The Messiah’s Secret – Jesus the Bridge
Above a children’s story about three goats who wanted to cross over the bridge to go to church on the other side of the river, but the monster on the bridge tried to stop them. The last goat tossed the monster over the bridge ‘splash’ and he was never seen again.
The pull of the world will stop us from crossing over the bridge that God has provided in Jesus. The Lord Jesus will help us to overcome all the things that would stop us: it might be that we have no one to go with. When we don’t know what to do we say a prayer telling God what our problem might be and so we leave it with Him.
I know a young lady who as a young child regularly on a Sunday morning would go and sit alone in her local church graveyard and she listened to the people singing, she longed to go in and join them. When she grew up she told her family she wanted to become a Christian, although her family didn’t approve as they followed the Islamic faith, seeing her determination they eventually understood. Jesus answered her prayer when the time was right.
Mary’s Church ‘Away Day.‘ Rev Mark Cowley began by mentioning a little of his background: Before the Lord called him to become a Vicar in the Church of England he worked as a Medical Engineer. Three men in particular who he worked with: John Charmers, John Murphy and Kevin Hardy they had perfected the world renowned ‘hip replacement’ joint that is so successful in orthopaedic surgery. He described the three men as being totally different in mannerisms, background and personality. But that did not affect their ability to work together with amazing results.
The pull of the world will stop us from crossing over the bridge that God has provided in Jesus. The Lord Jesus will help us to overcome all the things that would stop us: it might be that we have no one to go with. When we don’t know what to do we say a prayer telling God what our problem might be and so we leave it with Him.
I know a young lady who as a young child regularly on a Sunday morning would go and sit alone in her local church graveyard and she listened to the people singing, she longed to go in and join them. When she grew up she told her family she wanted to become a Christian, although her family didn’t approve as they followed the Islamic faith, seeing her determination they eventually understood. Jesus answered her prayer when the time was right.
Mary’s Church ‘Away Day.‘ Rev Mark Cowley began by mentioning a little of his background: Before the Lord called him to become a Vicar in the Church of England he worked as a Medical Engineer. Three men in particular who he worked with: John Charmers, John Murphy and Kevin Hardy they had perfected the world renowned ‘hip replacement’ joint that is so successful in orthopaedic surgery. He described the three men as being totally different in mannerisms, background and personality. But that did not affect their ability to work together with amazing results.
During the second session in the afternoon he showed us this picture below:
We realised that the river had changed its course and the bridge stood on its own.
The Honduran town of Choluteca needed to cross a river, so a bridge was built. In 1998 Hurricane Mitch dropped 36 inches of rain swelling the river to six times its width, destroying the road and moving the river. When the storm was over, the bridge was standing in perfect condition spanning over dry land, with no roads connected to it.
Mark used this picture to illustrate team building: being ready to respond to the changes that may well occur in the future for instance: the Deanery having fewer clergy working in the Rossendale Valley.
Our church St Mary’s today is made up of people who believe and witness that Jesus Christ is Lord: some are life-long members through family connections and there are those who have joined St Mary’s through being an Anglican and some have come from having no church background that have come to faith through hearing the good news about Jesus.
Our church St Mary’s today is made up of people who believe and witness that Jesus Christ is Lord: some are life-long members through family connections and there are those who have joined St Mary’s through being an Anglican and some have come from having no church background that have come to faith through hearing the good news about Jesus.
The church at Colossae was made up of people who had come from different backgrounds and religious beliefs. A small percentage were probably Jewish people and a high percentage who had once worshiped idols, like the people on Mars Hill, Athens and some who had no religion at all. All of them had come to the knowledge that the name of Jesus stands above all of their former worship of an idol deity or ideology.
Jesus name above all names.
Paul reminded them of the Incarnation of Jesus, that he is the name above all names, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, for in him all things were created, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible.” Colossians 1: 15,16.
Jesus name above all names.
Paul reminded them of the Incarnation of Jesus, that he is the name above all names, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, for in him all things were created, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible.” Colossians 1: 15,16.
In our nation over recent years, we are seeing more people responding to new age spirituality and it’s being presented as the norm.
On our youngest daughters’ recent home visit, she told us that she was seeking a career change, so she has started on a degree nutrition course. I asked if I could have a look at what she was studying. I recognised agnosticism and new age spirituality that was being put forward as part of the Module’s discussion on “Progress.”
Extract from ‘Module One Ref: Slack, J. D., & Wise, J. M. 2005 ‘Progress’ in Culture and Technology: A primer (pp. 6-26). Peter Lang, New York.
