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Episodes
Saturday Feb 04, 2017
Saturday Feb 04, 2017
Part 86 - John 20:8
Strange believing
This is a strange verse. “He saw and believed”. What did he see and believe? Surely not just an empty tomb and a few clothes lying there. We must think a bit more deeply of what must have been involved - reading between the lines as we call it.
Perhaps first and most certain is that not all that was said was recorded in these few words that we have here. Mary Magdalene was not alone when she saw the stone had been rolled back. John concentrates on her because he wants to tell us about her encounter with the ‘gardener’, but the other Gospel-writers tell us there were others there as well.
(It is at first sight strange that there seems to be so much variation in the four accounts of the events at the tomb. These are eyewitness reports and each eyewitness remembered and related the things that struck them most forcibly when they were asked what happened - as eyewitnesses do. The basic stories are in agreement about all the main events. Only the details are different. There is no point in trying to make one story out of all the accounts. They wrote with a different emphasis from what ours would be. They were more interested in the theology of what happened than in exact correspondence with all that actually happened. Let us concentrate on their theology and smile at their differences.)
What was i saying? Oh, yes, about what must have happened which was not recorded. There must have been much talk between the three main characters: Mary, Peter and the other disciple. It will not have been just a quick glance and then a turn and return to base. Look, they will have said, ‘the clothes are all in a neat heap, and there is his turban lying separately. It wasn’t like that with Lazarus - he came out of the tomb all swaddled up so that he had difficulty walking and had to have help to unwind himself. This is different. Anyone taking the body away would never bother to do that. This must be part of what Jesus said so many times - he was going to rise again.’ Wow! I wonder how it actually happened.
It is recorded that it was the other disciple who believed. That is because he was writing this account so, of course, he knew exactly what happened in his thinking in a way he did not know about the other two. He knew that at that point he put together all that he had heard Jesus say, all that had happened and all that he could see in front to him and, in a flash, he knew that it had all come true. Jesus had been, and still was, the Son of God, the Messiah, the one he was going to follow the rest of his days.
We too can now put together all that we have learned from the account of John, and the others, and say YES, this is the Son of God, the Messiah, the one I am going to follow the rest of my days.
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Friday Feb 03, 2017
Friday Feb 03, 2017
Friday Prayers
Prayers for Refugees...
Today on Partakers we are praying a prayer from the Church of England for refugees worldwide. As we know, Jesus our Lord, was a refugee when a baby, as Joseph & Mary escaped to Egypt with him. Come on in, download the mp3 and pray with us!
Heavenly Father,
you are the source of all goodness, generosity and love.
We thank you for opening the hearts of many
to those who are fleeing for their lives.
Help us now to open our arms in welcome,
and reach out our hands in support.
That the desperate may find new hope,
and lives torn apart be restored.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, Our Lord,
who fled persecution at His birth
and at His last triumphed over death.
Amen
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Monday Jan 30, 2017
Monday Jan 30, 2017
Think Spot - 30 January 2017
G'day! Welcome to Partakers Think Spot at the start of new week!.
Romans 1:1-5
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God- the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake.
Jesus is Unique
The man of history who we know as Jesus Christ is unique - totally and completely unique! Never before and never to be repeated again - ever! Jesus Christ is the standout person from all of history! He is embedded resolutely in human history. In all of human history, Jesus Christ is incomparable!
Yet in human form, we read that during his earthly ministry he had no physical beauty that would draw people naturally to himself. We read that Jesus' body on the cross was disfigured and tortured beyond that of human likeness. His perfect life, His salvation work on the cross and His subsequent rising from the dead, is what makes Jesus Christ unique - a once and for all lifetime Messiah or Saviour for the entire world!
This great God of creation, stepping into His creation as a human, with the purpose of reconciling the world back to Himself! WOW!! Jesus' uniqueness meaning I can have an active and dynamic relationship with God. As you go into this week may your relationship with God be active and dynamic! Go and thank Jesus Christ for his uniqueness which allows this to occur.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ your Son! We thank you that because of Him, we can enter into a dynamic and active relationship with you! We ask this prayer and give you praise, through your Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside all those who are following! Amen!
