Crestwood Church Blog

“Thus letter is from James, a slave of God. James” 1:1

A lot has been made mention of slaves in recent days, during the days of the early church under the Roman Empire roughly a third of many city populations were slaves. From the beginning Jewish families had slaves who were an important part of their society. Maybe our view of a slave has been clouded to some extent by the slave trade which marred the history of our nation. Today the word slave is often translated servant, you have civil servants who serve the government and servants of royalty, but this waters down the meaning of the word, a slave had little rights and was not paid a wage, but In Jewish law a slave had various laws that prevented them from being badly treated.

In Exodus 21:2 There was also a way to freedom.

“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.

The seventh day always speak of rest, from everyday chores and work.

James, probably the brother of Jesus is saying I am a slave of God, he sees it as an honour and a privilege. A slave is one who is brought with a price and follows the master in his service. We have been brought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus, when he laid down his life as a sacrifice for us. But how many of us are prepared to say, I am a slave of God. He is my master and my Lord.

Exodus 21:5 goes onto say 

But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’ If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.

The old word for this kind of slave was a bondservant. How many of us once we come to Christ, want to run away and go back to our lives again. Are you prepared to choose and say, I want to remain in the house of my master and serve him for the rest of my days. In God we are not talking about a great tyrant who wants to destroy you and abuse you. We have one who is a master of love, who wants us to obey him and his commands, because this is what will give us the greatest satisfaction in our life.

The question here is this, are we prepared to allow God to have your life and make it his own. Are we prepared to say I don’t want to live for myself anymore. The church are a people who are living in the seventh year, we have freedom from the curse of sin and all its problems.

If we put our hands into action for our Master, we will understand freedom even though we are servants of the living God. Christianity is not for weak and fainthearted it is for those that are prepared to trust God in every circumstance and live for him, today, tomorrow and for all our days.

Andy Hodson

Labels: Priveledge, Servant, Slave

Open for me the gates where the righteous enter,
and I will go in and thank the Lord.
These gates lead to the presence of the Lord,
and the godly enter there. I thank you for answering my prayer
and giving me victory! Psalm 118:19-21

There is a place in God that is the best and right place to be.; and that is in his presence.
It is a place that is only reserved for his people. But it is not exclusive to knowledge, years of maturity or service. It is open to all who would desire to come closer and walk through the gates that lead to his throne room.

God, the King of Kings is waiting to hear our concerns, delights, requests, adoration and worship. He is one who delights in relationship with his children, one who wants us to know our privileged position.
We are his family, his children- his prince and princess, not because of our works or personalities, but because of his amazing grace and love for his church.

Each day we can miss out on an audience with the King of Heaven, who is not judgmental and vindictive, One who will not treat us harshly or condemn us. One who will lord his power over us to belittle or intimidate us, or frustrate and devour us. But one who beckons us to draw near and ask questions from his treasury of infinite wisdom and lavish his gifts from the glorious unlimited resources of his unending kingdom.

Dear Brother and Sister, friend, seeker, don’t miss out on what God wants to offer you, knowing him is the greatest joy we can ever have, and desiring to go “DEEPER” into his courts is the greatest journey we will ever make.
Once we have come deeper to his presence, let us all live up to our responsibility of being a part of the family of God

“Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

Labels: Desire, Prayer, Presence

"Why do you ask my name?" the angel of the Lord replied. "It is too wonderful for you to understand." - Judges 13:18

As we leave behind the Christmas season and more forward into 2008, what lessons have we learnt?

There is so much that we just don't get or know about the Virgin Birth, about God becoming man and so forth, they remain mysteries, even to the greatest bible scholars and teachers that have walked this planet.

There is so much we just don't get about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and as was revealed to Manoah and his wife through the angel of the Lord, who very likely was God Himself, even his name we don’t get and fully grasp.

Last night I sat and watched with the kids, "The Polar Express", a magical journey to the North Pole and a look at the night of Christmas Eve through a child's perspective. At the end of the film the children who climbed aboard the express train to the North Pole are left with a quandary, was any of what we saw real. Was it all fantasy and make belief. One of the concluding remarks made was "just believe".

I think that is a great message for us as a church and as individuals. Could Manoah's wife, really believe God had visited them, could Manoah accept what his wife had seen. Everything defies logic and rationale, but by believing one of the greatest judges arose in Israel who saved the people from constant defeat by the Philistines.

We may never know everything about the Almighty transcendent God. We may not come close, but does that make God less real.

If God was easy to fathom and left us with no unanswered questions, wouldn't we ourselves because as big as God?

The comforting point is that God is beyond our understanding, His ways and thoughts are much mightier than ours. He just asks us to believe, it might seem ridiculous, it might seem crazy, it might even seem to good to be true.

Just because we can't understand the stars and the sheer size and magnitude of them and how exactly they are formed, does that mean we don't believe in them? Of course not, because we can still see them.

If we keep our spiritual eyes open and in faith believe, not only will God become more real in our lives, but we will realise how much more of Him that we don't understand.

God is a mystery, but He has made Himself known, to man. In the same way as He made Himself known to Samson's mother, we can know the reality of God today through Christ, through His Word and the indwelling Spirit of God… just believe and let God show you, who he really is.

Labels: magnitude, unanswered, understanding