Fixing our focus

Hebrews 12:1-2

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is a very loaded verse, in which are many subjects to write about, but as I have been journeying through Jeremiah, I have been discovering one theme.  The centrality of God and making him the source of everything in my life.  Casting my mind back to chapter 2 of Jeremiah, therein lies the theme for the whole book.  All that He is, all that He gives brings life.  He is the fountain of life.  All that I do in an attempt to fill my own life in my own way brings death. In my previous blog, I likened my attempt at quenching spiritual thirst my own way to drinking sea water. 

My journey through Jeremiah has taken me to another aspect of making God the centre of my life and, that is, where I put my focus.  The writer of Hebrews covers this really well in chapter 12.  When I read the first two verses, it is clear to me that walking with God on this earth will require endurance, however, when one runs a race, one has a focus.  In sport, the race is run to win and get that prize.  In the Christians walk or race, the prize is Jesus and eternal life with Him. My gaze in this life must be firmly fixed on Jesus. If I loose that focus, suddenly the race becomes pointless and the enemy of my soul will quickly endeavour to completely side track me altogether. 

There is a good example of looking to Jesus found in the book of Matthew.  Jesus had walked on water to get to the disciples on the boat who were battling a storm and rough waters.  They were petrified until they realised it was Him.  Peter wants to walk on the water to Jesus, and so Jesus invited him to do so :

Matthew 14:28-30

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

Peter did well and I imagine was focused on Jesus as he walked out on the water to Him.  Peters focus shifts from Jesus to the water, winds and waves and sinks. Praise God that he knew to cry out to Jesus to be saved.  So, the focus Peter had, to start with was Jesus, and so long as that was the case Peter continued to walk on the water. This is exactly how it is as the writer to Hebrews puts it, " looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith"

It is so clear that when we commit to walking this life as believers in Jesus that source of spiritual thirst quenching is found in Him, and so long as we focus on Him, we will walk the stormy waters. 

Thirsty anyone?

This week I have been in Jeremiah chapter 18 and 19  Both chapters are visible signs to the prophet Jeremiah about God’s willingness and ability to reshape the nation of Israel.  First, Jeremiah is sent to the potters house to observe the potter at work, and while there witnesses a lump of clay not turning out according to plan, but being reshaped into another vessel.  Secondly, Jeremiah is instructed to buy a clay vessel (I wander if it was the reshaped one from Chapter 18?) and to smash it as a warning of what Israel was in for.  The whole point was that Israel needed to be in God’s hands to be shaped and formed, something they very clearly were not.  Israel was into some very wicked practices, all of which demonstrated to God that, quite simply, He was not good enough.  As the degeneration of Israel continued, and their practices got worse, they served idols and sacrificed their children to the god molech.   This was quite possibly an all-time low Israel had sunk, and they were in huge danger of being smashed like the clay pot and having their enemies destroy them.  If you read Jeremiah 19, you will see the horrid things Israel were about to encounter due to their own refusal to listen to God.

In Jeremiah chapter 2, Gods main lament about Israel is seen in verse 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

This may all seem completely remote to us in the 21^st Century, but is it?  The church today is FULL of believers who dig their own wells.  How do I dig my own well?  Or rather, do I forsake the fountain of living waters?  Today we have self-dug cisterns a plenty ( in the church), endless television watching, over eating,  secret sins such a pornography viewing, homosexuality, fornication drug taking, alcoholism and the list goes on.  Sadly, many of these are addictions.  Israel seemed to be addicted to foreign gods.  All of this is digging a well, a cistern that can hold no water.  All of this is forsaking God, the fountain of living water. A lot of Christians try to quench their thirst with sea water, it may quench for a small while, but causes damage and makes the thirst worse.  Max Lucado, in his book Come Thirsty writes “Not everything you put to your lips will help your thirst” – and that’s the truth we see in Jeremiah chapter 2.  It is time to drink long draughts of the fountain of living waters.  Jesus said in John 4:14 ..but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Our default to soul thirst quenching must only be found in the presence of God, and this is where I believe Christians are missing out.  Entering the presence of God and revelling in it, spending time with God in prayer in the word, hearing from Him anywhere, anytime should be our habit.  We need to come to Jesus more than we do, we need to drink long draughts of His presence and know that He is the only one who can satisfy the thirst of our soul.  The minute we reach out to anything other than Jesus to quench our thirst is declaring that God is not good enough.  It is doing what sin desires and that is to rule God right out of the equation.  Let us not follow Israel’s example and reach out to lifeless gods and get into a complete mess.  Let us come to Jesus and drink of the water He gives and experience genuine soul satisfaction.

