| Four months later, in the spring month of Nisan at the start of our New Year, Artaxerxes had been king 20 years. At a feast, wine was brought to him, and when it had passed my examinations, I gave it to him. Now, you must understand that in the presence of the king it is not my custom to openly express emotion, especially sadness.
Artaxerxes (to Nehemiah): You look disturbed. I know you are not ill. The sadness I see in you is the sadness of the heart. What is wrong?
As I stood there before the king I was very afraid.
Nehemiah: May your life and reign extend forever, King!
Why should my face look anything but sad? My homeland is destroyed; my city is a heap of rubble; its | | once-mighty gates are nothing more than charred tinder. This is the place where my ancestors are supposed to be at
rest, but the very ground where they lie is ruined!
Artaxerxes: What is it you want?
All at once, I prayed to the God of heaven and made my request to the king.
Nehemiah (to God and Artaxerxes): If I have won your favor, my king, and if it is your pleasure, send me to the city where my ancestors are buried. Let me rebuild the city in Judah.
With his queen sitting beside him, the king continued to probe.
Artaxerxes: How long will your journey take, and when may I look for your return?
Then I knew: I had received his blessing. He was sending me. In response to his question,I set a time.
Nehemiah (to the king): If it continues to please you, send me with letters bearing your name. Send me to those men you have appointed to govern the lands beyond the EuphratesRiver. Then I can be assured I will be safe, escorted to the borders of Judah by your armies. And may I also ask you for a letter to the warden of your forests, Asaph; he will
supply timber to me so that I can build gates into the fortress around the temple mount, gates and watchtowers inthe walls around the city, and a house for myself.
My True God had heard my prayers and rested His hand of favor and love upon me. The king gave me everything I asked for! Nehemiah 2:1-8 The Voice
FOUR MONTHS LATER?
Wait a second. Nehemiah learns of the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem, that the gates have been reduced to ashes and tinder and is moved to tears. He begins to call out to God for favour. And then...
FOUR MONTHS LATER?
I want things done now. I want to be able to put in minimal effort and get maximum results. I want to pour myself into something on Monday or Tuesday and see it soaring by Sunday. I do not like to wait. I do not like to feel like I’m spinning my tires. I want to have traction and make waves. (Sorry for the mixed motorsport metaphors)
Often though it feels more like I need to put in maximum effort to see minimal results.
Nehemiah waits four months before he makes his request to the king...and even then his request is pre-empted by more prayer.
All at once, I prayed to the God of heaven and made my request to the king.
I confess that I do not always understand God’s timing. I also confess that I do not spend nearly enough time in prayer. This passage has convicted my heart. How often do I rely on my own strength/gifting/ability/ personality/charm to get things done? How often do I call out to God to direct my path?
Would I have waited and prayed for four months before approaching the king?
Probably not. Nope.
Will I spend a half hour today asking God to direct my path and for help to understand His timing?
Yep. And I guess that’s a start.
Join us Sunday night as we talk about prayer and timing...
| | This week we enter a new chapter at The Upper
Room. I have been digging into the book of Nehemiah and sense that there are some very interesting parallels to our little church plant.
Chapter one opens with our main character, Nehemiah. He is in the Persian city of Susa, some 1200 kilometres east of Jerusalem. The nation of Israel has been taken into exile by the Persians. The people of God have been scattered abroad. There is a remnant that still remains in the beloved city of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is in shambles. The walls are destroyed, the city gates have been reduced to ashes.
When the news reaches our protagonist he is reduced to rubble. When he learns of the brokenness and destruction he begins to weep and call out to his God. | Chapter one reveals the heart of this man in exile. Hear the prayer of his heart.
Nehemiah: Notice me—Eternal One, God of heaven, great and awesome God. You are the keeper of the covenant and loyally love those who love You and follow Your commands. Now, pay attention with open ears and eyes to me and see how I, Your servant, plead day and night for Your consideration. I confess our wickedness, not just for Your servants the children of Israel, but for my family and the household of my father, Hacaliah. We have acted extremely wickedly toward You. We have rejected Your commands, disregarding the regulations and judgments You gave to Your servant Moses to show us how to live. I ask that Youremember Your words to Your servant Moses, even when we did not. You told him, “If you are unfaithful to Me and choose another, then I will send you away and you will live separate from Me--you will live as aliens in strange lands; but if you have a change of heart and return to Me and walk according to My commands, then no matter how far you have gone, even to the places beyond the horizon, I will gather you and bring you to the place of My choosing, where My very name dwells.” They are Yours, God—they are Your servants; they are Your people whom You liberated from the exileby Your initiative and power. O Lord, hear Your servant praying to You and pay attention, and not just to my prayers but also to the prayers of these very Jews whose greatest joy is to live in fear and awe of You.
