Reflections

Jesus’ great gift in four words…..

It is worth taking the time to reflect and meditate on Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant of God in Isaiah 53. Here we will illuminate one statement using the Strong’s concordance but the whole chapter is a glorious vision of the gift that Jesus gave through His life and death on the Cross.

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Isaiah 53:4a

1. He has borne – from the Hebrew word Nasa or Nasah which means to lift, bear, carry or take.
2. Our griefs – from the Hebrew word Choli meaning sickness, grief, malady anxiety, calamity.
3. And carried – from the Hebrew word Sabal meaning to bear a heavy load (like oxen).
4. Our sorrows – from the Hebrew word Makob meaning pain (both mental and physical), grief or sorrows.

Here we see the depth of His gift. He lifted and carried away our grief and sickness. And He took the heavy burden of all our pain, sadness and grief. We must remember that all this is yet to come into fulfillment when we see Him face to face. This journey to wholeness in Him is in progress. We can see that through the Cross He has made a way for us to unburden ourselves onto Him. We don’t need to carry our sorrows, pain and grief. He will carry them for us although they are heavy loads. What an amazing promise. Give them to Him. He loves you.

Move closer to the Cross and see Him who loves you…..

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Luke 23:39-43

Jesus the saviour of the world was crucified on a cross in front of many enemies. But as we together reflect on the cross, like some who stood there in person on that day, we can truly see Him and who he is.

Much has been written about the thief on the cross who defends Jesus and is given a promise that he will join Jesus in paradise. But think about the setting. Two men who were in terrible pain speaking to each other and about to die. It is amazing that the thief had the energy to defend Jesus at that moment. I think we miss that sometimes. To use some of his last moments to engage with Jesus and to own his own sin is extraordinary. There was something about being in Jesus’ presence, even at His frailest moment, that changed those around Him who were willing to see.

When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:39

That is the story too of the centurion. We do not have much information about this man but church legend states that he became a Christian as a result of his encounter with Jesus on the cross. The fact that a Roman soldier sent to crucify a prisoner was moved to see the truth about who Jesus truly was is amazing. He didn’t just say he was innocent. He claimed he was the Son of God despite the mocking sign ‘King of the Jews’ which was placed above Jesus’ head on the cross. That soldier had a divine revelation. If He was the Son of God then He was there for all people of the world. The scripture states that the centurion was standing right in front of him. He was looking at Him. He wasn’t guarding Him against an angry mob who was also there. He wasn’t facing towards them. He was facing the other way. Something about how Jesus died moved Him to proclaim that truth.

Thank-you Jesus. We love you.

It is worth taking the time to reflect and meditate on Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant of God in Isaiah 53. Here we will illuminate one statement using the Strong’s concordance but the whole chapter is a glorious vision of the gift that Jesus gave through His life and death on the Cross.

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Isaiah 53:4a

1. He has borne – from the Hebrew word Nasa or Nasah which means to lift, bear, carry or take.
2. Our griefs – from the Hebrew word Choli meaning sickness, grief, malady anxiety, calamity.
3. And carried – from the Hebrew word Sabal meaning to bear a heavy load (like oxen).
4. Our sorrows – from the Hebrew word Makob meaning pain (both mental and physical), grief or sorrows.

Here we see the depth of His gift. He lifted and carried away our grief and sickness. And He took the heavy burden of all our pain, sadness and grief. We must remember that all this is yet to come into fulfillment when we see Him face to face. This journey to wholeness in Him is in progress. We can see that through the Cross He has made a way for us to unburden ourselves onto Him. We don’t need to carry our sorrows, pain and grief. He will carry them for us although they are heavy loads. What an amazing promise. Give them to Him. He loves you.

Thank-you. We love you.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’  Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

 John 5:8-11

 Sometimes the Lord will ask us to give simply what we have. The young boy brought forth to Jesus so humbly and simply is our example. We bring the little that we have knowing that the Lord accepts a gift given willingly from a heart of love. We are like the poor woman who gave her small coin in the temple – Jesus notices our gifts of love for Him. No matter how small we should know He sees it all. No matter how small we know He can use it all, multiply it all for the kingdom and for His glory.

Just like the small boy who gave all he had to the Saviour for His purposes and for His kingdom we send this message for ‘Heart of the Cross’ out across the world knowing that the Lord Himself can multiply it and satisfy many with our small gift of loaves and fishes. We pray that the Lord will indeed feed us all as we again face the cross and reach out to bless our Saviour to send Him our thanks and prayers to that moment on the cross.

Thank-you. We love you.

Evangelists stand at the edge of the Church with their eyes on a fallen world. Those with this gift long for any opportunity to give a message to lead souls to their Lord. It is a gift which is incredibly focused. It is a gift which seems, to those of us on the outside, to be almost an obsession at times. There is a driven nature to the role of evangelist. They are restless and never satisfied, aware of the throng of people in need of their loving Saviour.

