How often when we pray, do we focus on what we want? Yes, when catastrophic events occur, such as the conflict in the Middle-East, we pray for God’s mercy. But, in the main when we pray, don’t we expect God to answer our personal requests so that we can enjoy life to the full?

The quest for life in all its fullness is not new. Back in the 1960s the answer was sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Yet the aspirations of the themes of ‘Love, sweet love,’ and ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’ and Woodstock, revealed their dark side in the nightmare of Charles Manson and his set. The hopes and dreams of the 1960s proved to be false.

Two millennia ago, in the first century Roman world, people often looked for solutions in spiritual experiences. And, as happens today, some of these ideas began to spill over into the life of the early churches – the church in Colossae, for example. While there doesn’t seem to have been a specific false teaching there, Paul the Apostle saw the need in his letter to challenge a false understanding of fullness that went beyond the truth of God’s gospel that the Colossians had embraced (1:6).

Indeed, from comments Paul makes in chapter 2, verse 18, we learn the Colossians wanted a knowledge and an experience of God that seems to have been influenced by a Jewish mysticism, merkabah mysticism, that claimed to carry, as if in a chariot, anyone who scrupulously observed the law into the very presence of God.

To provide some context, in the first part of chapter 1 of his letter, Paul had thanked God for the faith, love, and hope of the believers in Colossae. These people had responded to the breaking news about God which Paul speaks of as the word of the truth.

He continues with a prayer of petition: For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you… And it’s important we note for what he prays: Asking God that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding… (1:9).

He prays for two aspects of growth. In verse 9 he prays for growth in their knowing God, their relationship with God – hence, knowledge, wisdom, understanding. In verse 10 he prays for growth in their lifestyle – and so, living a life …;   pleasing …;    bearing fruit …

There is an instructive link between knowing God and lifestyle. Paul prays for growth in the depth of understanding of God and his ways so that God’s people may grow in a life of Godly integrity. This is essential if we want to see spiritual vitality.

For example, Psalm 143:10 puts it this way: Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.

Significantly, the psalm doesn’t say, Lord, teach me your will… But rather, teach me to do your will… The psalm-writer knows God’s will but needs to be taught to live it. This is why Paul asks that the Colossians may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…

Spiritual wisdom picks up an Old Testament theme: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is not an abject fear of God, but rather the humble recognition of God’s might, majesty, dominion and power.

Fullness. Paul’s prayer points to the way we can begin to experience life to the full. It involves a  spiritual understanding which comes, not through ecstatic spiritual experiences or repetitious mantra, but through an understanding of the will of God learned through regular and thoughtful Bible reading. As with every relationship, getting to know God in the experiences of life, takes time.

All this is not simply an abstract exercise: as we come to know God and his mind, so our perspective on life and our lives are changed. We increasingly bear the fruit of living life to the full. Indeed, a clearer understanding of God and a richer relationship with him equips us to live lives more worthy of him. And this includes discerning ways we can be more responsible in our relationships with people with whom we live, as well as our responsible care of God’s creation.

A Prayer. O God, who by the leading of a star revealed your beloved Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may after this life enjoy the splendor of your glorious presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

With the many and varied changes around us –conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle-East and Africa, China’s aggressive acts, significant political and social divisions in the West, climate-change, gender issues, and the western disdain of Christianity – we might wonder about the future.

In the course of his ministry Jesus spoke of events that would unfold (Luke 12:35-48; 17:20-37). In Luke 21 he spoke more specifically about two events – the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and an end of time. It’s not surprising that the disciples asked: “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” (Luke 21:7).

Convulsions (21:8-11). Jesus begins his response with a specific warning against false prophets who will come in his name. Over the centuries many have predicted the end-time. In the late 20th century for example, Harold Camping predicted the world would end around 1994, and when that passed, he identified another date, May 21, 2011, and then another, October 21, 2011.

We can easily become complacent about Jesus’ warning. We forget his central teaching that there is to be an end of all things as we know them. There will be wars and tumults, he says. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven” (21:10f).

In contrast to the optimism of people who say that the world will only get better through human effort, Jesus knows us and tells us that conflicts will not cease. He also says that volcanoes and earthquakes, floods and droughts should not take us by surprise.

Nations will rise and fall, empires will come and go, and catastrophic seismic events will continue. Yes, we need to care for the environment as best we can, but most of all we should treat the events around us as reminders of the uncertainty and fragility of life and our world.

Some thirty-five years after Jesus predicted the destruction of the Jewish Temple, the Roman armies under Titus laid siege to Jerusalem from 67-70AD. It was one of the most devastating acts of war in history. The people of Jerusalem were mercilessly put to the sword.