I am asking for success today, God; please make sure this man is compassionate to me, Your servant.
In that day, I was cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah 1:5-11 The Voice
Join us Sunday night as we lay our scene...as we enter into the tale of Nehemiah the cupbearer to the king.
| This is the final section of 1 John.
I have really enjoying walking through this letter, having certain pre-conceived notions challenged, having my understanding and theology refined as I ask deeper questions of the text. It has been wonderful to explore truth in the context of a community.
This week we close the chapter and move onto another journey through Scripture. But before we do, the apostle has a few parting words of challenge and encouragement.
I am writing all of this to you who have entrusted your lives to the Son of God—so you will realize eternal life already is yours. We live in the bold confidence that God hears our voices when we ask for things that fit His plan. | | And if we have no doubt that He hears our voices, we can be assured that He moves in response to our call.
In this regard, if you notice a brother or sister in faith making moral missteps and blunders, disregarding and disobeying God even to the point of God removing this one from the body by death, then pray for that person; and
God will grant him life on this journey. But to be clear, there is a sin that is ultimately fatal and leads to death. I am not talking about praying for that fatal sin, but I am talking about all those wrongs and sins that plague God’s
family that don’t lead to death.
We all know that everyone fathered by God will not make sin a way of life because God protects His children from the evil one, and the evil one can’t touch them. Have confidence in the fact that we belong to God, but also know that the world around us is in the grips of the evil one. We also can be sure of the fact that the Son of God has come and given us a mind so that we may know Him as the embodiment of all that is true. We live in this truth, in His Son Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the True God and eternal life.
My little children, keep away from idols. 1 John 5:13-21 The Voice
Eternal life is already yours...so much packed into that little statement. Eternity does not start “when we all get to heaven”, it starts now. We can experience eternity here and now. Do we? Do you sense a taste of heaven in every
day? Is there a tremor of bliss running through each dawn to dusk? Do you see a wink of the life to come in this concrete and tangible?
When we ask for things that fit His plan. I love this translation of Scripture when it comes to verses like this. This verse is often used to remind us that if we pray...God hears us...and if he hears us...he answers. Name it...Claim it.
And we absolutely should pray with confidence, when our prayers fit with His plan. Our prayer should always be to ask God what He is blessing, or where He is at work, and find a way to get there. Often we do our own thing
and ask God to come over here and bless it.
Notice someone making missteps...what do you do? We will spend some time talking about accountability and community this week. I don’t want to spill all that here, come out Sunday for that discussion.
John ends with one final warning: Keep away from American Idol. Wait...sorry. Keep away from idols.
See you Sunday at 4pm.
 When I was growing up I had a very weak stomach. Especially when it came to blood. I stepped on a piece of glass while walking with my friend Tricia and if I had not been with a girl, I am sure I would have passed out right there. I had to tough it out and run home as fast as I could, fearing that I would need stitches or amputation.
I remember vividly sitting in Biology discussing the circulatory system
and having to put my head down on the table as I was not even able to grip my pen to take notes. It is not that I got sick to my stomach, I just became very weak. I would not be able to make a fist. (Brenda thought this was hilarious and one evening when we were watching a movie a scene with a significant amount of blood filled the screen and she turned to me and said “Quick, make a fist.”)
I find that there others like me who get a little squeamish around the topic of blood. But maybe not in the same way. As soon as the idea of the blood of Jesus is mentioned, some people get a little weirded out. It is only in the old hymns that we talked about being “covered by the blood” or “washed in the blood”. That sounds disgusting and the thought of it does sort of make my wrists weak as I type.
But there is no escaping the blood of Jesus. We cannot ignore the truth that Jesus came, that his death on the cross
was for the forgiveness of our sins and that his blood was shed for that purpose. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. So what do we do with the blood?
This week we are going to be discussing 1 John 5:5-12 and the topic of blood and water appear a couple of times as evidence to the validity of the claims of Jesus. Read the passage over a couple times...
