Jesus According to Hebrews

Here are some statements that the Biblical book of Hebrews make about Jesus!

• He is sent from the Father
• He is the heir of everything
• He is the creator of everything (in the power of the Spirit and under the authority of the father)
• He is the radiance of the glory of the Father
• He is the imprint of the Father’s nature
• He is the sustainer of creation
• He is the redeemer of everything
• His throne is established for ever
• He loves righteousness and hates wickedness
• He is exalted by the Father above all at his right hand
• He is the same yesterday, today and for ever
• His Father is working to ensure that he is honoured by all
• He was made made (a) perfect (mediator) through his suffering
• He is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters before the Father
• He took on Flesh and Blood so that he might destroy the power of the devil and deliver us from slavery to the fear of death
• He is a faithful and merciful high priest (mediator between God and us)
• He is our man in Heaven, able to sympathise and help us when we are tempted yet he himself was without sin
• He is quick to draw near
• He offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears on our behalf to the Father
• As a man, he learned obedience through what he suffered
• He has become the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him
• He is our forerunner into Heaven
• He has promised to be our salvation and sealed it with an oath
• He is a sure and steadfast anchor to the soul
• He is our mediator in the power of an indestructible life
• He is the guarantor of a better covenant
• He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption
• He has entered into the presence of God on our behalf
• He will come again to save those who are eagerly waiting for him
• He endure great hostility from sinners during his earthly life
• For the joy set before him, endure the cross, scorned its shame and sat down at the right hand of the Father

Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Prayer is to the Christian as (Sexual) Intimacy is to Marriage.

Just read, in half an hour, Mike Reeves' excellent little book on prayer. It's so short, you could read it over a coffee and for £3 from here, it's a bargain.  Get it and pass it on when you've finished.

Mike doesn't draw the analogy, but basically prayer is for the Christian like intimacy (esp sexual intimacy) is for marriage. Intimacy does not make you married, nor does it break your marriage, but the amount and nature of the intimacy mutually experienced is probably the best indicator of how deeply the spouses do or don't love each other. Prayer does not make you a Christian, nor does lack of it unmake you one, but it does reveal what your attitude towards God really is deep down. He puts it like this:

In one sense, your prayer life is disgustingly revealing: it does reveal who you really are. For all your talk and theory of faith - you can affirm the truth of prayer and know that God is good - your prayer life reveals how much you really want communion with God, and how much you really depend on him. I stress, it does not tell you about your security as an unrejectable child of God, but it does tell you, very accurately, how much of a baby you are spiritually, how much of a hypocrite you are, and how much you actually love the Lord. Thus, if your tendency is to think you're rather wonderful, remember your prayer life.

Yet don't be dismayed! Yes, it means you need to start at the beginning in learning how to pray. But prayer is the 'chief exercise of faith' so of course you're naturally rubbish at prayer, because you're naturally lacking in faith. If prayer is 'the chief exercise of faith' - then of course everything, the world, the flesh and the devil - conspires against prayer. This means that you're not the odd one out in your struggles with prayer - and it's not your secret shame - which can be the crippling fear. You're just a sinner, naturally inclined away from faith and prayer. We're all sinners. And you know who the friend of sinners is? Jesus.

Creating a Web of Plausibility

The recent Storyville documentary on Lance Armstrong, trailered below, is fascinating viewing because it shows us all an eerie side to ourselves we'd rather ignore. Click here for David Walsh's take on the whole thing - also fascinating.



True, the Armstrong Fraud went on for so long due to deliberate and premeditated lying and obfuscation from Armstrong and the handful of people around him, but also because the vast majority of pro-cyclists were doping too and therefore had neither the moral high ground nor the moral energy to take him on.

But perhaps the most uncomfortable truth about it all was that we wanted the lie to be true. We all wanted to believe that it was possible for a guy not only to beat a most aggressive form of cancer, but then recover to become one of the greatest endurance athletes ever. Of course, one cannot deny that could be possible, but in Armstrong's case it wasn't. Nothing brought it home so clearly than seeing again footage (that I had seen a hundred times before), only to realise that whilst performing these incredible breakaways on the mountain stages, he was not suffering, not out of breath, no emotion, nothing. Just a calculated drug-fuelled machine, fulfilling his contract of "winning" races.

