We must test anything that claims to be a movement of the Spirit in terms of it’s evangelistic power … God’s way has been to revive His people and then because they are revived, His power is manifested in their preaching, their witness, their testimony and in the whole of their lives”.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones – “Joy Unspeakable” – Kingsway Books, Eastbourne (2000) – (p256).

I love that. It is the way of God to revive His people and for those revived lives to take Jesus to their homes, workplaces, shopping centres, sporting grounds, wherever they go! It really is such a simple plan.

The truth is though, we seem to do all we can to avoid going in search of One who revives. To reach people we’d rather try a new method or a different angle, re-engineer the church or apply a fresh teaching, or worse rationalise it all away with a new theology*.

The question has got to be, how’s that working for you?

I ask myself the same question and to be honest, it isn’t. And the reason for that is evident; it isn’t God’s way. A revived life is, but for that there is a cost and it is a cost most of us are extremely reluctant to pay.

But the time has come. There is no other way to reach this nation, in my opinion, than to count the cost and go in desperate search of the One who revives. It is He and He alone, by His Spirit, who possesses the “evangelistic power” we lack and need.

* Also known as unbelief and Jesus had some heavy things to say about it.

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

-Soren Kierkegaard

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment.

We need to learn to live in the NOW, content with the NOW. Anything else NOW will rob us of our joy and peace we have in Christ.

Our past is our past. It is past. It is gone and we can not change it even if we want to. Feelings and thoughts of regret and shame as we look back rob us of contentment in our lives today.

Likewise, as we look forward to our future, we can feel fear, apprehension, worry, stress, anxiety, depression, hopelessness. Again this emanates from thoughts we entertain in our NOW.

We can’t change the past, we can’t predict the future – but right NOW we can choose to look to Christ and in Him find peace and contentment for today.

Jesus taught us to pray, asking for “daily bread“, not a store for a week, month or longer. When we look to Jesus and rely on Jesus NOW;

• we find contentment and rest for NOW,
• peace and forgiveness for our past,
• and faith and hope for our future.

You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear…

There is a difference between listening and inclining your ear to hear.

Have you ever found yourself like me, listening to your wife talk whilst at the same time reading or watching the TV? “Are you listening to me?!?” is the question that soon comes. Why? Because there is a difference between listening and inclining your ear to hear.

You can tell your wife you’re listening but she knows (and so do you) you weren’t inclining your ear to hear. In other words you weren’t paying attention.

We can hear the Word of God preached in church, played on podcasts, and read in blog posts. We can passively listen, but that is not actively taking the time to incline our ears to the pitch, volume and frequency of the Lord’s voice to us.

What is God saying to you? Why don’t you take some time to lean into God and incline our ears to hear His voice.

*Image courtesy infovisual.info