Grow and Know

“But grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
(2 Peter 3:18)

Reflection:
Christianity is a relationship before it is anything else. This is highlighted by the facts that, as Christians, we become the sons and daughters of God, that the Church is referred to as the bride of Christ and that,

“Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”         (Matthew 7:22-23)

If we are to grow in our knowledge of Christ and the grace of God then we need to both get to know as much about Him as possible and get to know Him personally ourselves – and not just through the eyes or words of others.

The first step is to read the gospels which tell us His story. Then read them again to find out what they say about Him personally. Then read them a third time to note and receive His teachings, promises and instructions. Read them a fourth time to find out what His teachings, promises, actions and instructions say about Him. Record your impressions of Him and to Him as you go along.

As you do this begin to talk to Him about what you are reading and discovering. It is one thing to learn about someone and quite another thing to talk to them personally. Learn to chat to Him throughout the day. Jesus has not hidden Himself away from us but has made some exciting promises,

• “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” (John 14:21)
• “Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)

 “I will show myself to him” and “we will come to him and make our home with him.” Jesus is talking about a relationship that is real and experienced, not just the knowledge that comes through a book on a bookshelf. To know God is quite different from merely knowing about Him.

Peter is encouraging us to grow in a relationship with a very real and very loving Saviour. 

“Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  (James 4:8)

Response:
Read God’s word and allow it to form your knowledge of Him

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, please lead me into a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus, and open God’s word to me and open me to His word. Amen.

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Lent 18 – Come Home

“I will set out and go back to my father”

(Luke 15:18)

Reflection:
The younger son, just like the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ listening to Jesus, was lost – and he knew it. It was not just that he had lost everything of value to him – all his money, his friends, his pride and his social standing. He had also discovered that he was still a lost person inside himself. All his desire for wealth and wild living had been an attempt to satisfy and escape from the empty pain within – and it hadn’t worked.

All he wanted now was to go home again, to the one place and one person where he had once belonged. There is that aching need in every one of us – to find that place of belonging, that person who will hold us, love us and accept us even with the layers of accumulated pain and dirt; someone who might even be able to wash us clean again, clothe us with hope and allow us to find some sense of beauty. Or, at the very least, a place where we might curl up quietly and be safe.

Jesus was showing everyone that place and that Person. He was showing them the love, acceptance, forgiveness and restoration that was waiting for those who came home. It was no wonder that the people who were walking in lonely darkness found His message and manner so compelling and appealing.

To all of us His great invitations ring out

• “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”   (Matthew 11:28)
• “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)

We don’t have to wait until we have lost everything and there is nowhere else to go. The lost little person inside can go home (again) right now. Our Father is waiting and watching.

Response:
Ask Jesus your Shepherd to help you home again.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus You have found me again. I turn to You right now. Please take me home with You into the reality and security of the Father’s great love. Amen.

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Lent 17 – Never-ending Love

“So his father went out and pleaded with him.”

(Luke 15:28)

Reflection:
The father is rejoicing in the celebrations to mark his younger son’s return. However he then hears that his elder son is refusing to come inside. Going outside to where the man is fuming the father bears with him whilst he expresses his anger and disgust and pleads with him to recognise all the family relationships and to join the celebration.

There is no indication in the story that the son calms down and enters the house. That is because the invitation and plea is in fact directed to the Pharisees and teachers of the law who were listening. They were the ones portrayed by Jesus in that role and the answer was for them to give. They did so by turning away from Him and plotting to kill Him. In doing so they turned their back on the Father and on His home as well.

It is a stunning picture. God walking out to plead with His representatives only to meet with their hostility, self-importance and rejection. It gives warmth, life and new light to Jesus great words,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Here is the Almighty God who will give everything to bring us back into His forgiveness and love. He has given us His Son and, through Him, has reached out to plead with us and to even wash our feet.
Whilst He is not a God to be trifled with He is at the same time a God whose love we have not even begun to recognise and accept.

Response:
In what way might God be pleading with you today – because He does not wish you to miss out on the fullness and reality of His love?

Prayer:

Open my eyes Lord to the wonder of Your love for me – and help me to more fully accept, trust and live in it. Amen.

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Lent 16 – True Love

“His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him;
he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
(Luke 15:20)

Reflection:
You can never truly understand forgiveness until you have really loved.