Who is the person conquering the world? It is the one who truly trusts that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus the Anointed is the One who came by water and blood—not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.
The Spirit of God testifies to this truth because the Spirit is the truth. So there are three testifying witnesses: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. All three are in total agreement. If we accept the testimonies of people, then we must
realize the testimony of God is greater than that of any person. God certified the truth about His own Son. Anyone who trusts the Son of God has this truthful testimony at the core of his being. Anyone who does not trust God calls God a liar because he ignores God’s truthful testimony regarding His own Son. And this is the truth: God has given us the gift of eternal life, and this life is in His Son. If you have the Son, you have eternal life. If you do not have the Son of God, you are not acquainted with true life. 1 John 5:5-12 The Voice
Jesus did not come by water only...but by the water and the blood.
There are all sorts of pictures and passages that come to mind when we think of the symbols of blood and water. Baptism, Crucifixion, Eucharist, Cleansing, Atoning, The Holy Spirit. What is John getting at when he talks about
Jesus coming by water and blood? What does it mean to truly trust that Jesus is the Son of God that came
by water and blood?
We dive into (pun intended) that Sunday at 4pm.
(If you enjoy this clip, there is a full series of them on YouTube.) They say you can’t choose your family.
Every family has at least a handful of colourful characters that we may feel the need to ‘warn’ or at the very least give someone a ‘heads-up’ about before we introduce them. Whether it is an eccentric uncle or an aunt that has too many cats or the political views of your great grandfather and the cheekiness of his wife, chances are you are in a family that you would not have chosen had you been able to pick them out of a lineup. Imagine what your life would look like if you could choose your family.
Would everyone think like you? Look like you? Have the same passions and interests as you? Always get along? The interesting thing about family is that regardless of the differences that exist between relatives, you probably can’t imagine your life without them in it. (I understand that there are exceptions to every rule and sadly not every family has members that merely quirky, but have done serious harm to its members.)
Think of the last holiday celebration, wedding or funeral you attended with your family.
How different would your life look if these people had not been in your life?
You can’t choose your family, and having said that, I’m not sure I would want to.
I think that there is a certain health that comes from having to love people that are different from us.
I also believe that our spiritual family should look at little more like our natural families. There should be people that come together for no other reason than their common lineage. On the outside there may have nothing in common.
Age may separate them or perhaps it is something like gender, interests, socio-economic status, mental health, political or theological views that could keep them apart. But because of they belong to one Father, they love one another. Because they have been created by the same God, they overcome those differences and call one another family. Young and old, rich and poor, male and female, employed and underemployed, sick and healthy all together as family. Sounds functionally dysfunctional. Like most of our families. Messy but ultimately full of love.
They say you can’t choose your family...I would venture to say you can’t choose your spiritual family either.
There may be people you wouldn’t naturally gravitate to, but they are family. And we love them. Read 1 John 5:1-4 and come join the family on Sunday night.
Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaitedAnointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down. Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes the corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. 1 John 5:1-4
| | We talk a lot about loving our neighbours on Sunday nights. We believe wholeheartedly that the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself.
This week’s passage in 1 John 4 reiterates this truth very powerfully. That if people have any hope of catching a glimpse of God, that it will come through seeing Christians who love one another and who love their neighbour.
There is one element of the passage that we will dig a little deeper into this week.
God is love. Anyone who lives faithfully in love also lives faithfully in God, and God lives in him. This love is fulfilled with us, so that on the day of judgment we have | confidence based on our identification with Jesus in this world. Love will never invoke fear. Perfect love expels fear,
particularly the fear of punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been completed through love.
1 John 4:16-18 The Voice
Love will never invoke fear. Fear is a powerful motivator. Many believers are motivated by fear...but this passage seems to point to a much more powerful motivation. Love. Are we motivated by love? Do we motivate with love?
As followers of Jesus, do our words drip with love? Is that what people experience from us? Come out Sunday night and join the conversation.
Here is the full passage that we will break into this Sunday night at 4.
My loved ones, let us devote ourselves to loving one another. Love comes straight from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and truly knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is
love.
Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him. This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, my loved ones, if God loved us sosacrificially, surely we should love one another. No one has ever seen God with human eyes; but if we love one another, God truly lives in us. Consequently God’s love has accomplished its mission among us.