In the course of his words about Jerusalem and its Temple, Jesus warns that these events would not be the conclusion of God’s plan. One more stage remains. The return of God’s king.

There are times when great and unexpected events occur, events that impact the course of history – for example, the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the destruction of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001, and the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, October 7, 2023. The first brought joy, the second and the third, fear and anger.

In Luke 21:25-28 Jesus speaks of the coming of the ‘Son of Man’ in a style of language known as ‘apocalyptic’. “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars,” he says, “and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves” (21:25).

The phrase, ‘the Son of Man’, is a reference to Daniel 7:13f where we read: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came from the Ancient of Days and he was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, …”

The coming of the Son of Man will be accompanied by such strange and forbidding events that people will faint with fear and foreboding… (21:26). It is the scene of the end of time, when ‘the Son of Man’ will be seen for who he truly is.

It is easy to overlook Jesus’ prophecy. During his ministry he spoke of his arrest, death and resurrection. He also spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Now he speaks of the return of God’s king. His first two predictions came true. We should not dismiss the fulfilment of his third prophecy as fiction. On that day everyone “will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27).

It’s important we heed Jesus’ words: “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

As we enter a new calendar year, let’s not be fearful about the future but, knowing God is in charge, stay alert and, putting our hand in his hand, pray for the day of the return of the great King.

May you know God’s comfort and joy in the New Year!

A Prayer. Lord our God, you have given us the life of Jesus in his home as an example: grant that all Christian families may be so bound together in love and service that we may rejoice together in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Note: Today’s ‘Word’ is adapted from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.

The daily round of news can be so discouraging – the continued conflict in Ukraine and now the conflict in the Middle-East, the drugs and alcohol, the homelessness, the violence and rape. Furthermore, many parents are concerned about the influences that distract from the formal education of their children and subvert the traditionally accepted moral values in life – values that all too often are gathering dust on the shelf of history.

So, as we enter the Christmas season, it’s helpful to reflect on the words of Paul the Apostle in his Letter to Titus, chapter 2, verse 11: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.

Grace is a theme that bubbles throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament. It speaks of mercy or compassion shown towards the undeserving. Grace and mercy echo the idea of God’s agape love.

Furthermore, the verb appeared tells us that we wouldn’t know anything about God’s love or grace unless he himself had revealed it. And Paul tells us, God’s grace is supremely revealed in his personal involvement in the rescue he holds out to us all in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Indeed, Paul’s words awaken within us a thrill of hope associated with the announcement of the angel to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth: “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

Shepherds. At the time of Jesus’ birth, shepherds were at the bottom of the social order. They were the lost, the outsiders. Why did the angel announce the birth to them?  Given the resources of heaven the angel could have pulled off one very spectacular announcement in Bethlehem or, better still, in Jerusalem.

To begin to appreciate the reason the angel spoke to the shepherds we need to consider a back-story we find in the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel spoke of the kings of Israel as shepherds, but he knew that many of them were self-indulgent, power-hungry exploiters. In Ezekiel’s day God’s people had been conquered by the Babylonians – Jerusalem was in ruins and its people were in exile. Ezekiel, chapter 34 tells us it was the fault of the kings, the shepherds.

But Ezekiel’s news was not all negative. He spoke of a day when God would raise up a new and perfect king, a shepherd-king in the line of king David – a king whose power and glory was far beyond what anyone dreamed.

The king. With the angel’s announcement to the shepherds, we see that Jesus’ birth is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s promise. God himself would raise up a king to do things Israel’s kings hadn’t done — restore the weak and gather the lost, offer an amnesty and open up his rule of justice and peace for the world, for ever. “Then they will know that I the Lord their God am with them” Ezekiel had said (Ezekiel 34:30). Jesus’ birth is indeed the very best news the world has known. It truly awakens within us a thrill of hope.

In fulfilment of his promise, the creator God himself has reached down from the glory of highest heaven to rescue and transform the lives of all people, even the lowliest, including the outcasts. No wonder the heavenly choir of angels broke into song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, ‘shalom’, ‘peace’.

In her Christmas Broadcast in 2012, Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II said, “The carol, In The Bleak Midwinter, ends by asking a question of all of us who know the Christmas story, of how God gave himself to us in humble service: “What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part”. The carol gives the answer “Yet what I can I give him – give my heart”.”

How right this is: Jesus wants us to respond to his grace, his love and mercy, by turning to him, our savior-king, and by giving him our heart in true love and loyalty.

