Studies reveal that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. Not that we should be surprised. Jesus warned his followers that this would be their experience because of their association with him. “If the world hates you”, Jesus says, “know that it has hated me before it hated you …” (John 15:18).

The theme of the persecution of God’s people is not new. Psalm 2, written some 1,000 years before, begins: Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

Why introduces the first of four voices and the underlying theme. The plot is a war between humanity and their creator. Significantly, plot in verse 1 is the same word used in the original language as the word translated meditate in Psalm 1, verse 2. Whereas all who are truly blessed and happy delight to meditate on God’s Word, the nations and peoples mutter and murmur in a negative voice.

The psalm continues by identifying the leaders of this muttering: The kings of the earth set themselves, and their rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed saying, “Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us” (Ps 2:2-3).

In identifying who the kings and rulers oppose, two further voices are identified – the Lord God (Ps 2:4-6) and his anointed one, Messiah (Ps 2:7-9).

Significantly, the prophet Hosea, chapter 11, verse 4 reveals God’s words about his relationship with his people and his care of them: I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.

And the Acts of the Apostles records the prayer of God’s people when Peter and John were released by the Jewish Council for preaching that Jesus, raised from the dead, is the Messiah. Psalm 2 is referenced in Acts as a psalm of David (even though the Psalm is not titled as such) and understood it as a prediction of Jesus’s crucifixion: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? (Acts 4:25f).

Specifically, the Jerusalem believers understood that Psalm 2 pointed to the actions of Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentile and Jewish leaders who had called for the crucifixion of God’s anointed one (Messiah). They viewed it as an essential part of God’s hidden, sovereign plan (Acts 4:28f). As Derek Kidner observes, ‘Every grand alliance against heaven will show, in time, this double pattern’ (D. Kidner, Psalms, IVP).

Verses 4 through 6 reveal God’s response: He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision.

God’s laughter is not mocking, but rather laughter at the human arrogance that denies the existence of the Lord, sovereign over his creation. As Psalm 19 reveals, The heavens declare the glory of God; and the earth proclaims his handiwork …

Paul the Apostle echoes Psalm 2:5 and Psalm 19 when he writes: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him… (Romans 1:21a-23).

And in First Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 20 we read: Where is the one who is wise? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

To return to Psalm 2, God speaks to us all when he says: “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill” (Ps 2:6). The perpendicular pronoun “I” is emphatic. Despite the view of many, especially in the western world today, God is not mocked. As he promised King David, a descendant of his (David’s) will one day be enthroned and be seen by all. God and his king will have the final word – and the last laugh.

Which introduces the third voice of the psalm – the voice of the king: I will tell the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you (Ps 2:7).

In Second Samuel chapter 7, verses 12 following, Nathan the prophet reveals God’s promise to David as he speaks about a descendant of David: … I will raise up your offspring after you, … and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.

The relationship between the second and third speakers of the psalm permeate the New Testament. God says to Jesus at his baptism: “You are my Son, the Beloved” (Luke 3:22) and to Peter, James and John at Jesus’s transfiguration: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Luke 9:35) Furthermore, Paul the Apostle in his address at Antioch in Pisidia, linked the title of Jesus as God’s Son with his resurrection from the dead (Acts 13:32-34).

The theme of the rule of God’s king develops: Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron,  and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps 2:8-9).

Matthew records Jesus’s mandate to his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, … (28:18f). And although the rule of Christ Jesus is hidden for the present, his mandate to make disciples of the nations, continues through the ages for all his people. Furthermore, in the context of Psalm 2 we can paraphrase break them as shepherd them, and a rod of iron as scepter, indicating his rule is as a shepherd king, guiding and disciplining with his royal scepter.

Which leads to the warning to God’s enemies in Psalm 2, verses 10 through 12: Now therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, live in trembling, paying true homage or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

God’s anger is not fickle, but just. It is balanced by the reality that he is also merciful and slow to anger – as we read, for example, in Isaiah chapter 63, verse 9: In his love and in his pity he redeemed them (his people)…

The fourth voice is in the last line of the psalm: Happy are all who take refuge in him (2:12c). Happy or blessed brings Psalms 1 and 2 together.

Dr. Andrew Shead (Moore College, Sydney) comments, ‘… this refuge-seeker is none other than the wise reader who delights in God’s instruction. Most of the psalms that follow are told from the perspective of this character as he addresses God in trust and thanksgiving, and comes to God for refuge’.

