Sam Chan discusses 3 alternatives proposed in Paul’s letter to the Philippians
Monthly Archives: August 2017
Treasure and net – priority
What’s the most important thing? And why can’t we agree?
Follow Baptist Church Food Van
Follow Baptist Church Bless Collective Food Van was launched in June 2016 and operates at Bourke Park in Pakenham. The Food Van aims to provide a hub for food and friendship for those in need in the local community. We provide meals for our guests as well as items such as clothing, toiletries and emergency food supplies. We also work alongside Orange Sky who provide portable laundry facilities and Clean as Casper who provide portable showers. As a collective, we are able to support and meet the practical needs of those who are vulnerable, lonely and isolated in our community.
Check out their great video!
Source: BUV News
Follow Baptist Church Food Van
Follow Baptist Church Bless Collective Food Van was launched in June 2016 and operates at Bourke Park in Pakenham. The Food Van aims to provide a hub for food and friendship for those in need in the local community. We provide meals for our guests as well as items such as clothing, toiletries and emergency food supplies. We also work alongside Orange Sky who provide portable laundry facilities and Clean as Casper who provide portable showers. As a collective, we are able to support and meet the practical needs of those who are vulnerable, lonely and isolated in our community.
Check out their great video!
Baptcare The Orchards Community Now Open!
Responding to community needs, Baptcare The Orchards Community officially opened this week to a large gathering of community representatives, staff and future residents.
The Orchards’ history is intimately connected to the Templestowe Baptist Church, whose founders in the 1970s envisaged a community centre that combined a retirement village, church, recreation and entertainment facilities.
Over 30 years later, Baptcare has furthered the vision of the Orchards’ initial founders by expanding the site to include the brand new 150-bed residential aged care facility.
This new aged care facility will also be home to Iris, one of the initial visionaries of the original site, as well as 30 other residents from the existing retirement living community.
“I remember seeing this place as a block of land and thinking that one day I might live here. When I think how far we have come and how much has been built, it’s a nice feeling – it makes one feel proud,” Iris said.
Source: BUV News
Ep 80: Is there an even better story? (than the 600 films released each year)
Every year Hollywood releases around 600 films. Is there an even better story that films might provide a way into? We ask Russ Matthews some bigger questions
Mustard and yeast – influence
Why do we believe in progress?
What is forgiveness and why is it hard?
How to respond when someone wrongs you
LEADERSHIP IN ACTION: Why Study the Book of Nehemiah
So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work — Nehemiah 4:6
The challenges could not be greater. In fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah, a minority of the people of Judah chose to leave captivity in Babylon and return to home. The walls of Jerusalem and the temple of God were rebuilt. Yet, they faced much opposition from the neighbours and over time the walls of Jerusalem came into disrepair. The people were greatly discouraged.
Then comes Nehemiah. A Judean who served in the Persian court as the king’s cupbearer, Nehemiah’s rise to leadership was birthed in crisis. When he asked about the welfare of his people back home, he heard most distressing news: The people of Judah are in great affliction and reproach. The walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates burned with fire.
Crisis can be the womb of opportunity.
Nehemiah rose up to be one of the greatest Hebrew leaders and indeed one of the great leaders of history. Yet he did not come into this position out of personal ambition or some sense of entitlement. Nehemiah’s leadership was birthed out of a burden for his city and people. From this burden, he devised a plan to motivate the people and rebuild the walls.
Sure enough, like the tares popping up with the stocks of wheat, opposition to Nehemiah came from the locals. While this can be annoying and grievous, it can be very strengthening – especially when you partner with God. Nehemiah, in the face of opponents, redoubled his efforts and the walls of the city were completed in a record 52 days.
Nehemiah is a wonderful account how through determination, a purpose, plan, prayer, and perseverance, stunning results of renewal, revival and restoration happen. The role of prayer in Nehemiah is indisputable: 1:4-11; also 2:4; 4:4-5,9; 5:19; 6:9,14;13:14,22,29,31.
HEBREW NAME
The Hebrew name of Nehemiah is ne-hem-yah, meaning ‘the comfort of Yahweh.’
AUTHOR
The book begins with the phrase ‘the words of Nehemiah’ (1:1). This means that Nehemiah is the author and this book is his memoir.
PORTRAIT OF CHRIST
Just as Nehemiah repaired the broken down walls of Jerusalem, so Jesus Christ is the one who repairs the breach in our lives caused by sin and shame.
THEME OF NEHEMIAH
Sound, God-ordained leadership helped to bring the physical and spiritual restoration of the people of Judah and the city of Jerusalem.
KEY VERSES IN NEHEMIAH
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days. And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God (6:15-16).
So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understanding the reading (8:8).
SUMMARY OF NEHEMIAH
Ezra was the priest, Nehemiah the governor. Ezra was the cleric and Nehemiah the secular leader. Ezra brought reformation and Nehemiah reconstruction. Ezra came in the second return out of Babylon and Nehemiah the third.
The events of the story happen in the reign of Persian King Artaxerxesx I (464-423 BC). After hearing of the deplorable state of the people and the city of Judah, Nehemiah appeals to the king to grant him leave to rebuild the walls. After exploring the city in his famous ‘night journey,’ Nehemiah utters the command ‘Rise and build’ (2:18).
The opposition to Nehemiah was not slow in coming: first in the form of mockery and then a conspiracy to hinder. He outwits and outworks them all. The walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt in record time due to the help of God (6:16).
There is more. Nehemiah wants to rebuild the people of Judah, which will prove to be more challenging that the stone-heavy walls of Jerusalem. Through Ezra the priest, a marathon Bible reading commences. People respond with tears, rejoicing, confession and commitment to obey. There is nothing like the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to build people up. The priests and Levites led people in prayer: a person of prayer is a person of power.
