Finding rest

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

Scattered throughout Jesus’ many conversations while on earth, are invitations for people to enter into a personal relationship with Himself and His heavenly Father. One of the best-known invites is recorded in Matthew 11:28-30. Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

This invitation is just as valid today as it was in the first century. Within the messiness of life of any century and within any culture, there exists an inner dissatisfaction, an inner restlessness created by sin which only God can settle through His Son Jesus.

This invitation by Jesus is not randomly directed at the masses, but to those who recognise their heavy struggle with life. He calls people humbled under the relentless difficulties of spiritual dissatisfaction, who may have even attempted to fill life with worldly pleasures. Whatever the personal circumstances, Jesus reaches out to those wanting a satisfying solution for their restlessness.

Jesus’ confident promise of supplying rest almost sounds too good to be true. So, He provides the needed details to give understanding of His promised rest.


§  We come to Jesus, and to Him alone for spiritual rest. Jesus will not share His position of being personal Lord and Saviour with others. We come to God in human flesh, not to an organisation.

§  We come to Jesus openly confessing all the sinful complexities of our lives. We abandon the idea that we need assistance to tidy things up before we come to Him. No, we surrender our all to Him in our present state as a person labouring under the load of dissatisfaction and emptiness of life.

§  We come to Jesus expecting Him to fulfill His promise using His methods and in His timing. We come without demand and without expectations of worldly pleasures or ideals being met. 

§  We come to Jesus realising that we are to take His yoke of His salvation, His spiritual rebirth, and His Lordship over our lives upon ourselves. Again, this is full surrender. Salvation is not a negotiation. These are not peace talks but surrender without conditions. We come looking only for grace.

§  We come to Jesus realising that learning of Him is just beginning. Salvation is not an end, but the start line. Therefore, we do not tell Him anything other than confession and repentance. Surrender under His truths and of past worldly thinking and habits is needed to stop our heart centered battle with God.

And when we respond to Jesus in this way, we discover His fulfilled promise of rest for our souls. But notice that spiritual rest is not without spiritual weight, as Jesus said, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Living with Jesus comes with responsibilities, but by worldly standards, Jesus’ shared joke in life delivers eternal life, eternal peace with God, and eternal fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Walking in obedience to God’s Word, lightens the spiritual load in life, even though the world may try to increase its pressure on you because of your obedience. God’s call for love through obedience is not overwhelming, but loving and protective of us.


May we all walk today having come to Jesus Christ, taking His yoke upon ourselves, and experiencing His satisfying rest for our souls.

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Joining with the Lord

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

In writing to the sin compromised church at Corinth, the apostle Paul repeatedly emphasises the unique relationship believers have with the Lord. In doing so, he uses different phrases to accentuate different facets of the spiritual connection intertwining them with God through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

In the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians Paul explains that believers are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints (1:2), you were called into the fellowship of His Son (1:9), we have the mind of Christ (2:16), you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you (3:16), you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (3:23), your bodies are members of Christ (6:15), the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him (6:17), your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you… You are not your own, for you were bought with a price (6:19-20).

While some think of these truths as nonsense, others consider them as mystical intrigue, and some portray them as confusing mumbo-jumbo with no real-world importance. But to the apostle Paul, as with all believers in Christ, these truths have serious implications that need to be taken notice of. These statements all tell of what it means to be “in Christ,” which is by faith. These are spiritual realities that impact a person so profoundly that they filter throughout our entire lives. No part of our being goes untouched as the Holy Spirit ministers the many graces of God from within.

Obviously, from our perspective, we may or may not recognise these realities in any given moment of time. While they are constantly true as a fact, we are often distracted by activities, other correct passions, by struggling priorities, or partially blinded by the cunning of sin which leads us astray. Sometimes there seems to be legitimate reasons why we allow ourselves to become inattentive to the intimacy the Lord desires to share with us.

However, God is intimate, and He strongly desires for us to spend time with Him through His Word, in worshipful meditation, and through simple but honest prayer which is permeated with thanksgiving. No matter how busy our lives may be, we are able to engage the Lord through His indwelling Spirit in meaningful dialogue. Listening while travelling, reading and praying while waiting, humming, whistling or singing while working are just a few methods of meaningful fellowship with the Lord.

