Thursday 30 January 2014

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.  Matt 10:34

I think of this verse every time I hear yet another Christian bleating about *unity*.  There is no such thing.  To think otherwise is to willfully ignore the crashing great divide between charismatics & non~charismatics.  No, I don't believe one lot is more saved than the other lot.  I do believe there are some things we can all agree on & come together on ~ just not long term because some things are only going to be finally resolved when Jesus Himself straightens us out.

For example, I've lost count of the number of well~meaning Calvinists [sorry all my Calvinistic friends] who have told me I can't possible hear from God; it's all my imagination.  I wish!  Firstly I don't sound anything like God.  Secondly,  I would never tell me to do some of the things God has told me to do.  Never.  Ever.  Thirdly God has always talked to His people so why would you think that has suddenly stopped because we're "modern"?  Lastly, I pray very specifically according to Ephesians1:17 for the spirit of wisdom & revelation ~ & I do expect to get answers & insights accordingly!  The word & the Spirit will always agree so there is an inbuilt safety net.

Now, I would be the first to admit any Calvinist worth their salt could out argue me on logic ~  I even see there is a place for logic in theological thought.  Luckily for me God is bigger than that or I would be going nowhere fast.  I don't do well in Hebrews which gets bogged down in logical argument.  What I do understand really well is metaphor & symbol.  Surprise, surprise if that's not the way God chooses to talk to me!

Like so much else the Lord has given us we do communion a little differently to most places.  If I'm doing communion then everything revolves around communion, including the sermon.   Deep reverence & gratefulness flows from teaching into receiving & I take the doing of communion incredibly seriously.  I take it so seriously I try to avoid it...*sigh*  I love communion.  I just hate the responsibility.

Anyway I committed to this Sunday & was doing some cursory word studies which included the word Gethsemane.  I'm sure you all know it means wine press.  And like me I'm sure you've heard it it preached that Gethsemane was an olive grove & it had a wine press.  Some of you have walked under the shimmer of olive leaves & the dappled shadow.  It's such a well known story I tend to skip over details but this time the Spirit pulled me up.  I had been looking at how Jesus sweated drops of blood.  I was meditating on how sin was already transferring to Jesus & how the weight of it was crushing Him when it was like popcorn started exploding inside me & the Spirit got super excited.  I know, but that's how it felt.  Not me.  The Spirit wanting to show me something.  I haven't got it all yet.  It's like I got the teaser.  But there were all the symbols: the olive grove & the press; oil, which is nearly always a symbol for the Holy Spirit & the Question: if you crush Jesus, like olives in a press, what comes out?  The Holy Spirit, of course!  Jesus was able to release Him at Pentecost because He had already been prepared for release at Gethsemane.  If I really want to boggle my mind I start wondering what would have happened to us if Jesus hadn't been crushed?  Now there's a though And isn't God wonderful in His attention to detail?


2 comments:

  1. Very cool analogy...and I suppose you will not be too surprised that Hebrews is my favorite book, because it provides argument against the same points that seemed to erroneously infiltrate Christianity then and still today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John17:23 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

    I saw that in & that was the next revelation. This was Christ's prayer & the Father proceeded to answer it but to do it the Holy Spirit could no longer reside just in Jesus. He had to be prepared to be poured out. It is amazing & wonderful & mind boggling.

    ReplyDelete