Bible

A Pilgrim Was I …

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. Psalm 84:5

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles … 1 Peter 2:11

A pilgrim was I, and a wandering,
In the cold night of sin I did roam,
When Jesus the kind Shepherd found me,
And now I am on my way home.
Chorus:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life;
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
And I shall feast at the table spread for me;
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life.
Verse 2:
He restoreth my soul when I’m weary,
He giveth me strength day by day;
He leads me beside the still waters,
He guards me each step of the way.
Verse 3:
When I walk through the dark lonesome valley,
My savior will walk with me there;
And safely His great hand will lead me
To the mansions He’s gone to prepare.

John W. Peterson & Alfred B. Smith

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The Bible in Graphs

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Pieter Stok

At our staff devotions this morning a colleague showed us a graph of the Bible references between the Old and New Testaments. It was a clever pictorial representation of which OT book and chapter connected with the New. In other words, all those references in your Bible have been connected visually. This doesn’t contradict what I said in yesterday’s post about looking for meaning where it is not warranted. In fact, it shows how the meaning and intent of Scripture is beautifully linked.  If you are a visual person, this could be a valuable representation  of the Word for you. It doesn’t remove the need to read Scripture, however it can add to our appreciation of it.

Chris Harrison has a variety of charts of various aspects of Scripture. http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Visualizations/BibleViz

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William Shakespeare and Psalm 46

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Pieter Stok

William Shakespeare wrote the translation of Psalm 46 in the King James or Authorised Version on his 46th birthday. So the story goes. Forty six words in from the beginning of the Psalm and 46 words in from the end (leaving Selah alone) you find the the words “shake” and “spear.” (Melvyn Bragg, tongue in cheek, “The Book of Books.”) Keeping that in mind, I thought I might have written the translation of one of the Psalms in the NIV. Lo and behold, I went through Psalm 139, one of my favourites, and applied some clever counting, and surprise, surprise I found my name scattered through the Psalm. I must have a claim there somewhere.

I smile when I read stories like that, but it does hide a deeper issue. People seem to enjoy looking for truth in the patterns, letters and numbers rather than the words themselves. May I suggest that the Bible has many, many lifetimes’ worth of reading and studying its actual words in order for us to find, know and do God’s will, that looking for the trivial is not just a waste of time but counter productive.

In Psalm 119:105 we read: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. The truth about the Bible doesn’t get much clearer than that!

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I’ve heard about Jesus …

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Pieter Stok

A reflection on Matt 8:5-13 by Hetty:

I’ve heard about Jesus: Water, evil spirits, diseases, they all obey his word. So when he said he would come and heal my servant, I told him plainly, “That’s not necessary. Just say the word and I know he will be cured.” I knew he would have made the journey for me and the young man, but he is the “Chief Officer” and what he says goes. But I wasn’t expecting his amazement at my reply. And those comments about my faith – surely I’m not as good as all those pious Jews?!

Jesus comes for each of us. He makes no distinction between masters and servants, Jews or Gentiles. He only requires our faith in him.
“Remind me that you are
the Way,
the Truth
and the Life
and apart from you there is no life.”
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Walking in the Light

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Pieter Stok

South Stack Lighthouse, Holy Island, Wales

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Encountering Jesus

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Pieter Stok
The following reflection on Matt 8:28-34 comes from my wife, the “Sarah”, in reality, Hetty, in “Travels from Ur”:

It’s a peaceful spot, not too far from town, the ideal place to let the swine wander and graze. Well, most of the time it is. You see, in the tombs up there in Gadarenes there are a couple of wild men. People say they are demon possessed. On this day we saw some other strangers who we now know were Jesus the Nazarite and his disciples. I’d heard of him and I should have recognized him when those two wild men started shouting at him and he ordered their demons to leave them. He’s known for that kind of thing.

Well, I have nothing against that man for giving those two their lives back and it’s not everyday that you witness such a miracle right before your eyes. But it is the other thing that he did that really angered us. The demons asked him to send them into OUR pigs. Can you believe it?! And then once our herd was filled with demons it ran straight down the bank and into the lake. Every one of the pigs drowned! Utterly gobsmacked, us herders took off in the other direction – into town, and there we told anyone who’d listen what Jesus had done. A whole posse of townsfolk  went back to the “scene of the crime.” Jesus and his followers were still in the field. Once the townies had established what had happened via a whole barrage of questions, they had an impromptu town council meeting. then they asked Jesus to leave. And I say, “Fair enough! He ruined our livelihood. he ruined our lives.”

Lord. let me not only see what I may have lost because of my encounter with you. May I continually count the blessings you have bestowed on me. May my following you be about giving back to you, in gratitude, for all I have received.
Amen
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The Very Words of God

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Pieter Stok

St Martin in the Fields London

 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.  1 Peter 4:11a

When I was studying at a Theological College, the professors stressed that we, aspiring to be preachers, must preach God’s word and not our own pet theories. We were in the pulpit on God’s behalf – not our own.