For some, there is simply no time so precious as the early hours of the morning while all is quiet, and distractions are few. Here we bathe in God’s Word, allowing it to roam through our thoughts as we consider His renewed mercies which are released daily (Lamentations 3:22-24). Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul (Psalm 143:8). Here we navigate our struggles, our inadequacies, and even our failings in one to one dialogue with our Saviour while knowing that we are in Him and He is in us.

As God’s children, we need frequent times of closeness with the Lord to unravel the deepest puzzles of our lives and to learn to rest in Him, waiting for Him to do what only He can do with our lives. After all, we are not our own, for we were bought with a price, and that price was the life of God’s Son. May the Lord enable us to enjoy being joined with Christ, walking closer with Him, and in sweeter fellowship.

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Who do we belong to?

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

This question challenges personal identity, individuality, and autonomy. What a mouthful. But these are the heart issues that arise when possession or ownership of our lives are spoken of. We understand this when talking of worldly slavery or identity theft, but when speaking of the Christian life, it can evoke raw emotions.

For some, they are happy belonging to God as if only in an association with Him. Even though recognised as members of God’s family, this can still allow for vague feelings which permit a strong sense of spiritual independence and self-governance. But how does God think of us in this matter?

The apostle Paul had to address this issue with the church at Corinth due to their many areas of sinful failure. Like the world, they had failed to accept the apostle’s teaching, that when anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Either their lack of understanding, or their resistance to the full scope of what changed in their lives when spiritual rebirth occurred, led to shameful living in many areas of their lives.

In response, the apostle Paul unashamedly gives God’s perspective on this matter in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20. First, in verse 13, we’re told that our bodies are to be used for the Lord. Why? Because your bodies are members of Christ (:15), as the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him (:17). Therefore, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (:19-20).

Intrinsic to salvation is the entire persons transfer of ownership. Faith in Christ activates the Holy Spirit’s indwelling ministry, jealously claiming and sealing the one for whom Christ died. Similarly, regeneration sees the sinner’s name entered in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 21:27) and transfer of citizenship from earth to heaven occurs (Php 3:20). Heaven’s paperwork, so to speak, is irrevocably completed. Condemnation is recalculated to be justification, and the divine ledger shows a balance of innocence before Holy God (Rom 4:8; 5:9). God’s wrath is calmed to peace (Rom 5:1) with those who previously were enemies of God, now affectionately embraced as the beloved of God, and all at Christ’s expense (Eph 5:1).

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13). What an astonishing transformation! This is the work of an indomitable Saviour who does all things well and nothing by half measures (Mark 7:37).

With such an overwhelming amount of divine activity on behalf of the repentant sinner, the Lord enacts His right of ownership by assigning each believer to His sole possession. Therefore, there can only be one appropriate response, and that is for the child of God to glorify Him in body and spirit. Both the inner and outer person lives for the goal of glorification. Peter expresses a correct response with this exhortation; But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

May each of us display Christ’s ownership through joyful obedience that glorifies Him and builds  up others for the pleasure of God. 

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A gospel worth sharing

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

As we read the New Testament, it doesn’t take long to realise that first generation Christians of the first century faced the same issues we do today. Time, different cultures, and advancing technology has not changed the aggression of the world towards Jesus Christ. Nor have they changed the deceptive desires of the human heart that challenges everything true of God and His Son.

As the apostle Paul concludes his letter to the Galatian church, in which he had defended the true gospel, he inserts a short statement of personal testimony. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

From the earliest days of the church, God’s enemy has operated against the gospel from within the church, turning people away from Christ to a different gospel (Gal 1:6). This alternative message was a distortion of the gospel (Gal 1:7), which was contrary to the gospel that Paul had taught them (Gal 1:8-9). You see, a false gospel always puts man and their self-righteous ideas and actions at the centre of the message to earn acceptance with God. Whereas through the true gospel we know that a person is not justified (declared innocent) by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 2:16).

