Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

• The Corinthian's drunk deep of the Greek dichotomy between the body & the soul. Paul refutes this in 12... God loves the universe, and our bodies - had a gospel for the whole person not just the soul; healing the sick - not telling them to ignore their bodies.
• God is also interested in more than your soul, but also your body - the body is not made for immorality. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, you are not your own you are bought at a price, therefore honour your body.
• Park Street committed not only to mission in a spiritual sense, but also to physical bodies; many medics are sent to heal the sick, the international justice mission - using christian criminologists, forensic specialists, lawyers, judges - honouring the God of justice.
• Christ's resurrection the prototype, we will be like him. Paul doesn't just assert that he was resurrected, but that it is knowable. Acts 1 He appeared to the apostles over the period of 40 days
• Paul gives 6 examples of his appearing; not to just some isolated individuals: some believers, others sceptics, etc. appeared to 500 at a time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep - the vocabulary of the first Christian martyr (Stephen) who as he was being stoned prayed do not hold this sin against them - and then he fell asleep. Many of these gave their lives for their testimony.
• You can have misguided religious fanatics who are willing to die for what they believe in; servicemen can similarly. Christian witnesses in contrast were persecuted for their testimony to the resurrection - that hundreds of them would be willing to go to cheerfully to their death for something they knew was false; is strange indeed.
• 3 witnesses mentioned all who didn't want to see the resurrected Jesus - hostile witnesses.
  • Peter - denied Jesus 3 times before he died to servant girls. Hours before he had sworn to die with him rather than deny him. An uncomfortable re-union with Jesus after the resurrection. What turned Peter from a weak kneed quitter to someone who would confess Christ before the Sanhedrin days later ?
  • James - disbelieved in Jesus - his half brother - considered him a mental case. Mark 3:21: no one talks like this who is sane. Yet - he was turned around, after Jesus' death; James was a leader of the Church in Jerusalem, and in AD 62 was stoned and clubbed to death for his faith.
  • Paul - like Osama Bin-Laden, any chance of him becoming a Christian ? exactly the same with Paul. He was self-satisfied, assured and self righteous. He was trying to purify the land from false prophets, not on his way to a prayer meeting in Damascus, but to kill more Christians. Jesus stopped him in his tracks, and turned him around - an example that no-one is beyond saving. What does God think of those who kill people: Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief ... is a trustworthy saying worthy of full acceptance: that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst 1Tim1 - something we can all echo.
• The ultimate proof of the resurrection is that Jesus is alive and well, and can come into your life and change it right now. By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace to me was not without effect.
• Not making us perfect immediately, but setting us free from being a slave to sin. Christ is alive and well, he wants you because he can do with your life, more than you can do with it.

• Our testimony like that of John Newton, (Amazing Grace), from a dysfunctional home, abandoned by his father, mother died when he was 6. Went to sea, no other way to survive, a life of debauchery. Would enjoy new sailors coming aboard, making fun of their faith, and encouraging them in drunkenness and all the rest. Age 22 he had witnessed, crossing the Atlantic with slaves; with 1/4 of them dying of dysentry and malnutrition - and was untouched by it, so hardned was his heart.

  At a point age 22 on a similar voyage, in a great storm, the mast split, half the deck lifted up, the sails gone and all the sailors crying out for their lives. Newton suddenly confronting ultimate reality - had the gall to cry out May the Lord have mercy. As he said it, he began thinking of his whole life of blasphemy, that every ounce of his being was against God; didn't even know how to swim, would surely drown. 27 days later, as they were eating their last provision, drinking their last drops of fresh water, they hit land on the coast of Ireland. Newton got off that boat a new creature in Christ.

  He left the slave trade, and spent the rest of his days fighting against slavery. He became a pastor, but instead of wearing robes, always wore his sailors uniform into the pulpit so he would never forget that once I was blind, but now I see