Revelation 21:6 And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Yeshua, The Passover Lamb

Today, in the Jewish Calendar, is the 15th day of the month of Nissan.  This is a significant day as throughout the world, many a Jewish home will be celebrating the Passover feast, or, Pesach in Hebrew.  This feast is very symbolic and rich in food items that represent various meanings in the whole event for which Passover was intended to commemorate. I think for the Jewish household who is still awaiting the Messiah to come, it is a feast that continually looks back at the wonderful act of deliverance of God of His people from the clutches of Egypt.  For the Messianic Jew and for the born again " gentile" or spiritual Jew, the Passover is far much more than looking back.  So, with the mindset of a spiritual Jew I want to explore three areas that Passover means to me.

1.  Apart from being the national deliverance of Israel from bondage and slavery in Egypt, as recounted in Exodus 12&13, this event was a prophetic  statement of a deliverance that would come for the world from the bondage of sin.  The blood of the lamb, without question was the pivotal part of the entire story, for those who had the blood painted onto their door posts, were spared from the destroying angel.  The blood signified to that angel that those in the home was under the blood, so Passover to the next house.  There are a lot more significant happenings that took place that night nearly three thousand years ago that are prophetic statements, but I wanted to stick with one, the main one, and that is the blood of the Lamb.

2.  Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples.Luke 22: 8-16 on the evening of the 14th evening of Nissan, which was Infact the first day of Sedar.  The Jews celebrated Passover over a few days, but in order to be exact to the prophetic detail, Jesus stayed with events that took place in Egypt all those years ago.  Jesus was and is the fulfilment of Passover, and it was on the day that the sacrificial lamb was slaughtered that he was crucified.  This is the most significant event for me, as it was to the Israelite in Egypt to have the blood of the lamb on the doorpost in order to be spared the destroying angel, so the blood of Jesus covering my life spares me from the Judgement of God for my sin.  

1 Corinthians 5:7 (Amplified)

Purge (clean out) the old leaven that you may be fresh (new) dough, still uncontaminated [as you are], for Christ, our Passover [Lamb], has been sacrificed.

What an amazing saviour, what a sacrifice has been paid to redeem me from the clutches of satan and the world.  When God sees me, He sees the blood of the Jesus. I am free, I can walk free and what is more , I can enjoy fellowship with God.  Is this not worth praise, not only from my lips, but also from my life and lifestyle?

3.  Malachi 4:5-6

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

The Jewish Passover meal also looks ahead.  Traditionally at the Passover meal there is a fourth cup and an empty chair.  Each year the children of the household would, at some point in the meal, go and open the front door of the house to see if Elijah the prophet had come to declare that the Messiah is coming, and will sit in the chair and drink from the cup.  

Yeshua, our messiah has come and He will return.  He is coming back to claim His own, those who are covered by His shed blood, to lead us out of this world, as Moses led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, free from slavery.  Yes, our deliverance was great, our deliverance is great and our deliverance will be great. Today, as we consider the Passover, let us be truly mindful of the price paid for our freedom, and thank Him, but let us look ahead to the soon and coming redeemer and in the meantime live in fellowship with Him.

Revelation 22:20

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

In Honour of Jackie Walmisley

Their are occasions when The Lord brings people into ones life that one truly knows they are a gift from Him.  This is how we immediately felt about Bill and Jackie Walmisley.

