Stars and Sand: Roger Aubrey

The Fool

I've just taken the funeral of the father of a lady in our church. I didn't know him personally; it's one of the things we do as shepherds of the flock. Today is a beautiful, warm spring day and the cemetery was bathed in sunshine and oddly peaceful. The eulogies were well delivered and everything was done with dignity. Yet it was all wrong.

Every time I go to a funeral or bury a member of the church, I am reminded that we were never meant to die. God made humanity to live forever, without sin, sickness and death. They are unnatural and contrary to all that God created us for. Adam was such a fool wasn't he? Deciding to ignore his Father's command and leading his wife Eve into sin was the most stupid act any man ever carried out. Every one of us born into the world ever since that act of supreme insanity has lived - and died -with the consequence of Adam's idiotic choice.

It's at times like today, when I stand beside a coffin and read about the resurrection of Jesus as conqueror over sin and death that the power of the Gospel hits home again. Jesus was dead and buried, but death could not hold him. All the forces of hell tried with all their might to keep him in the grave; they were doomed to fail. The power of his indestructible life raised him from the dead to a resurrection life in which he will never die again. And for those of us in Christ, the future is the same. Even though we will die physically until he returns, our resurrection is assured - we will live forever! The real power of the Gospel is not that Jesus died: it's that he rose again and is alive today.

Don't look back

    The Church of the New Testament was not the perfect model some mistake it for. Therefore, we must not accept God’s intention for the Church only on what we see in the pages of the Acts of the Apostles, no matter how exciting and challenging they might be. Neither is restoration an attempt to return to the innocence and purity of the Garden of Eden. Let me emphasise this: we are not restored to the original condition of Adam and Eve before they sinned. Restoration is all about looking and moving forward to what has not yet been. Abraham looked forward to a city (Hebrews 11:10); the book of Revelation speaks of the restored Bride of Christ in terms of a Garden City, not the Garden of Eden restored (Revelation 21 and 22). Restoration is advancement to the fullness of God’s pre-Fall original intention for the earth and for a humanity created in his image which has yet to be fully realised in and through the Church. In the words of Bryn Jones:

Restoration is the action of God to accomplish his purpose of bringing all things back into total harmony with himself, and his moving everything in heaven and earth forward to the fullness of his original intention for them.

     Therefore, restoration must not be viewed as a work of God that affects only the Church; restoration is a purpose that embraces all the prophets spoke of concerning things in heaven as well as earth: it is the restoration of all things.

The Elijah People - Update

I'm thrilled with the response to the new book, which is at the publishers and will be out very soon. I'm already receiving orders for it from eager readers. I'm also extremely honoured that my dear friend Tony Ling has written the forward. What's The Elijah people about?

The Old Testament closes with a remarkable prophecy from Malachi: before the great and terrible ‘day of the Lord’ (Judgement Day) God will send the prophet Elijah. This prophecy was partially fulfilled in the life and ministry of John the Baptist, who came in the sprit and power of Elijah. Jesus called John the Elijah who was to come; however, he also spoke of an Elijah who is coming and will restore all things. Therefore Malachi’s prophecy awaits a final and complete fulfilment, which will only be accomplished through a corporate Elijah – the Elijah People. Such a people will prepare the way for the return of Jesus Christ at the climax of history. This book examines what kind of people the Elijah People are: the people who will hasten the coming of Jesus and usher in the new age.

Friday tune: Priscilla Ahn - Dream

 

You have it all

    Each one of us who has received Jesus as Lord has the entire Holy Spirit – all of God himself – living in us. Each one of us is filled with the same Person in all his fullness: he who hovered over the waters in the creation; he who raised Jesus from the dead; he who came from heaven at Pentecost. We all have all of the Spirit. And the Spirit lives in us all with the same degree of ability or power: we all have the same ability, the same power, that the Holy Spirit gave to the Church at Pentecost. We all have the same ability that the Spirit used to raise Jesus from the dead. Through the Spirit we all have the same power in us that created the universe. He is exactly the same Spirit with exactly the same nature and ability living in every believer. The Church is not a motley collection of spiritually impotent and impoverished weaklings: it is God’s powerhouse, empowered with all the resource of heaven to fill this world with Jesus Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, the Church is full of the Kingdom power of its King.