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• Man born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble Job 14 If a man dies, will he live again ?.
• The Corinthians didn't get it - drunk the contemporary Greek thinking. The resurrection is patterned on Christ; If Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless, and so is your faith, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins etc. ( 1 Cor 15) - the antithesis to Pascal's wager: If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men..
• The Apostles creed: I believe in the holy spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body & the life everlasting, Amen.
• Today you will be with me in paradise - yes to prefer to be away from the body and at home with Christ is good but there we get clothed with a new body.
• How are the dead raised ? With what kind of body will they come - a cynical Greek view, it's a disgusting idea - a re-animted cadaver ? - arthritic ?
• Appeal to the natural analogy of sowing a seed to create a new plant to cover 3 points:
  • The necessity of death: How foolish ! what you sow does not come to life unless it dies - Corinthian smug self satisfaction - already you have all you want (4:8) - Kingship is on the other side of the grave. To wear the crown you have to bear the cross. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies - it remains only a single seed, but if it dies it becomes many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. - John 12.
  • Is it 'just a spiritual resurrection' ? - no. The continuity & discontinuity. While the seed doesn't really die - it seems to disintegrate; it gives an impression of dying. When you sow, you don't plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else: continuity plant an acorn - you don't get a maple tree: it's still you. Discontinuity - death; God gives it a body as he has determined
  • All flesh is not the same: Men, animals, birds, fish - God creates amazing diversity. The sun, moon, stars are all different - and radically different from us - none of us wanders around shining. God is incredibly creative and can do it.
• A huge amount we don't know - are babies ressurected as adults ? are octogenarians resurrected as 65 year old retirees, we don't know; we do know:
  • The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable - our bodies are given to decay and degeneration, death then disintegration.
  • The body that is sown in dishonor, is raised in glory - bodies a source of permanant embarassment; Death - the ultimate humiliation Sherman Newland a surgeon at - Yale Medical School in his book 'How we die' says: If peace and dignity are what we delude ourselves to expect, most of us will die wondering what we or our doctors have done wrong... By and large dying is a messy and painful business. Not a rosy picture. Paul acknowledges this - as it is sown in dishonor - but it is raised in glory and honour Well done my good and faithfull servant, because you have been faithful in little - take charge of 12 cities.
  • The body that is sown in weakness, is raised in power - Newland again: A study of those who die in old age; 84 years+ the lesson from 23 case histories - whether the cause is the anarchy of disordered bio-chemistry; or it's opposite, we die of old-age because we have been worn, torn and progammed to cave in. The very old do not surcumb to disease, they implode their way to eternity. Even if they happened to die of pneumonia autopsies reveal they could have died the next day of any of 10 other causes. The body will be raised in power though: look to Jesus, he appears through locked doors; he appears so suddenly he startles them A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have Luke 24.
  • The body that is sown a natural body, it is raised as a spiritual body - not physical vs. spiritual; the resurrection in a material thing. The natural body is animated by the soul, the resurrection body is animated by the spirit. When it is sown it embodies the soul, when it's raised it embodies the spirit The holy spirit currently gives life only from the heart out, a promise of the resurrection.
• Don't sign up for a liquid nitrogen bath: Listen I tell you a mystery - we shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash - in the twinkling of an eye - fastest known unit of time then before the nanosecond, at the last trumpet
• Why sleep ? just like a body sleeping through the night, touch the person and they don't respond, they're just away for a while. Has Jesus turned your grave into a bed ? Gordon encourages people when considering funeral arrangements - to get the undertakers to dress people in their coffin in pyjamas not a suit - they're just sleeping.
• How will God wake us - with a loud command, as at creation. Blaise Pascal - What is more difficult to be born or rise again - that that which has never been to be, or that which has been, to be again ? - Teach me to live that I may dread, the grave as little as my bed, teach me to die so that I may rise glorious at the judgement day.
• The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed The Trumpet - a call to herald the presence of God as at Mount Sainai, or as in Matthew 24: to signal that the troops are on the way.
• Then death will be defeated, Then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'
• Challenged to follow the example of Amy Carmichael a missionary to India: refused to be photographed ( despite being rather pretty ): why would you want to preserve your likeness now, when in just a few moments we'll be transformed into his likeness. When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
• Not to be so heavenly minded - you're no earthly good, of course it gives us comfort in aging but Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. - living not just for now - For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.

