Partakers Christian Podcasts

Pulp Theology 26 - Developing Intimacy With God

PulpTheology Book

"Developing Intimacy With God"

G’day! The book today is "Developing Intimacy With God: A Little Book of 95 Prayers". Inside this little book, there is something for you to learn afresh or be reminded about, regardless of who you are.

Prayer is to be a sign of intimacy with God as it develops our relationship with Him. Prayer I have discovered, is to be an ongoing conversation with God.

Prayer is how we are energized and invigorated as we strengthen our relationship with Him. God is personal and He loves to hear us and talk to us. Prayers are not just the unprompted and spontaneous variety, but also the written form. Jesus Himself would have said scripted prayers as part of 1st century Jewish worship. In this little book, we have some prayers from the Bible as well as from the Church down through history. They are prayers which I have used in my own life - both personally and corporately.

This book is also as a way to celebrate that moment in time, when on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther, started what we know now as the European Reformation, when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle. Therefore, in this little book, to celebrate that momentous act in Church History, there are 95 prayers – prayers from Moses through to Martin Luther and onto John Stott of our own time. Come, Church! Let's pray together!

Whether you have not started the Christian journey yet, you are just starting your journey as a Christian, or have been a Christian for a while, you can either learn afresh or be reminded about the prayer and your Devotional Life. Come on in!

"Developing Intimacy With God: A Little Book of 95 Prayers" available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle with ISBN: 978-1512136838
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Mary’s Song the Magnificat – Partakers Christmas Bible Thought

23. Mary’s Song, the Magnificat

In our last podcast, we looked at Mary visiting her relative Elizabeth. Today we continue the Christmas story and discover that in response to Elizabeth’s exclamations, Mary spontaneously bursts into song! A song seemingly of renewal, revolution and reformation. God is on the march and God is going to do something new! Some scholars believe Mary is looking back on all the stories she has heard about how God has dealt with people in the past. Others think that she is being prophetic and only looking ahead to what God will do. I personally think it is both. Come and listen to find out more about this part in the Christmas story!

46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home

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The Normal Christian Journey of Faith - Part 08

 

The normal (Christian) journey of faith

Chapter 8: The work of the Spirit

One thing that may be puzzling you is talk about who or what is the Holy Spirit. In fact he is a person so that should be ‘who’. There has been a huge increase in interest in how He works, What He does, and indeed What He is and means in the last 100 years. Not everything that has been said and written about Him is true to the Bible so we ought to look hard at what it says and thus sort out what is right and what is wrong.

First we need to look at what Jesus said, particularly in His great teaching address to the disciples on the night before He was crucified, about Him and His work. He began by telling them that He, the Holy Spirit, would be with them – and us, for ever. In John 14:16,17 He says, “the Father will give you another advocate to Help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.”
Jesus was the first advocate, a legal term for someone speaking on one’s behalf in a court of law. The Greek word here is tricky so it has been translated in many different ways; the main ones in English being: Comforter, Counselor, Helper or Friend. If you put them all together you will get something of the force of what Jesus was saying. He goes on to say in John 15:26, “When the Advocate comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—He will testify about me”. And in John 16:7–14, “I will send him to you. When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgement, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what He Hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that He will receive what He will make known to you.” The first part of that is quite difficult to understand but the second part is clear – the work of the Holy Spirit in the first part is to tell the world, everybody, the truth about spiritual matters and the second part is to inform us very particularly about Jesus. Above all the Spirit is a teacher.

Secondly, Paul talks about the Spirit as the motivating and driving force behind all that the Christian does. So He says in Romans 8:2–6, “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us - that is you and me - who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on What the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” and he goes on to say in verse 9, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ”. In 1 Corinthians 2:10 he says “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” The summary of all he means by these things is found in Galatians 5: 25 where He instructs us “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit”.

To summarize all that: as I said at the beginning the Spirit is the motivating and driving force behind all that the Christian does of a spiritual nature. He is also the informing source of all spiritual knowledge. It explains why it is a common experience that someone will hear many a sermon and talk about the faith and it makes no sort of sense until one day they become a Christian and it all suddenly makes perfect sense. That is the work of the Spirit flooding into the thinking, and the life, of the new convert.

