X-alt April 2012
The Thirst of Jesus
When Jesus was crucified there were a number of things he said whilst on the cross. One of them was “I am thirsty” (John 19:28). He said this because he was actually thirsty!
These words are important because they are evidence that point towards the fact that Jesus was really on the cross, and really did die there. Despite some who have said that he wasn’t really on the cross, and only appeared to be there, these words reveal a man who had been through a lot and was about to die – and who needed a drink. This is encouraging to us because it means that he really did go through everything life could throw at him – he didn’t cop out or perform a con job to conveniently avoid suffering. That means when we go to him in our sufferings, we find someone who really does understand. This should encourage us to go to him when times are hard!
Another reason these words are important is because they reveal that Jesus can be trusted, because he did go through it. Actually, our verse tells us that Jesus’ words were spoken to fulfil prophecy. We looked at some of these and the claim that Max Lucado makes that the chances of the various prophecies being fulfilled in one person (i.e. Jesus) is 1 in 840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Even on the cross, Jesus was fulfilling prophecy. As Max Lucado says, ‘Why did Jesus proclaim his thirst from the cross? To lay just one more plank on a sturdy bridge over which a doubter could walk. His confession of thirst is a signal for all who seek it—he is the Messiah… His final act, then, is a warm word for the cautious: “You can trust in me.”’
If Jesus didn’t really die, his resurrection was nothing more than the grand finale to an amazing trick. But in revealing himself to be trustworthy, we can trust that he really did die. Which means that to be resurrected required him to really come back to life and overcome death! Because we can trust he really did die, we can also trust that he really was resurrected! And that means that there is hope – death is not the end of the story, it has been defeated. And Jesus is alive – so the one who understands everything we’ve been through is also the one we can approach and who can save us from death and who can give us his life!
At Easter we remember Jesus’ death for us, but we also remember his resurrection for us to – and everything that’s available to us in the life he brings! Happy Easter – Jesus is alive!
X-alt March 2012
Thirsting Physically
When we feel thirsty we don’t really think that much about how easy it is to get a drink and satisfy our thirst. We can easily turn on the tap and get some clean water! We don’t think about the water cycle (see the video below) or the fact that this is how God has provided for us through his creation.
The Water Cycle animation from Resolution DV on Vimeo.
Psalm 104 starts by saying “My whole being, praise the Lord. Lord my God, you are very great”. And it then goes on to talk about how God has created all things, and has provided water for them. Praise is about saying “thanks” to God, so here we have words which thank God for many things – including the water that he gives us (verses 10-17). Water is given for wild animals, birds and plants. But also for what we need – obviously we can drink it, but it also causes cereals and vegetables and fruit to grow. The animals we use to eat and take produce from (milk, cheese, wool, etc.) also have water to drink and grass to eat – which grows because of the rain! God provides for us naturally – but we should be careful not to take it for granted or be ungrateful.
We also see in the Bible that there were times when God provided supernaturally for those who were physically thirsty. See these examples here. Again, we shouldn’t be ungrateful or take this provision for granted. When we pray we might ask God for things, but then not pay attention for his answers! Sometimes he doesn’t answer in the way we expect so we need to be alert as well as having faith that he does answer.
God cares for us and will usually provide what we need – either naturally or supernaturally. If something is withheld from us then there’ll be a good reason for it – like to teach us something or to discipline us (like we looked at last month!). And these examples show that just because we are seeking to live for God doesn’t guarantee an uninterrupted supply – there will still be difficult times and we may need to ask God to provide for us miraculously because there’s no other option!
The real challenge today is all about is how we respond to God when he gives us things. Are we thankful people? How can we be more thankful? We took inspiration from this guy…
“You keep on concentrating on the things you wish you had or the things you wish you didn’t have and you forget what you do have…” His first principle is to be thankful. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18…
“Always be joyful. Pray continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.”
And for some us that’s hard because there’s hard stuff going on in our lives – but maybe we can start with some of the easy stuff like what God has already given to us. Maybe we can make it so that every time we turn on the tap it reminds us to be thankful!
We finished by writing a whole load of stuff we can praise God for. Here’s some photos stuck together to record what was written and drawn!
Tags: being thankful, God, natural, praise, provision, supernatural, taking things for granted, thankfulness, thirst, water, X-alt
X-alt February 2012
Thirst of Judgement!
Looking at thirst as a sign of God’s judgement, we could say it’s about consequences – whatever we do, there will be consequences – some good and some bad, sometimes predictable and sometimes surprising!