We shouldn’t be surprised when our faith in Christ Jesus is mocked. Rather, as Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matthew 5:44).

Prayer. Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Eternal God, from whom all holy desires, all good purposes, and all just works proceed: give to your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and that free from the fear of our enemies we may pass our time in trust and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

© John G. Mason

Have you ever been resentful of people whose lives seem successful? They’ve achieved recognition; they have beautiful children, and they enjoy material riches. The very thought of them strips any sense of happiness from you.

Now there’s nothing wrong with being successful, having a great family or having money. The question is how do we value them? Do they represent what life is about or is there more to life?

Today we come to a second Reflection on Psalm 1. The Psalm is important for it lays the foundation for the whole Book of Psalms. As it progresses it identifies our two life-choices – a road to nowhere, or a path to life.

Consider verse 3. The imagery is vivid as it speaks of the truly blessed or happy people. They are like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all it does it prospers.

Like a tree, truly happy people draw upon life-giving water, growing slowly, steadily, surely, putting roots deeper and deeper into the source of life. Their source of water is God’s word. And just as a well-rooted tree develops its own particular fruit in the appropriate season, so they develop their own distinctive personality and quality of life.

And significantly, because this tree is well-rooted, its leaf doesn’t wither in the crippling conditions of drought. Unlike reeds in dried-up river beds or grass in parched earth, trees because of their deep-rooting system are more able to reach what little moisture there is. So in the tough times of life, the faith of God’s people is not likely to shrivel up.

Yes, our faith will be tested, but in the same way a deeply rooted tree in drought conditions is stimulated to push down even deeper in search of moisture, so too are we are stirred to dig deeper into God’s word; to rely more and more upon him; to be more focussed on putting our life in his hands. This results in bearing the fruit of love – love for God, love for others. We yearn for this. We long for the water of life, but in our natural state we look in the wrong places.

Two thousand years ago a woman at a well in Samaria longed for happiness but it had eluded her. Thinking that love and marriage was the answer, she had been married five times. And as Jesus observed in his conversation with her in John chapter 4, she was now living with a sixth man. But each time she made the same mistake. Her life was a mess. She felt insecure, lonely, and dissatisfied.

Telling her that he, Jesus, offered living waters which spring into eternal life, he said that true believers worshipped the Father in spirit and in truth. ‘A new age is dawning,’ he said, ‘when access to God is no longer tied to any one race or nation.’ The key is to know Christ and, in turn to make him known.

Consider what Psalm 1 tells us happens to a world that fails to turn to God and put its trust in him. In verse 4 we read: The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Chaff is the epitome of what is rootless and weightless: it has no substance. It’s useless. We can feel the force of the imagery – the action of winnowing, tossing the harvested grain into the air so that the light, useless chaff will be carried off by the wind, while the heavy grain falls to the ground.

Other psalms point out that all too often it is the godless rather than the godly who seem to succeed in life. But those same psalms also come to the same conclusion as this psalm. There will come a Day when men and women of straw together with their works of straw will be revealed.

Verse 6 looks ahead to this: Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

If this world is to make any sense at all, there must be a final judgement. If there is any morality, there must come a time when everyone is called to account. One of the points the Bible insists upon is that there will be such a time. And the psalmist wants us to know that on that day, those who have ignored God, who turned their backs on the perfect pattern of life he has shown us, or who have simply rejected him, will not have a leg to stand on.

Are you looking for meaning and lasting joy in life? Psalm 1 tells us how we can find it. We won’t find it by following our own inclinations nor by following our passions. And, with the incarnation of the Son of God, we certainly won’t find it by dismissing Jesus Christ.

We don’t know what life holds. One thing we do know is this. Our world is not getting any better. The western world is more and more wrecking itself on the rocks of unadulterated selfishness. People want happiness but insist upon looking in all the wrong places.

God tells us where we can find it. In responding to him, in learning from him and leaning on him; in living lives shaped by his perfect pattern. Then and only then will we begin to find true happiness.

So, if we want to find true happiness, it’s worth planning a lifestyle that includes the daily reading of the Bible; developing a pattern of prayer, so we can plunge into the springs of God’s living water. The best way to begin is to not procrastinate. If you are not regularly reading the Bible, plan to start today.

A prayer. 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

Happiness is something we long for. But how can we achieve it? It’s elusive: one moment we can be feeling happy, but the next we’re not. Like moonlight it has slipped through our fingers.

In fact ‘happiness’ can’t be a goal in the strict sense of the word. For a goal is something that is within our power to achieve. Happiness isn’t like that. There are too many variables outside our control.