Everyone wanted to back this winning horse and when you tied this parable of sporting success to our human struggle against cancer and the Livestrong Foundation, the lie became even harder to deny or diffuse in the public consciousness. No one wanted to be the party pooper who made a wreck of this all-round feel-good gravy train apart from a couple of prophets who saw through it in the forms of Paul Kimmage and David Walsh.

Armstrong's deception was so effective because it's the lie we all want to believe about ourselves. The lie that we are the masters of our own destinies and that we are strong enough to beat up all our opposition (be it in Armstrong's case other cyclists, critics or cancer) then to stand in the glory of our victory and giving gifts to all those who idolise us (in Armstrong's case - hope of overcoming or even a cure for cancer) all the while massaging our egos reliving the moments of our epic rise to power with all those who love to receive drops of our reflected vainglory.

The shocking truth (or to use the biblical term, the mystery of sin: Rom. 1:25, Rev.17:5-7) about the human condition is that we have a toxic addiction to telling lies to ourselves and each other about everything, but especially about who God is and we crave that others reinforce this web of deceit. At its most basic level, we know this as "tolerance" but it can and has grown into full force extermination programmes in an effort not to have the lie exposed for what it is. If you don't believe me, you're only admitting and reinforcing the power of the lie in you - let that thought mess with your brain for a bit…

We need to be rescued not from our actions, but from ourselves (Col.1:21-22) not just once, but every moment of every day. (1 John 1:8-9)

The Importance of Jesus' Ascension

Last week, most of the global church of Jesus formally celebrated the Ascension.

Here are seven reasons why the Ascension is great news taken from an article by Gerrit Dawson! (No, I had never heard of him either).

1. Jesus inhabits his earthly body - he didn't unzip and step out of his skin suit when he got back to Heaven. He is the eternal God-Man and has a body like ours, but glorified and he will glorify all those who receive him.
2. Jesus sits on the Throne of Heaven - It wasn't Jesus' spirit only that ascended, his whole body did too. Bodily ascension is as important as bodily resurrection.
3. Jesus lives - Heaven is a real place with time and space, not a floaty ethereal place which half exists. And real beings with real bodies live there.
4. Jesus gives - Kings show off their glory by giving gifts to their people. David gave the Israelites some raisins (2 Sam 6:19), Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2)
5. Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf.
6. Jesus restores and glorifies - The Image of God marred in Adam and disfigured in Jesus at the cross is not only restored but glorified in the ascended Christ.
7. Jesus reigns. The church is a future centred people, but from the future now of the throne of Grace - Jesus directs his people in the present by his Spirit orchestrating all of history to the time when he will be revealed to the naked eyes of all.

To read the excellent article in full click here.

Or have a read of Psalm 24 remembering that Jesus is the answer to the "Who?" of verse 3.

Cycling the Isle of Wight

My good friend Sean suggested recently that I come out of cycling retirement and join him and others on the annual cycle fest that is the ride around the Isle of Wight. A wonderful idea until I remembered that my ego is even bigger than my gut (which these days is quite something), how fit all the others are and how unfit I am! I have therefore had to come up with the following game plan for the ride...

1. Survive - Most likely scenario is that I get so tired that my head drops or I forget how to corner at speed and go headlong into a lampost or more likely on the Isle - a thorn bush.
2. Not to sustain an injury. When surrounded by such relative titans, it's easy to fall prey to the temptation of pretending to be fine, keeping pace with them whilst not admitting that I am over stretching myself and dying inside and in the process strain, tweek, pull or even rip a muscle I forgot I had.
3. Not to frustrate my fellow cyclists utterly by my relative lack of fitness compared to them who have not only been training consistantly, but upped their game since I forsook the sport to court and marry my wife! Fortunately, they are a very gracious bunch, so this is the least of my worries, but I would still love them to feel that we had a good blast round the island.

