Just Who Are These People? 

Ever found youself in this position?
The story you are hearing is crazy ….amazing even but the players …..
well, they seem to be nobody’s. 

OK, Quick Quiz:

Question 1. What was the name of one of the characters in the story of
JESUS and the Road to Damascus?
No peaking. You cannot look up the answer

Now, Question 2: What was the name of the other character?
(and I don’t mean JESUS)

Answers:
The two characters, and one of them is named Clopas, were obviously part of
the group, who met with the Apostles in the Upper Room.
They were two of the followers of Jesus
How did they get to be followers (disciples)?
We don’t know.

In fact this is the only story about them.
We don’t know who they are or where they came from (Emmaus perhaps) or
what their relationship with JESUS was.

Now, here’s the thing.
JESUS still managed to find time to meet with them and share a few hours on
part of their 11km walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
They were important enough for JESUS to do that.
How were they important? What was so special about them that they got a
special invite to see the risen Lord JESUS?

Good questions and here’s the thing: There was nothing important about
them except that JESUS loved them and thought it important for Him to
connect with them in the way He did.

How often I hear people tell me that JESUS is too busy to be interested in
me, or He’s got so many other people to care for and I don’t have any problems.
I think we miss the point.

We recognise that on that first Easter Day, JESUS went out of His way to
meet with Mary Magdalene, and I suppose we could see that might have
been an important encounter after all that Mary had been through.
But then she was a woman and women did not count in those days.
How many women were fed at the Feeding of the Five Thousand?
We don’t know, because in the scheme of things in those days they didn’t matter.

But here, the first person that JESUS sees after He rises from the dead is a woman. Wow.
And the next people He sees are two folk who perhaps had decided that it
was time to go home.

“Nothing good can come out of JESUS now. . . .”

They were wrong and JESUS proved it to them and they were strangely warmed by His presence.

“Didn’t our hearts burn within us ….”

So what am I trying to say?
What is the point of all this?

Simple!

It doesn’t matter who you are, God has got time for you ….plenty of time
You matter! ………. And you matter to God.
Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.
God bless you,

Ron 

In a previous church I spent 2 and a half years looking through the Old Testament Sunday by Sunday. Sometimes we went through many weeks on one book, other times we spent just one Sunday.

And on Thursday night the men of the church would gather together and offer their cents worth of understanding. But the thing that came out of the discussions we men had was this: There is nothing new. What they did back then, we are still doing today.

Which brings me to Genesis chapter 11
It’s the story of the building of a huge city and an even bigger tower within the city It was to be a monument to greatness as the Discipleship Bible Reading Notes tell us.

But there was a problem. I mean there were some good points. People decided to cooperate on this venture. That is always a good thing.

Look at the Covid-19 virus. People from all over the world are working together to come up with a solution, a remedy, a vaccine, and that’s great.

These people who built the Tower were innovative tower builders, but they did not master life itself. They thought they were invincible, supreme, self made men who could do anything.

Sounds like people today, doesn’t it. But and here’s the thing.

Buildings do not epitomise the meaning of life.

Life cannot be conquered or controlled by a tall tower. They didn’t get it and neither, sometimes do we.

No matter how great or impressive our own accomplishments are, we are still mortal and thus limited by our own humanity.

But God, well, He is not mortal or human, and therefore, is able to do abundantly more than we could even hope for or dream of.

As we allow God to take His rightful position in our lives so life becomes so much richer for us all.

God bless you
Ron

ps. Discipleship Bible Reading Notes are distributed every Wednesday by email.
If you’re not getting yours, please tell Ron and he will add you to the list. Watch the video of the service for his email address!

Easter has finally arrived.

What with all this virus business, it has sadly got a mention out there.

But it is here.

The moon is full.

But, and here’s the thing.

Easter this year is different from any other year. All because of the covid-19 virus. We can’t do what we would normally have done.

And to make matters worse, they are saying that it will take at least six months before anything gets back to normal. Whoooooo!

This leads me to reflect on the story of Noah which we have been reading in our Discipleship Notes.

If you haven’t started yet. I encourage you to have a go.

We are reading the story lines of the Bible beginning with Genesis. And Genesis 6, 7 and 8 are all about Noah and the flood. Did you know that although the rain only lasted 40 days they were on that boat 450 feet long and 3 decks high ~ 8 humans and all those smelly animals, for a period of at least 13 months.

The flood waters actually covered the earth for 150 days. That’s five months.

Then, there was another 21/2 months before any land was seen. (picture mountain peaks)
Then, ten and a half months after the rain began, Noah saw that the earth was drying but it took another month before it actually dried.

Imagine the patience those eight humans had to endure.

Patience is not something that comes easily to any human, even Christians. But, as my wife, Janie, aptly put it in her notes of this chapter, “once patience leaves the building, all focus on signs of hope fade”

To quote another Christian, Edward Mote (1797-1874) “Our hope is built own nothing less than JESUS blood and righteousness.

On Christ the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand”.

It is important for Christians to not dash off on their own, but to wait for God. His timing is perfect, ours is slap dash.

But when God acts then we need to be ready to act with Him.

We need patience for this season.

It will end when it does.

But in the meantime, we need to recognise that God is active now, and to listen for His still small voice, and to follow His direction.

He is our hope and we will be blessed beyond our expectations if we do. And guess what?
We will also be blessing others as we do.

God bless you

Ron