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• The Trinity: 17 texts mentioning the Father, Son & Holy Spirit in the same breath - baptising in the name of all 3; co-equality. All Christian churches agree on the doctrine, E. Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, etc.
• The translation of the sacred name of God (Yahweh) to Greek rendered 'Lord' used in the NT applied to Jesus. cf. Acts 2 quotation of Joel 2 Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
• Stephen - as he was stoned to death [NB. fell asleep] said, Lord Jesus recieve my spirit. Remarkably parallel to Jesus's words from the cross, but to God.
• He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all Creation ... [things] visible and invisible. EM radition yes of course, but really a grand theory of everything.
• How about Creation. With a Ptolemaic vision - the Earth the center it makes transparent sense that God was incarnate here. vs. Carl Sagan's - the pale blue dot - a thin film of life on an obscure lump of rock and metal, a lonely spec in an eveloping cosmic dark.
• several major misunderstandings:
• Facts do not speak for themselves: By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command. When we see them we think: The heavens declare the glory of God. I can't even convince you you're awake - only with your eyes open can you see the evidence that you are.
• ~200bn stars in the milky way, ~100bn galaxies. Oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth - When I consider the heavens the work of your fingers, the heavens that you set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him.
• Bible doesn't require a young earth, some suggest creation in 4004BC, based on genaeology in scriptures. Genaeologies are almost always selective, Matthew: Jesus is the son of David, son of Abraham. David ~1k BC, Abraham ~2k BC, Matthew knows that. Later more comprehensive: 14+14 generations mentioned, but the OT mentions at least 3 names he omits; that's standard proceedure; typical in the ancient world.
• Bible doesn't prohibit plant/animal death before the fall. More than 700 distinct species in the fossil record, when did they exist ? the dinosaur question, 2 options:
  • No death before Adam/Eve sinned, they continued to inhabit the planet with us until they were wiped out.
  • Is that likely ? Jurrassic park: in the wisdom of God, why have Tyrannosaurus Rex in the garden of Eden ?
  • God in his wisdom got rid of the dinosaurs long before we arrived - 65million years ago. Assumes death arrived before the fall.
• Every time death is mentioned with respect to the fall, the bible stresses it's human death. The animals didn't sin, humans sinned. Death enters through that act, but only to men.
• Psalm 104, talks about creation, walks through Genesis 1 verse by verse. The 4th day, darkness - The beasts of the field prowel - what are they prowling for - carrots ? the lions roar for their prey - God gave them sharp teath, excellent steroscopic vision, fleetness of foot etc.
• God clothes the man/women with animal skins - but just glosses over this - of course animals die.
• Genesis not an exhaustive or exclusive account of creation. Not exhaustive: no account of creation of air, fire, water, or angels. Not exclusive, the doctrine of concurrence:
  • Why does it rain ? a christian view of meterology ? We should have a Christian meterological society so we don't have to have pagan meterologist on TV !
  • The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth ... he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth, he sends lighting with the rain, and brings out the wind from his storehouses. (Psalm 135).
  • Jesus said it was true too: He makes his rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5)
  • No more of these 'cold fronts' and 'isobars' - it's all God isn't it ?
  • Jeremiah goes so far as: Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain ? Do the skies themselves send down showers ? No, it is you, O Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this. - the sky can't do it unless God does it.
  • The laws of nature are just the customary ways in which God provides his providential care of the universe. They're his laws.
  • Elijah having prayed for rain after a prolongued drought - sends his servant to look for a cloud - God does it all, yet uses a cloud. God normally uses secondary causes - yet he does it all.
• The 7 days in Genesis 1 - need not be literal; or are literal 'heaven' days; not a new view caused by embarassment by evolution. Held by St. Augustine in 7 AD. The first fundamentalists held this view. God created the Sun for the marking of days, sun created day 4. The 7th day is still going on. God's 7th day rest is still going on Hebrews 4. Genesis 1: 'evening/morning' every day, but not on the 7th.
• What is a 'heavenly day' ? no idea. What is a doorpost and threshold in heaven ? - no idea; a useful anthropomorphism.
• A week, an unnatural measure of time; all man's 7 day cycles plaguerised from scripture. Natural: day, month, seasons, year. We get a lot of weeks; God has one. We're looking forward to the ultimate Sabbath - entering into God's rest.
• Empirical evidence - encourage us to apply what the bible says about creation. All human beings have a common ancestor - we go back to 1 ancestral pair. The Eve hypothesis - mitocondrial DNA, 100k years ago, same for Y chromosomes. A very 'fortuitous' mutation happened 100k years ago, no burial before then, not long thereafter art.
• Universality of the fall, everywhere you go - everyone is sinning. The !Kung San of the Kalahari desert - wonderfully peaceful hunter-gatherers, don't even spank their children - an anthropologists dream come true: all loving and peaceful. Problem is in further studies it was discovered they have a murder rate greater than NYC.
• Design: requires a couple of things; improbability is not enough. Throw a cork - draw a bull's eye exactly under it - not amazing. Have to design the bull's-eye first.
• You have to know God to know the evidence of his design; unity & diversity How many are your works Lord. You can't predict the Emu, you can't predict the gravitational constant - it reflects his soverign will not some necessity.
• The beauty of nature; it's just like him to make things like that. The Spirit's effort in creation - spirit breath - seen anyone die ? - an astonishing thing; all of a sudden the life goes out - and what you most notice - the stopping of breath; no more breath.
• God formed man from the dust and breathed into him life, Jesus breathed into his disciples the Holy Spirit. The world is not just a rock, but covered in life everywhere.
• How is it possible for such an enormous squandering of time: 10bn years of supernovae - millions of years of carboniferous plant growth to make the gas so you could drive to Church. Millions of species / stars dying that we might live.
• The cruciform theory of the universe: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it stays a single seed. All kinds of natural analogies preparing you to live a life of indebtedness.
• It's all as nothing prepared to what God was prepared to do 2000 years ago sending his Son to die for us. It was not with perishable gold/silver that you were bought - but with the precious blood of Christ. Who is worthy of these things ?

• Paul's circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, keeping God's commands is what counts (1 Cor 7:19) - clearly the civil and ceremonial law are fulfilled in Christ, no sacrificing of animals is necessary; but the moral law is binding.
• Non-Judgementalism

  The world non-judgementalism	Jesus'
  Whatever the other person has done, it cannot be wrong; No right or wrong; just different.	A genuine offence has been committed, we have to extend mercy & grace.
  Assumption that there are no absolute standards, judgementalism is imposimg my standards on others.	Assumption is that there are eternal and fixed standards; and these have already been violated - to judge not is to reach out with forgiveness and forebearance.
  Imagines it's getting an A+ in non-judgementalism	The world is getting a failing grade.

• Imagine a sin everyone agrees on eg. racism - a repugnant failure and transgression if ever there was.

  Reach for the stone pile

  reach-out with non-judgemental love, trying to restore and bring to ammendment the brother, in love.

• Real non-judgementalism as Jesus teaches - operates in the presence of offences, not in their absence.
• Keeping things in proportion: can tell a real christian - more offended by their own sin than by other people's The plank in their own eye - more upset by the mirror than the newspaper.
• How can we acquire this spirit: remember we are not God, not qualified to judge; who are you to judge another man's servant, to his own master he stands or falls (Romans 14)
• Not God - don't have the facts; don't know the struggles they face. The widow that gave her two coins gave more than all the others - from the saviors point of view; an adjustment factor.
• C.S.Lewis writes in Mere Christianity If you are a nice person, if virtue comes easy to you - you don't struggle with substance abuse, profanity, selfishness - if so, beware - much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what God has just given to you, and if you're content with simply being nice; you're still a rebel. All those things will just make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous; the Devil was an archangle once. But if you are a poor creature, poisoned by a wretched upbringing, in some house full of vulgar jealosies and senseless quarrels, saddled by no choice of your own with some loathsome sexual perversion, nagged day in and out by some inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends - do not dispair. God knows all about it - you are one of the poor whom he has blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive; keep on; do what you can; one day perhaps in another world, and perhaps far sooner than that - he will fling it on the scrap-heap and give you a new one, and then you may astonish us all, not least yourself - for you have learned your driving in a hard school..
• Challenging stuff.