How can we be sure that He truly lives in us and that we truly live in Him? By one fact: He has given us His Spirit. We have watched what God has done, and we stand ready to provide eyewitness testimonies to the reality that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone unites with our confession that Jesus is God’s
own Son, then God truly lives in that person and that person lives in God. We have experienced and we have entrusted our lives to the love of God in us.
God is love. Anyone who lives faithfully in love also lives faithfully in God, and God lives in him. This love is fulfilled with us, so that on the day of judgment we have confidence based on our identification with Jesus in this world. Love will never invoke fear. Perfect love expels fear, particularly the fear of punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been completed through love.
We love because He has first loved us. If someone claims, “I love God,” but hates his brother or sister, then he is a liar. Anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot possibly love God, whom he has never
seen. He gave us a clear command, that all who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.
1 John 4:7-21 The Voice
| This week we get back into 1 John at The Upper Room. We are in chapter 4.
In light of Easter last week, there is an exchange between Pilate and Jesus that connects with our passage in 1 John.
Pilate reentered the governor’s palace and called for Jesus to follow him.
Pilate: Are You the King of the Jews?
Jesus: Are you asking Me because you believe this is true, or have others said this about Me?
Pilate: I’m not a Jew, am I? Your people, including the chief priests, have arrested You and placed You in my custody. What have You done?
Jesus: My kingdom is not recognized in this world. If this were My kingdom, My servants would be fighting for My freedom. But My kingdom is not in this
physical realm. | | Pilate: So You are a king?
Jesus: You say that I am king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the cosmos: to demonstrate the power of truth. Everyone who seeks truth hears My voice.
Pilate (to Jesus): What is truth? John 18:33-38 The Voice
Is Pilate genuinely seeking to find out the truth? Or is he trying to get Jesus to say something that will land him in hot water? I wonder if his line of questioning was more than merely fulfilling his requirements to prove Jesus’ guilt or innocence. I wonder what tone the question “What is truth?” was uttered in. Jesus seemed to know that there was a deeper question when he asked: “Are you asking Me because you believe this is true, or have others said this about
Me?”
This is a question I have asked a lot lately. Especially through Lent and Easter. Do I believe in Jesus because of what others have said about Him or do I believe it to be true because of my own intimate experience with a risen Savior? Is my faith based purely on the words and experiences of those that have walked this path before me, or do they merely add to my own very real encounter with Jesus?
How do you know what you believe is really the truth?
I know some Christians who are not ok with questions like this. Doubt is not to be part of a good Christian vocabulary. I am in a season of life where I have been questioning a lot lately. Not that I doubt my faith but that I have been ok asking ‘Why do I believe this?’ ‘How do I know that this is really true?’
I lean pretty hard on passages like: “Everyone who seeks truth hears My voice.”
And 1 John 4:1-6
My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit. Instead, examine them carefully to determine if they come from
God, because the corrupt world is filled with the voices of many false prophets. Here is how you know God’s Spirit: if a spirit affirms the truth that Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, has come in human flesh, then that spirit is from
God. If a spirit does not affirm the true nature of Jesus the Anointed, then that spirit does not come from God and is, in fact, the spirit of the antiChrist. You have heard about its coming; in fact it is already active in the world. My children, you have come from God and have conquered these spirits because the One who lives within you is greater than the one in this world. But they are of this world, and they articulate the views of the corrupt world, which the world understands. We come from God, and those who know God hear us. Whoever is not from God will not listen to us. This is the way we discern the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
This week we will look at doubt and testing...is there an element of doubt in our faith? Should there be? Is it
possible to ask the right questions if we are not ok with testing what we believe? Join us Sunday at 4pm and
enter the conversation.
After the Sabbath, as the light of the next day, the first day of the week, crept over Palestine, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb to keep vigil. Earlier there had been an earthquake. A messenger of the Lord had come down from heaven and had gone to the grave. He rolled away the stone and sat down on top of it. He veritably glowed. He was vibrating with light. His clothes were light, white like transfiguration, like fresh snow. The soldiers guarding the tomb were terrified. They froze like stone.
The messenger spoke to the women, to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.