We can think that being successful, having a good family and friends, material assets and comfort, will make us happy. But it doesn’t. There will always be others more successful. And behind the best of families there is often unresolved pain or hurt; those with wealth often find they’re not satisfied – they want more, or they worry about the security of all they have. Despite experiencing much that is good in life we don’t always feel that overwhelming sense of real happiness and joy.

Psalm 1 helps us. Blessed is the one … we read. Blessed means ‘happy’. The idea is echoed twenty-six times in the Psalms. It is also the word Jesus used in what are known as the Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12).

In Psalm 1 verses 1 through 3 we read: Happy is the one who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.

We all have a real thirst, a longing for something that will satisfy us deeply. The thirst is not wrong. It is part of our complex make-up that makes us human. Our problem is that we look in the wrong places to satisfy it. The prophet Jeremiah records God’s words: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water,…” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Verse 1 of the Psalm challenges us to consider our world-view. Our natural inclination is to adopt a world-view that appeals to our sense of self-sufficiency. We like the music emanating from the temples of materialism or humanism that puts us in control of our lives and our destiny.

As we continue down this path, we indulge in behaviour that appeals to our feelings, even though it means flouting God’s directions and good purposes. And so we find ourselves marching in step with the crowds who live as though there is no God and no objective moral order. In turn we join the cynics who mock Christianity. We become part of a silent majority, failing to speak up for what we believe because we’re afraid. We sit in the seat of scoffers.

What then is the path to real happiness? Verse 2 tells us: their delight is in the law of the Lord; and on his law they meditate day and night.

The negatives of verse 1 are now contrasted in verse 2. As others have observed, they show us we have a choice. Like Adam and Eve in the original garden, God respects the gift of choice he has given us. It’s one of the features that makes us human. We are not puppets on a string in a mechanistic universe. We can choose.

Verse 2 provides the key that unlocks our true humanity: Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. We need something to transform us from deep within. The law of the Lord which stands against the counsel of the wicked is a reference to God’s instruction.

Interestingly the word meditate here is the same word plot Psalm 2:1. What goes on within our hearts and minds becomes evident in our words and actions. In Psalm 2:1 the plotting is the intention of darkness that leads to evil. In Psalm 1 meditating on God’s Word, his self-disclosure, leads to Godly growth and behaviour.

People who are blessed meditate on God’s Word – God’s special self-disclosure. Here is the key to real and lasting happiness. It foreshadows Jesus’s reference to living waters that he promised to the woman at the well in Samaria. These ‘waters’ are bound up in knowing him.

Sometimes we think that meditation is something carried out by the super-spiritual – people who are etched into stained-glass windows, people who have their heads in heaven but who are no earthly use. This is not so. The words here echo God’s command to Joshua – God’s man of action who needed just as much as anyone else to think hard about the will of God if he wanted to achieve anything worthwhile.

Real happiness is found in our determination to be instructed and counselled by God himself. This isn’t easy. It will mean being prepared to look inside ourselves and consider why we say the things we sometimes do, why we think and behave the way we do, and then be willing to change. This can be tough. It means being honest with ourselves before God. It can take time.

For to meditate on God’s teaching involves letting the weight of God’s Word press upon our hearts and minds, and our life-style.

Where then do we find true happiness? Not swimming in the shallows of faith, but plunging into the mind of God found in the living waters of his Word.

A prayer. Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth so that they may return into the way of righteousness: grant to all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s service so that we may renounce those things that are contrary to our profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to it; through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

© John G. Mason

What do you think of prayer? Do you pray regularly? And if you do, do you pray with confidence? Can God, whom we call ‘Father’, be trusted to hear our prayers and answer them?

In Luke chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

On either side of these words Jesus answers two questions we might have about prayer: Does God always listen to us? Does he always have our very best interests at heart? His answer is found in two metaphors that sit on either side of his words in verses 9 and 10.

His answer to our first question is in a parable sometimes called, ‘The Friend at Midnight’ (11:5-8). The parable has an underlying, unspoken question, ‘Can you imagine…?’ ‘Can you imagine a man talking like this to a friend in need?’ Jesus is asking.

The key to the parable is found in the words in verse 8, translated, the man’s boldness. Let me suggest this is one place where most English translations are unhelpful, for they follow a translation that only dates back to the 12th century.