• On holiday, discussing with a student, the pillar convictions of his faith.
  • Disbelief in everything else. Jesus' teaching hard and many disciples abandoned him; to whom shall we go - you have the words of eternal life - said by Peter who had plenty of doubts and confusions. Meaningless, meaningless everything is meaningless - says the teacher of Ecclesiastes - eg. living on in someone's memory is meaningless - how many people live in yours ?
  • Convictions about creation; Psalm 19The heavens declare the glory of God - no literal speach is heard from them but yet their voice goes out to the end of the earth. The beauty, the order, the mathematical elegance, the balance of physics etc.
  • The person of Christ - what do you think about him; not the dirty church, but him. The evidence for his resurrection, while seeing the evidence of his love dying for us on the cross. Better - the power of the resurrected Christ making it not just a religion but a relationship.
  • The miracle of the Bible itself; particularly prophecy. Lots of people claim the bible is full of errors - but when pressed most havn't read it. Some of the best lists of problems, come from ~2 centuries ago, perhaps 100 - enscriptions that can't be squared, archaeological issues etc. Most of these simply have so many potential plausible answers it's hard to decide.
  • Prophecy - the huge resources of the US would love to be able to predict not 300 years from not - but not even 3 months from now. Isaiah 41 ridicules the idols who are impotent to predict anything. God says "I make known the end from the beginning" - "what I have said, that will I bring about, what I have planned, that will I do".
  • Jesus' parable of Lazarus the beggar in heaven, the rich man in hell (at no point repentant, self pity for eternity): I've got my brothers who are still living - send Lazarus to warn them - people need to see a miracle or they won't believe; Abraham replies: They have Moses and the Prophets - let them listen to them. ie. all the evidence the sceptic could want. Abraham replies - If they do not listen to Moses & the Prophets - they will not be convinced if someone rises from the dead.
  • The Hindu Vedas have no datable, testable predictions at all. The Koran has no predictions whatsoever; Mohamed - The seal of the prophets - no prophecy; nothing said of him in the Bible. But of Jesus - we have (eg.)
    • Born of Judah - predicted from the times of Genesis 49, the Lion of Judah's sceptre.
    • Miciah 5:2 - born in Bethlehem - a tiny villiage, almost no-one born there. All other descendants Solomon to Zedeciah born in Jerusalem; like a 2nd David - born where he was, in Bethlehem.
    • Daniel - born during the Roman empire ~500BC - physical copies of it from 100BC; predict he would die before the destruction of the temple, thus a 27BC to 70AD window.
    • Isaiah - again hard-copies pre-dating Jesus, Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows - he was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities. We all like sheep have gone astray - turned each one to his own way, but the Lord has laid on him - the iniquities of us all.
    • And many more.
• Perhaps a strange place to begin for today's text.
• Is the gift of prophecy still alive today ? tremendous and rightful concern that nothing should compromise the inerrant authority of the prophets God raised up from Moses -> Jesus.
• At Sinai all of Israel heard God articulate the 10 commandments for them. Then, written in stone by God - to preserve them; for their childrens children - not on newspaper; but stone tablets - to endure. Now the beginning of the Bible - begun by his own writing [ no-one had to question if there were errors - perhaps mis-spelled his own name ? ].
• Israel cowered in fear and dread when they heard God speak. Not just a little voice inside, a sort of feeling - when he spoke the ground shook, the people couldn't bear it because of what God said when he spoke. He doesn't say Friends is on TV tonight - but plumbed right to the depth of their sin. They said to Moses speak to us yourself and we will listen - but don't let God speak to us or we will die Exodus 20:18-19 .
• And so began the role of Prophet; Deut 18
  • This is what you asked the Lord your God at Sinai (Horeb).
  • I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among your people. God would put his words in his mouth.
  • The standard expected is 100% accuracy: A prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say; or who speaks in the name of other Gods must be put to death - no 3 strikes and you're out policy.
  • You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
  • The standard is as high as it could possibly be.
• Thus some Christians seeing the claims of prophecy in the modern church - and it's radical disparity with the record; would say that the gift must be dead. Unfortunately - it doesn't tie with the text;
• Paul does indeed anticipate that indeed these gifts will in fact cease but only when we shall see face to face - the end point is in Heaven, when we shall know as we are known.
• The passage says the gift is great earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you might prophecy - inviting many in the Church at Corinth - who had never met Jesus - to love one another and desire this gift.
• What kind of gift is he speaking about ? - more next week.