“Defining Progress
The dictionary definition of progress is to ‘move forward’. If we are walking, we’re said to be making progress down the street. If we are beginning to accomplish a task, we are said to be making progress. The dictionary meaning is, however, only the beginning of what progress means in everyday cultural sense. To move forward is to move in one direction: forward as opposed to backward. Consequently, movement forward implies a direction or goal. Similarly, making progress toward the completion of a task implies an endpoint. Progress, then, in its cultural use, is not just movement forward, but movement towards something: a goal or endpoint. If a patient is said to be making progress, he or she is moving towards the goal of health. If a disease is said to be progressing, it is advancing, presumably, towards death.
In broad cultural terms, progress is often used to underscore the belief that humankind, as a whole, moves forward. Robert Nisbet, a historian who has written extensively on progress, put it this way: “Simply stated, the idea of progress holds that mankind has advanced in the past from some aboriginal condition of primitiveness, barbarism, or even nullity (nothingness) is now advancing, and will continue to advance through the foreseeable future.”
In addition, as Nisbet sees it, this advancing is not mere movement, but a movement towards something. We are not marching blindly into a future. Rather, we are advancing towards what we envision as utopia on Earth. Things will get better and better, and eventually we will achieve what we understand to be ‘the good life.’ Progress shows us how far we have come, what we have achieved, and how much better life is now than it used to be. It also reveals to us where we think we are going.
The Goal’s of Progress
The goals or endpoints of progress are usually unstated, left for the cultural critic to determine by carefully ‘reading’ the culture. However, whether a goal is stated or not, it typically takes the form of what is considered to be ‘the good life’. Most people have a sense of what, for them, the good life entails. It typically involves some of the following: family, community, happiness, leisure, health, happiness, wealth, harmony, and so on, though not necessarily in these terms or this order. Overall, however, two types of goals are associated with progress: material betterment and moral betterment. Material betterment might mean that life is more comfortable, that we are healthier, and that we have more things, more conveniences perhaps. Moral betterment might mean that spiritually we are more enlightened and that we treat each other better and with more tolerance.
The goals of progress (again usually assumed as part of unstated cultural knowledge) usually match the fundamental values of society. Progress at a particular moment in the development of culture could be ‘a chicken in a pot,’ indicating a democratic value of universal health and physical well-being; ‘a car in every garage,’ indicating the values of widespread personal mobility and private ownership; the absence of war or violence, indicating the values of peace and spiritual enlightenment, or a combination of all three. In any given historical context, understanding the assumed goals of progress is crucial to understanding that culture.”
Looking at these two Goals associated with ‘Progress’. Material and Moral Betterment.
Material Betterment – Progress measured and valued in material possessions, which is agnosticism.
Agnosticism – is were a person holds the view that we know nothing beyond material phenomena.
The Bible today identifies material betterment as being under law.
Meaning: putting our trust and investing in the pursuit of material possessions.
Material betterment may satisfy our physical needs, but does not satisfy the inner person, the soul, which is the spiritual entity within us, our soul is constantly searching to find fulfillment and speaking from experience my soul was searching for God.
Moral betterment – spiritually asserting self control over our nature.
It is under the law of self improvement of human nature. Romans Chapters 7 & 8 Sadly, there won’t be an absence of war and violence because mankind’s spirituality is corrupted by anger, rivalry, jealousy, murder, lies, deceit, licentiousness, greed and the dominance of self. Mankind being a god unto himself. The Bible refers to these as sin.
Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae he reminds them of their former life were their hearts and minds corrupted by sin. “And you who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.” Colossians 1: 21.
Below a diagram showing the gulf between mankind and God. The cross is placed in the gap carrying the weight of sin and acts like a bridge..
Jesus in his love for us, died to his own desires and accomplishments.
His Father’s purpose in his coming as one of us was to pay the price for sin which he did on the cross. Death is the punishment for sin, Jesus took all sin and its causes and bore it on his cross and in his death we find forgiveness.
Jesus Christ is God’s bridge
it is through faith in Jesus that we pass over from the deadness of our old nature to our new nature in Christ and so we begin to feel how God feels about his love for the sinner but not the sin in people’s lives.
Jesus Christ is God’s bridge
it is through faith in Jesus that we pass over from the deadness of our old nature to our new nature in Christ and so we begin to feel how God feels about his love for the sinner but not the sin in people’s lives.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians. “Seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practises and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3: 9,10.
We are all different in personalities, but when we accept Jesus into our heart we all have the same knowledge and nature of God and the same empowering of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the indwelling presence of Jesus we find fulfillment, as we are complete in him. The end of our life on earth is not a spiritual dead end. No we are a new creation in Christ, created by God to be his children. Children not born of flesh and blood, but born of the eternal Spirit of God. This is our hope that is shared with millions of other Christians across the world.
