As we remember the time of our Saviour’s arrival, we wish to feel greater gratitude and love for Him. But trying to find greater love for God, by looking inside us is misdirected. We only love Him more when we see how much He loves us. We love Him because He first loved us.  The Father's love is revealed:

In the Depth of His love toward us when “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son ”

In the Length of His love towards us “For God demonstrates his love in while we were sinners Christ died for us”

In the Width of God’s love toward us for “whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.”

And in the Height of the love of God toward us, for “Behold how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.”

The Son became “sin” for us so sinners could become sons! Oh the depth, the length, the width and the height of the love of God!

Friend, it is enough to make you and your family, very Merry this Christmas. God bless you all.

John the beloved disciple describes our relationship journey with Christ, in his gospel. All of them are important but the last one is critical. We begin as sheep.  Lost sheep is how He finds and calls us. It is comforting but there is not much in common and they don’t speak the same language. After that, we are called His servants. A servant belongs to their Master and they lose their life to follow Jesus. Being a servant of God is honorable but it is not our identity. Then we are called disciples.  One who is seeking to learn a lifestyle from their Teacher? Jesus said, “When you are mature you will be like Me.  Disciples follow Jesus with their cross!   This is a necessary relationship but doesn’t define our identity.

Later Jesus said,  “You are no longer servants but You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.”  God tells his friends, those who live in harmony with His will, secrets that He tells no one else.  Knowing things about God that others don’t, is a great privilege but still not where our identity lies.

Friend, while the relationship of sheep, servants, disciples or friends is valuable, the problem with all of them, is that they are all about what we can become or should do, instead of what Jesus has done for us.  They are all good but if our identity is based upon them, we will always be vulnerable to condemnation. Our life as a servant, disciple and friend is not always perfect. Our identity is to be based upon His performance not ours. After the resurrection, and the gift of the powerful Holy Spirit, both the Father and Jesus got what they always wanted. Jesus said, "Tell my brothers to meet me in Galilee."  Father has made us sons - that is our identity! Once we know that, all other roles are our delight and privilege!

Jesus and His disciples went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. The old olive trees were scarred and had seen a lot of history pass by.  Amid olive groves, there is usually an olive press. At harvest time the olives are shaken off the trees, and crushed in the press, to release their oil. (Mark 14). Every drop of oil is produced from a lot of shaking and a lot of pressure. The cost of olive oil is small, but not to the olive!

It seems that while the Holy Spirit is a gift, the increased release of His anointing “oil” in our lives, comes from being shaken, pressed and crushed.  We don't know the cost of someone's anointing.  Paul said he was “pressed beyond measure” and shared in Christ’s suffering.  Sometimes we want the same anointing as somebody else but forget that we can’t get it from the laying on of hands but from the laying on of the same “pressings”.

Friend, don’t look back, let up or back away.  It may cost a lot to keep a sweet spirit when all hell is against you. It may cost a lot to lose position, pre-eminence or popularity in the world. It may cost a lot to sacrifice without any immediate recognition or reward. It may cost a lot to be on your face when it seems others are only sleeping, but if you meet with our Father in the olive press, the anointing to accomplish His purpose will increase along with the sense of His presence and pleasure.

Lot followed God but not enough that anyone else could follow him. He had zero impact on the world; he was like a secret believer. If he had lived in the Soviet Union, there wouldn't have been enough evidence to convict him of being a Christian. He saw Sodom, moved closer to Sodom, then dwelt in Sodom and was eventually damaged by it.

Lot had a totally wrong idea of evil. He asked God not to send him to the mountains but to send him to a little city to avoid evil. He saw evil as physical not moral danger, but moral evil will hurt our family more than physical evil.  PC politicians, educators and even parents sometimes are clueless when it comes to what is evil.  They ban tree climbing lest children graze their knees but let the TV pour evil into their minds each night.  Teachers hand out condoms and tell them they are now having safe sex.

Abraham walked with God and was a blessing to all people.  People listened to him and he was called a prince with God, but when Lot spoke to his sons-in-law about God, they thought he was kidding. They could not take what he said seriously.  When it came to prayer, Abraham who didn't live in the city, had more impact than the man who had a family and business there. While many followed Abraham nobody followed Lot. Lot had become an addict of the world. He needed a buzz, a fix, he needed to fit into the world. He had not a lot to offer the city, for he was in need himself.

Friend, Lot shows us that it is possible to have a saved soul and a wasted life. Let’s live in a way that gives others something to follow.