But there is a beautiful gift that they also give to us as church. It is echoed in many verses in the Old Testament – the return. Time and again the people of God wandered away from their first love. And time and again the prophets called them back to their God. (Zechariah 1:3b, Lamentations 3:40, 2 Chronicles 30:9b, Isaiah 44:22, Joel 2:12, Hosea 14:2, Jeremiah 3:12b)

In the New Testament Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son who left his Father’s household to experience all the pleasures of the world. After hitting rock bottom and without any money or support and having tasted all the world had to offer he ‘came to his senses’ and returned to his Father’s house. (Luke 15: 11-32) He was not alone in wandering from the Father’s love. Both sons had moved away from the Father’s heart. The other son saddened his Father by not understanding all that the Father had was his all along. This son had been serving his Father out of duty, not love, for reward, and not because he understood the Father’s heart of love.

Let us be like the Evangelist and focus again on our first love, that first choice to follow Jesus and recommit ourselves once more. This is the great gift that we can use to come back to the cross. Without the cross we would have been lost. So many of us still want to run from it. We need to be reminded not just of His pain, His sacrifice, but of the extraordinary love of the Father behind it.

Remember your first love always:

 As Jesus said to the Ephesians

 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.    Revelation 2:4-5a

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength: This is the first commandment. Mark 12:30

In Greek Jesus’ statement about loving God contains four parts. (Interestingly the verse recounting the same discussion in Matthew 22:37 does not contain ‘might’ or ‘strength’) Loving Him with heart, soul, mind and strength. The Greek translation separates the mind from the heart and but the Hebrew word for heart does not. That is interesting. In Western culture much is made of intellectual pursuits and the need for the mind to rule both emotions as part of our heart as well as the body.

There are implications in the Greek language for the way God wants us to love Him. The Greek word for mind is much more than intellect. The word is ‘dianoia’ meaning the mind, disposition, thought. It literally means moving from one side to another to come to a balanced understanding. That means we are to love God in a way that uses our understanding to muse, reflect, consider and come to a balanced conclusion.

The Hebrew word for ‘might’ in Deuteronomy 6:5 is very interesting. It is the word ‘meod’ which is translated as muchness, force, abundance. This is not speaking so much about physical strength but a force of will and choice that generates intentional power towards the Lord with our love. His love is His essence. Our love is our essence responding to His.

The Greek word for strength or might in Mark 12 is ‘ish-khoos’ meaning ability, strength, power, might, force, might. So love the Lord your God within the ability of your forcefulness. Again as with the soul there is a uniqueness about the type of love He calls us to. The type of force we use will vary. Some have strong emotions, that is part of their strength, some have strong wills, again that is part of their might. There is a direction in the use of this type of strength. When you chose to use force you direct it. When we chose to love God we direct our energy towards Him.

Thank-you. We love you.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength: This is the first commandment. Mark 12:30

Love the Lord your God with all your soul. The meaning of this word does have overlap with heart. Your soul is your essence containing who you uniquely are or most importantly who God created you to be. We can damage our souls by what we choose to love. Addictions, toxic people, negative events can all hurt us to our very core, in other words, our soul.

The Hebrew word for soul offers some indication of how God sees us. The word for soul in Hebrew is the word ‘nephesh’ which is not only translated as soul but also living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite and emotion. From the meaning of this word you can see how our souls can be damaged by what we choose to love and do and also by what is done to us. According to Genesis 2:7 animals have souls too. They too can be hurt and Romans 8:20- 21 speaks of the harm done to creation by the fall of man. That’s why if you see something die it is the life force or soul that leaves the fleshly body.

The Greek word for soul also alludes to the essential nature of the human soul. The word in Greek for soul is ‘psuche’ where we get the psych words in English from. The various usages of this word include the vital breath, breath of life, the human soul, the soul as the seat of affections and will, the self, a human person, in individual. Another way of understanding the soul is that it is the centre of our uniqueness as created by God. (See Psalm 139.)

There is something hidden in the meaning of the soul that maybe we miss. God is calling us to love Him in our uniqueness. We are not one homogenised group as we come together as the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of a body with many parts. God want us to love them, three in one, as they are with all of who we uniquely are. What a blessing and what freedom.

Thank-you. We love you.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength: This is the first commandment. Mark 12:30

The ‘Heart of the Cross’ symbol is a call to love God with our all. The use of the word Heart is for the centre of all things. It also is a symbol for love in our culture.

The Bible verse here Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy. As the Lord was giving the law to Moses this was the very first commandment. It has several parts to it and this reflection is expanding our understanding from both the original Hebrew and Greek of what exactly is our heart and how do we then love Him with it.

In Deuteronomy 6:5 Israel was instructed to love God with all their heart.

The Hebrew word is ‘lebab’ its meaning is inner man, mind, will, heart. One translation of this word that gives a fuller understanding is ‘wholeheartedly’. When we are wholehearted we give something our all. We are courageous in our stand because we truly believe in something or someone.

In Matthew and Mark the Lord quotes Deuteronomy. In the Greek the words carry a slightly different meaning. The Greek word for heart is ‘Kardia’ from which are derived many medical terms in relation to the physical organ called our heart. In scripture although the word is used over 800 times, it is never used for the physical organ. The Greek word means so much more. It includes the heart, mind, character, inner self, will, intention, center. It has been described as being our moral center or desire-decision making center.

Using the meanings gleaned it is clear that Lord is asking us to choose Him with desire and wholeheartedly. As part of the Bride of Christ that is definitely what a Bridegroom would hope for from His Bride. Love the Lord with all your heart……

Thank-you. We love you.