To return to Paul’s words in Titus, chapter 2. He says in verses 11 and 12: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly…

Paul wants us to understand that God’s grace or mercy is not mere pie in the sky when we die. God’s grace motivates, educates and delights in changing us for the better. Grace is almost personified. It becomes the teacher that trains and nurtures us. Or, put another way, grace teaches us to live as God’s people.

Three words identify the changes that God delights to see in us: sober, upright, godly.

Sober speaks to us personally: we are to live lives of integrity and self-discipline. Upright speaks of our relations with others: we are to live selflessly and honestly, serving others by taking an interest in them, showing compassion and practical care where there is genuine need. Godly speaks of our relationship with God: we are to live for God in loyalty and with joy.

Imagine what the world would be like if God’s people everywhere began to live out these qualities. No, it would not be boring. As studies consistently show, society benefits when people respond to God’s grace and live in its light.

In the Age of Enlightenment reason and will were reckoned to be keys to human behaviour. In today’s post- post-modern world feelings have become the driver. But I am sure you have noticed what Paul is saying here: God’s grace becomes the motivating force for our lives. When we personally experience God’s compassion and mercy, we will be drawn to delight in doing the good that God desires. His grace coaxes the bud of new life in Christ into flower. Yes, it will be a lifetime process, but God’s love will draw us.

The words of the angel on the night of Jesus’ birth speak through the ages: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord”.

Indeed, when our hearts are awakened to the wonder of this, we can truly sing: O Holy Night… it is the night of the dear Savior’s birth; long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…

May you and your loved ones know the deep joy of the coming of the Lord Christ Jesus.

A Prayer at Christmas: Loving Father, who sent your only Son into the world that we might have life through faith in him: grant that we who celebrate his birth at this time may come at last to the fullness of life in your heavenly kingdom, where he now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Please consider an end of year gift to this ministry. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Gifts can be made here.

Note: My comments on Luke 2 are drawn from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God, Second Edition, Aquila: 2019.

You may like to listen to the Sovereign Grace, ‘Hear the Gospel Story’ version of O Holy Night

Despite the continuing developments of science and technology, we are made aware daily of the inability of men and woman to live at peace with one another. At every level of society, there is narcissism and greed, hatred and corruption haunting the human experience. Alienation is a word that rightly describes our plight. So, what’s life all about?

It is not insignificant that in his Letter to the Colossians Paul the Apostle expresses the human dilemma this way: And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds… (1:21). Estranged or alienated speaks not just of our outward behaviour, but of what we are like deep within – until the grace of God changes us. In our natural state the desires of our hearts are at odds with a genuine love for God and consequently our lifestyle is flawed.

When we think about it God could have written humanity off as a fiasco. He could have decided to start afresh – as indeed, he told Moses he would (Numbers 14:11f). But that would have been an admission of defeat on God’s part. It would have meant that in some measure God couldn’t allow evil because he knew he couldn’t defeat it.

But no, the Bible tells us that from the very beginning of time, God was determined to beat it. He determined on an infinitely more costly strategy than one of simply writing us off. He wouldn’t abandon an evil and ungrateful humanity that rejected him. He would reach across the divide and rescue it from the consequences of its own folly. He would step in personally and address the penalty his righteous character required. In a word he would do everything needed to reconcile the world to himself. Importantly, he would destroy the hostility without destroying the enemy. He would make peace.

Paul tells us, in very beautiful words, what this meant: … through him (Jesus Christ) God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross (1:20).

Suppose someone very close to you, a wife or husband, or another family member, profoundly hurts you. They trample over your feelings; they repay all your kindness and genuine interest in them with hatred. But a day comes when they are in some kind of deep trouble. If you don’t step in to help them they’re going to perish. What do you do? You could tell them to go to hell.

But supposing when you consult your feelings, you find within your heart a love for them, a love that wants to see them restored to your family circle. You know you need to find within yourself the resources to absorb the pain and righteous anger that boils up within you at the very sight of them, so that you can stretch out your hand and help them.

I find this to be a picture that helps me understand what Paul is saying here, when he says that God was reconciling us to himself through the blood of the cross. Because Jesus and God are one, we see that through the cross of Christ God found the perfect way through which he can absorb within himself the pain and the anger, that are rightly within him, when he looks at people like us who have rejected him.

On the cross of Christ we find the passionate collision of pain and fury, of love and mercy.

And the outcome of this costly sacrifice? … So as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him… (Colossians 1:22b).

Christ’s death on the cross laid the foundation and provided the means for God’s forgiveness. But we await a final day when we will be truly holy, without blemish, and free from accusation. And this, as Paul continues, will only happen provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard,… (1:23).