• At the core of sin is rejecting Jesus - the thing that most ires God.
• Pilate asks Are you the king of the Jews? and Jesus replies Yes, it is as you say - but - the missing but; it's not as you realise. Pilate thinks he is in control, he is making the decision, but in fact he is judging his creator, in whose hands lies the future, and before whose judgement seat he will one day sit; thus his judgement says everything about him, and nothing about the silent Jesus.
• vs. 13 fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy hundreds of years beforehand of this situation, and it's silence. Lead like a lamb to the slaughter - his blood a sacrifice for our healing.
• Incidentally; John Stott as a young man at Cambridge in 1935 heard this passage preached and on his knees committed his life to Christ over verse 22; Pilate asks What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ.
• Passage makes it clear this was a clear, open, choice of Pilate, the Governor - he held all the cards:
  • he knew it was out of envy that they handed Jesus over to him - vs. 18.
  • Text message from wife: have nothing to do with that innocent man - vs. 19.
  • It was the governor's custom ... to release a prisoner - vs. 15 - at his whim; Jesus totally in his power, he completely free to decide either way [ frees a notorious prisoner Barrabas anyway ].
  • He gets someone else to make his decision (the crowd) - vs. 21.
  • Pilates' work, friends - could he be seen to let this 'King' go. He washed his hands of Jesus, and rejected his maker: Hell.
• The crowd in an ironic twist try to absolve Pilate from the blame: Let his blood be on us and on our children - ie. don't worry Pilate - we'll take the blame. And yet - as we see in communion, his blood is shed for the forgiveness of all who believe. The same amazing God who mercifully reveals himself to the centurion who killed his Son - turns the crowds curse into a blessing.
• Rico has a friend William - who once saved a girl from death, unconcious, floating upside down in a swimming pool; she's now older, married with children. William has never got a word of thanks, though a family would not exist but for his action; Why ? perhaps because the family are a terribly-nice middle class family - who don't need to be rescued; and whose daughter doesn't get involved inthat sort of thing.
• We need self-awareness so that we can humbly know that we need rescue, and that the price of our lust, malice, envy, avarice, unfaithfulness ... is so serious that only Jesus can pay for it at the cross.
• An old advert from the tube read Fear God, Fear sin, & then Fear nothing - who do we fear ?
• Indecision, is a decision; everyone must chose. Do we follow the mob ? who makes our mind up ? do we condem this innocent man ourselves ? are we afraid for our reputation, position ? can we blame the decision on someone else ? do we know we desparately need rescue from ourselves ? and do we pretend to judge this perfect man, our creator, and in so doing condemn ourselves ?
• "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ" Pilate asked.

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• In the ancient world; the name of a God told you about him eg. 'Dagon' - grain god, the god of beer, worshiped by consuming large quantities of it. The real God OTOH is called JHYH, The one who is - by implication all the others arn't. Josiah's father Amon's problem was that he didn't remember God's name.
• Why were so many Kings like Amon, and not like Josiah. Only 2 were faithful from start to finish; Hezekiah and Josiah - none like him, he alone walked in the footsteps of his father David and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
• Out of 41 kings, only 2 are loyal to God, and the rest are tripped up by idolatory, so: What is so attractive about Idolatory - what's so good about these non-functioning idols ?
• The attraction is not in that they are only wood and metal and can't answer prayer - but in that they can't talk. They can't say anything you don't want to hear.
• None of the ANE religions imposed any radical moral standards. In fact the God's themselves lived with an abysmal moral record - envy, adultery, murder, fear etc. a very user friendly religion.
• When Josiah repaired the temple he discovered the law of God which had been lost, and after purging the land they celebrated the passover. The message of the passover encapsulates everything about true-faith that makes it unappealing, and idolatory so attractive.
• The passover reminds us of the bad news: we are rightly condemned before a holy God. The miracle of the passover is not that the angel of destruction took the lives of all the first born in Egypt, the miracle is that the angel did not destroy the Israelites.
• They were no more deserving than their neighbours - just as much involved in idolatory. Wouldn't we much rather hear - that we're fine the way we are, that we can save ourselves. The passover say no - it takes God's act of redemption by the substiutionary passover lamb.
• God saved them, that they might have a debt of love for him; at the beginning of the 10 commandments - I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, therefore ... it all starts in Gratitude. We obey God out of love because he first loved us, and gave his life for us as a sacrifice for many.

• Scripture never contrasts faith and reason, but many times contrasts faith and sight. We are not told why Peter was not rescued until beyond the 11th hour, perhaps to test his faith, or to humiliate their enemies, who knows?
• Two lessons - the power of the God and his Gospel: it finishes with 'the word of God continued to increase and spread'. Also, the power of prayer: God has a way of checking what we believe - he listens to our prayers. If he hears nothing, he knows we believe nothing.
• His people are sustained whether by life: Peter, or death as with James, and his enemies are thwarted. Peter imprisoned for public trial after Passover. Not the first time Peter had been imprisoned; at least 2 times by the religious authorities after performing miracles, flogged etc.
• Every single time until now, the problem had arisen from Jewish animosity, but they could not execute a criminal without Roman approval.
• In this case Herod (not The Great, but his grandson - Herod Agrippa). He had grown up in Rome, was child-hood buddies with the current Emperor. Not only out of nepotism, but because he had a little Jewish blood he was made ruler of the area.
• He tried to ingratiate himself with the Jews, the Emperor thought that being more sensitive to them would make them more docile; he understood their concerns, obliged with the law - to the extent that it was convenient. Went to the temple, made more friendly coins, read portions of Deuteronomy, in public standing in the Temple - to show respect for God.
• Now at the feast of unleavened bread - often celebrated by heresy hunts - get rid of the polluting leaven - he had James put to death with the sword - and seeing that it pleased the Jews - had Peter locked up also.
• Not looking good - bad enough to be the object of jealosy by the jews, but worse to be in the crosshairs of Herod, the Roman governor, personal friend of the Emperor; at his disposal the full weight of the world's superpower.
• Not the first jail-break, an Angel freed him in Acts, but was told to go straight to the Temple and preach - where he was quickly caputured and brought to trial. God perhaps wanted the court of the Jews to have an example of God's own verdict on Peter - setting him free.
• No longer just a jail, it's now a prison - most likely the fortress of Antonia to the NW of the temple, an impregnable fortress, not just a minor jail - where an earthquake might open the doors.
• Rotating sets of soldiers guarding him; two chained to him, two guarding. It's not looking good for Peter. Peter can have no doubt about the outcome of his imprisonment, because of James' death. God's providence did not save him.
• The early church having prayed for James, may have concluded that there was no point praying for Peter. De-capitation was used for traitors / terrorists - a sign that Herod thought the faith was a threat to the empire.
• The timing is also no good; it's the last night before he was to go to trial; sleeping between two soldiers, bound to them with two chains. From his perspective - his next waking moment would be being dragged into court; no other option, nothing left to be done.
• The timing is not accidental; there are 11 parallels between here and the Exodus / the passover. He has to escape in haste, put on his sandles, wrap his cloak around him. Egypt was the super power of that day, Israel was under the thumb of state persecution then etc. only now it's Rome not Egypt, instead of the waters opening up, the prison gates do.
• The point is that the God of the Exodus is alive and well, and answers prayer. Verse 5: the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
• Peter sleeping like a baby, the angel had to shove him to wake him. The Church is earnestly praying, doing what Peter did not do in Gesthemany, it's awake praying. Not just individuals, but corporately - a typical thing, corporate prayer.
• The Lord's prayer - given to the disciples, to be prayed corporately - Our Father ... give us. The doctrine of the priesthood of all belivers - often to cut down to removing the middle-man. Priesthood is all about making intercession for each other.
• If we truly love people, we will pray for them.