In recent times the late Dr. Kenneth Bailey brought fresh insights to the parables from his work on Middle-Eastern culture. In the original text the noun, man’s does not appear; rather the personal pronoun his is found. Furthermore, in the light of the research by Dr. Bailey, a better translation of boldness is sense of shame. The flow of the syntax, the narrative impact of the story has the sleeper in bed as the focus – not the man knocking on the door. It is a parable about God and the issue of God’s honour, his name. It is not a parable about the man’s persistence. Persistence is a theme taken up in a parable in Luke chapter 18.

In the parable of the friend at midnight God is represented as the one who is in bed, shut in for the night. The unwritten laws of mid-eastern hospitality, which are an important sub-text of the parable, required a man to get up and help his neighbour in need. If he didn’t he would be shamed and he would bring dishonour to the whole community. “Can you imagine,’ Jesus asks, ‘anyone saying, ‘Don’t disturb me?’ to a neighbour in need, even at midnight?

So it is with God.  His very nature demands that he get up and act. Otherwise, he will bring shame to his name. It’s a matter of God’s honour and integrity. He can be trusted to hear our requests, no matter how small, no matter what time of day or night.

‘That’s so encouraging’, you may say: ‘But what about the next question? Will God give me good things? Can he be trusted at that level or is he fickle?’

In verses 11 and 12 Jesus adopts two metaphors to move from the lesser to the greater: the most violent thief can be kind to his son and the most mercenary-minded father can be generous to his daughter. ‘Do you think God is any less open-handed?’ Jesus asks.

We need to think about this. To trust God is also to rely on his fatherly wisdom. A good and loving father will give good gifts, but he’ll use his own discretion as to how he will act.

Jesus assures us that God will not exploit our prayer or act in some malicious way. In the model prayer he gave to his disciples (11:2-4), he tells us to call God, “Father”. We need to be assured of this when we pray. Furthermore, we must realise that we are not wise enough, nor good enough, to get everything we request from someone who is the all- powerful, creator, lord of the universe.

Jesus’ direction in the model prayer to say, “Your will be done”, is not fatalism. These words are necessary to any conversation with an all-loving and all-powerful Father.

People who find it difficult to grasp the idea of a good and loving father are often those who have had an unhappy or abusive childhood. Jesus is saying that we can trust our heavenly father. Even if you have not had a good experience of an earthly father, you can nevertheless trust in the goodness of your father in heaven. We need not fear that he will twist our words.

He may not give us everything we want; he may delay making any response; but like any good and loving father he does not want to spoil us with over-indulgence. He may also want to test our seriousness in prayer and the quality of our relationship with him.

Sometimes God does say, ‘No’, as he did when Paul asked him to remove the thorn which was troubling him. He also said ‘No’ to Jesus when he begged that the cup of suffering might be taken away. When God says, ‘No, it’s because his plans are bigger than ours.

When we begin a prayer relationship with God the Father, we open the door to untold blessings. That’s why Jesus is speaking with such unqualified confidence when he promises: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”.

Prayer is a precious privilege. As Blaise Pascal, the 17th C French mathematician, chemist and philosopher observed, ‘God has organised the government of the universe so that our prayer, our talking with him, has meaning. It brings us into the very presence of the God who is at the heart of the universe’. Yet so often our prayer life is dead. Why don’t we pray more consistently and more confidently?

And for anyone who is still asking questions about the faith and is finding it hard to make a commitment to the Lord Jesus, his words are for you as well: ‘Ask, Seek, Knock’. If you want faith, ask for it. If you seek, you will find. If you really are knocking on God’s door, the door will be opened.

God is the Father who loves to give. We can take Jesus at his word. ‘Will God not give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?” Jesus asks.

Why does he speak about the Holy Spirit here? He is anticipating the great gift of his coming to us through his Spirit: the Spirit will open our minds to hear the voice of God through the Word of God; the Spirit will open our hearts to God and enable us to call God, ‘Father’ – as we read in Romans, chapter 8, verse 15. The Spirit will open our lives to God and empower us to trust God.

Prayer. Let your merciful ears, Lord God, be open to the prayers of your people, and so that we may obtain our petitions, direct us to ask such things as will please you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

© John G. Mason

With the current geo-political upheavals many fear what the future holds. The uncertainty today is exacerbated by the angry divisions within societies. Vindictiveness has replaced respectful and serious conversation. And we can feel utterly powerless when it comes to talking about our faith.