The father in this major parable of Jesus was a great lover. He loved his younger son deeply enough not to retaliate when his son rejected and humiliated him. He loved him enough not to force him to stay at home but to let him go and learn for himself. And he loved him enough to not even consider being cold, judgmental and withdrawn when his son returned. Instead he threw dignity to the winds, ran to his son, embraced him, kissed him and restored him to his place in his heart and in his home.

Peter, who had been forgiven so much knew the truth of this when he said,

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

So did Paul when he said,

“it keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:5)

God loves us far too deeply to want to hold our rejection and sin against us. His love for us is greater than the pain that He feels. His love for us is so great that He had to find a way to save us from ourselves.

You never truly understand love until you want to forgive.

Response:
Look at God’s great act of love. Think over what it means to be loved so much.

Prayer:

Father please help me to grasp more of Your great love for me and help me to grow in love myself. Amen.

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Lent 15 – Two Brothers

“this son of yours ..!”

(Luke 15:30)

Reflection:
The two brothers seem completely different in every way. Yet at heart they are very similar.
Both want their share of the father’s wealth and display no love or respect for their father at all. Both reject, insult and humiliate him and walk away from him.

They are different in the way they live out their selfish desires. The younger goes off and squanders his wealth in wild living. The elder one stays at home and falsely assumes the role of an obedient son ‘slaving’ for his father – solely in order to keep his eye on his prospective wealth and be there when it becomes available.

There would appear to be no relationship between the two brothers. The elder one refers to his younger brother in scathing and dismissive terms. He does not acknowledge their relationship but calls him ‘this son of yours’ when speaking to his father. It has been suggested that the super-pious and harshly critical attitude of an ‘elder brother’ might be one of the reasons for a ‘younger brother’ leaving home in the first place.

As a society we can often be more tolerant of the cold-blooded elder brother types whom we don’t like rather than the more warm-blooded younger ones who disgrace themselves and become socially less acceptable. This can be true of some church groups as well which explains why the very people who seemed to flock to Jesus would often never dream of coming to church.

There’s a challenge there for all of us.

Response:
What determines how I respond to different people?

Prayer:

Father please help me to be careful about how I think and speak of others, even when they offend me. As You have forgiven me please help me to be prepared to forgive others. Amen.

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Lent 14 – Only by Grace

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in.”

(Luke 15:28)

Reflection:
The elder brother was furious when he discovered that his younger brother was home again. Not only that but he had been welcomed, forgiven, re-instated and a lavish party was in progress to celebrate his home-coming.

His main anger however was directed at his father. He could not accept such unconditional and lavish forgiveness, grace and love. It was not right, it was not fair and it infringed upon the elder brothers perceived rights, rewards and dignity. So he refused to join in the celebrations, turned his back on his father and would not enter the house.

This terrible picture of obsessive self-centredness, grasping selfishness and uncaring rejection would be offensive enough in one person. But Jesus was painting a portrait of the religious establishment as He found it in the leaders at the time. His listeners knew it and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were appalled and offended. Like the elder brother they despised Him, insulted Him and rejected His teaching. They would take it further by planning to kill him.
Jesus has spoken the truth when He said to them,

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
(John 5:39-40)

Response:
Is there any part of me that is like the elder brother- particularly in expecting rewards in my life and offended by the thought of grace for others? Take time to be honest.

Prayer:

Father I recognise that I can be very critical, judgemental and dismissive of others. Please forgive me for You do not treat me in that way. Amen.

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Lent 13 – Come Home

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
( Luke 15:21)

Reflection:
The younger brother squandered his entire inheritance. Left with nothing – broken, alone and penniless – he ‘came to his senses’ and recognised the enormity of his sin. He determined to go back to his father to confess. He would ask not for forgiveness and restoration but the chance to repay all that he had lost. This he could only do if his father took him on as a hired servant.

His reception would have astounded him and left him speechless and bewildered. Instead of a stern and forbidding master he met a father who threw his dignity to the winds when he saw him. He ran to meet his son, flung his arms around him and covered him with kisses. Instead of listening to his carefully prepared and rehearsed confession his father gave instructions to the watching servants. Instead of being sent off in rags to the servant’s quarters he was clothed in his father’s best robe, a ring of authority was placed on his finger and sandals of privilege on his feet. Instead of the shame of meeting the community and facing their criticism he found himself the centre his father’s ecstatic celebration – which conveyed to one and all his forgiveness and re-instatement as his father’s beloved son.