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Saturday Jan 28, 2017
Saturday Jan 28, 2017
Part 85 - John 19:25
The foundation of the church
There are three strange verses in John’s account of the crucifixion that do not fit into the rest of the story. Much of it is the straight-forward account of what happened to Jesus. There are also four events mentionied because they are all direct fulfilments of prophetic statement. But then there are these three verses:
John 19:25 – 27, “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”
The obvious question to ask and try to answer is ‘why are they included?’ There seem to be two reasons: first to emphasize the importance of the disciple Jesus loved, and second to point to a particular call that all the future disciples of Jesus should follow.
John, who was probably the loved disciple, is keen to highlight the importance of his witness to the crucifixion and the resurrection that he was in a specially privileged position to bear. He was there. It seems that most, or all, of the apostles had disappeared from sight, presumably because of the risk that they would be caught and imprisoned, or worse, as followers of Jesus. A small group of women, of whom some of the most important are named in most of the gospels, had continued to stay close to the cross, reckoning they were not in the same danger. (What a terrible time that must have been, particularly for Mary the mother of Jesus.) John may have been so young that he was able to join with the group of women without too much danger.
In 19: 35 he says, “The man who saw it has given testimony”. Later we read in 21: 24, “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.” Those words were written by somebody else who knew John really well and was most probably the person who actually wrote the gospel down as John dictated it, or compiled it from his letters and documents.
If we turn to John’s first letter, in 1 John 1: 1 – 4 we read, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched —this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.” This all emphasize s the importance of what John knew and how anxious he was that we should all understand the true significance of what he was privileged to see and be involved in.
The second reason John has included these verses in his Gospel is his desire to ensure that the church, still a young church as he wrote, should follow the example that he had been able to set. It is almost possible to say that this is the practical beginning of the church, not the spiritual beginning which was still to come after the resurrection, but the simple practical first move. One believer is to look after the mother of another.
How much this example is followed where you live will depend on your culture and how strongly and well within that culture believers carry out this part of the Christian commission. In our culture people are reasonably quick to support members of their family who have fallen into difficulty, but are nowhere near as quick to do so for those who, although fellow believers, are not part of their natural family. Perhaps yours does better.
So there is much to think about in these few verses. How firmly have we grasped the strength of the witness of John and the rest of the New Testament people and made it part of the central core of faith? And how ready are we to help other members of the Christian faith and church to whom we are not related?
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Friday Jan 27, 2017
Friday Jan 27, 2017
Partakers Friday Prayers!
27th January 2017
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
Today we say a series of prayers for the world, in order to lift others to the Lord God and to encourage ourselves!
Prayer Outline
Opening Prayer
Lord's Prayer
Prayer for the World
Prayer for Individuals
Prayer for the Church
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Monday Jan 23, 2017
Monday Jan 23, 2017
Think Spot
23rd January 2017
We now enter a new week! Last Monday we thought about trusting God in all circumstances! One of the natural outcomes of trusting God is joy - often an unspeakable joy that bubbles within you! A joy resulting from overcoming all that life throws at you, and overcoming those hurdles! It involves taking a daily commitment to follow Jesus Christ and not just a one off. It takes commitment, not comfort, to throw off hindrances and barriers. True joy results from being willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, transforming you into the image of Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of God the Father.
All of these things being done daily in your life lead to what I am convinced is the key to the reality of a successful Christian life - that key being joy. As you grow closer to Jesus, living in peace, trust and obedience, then your spiritual life will be your natural life and your natural life be your spiritual life! Your joy will abound and shine a light giving people a reason to ask "Where do you get all your joyous hope from?". You will then be able to· share Jesus as your source of joy. A joy that is anticipatory, expectant and true! Joy comes from putting Jesus first, others next and then yourself! Go practise it this week!
