Christ in you ...

Paul tells us "... Christ is in you, the hope of glory" but what did he mean and what is the result of this?

Many churches will have celebrated Pentecost this weekend - the London Pentecost Festival is one such, a bible college friend recently asked - do we need another Pentecost as the hymn (O God of burning cleansing flame) says, or do we need to take the first one seriously. Having reflected a little on this today, I found I was struck with this thought, do we too often look to special occasions to give us that lift - the big Christian celebrations, the big gatherings, the celebration of events like Pentecost? Trying to recreate them in our churches and setting up tensions that should not be there?

Every Christian has the Holy Spirit given to them from the moment that we believed in Christ, scripture tells us this over and over. The gift is already given and while there are times when God pours out more (and I suspect that is what Booth was referring to), I don't think we have even begun to understand the gift that he has already given. Maybe we don't need repeated Pentecosts what we need to is to live in the light of what God has already given us, his Holy Spirit.

How often are we fearful of sharing our testimony - the things God is doing with us, among Christians, let alone among those outside of the Church? How often do we consider that it is someone else's calling to be the evangelist or missionary? Too often I suspect.

The passage that we looked at today was Ephesians 3:1-13, Paul, the writer, gives us no option, the church has a mission - to proclaim the mystery of Christ, revealed to the Church that the Church, that is each of us, might be witnesses to those who don't know. There is no wriggle room here, Paul has a commission from God, he is empowered by the Holy Spirit because of God's grace and that same grace empowers the Church. Try putting your testimony down on paper - this site gives a few hints.


So rather than looking for more Pentecosts perhaps we need to need to take on board what we have - Christ in us - the hope of glory, the Holy Spirit.

Overcoming Mountains

Have you tried walking up a mountain, well OK so mountains in the UK are not so big, but its all a matter of perspective isn't it? In April I managed Sca Fell Pike and Snowdon, neither was easy but there is a joy in overcoming such mountains.

Walking up a mountain for sensible people takes preparation, planning and above all determination. A mountain guide I recently went up Sca Fell Pike with told me that climbing mountains is mostly about mental strength, when your body is telling you its tired and had enough, thats when your mental strength is needed to carry you on.


I think Paul in his various attempts to describe the Christian life has similar thinking. He talks of life in Christ as a race - a race which he wants to finish well, doing what God has called him to do, spreading the gospel message. Its a favourite theme of his and one he calls us to take seriously - throwing off all that hinders or is likely to stop us reaching the goal. Preparing for (our bible reading and study), planning (prayer) and doing all that God calls us to do.

God also does not ask us to go it alone, just like the friends I walked up the mountains with, God calls us to life in his church so that we may strengthen, help and encourage each other on the journey.

Sometimes the issues before us can seem so large that we might want to turn aside from the race that Paul talks of, sometimes the hill before us seems too high or rocky to climb. The measure of our faith is the strength we gain from relying on Christ in such situations, allowing him to be our strength means we can dig in to that faith reserve and overcome the mountain.

A question of Authority 2

Recently when looking at Jesus and his disciples' journey to Jerusalem and preparing to preach on Matthew 20:20-28, I was drawn into the whole question of authority and to looking at Jesus' take versus the understanding we find in ourselves.

James and John's mother was seeking to secure places of honour for them in the coming kingdom. The right and left seats next to the throne being for the most trusted advisors and thus the most powerful people other than the king in the kingdom. These would have authority given by the king to carry out his wishes.

Jesus answer has a couple of surprises. First he does not have the authority to grant these places, that remains with the Father - God. All authority is Gods and in this instance it has remained with him.

The second is that Jesus tells them that he came to serve not to be served and so this is the example that they, and we, must follow.

Exploring this in the context of church leadership and the constant wrestling with servant and leader thats goes on in church life, I read Paul's words to Timothy (especially v14-26) when advising him on leading his church. Paul clearly expects Timothy to have authority as a leader and advises careful use of that authority to correct, encourage and so transform his people.

Every one of us who owns Jesus as Lord and saviour is called to a ministry within his church, some obvious, some not so obvious. We have the ultimate example in Jesus Christ of the servant King – he calls us to follow him and learn that serving will set us free, will equip us for more works in him and will make for an harmonious and vibrant church. We each must accept that some are given authority and that such authority must be used well and carefully, servant hood is a good preparation for such authority.

We are each of us called to be servants and not rulers regardless of our calling in the church. Just as the disciples in our reading were called to be servants and not rulers and yet later would be given authority by Jesus himself. If we take this to heart there will be many fewer disagreements in church life.

A question of Authority

Authority and who has it and possibly more importantly, who wants it, continue to plague pretty well all organisations.  We see it in all walks of life, churches included; part of the reason behind the reformation and the arrival of non-conformist denominations has to do with who tells who what to believe or not. Interesting that today in the UK, the government continues to try to tell Christians what they should and should not believe.

Jesus was questioned about this - "Tell us by what authority you are doing these things?". The religious folks knew that they had authority over religious affairs because it had been given them "by God" hadn't it? So if they had not given this Jesus authority to do as he was doing, then it must be wrong. While the question is not answered to their satisfaction, clearly Jesus' authority came from God and he respected that authority and the responsibility that came with it.

Perhaps what the religious leaders had forgotten is that with authority comes responsibility? They were responsible for ensuring that the nation followed Gods ways and commands and yet they had instead focused on rules and regulations and their own importance. They had messed up big time.

There is a duality here and it exists regardless of the type of church governance that we have in our churches. On the one hand church leaders need authority to enable them to handle their responsibilities and so lead, on the other hand that authority, which ultimately comes from God, must be willingly given by the church and all must it accept it and its limitations.

This is often a battle ground in church as some who have not been given authority try to exercise it by various means and on the other hand those given it can mis-use it and abuse it. It is a difficult equation to get right.


The earliest model we have suggests that church leaders need certain qualities that enable them to get this balance right - they should be filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit.


Jesus own words on the kingdom and authority give us the complete opposite to what we might think - If you want greatness in God's kingdom, learn to serve. With authority comes responsibility and if we are called to exercise it - then we must learn to serve so that we handle it well. Jesus had all authority and yet was the model servant. The servant king.

A Topsy Turvy Kingdom

As Easter approaches I have been reading the various accounts of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the conversations and stories that are related in the gospels about this.

From this I see that Christs kingdom simply does not stack up with our worldly experiences and understandings, its a topsy turvy kingdom. Why can I say that? Well because with earthly kingdoms its about power, authority, respect and wealth. Then when we work we expect to get paid more than some one doing less of a job or who we consider less important or skilled.

In Jesus' kingdom its not about obeying rules and regulations its about living a life surrendered to him and which simply reflects the gratitude of what he has already done for me.

Jesus answers his disciples questions after their confusion at his telling a rich guy that he needs to give away his wealth with the parable of the Vineyard (Matt 20-1-16); Its all about gratitude not about reward for service, we can't earn what Christ has already won - our salvation!

He goes on to explain that greatness in his kingdom equates to serving (Matt 20:20-28). We are called not to abuse others because we have authority or power in a given situation. We are called to serve. Jesus our example, shows the ultimate service to us on the cross, he calls us, his people to follow him.

We can pollute the churches mission with ways that do not reflect Christ's kingdom values and invariably they cause strife and upset. If we follow Christ's ways we might avoid a few more of these.

There's much more to read ... try it for yourself and read through the journey to Jerusalem accounts (Matt ; Mark ; Luke ) . Maybe they will cause you to reflect on what might need to change in your life to come into line with Jesus' kingdom model.