one four one (part 2)

Jesus had a miraculous birth, born to a virgin

Jesus also had an incredible death, dying at Calvary in atonement for the stuff me and you do wrong, the sin stuff, and how amazing that he defeated death and Hell to rise again.

But we sometimes forget that the bit in between was very thrilling and extraordinary as well.

It is also very, very important

It is important to us as individuals,

It is important to us as church

It is important

As people, Christians, Churches, movements struggle with living in a post-modern society, as we struggle with our identities as we try to define who we are and what we are doing

As we work out stuff, life stuff, relationship stuff, moral stuff

As we complete and compete in life’s great journey it is evident if we don’t want to lose our way, if we want to stay on track, we want to finish well. I would suggest in order, to do this we need a coach, a guide, something or someone to light the way.

And that is where the life Jesus led comes in; the bible encourages us to be followers, imitators of Jesus.

Jesus encourages us to follow his example, to think like him, to act like him

The bible describes the life of Jesus as a plumb line or a capstone

If you have ever done any building you will know what a plumb line is about. It is a line builders use to ensure everything is straight, so that they are not building wonky walls.

In the same way a capstone was the first stone (usually the corner stone) laid by builders. The idea was that every other stone was built to the measurements of the capstone, they copied the capstone, and it was the guide.

one four one (part one)

in the first chapter of Mark Jesus is going about doing what he does, you know doing good, when he comes across something we see a lot of these days, someone in need.

So in verse 41 Mark notes that Jesus does 4 things, four good things which we will look at

The first thing he does is to get filled with compassion, loads of the stuff, oozing out, this is a great characteristic of Jesus, and he just oozed compassion,

Secondly he reached out, he stretched out his hand, he moved towards in a very real and purposeful way, another great characteristic he was so…purposeful, not bad for a man who just went around doing good is it?. But that was his purpose, to do his fathers will, to live full on.

Thirdly, he touched, he made contact, he connected with his chosen target, just like a good cup of tea he hit the spot, but, (and I promise that is the last time I will compare Jesus to a cup of tea) unlike a nice cup of tea he changed lives for good, for ever, for eternity.

And fourthly he spoke, he had something to say, but not just anything you see when Jesus spoke he spoke life into situations. He spoke powerfully and he spoke truthfully

what a feeling!

I went out for a coffee with Dave yesterday, Dave is a guy who has come through the DNA program when I was at Teesside international City Church, he is a quality guy who is developing into an excellent worship leader under the guidance of Cath Harris and the crew at TICC.

We were talking about the tremendous responsibility that we have when we are in leadership positions and how as a young leader how he finds this more than a little daunting, I hope this feeling never leaves Dave. The moment leadership becomes something we just do without thinking either of the dynamics of what we are doing or the effect our leadership decisions have.

The Bible says that we are to be ambassadors for him, in other words we are official representatives of the king. That carries a tremendous weight of responsibility. I remember when I first started speaking turning up to one event totally unprepared and unrelient on God thinking I was the Kiddie and I absolutely bombed, I mean I stunk the place out I was so bad.  I have been a leader now for more than 20 years I am now confident both in my talents and calling but I will never forget that time, I also hope the feeling that I share with Dave never leaves me as well.