In Perelandra or Voyage to Venus, the second in CS Lewis’ science-fiction trilogy, Ransom, the main character, feels powerless in confronting an evil force at work on the untainted planet Venus. The crafty subtle evil power reflects the temptations in Genesis chapter 3. Despite being a learned scholar in philology, Ransom constantly finds himself defeated in his arguments. What can he do?

This raises an important question for us, for today people have little knowledge of the Jesus of the Gospels. So subtle and persistent has been the attack on Christianity, they are not looking to the Christian faith for answers about life. Is it time for us to review our approach?

Come with me to a parable Jesus told – the parable of the sower. It begins in Luke chapter 8, verse 4. When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’… ‘Now the parable is this,’ Jesus explained: ‘The seed is the word of God.’

People travelled from near and far to see Jesus. Expectations were rising. It would have been a great time for him to call them to join him in a march on Jerusalem to set Israel free from Rome. But that was not God’s way.

We need to focus on the key to the parable: “…The seed is the word of God” (verse 11).

Causes and revolutions are staged by various means. Last century Marxists brought in Communism at the end of a gun. This century began, as we are reminded on 9/11 each year, with Islamist extremists trying to de-stabilise and destroy through terrorism. In Jesus’s day zealots tried to revive Jewish independence through guerrilla warfare.

But these are not Jesus’s methods. The picture he paints in these verses is of a farmer quietly sowing seed. The Word of God he is saying, has within its DNA the capacity to change people’s lives for good. At first the transformation is hidden but there comes a day when the change is obvious.

Churches today have often lost confidence in the power of God’s Word to change lives. So, many churches focus on the sacraments, and others on social justice. But to make these things the priority is to lose sight of the way God works. God’s Word is the key that unlocks the door into God’s kingdom and therefore to life.

In Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17 we read: All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the people of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Scriptures, as the Word of God, give us exclusive information about salvation. They don’t contain exhaustive truth, but what they do give us is sufficient for restoring our relationship with God and for living as God’s people.

In the larger context of Second Timothy chapter 3, Paul reminds us we live in a world that prefers to find or invent its own religion. He tells us that our only real hope for life and meaning is found in God’s unique self-revelation. Human resources won’t provide deep and satisfying answers. Our sure hope is in dependence on the resources of the living God.

To return to the parable in Luke chapter 8, Jesus warns us that the results of sowing the seed of God’s Word aren’t uniform. Some of the crop grows well, some poorly, some hardly at all. The results are not so much caused by bad sowing but rather because of some failure in the ground. We could call this parable the parable of the four soils.

One group, having heard God’s Word, hardened their hearts through the silent, crafty work of the power of evil. A second group received God’s Word with joy, but in times of testing fell away; they had liked the preacher but there was no true repentance, no real change in their lives. A third group also heard God’s Word but had not counted the cost of commitment; they were not convicted of their sin and their need to turn to Christ in repentance; they had come as customers to buy, not as disciples to surrender.

But Jesus also speaks of a fourth group. They are true followers of Christ who hold fast to God’s Word with an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance. Perseverance in godly living is the sign of God’s grace at work. A real lesson here is the encouragement we can experience in the ministry of disciple-making and outreach.

Jesus’s references to birds, stones, and thorns could easily demoralize us. But he is saying, ‘Don’t be put off. Be realistic, yes. But the ministry of God’s Word will always have its successes, and what success that will be!’ So let’s be encouraged. Let’s never forget Jesus’s words: “I will build my church, and nothing will prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

And most of all, remember the key to ministry is letting God’s Word do its work.

To assist you in your own faith and equip you with a small book to pass on to others who don’t know what to believe, I have written The Jesus Story: Seven Signs that focus on the miracles of John’s Gospel. You can access it through the banner below if you are in the US, or through Amazon anywhere else in the world.

A prayer.  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, 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

Note: I have adapted material here from my book, Luke: An Unexpected God (2nd Edition, Aquila: 2019)

n his Screwtape Letters CS Lewis observes that there are two equal and opposite errors that people fall into regarding the dark powers. One mistake is to disbelieve in their existence; the other is to believe in them to excess.

In Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 12, Paul the Apostle writes: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power… For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…

Paul takes the reality of conflict in the world to another level: ‘our struggle’, literally, ‘our wrestling’, is not so much against ‘flesh and blood’ but ‘principalities and powers’. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 10, Paul speaks of the day when all things, ‘in heaven’ and ‘on earth’ will be brought under rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, as we read in chapter 6, for the present there’s a war between the two spheres of darkness and light.