The main passage we looked at was Jeremiah 14:1-10. It’s not the most cheerful bit of the Bible, but we can’t just ignore the more difficult bits because then we end up with a view of God that is skewed! And it isn’t the only passage which talks about thirst as a result of God’s judgement – see these verses too.
All of these verses are about God bringing judgement on people because of their disobedience and rebellion. The Old Testament gives us an incredible insight into these people. Over and over again, God intervenes and shows his mercy, for the people to rebel and do their own evil things, so God allows them to suffer. Then they cry out to God and he intervenes and rescues them, for them to turn away again. God’s people are rebellious, sinful, selfish, wayward, stiff necked, disobedient. But God still loves them. And we have this cycle that just keeps repeating throughout the Old Testament.
We might say – why didn’t they just get with the programme and sort it out. But then think about how we are and how we go through cycles of doing stuff that is wrong, then saying sorry to God and then doing the same old wrong things again, etc. And there can be part of us that takes it foregranted that it doesn’t matter too much because God will just forgive us won’t he?
And that’s where a passage like this one in Jeremiah should give us a bit of a wake up call. Because what happens – well there’s a drought and the people cry out to God and apologise to him for their sins – they recognise that this is God’s judgement on them. And then comes the really scary bit – God says “The punishment stands” Look at verse 10 – ‘This is what the Lord says about the people of Judah: “They really love to wander from me; they don’t stop themselves from leaving me. So now the Lord will not accept them. He will now remember the evil they do and will punish them for their sins.”’
So often God rescues us when we call out to him – I have known his grace and mercy in so many of the things I’ve done. But sometimes God lets us experience the consequences of our actions and attitudes and thoughts. That’s not because he isn’t showing mercy and grace at those points – what we actually deserve is to die. In his grace and mercy God allows us to learn lessons and not just always conveniently escape (or die!).
We might not be very happy with God about it, but actually all he is doing is letting us have what we want – he lets us make mistakes and live with the consequences because that is what we have chosen!
And God does this because we do need to learn. In so many ways we are like little kids who need to learn the most basic and obvious things. A child can’t always be wrapped in cotton wool – sometimes they need to hurt themselves in order to learn. God doesn’t want to hurt us – but he does allow us to hurt – to teach us and help us grow. Because any discipline from a good parent punishes us in order to help us learn. God didn’t hold back his punishment of Israel and the reason for that is because he wanted the cycle to break and for them to be serious in living for him.
And really, if we want to get what God is like, a good place to look is the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15.
Most of you will know the story, but a little recap – there was a father with two sons and one of them says Dad, I wish you were dead so I could take my share of everything and have a good time. So the father let him have it and the son went off and lived a wild life – it would probably make Skins look like children’s telly. But he ends up wasting all his money and is left with nothing. He finds a job looking after pigs and is so hungry that he wants to eat the pigs’ food. Eventually, he decides he will return home and see if he can work there as a servant – that would be better than what he’d been doing.
But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran to him and hugged and kissed him and welcomed him as his lost son and threw a huge party. His son was lost, but now was found!
That’s what God is like – he will give into our demands and lets us have what we want knowing that it will cause us grief. And then he waits for us to realise and watches out for our return – not so that he can point the finger and make us feel bad or say “I told you so” – but so that he can embrace us and kiss us and show us just how much he loves us. God is a good dad who wants the best for us and disciplines us accordingly.
There are times when things are difficult in life or we feel thirsty spiritually because God is letting us experience his judgement – allowing you to suffer the consequences of what you have done. Just know that God is using it to bring you back to him. To get whatever is in the way sorted out and dealt with – for us to be restored. As it said in the Jeremiah passage – God is the hope of Israel and he’s our hope too. In Hebrew the word for hope that was used can mean “pool of water”. Our hope is in one who can relieve this thirst if we turn back to him.
X-alt: January 2012
Thirst Quenched Eternally!
Heaven. What a great way to start 2012 – thinking about heaven.
We watched this video to start us thinking about it:
Do You Believe in Heaven? (UK)
And then we talked through our answers to those questions, before turning to Scripture and reading the following passages: Revelation 21:6-7; 22:1-3; 22:17. All these say something about heaven in terms of our thirst theme. Heaven is the place where our thirst will be satisfied without any distraction for the whole of eternity!