You can show this joy by singing, laughing, smiling, shouting praises to God, lifting hands in worship', and crying, but that is only the external part of joy. True joy also incorporates an internal joy. Real joy is when you can believe in: the mountain top when you are in your deepest valley. Abundant joy is being surrounded by darkness and still believing in 'the light'. Anticipatory joy is when amidst total confusion you still believe God has a plan of love for you. It was this type of joy that Jesus had, when in the garden praying, the night before he was betrayed, when full of mixed emotions and anguish he said "Not my will, but yours, Father!"
As sons and daughters of God, we have many reasons to be full of joy. Yet how often we forget! Here are some reasons for joy!
- Psalm 51v8 & 12 - Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me-now let me rejoice. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
- Jeremiah 15v16 - When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God of Heaven's Armies.
- Luke 15v8-10 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbours and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents."
- 1 Peter 1v8-9 - You love Jesus Christ even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
Do you desire to be' overflowing with joy today and this week? Go into this week with a joy that is anticipating and expectant! Do you need to hand over to Jesus a particular area of your life' where Jesus does not fully reign and have control? I pray that the Father will reveal more of Himself to you, as you daily seek His face, overcoming all hindrances to living a successful and joyful-Christian life. May the Holy Spirit who lives within you, if you are a Christian, continue to transform you into the image of the Son Jesus Christ, and all to the praise and glory of God the Father. Amen.
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Saturday Jan 21, 2017
Saturday Jan 21, 2017
Gems in the Gospel of John
Part 84 - John 19:23-24
The Witness of Four Prophecies
John’s account of the crucifixion is thin in the extreme. He says very little about what actually happened and what he does say is mainly centred round prophecies from the Old Testament. There are four of them, giving witness to what happened and the truthfulness of the account. We have:
1. John 19:23 - 24 where we read: “When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
‘Let’s not tear it,’ they said to one another. ‘Let’s decide by lot who will get it.’ This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, ‘They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.’”
This is a quotation from Psalm 22: 18. Many people have seen this as a reference to the unity of the church as Jesus wished it to be. Sadly there are now many pieces of that original garment floating around the world.
2. John 19:28 - 30 where we read, “Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Jesus became very thirsty - very natural given his circumstances. Two references from the Psalms, 22: 15 and 69: 21 are here fulfilled. They are, “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death” and “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”. Jesus told the woman at the well “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” But he did thirst - that we might never thirst, spiritually speaking of course, not practically.
3. John 19:31–33 - Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have their legs broken and the bodies taken down. In John 19: 31 – 33 we read, “The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” It sounds incredibly cruel but breaking the legs of those being crucified speeded death as they were then no longer able to push themselves up to get some air into their lungs. They would suffocate relatively quickly - what a horrid thought. Because Jesus was already dead, having given up his spirit, as he was able to do because of who he was, they did not break his legs. Thus Psalm 34: 19, 20, “The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” It also places Jesus alongside the Passover lambs of whom it is said Exodus 12: 46, “Do not break any of the bones.”.
4. In John 19:34 we read that “one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. It was not usual for a soldier to stick his spear into a crucified man as one did here. The result, the flow of water and blood, or possibly body fluids and blood, has caused much argument as to its meaning. Perhaps the most likely is that it referred back as does 1 John 5: 7, “there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood”. This is one of John’s many references to both water and blood as signifiers of the spiritual life that would flow from Jesus. They reflect many Old Testament places where the same equation is made.
Hold tight to the reality of our Saviour’s cruel death – for you, for me.
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Friday Jan 20, 2017
Friday Jan 20, 2017
Partakers Friday Prayers!
20th January 2017
We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!
Today we pray this prayer to encourage ourselves and others!
Tell, tongue, the mystery
of the glorious Body
and of the precious Blood,
which, for the price of the world,
the fruit of a noble Womb,
the King of the Nations flowed forth.
Given to us, born for us,
from the untouched Virgin,
and dwelt in the world
after the seed of the Word had been scattered.
His inhabiting ended the delays with wonderful order.
On the night of the Last Supper,
reclining with His brethren,
once the Law had been fully observed
with the prescribed foods,
as food to the crowd of Twelve
He gives Himself with His hands.
The Word as Flesh makes true bread
into flesh by a word
and the wine becomes the Blood of Christ.
