Roger Aubrey

The Word became flesh

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)

'Veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate Deity!' When all is said and done, this is what it's all about. In the long term, that gift you've been scouring the stores for; that perfect wine to accompany the turkey; that TV programme you must not miss. None of them counts in the end. All that matters is that in Jesus Christ, the Creator God stepped into humanity; he became one of us, so that we might become sons of God. Christmas is a very simple affair, but one to be lavishly celebrated: everything changed that night in Bethlehem. The Seed of the Woman, promised so many thousands of years before, but always in the eternal plan of God, was born into the human race. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Merry Christmas!

The same but different

As you come to him the living stone - rejcted by men but chosen by God and precious to him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house...(1Peter 2:4-5)

The house that the Holy Spirit builds - the church - is a house of living stones. Each one is uniquely different from all the others; we are stones not bricks, which are man made and all look the same. Stones are all different from each other, they all have their own distinct shape and facets. Each believer is a one off work of art (Ephesians 2:10).

Yet, at the same time, each living stone is exactly the same as every other living stone, because every one of us is just like the Living Stone - Jesus. It is Jesus who makes the difference. He makes us like him, so that we are all the same. The Holy Spirit is building a Jesus House; and he uses stones that are just like Jesus to build it.

Chocolate overflow

Several months ago I told the story of a lady in our church who was healed by Jesus while eating chocolate that I had thrown into the congregation. (read it here).

Last week Dianne and I were visiting our related church in Blackpool and I found myself telling this story to show how the Holy Spirit loves to move outside of our boxes. The people were excited to hear of the healing and were stirred in faith. As I finished the tale I said how much I personally like chocolate (make that love chocolate) and mentioned that my favourites are Milky Bar and Galaxy. About ten seconds later I saw something flying towards me from the back of the hall: it was a Milky Bar! Immediately from the front row a lady produced something from her handbag and handed it to me: it was a bar of Galaxy! How amazing, that out of just around fifty people, the very chocolate I mentioned, out of all the thousands of brands, just happened to be in the same place and that I named them. We all laughed, but Dianne used it to show just how much God knows about us and everything that happens to us. He even knows what will come out of our mouths. And into them.

Easily pleased

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

It's not difficult to please God; in fact it's very easy. All you need to do is have faith. Some people read this verse and miss the point completely; they think that it's so hard to please God, but it isn't. He is good and kind, full of love and grace. His mercies are new every morning. He created us so we would know him, and faith is the means by which we know him. God never makes it hard for us to please him; he just tells us the way to do it. And because he is so good, and because he knows we need faith, he gives it to us. How good is that?

Garlic or God

The Israelites started wailing and said, 'If only we had meat to eat! We remember the the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost - also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!' (Numbers 11:5-6)

I like garlic. We eat a lot of it in the Aubrey household; it adds that lovely zip to certain dishes and it's very healthy. I try to avoid it before meeting lots of people, although it can be handy if you want to avoid certain people!

The Israelites decided that they preferred garlic to God. Every day in the desert he provided miracle food for them - manna. It was the food of angels. He had brought them out of slavery and deprivation and was guiding them to their own land, which flowed with milk and honey. But these people were an ungrateful, unbelieving, complaining and rebellious bunch. Such was their state of unbelief and ingratitude to God that they now lived with a distorted, even false sense of reality. They looked back to a time that did not exist: they had not enjoyed these delights in Egypt - at no cost. They were slaves who had cried out to God to deliver them from their plight and he had graciously responded and delivered them. But in rejecting his provision they rejected him. They were in complete unreality.

An absence of faith and the Holy Spirit will always result in a distortion of reality.

Heaven lights earth

Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens...Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:89, 105)

God's word created the heavens; the heavenly realms were formed and brought into being by the word of God. Every word God speaks has heavenly DNA in it. Therefore, God's spoken word written down - the Bible - will always lead you heavenwards. It will always lift you up from the earthly, natural and worldly way of living and thinking, to the realm of God: the eternal, heavenly realm. A true encounter with the word of God will never leave you earthbound.

And because the word of God is eternal and heavenly, it 'shines with e heavenly light', so to speak. It acts as a lamp and a light to guide you in your walk with God. It guides your feet, lighting the way it wants you to go. If you are finding right now that the path is dark or you've lost your way, it could be because you're on the wrong one. God will always lead you on the right, brightly lit path of his will as revealed in his heavenly word. You may not know all the steps you have to take and can't see the whole of the path. After all, you're walking by faith. But you should be able to see the next step that you have to take: the light of the heavenly word is showing you the way.