The problem is that heaven can have a bit of an image problem. It’s well summed up in this cartoon:
If we think heaven is boring, we won’t be excited by it. And one of the things about heaven is that it is a place we should be looking forward to! I tried to sum up some of what the Bible says…
Heaven is a place with no sin, no death, no pain, no sadness, no disease, no accidents, no unkindness, no loneliness, no broken relationships, and nothing to break the peace, love, and joy.
In that place we will enjoy God’s presence forever – we will be able to see him with our own eyes. We will join with a vast crowd of others and with the angels and we will worship God. If you think about the best moment of Soul Survivor ever, that will be dull in comparison!
We don’t know where it is exactly, but the Bible says it is above the earth! And it’s beautiful – the images the Bible uses take our minds to think of the most incredible luxury – no expense spared – it will make the homes you may have seen on Cribs look cheap and nasty.
If you think of the best things about visiting a major city (say London or New York), heaven offers more. If you think about being in the most beautiful countryside, heaven has all this and much much more.
If you want to know what heaven looks like, try and think of all the most incredible sights and materials you have ever seen – and then imagine something even more breathtaking than all of that together! The Bible describes a gold city, jewels and precious metals everywhere, fire and lightning and much much more.
Heaven is also portrayed as a place where we will receive rewards for the work we have done for God on earth. Where we will be transformed with new bodies, and we will know complete satisfaction and joy. And it’s also described as somewhere with plenty of room for everyone there. And there will be no need for sun or artificial light, because God himself will radiate light. By the way if you like eating, there’ll be food and drink as part of the great party!
There will also be fellowship with one another. Sometimes that’s hard work on earth, but it will be different there. Have you ever had an incredible conversation with someone that has gone on for hours and that at the end of it you feel really close to that person? That’s the sort of thing we should have in mind when we think of heaven – but we’ll get to do that with millions of people – old friends and new.
And what about the new bodies we’ll receive? C. S. Lewis once wrote that if we were to see our glorified selves walking down the street, we would be tempted to fall at our feet and worship ourselves.
I also read this: “If our bodies are like Jesus’ resurrection body, we will be able to appear and disappear at will, to pass through walls or doors without limitation, to rise from the ground unbound by gravity, and apparently to travel at the speed of thought. We will never forget. We will never hit our heads against a brick wall. We will never hunger or thirst or mourn or cry”.
And we will worship with millions of others. One thing I read said it will make the most impressive choir sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks!
The problem with heaven is that it is difficult to get our heads around (see 1 Corinthians 2:9). What the Bible provides us with is a starting point for trying to imagine just how wonderful it is! What we have thought about is pretty cool, but our imaginations limit us – heaven will be so much more!!!
All who are thirsty can come and be satisfied by the water of life, but it is also up to the Bride (those who know Jesus) to echo the invitation to others. Heaven and earth are separate places, but there are moments when heaven touches earth and we need to be involved with that. I finished by reading this quote from Patrick Regan in the March 2011 Youthwork magazine:
I don’t know about you but I used to have this pretty stereotypical picture of heaven, with loads of white clouds and hour upon hour of worship music. Honestly? It seemed a bit dull to me. Then I read the book of Isaiah which talks about a wasteland being turned into a green lush mountain thriving with life. Suddenly my imagination started running wild. I pictured that mountain, and beside me I saw the mothers and fathers who had lost their children to gang violence. They were crying like the last time I had seen them on earth, except this time it was tears of joy that were running down their faces; their suffering wiped away. Next to them I pictured the children I’ve met in Ghana, like Koffi who is so small for his age you’d think he was five years old even though he’s actually eleven. In this life his mum is an alcoholic and his chances of breaking out of poverty are small; in this vision of heaven he’s healthy, happy and whole. Next to him I see the kids I meet every day in London who hate themselves, who have to deal with gang wars on their doorsteps, who want to get pregnant just to have somebody to love. They’re grinning from ear to ear; no more tears for them. Next to them is Rakeem, his bulletproof vest long forgotten. In this picture of heaven we all leg it up the mountain of God together, headed for the most awesome heavenly party. We’re all together, whole and filled with joy as God created us to be.
And that’s what we’re meant to bring to earth now. We’re here to put smiles on the faces of those who mourn. We’re called to feed those who are starving. We’re loved so that we can bring community to those who are lonely. In short, we’re equipped, called and challenged to love the hell out of people in the name of Jesus.
X-alt: December 2011
Thirst More Than Satisfied!