Christmas 2005, our church had a Carol Service, and it was a particularly blessed evening.  I was enjoying a glass of mulled wine, and just socialising with people after the service, when Dave Richards the Apostolic leader of Salt and Light Ministries came across to me to say that he would like to introduce me to a fellow Zimbabwean.  Of course I was keen, and was introduced to Bill Walmisley.  From that night on we became firm and fast friends.  Bill and Jackie Walmisley worked for Sir Michael Coleman as general maintenance manager and house keeper, a job we all laughed together about joking about how they were themselves where once a  "Lord and Lady" by Zimbabwean standards, but, now, in some strange purpose known only to God, servants of aristocats.

Bill and Jackie were successful farmers in Zimbabwe, able to employ a good number of staff and responsible for the livelihoods of all their workers and their families.  Mugabe's land reform program put an end to that, and they lost their farm to the evil land grabbing that followed this land reform program, something that broke Bill and Jackie's heart, something Jackie never recovered from.  They, like us, arrived in the UK thanks to ancestry, with nothing but suitcases and the unknown prospects ahead of having to start again.  What would a farmer be able to do other than farm?  They landed up working for the estate of the Coleman's because this was the closest they could get to doing what they knew.

A wonderful friendship grew between our families, and Bill and Jackie opened their hearts to us, as we did to them.  Culturally we were cut from the same cloth, understood all the jokes and phrases, Spiritually we shared our faith, able to weep together over what had happened in our lives, and ask why, learning all along the way some hard, but important life lessons together.  We had many a barbecue at their house on the Coleman's estate, many laughs including the incident of Bills Pimms Number 1, which I cant really remember all the details, if you get my drift.

Life over the years continued, we would help and encourage each other where we could.  My wife and I ran a home group and both Bill and Jackie were amazing worship leaders that complimented each other perfectly.  What a blessing those evenings of home group were.  We saw people come and go, healing and friendships grew and our purpose for this season was clear.  We needed to encourage each other, and we needed to reach out to others.  Jackie had a favourite scripture from the book of Esther, which she often reminded us about, and that was Esther 4:14

For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

That was the scripture she would constantly refer to when we would lament being torn away from our nation, especially in the coldest and darkest of days in winter time, a season we never could seem to get used to.

Bill and Jackie's daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren lived in the UK as well, and we would often see them visiting, and as a result they became our friends too.  Their passion was also for farming and the land, also working for a large estate near Birmingham.  

About four years ago, Bill and Jackie's daughter and son-in-law were invited back to Zimbabwe to join in a farming project, which was mission orientated.  Coincidentally, the farming project was headed by a family I used to work for in Zimbabwe.  So after much thought and consideration, and much to Bill and Jackie's disappointment, they decided to return to Zimbabwe to take up the position.

This proved too much for Bill and Jackie to tolerate.  Their children now moving back to Zimbabwe, and their other daughter graduated from university ( one of the reason to come to the UK, so they could fund this education) in Australia, and more than likely to remain there.   It was a time of change for them, and Bill was teaching himself photography and went off to college to learn Photoshop.  He did well and had plans to start a little business.

Blood runs thicker than water, and so our dear friends decided it was time to move.  They had a home still in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, and it was time to take up residence in it again.  Their plan was to move to be near at least one of their children, for Jackie who had a passion for teaching to take up a teaching-while-studying program and qualify in the field of teaching, and for Bill to build up his photography business.  This was no decision to take lightly, they were fully aware of the struggle that they would more than likely encounter.  We prayed together about this, and we just blessed them.  And so, on what was one of the hardest moments of our lives, we helped them pack up, clean their little home on the estate up and wave  them goodbye.