Spiritually speaking, God’s people live in enemy occupied territory. The epic the Gospel records reveal is that the true king has slipped into our world to rescue people enslaved by the dark powers. The Gospel of John records Jesus’s words to Pilate: he could have called on a powerful army to rescue him (John 18:36). However, knowing that he alone could defeat the prince of darkness, he came without fanfare to accomplish his mission. He knew that only through his sacrificial death could the powers of evil, and death itself, be conquered. This is clearly stated in Colossians, chapter 2, verses 13 through 15. Jesus’s resurrection from the dead validates his victory.

However, for the present the dark powers, although mortally wounded, continue to do their worst, attempting to destroy God’s ultimate and sure plan to glorify his people.

Against this backdrop we learn from Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 that God’s people are caught up in a spiritual conflict as individuals and together. It is here that too often we are naïve. We might reckon it is only the smooth-tongued and powerful elite voices that obstruct spiritual truth in the world. No, Paul warns. There are formidable supernatural forces at work – powers that will not respond to reason. We are caught up in a conflict that involves dark powers and human choices.

Put on the whole armor of God, we read in verse 13, so that you may be able to stand your ground. There will be times when the dark forces press us morally, whispering that everybody’s doing it. Sometimes they press us intellectually: you’re too clever to believe that. Sometimes they press us psychologically: your faith is so intolerant. And there are times when we are physically persecuted. The aim is always the same: to silence the voice of God’s people.

Stand firm, Paul says. Be alert. Don’t give in. Put on the inner protection of a godly lifestyle. Our loins need to be girded with God’s truth; we need a breastplate of righteousness; our feet need to be shod with the commitment to spread the gospel of peace, and we need the headpiece of salvation. Our lives are most at risk when our inner defenses are broken. We need the qualities of integrity, righteousness, gospel readiness, and the deep assurance of God’s ultimate victory.

The dark powers will do their worst to discredit our integrity, prevent gospel outreach through lethargy and infighting, and demoralize us by discouraging us.

We need protection: the shield of faith with which we can quench the flaming darts of darkness. We can’t cope on our own. We need to trust Christ, for when we do, the darts of darkness will fall useless. ‘The victory that overcomes the world,’ John tells us, ‘is our faith’ (1 John 5:4).

The sword of the spirit. While Paul hasn’t spelled out the meaning of his metaphors up to this point, he wants us to know that God’s Word is a sword. Unlike communism or any other ‘ism’ or ideology, there is no place in Christianity for a literal holy war. God’s new society is not brought in by act of Congress still less at the end of gun. God works through his Word.

The Word of God is not a message of the freedom fighters, but one that focusses on personal repentance and God’s forgiveness: the building of God’s new society and its compassion and care for a lost world. The victory of God’s Word will have eternal outcomes.

Pray. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints… (Ephes 6:18).

In any battle, communication is vital. In the histories of World War II there is a picture of a young soldier holding together a broken telephone line. Prayer is our field telegraph. Paul urges us to pray constantly, to persevere in prayer, and to be vigilant in prayer. We are to pray in the Spirit.

Romans chapter 8, verses 26 following, help us understand this, for there Paul tells us that the Spirit works with us in our prayer. In the midst of suffering we’re often at a loss to know what we should say. In those times, Paul tells us, the Spirit comes to our aid, putting our inarticulate thoughts into meaningful prayer, speaking to God on our behalf.

Despite the noise of opposing voices, God’s work continues to make inroads on the kingdom of darkness. When Jesus stood on the hills of ancient Israel with a handful of his followers, he said, ‘On this rock – the rock of faith – I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18). He was speaking to a small group of humble, un-influential men.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the legitimate ruler of the world. No, much, much more: the universe. Nothing in all creation will prevent the return of the King.

How important it is that, by God’s grace, we hold on to the shield of faith, wield the word of God with greater confidence, and most of all, pray – for one another and for others. Pray that we will stand firm, not failing to live under God’s gospel, nor failing to take his gospel to those around us.

If you have not already done so, let me encourage you to obtain copies of The Jesus Story: Seven Signs – a copy to revitalize your own faith and copies to pass on to others who don’t know what to believe. If you are in the US you can purchase copies through the button in the book banner below. If you are elsewhere purchases can be made through Amazon.

A prayer. Almighty God, give us grace so that we may cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came amongst us in great humility: so that on the last day, when he comes again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

© John G. Mason

In the concluding chapter of his book, Dominion (2019), Tom Holland draws together his theme of the ways Christianity has impacted “the rise and fall of empires, the actions of bishops and kings, the arguments of theologians, the course of revolutions, the planting of crosses around the world. Yet”, he comments, “that hardly tells the whole story.