Our December X-alt was really about the extravagance of God in satisfying our thirst. There were two things we looked at as part of this: Quantity and Quality!
Quantity
Last month we looked at Jesus’ words about how when we believe in him “rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, according to the Scriptures” (John 7:37). This gives an idea of quantity, but there are some passages which give us a better idea – particularly Ezekiel 47. The temple was where God had lived among his people, but the New Testament talks about how the Holy Spirit now lives within believers like us! We are temples of the Holy Spirit which when you take the words from Ezekiel with Jesus’ words makes this a pretty big deal! Not only do we get our thirst quenched by the vast river of the Spirit, he also flows out of us bringing life and fruitfulness wherever he goes.
In terms of quantity, Ezekiel’s vision shows that there is so much of this water that there is plenty to swim in! There’s no need to go thirsty when there’s so much, and we don’t need to worry that God might dry up and be unable to meet demand! And it’s more than just a picture – it’s an invitation as one person wrote: ‘to come and live in the river of God and partake of, and participate in, His life.’ This is awesome stuff!!!
So why do we still feel thirsty if all this is true? If we go back to John 7, we see Jesus’ words: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.” For our thirst to be satisfied needs us to go to him and drink as well as believe – and often we don’t.
I showed the following clip of someone jumping into the river and letting go of the things which they needed to let go of. I encouraged you to let God speak to you through it and jump into the river of the Holy Spirit and let yourself be overwhelmed and swept away by him, drinking deeply as you went. Why not do that now?
Click here to watch The River
Quality
The quality of this river is obvious in the life it brings! But for all its quantity, the picture of the river isn’t enough for God’s extravagance! We looked at Isaiah 55:1 (the NIV gives a better translation) and Joel 3:18. There’s not just water to drink, but wine and milk! These were real luxury drinks of the time – symbols of complete satisfaction.
An abundance of wine was considered a sign of blessing and prosperity from God and it was considered a source of joy – something that has been created for people and is good. Maybe this is why Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine? At a wedding where all the wine had been drunk already, he then produces another 908 bottles worth! Jesus was no party pooper! He started his ministry as he meant to go on with a scandalous act of generosity.
Then there’s milk which is also mentioned and symbolises blessing and luxury.
One thing that milk and wine have in common is that they are sensuous drinks. And so we read in Song of Songs the words of the male lover that he finds wine and milk under the woman’s tongue (Song 4:11, 5:1)! How does he find that out – probably not with a torch and asking her to open her gob and say “aaah”! This is the language of love, of deep kissing, the sort of thing you might be surprised to find in the Bible, but it’s there!
So when we think about experiencing God in terms of wine and milk, words which describe how we experience him could include: satisfaction, blessing, joy, enjoyment, intimacy, and love.
This time of year is party season and we’ve already seen that Jesus liked to party. Take a look at that list and think about what people hope to get out of their parties this Christmas. If you went to a party and this was your experience, it would be an incredible party! But this Christmas, as with every year, many will be disappointed that the party didn’t live up to expectations.
Jesus showed that you can still be part of the fun without sinning, but he also promises the Holy Spirit to those of us who know him. And when we receive the Spirit, this is what we get. Let’s receive him and all this. Make sure you party hard with Jesus this Christmas and all the rest of the time too!
X-alt: November 2011
Thirst satisfied by salvation
I didn’t have much of a voice yesterday, so I got everyone else to do the work and I did very little! Hopefully this gives a flavour of what we were looking at!
We started by reading John 7:37-44 and exploring the passage a bit. Jesus was at the Festival of Tabernacles (or Shelters) (see 7:2) in which the Jewish people remembered the time they spent in the wilderness for 40 years – a nomadic people who wandered around the desert living in tents (the tabernacles or shelters). During that time God provided them with food and water. We’re concentrating on water here, and we see an example of the miraculous way God provided this in Exodus 17.
Each day during the festival there was a joyous celebration of this provision where the priests brought water (symbolic of the water supplied from the rock) to the temple from the pool of Siloam in a golden pitcher. During the procession the people recited Is. 12:3 “You will receive your salvation with joy as you would draw water from a well.”
The water was poured out on the altar as an offering to God, while the people shouted and sang. This sets the scene for Jesus’ claim in v.37 – “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.” Some people have even suggested that Jesus may have said this at the very moment the water was being poured onto the altar.