And if sense is deficient
to strengthen a sincere heart
Faith alone suffices.
Therefore, the great Sacrament
we reverence, prostrate:
and the old Covenant
cedes to a new rite.
Faith stands forth as substitute
for defect of the senses.
To Begetter and Begotten
be praise and jubilation,
health, honour, strength also
and blessing.
To the One who proceeds from Both
be praise as well.
Amen,
;
A prayer of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
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Monday Jan 16, 2017
Monday Jan 16, 2017
Monday Think Spot
16 January 2017
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I had this little voice inside me repeatedly saying “Trust me… Be at peace with yourself.” The Holy Spirit was ministering to me amidst the turmoil despite my often not wanting to hear that! Matthew 5:9 records Jesus speaking these words “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.”
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All over the world, the majority of people share a common desire for peace! But what is peace? The peace the world wants varies from the peace which we as Christian know to be true. The world sees peace as the absence of conflict and people being generally ‘nice’ to one another. Peace in the Christian context goes further, saying peace is perfect harmony with God, perfect harmony with other people, with circumstances and with self. While we are to aim for peace in all those areas, perfect peace in all those areas will not come until Jesus Christ comes again, and takes Christians to be with Him.
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However, that doesn't give us as Christians a mandate to sit around not doing what we can for peace. Unsurprisingly the Bible has a lot to say about peace! Jesus commanded us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) because our God is a God of peace (1 Thessalonians 5:23), and the Kingdom of God to which we belong is about peace in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Peace is to be our business! In a world full of peaceless-turmoil, such as conflicts between nations, conflicts between neighbours, conflicts even within families and conflicts within and between churches, Christians are to be peacemakers!
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If you are a Christian, you have peace with God because Jesus Christ is your peace between God and yourself (Ephesians 2:13-18)! More than that, we are to be at peace with others! Now this can be hard! We are commanded to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9, James 3:17-18), living at peace with everyone (Romans 12:17-20) and do everything possible which leads to peace and mutual encouragement (Romans 14:13-19).~
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Go in peace this Monday, into this week, knowing that the God of peace lives inside you if you are one of His children! Go dispense this peace as God’s peacemaker where you go! You can be the peacemaker in your place of work, where you live, where you visit, where you socialize and even where you shop or play sport! If you are struggling to be a peacemaker in a difficult circumstance then ask this Holy Spirit who lives inside you to help you! He will help you if you ask! If you would not consider yourself a Christian and at peace with God, then ask Him to help you become one!
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Father, we pray that this week we will do all we can as your followers to be peacemakers, to do all we can for peace and to make peace where ever we go and make a difference in world in conflict. We ask this through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside all those who have peace with you. Amen!
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Saturday Jan 14, 2017
Saturday Jan 14, 2017
Gems in the Gospel of John
Part 83 - John 19:19
Identification
Pilate was more right than he ever realised when he insisted on 19: 19, which reads “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate went on to say, “What I have written, I have written” in 19:22. It is a striking example of the irony that John used so much in what he wrote. Pilate meant something relatively simple in what he had written but was actually saying far more than he realized. Throughout the centuries since his words have been understood to be saying that faith in Christ is to be for the Jews who spoke Aramaic, the Romans who spoke Latin and the common people who spoke Greek. In brief for all the world. Of course there were many other languages spoken in the world of that day but they were far beyond the knowledge of the people of this world in which Jesus lived and died. Pilate’s words were a form of prophecy. They are the equivalent of the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It is a prophecy that is becoming increasingly true in our day.
And there is no more potent reminder of that than you guys out there reading this. Dave Roberts can get some idea of how many of you there are by looking at how many ‘hits’ on this site there have been but that is only an indication of the total number, with some folk making multiple hits and perhaps others sharing these thoughts with others. No matter - there are certainly thousands of you and maybe tens or even hundreds of thousands..
Hey - why didn’t Pilate include English in his list of languages? (I suppose English is a descendant of both Latin and Greek.)
Well done all you who have had to learn English as a second or third language! Let us all rejoice together in all that Jesus accomplished on the Cross for us all of many different nations and mother-tongues.
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