The whole stadium was on their feet cheering as the athletes strained toward the finishing line. Encouraged by their cheers the runners pushed even harder to win. It is encouraging to think that a crowd of God’s finest champions of faith, surround us as we press towards our finish line. Heb 12:1-2. But if we look at them a little closer, they are a motley bunch of people. The Biblical record of people is very kind. It doesn't mention their struggles with sin and doubt, only their faith. Sara laughed in unbelief, Moses argued with God, Rahab the prostitute is there. Samson struggled with compromise and sin. David committed adultery. These are not people who shone with perfect performance, but people who despite their weaknesses, had faith. They had all felt shame as they thought about their past lives. But the Bible says these people laid aside the weight of their sin which could have easily ensnared them, and they got back up and ran their race with endurance.

It is not how sinless and perfect your race is, or whether you're embarrassed by your past or present; it is whether you can lay it aside, receive God's forgiveness and grace and run your race every day until you finish.

Friends, let’s get up and run because the Person cheering the loudest for us, is the One who went the furthest to remove the shame of yesterday’s sin and the guilt of today's failure. Come on hero of faith, your faith is not proven by your past but by your now!

Jesus wants to heal blind, maimed, lame and impotent people so he visits the pool of Bethesda, the house of kindness. Jesus asked the man who had been there 38 years, “Do you want to be made whole?”. The man said he never had the friends or strength to get to the miracle moment. Although he had excuses, the man wanted to be whole, so Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk”, and he was immediately healed.

Have we settled down among the blind, lame and powerless? Sometimes we are waiting for the special meeting and moving of the water and miss the moving of the Saviour. Even if we are too sick to help ourselves with our fears, insecurity, unforgiveness or life-sapping challenges, the Kindness of God, comes for those who aren't strong.  Hopeless waiting is to become heaven filled walking as He baptizes us in the “pool” of His love and power. He only asks if we want to be made whole: to be fed up with being bored, offended, cynical, powerless and spiritually lame.  Jesus is moving and stirring the Spirit within our hearts for more. He calls us to rise up and walk in His stature. Wholeness is fullness, the fullness of His love and power.

Friend, we want to be whole. Sometimes we can stop wanting more when we have been a certain way for a long time. Hear Him speak and rise up in His power. Take up your bed - you won’t be back. Walk boldly with vision that sees a needy world, because the multitude of lame, blind and hopeless people is not where you belong. 

In the potter’s house Jeremiah is told that God is the potter, and He is making something beautiful out of our lives. God is making you into a vessel to contain Him who is the Treasure.

Paul said, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of Him.”  2 Corinthians 4. 7.9).

The Greek word for treasure is “thesaurus” meaning a place that things are stored up for your tomorrow. God is the treasure, and He has abundance stored within you.

The Greek word for vessel is “ostrakinos” meaning substandard and these vessels were not usually seen in the better homes.  From this word we get our word ostracize.  (To treat people as substandard)

How does it make sense that the perfect and mighty God would dwell in something substandard? Paul says this is not a paradox, this is Gods wisdom, so we might know where the power comes from and that the glory goes where it truly belongs!

Friend, if you keep looking for perfection in the vessel (friend, minister or spouse) you are going to miss the treasure inside them.  Your decision to ignore the flaws in someone near you will be the wisest thing you do this week.   Unflawed people don’t exist. If you focus on the pot, you’ll not receive the power.  God has stored His greatest gifts in ordinary people.  And don’t look at your substandard vessel, or it will hinder you pouring out His treasure within.  

 Nehemiah quietly took a moonlight ride to observe the condition of the walls of God’s city, Jerusalem.   Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates burned with fire. Neh 2:12 . The strength of God's place was broken down and some parts had become known as the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate. That cannot be good!  Nehemiah saw the problems and returned home. In the morning he rallied the people to work on the wall. “Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach."Neh 2:17

Sometimes it is easy to see the faults of the church and sometimes we have higher expectations of God’s people. Maybe people failed them or the Church wasn’t quite what they hoped. They see the Serpent Well or the Refuse Gate. Some people see the faults and share their disappointment and offence with others. They complain but do nothing to help, not even pray. They decide to draw from the Serpent Well and some consumers with unmet expectations may even leave God’s city through the Refuse gate.

But mature people, re-builders like Nehemiah say “I’ll never let problems be the reason I leave, but the reason I’m staying!  I will be part of the answer not part of the problem." He tells the others “Come let us build up Jerusalem that we are no longer a reproach.”  That is the response God wants. Grace and faith keep our hearts free of disappointment, offence, and betrayal.

Friend, sometimes God uses the weakness of the church to test our hearts and waits for us to be “bigger” than the rubbish and to tread on the Serpent.