In the passage above from 1 Peter, the apostle stresses that as the church approaches the end times it is essential that the church (i.e. each individual Christian) speaks God’s words. To be God’s mouth piece is not just a challenge for preachers, but in fact, for all who call themselves Christians.

We all have a prophetic call to the age in which we live.

This call requires two attributes. We must know God’s heart, that is, what grieves Him about ourselves and the world in which we live. Also we must know what it is that God wants us to say.

Both these require an intimate knowledge of the God’s Word. However, more than that, it also requires the courage to be a prophetic voice and living witness to our age. Rather than being chameleons blending into our age, we are called to be a vibrant, living alternative – speaking and being the words of God.

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Comfortable Church Part 2

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Pieter Stok

… though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds

The Colosseum. A Place Where Christians Were Not Called Hypocrites

of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.1 Peter 1:6 & 7

In the West, on the whole, our faith has not been tested by fire. Christians and Churches are not scattered in fear of their lives. “Suffering grief of all kinds” has not been the norm. With the continuous decline of Christianity from a mainstream movement to a peripheral group, maybe that time is not that far away. Social and moral values in our cultures are diverging from Biblical values everyday. Understandably, from within the church there are many cries of alarm. People even try to hijack political parties and candidates. But is this the answer?

Could there be a silver lining to this dark cloud? Is it possible that the church, scattered and strangers in the world (1Peter 1:1) could be a far more effective witness for Christ as it was in the early church. Could it be that a Church unencumbered by 1700 years of peripherals (i.e from the time of the Edict of Milan under Constantine) such as buildings, constitutions, robes, habits, customs and the rest, could be far more effective and genuine than it is today? Imagine, the only thing to grab hold on were the promises of God – nothing else. Imagine – your only protection was our invisible God ( 1peter 1:8)! Imagine, that our joy at being a child of God’s was so infectious it transformed a sceptical world.

It seems to me, the people of God are most effective when under the pressure of refining fire; whether Daniel in Babylon, Christians in the Roman world or Christians suffering persecution today. In the West we are often called hypocrites. I am sure this charge was never made against those who were, and are, prepared to die for their faith.

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Report Writing Day

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Pieter Stok

Today is Report Writing Day. We started the day with a staff breakfast of croissants, fruit salad, bacon … I digress!  Every semester the staff is given a day to write reports on all the students under their charge. Teachers trawl through their markbooks, revisit the behaviour comments they’ve made and then reflect on what they should write about the students.

Teachers don’t use the sarcastic comments they have filed away. “Johnny is trying, very trying.” “If Billy’s brains were gunpowder he wouldn’t have enough to blow is hair off”. And so forth. It is tempting to use these phrases at times but we want to keep our jobs.

Report writing, or its equivalent has become an integral part of modern day business. There are evaluations going on on all the time; productivity, efficiency, health and safety, profitability and a myriad of others.

Somehow they all pale into insignificance when we read about God’s Report Writing Day – often described in Scripture as the “Day of the Lord”. Matthew chapters 24 & 25 give us some of the most graphic, maybe even, chilling, accounts of this day. Here we read of the image of sheep and goats being separated, of wise and foolish virgins. They are all pointed metaphors/parables reminding us of the ultimate reality of the day.

We also discover that being righteous, that is, having come to faith in Christ and being covered by his righteousness, is not simply an action of the mouth. Being righteous is a lifestyle. It is exemplified by the person who helps the poor, the prisoner, the hungry and thirsty. This person does it because of the new life they are living in Christ. Christ, in fact, takes it one step further when he says, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matt25:40).

Jesus is not describing a “works salvation” but he is saying that a person’s new life in him will be reflected in a radically new life style.

Well, today is Report Writing Day, but will we be ready when God’s final “Report Writing Day” arrives?

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Is Anybody Listening?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Pieter Stok

“… so that no one will malign the word of God.” Titus 2:5

When Paul encourages Titus, a friend and helper, he urges him to instruct the people of Crete to live in a way that honours the word of God that they profess. In the midst of the heathen culture of the day it was important that the representatives of Christ were seen to be different; following different values and living according to a different world view.

If we cast our eyes around and observe the people who call themselves representatives of Christ, today, what strikes us is that, often, too often, the world is shaping the values of the Christian and the Church. The world’s music, the world’s entertainment, even the world’s priorities (entertainment, pleasure, self importance et al.) too often form the shape of the church, rather than the opposite. Sadly we see it in some leaders of mega churches, T.V. evangelists, Christian media stars and … ourselves.

For the church to be an effective witness to, and alternative from, the world, it needs to reveal a radically alternate way of living, loving, marrying, raising families, working and doing business. In other words, what is required is a people who do not malign the word of God but live it intentionally and intently. We need to be an alternative, not more of the same. I find that Paul’s challenge to Titus resonates today. It is a word for 2011. But is anybody listening?

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