Messenger of the Lord: Don’t be afraid. I know you are here keeping watch for Jesus who was crucified. But Jesus is not here. He was raised, just as He said He would be. Come over to the grave, and see for | |
yourself. And then go straight to His disciples, and tell them He’s been raised from the dead and has gone on to Galilee. You’ll find Him there. Listen carefully to what I am telling you.
The women were both terrified and thrilled, and they quickly left the tomb and went to find the disciples and give them this outstandingly good news. But while they were on their way, they saw Jesus Himself.
Jesus (greeting the women): Rejoice.
The women fell down before Him, kissing His feet and worshiping Him. Matthew 28:1-10 The Voice
He Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!
Today we gather at 4pm at St. Augustine to worship a risen Savior. Just like the women who were on their way to tell the disciples, we will meet our Rabbi tonight through the telling of His story, through remembering his sacrifice as we share communion. We will touch in on a few of the different post-resurrection stories and how Jesus revealed
himself to people before He ascended into heaven.
Would you join us tonight? He Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!
| | After all this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple who kept his faith a secret for fear of the Jewish officials, made a
request to Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate granted his request, and Joseph retrieved the body. Nicodemus, who first came to Jesus under the cloak of darkness, brought over 100 pounds of myrrh and ointments for His burial. Together, they took Jesus’ body and wrapped Him in linens soaked in essential oils and spices, according to Jewish burial customs.
Near the place He was crucified, there was a garden with a newly prepared tomb.
Because it was the day of preparation, they arranged to lay Jesus in this tomb so they could rest on the Sabbath. John 19:38-42 The Voice |
For some reason as I read this passage over again this morning, the lyrics to "What Sarah Said" by Death Cab For Cutie started running through my mind.
And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself that I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me
Away from me
Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines in a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained itself
'Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said that "Love is watching someone die"
So who's going to watch you die?.. -Ben Gibbard
When I think of the disciples and how they would have felt today, I imagine my family sitting in the funeral home staring at a small wooden box that contains what is left of my father. (He took his own life when I was just 13) As I sit surrounded by family, I feel numb. I feel as if life has been stolen away from the one I look up to. I feel like my world has been shattered.
Then I step outside and it is business as usual for everyone else in town. Do they not know? Do they not realize that the world has ground to a halt? Life will never be the same.
I imagine life in Jerusalem carrying on around the disciples who are so confused, hurt and angry this morning. I am reminded of families in our lives who have also dealt with great loss that seems to be quickly forgotten. A baby that would never be held by parents who hoped so much. A child that succumbed to a disease that should never be found in a frame so small. A son that was excecuted for a crime he did not commit. A parent who in desperation and despair took the "easy" way out. When the wound is raw, words bring no comfort. It is only the presence of others sitting in the waiting room with us. Sitting shiva with us. Those who weep with those who weep bring comfort.
As we imagine what the disciples would have felt as they grieved the loss of their Teacher and Master, let us also remember those who grieve for their lost love ones today. Let us come alongside and be with them. Let our presence bring comfort for those who find themselves in the space between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The governor’s soldiers took Jesus into a great hall, gathered a great crowd, and stripped Jesus of His clothes, draping Him in a bold scarlet cloak, the kind that soldiers sometimes wore. They gathered some thorny vines, wove them into a crown, and perched that crown upon His head. They stuck a reed in His right hand, and then they knelt before Him, this inside-out, upside-down King. They mocked Him with catcalls.
Soldiers: Hail, the King of the Jews!
They spat on Him and whipped Him on the head with His scepter of reeds, and when they had their fill, they pulled off the bold scarlet cloak, dressed Him in His own simple clothes, and led Him off to be crucified. | |
As they were walking, they found a man called Simon of Cyrene and forced him to carry the cross. Eventually they came to a place called Golgotha, which means “Place of the Skull.” There they gave Him a drink—wine mixed with
bitter herbs. He tasted it but refused to drink it.
And so they had Him crucified. They divided the clothes off His back by drawing lots, and they sat on the ground and watched Him hang. They placed a sign over His head: “This is Jesus, King of the Jews.” And then they crucified two thieves next to Him, one at His right hand and one at His left hand.
Passersby shouted curses and blasphemies at Jesus. They wagged their heads at Him and hissed.
Matthew 27:27-39 The Voice
He was cursed so that we might be blessed.
He was broken so that we might be whole.
He was murdered that we might have life.
Thanks be to God for the mercy and obedience of the Son.
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