The third work of the Spirit is to divide out amongst the believers in any fellowship, however small that fellowship may be, the different gifts that they need to carry out the work of “making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. Paul says in Romans 12:6–8, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” These are wonderful gifts both for the community of believers and for the wider community in which they live.

The fourth work of the Holy Spirit is in evangelism. John’s record of the life of Jesus says that in his first meeting with all the disciples after his resurrection Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”. That is both a tremendous privilege and a tremendous responsibility. This charge was given originally to the small group of disciples but it is valid for us too, as all John’s statements were designed for his own local church fellowship and thus for the wider church. It is our responsibility to asses the relationship of those outside faith to their sins and to the only one who can forgive sins and thus to call them into the Kingdom, or not.

The fifth work of the Spirit is in leading the Lord’s people in worship. Paul lists gifts that make this possible in 1 Corinthians 12:7–11 as follows: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He distributes them to each one, just as He determines”.
Those were the gifts of Paul’s day but we can add more for our day. For instance some now have the gift of leading worship with a guitar or a keyboard or other musical instrument. That is not a matter of simply being able to play the tune. Sometimes technically highly competent musicians lack the gift of leading a congregation well while someone, technically less proficient, can lead the worship in a wonderfully God honouring way. That is a Spirit given gift.
Paul tells us to, “eagerly desire the greater gifts.” But goes on to say, “I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal,” as a warning about being too concerned with such things. And that warning is very necessary these days.
There has been a great upsurge in interest in the more startling gifts of the Spirit in recent years. This is particularly true of speaking in tongues and the interpretation of them. Churches vary enormously in their attitudes to speaking in tongues. Some do not expect them to be used at all; others sometimes go so far as demanding them of every convert as the sign of true conversion even although Paul has made it plain that they are a gift for some – not for all.
I come from the former background so I am very wary of them – excuse my bias. This I would say: be careful. If you are in an environment where there is great excitement about tongues ask yourself ‘am I excited because I am in a big crowd of people who are all very excited, or am I excited because I am in the near presence of the Lord himself’. There is a difference!

So What?

As a Christian, the Holy Spirit is the Lord’s gift to you at the time of your conversion. Expect to have him teach you about Jesus, to be a strong active presence in your life, to grant you a gift, or some gifts, for the building up of the fellowship you are in and to grant you some gifts for the enrichment of your own spiritual life. As you develop these things in your life you will find that you can be truly said to be walking in step with the very Spirit of God himself. Enjoy!

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Pulp Theology 03 - God, Internet Church and You

PulpTheology Book

God, Internet Church & You

During lockdown or quarantine due to the CoronaVirus / COVID-19 Pandemic, Church has moved to using the Internet for its services to the world.  In this little book we seek to answer why the Church is using the Internet, as well as exploring together ways in which we can respond.

Here are some of the questions we will explore together:

• What is Digital Space & the Internet?
• Why should the Church be on the Internet and how?
• Isn't Church on the Internet just a modern form of the ancient heresy of gnosticism?
• Is God able to interact there?
• For the Christian, what are some of the liabilities and virtues of the Internet?
• Could an internet based church be part of the historical church?
• What can a Church service on the Internet look like?
• How can this technology be used, so that you as a Christian, can use your talents and serve God on the Internet in the 21st century?

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Pulp Theology 14 - Glimpses Into Leviticus

PulpTheology Book

Glimpses Into Leviticus

The book we are looking at this week is Glimpses Into Leviticus: a book of Joy (part of the "Glimpses Into" series). Available as Hardback, Paperback and Kindle.

Leviticus is perhaps the most maligned, misunderstood and under-read book of the Bible today.

Andrew Bonar once said: "There is no book that contains more of the very words of God than Leviticus. It is God that is the direct speaker in almost every page; his gracious words are recorded in the form wherein they were uttered."