By saying this Jesus was claiming that he could save – i.e. that he was God – and that he was the fulfilment of all this ceremony signified (see also 1 Corinthians 10:4)! This was controversial stuff! How do we know Jesus wasn’t just been full of himself, or mistaken, or even silly? We need to join with many others and experience this for ourselves!
Jesus’ invitation was to anyone who is thirsty. When we come to know him we receive the Holy Spirit who becomes streams of living water flowing from within us.
One person who experienced this in the Bible was the Samaritan Woman who we read about in John 4. The following video helps us to understand something of how her encounter with Jesus, the ultimate water giver, must have made her feel.
For to be known is to be loved;
And to be loved is to be known.
And they all need this, too.
We all do
Need it for our own.
Salvation is about having a relationship with Jesus. Of realising that he knows us and loves us and wants the best for us, and in turn to come to know and love him. When we come to know him we put the things that get in the way of that relationship behind us and live for him. Our thirst is satisfied and he comes to live within us by his Holy Spirit. Streams of living water will flow from within us. When we are saved, we need never be thirsty again.
X-alt: October 2011
Thirst after wrong things vs. thirst for righteousness
Sorry this is a little late! October’s X-alt was looking at the stupid things we use to try and satisfy our spiritual thirst which will always fail, compared with that which is guaranteed to do the job! We and others use all kinds of things including wealth, success, sex, drugs, alcohol, power, food, etc.
In the Bible we find that God’s people were always using the wrong things to satisfy their thirst apart from God:
A good summary of the situation is Jeremiah 2:13-18, which describes how the people turned away from the “spring of living water” in order to dig their own wells which are inadequate and broken and contaminated and dirty. When you know that God satisfies and offers a spring of living water, why decide to get your water from somewhere else?
Any of the other things we use become a distraction from the One who can truly quench our thirst. Paul wrote that the things which distract us from knowing Christ are worthless compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus as our Lord. He goes on to say they are “worthless trash” (Phil 3:8), although the word Paul uses could actually mean excrement – the best translation may even be “crap”. The things that distract us are crap. And with that in mind we watched the following clip which isn’t for the faint hearted!
The craziness of the wrong things we use to satisfy our thirst, is that it’s like doing what Bear Grylls just did when there’s a plentiful supply of good clean water easily within reach! That’s what people do all the time – it’s mad!
Whatever it is – whether it’s alcohol or drugs or sex that is being misused – it’s like squeezing the juice out of an elephant turd and drinking it. And when you think of it like that, the reasons for doing it aren’t that convincing – if people do it to look cool, or to fit in with their friends, or because they feel down, or because they think it’s fun – the fact is that it’s a stupid idea!
In comparison, Jesus teaches something very simple. In Matthew 5:6 he says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Righteousness isn’t trendy. Whereas people may be impressed by an unrighteous act like getting drunk, they probably won’t be impressed if you choose not to do that!
Righteousness is about living in a way that is right – towards yourself, God and others. Ultimately it is God who is righteous. So when we thirst for righteousness and seek to live in a right way, we need to start by realising we can’t do it ourselves and so need to surrender to him. From there, we are able to enjoy fullness of relationship with God which satisfies. When we go after righteousness, we go after God and in living righteously we find him and he quenches our thirst that nothing else can.
I finish with a question for which the answer should be a no brainer. How are you going to satisfy your thirst? Poo juice or righteousness? But think carefully about your answer because (sadly) most of us, more often than not, like to reach for the juice.
Tags: alcohol, bear grylls, crap, cruelty, drugs, evil, false teaching, food, insults, power, righteousness, sex, sin, success, thirst, wealth, wickedness, wrong things, X-alt
X-alt: September 2011
We kick our new theme for the year ahead off with a look at what it means to thirst for God. Although we’ll look at physical thirst another time, it does give us a few clues to what spiritual thirst is about. Being really thirsty involves desperation and longing. When we think about when we’ve been really thirsty and what it feels like to have that thirst quenched, it helps us to understand something of what verses in the Psalms like these are on about!
What is reflected in these Psalms is something quite simple – our souls are designed to thirst for God. It should be that our natural desire then is to meet with him and spend time in his presence. But what often happens, and we’ll look at this next month, is that we end up trying to satisfy this deep thirst with lots of wrong things. And that is doomed to failure because only God can satisfy the thirst that is deep within us for him.
The verses we read raise questions about this thirst –
Where can I go to meet with the living God who I thirst for? Where can I find him?