“I have written much in this book about churches, and monasteries, and universities,” he writes, “but these were never where the mass of the Christian people were most influentially shaped. It was always in the home that children were likeliest to absorb the revolutionary teachings that, over the course of two thousand years, have come to be so taken for granted as almost to seem to be human nature. The Christian revolution was wrought above all at the knees of women.

“The success, then, of the most influential framework for making sense of human existence that has ever existed always depended on people like my Godmother: people who saw in the succession of one generation by another something more than merely the way of all the earth. Although she had no children of her own, she was a teacher, … and publicly honoured for it.

“As a Christian, … she had the hope of eternal life. It was a faith that she had received from her mother, who had received it in turn from her parents,  … And this was the tradition that my Godmother passed on to me” (p.519).

Let’s think about this. In the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 4 we read: Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

These words would have shocked the Roman world where a father was the autocratic head of the family, with untold power over his offspring. Paul’s command was revolutionary: parents – for mothers as well as fathers are included – are not to abuse their children, giving them cause for bitterness and anger. Rather, they are to provide a home of love and care, helping their children to grow in the knowledge and love, wisdom and self-discipline in the Lord.

The words of Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 7, written around 1200BC, come to mind: Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

The one-ness and uniqueness of God echo a great theme of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Behind the diversity and complexity of the universe there is one God who holds everything together and unifies it. We live in a meaningful, ordered world because everything that happens, no matter how varied, is all part of the one creation.

It’s crucial for us to understand this for it helps us begin to answer the question we all ask at some point: “Who am I?” The answer of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is that there is one God who is our creator. We won’t make sense of ourselves without him. Strip from the universe and our lives the notion of God who is Lord of his creative handiwork, and we’re left with an emptiness and sense of meaninglessness.

The God of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is not an abstract being, without meaning or message. This is even more so in the New Testament where, for example, we read in the Gospel of John: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:14). And in Philippians chapter 2 we read: At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Our world and our children need to hear these truths. We do great harm to our society and to the next generation if we so cram our children’s lives with activities and programs that they do not hear these truths. Yet how many parents fill their children’s lives with music before school, activities after school, and success at school that they never have time with them as a family to talk about the things of God.

Who should teach these things about God? Consider Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 6: Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.

Parents and family are the most important educational influence on children. It’s built into the very nature of family. Children don’t stop learning when they get home from school. They are learning every waking hour of the day. It’s one of the reasons they need to be guided in their use of phones, social media, and television viewing.

Despite research that suggests parents are handing over responsibility for their children’s education and training to schools, the best people to instil fundamental attitudes and form children’s moral lives are parents and family. This involves commitment but the rewards are great.

If you are a parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle or godparent, consider the example of your life – how much time you spend on your phone or in front of the big screen. Use the precious conversations around the dinner table, on walks, and at bedtime. Be known for your reading of the Bible and living it out, not just with words but also in your lifestyle.

Be prepared to answer questions about life – about right and wrong, life and death, about drugs and alcohol, about nuclear or climate concerns, about God. Speak plainly about what Jesus means to you. These are crucial times. Children’s experiences with family, and family connections, will live in their memories for a lifetime.

It’s in the home, as we instruct our children about God and Jesus Christ, that they learn their own value and self-esteem as a boy or girl, made in the image of God. It’s in the home they learn how to get on with other people and to respect authority and discipline. It’s in the home they develop as individuals and find their individuality accepted, appreciated and affirmed.

Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents and godly family connections are well placed to blend the demands of society and the needs of the child in a way that affirms a child’s dignity and yet also makes them ready for society, to mix with other people and not just to be a self-centered little island.

Much more needs to be said about how we can pass on God’s good news from one generation to the next. A starting point is your own understanding of and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will allow me a personal reference, have you taken up an opportunity to read The Jesus Story: Seven Signs to refresh your own faith as well as have a book to pass on to others? You can access it through the link below if you are in the US, or through Amazon.

A prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, whose Son Jesus Christ shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home: bless our homes, we pray. Help parents to impart the knowledge of you and your love; and children to respond with love and obedience. May our homes be blessed with peace and joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

© John G. Mason

Everyone loves a story – the huge success of the Narnia books of CS Lewis, The Lord of the Rings from JRR Tolkien and, of course, JK Rowling’s, Harry Potter series, all come to mind.