Having realised the enormity of his sin in rejecting his father and causing him such pain, hurt and embarrassment he could only wonder at ‘how wide and long and high and deep’ was the father’s love for him. Having lost all that the world had given him he had gained instead a spiritual understanding and wealth beyond his wildest dreams.

This, says Jesus, is what awaits us when we turn back to God and place ourselves in His hands again. More love than we could imagine and more delight in God’s heart than we could conceive.
Response:
So I come Lord Jesus – dare I turn away.

Prayer:

Father, forgive me for lingering outside Your door, trying to have a foot in both worlds and to keep control of my life. Please help me to come home fully to You and allow You to love me, guide me and bless me. Amen.

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Lent 12 – My Right

“Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.”
(Luke 15:29)

Reflection:
The elder brother in Jesus’ story did not demand his inheritance and leave home. His future was bound up in the property and all that went with it. So he stayed at home and worked for his father, obeying his directions and submitting to his authority.

On the surface he might have appeared to be an obedient conformist. However underneath he was anything but happy. When the younger brother returned and was accepted into the family home with joy and celebration all the resentment burst from him in an angry flood. He insulted and ridiculed his father in a way that indicated he too was only interested in the father’s wealth and had no interest in their relationship or in his father’s feelings.

In his opinion the younger brother was a wastrel who should not have been allowed home – whereas he through his hard work and obedience had earned the right to all the remaining wealth. He was clearly not happy about the prospect of sharing it.

The two brothers were alarmingly alike. Both wanted their share of the fortune. Neither was interested in the father except in his capacity as the controller of that wealth. Both insulted and ridiculed him. There was however one big difference. The younger brother’s attitude was easily recognised – even by him. The elder brother’s was hidden, unrecognised and unadmitted. It was poisonous, destructive and venomous – and it consumed him.

Response:
Why do I seek to obey?

Prayer:

Father please help me to live Your way because I love You and not because I want something from You. Amen.

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Lent 11 – My Way

“Father, give me my share of the estate.”

(Luke 15:12)

Reflection:

Jesus told a parable of a father and his two sons. The younger one, unwilling to wait for his father’s death, demanded that the father give him his share of the estate in advance. This the father did. The son then ‘got together all that he had’ and left for a far country where he ‘squandered his wealth in wild living.’

 He wanted to make his own decisions and have unfettered control of his portion of his father’s wealth – without the father. He was completely self-centred and self-focussed and cared nothing for his father’s feelings. He effectively said that he wished his father dead and then, by putting himself so far away from him, treated him as if he was.

 There is something of that attitude in many of us. Rather than wait for the pleasures of this life, or the blessings of the life to come, we want everything immediately. We may even think that the way to freedom and our true identity is by turning our back on our family and society – and away from any interference from God.

Response:

In what way may I have been guilty of pursuing my own path without consideration of the feelings of family or God?

Prayer:

Father please open my eyes to any selfishness that might exist in my life. Help me to live in a more considerate relationship with You and those close to me. Amen.

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Lent 10 – Children of God

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God”
(John 1:12)

Reflection:

Although He was generally not recognised or received there were some who did receive Jesus. To those who did and who put their trust in Him He gave an astonishing and priceless gift. It was the right to become children of God – to enter into a relationship with God that they had never had before, and one which would be both intimate and eternal. This was not just the forgiveness of sins but a spiritual transformation into a whole new life and way of living.

 Clothed with the identity of Christ and sealed with the life-changing gift of the Holy Spirit they were received as sons and daughters of the Almighty Father.

 There is a lovely moment in Jesus parable of the Lost Son. When the son returns home in rags and poverty the Father calls out for the servants to ‘bring the best robe and put it on him.’ The best robe can only be that of the Father himself and with it the son receives the covering identity and standing of the Father. He is clothed in a new identity and righteousness. He belongs in a way he never had before.

 Those who refused to receive and believe Jesus clearly did not receive this right and their future is left in the hands of God.

Response:

In Christ I am a new creation with a new identity and future.

Prayer:

Father thank you so much for the privilege, honour and blessing that You have bestowed upon me. Please help me to treasure my new relationship with You and to live it every moment of my life. Amen.

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