A Chinese Christian Meditation taken from the book ‘From Shore to Shore’ page 46
“Christ, Son of God, preceded all creation. He is the image of God, with all God’s majesty, power and glory. Yet he was willing to be humbled, even to be a servant.
It was precisely because he was humbled to the lowest that God exalted him to the highest, above all things. Though he was rich, he became poor for our sake. And because he was poor. God made him heir of all creation.
He cared for neither power nor position, nor did he seek them. He willingly humbled himself, and therefore God filled him with all things. He poured himself out, but God filled him, that all things might find their richness in him.
When will I learn, O God, to see poverty in riches, to see humility in exaltation, to find plenty in emptiness, and empty myself, so that I may be filled with all of creation.”
‘From Shore to Shore’ page 46 ‘A Chinese Christian Meditation’ read in two parts.
“Christ, Son of God, preceded all creation. He is the image of God, with all God’s majesty, power and glory.
Jesus we recognise how you demonstrated the power and glory of God in healing sickness and disease, when you raised the dead, walked on water, manufactured bread and turned water into wine, only God could do those things.
Yet he was willing to be humbled, even to be a servant.
We are your servant Jesus and we want to follow you wherever you go.
“Christ, Son of God, preceded all creation. He is the image of God, with all God’s majesty, power and glory. Yet he was willing to be humbled, even to be a servant.
It was precisely because he was humbled to the lowest that God exalted him to the highest, above all things. Though he was rich, he became poor for our sake. And because he was poor. God made him heir of all creation.
He cared for neither power nor position, nor did he seek them. He willingly humbled himself, and therefore God filled him with all things. He poured himself out, but God filled him, that all things might find their richness in him.
When will I learn, O God, to see poverty in riches, to see humility in exaltation, to find plenty in emptiness, and empty myself, so that I may be filled with all of creation.”
‘From Shore to Shore’ page 46 ‘A Chinese Christian Meditation’ read in two parts.
“Christ, Son of God, preceded all creation. He is the image of God, with all God’s majesty, power and glory.
Jesus we recognise how you demonstrated the power and glory of God in healing sickness and disease, when you raised the dead, walked on water, manufactured bread and turned water into wine, only God could do those things.
Yet he was willing to be humbled, even to be a servant.
We are your servant Jesus and we want to follow you wherever you go.
It was precisely because he was humbled to the lowest that God exalted him to the highest, above all things.
Lord, it is hard to go unnoticed, but we know in our heart that it pleases you.
Though he was rich, he became poor for our sake. And because he was poor, God made him heir of all creation.
What we have received from you Lord, we have treasure within our being.
He cared for neither power nor position nor did he seek them.
In his love for us he has raised us up to be his child, a child of God.
He willingly humbled himself, and therefore God filled him with all things.
Dear Lord teach us how to pray for what pleases your heart.
He poured himself out, but God filled him, that all things might find their richness in him.
May we give and not count the cost, toil and not to seek for rest,and labour not seeking any reward.
When will we learn, O God, to see poverty in riches.
May we, Lord, put true emphasis not on the things created for our pleasure, but on knowing God himself, the provider.
When will we learn, to see humility in exaltation.
To trust and invest in God’s will and as Jesus was blessed by God, so should we do the same.
When will we learn,To find plenty in emptiness, and empty ourselves, so that we may be filled with all of creation.”
Thank you heavenly Father that we have found fulfilment in Jesus Christ.
(The goats and monster pulled along on curtain tracks.)
Though he was rich, he became poor for our sake. And because he was poor, God made him heir of all creation.
What we have received from you Lord, we have treasure within our being.
He cared for neither power nor position nor did he seek them.
In his love for us he has raised us up to be his child, a child of God.
He willingly humbled himself, and therefore God filled him with all things.
Dear Lord teach us how to pray for what pleases your heart.
He poured himself out, but God filled him, that all things might find their richness in him.
May we give and not count the cost, toil and not to seek for rest,and labour not seeking any reward.
When will we learn, O God, to see poverty in riches.
May we, Lord, put true emphasis not on the things created for our pleasure, but on knowing God himself, the provider.
When will we learn, to see humility in exaltation.
To trust and invest in God’s will and as Jesus was blessed by God, so should we do the same.
When will we learn,To find plenty in emptiness, and empty ourselves, so that we may be filled with all of creation.”
Thank you heavenly Father that we have found fulfilment in Jesus Christ.
(The goats and monster pulled along on curtain tracks.)