At the Last Supper, Jesus washed all the disciple’s feet (John 13).  Peter, who deeply respected Jesus, didn’t want to allow his Master to wash his feet.  But Jesus was adamant to do this, and set an example for them to follow.  In Luke 22:24-30, Jesus demonstrates the same idea by settling an argument:

²⁴An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them should be thought of as the greatest. ²⁵ Jesus said to them, “The kings of the pagans have power over their people, and the rulers claim the title ‘Friends of the People.’ ²⁶ But this is not the way it is with you; rather, the greatest one among you must be like the youngest, and the leader must be like the servant.²⁷ Who is greater, the one who sits down to eat or the one who serves? The one who sits down, of course. But I am among you as one who serves.

²⁸ “You have stayed with me all through my trials; ²⁹ and just as my Father has given me the right to rule, so I will give you the same right. ³⁰ You will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel.

How much this teaching flies in the face of the Pharisees, who felt such a sense of entitlement: Outwardly looking as though they were obeying the law to the letter, and condemning everyone else at the same time.  Jesus, the greatest of all, stooped to the role of a servant.  Let’s do the same by serving God and serving our neighbours in His name.

Perhaps for the same reason Jesus highlighted two commandments as the most important:  Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.

The world tends to want to have a good time.  To eat, drink and be merry.  Perhaps it means going out and drinking too much; for others, perhaps sitting back on money earned, and just ticking over.  Or even just desiring easy problem-free life.

Jesus has something to say about this, and described it in a proverb (NLV).

¹⁶…“The fields of a rich man gave much grain.¹⁷ The rich man thought to himself, ‘What will I do? I have no place to put the grain.’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘I know what I will do. I will take down my grain building and I will build a bigger one. I will put all my grain and other things I own into it. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things put away in your building. It will be all you need for many years to come. Now rest and eat and drink and have lots of fun.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! Tonight your soul will be taken from you. Then who will have all the things you have put away?’ ²¹ It is the same with a man who puts away riches for himself and does not have the riches of God.”

Truth is, our soul doesn’t belong to us, but to the Lord, and we’ve been bought at a price by Jesus.  For our friends and family that don’t yet know the Lord, it’s an amazing witness when they see that we don’t put riches away for ourselves and strive to lead easy lives, but instead live for God to carry out His plan through us.

Solomon has a great nugget of wisdom in Proverbs 24:19-20 for if we’re ever drawn in by the world’s rationale:

God has a perfect plan for us all.  We know this, as the famous verse goes in Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Looking back to the Israelites, God’s plan was to provide Israel the Promised Land.  However, when they got there, they discovered that the land was already occupied, so it wasn’t simply a case of settling down there.  The Israelites had to fight for God’s promise.  Jericho is a great example of this.  God speaks to Joshua when he arrived near Jericho in Joshua 6:2 (Good News):

The Lord said to Joshua, “I am putting into your hands Jericho, with its king and all its brave soldiers.

Even though the Lord had given Jericho to Joshua, he also provided Joshua the plan that involved walking around the city for a week, in order to take it!  Joshua obeys God, then God does the rest.  The walls of Jericho crumble, and paves the way for the Israelites capture it.  Again, in Joshua 8:1 (Good News):

The Lord said to Joshua, “Take all the soldiers with you and go on up to Ai. Don’t be afraid or discouraged. I will give you victory over the king of Ai; his people, city, and land will be yours.

The same again against the Amorites in Joshua 10:8 and against King Jabin in 11:6, God tells Joshua that he’s given the territory, but Joshua needs to step out in faith to fight for it and capture it.  In fact, the same theme goes all the way through the Bible – Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Gideon, Samson, to name a few.

We can learn a lot from this mentality.  It’s sometimes an easy trap to expect God to hand things over to us on a silver platter, and be disappointed when we don’t get what we want straight away.  Just like Joshua, if God has given us something, fight for it and take it, making sure we obey him along the way. God will always do the rest.  If God has given any of us such a calling, he will always provide what we need.  Let’s finish with what God says in Joshua 1:9, at the beginning of Joshua’s new calling as a leader:

Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.”

While passing a blind man at the side of the road, Jesus’ disciples questionned him saying:

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2)

A fair question, maybe, but Jesus replied saying:

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned… but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

That’s pretty amazing isn’t it? Some doctrines might have claimed that this man’s blindness was punishment for a previous sin, but Jesus didn’t. He only saw opportunity for God’s tremendous power and grace to be displayed in the man’s life for all to see, which he then carried out:

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Do you feel like you’re suffering? Unsure as to why God’s plan for you might include pain or discomfort? Remember, He knows the beginning from the end and has the ability to exibit His might and mercy in your life.

Samson, a man with God-given strength, lost it when he gave his secret away to Delilah.  Samson said to Delilah ‘If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anyone else.’ (Judges 16:17), and then the trap was set – Delilah called a man to cut Samson’s hair, then the Philistines pounced.  It was too late – Samson’s strength was gone, but God came through, and Samson ended up overcoming the Philistines in one last act of strength.

Even though Samson had amazing strength, he still needed to rely on God too.  Check out Judges 15:9-15 (GNT):

⁹ The Philistines came and camped in Judah, and attacked the town of Lehi.¹⁰ The men of Judah asked them, “Why are you attacking us?”

They answered, “We came to take Samson prisoner and to treat him as he treated us.” ¹¹ So these three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are our rulers? What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I did to them just what they did to me.”

¹² They told him, “We have come here to tie you up, so we can hand you over to them.”

Samson said, “Give me your word that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

¹³ “All right,” they said, “we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won’t kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff. ¹⁴ When he [Samson] got to Lehi, the Philistines came running toward him, shouting at him. Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. ¹⁵ Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it.

‘Suddenly, the power of the Lord made him strong’.  On this occasion, Samson needed to depend on God for the required strength to be given right at the last moment.

In our lives, things are not so different!  Whatever God calls us to do, we can depend on Him all the way, and he’ll provide what we need when we need it.  It’ll take us well out of our comfort zone, but He will still provide.

Hi All,

We have a church climbing trip planned to Snowdon this Saturday (22^nd September). For anyone interested we will be meeting at Walton Arms @ 7.30am then car pooling to Snowdon. Everyone is welcome so hopefully see you there!

If you’re interested let me know at stevewolst@hotmail.co.uk.

Thanks

Ste W

In this day and age, it’s difficult to stay focused on God when we have to deal with the stresses and strains of day-to-day life.  Jesus knew this about us.  Just before He was betrayed by Judas, he prayed on our behalf.  Here’s a short excerpt of the prayer in John 17 (GNT).

¹⁴ I gave them [your people] your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.¹⁵ I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask you to keep them safe from the Evil One.

We’re called to be in the world, despite it hating us!  Thanks to Jesus for understanding and praying for us.  However, it’s also handy to remind ourselves that, as Christians, we’re not of this world anymore or believe in its values such as wealth, power and reputation.  Thankfully, our time in this world is short, so let’s not make ourselves too comfortable whilst we’re here!  When we prioritise God above all other things, he makes sure that we have all we need, plus we don’t need to conform to the world’s values anymore.

It’s so simple on paper, yet so hard to keep following.  In the difficult times, this passage serves as a great reminder. Psalm 84 verse 10 (GNT):

One day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else; I would rather stand at the gate of the house of my God than live in the homes of the wicked.

Felicia (Ionel’s sister in law) had an operation today on her eyes. The church was able to help towards the cost of her treatment with money from the charity shop. Please pray for a quick recovery and a good outcome for Felicia.