We had a short 4-day break last week — an invitation to join family on the Isle of Mull. The weather was forecast to be uniformly wet, but The Lord blessed us with sun and a joyful time; with the occasional shower to keep us cool. And apart from a brief interlude, the ‘feersum’ midges were held at bay.

During this visit, we revisited the wonderful Sgriob-Ruadh Farm, home of Isle of Mull Cheeses, and while there met Chris Reade, who started the business alongside her late husband. In our conversation, she asked what we thought of the changes at Calgary Farm where we were staying, run by her son Matthew and his wife Julia. Gill observed that change is something we have to accept, and Chris replied that her husband had often said that it was one thing of which we could be sure.

This lovely lady had seen many many changes in her lifetime — and no doubt many a heartache too — yet maintained a determination to carry on and appreciate what she had. It occurred to Gill and myself that she was a great example, and that change is inevitable in every life, and especially so in these fevered times.

Malachi shows us that our Lord never changes; He is consistent and steadfast; having no beginning nor end, and yet His creation is an ever-changing one, as He raises sons to glory. This for us is the conundrum — our God desires us to accept radical and overwhelming change to become unchanging and the image of Himself. He orchestrates this in us with His love and compassion and with never-ending unchanging mercy, which manages to be — in the words of the song — new every morning.

His constant refreshing and revitalising, His creative re-creation and restoration, His amazing re-imagining and re-forming embraces perpetual change that is eternally unchanging, and in this way grants us a security, stability and comfort to be found nowhere else. Only God can do that. We must return to Him in this way, just by turning to seek His face.

THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD NEVER CEASES — Maranatha Singers

EVERY TIME GOD presents us with a problem, He gives us something to match it in our own heart, and if we will let His power work there, we shall go forth with unshakeable confidence in what He can do. Once we know that God can do what Jesus Christ said He could, we can never be put in the place where we will be discouraged.
[from ‘So Send I You’]

‘All things in Christ’. ‘All’ means ‘fully’, ‘completely’, ‘entirely’, ‘whatsoever’, ‘whosoever’ and ‘without exception’. A whole lot on the shoulders of one small three-letter word; but then so has the word ‘God’, come to that. In a sense they are synonymous.

‘All Things’ in Scriptural terms means just that. There is no equivocation. But it seems to me that to receive the ‘all things’ that Jesus Christ offers, there must be a reciprocal offering of ‘all things’ from us. We must both be attuned to one another, or rather, we are completely at one with Him. This is not an easy task, unequipped as we are for such a transformation, and so there is a growing together over time, a growing which He is working in us if we choose to allow it.

But as He ‘knows the end from the beginning’, He provides us with a foretaste of His promised outcome for each of us — something we can have now, which reveals how it will be — something which He knows already is. Along the way, our commitment and understanding of His compassion and lifegiving love are tested and retested in what the apostle Peter calls ‘the fiery trial of our faith’.

I began writing this meditation immediately following completion of our final post on John 18, pausing for a day or so to hear what The Lord was saying. What He was saying — or better, showing, is the reality of that fiery trial. I do not wish to dramatise a situation, but a distressing event occurred which has left Gill and I feeling threatened and uncomfortable. Compared to what many suffer on a daily basis, it is as nothing — only something out of the ordinary in our experience. A trial nonetheless, but one in which we see Our Lord’s hand of covering and protection. It could have been so much worse.

Three days later, The Lord answered the cry of our hearts in a family matter. His grace and restoring power brings such immense joy in its wake. Proof to me that [He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth. AMPC

ALL TO JESUS I SURRENDER — Robin Mark

IF I LET the sorrow of a bereaved home weigh on me, instantly my faith in God is gone; I am so overcome with sympathy that my prayer is nothing more than a wail of sympathy before God.
The influence of my mind on another, whether I speak or not, is so subtle that the prince of this world will use it to prevent my getting hold of God; whereas if I remain confident in God I lift the weight off lives in a way I shall never realise till I stand before Him.
We have to pray that the enemy shall not make God's children slander Him by worry and anxiety. We are to hold off the exactings of Satan, not add to them.
[from ‘God’s Workmanship’]

It took me a long time to realise that Barabbas [meaning ‘son of a father’] represented myself before I was saved; that Barabbas — not just a thief, but a robber — is a fundamental essential in the Gospel story. If the Jews had said, “We are not choosing Barabbas. He’s a criminal. Jesus will have to go free despite our reservations”, where would we be? God’s plan of redemption would have ground to a halt right there, surely? Well, no it wouldn’t, because God would have had a Plan B, but this is yet another example of how God’s ways are not our ways

Barabbas is the son of a father — in other words, he is like you and me, and while we may not be robbers — a robber might use violence, or the threat of it, a thief does not — the capacity is in each one of us to be so, whether we like it or not. It is in our nature.

