The Bible Bloke

Good Friday comes generally with messages of hope in times where perhaps there might seem no hope at all. There will be messages of tolerance, of getting along, of drawing closer together as a community in harmony, accepting and embracing one another’s differences. But is this what Jesus really taught? I look to Matthew 4:17, back to the very beginning of Jesus ministry. He spoke of repentance. “Repent,” He said, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What did he mean? Repent? Repentance is a turning away. But to turn away you have to actively move. You have to leave something behind you. You have to turn toward something. If you repent, you actively turn away from sin. You turn to Christ. We have to be careful that our tolerance of tolerance does not force us to accept the very Sin that Jesus died to forgive. Consider this passage from Ezekiel: “Say to them, As I live, declared the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked tur...

We can do nothing without Faith.  That deep inner confidence that God is real. That God is alive. That God is Certain. That God is Active. That God is with us.  Faith is that total trust in the Lord our God to move as He has promised to move. His actions are to be relied upon. We have that assurance because of the Cross. We have that assurance because of the empty tomb. We have that assurance because Christ ascended and now sits at the Right Hand of God.  We have that assurance because of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  For each of us Faith should be not just something we have but something we are. Faith is something we do. We should be shaped by Faith in Him who died for us.  As we read in John (6:9) "The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent."  Our our work is first and foremost to believe in Christ. To entrust our all in Him.  From that all other things flow.  Amen.

I catch a bus and a train to work every morning. In doing so I see several hundred other people doing the same thing. How many of them make eye contact? Very few. How many of them smile? Very few. How many of them actually speak to me? None. One of the problems we have in our cities is loneliness. Our cities have lost any real sense of close community. I think it’s fair to say that most of the folk I see are focused on their morning’s purpose. Getting to work. I think that's true, but what else are they focused on?  I decided the other morning to see how many people I could meaningfully engage in my morning commute. I made eye contact with three people. Three. I smiled at every single one of them. One of them returned my friendliness. And another spoke to me, but only because he was trapped in the same elevator! I am sure at the end of our one floor journey he had come to appreciate that contact, that kindness that I wanted to share. That encouragement: “Have a great day.” I t...