After a departure of several years, Nehemiah came back to Judah to clean house. He restored sabbath observance, cleansed the temple, and made the Judeans divorce their foreign wives
And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.— Nehemiah 13:25
These may have seemed like extreme measures but it worked – reformation and restoration came to Judah, preparing the holy city for the coming of the Messiah 500 years later.
OUTLINE OF NEHEMIAH
I. Walls of Jerusalem Rebuilt(1:1-7:73)
a. Preparation to Reconstruct the Wall (1:1-2:20)
1. Burden & Intercession of Nehemiah (1)
2. Nehemiah’s Night Journey in Jerusalem (2)
b. The Reconstruction of the Wall (3:1-7:73)
1. Record of Builders (3)
2. Opposition to Reconstruction (4:1-6:14)
a. Mocking, threats, discouragement (4)
b. Extortion Neh Ex. (5)
c. Compromise, treachery, slander (6)
Completion of Reconstruction
3. Registration of Jerusalem (7)
II. People of Judah Revived (8:1-13:31)
a. Covenant Renewed (8:1-10:39)
1. Reading of the Law (8)
2. Renewal of the Covenant (9,10)
b. Obedience to the Covenant 11:1-13:31
1. People resettled (11)
2. Wall rededicated (12:27-47)
3. People of Judah restored(13:1-31)
(Photo courtesy of blueletterbible.org)
Paul’s Secret to Changing the World Part 03
Ambition: It is a bane and it is a blessing. When it is ambition for personal advancement, especially where the ‘means justifies the end,’ then it can be harmful to the ambitious one and others. Yet, when ambition is directed towards a greater good, everyone benefits. As the adage says:
When you see someone reaching for authority, avoid him. He will hurt you.
When you see someone reaching for responsibility, embrace him. He will bless you.
The latter clearly applies to the apostle Paul. He was so single-minded in his devotion for God, sold out to fulfilling his call with joy (Acts 20), fighting the good fight of faith and winning the prize, that the entire world has been blessed for centuries because of him.
He is one of the most influential people who ever lived; a man who changed the world. How did he do it?
In our first part, we learned Principle One – Grace: Don’t let your natural gifts get in the way of God’s grace. Be willing to surrender them all to God in order to live by grace and truth (John 1:14,17).
Principle Two – Righteousness: Be found in Christ having His righteousness, not your own, in your life. Matthew 5:20is a warning from Jesus you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Considering they were very righteous by human standards, this could have disheartening for Jesus’ hearers. Yet, as we learn in Philippians 3:9, when you have Christ’s righteousness dwelling in your heart by faith, you can know ‘kingdom living.’
With these two things in mind, let’s look at the third principle of have to change the world:
Principle Three – Knowing Christ
The basis of this is found in Philippians 3:10-11, where Paul writes: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Frankly, this comes across as a two-edged sword. The notion of ‘knowing Christ’ is indeed wonderful, yet this same the Son of David, Son of God, Messiah, Saviour and King, also is One who suffered and did so unspeakably for our sins. To know the One Who conquered sin, destroyed the works of the devil, triumphed over principalities and powers, and lives forevermore, is essential for being an agent of change in the world.
To know Him includes, among other things:
1. Understanding that His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matthew 11:30);
2. He has overcome the world (John 16:33);
3. He is meek and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29);
4. The alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Revelation 22:13);
5. He is high above all principality, power, might, dominion and every name that is named (Ephesians 1:21);
6. He is the king of glory (Psalm 24:8,10);
7. Ever gentle: a bruised reed he will not break and a smoking flax he will not quench (Matthew 12:20);
8. All authority is given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).
There is even more than what is described here. It takes a lifetime, even an eternity, to get to know the One who saves the soul (John 17:3). Yet within all this is the fellowship of His sufferings; definitely not a topic you can expect to hear from most pulpits.
‘Fellowship of His Suffering’
In considering this Biblical phrase, remember that we are in a fallen world and until Christ returns, suffering happens to the unrighteous and the righteous. Yet, there is a silver lining. Suffering brings purity – the psalmist said that before he was afflicted, he went astray, but now – thanks to affliction – he takes heed to God’s Word (Psalm 119:67). Suffering helps us identify with Christ and others; we can be empathetic because we have stood in that place (II Corinthians 1:4-6).
During one of our holy land trips my luggage and that of half of the pilgrims was held up and we did not see them again for 5 days. People were amazingly distraught at being separated from their possessions, even for a day. It was good that I, too, awaited my luggage, otherwise I would have been told ‘You don’t understand!’That fact is I did understand because my bags were held up like the others.
Suffering is also like growing pains; it shows that we are headed for enlargement. The psalmist says that God enlarged Him when he was in distress (Psalm 4:1). This suffering that Paul writes about speaks of being made conformable to Christ’s death. Again, this is a topic that is avoided, but remember it is fundamental to victorious Christian living. As Christ died for us, we die in Him (Romans 6). As Christ rose, we rise in Him. No death, no resurrection power – it is a simple as that.
Power of His Resurrection
This is also a key to victory and world change. Death represents the ultimate of weakness. I often say that the weakest living person is mightier than the strongest dead person. Death means weakness. Resurrection represents the ultimate of power over the ultimate weakness. It takes power to raise the dead and that power comes from God. The same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal body and eventually trade it in for a glorified body that can never ever die. That’s power in action.
If Philippians 3:9-10 still seems to be a bit much, always remember that you are not walking this pathway alone – you are walking with God. His grace and truth will enable, equip, and edify you. You are also walking in the fellowship of the saints, who are going through the same situation.
So if we are going to be an agent of world-change, remember that knowing Christ in all His fulness is an indispensable key. TO BE CONTINUED.