Well, there’s good news! He is here. In fact, he’s everywhere. That doesn’t mean that sometimes we won’t have desert experiences where everything seems a bit dry and dusty and difficult – where we might not even sense his presence. But the good news is that even when he seems far off, he is still there. And whilst we all have these experiences, and God uses them to help us grow, I do not believe they are meant to be long term.
Usually, there’s no real reason why we can encounter him and enjoy his presence with us. Jesus made it possible for us to experience God in a way that the Psalmists couldn’t have imagined. He died on the Cross for our sins, so that by putting our faith in him those sins, which separate us from God, can be done away with. When we put our faith in Jesus, we can have a relationship with God. But that’s not a distant far-off sort of thing. God comes and lives within us by the Holy Spirit.
We may still have desert experiences, but as the Holy Spirit works in us he will bring life. When we read things like in this Psalm, we need to remember the incredible way that rain can bring life to the most desolate places.
God has put a thirst in all of us, which we can try and satisfy in all sorts of ways, but there’s only one person who can do that – and it’s God. When we are in relationship with him, through faith in what Jesus has done for us, then the Holy Spirit will fill us to overflowing. We don’t need to be thirsty for God, because he is here and will satisfy that thirst. Our thirst is like that of a parched land – but when the rain comes, the desert will bloom. It will be full of life.
If spiritual life is to be sustained, then it is important that we are continually watered. That’s one reason we encourage you to soak in God’s presence, to spend deliberate time being refreshed by him without any other agenda – waiting on God and asking him to bring his life giving water to us.
Tags: desert, desperation, faith, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, longing, Psalms, relationship with God, soaking, the Cross, thirst, thirsting for God, X-alt
X-alt July 2011: Heroes of the Faith – Rahab
As Hebrews 11 tells us, Rahab was a prostitute. Is this really what we’ve been building up to? How can a prostitute be a hero? Why is she even included in our list of heroes?
Her story is found in Joshua 2 and 6, and her faith is shown in the second part of verse 11. Because she had come to know that God rules the heavens above and the earth below, she realised that if she was to have a future she shouldn’t stand in God’s way. Because of this belief, she put her life on the line. That’s faith in action! The book of James tells us that it was this faith being lived out that made her right with God.
As well as having great faith, she is included because she isn’t one of God’s people and because she was a prostitute. Basically, the message is that anyone can be used by God – despite their flaws. In fact, this is pretty much the summary of this whole series – you don’t have to be perfect – God uses people despite their flaws! What is it that makes them heroes? Is it their great holiness or that their lives are sorted out? Apparently not! It’s because God has done something great through them.
We should be encouraged that this means that God can use us despite our failings. If he can use someone involved in prostitution, then he can probably use us too! We can never be too bad for God.
That doesn’t mean we should carry on sinning. Rahab’s faith made her right with God. Sin stops people from being right with God. In James, Rahab’s example is of faith in action, but faith that isn’t lived is worthless. All this suggests that Rahab put prostitution behind her. Whilst God can use us when we sin, this will stop us being right with him, so we need God to help us work at being holy and pure.
To finish we read the rest of Hebrews 11. Verses 39-40 point us back to Jesus and the promises that are found in him- something better than what these heroes received. Forgiveness of sins, freedom to live, eternal life are all ours! Jesus will live within us by the Holy Spirit, and in that there is hope and purpose for us! The tales of adventure didn’t end with those mentioned in Hebrews 11 – they continue with us! We need to know that no matter what anyone says, God can work in us and use us in amazing ways!
X-alt June 2011: Heroes of the Faith – The People
Up until now we’ve been looking at some impressive individuals who did great things for God. But Hebrews 11 goes on to big up the people and to commend them for their faith.
Both stories that are mentioned – crossing the Red Sea and the walls of Jericho falling down – are about overcoming obstacles. If our God can deal with these, then he can deal with anything! Whatever the obstacles in our lives – whether physical, emotional, or spiritual – he can overcome them!
But we also need to remember that when they faced these things the people were together. When we face obstacles in our lives we should remember that we are part of a community. As Phil was saying last Sunday morning, we should bear one another’s burdens and cast them onto Jesus.
We have a role to play in the obstacles that one another face. That’s why it is so important to use spiritual gifts to encourage one another and pray together. We also need to be careful that we don’t celebrate the wrong things – we should seek to spur one another on to great things, not to drag one another down into the gutter!
Together we can have faith that will see some amazing things happen! We’re in this together!
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