• Visiting an elderly parishoner with tens of mangy cats; on leaving he said If you find you've got fleas: rejoice
• And Simon - if you ever find the perfect Church - don't join it; you'd ruin it.

• The passage breaks down into the necessity, character and permanance of love. Despite almost everyone's professed desire to love and be loved, it's celebration in the arts etc. most of us hardly have a clue what love is. We think of love as something that you 'fall into' or 'fall out of' and (by the way - if you fall out of it you can't fall back into it - or so we're told). Or we think of love as something you 'make' not infrequently with someone you barely know. And even if we have a firmer grasp on it's true nature, very honestly most of the time we're not putting it into practice.
• Despite the attention society gives to 'love' we seem to be utterly blind to our failure to love. The introduction to Fromm's The Art of Loving - not how to become more lovable, nor how to find a more worthy object of love; the problem is with you not with your workmates, boss, wife/husband.
• We suppose it's perfectly easy to love, the only difficulty is finding the right person; a 30yr old leaving Park-Street having 'scoped out all the eligable men' - all deficient in some way, amazing having 450 people, majority single in that age range; a picture of our situation.
• A 1977 survey of high-school seniors in SAT tests, ~1million high school students were asked to evaluate themselves vs. their peers. wrt. Athletics < 10% rated themselves as below average, same with 'Leadership ability' - the most astounding feedback on 'the ability to get along with others' [how great are you as a lover] - 829k students answered, not one rated themselves below average - not even by mistake. 15% rated themselves average, 60% in the top 10%, and 25% rated as in the top 1%. Everyone assumes if there is a problem - it's got to be the other guy. It can't be so: Psalm 36 ... for in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect, much less hate, his own sin.
• Very few at church troubled by their inadequate ability to love others - 1 Cor 13 a call to wake up; our desparate need to love the people we already know more.
• If I speak in the tongues[1] of men and of angels, but have not love ... - the necessity of love; Jesus when asked to prune back the law: Matthew 22 - "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." - If God had just told us to 'love each other' at Sinai, we would have deluded ourselves that we were doing that - so God teases it out into the law, with explanations of what Love is, what it's got to look like.
• The radical claim is - without love, nothing else matters, closing Corinthians 15v14 - Do everything in love. Some scholars with (apparently) nothing better to do suggest this chapter doesn't belong here; but - in context the whole point is that the spiritual gifts are about love, and to be used with love. The gifts are not about you, but about each other - for the common good. 14v1 Make love your aim and so earnestly desire the greater gifts.
• It's true Chapter 13 - is not in the middle of teaching about Weddings - although that's where we frequently hear it. The examples about indispensibility are all spiritual gifts. Speaking in tongues could have been speaking with eruditon, glib words etc. but if not spoken in love - it all amounts to nothing.
• Augustine's besetting sin was an irrepressible tendancy to correct other people wrt. their pronunciation or grammar; he cared less about what they said but how they said it. For us the love of learning can become a lethal substitute for the love of others.
• C.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man of the academic - "It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion, that marks many intellectuals out. Their heads are no bigger than ordinary; it is just the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so."
• The true test of knowledge is that it feeds your love of your fellow creatures; Not to throw away knowledge but invigorate it's persuit with love.
• It's not what you do, if I give all I posses to the poor - but you have to have love; in affection and deep care, preferring other's interests to our own.
• Love is: 'Patient', 'Kind' - passive and active; of which the following 8 negative characteristics are just expressions, outworkings of that.
• 'I slept like a baby' - said by folks who have never had a baby. Gordon went for 6 years without a single night's uninterrupted sleep; the problem not to avoid being rude, but patience. You need patient love faced with cholic, inconsolable crying etc. At the end of life; celebrating a 50th wedding aniversary - wedding bliss for 1/2 a centuary, often if you know the couple well enough - what is most needed is a love that's patient, one finds a surprising prickliness / irritability about minor things.
• Patience - resliance, so we don't get unhinged by every little mishap. Prov 19:11 A man's wisdom gives him patience, it is to his glory to overlook an offence - a love that covers a multitude of sins;
• Don't mis-construe patience as an invitation to apathy; God has been patient with us, we should be patient with others. It's not permission for bystander apathy. God cares deeply about our lives, but gives us space to repent. Old translations render 'patience' - 'suffers long', do we love in a long-suffering, patient way.