Jesus was — is — a man of peace, love and compassion, and so the choice before the assembly was someone like Jesus, or someone like us, that we know and comprehend. The wrong choice for sure, but an understandable and indeed forgivable one. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice, says Jesus. Pilate’s response of ‘what is truth?’ reveals a man of no conviction or philosophy, someone who can allow much for the sake of expediency and ‘getting the job done’. Jesus was now in his ‘out tray’ and a problem solved. Pilate passed the problem back to those who had the problem, allowing them to decide. In this way — by the condemning of Jesus to death on the cross — the sinner Barabbas was saved by grace.

BARABBAS — Greenbrier

THERE ARE THINGS God tells us to do without any light or illumination other than just the word of His command, and if we do not obey, it is because we are independently strong enough to wriggle out of obeying. All God's commands are enablings; therefore, it is a crime to be weak in His strength.
[from ‘Not Knowing Whither’]

The ‘Praetorium’ is sometimes translated as ‘judgement hall’, although it was the residence of the local Procurator or governor of a Roman province. John lays out for us clearly, the religiosity and legalism which has bound the players in this tragedy; a tragedy which is also a glorious outworking of God’s plan.

Everything is according to the Law. But whose law? Roman law? Jewish law? What is on trial here is God’s law, and no one but Jesus seems to know what that is — despite what should be great learning and consideration by others involved. But then, they did not have the tools to judge correctly, or rather chose to go with tradition and religious form, blinding themselves to truth and life.

What is hard to accept for us with faith today, is that we too can be drawn to form and tradition — we like the comfort of the familiar and the tried and tested. This is a barrier to hearing the Holy Spirit’s guidance with clarity — His kingdom is not of this world — and each who knows Him has been chosen to enter; but it is a process, a learning requiring an abandonment to Jesus Christ. Giving up our right to ourselves is difficult to deal with, even although we have no such right — we have been bought at a price.

Jesus shows us the way, and it requires taking a stand against forces that do not understand Him. We are not from around here either. The question I must ask myself is, will I remain sitting, or will I stand?

NOT OF THIS WORLD — Petra

We already know that the other Gospel writers tell of Peter’s denials in differing ways. Matthew has Peter cursing and swearing in his third denial. Mark simply tells the story, but with the additional information that Peter wept. Luke (see below), has The Lord there with Peter to hear the denial. John merely reports the fact of Jesus’ word being fulfilled — immediately a rooster crowed.

The way in which John tells of this event draws us to see Peter’s denials at the same moment as Jesus entered His final hours, but whereas the other Gospels record that Peter wept bitterly, John does not mention anything of Peter’s feelings. The plain fact is that Jesus predicted the denials and that was shown to be the case. Move onwards.

What we can see in these writings is that John’s approach is to focus on the spiritual and not on the natural, unless the spiritual is revealed thereby. What we are shown here is a comparison between Jesus and Peter in how each behaves in the face of a stressful event. Later events both in John, The Acts of The Apostles and in Peter’s epistles, show us that Peter became the rock on which Jesus would build His church.

I believe that in these three short verses, we see the turning point for Peter. Immediately the rooster crowed galvanised him out of his fearfulness into seeing again the truth that Jesus had spoken — the realisation of a new day heralded, the fulfilment of something immense and eternally significant.

For us it is a powerful reminder, that despite a complete denial of Christ, in word or deed, the Lord’s promise of salvation, forgiveness and redemption is as everlasting as the life He gives, and His life in each of us is what transforms us into overcomers, taking us on to perfection. Our Lord is with us!

YET NOT I BUT THROUGH CHRIST IN ME — CityAlight

WHENEVER YOU MEET with difficulties, whether they are intellectual, circumstantial, or physical, remain loyal to God. Don't compromise. If you do, everyone around you will suffer from your faithlessness, because you are disloyal to Jesus Christ and His way of looking at things.
[from ‘The Place of Help’]

In verse 15, we learn that another disciple went into the courtyard of the High Priest with Jesus, while Peter wished to remain outside. However, this other disciple — who it is reasonable to assume was John himself — encouraged Peter to come into the courtyard, but on entering, Peter denied Jesus to the servant girl at the door. John was a believing witness to the cross-examination in the High Priest’s house to which Jesus was subjected. Indeed, only John tells the story in this way, and it has the feel of an eye-witness account that the other Gospel writers do not have.

John intercuts between Peter in the courtyard and Jesus before the High Priest Annas in a most dramatic way — giving us a simultaneous presentation of the fulfilment of Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s denial, as Jesus was being struck by one of the officers. A double blow indeed. Even today when someone betrays us in some way, we say “Well, that was a slap in the face!”

But all through this trial, Jesus remains level, reasoned and calm. Indeed it is His confidence in the face of questioning, which appears to provoke the officer’s attack. “I spoke openly to the world.” “Why do you ask me?” “Why do you strike me?” These are the responses of someone with authority.

While the other Gospel writers tell this story as a show trial before the Sanhedrin — with Caiaphas rending his clothes in fury, which may be seen as a prefiguring of the veil in the temple tearing in two at the crucifixion — John’s telling seems low key in comparison, but all the more telling for that. It may be that in sending Jesus bound to Caiaphas, there would be a gathering of the Sanhedrin as we read elsewhere, but John tells us nothing of that. The point has been made; the religious order will have none of what they consider to be Jesus’ blasphemy.