But fiction is not the only form of story people long for. There is always wide-ranging interest in the personal stories of people – the successful and the unknown, recent and long-past. It is as though people find their own sense of identity and purpose in the story of others. This is especially true in troubling and challenging times – as we are currently experiencing.

With that thought in mind, come with me to the story of the man who, as HG Wells – author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds – once observed, is “irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history”.

In the course of preaching sermons on John’s Gospel last year I was struck afresh by the conversations that we read in chapter 14.

The chapter opens with a dark cloud hanging over the close followers of Jesus. For three years they had followed him with increasing confidence that he was someone very different from anyone they knew. But he had just told them that within a matter of hours he was going away. They were in a state of shock.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. “Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:1-3).

At this, Thomas, one of his followers, expressed his frustration: ‘We don’t know where you’re going’, he said. ‘How can we know the way?’ We might sympathize with Thomas. The idea of Jesus going to heaven and preparing a place for his followers seems far-fetched.

Let’s think about this. Many people will never admit that their view about life is wrong – that there might be more to life than the material world we experience. There are even people like this in churches: they say the creed, but they don’t really believe it; they might give the impression of spirituality but there’s no substance to it.

At least Thomas is prepared to admit he didn’t understand. But while Jesus doesn’t belittle him, his response is nevertheless startling: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father but by me” (14:6). ‘If you truly know me Thomas, you would know what I am talking about.’ Significantly, Jesus doesn’t say, “I’ll show you the way” but “I am the way”; he doesn’t say, “I’ll tell you the truth” but “I am the truth”; he doesn’t say, “I’ll give you eternal life” rather, “I am the life”.

It’s as though Jesus is saying, the path to life beyond the grave involves a relationship, a relationship you already have – a relationship with me. His words are incredible: he is saying that behind the universe is not a mathematical equation or a scientific formula but a person.

John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford University, has written: “The rational intelligibility of the universe,… points to the existence of the Mind that was responsible both for the universe and our minds. It is for this reason that we are able to do science and to discover the beautiful mathematical structures that underlie the phenomena we can observe.” (cited in PW Barnett, Gospel Truth, p.21)

Jesus is saying that the impossible has happened: God has come amongst us in person and that he is the one. His words echo what we read in the introduction to John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In John chapter 14, Jesus is saying that the only way to make sense of our human existence is by recognising that he is the complex person who is the Mind behind the universe. And, while it seems impossible, he is that person.

As the chapter moves on, we discover that Thomas’ frustration leads to a request from Phillip: “Lord show us the Father. That’s all we need,” he says (14:8).

Philip wanted to know what every religion wants to know: What is God like? He wanted some tangible experience of God that would sweep away his doubts. He might have been thinking of God’s special appearance to Moses at the burning bush. He wanted to see God.

Again, Jesus’ response is astounding: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). We would not have been surprised if Jesus had replied, ‘Philip, you’re asking the impossible’. Rather he says, ‘Don’t you know me Philip, even after I’ve been among you over these years? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father?”’

Some people think of Jesus as one of history’s great teachers. But this doesn’t come anywhere near to what Jesus was saying. He is saying that he is not just God’s emissary or ambassador, but God himself. He was claiming the impossible – to be God in our midst.

Consider how Jesus continues. We read his words in verse 11: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Jesus anticipated their doubts. Think about it, he is saying. You’ve seen me turn water into first-class wine. You have also seen me perform many other miraculous acts that no-one else has ever been able to do – including bringing out of a tomb a man who had been dead for four days. ‘Doesn’t that tell you something about me?’ he is asking.

In a new book, The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, I have taken up Jesus’s words in his response to Philip’s request (14:8): “…Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves” (14:11). The works are the signs.

Many people today have no problem with the existence of Jesus and the idea that he was a good man. However, they’re unaware of the real Jesus story that points to his uniqueness and divinity, and the life and hope he offers us.

John’s Gospel is sometimes called the book of the signs. My book takes up the gospel story for those who believe and those who don’t know what to believe. It is written to encourage and reassure God’s people before being handed on to others with an invitation to find out more.

Copies can be purchased in the US using the banner below, or anywhere else from Amazon at: The Jesus Story: Seven Signs, John G. Mason.

Prayer. Lord Christ, eternal Word and Light of the Father’s glory: send your light and your truth so that we may both know and proclaim your word of life, to the glory of God the Father; for you now live and reign, God for all eternity. Amen.

© John G. Mason