/usr/share/gnome/ui/evolution.xml

• Gordon - could try making up some good news; eg. the discovery of viable cold fusion, or a vaccine for some disease such as HIV that plagues millions; but it would be only a shadow of the real good news: that Jesus Christ gave his life for you; if you put your faith in him, confess your sin to him, and acknowledge him as Lord of his life - you have eternal life; instead of some temporary cure.
• And what a life - no disease, sadness, etc. Easter has nothing to do with chocolate eggs, bunnies etc. but a living hope.
• It's hard to remember this in daily life; we seem to have an alergic reaction to thinking about death and our mortality. In 1809 - 26 men and women got together to buy the site for Park Street church. It was chosen for 3 reasons:
  • 1. a view of Boston Common visible through the windows - God's creation in your face.
  • 2. The most busy cross-roads in Boston - bringing faith into the work-place.
  • 3. On the other side look out onto the granary burial ground, to never forget the urgency of the message, made more poignant because it was an active graveyard.
• Unfortunately our forebears did not take into account this amazing ability to keep death out of our minds, and future generations would not only be able to look out and see that cemetry without having a moment's pause, wrt. the brevity of life, but in fact it would attract tourists by the thousands, who would come and view those monuments and rather than thinking of the temporality of life would:
  • Look at the monument to Paul Revere, and think 'we must add a side-trip out to Lexington to retrace the ride of that patriot'.
  • They look out on the monument of John Hancock; and rather than recognising the finality of death they wonder if he was in the insurance business, and how much he had.
  • They see the monument to Samuel Addams and rather than crying out: "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. " Psalm 39:4 they think when will I have my next beer ?
• Some even have video cameras, running the whole time - viewing the monuments. The monuments havn't moved yet - and they're videoing it all. One day the monuments will move - and the graves will open - and they better get out of the way; - with a trumpet call the dead in Christ will rise first.
• At every turn we're confronted by the impermanance of the things of this world; the brevity of life, and the certainty of death. God wishes for us not a life of morbid preoccupation, but honest attention.
• Some people work for 20 years of their life preparing for a career cut short at 65; but won't give 15 minutes considering eternity. Have you given thought to eternity.
• When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous have a refuge. Proverbs 14:32
• When not if, calamity comes; g/f abandons you, you loose your job; the Dr. says "sorry, it's inoperable". The bible doesn't claim any escape from life for the believer. The same fire that makes the chaff smoke, makes the gold shine - Augustine. The same test.
• The designation righteous / wicked - used consistantly in scripture, rather differently to how one might imagine:
  • Psalm 10: In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God - They may be living wonderful lives, may be Israelites, and have all the right outward credentials, but no room for God.
  • Psalm 36: An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. - the righteous also sin, but they detect their sin, and repent.
• The wicked are 'brought down' - the calamity causes a woundedness inside, anger, profound unhappiness in the inner man. Was God unkind in allowing such calamities ? - no the intention was to wake them up - sometimes the only time we look up is when God knocks us on our backs.
• even in death, the righteous have a refuge - not a refuge from death, christians die at the same rate as non-christians: 100%. The difference is in death, the presence power and promise of the resurrected Lord.
• Witnesses to the resurrection - people can be deluded into giving up their lives for a lie; but no-one gives up their life for something they know is a lie. The witnesses of Christ's resurrection were torn limb from limb, savaged by wild beasts in the circus etc. for their faith.
• United in Christ's death, we are united in his resurrection. The promise of Psalm 23 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me..
• In obituaries, we often read "so and so was surrounded by his loved ones at death" - but the loved ones can go no futher; beyond there is a walk you walk alone - unless you walk with Christ, and his comfort.
• The resurrection of Christ is the assurance that God can raise the dead; (not that really God could have trouble with that), the problem is not that an omnipotent God can raise the dead, but that he would want to raise me.
• The resurrection of Christ put to death for our sins but raised to life for our justification (Rom 4) a seal saying 'paid in full'. The price is paid, the debt is canceled; you are forgiven.
• The previous minister - for 3 decades, in the last week of his life - called on the Elders to come and pray with him in the last moments of his life. He arranged to have himself fully dressed in a suit - tie, clearly overawing them; the eulogies rolled in: "just think: soon you'll be hearing 'well done good and faithful servant'", or "just think what the Lord has done through you ... helping give Billy Graham his start, ministering to millions ...", allocades coming fast and furious. Finally brother David McCan spoke up - the youngest - "well Harold, I suggest that when you see the Master, just say - God be merciful to me a sinner"; and tears begain to run down Hawkingay's cheeks.
• Therefore having been justified by faith, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Rom 5). To live is Christ, and to die is gain - Phil 1:21. Even in death the righteous will have refuge.