Therefore, after all that Paul could write to the Galatian church, urging them to return wholly to the Christ-centred gospel, he states his personal commitment to Jesus Christ. Paul knew that there is no place for self-promotion before the Lord. Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was, and remains, the only truth worthy of boasting about. Just as credit card fraud seeks to rob you of your money through misrepresentation, so the enemies of Christ seek to rob you of a forgiven and innocent standing before God through misrepresenting the gospel.

Those teaching a false gospel will usually take one of two approaches. Either they will make works and rules a requirement of salvation, or they will permit sinful worldly living to continue without  obedience to Christ as Lord. But  Paul’s authenticity is seen in his declaration that the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Worldly values that inspire worldly behaviour, which is contrary to Jesus Christ, are dead to the Christian through faith in Jesus as our substitute on the cross. Love for Jesus Christ replaces love for sin. Desire to be Christlike are to overrule any lingering desires of the sinful flesh.

This is at the heart of Paul’s testimony, Jesus’ accomplishments on the cross were now Paul’s centre of life. No passion was permitted to become greater than his passion for Christ. Paul’s integrity was now dictated by a Christ-centred gospel which could not be compromised or diluted in any way. Living as a new creation in Christ (Gal 6:15. Cf. 2Co 5:17) was non-negotiable for Paul. Any message that deviated in the slightest was to be considered worldly and fraudulent. Paul stated the same to the Corinthian church; for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple, sweet, and uncomplicated, as it calls for repentant belief in its message of Jesus Christ who took God’s wrath for sinners on the cross. May God grant that we all be people of such Christ-centre belief with a clear testimony of Christ to share.

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Imitating God’s Love

By / The Pastor's Pen / 3 minutes of reading

The apostle Paul, in writing to the church in Ephesus, explained some of the deepest truths found in Scripture. He also gave practical guidance on how to apply these truths in daily life. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:1-2).

Paul begins this section of behaviour instructions by highlighting the believer’s privilege of being called to imitate God. It’s humbling to think that Yahweh’s love for His children desires for us to manifest His likeness while here on earth. This desire of God is motivated by His special and fatherly love for His children. By our human way of thinking, it may have been good enough if He had invited us to sort of try to be a bit like Himself. But no, His love is so definitive and expressive of His goodness and holiness, that He desires us to imitate Him.

The apostle John gives a similar exhortation in 1 John 4:16. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. God’s self-sacrificing love is intrinsic to His nature and is unable to be detached from His character. Both apostles are making the same application, since we are born again in Christ and have the Holy Spirit within, self-sacrificing love is evidence of God operating in our lives.

However, Paul adds another dimension which is not expressed well in our English language. In the original language of Ephesians 5:2, Paul explicitly says we are to “walk in love” (agapē love), which is God’s  self-sacrificing affection. Likewise, he then says, just as “Christ loved us” (agapaō love), which is Christ’s morally relational affection. This is a fine point that carries large implications for God’s desire for how we are to express His love. This two-sided love changes our heart attitudes and intentions when loving God and others. These two expressions of the same God-centred love are not theoretical, but very practical. He builds through us, relationships into which His perfect self-sacrificing and morally pure love is expressed.

This is seen when Christians are growing in Christlike character. Both Paul and John wanted their readers to understand the inescapable implication. If you truly have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, there will be a deep desire to live God’s two-sided love in such an obvious way that others will relationally see and feel God’s love.

In fact, Paul continues in verse 2, by saying Christ loved (agapaō, relationally loved) us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. It was Christ’s relational love that gave the fullest expression of His sacrificial love by dying on the cross to take our judgement for our sin. It was this expression of love that God considered to be sweet and acceptable. The thing is, when Christ gave His life on the cross, He was both sacrificially and relationally expressing love to His heavenly Father and to us His saved sinners.

Paul makes a strong point here. God desires for believers to imitate His profound love which is expressed fully through His Son Jesus Christ. Just as God, through Christ, showed self-sacrificing love that is morally perfect and relationally applied, making us His “beloved children,” so we are to be and to do the same for others. May we imitate God by our love for others as our worship for Christ.

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