The disciples knew exactly what Jesus had said to them, signifying by what death He would die.

I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY — Hymns of Grace

EVERY TIME YOU venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense contradicts Him?
[from ‘My Utmost For His Highest’]

Have you ever felt distanced from Jesus, shut out from His presence? Maybe feeling fearful that He is not what you thought He would be? He promised so much, but He seems to be weak and failing now? If you don’t feel this way on occasions, then maybe you have misunderstood Him. I feel sure that Peter was doubting all he believed at this point. Here is Jesus — is he really King of Kings and Lord of Lords?* — in the Temple, being tried and humiliated by respected men of religion. Jesus performs miracles of healing; He has raised Lazarus from death, and yet they treat Him as a criminal. Maybe it was all deception.

Peter’s doubt keeps him at the door outside the Temple. He has cut himself off and his confidence in Jesus has deserted him. And now he finds himself denying to a young servant girl attending the door that he was ever with Jesus. What was that about being a doorkeeper in the House of The Lord?

It seems to me that we all come here. I certainly have. I have turned away from Jesus, forgetting that I am a temple for the indwelling Spirit and now seeking comfort in earthly things. I stand with others in the world and warm myself in their company, oblivious to the impermanence of the comfort they offer, compared to the eternal comfort I once thought I had.

At times like this we must remember that Jesus said it would be so. He knew what was in man**. And furthermore, He said this to Peter: And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.*** Did Jesus speak amiss? Never. Peter was not cast out of The Kingdom, and nor shall we be, if we return to Him repentant.

AT YOUR FEET (A PRAYER OF REPENTANCE) — Casting Crowns

THE ONLY RECOGNITION you will have in the eyes of the world as My disciples, says Jesus, is that "you will be hated for My name's sake." That is why we need to be knit together with those of like faith; and that is the meaning of the Christian Church.
[from ‘Approved Unto God’]

The servants name was Malchus. You would think — given a moments thought — that this information was irrelevant, why give the man’s name, when no other of the officers and troops were accorded such consideration? The reason that any name is given in scripture is because it has a bearing on the truth, and Malchus has a name meaning king or kingdom. Immediately Malchus becomes more than relevant; he becomes essential, and we see why Jesus reprimanded the impetuous Peter for cutting off poor Malchus’s right ear.

The symbolism — indeed Jesus’ message to us all here — is of forgiveness and of not putting a barrier to another’s hearing of the kingdom. Do we, by our actions, prevent another from hearing the kingdom message? By ‘standing up for Jesus’, do we get in the way of what our Lord is saying, or doing?

Jesus says "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" — in other words, ‘do not get in the way of My work.’ We must let Jesus Christ have His way. His way is not our way; but His way gets results.

Matthew 26:52-54 says But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?"

Mark 14:47-48 says Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled."

Luke 22:51-53 says But Jesus answered and said, "Permit even this." And He touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to Him, "Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."

At this point, both Matthew and Mark report that the disciples forsook Jesus and fled. We can see that, had Peter’s bold action succeeded in whatever the purpose was, it would have put an obstacle in the way of the plan of God. The allusion is that Peter was frustrating the hearing of the truth of the kingdom message, potentially frustrating Jesus’ purpose. But as we see, The Lord’s will prevails in all circumstances. We must not stand in the way of another hearing about the Kingdom of God, lest they say ‘Shall I not drink the cup which my Father has given me?’

HEAR THE CALL OF THE KINGDOM — Keith and Kristyn Getty

‘Whom are you seeking?’ asks Jesus, and the answer comes back from the troops and officers of the chief priests and Pharisees, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Seek,and you will find, report Matthew and Luke, and we must be aware that we are not seeking a thing, but a person — and a very specific person. Not a Jesus, or one like Jesus, but Jesus of Nazareth in particular.

For a number of days now, I have been puzzling over why we can so often disagree amongst ourselves about Jesus. After all, that differing viewpoint seems to be at the root of the denominational church system. It seems to me that each church clings to their own view (or their founding fathers' view) of who Jesus was, and each one of us has a personal view of our personal Saviour. We all worship the same Jesus, but with our own image of Him in mind. In reality, we should be looking to the Jesus that Jesus Himself said He was — Jesus of Nazareth.

The troops and officers were careful to ensure that they apprehended the right man, and we should do the same. Only if we apprehend Jesus of Nazareth can He lead us ‘through The Cross of Calvary’ into Resurrection Life, for He is so much more than a personal saviour — He is Jesus of Nazareth, ‘Jehovah is salvation’ and ‘one separated.’ There is no other, so He is not the Jesus I create or imagine Him to be, or that another might favour, He is one and the same for all who believe.

He is not ‘my Jesus’, rather I am His brother, and Him I must seek and know.

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD — CRC Worship

THERE IS ONLY one kind of person who can really pray, and that is the childlike saint, the simple, stupid, supernatural child of God; I do mean "stupid." Immediately you try to explain why God answers prayer on the ground of reason, it is nonsense; God answers prayer on the ground of redemption and no other ground.
[from ‘If Ye Shall Ask’]