What’s more God plans to use that reconciled human race to populate a reconciled universe. For the reconciliation Jesus has achieved goes far beyond men and women. It will embrace the whole of the cosmos. One day he is going to make a new heaven and a new earth where truth and goodness will reign.

And who will be there, as Lord of that reconciled world?  Jesus! Jesus, risen from the dead.  Jesus glorified in heaven. The name Jesus will resound with joy throughout the universe.

No one who understands these things can ever say that any other name is equal to the name of Jesus. He alone has provided for our rescue from our narcissism and rebelliousness against God. No one else has scars on their hands. No one else has conquered the grave. No one else has provided the means of a perfect, everlasting peace.

This is the central theme of the New Testament. It is at the heart of the season of Advent. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ that we discover what life is all about.

The question is whether you and I will acknowledge Jesus’ supremacy, willingly recognizing him, and turning to him as the one true Lord of heaven and earth. And in turning to him as the Lord, will you acknowledge that he alone is sufficient to present you before God, holy, without blemish, and freed from all accusation on the day of the Advent of the Christ – the return of king? Are you prepared for that day? Do you really look forward to it?

A Prayer – for the Third Sunday in Advent: Almighty God, we pray that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered through your guidance that your church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Please consider an end of year gift to this ministry. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Gifts can be made here.

You may like to listen to Christ Our Hope in Life and Death from Keith and Kristyn Getty.

It is commonplace for contemporary scientists and philosophers to give lip service to the principle that science decides only the how questions and leaves the why questions to religion’ (italics mine), wrote the late Phillip Johnson (The Right Questions, p.68).

However, Johnson continued, ‘the epistemic authority of science is so overwhelming and the standing of theology so precarious that “outside of science” effectively means “outside of reality”, and the premise that science is taken to entail the conclusion that the world has no purpose is effectively a non-existent purpose; how could we know of the purpose if science cannot discover it?’

Johnson rightly added, ‘The concept of ultimate purpose is probably inseparable from the concept of divine revelation… The right question is not whether God exists but whether God has revealed the nature of the ultimate purpose of the world’ (pp.68f).

In order to begin to provide some answers to this question as well as some keys to opening up the ‘right questions’ with people in the wider community, let me touch on two New Testament statements.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 we read: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

And in his Letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul writes: For he (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;… (Colossians 1:15)

The Apostles St. John and St. Paul are telling us that Jesus is the projection into our world of the God who exists beyond space and time. Furthermore, we come to understand that out of his very nature, God the Father loves and gives life. Throughout eternity he has given life to a Son – a Son whom he loves and delights in.

This is what the orthodox creeds mean when they speak of the eternal nature of the Son of God. Furthermore, Article II of the Thirty-Nine Articles states: The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father,…

The fountain analogy. A helpful way to understand this is to think of a fountain. In the same way that the essential nature of a fountain is to pour out water, so God the Father is eternally flowing with life and love, eternally begetting his Son. Indeed, the prophet Jeremiah (2:13) tells us that the Lord says of himself that he is the ‘spring of living water’.

God the Father and God the Son are distinct persons, but they are inseparable from one another. They always love one another, and they always work together – in perfect harmony. Indeed, God the Father is always pouring the fullness of his own nature into His Son.

The source of life. Furthermore, in John, chapter 1, verse 3 we read: All things came into being through him (the Word), and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

And in Colossians, chapter 1, verse 16 Paul writes: For in him (Jesus Christ) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.

We need to catch the flow of both John’s and Paul’s words. Throughout eternity God the Father’s nature gives life and love which we see supremely exemplified in his one and only eternal Son who came amongst us as one of us. Furthermore, the Father hands over to His Son the task of creating others and loving others. God doesn’t need to do this to make up something lacking in his nature. This is who he is and what he does. He loves and he gives life.

Meaning. Drawing these threads together we come to understand that Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, is the eternal image and radiance of God. We are created in the image of God and designed to conform to the image of God’s eternal Son – in our love for God and our love for one another. Our existence is part of ‘the continuation of that outgoing movement of God’s love’ (Michael Reeves, p. 43). Here we begin to find the answer to meaning and purpose.

Is all this fiction? Consider the observation of Dr. John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Oxford, UK: “To the majority of those who have reflected deeply and written about the origin and nature of the universe, it has seemed that it points beyond itself to a source which is non-physical and of great intelligence and power.”

For in him (Jesus Christ) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities — all things were created through him and for him (Colossians 1:16).

A Prayer – for the Second Sunday in Advent: Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, so that, encouraged and supported by your holy Word, we may embrace and always hold fast the joyful hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

Please consider an end of year gift to this ministry. Donations in the US are tax deductible. Gifts can be made here.