After about two years, as a family we decided to go to Zimbabwe on a holiday. We would visit Bill and Jackie and then onto my parents to visit the Hwange game park and Victoria Falls.  This would have also been the first time my wife and son, who was two when we moved to the UK and was now 14, would have been back to Zimbabwe.  Again, another story for another time.  We arrived in Harare on Christmas Day 2011 to be greeted by our wonderful friends Bill and Jackie who had come to collect us, and we went off to have Christmas lunch with them and their family, immediate and extended all of whom we had come to know and love over the years.  On our return trip to the UK through Harare we met with Jackie, who was struggling with the life in Zimbabwe, as Zimbabwe had (and has) deteriorated badly, and trying to etch out a living in that environment was taking its toll.  We were able to encourage her somewhat, but I left deeply concerned.  We continued to write to each other, as Jackie was the writer in the family, as was I in mine.  Shortly after we left, they had a break in and the thieves stole a few things, but what really upset Jackie, apart from strangers going through her things, was the fact they had flung her bible across the room. God word had it's rightful place in her life.  She rested in the Lords plans and goodness, but she was also human, and was afraid.

In the early hours of Wednesday the 27th March 2012, those thieves returned.  They attacked Bill and Jackie, and they killed Jackie.  I wont go into the details of the attack, suffice it to say that those four thieves stole and Ipad, computer and mobile phone.  Those four thieves stole the life of our beloved friend, Bills beloved wife, Jacques and Michelle's, Tracy and Hamish's mother, Joshua, Chloe and more recently Charlotte's grandmother (Jackie never got to meet Charlotte).  All our lives were forever changed that day, and a cloud of deep sadness moved over our hearts.  The church that Bill and Jackie were part of in the UK, the very same church were we had met all those years back in 2005, sent me to the funeral where I represented a church in mourning and shock, and me and my family who were grieved beyond words.  If it were not for the presence of God, I would have more than likely lost my mind trying to think on this senseless event.  An event that remains one of the biggest "whys" I have.

Its just gone past the anniversary of Jackie's death.  You may want to know what happened to the four thieves, well, they were caught and we await justice, Gods justice, as for the Zimbabwean justice, will there ever be any?  Bill is now living in Australia with his daughter and son-in-law in Perth, and the farming son-in-law and daughter are also in Australia working on, you guessed it, a farm.  The family are still going through healing, and probably will for a while, but, we all have the assurance that we will meet again, and this time there will be no sadness and no mourning.

To honour our friend in a fitting way, we decided to have a plaque made that would be presented at  the school run by our church.  The plaque is made of glass and tear shaped to represent the tears that have been shed.  It will be presented, in July 2014, to a student for academic excellence.  I pray this will bring a smile, not only to the family and friends, but to our Jackie in heaven as well.

Jeremiah buries his underpants!

Jeremiah 13:11

For as the girdle clings to the loins of a man, so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, says the Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory; but they would not listen or obey.

Jeremiah the priest prophet is hearing from God concerning Judah.  There are a few symbolic things that God tells Jeremiah, throughout the book, which represents Gods thoughts and feelings for the people of Israel, His chosen ones.

This is the first of these symbolic actions in which Jeremiah is instructed to take a loin cloth,  the one he was wearing, go to the river Euphrates, remove them and bury it.  If you did not know, a loin cloth is the equivalent to a pair of underpants.    It was to remain buried for a few days, after which Jeremiah was to dig it up again, and of course gets the picture that the loincloth was ruined and good for nothing.  A fairly graphic illustration that makes one wander why a loincloth?

Firstly, the loin cloth is a fairly intimate garment, used basically to keep mans privates covered up.  God was illustrating something intimate and deep here.

Secondly, The loin cloth removed and buried for a few days, then uncovered is an even more graphic illustration of ruination.  God was showing that as good for nothing as this loin cloth had become, so had the house of Judah become.  A very tragic situation.

God was being clear with Jeremiah, that Israel was meant to cling to Him like a loin cloth to a man, a very intimate description of the level of relationship God wanted with them, and yet they chose worthless idols, which were not even able to communicate back.  Israel chose to disobey Gods very best for them.

How about you and I?  Are we seeking an intimate relationship with God?  Are we obeying what He has revealed to us?  Does it not stir your heart that it is Gods desire to have this relationship with you? Do not be like the house of Judah,  who did not listen and disobeyed, making themselves good for nothing. Sounds harsh, but no point in mincing words.