Anything else is a bonus!

In case you were wondering, I do love cycling, genuinely. As with many things - the risk is part of the thrill. I just don't want to be the weak link in the chain gang.

To that end, I went out for the first of a few training rides so that I have a semblance of fitness in time for the 25th July.

I want to look like this:

But I fear, I will probably look like this:

Still, it can only get better from here! :-S

Resources Theological

For a while now, the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship have run a theology resource website called Theology Network.  It is good for entry level study as well as having deeper level stuff and it is all free!! :-)  You can become a mighty armchair theologian from the comfort of your own commute!

Now, in a similar vein, Mike Reeves and the good people at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology have launch uniontheology.org - their long term vision is to make robust and sound theological study available to the masses and restore the link between the theology school and the local church.  The framework Reeves gives is incredibly compelling...



If you have a desire to grow in understanding of the Bible and the treasures of church history, but don't have the time and or money to attend a full course - this is one to watch.

Personal Reflections from Catalyst Festival 2014

Reflections might be too glorious a term for some of these, but…

1. It was wet.
2. It rained.
3. I managed not to have to go to the loo in the middle of the night! (Believe me, if you have never been camping, this is a major achievement esp. when the weather was a wet as it was - sound of running water etc.)
4. My new gas-powered Trangia and Pocket Rocket burners worked a treat. Phew!
5. There are many different types of camping. Elli and I exemplified the expedition variety where everything you take has to have at least two different uses or it justify being packed in the bag, compared with (all?) the rest who were into home from home camping - someone even had a microwave in their tent!!
6. Elli and I took two tents, one for us and the other for our stuff, although some thought it might be one for me and one for Elli, as if we were going it Abraham and Sarah style…
7. It was great to go to something like this again as I can't remember the last time I properly attended something like this - probably Word Alive in my student days back in the year 2000!!
8. Great to catch up with friends and get to know others better on the RFC camping plot. It's always fun / interesting what you learn about people when you go camping together. No doubt they would say the same about observing me… :-S
9. Me getting "foot in mouth disease" moments and being rescued by my wife…
10. Elli and I went to a seminar on fostering and adoption. Provocative to say the least - there were moments when there wasn't a dry eye in the house, as stories of God's redeeming love in the day to day were shared by carers who have faithfully cared for vulnerable children for many years. I had a hard time holding it together at one point. Along with the beautiful stories, three thought provoking (over?)-statements that have stuck with me from that session are: 1. Adoption is the heartbeat of the Gospel, it is how we come into the family of God. 2. As an overflow of 1. Many see adoption and fostering as a Plan B when Plan A has failed - e.g. they cannot conceive or have had their desired quota of biological children and find they have space left over, but why not integrate it into your plan A family planning schedule? 3. If every church in the UK took in one one child who needed fostering or adopting, the finding placement crisis in the foster care / adoption system would be eradicated. And in case you're wondering, we are thinking about it as a part of our plan A family planning… that's why we went to the seminar. Watch this space.
11. Dave Devenish on building multicultural churches was excellent too. He pointed out three different types of cultures: 1. Law/Guilt (traditional Western society) 2. Honour/Shame (Eastern and Postmodern Western societies) and 3. Security/Anxiety (Tribal/Animist societies) and how the Gospel is good news to all those different groupings - Simple, but outstanding in helping me to think through how to reach the increasingly ethnically diverse land we live in. I had a shower of pennies dropping all over my head!
12. The main meetings were excellent. Great sung worship and some exquisite contributions - like manna from Heaven. I heard Mike Pilavachi for the first time - quite an experience! And it was good to put faces to names I have heard much about in this time of switching apostolic spheres (from Newfrontiers to Catalyst Newfrontiers).
13. Was great to be on the prayer ministry team and have the privilege of praying for people.

Main personal take away was to repent of being so caught up in myself and to listen for and be more obedient to what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing. Simple to summarise, but hard to do, because I like control and running to my own agenda. Feel free to ask me if I have acted on this take away three months from now or if I have reverted to the same old habits… If I have reverted, please kick me up the bum.