What if Jesus hadn't come?

I found myself wondering the other day what would the world be like if Jesus had never been born, and the more I thought about it the more I began to realise it would be a vastly different place to what we know now and certainly not a better one.

Unfortunately the liberal West loves to blame Christianity for many of the world's ills and keep people ignorant of the positive and profound impact Jesus, and consequently, those who have believed in, and followed him, have had upon the world.

Let me list a few...

The coming of Jesus has transformed lives, relationships and communities.

It has brought liberty and justice, education, medicine and health care to the masses.

It has brought deliverance from false and futile religion and dark satanic practices.

It has provided relief to the poor, lifted the downtrodden and broken the yoke of the oppressed.

It has impacted politics and law and given dignity and rights, freedom of speech.

It has been a stimulator and contributor to the whole arena of science.

It has given dignity to work and the rights of employees.

It has contributed enormously to music, literature and the arts.

It has provided the biggest season of goodwill the world has ever known.

And so we could go on....

Which reminds me, not so long ago I read a report that had come out of atheistic China that said that all that is good (note that) about the West derives from Christianity and therefore from Jesus. That is some statement!

Yes, if Jesus had not come into the world it would have been a far worse and poorer place.

Praise God, Jesus did come!

Israel - adding a third dimension

Well it's been two or three weeks since I posted.

Last Saturday 4th August Pam and I returned with 30+ others from a 10 day trip to Israel, and what a trip it was. I've known and heard people talk of the difference such a trip made to them but never really imagined it would have that impact - it really does!

It was a tremendous privilege to walk the land of the Bible, to observe and feel its dimensions, to observe and feel the history - the reality.

It was a tremendous privilege to walk where Jesus - God in the flesh - lived, walked, talked, healed, delivered, saved, died and rose again!

There was just sooo much! It was action packed all the way! When people have asked what was your favourite, rather like our team leader Steve, I find I have lots of favourites - in fact I started to write a list and I found it would be too long for a post! So many things brought the Bible, it's stories and teachings to life in a new way - it's like it added  a third dimension.

Probably the saddest things was to see and feel something of the division and tension in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and to see those for who Messiah came, still looking and longing for him.

The weirdest, laying on the Dead Sea and then putting your legs down in order to stand up and finding they just bounced up!

The most moving was to hear the testimonies of a Palestinian believer - how he came to Christ in prison, the trials he faces day by day, his vision for the gospel, and that of a converted Jew in Nazareth, how he had come to a saving knowledge of Messiah and how he was now seeking to make him known.

Another important aspect was the group we went with from various parts of the UK and the world, mostly unknown to one another but like a family by the end - sharing food, fellowship and fun truly helped to make it - and the collective memory at the airport as we waited for our flight certainly helped to fill the gaps in our memories and diaries!

HiStory is His story, the Bible tells us God is behind and in the story of planet earth, his great love for those he made in his image, and how he has a plan to redeem a people from every tribe, tongue and nation unto himself - a story of God's amazing grace to people who just don't deserve it!

The unfolding of that story took place in a very small corner of the earth, today it takes place on an international scale as Jesus continues to build his church as His Spirit moves across the nations of the earth and gets behind every barrier that man can raise whether of the mind and heart - or a very physical wall, to bring men and women to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

A Sinner saved by grave or a saint? Part 2

Following on from last week here are some further thoughts…..

So if we are more than ‘sinners saved by grace’ why is it that we struggle with being called ‘saints’?

Here are three possible reasons:

• We look the same – we have not been noticably transformed or are identifyably any different, we don’t suddenly have ‘halos’ or possess a ‘holy auror,’ or walk around 6 inches off the ground.
• We don’t necessarily feel like it. We have some measure of a ‘born again’ experience. I say some measure, because for some it’s more dramatic than others, yet no less real – some can name a date, for others it happened over a period of time and they are not sure when they actually crossed the line; for some it was a dramatic experience, for others it wasn’t…..
• We still find ourselves struggling with sin. I mean if I am a new creation why is that? Perhaps you think, what changed? Did anything change?

If we are to move forward it helps us to remember something of how life works in both the natural and the spiritual:

• In some ways becoming a Christian is a bit like moving from one country to another and then becoming a citizen of that country. You may well take on the new identity but you you still have memories and thinking patterns that reflect your previous history or citizenship.
• Then there is the matter of growth in knowledge and understanding.  A child doesn’t understand immediately who he or she is, but over a period of time learns who they are, and grows into it.
• Then theres the not so small matter of experience. It’s not just knowledge and understanding but the working out of it through decision and action. Such decision making and action can confirm or work against our knowledge of who we are.
• Lastly Christians are in a ‘war zone’ and the enemy will contest everything. Even as Satan confronted Jesus as to who he was, so he will confront those who believe in and seek to follow him.

Where are you  on the spectrum?

Have you crossed the line into the kingdom? If not I urge you to believe in him who lived and died that you might have a new identity, and know the power of the life to come.

Are you still a babe in Christ? It’s time to start growing – feed on him and his word; draw on the new life he has given you.

Are you taking responsibility for your decisions and their consequences? It’s time to start behaving as well as believing.

Are you caught in the battle, your shield is down and you’ve dropped your sword – it’s time to pick them up again and start fighting for your spiritual life.

Have you dropped out of the battalion – the local church – you need to get back into it, find your family and fellow soldiers.