How are we to read this amazing book? Leviticus does have important things to tell us about God, sin, obedience and holiness. Perhaps most importantly it tells of God wanting to live with His people. Some of the words and phrases we commonly use in the English language, come straight from the book of Leviticus. Come! Let us glimpse into this marvellous book of the Bible together - Leviticus the book of joy! Why do I call it a book of joy? One reason is that it reveals a God who wants to live with His people. For other reasons, you will have to look inside and read it to discover why!

Here is what one Amazon reviewer said: "5 stars! A theological view of Leviticus as opposed to the view it is an archaic 'laundry list'. Whether you agree with some of the conclusions or not, it will help you want to delve deeper, think more deeply about this often avoided book."

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Partakers Christmas Thought 18 December 2021 – Christmas 21

Partakers Christmas Thought

18 December 2021

A Christmas Thought

of John Chrysostom

In the Podcast today we are listening to the thoughts and wisdom of John Chrysostom of the 4th century, concerning the events of Christmas.

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Partakers Christmas Thought 16 December 2021 – Christmas 19

Partakers Christmas Thought

16 December 2021

The Spirit of Christmas

by Henry van Dyke – Chapters 5 & 6

In the podcast today we conclude listening to the short story “The Spirit of Christmas” by Henry van Dyke, with Chapters 5 and 6. The book is in the Public Domain.

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Partakers Christmas Thought 15 December 2021 – Christmas 18

Partakers Christmas Thought

15 December 2021

The Spirit of Christmas

by Henry van Dyke – Chapters 3 & 4

In the podcast today we continue listening to Chapters 3 and 4 of the short story “The Spirit of Christmas” by Henry van Dyke. The book is in the Public Domain.

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Partakers Christmas Thought 14 December 2021 – Christmas 17

Partakers Christmas Thought

14 December 2021

The Spirit of Christmas

by Henry van Dyke – Chapters 1 & 2

In the podcast today we start a short story over the next 3 podcasts, “The Spirit of Christmas” by Henry van Dyke. We commence with Chapters 1 and 2. It is in the Public Domain.

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Partakers Christmas Thought 12 December 2021 – Christmas 15

Partakers Christmas Thought

12 December 2021

Looking Ahead to Christmas – Part 15

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion –
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy
instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendour.

(Isaiah 61:1-3)

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ they asked.

( Luke 4:14-22)

Here the prophet Isaiah gives two contrasting certainties: “the year of Yahweh’s favour” and “the day of vengeance of our God”. The year of honour, as we shall see has already started. We don’t know when it will end, but we know that it will. The day of vengeance will be in the future sometime. Again we don’t know when that will be either. But we know it will all happen quickly, suddenly and without warning (Isaiah 60:22). Therefore people need to be ready and alert! The time of when it will occur is not known, but it is known who will end it – Almighty God.

The Servant Messiah speaks without being introduced this time, and is the preacher in the year of the Lord’s favour. This preaching is probably a referral to the rams horn that ushers in the Year of Jubilee as established in the Mosaic Covenant (Leviticus 25:8-55). The Servant Messiah’s preaching will usher in a time of grace, justice and freedom – just as the ram’s horn introduced the Year of Jubilee. The phrase to “proclaim liberty” is used in both the year of Jubilee and in this the year of the Lord’s favour. This proclaimed year of the Lord’s favour starts when the Messiah comes the first time and will cease when He returns again. The word “year” is not a fixed period of time as we know it, but is rather to be seen as symbolic of an extended period of time.

This Servant Messiah is anointed with the Holy Spirit of God. This Good News was to be preached to the humble, the poor and poor in spirit – the Good News is news of freedom, liberty, grace and justice! The comfort they will receive should the offer be taken up, is one of being released from condemnation for sin through the Messiah’s offer of forgiveness – that is grace! Because of this grace, three things will be occur for these people who have accept the offer, here referred to in Isaiah 61:3 as “trees of righteousness” : they will display or reflect the Lord God’s glory and splendour; they will be priests of the Lord God service; and will inherit all things!

In the podcast today we continue looking ahead to Christmas and its consequences, by seeing what the prophet Isaiah had to say concerning the proclamations of the coming Messiah Saviour. What were these proclamations? How does this Messiah Saviour speak these proclamations and to who? What relevancy does this have with Jesus Christ?

 

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