Pay attention

We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. (Hebrews 2:1)

Note what the verse says: we must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, not only to what we are hearing now. It's vitally important that we do not forget or neglect what we have heard from God in the past, because we continually build our faith on what we hear. One of the ways our faith perseveres and grows is by remembering how God acted in the past; how he was faithful to what he promised. But even when we are still awaiting the fulfilment of his word now we have to keep alive what we have heard; don't let it slip away, or faith can drain away. You keep reminding yourself of God's track record and the reliability of his word.

In paying attention to what we have heard we're in a much better position to keep hearing God in the present.

The self destructive power of jealousy

Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? (Proverbs 27:3)

It appears from this verse that jealousy has a potency that are not present in anger and fury. Anger and fury are themselves wrong (there is a righteous anger and God gets angry, but they are altogether different things). But jealousy stands in a place of its own. It possesses a destructive, cancerous quality, that eats away at the heart of a person. Anger and fury can flare up and then disappear, but jealousy lingers, it seeps deeper and deeper into you and rots you. It desires what it doesn't own and covets what it cannot have. Jealousy is spiritual robbery: it's theft in the mind. At its root, jealousy is self-centredness.

Map Quest

Well, Dianne and I had a very pleasant few days walking in the Peak District, before moving on to the annual Leaders' Conference, which this year was entitled Worldwatch. It was great to see so many friends from various parts of the world, including India, Norway, Cuba, the States and Canada (hello Peterboroughians!).

When you walk in places like the Peak District you have to be well equipped: proper boots and jackets; the right food and liquids. You also need a good map. Not only that: you also have to know where you are on the map. It's useless having one otherwise. We discovered that the very first day. We knew where we wanted to go, but until we found where we were on the map it was pointless setting out. We would have got lost or wandered around aimlessly until we stumbled on a familiar landmark. That would have wasted important energy, daylight and time. We would never have reached our destination.

The same holds true in our Christian walk. It's vital that we know where we are heading - what our vision is and how we'll achieve it. But just as vital is knowing where we are on that walk. If we don't have our spiritual bearings then we will easily wander off and get lost. Knowing where you are shows you where you've come from and how far you have to go. It also shows you the way to your destination.

Prosper in the credit crunch

The credit crunch continues unabated across many if not most of the world's economies. In the United States, Lehman Brothers, the massive investment back, has gone. And AIG, one of America's largest insurance companies, has been bailed out by the US Federal Reserve to the tune of $85 billion. In the UK, the FTSE dipped below 5000 yesterday, while HBOS and Lloyds TSB are planning to merge.

Everyday life is affected: petrol continues to be expensive and food prices have soared. UK inflation is officially at 4.7%, the highest for a number of years. In fact, some things, such as milk, bread and meat, have risen by up to 20%.

For Christians, this is a golden opportunity to demonstrate how the financial laws of the Kingdom of God differ from the systems of the world. We are not immune to what goes on in the world: we have to eat and clothe ourselves. We have to drive our cars and travel to work, just like everybody else. But I do believe that certain things we practise help us avoid the crippling effects of recession. For me there are three things that I must maintain, not only in credit crunch times, but as a lifestyle.

The first is to always bring God my tithe. It belongs to him and I must never rob him of what is his. Therefore, no matter what, I will always tithe, with thanksgiving and faith, and in the fear of the Lord. And God has promised to open the windows of heaven and bless me. The second is that I will continue to give offerings generously. 2Corinthians 8 and 9 tell me how to do it; I may not be able to give as much as I want, but I will always give. It's only in my giving that I begin to sow out of what is mine. The tithe belongs to the Lord, so it's not mine to sow. But my offerings are my seed to sow. The third thing is to live according to my means. Many people are paying the price of living way beyond their means and are now suffering for it. But it's biblical common sense to budget, to save up to buy something and not stick it on a credit card knowing you can't pay it off. Jesus told us to count the cost before we embark on a building venture; the same principle holds true in all areas of finance.

In the Kingdom of God, everything is of the Holy Spirit, including its finance. When we put into practice the financial laws of the Kingdom, God will move miraculously in our finances. Put it to the test and see what happens.