• Palm Sunday, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, how Solomon rode into Jerusalem on his Father's, the King's mule.
• Jesus on the other hand, arrived on one which no-man had ever ridden (cf. Mark).
• Solomen's first priority was to build a temple for God; which was filled by the Holy spirit.
• Jesus' 1st went to the new temple & overturned the money-changers tables, who had turned it into a den of robbers, and rejected it. It was then that the leadership determined to find a way to put him to death.
• But, Jesus would yet build his temple - the people of God; the Holy Spirit, given at pentecost - making believers themselves temples of the Holy Spirit.
• Back to spiritual gifts - 1 Cor. 12 vs. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. - at least 20+ gifts. The gifts are not about us, but God, Jesus continuing his ministry, still at work amongst us.
• Gifts are not static; they are the 'love languages' (cf. Dr. Chapman) of Jesus showing his love through the church. We get tunnel vision seeing some gifts almost to the exclusion to the others. Some churches / denominations take eg. Teaching, Tounges, Healing, Evangelism to extremes, and miss the others.
• You can't be a free-lance christian / spouse - you have to do it with others;
• Some say: I must be the 'tail bone' of the body of Christ, to be sat on - but Paul only mentions the big, useful parts, of the body.
• Looking at 3 gifts;
• 'those able to help others'; a very general term. Paul helped in his writing, hospitality, financial assistance; things that need to be done - need help.
• 'gifts of administration' - a nautical term, steering the ship; a leadership gift, making things happen. Servant leadership.
• vs. 8. 'message of wisdom / knowledge' - the terms are used very much interchangably in scripture, sometimes used contrastedly as here. Charles Spurgeon: Wisdom is the right use of knowledge; there is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool.. Wisdom sometimes used as 'skill' - Job expects people to gain wisdom with age. If anyone lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives generously. Biblical wisdom is un-common sense.
• In 1 Cor. 3:16-23 the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. The wisdom of this world doesn't know what to do with the cross.

  The world's wisdom	God's wisdom
  You have to believe in yourself	He who trusts in himself is a fool. Prov 28:26
  You need to forgive yourself	He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them he is the one who finds mercy Prov 28:13
  The squeaky wheel gets the grease	Philippians 2:14 do everything without complaining and arguing
  Buy now pay later	Romans 13:8 Owe no-one anything, except to love one-another
  Get the other guy before he gets you	Romans 12:21 do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good
  If he hasn't changed by now, he never will; you can't teach an old dog new tricks	That may be true of old dogs; but it's not true of new creatures. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature, the old has gone, the new has come. 2 Cor 5:17

• The gift is the message not keeping it to yourself, but sharing it; make love your aim and so earnestly desire the greater gifts. (1 Cor 14:1
• Challenging indeed.

• The equality of the sexes in worship - both should pray and prophesy in church - most likely a Young and Old type full spectrum.
• The headship entails authority - other explanations not convincing, although attractive.
• The Man, and The Woman - not a general abstract 'everyman', but husband and wife - cf. NESV.
• The counter-cultural aspect - the Romans were having a trend of covering their heads while worshiping their pagan gods. [ extant statury proves this ], Paul concerned to puncture such idolatory.
• Interesting that the Jews didn't get into their (modern day) head covering until 500AD or so.

rc install

rc lock-add

rc up -i urgent

• Some meetings doing more harm than good, the importance of the right attitude together.
• The Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks...
• In fact, Judas had by that time already sold Jesus for the lowest price you could pay for a person (30 pieces of silver) - for the money. Jesus proceeded to wash his feet - a thing you couldn't ask a slave to do.
• Knowing that he would betray him, he offered him the bread representing the forgiveness of God in Christ - and Judas, taking it in an unworthy manner was entered by Satan.
• Thus - A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup otherwise he can eat and drink judgement on himself.
• NB. since the cup is not literally the new covenant, the bread is not literally the body and thus, recognising the Lord's body is (as is contextually obvious) the body of believers.

• Passage rather heavy with irony, and in places obscure. Instead of speculating, just looked at what we can learn.
• We're not told whatever heresy the false Apostles were preaching - it's not possible to guard people in that way - there are too many.
• We can know that there will always be teachers who seek to lead us astray from our sincere devotion to Christ - with a different Jesus, gospel and spirit.
• Interesting that in the same way small children much prefer the wrapping paper to the (carefully chosen) present their recieve. The Corinthians were beguiled by slick speakers, and lost touch with the content.
• At StAG, people often say one of two seemingly good things about the church - one of which on inspection is profoundly dis-heartening. I like the preaching vs. I like the way you take the Bible seriously - think. There is a reason a preacher spends the best part of a week preparing his sermon.
• Also interesting is how Paul refused to accept money from the Greeks, but supported himself by working, and was supported by other churches, in contrast to the false apostles.
• Finally, the dramatic unmasking - with Mark's apology for no warm, fuzzy Hollywood ending; When Satan want's to oppose the church - he primarily chooses to do it from the inside - dressed as a Christian.
• Amazing that Paul didn't once write about Nero persecuting the church - crucifying hundreds of Christians upside down, instead the more insidious threat being from inside. Recommended to read
• This is worth a read for Anglicans.

make[7]: Entering directory
`/home/gnome/cvs/gnome2/ORBit2/include/orbit/orb-core'
make[7]: *** No rule to make target `<interne>', needed by
`corba-defs.h'.  Stop.

Tinderbox is probably the biggest help I have seen yet. Like most volunteer developers I do my builds on on one machine only (in my case PPC Linux) and would love to see how my code changes impact the main platforms without waiting/hoping others will have the time and volunteer to do the rebuild.

Using the tinderbox for Solaris via ooo.ximian.com I have been able to remotely diagnose and come up with fixes for two configure nitpicks that caused problems and now even a possible whitespace change in a patch that I never would have been able to know about or diagnose.

...

It is simply the tool I have been waiting for.

class A {
public:
  virtual void foo () = 0;
};
class B : A {
 public:
  /* virtual */ void foo ();
};
void B::foo () 
{
}