Things to ponder from the book of Luke

Some powerful stuff out of the book of Luke this morning that spoke to me 17:10 "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty'" This really spoke to me how we expect and want the praise from man for what we do and yet we have only done what we were asked to do when we freely gave ourselves as bondslaves/servants to christ so why should we expect praise from man or from God?

The other thing - actually there was heaps this morning out of Luke so take a look, but 18:8 "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" The one question about will Jesus find people of faith who believe in what they have not yet seen? It is only faith that pleases God and so to be a people of faith.... A challenge.

One more thing that I have to share is Luke19:11-27 the parable of the Ten Minas and about being faithful with what you have, but v24 "Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas." "Sir,' They said, 'he already has ten?" "He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away." This really spoke to me about the jealousies that arise when we see people with seemingly already so much and yet God gives them more and we judge them instead of perhaps seeing that they have been faithful with the little that had been given and so God gives them more, but takes it from those who have not been faithful with what they have been given. Powerful stuff to ponder for me this morning.

"I am ruined for the ordinary"

“I am ruined for the ordinary” A statement that can possibly be to some, come from a place of judgement, or it can be from a place of there is more in the Kingdom of God that I am yet to experience or understand, revelation that I have tasted of something that actually shows me that I have not tasted of anything yet. A place where there is such a contentment and joy in what I have seen and longed to see and yet a revelation that there is way more "beyond what I think, ask and imagine" (Eph 3:20) and one that spurs me on to seek and discover all the fullness that could be ours in the Kingdom of God. When we as Christians see other Christians going places or experiencing things that we don’t understand or perhaps we have not yet moved in, we can either become jealous of that person and judge and bring them down to our level, exclude them from our lives or we can choose to be excited by what is happening and be encouraged and spurred on in the Lord for the more than ca...

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you" So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow. A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on - perhap...

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take? Are we being too harsh? Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"? "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin? What about forgiveness? What is the role of discipline? What makes that sin any worse than lying? What is true love? And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, ...

I shared last night about 1 Cor 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body..." I was preaching on it last night and it will come up in video form later in the week on the GRM sight, mainly reflecting on we can sow things one way, but God raises it up as HE determines how it should look. But this morning I got more revelation which will be quite obvious to some, but to me it struck me afresh. When we sow something it get's buried, it cannot be pulled back up. It no longer has 'connection' with 'me' if you like. It gets 'covered over' unable to be pulled up. And yet I recognise in my own life how we can sow something but there are still 'strings attached' as such as we often are still determining or expecting it be rai...

Perhaps a change of perspective might be needed

This morning I had a dream and in the dream I saw I was shifting a nest of blackbirds as they were in a bad place that was going to get destroyed shortly, but as I went to shift them, the Father of the babies came and tried to attack me. I wasn't going to hurt them, just shift them so they wouldn't get damaged. Of course the Father was just trying to protect what was his and thought I was bringing harm to his family, but actually my intent was to help them. Often we can have the wrong mindset about a situation as illustrated by this picture. Both had the intent of heart to help and protect, but because of the mindset of how we see things, often our reactions comes from our point of view without even taking the time to understand why another is doing what they are doing. 2 Cor 2:10 "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them." We often find ourselves fighting with those w...

Private or Public? Kiwi culture or Kingdom culture?

The other week I had a dream and I was taking my child to a new private school and while there, I was invited by the teachers for lunch. But just before lunch I decided to go to the toilet, along with other teachers. But what I noticed was I was on a toilet that was like that of those we have had experience on in the Tibetan Plateau in China, open, exposed and very public, no embarrasement but a part of every day life, but the other teachers were on the style we have here in New Zealand, private and a personal cubicle. As I pondered this I was reminded of a book title the Lord gave me a while ago about Kiwi Culture vs Kingdom Culture. And the picture in the dream above illustrated a wonderful of example of how easily people can be misunderstood because of the culture that they have lived in and by the experiences that one has had which determines world view, verses that of what is actually a Kingdom culture. In dream interpretation, going to the toilet often repr...

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