He is what he is

Jesus claimed to be Yahweh, the I AM WHO I AM, the God of Abraham who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-22). In one of the most important verses in the Bible, Jesus astounded his hearers with this claim: “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58).

To say that Jesus is Lord, therefore, is the same as saying that Jesus is God; he is more than your boss, he is your God. That is why he is your Ruler, your Master, and your Owner. To say that Jesus is Lord includes all these elements, but first of all he is your God. Some time ago I was speaking on the Lordship of Jesus and thought it would be a good idea to make a list of all the things of which Jesus is Lord. I started out well; but after an hour of writing I concluded what an idiotic thing that was to do. I was writing a list that would never end. I threw the list away. Jesus is Lord of everybody and everything; nothing and no one in all creation is excluded from his Lordship. He is Lord of every life, and every moment of every life, every thought, every word and every decision of every life. Jesus is the only way, not one way among many, or just another option from which to choose.

There is an old adage that preachers sometimes use: I admit that in the past I have used it myself. It says, Jesus is Lord of all or he is not Lord at all. I no longer believe that. Jesus is Lord of all, even if I do not acknowledge his Lordship. The writer Aldous Huxley once said, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Jesus is Lord: fact. People may not like that fact or they choose to live as if the fact is not true. Jesus is still Lord. He is also the Lord of every person who does not believe in him; he is Lord of all. Sometimes Christians are exhorted by preachers to make Jesus their Lord. I have heard them say, “You have received Jesus as your Saviour but now he invites you to make him your Lord.” That is totally incorrect. We do not make Jesus anything, especially our Lord. Jesus is Lord because he is Lord.

The Spirit Controlled Mind - Part Two

Here is yesterday's message from All Nations Church: The Spirit Controlled Mind - Part Two. Following on from the message from a few weeks ago, when I shared with the church about how our natural minds have to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, here I develop this important aspect of of our life in the Spirit. As new creations we receive the mind of Christ in our spirits; then the Holy Spirit works in our spirit to bring that mind into effect in our natural minds. I explain how the Holy Spirit does that and give some practical ways we can co-operate with the Holy Spirit so the mind of Christ becomes the governing factor in our minds.

The Spirit Controlled Mind - Part Two

Friday tune

This week's tune has to be Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody. She could sing.

 

Coming soon: my new book

The Elijah People

Watch this space!

True freedom

When God said no to Adam - 'don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' - it aroused in the mind of Adam that he could choose to do so if he wished. Along with that choice came a responsibility for the consequence of his choice - life or death. God did not create an automaton; he created a spiritual being who would relate to God by his own free, loving choice.

This is the only way God creates spirit beings, because God is a covenant; he is the God of relationship. He created the angelic beings this way too, for they also are spirit beings. The power of choice - whether to serve and love the Creator or take one's fate upon oneself - is the responsibility, and we also need to say, the privilege of every created being, human and angelic. We live with the consequence of that choice. Such a choice given to us does not put us in the place of God; rather it confirms and affirms the nature of the Creator as the God of relationship. He desires that his created beings, who have been designed specifically and uniquely to relate to him, do so freely. Our freedom to say no to God determines the outcome of that free choice - ultimately we send ourselves to hell. Never blame God for hell; it was not designed for us but for the devil.

Our freedom to say yes to God brings us into the freedom or liberty of the sons of God, expressed in our being owned and controlled by our Heavenly Father. Thus the really free person is the slave son of God; only such a person is truly free. He or she gladly surrenders their sinful independence and thus becomes the true free son of the Father. That is why Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane - 'not my will but yours' - is the perfect example of the free surrendered self to the Father.