Crestwood Church Blog

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James 4:13-17

Is your life full of presumptions? When I looked at these verses, I came to the conclusion that my life is. We forget that our lives are in the hands of an Almighty God, “he gives and takes away” ( we sing it often enough). What these verses are telling us, is not that it is wrong to make plans, not wrong to believe that there will be a tomorrow, but to bring God into the centre of those plans, and more importantly let those plans be God’s plans for our lives, not just our own.

When we wake up the next morning, do we thank God for giving us another day, or do we just take it for granted that it is our right to be alive?

This verse was written to business men of the early church who were continuing their lives and businesses without a care and thought about God. Because they had managed to make a profit without God (or so it seemed) before they presumed they could continue with out him afterwards. If we believe that God has our best interests at heart for our salvation, why can’t we believe that God has our best interest at heart for every other aspect of our lives.

The new life we have in Christ is so much greater than before, do we not think that our working lives can not be more beneficial. It isn’t to say that our lives will become easy, but it will become more worth while and if we do what we do to honour God, there is no reason not to believe that he will bless us.

Our lives at best are very short, like a morning fog, (like the falling of a leaf, like a vapour that escapes from a kettle), for most of us, the fog has gone before we awake, and this is partly the significance of these verses. Don’t let life pass you by, and when it is to late, realise the mistake you’ve made. God writes very strongly, It is evil to boast, it’s a sin to live our way and not the way that you know from God. Don’t make presumptions ask God, years ago after every service the letters DV appeared, Latin for “God Willing” Is your life based on God’s will or your will. He knows the future, trust him.

Labels: God's Will, Honour, Presumption

What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the Lord’s name for saving me. Psalm 116:12-13

What a tremendous question, what can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me? Is there anything that we can offer to someone who has given it all in the first place?

The answer comes in the next phrase,

“I will lift up the Cup of Salvation”.

In Old testament times a priest or a family head would regularly raise a cup with an exaltation of praise to God. In the early church times the cup that was lifted was a bitter cup, a cup that had little to offer but was full of praise and as they lifted the cup in praise , as a symbol to God he would meet their needs and be a symbol of salvation, that God fills the bitterness and restores us with his joy. He brings deliverance and fullness though being united with him.

Phil 1:19 For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.

So how can we lift up our, cup of salvation today? The cup is you, give you lives to God, in all that you do,

The big question is? How much are we prepared to offer up our lives, to admit that the best we have is not enough and the only way to bless God, is to give him our lives, so that he can beautify them. On Sunday’s we can offer to God as we worship, we can sing from our hearts, we can pray from within and we can declare with our mouths. One of the greatest testimony’s we have as believers is to tell others what the Lord has done, we can share our experiences of God on Sundays, during house groups and whenever the opportunity arises, The Psalm goes on to say

“I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.” v17

When we come together is this your attitude?

Labels: Cup, Offering, Sacrifice, Salvation

The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. The storm stopped and all was calm! Luke 8:24-25

Have you ever thought why it was that Jesus didn’t just tell the wind to be silent? Instead he told the waves to cease also. Maybe it seems a small detail and in many respects that’s the point. The cause of the storm was the wind, by commanding the storm to stop, would have brought the stormy sea to a halt, but not immediately . The wind may have stopped blowing but the seas would have continued raging until things settled.

When you toss a pebble into a mill pool, the ripples continue for sometime after the stone has entered the water.

The disciples were distressed and terrified, they were beyond what they could handle. This must have been some storm, on the whole these disciples were fishermen they were used to storms, but this one had beaten them and the Lord knew it. To stop the cause was one thing, but to stop the effect meant immediate peace and calm.

Praise God that we have a God of immense compassion who can solve the cause of our problems as well as the effects. If Noah had been left on the Arc and God had stopped the rain only , Noah would still be floating around on one gigantic puddle. Put the Lord made plans to remove the effect, the water from the earth.

I find this really exciting and uplifting. God really cares how we feel and when we reach our breaking point and often well before, our heavenly Father, is moving heaven and earth to not just stop the disaster but put our lives back together as quickly as he can.

This is most true of our greatest cause and effect; Sin . When we become a believer he hasn’t just taken the sin out of our lives and forgiven our sins, that in itself is awesome. But he is working in us to remove, the guilt and pain, heartache and anguish that sin has caused in our lives.

Sometimes we only see the big miracles in our lives, when often the greatest can be the small ones, because these are the ones that we can see in this lifetime, where the bigger one we will not see until we reach our home in glory.

Labels: Calm, Cause, Compassion, Effect

I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2: 3

The release last month of the Indiana Jones movie and last years National Treasure 2 have brought us back into the mode of treasure hunting, well at least those who like that kind of thing. I remember the big craze, in the back end of the 80’s and 90’s when people brought metal detectors to look for bits of ancient treasure they could dig up, most of them to no avail.

The original word in Greek is “Thesauros” where we get the term “Thesaurus” from. The word treasure here is a fountain or library of limitless wealth. All there is to know about wisdom and knowledge, is found in Christ. There is nothing outside of Christ that can be found and if it could, would not be worth knowing.

The verse tells us that all this treasure of truth is hidden in Christ, but it is not all unattainable.

Col 1:27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you.

Because of the work of Salvation that we have embraced and welcomed, part of our inheritance, is that we have access to this great treasury. In fact because Christ lives in us, we have access to this great resource. The main problem that we face is not traps, rolling balls and problems that we have to solve like in a good treasure hunt film, but ourselves. We have to keep reminding ourselves of what we have in Christ. These treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in us, because Christ is in us.

The reason we get confused or forget is because we get caught up in our own little worlds, and forget to ask the one who knows all things. This whole plan of salvation is truly mysterious and wonderful, but it is ours, we are a part of it. Paul writes in this verse that he wants us to have confidence in who we are and what we are. Instead of seeking for wisdom and knowledge from all the sources that the world go to, ask the Lord to reveal these truths to us, piece by piece and treasure by treasure, then we will begin to understand what we truly are, and how awesome it is to be loved by an awesome God

Labels: All, Resources, Treasure, Wisdom

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9

With the arrival of Microsoft windows, back in the early 90’s and the constant upgrades, though to “Vista” today. We have moved further away from computer programming. Gone are the days of DOS and other computer language that the average UK resident has little clue of, let alone how to use it. We don’t need to program any more, we just click a box with the mouse or right click to edit something, it has become so easy.

Sadly society has gone down that path as well.

These words from Paul in our modern world could be translated, “whatever is good for you, fits with you, gives you the most money, makes you feel better, puts you on a pedestal and gives you what you need, get it, at all cost. Don’t give in ‘til you get it, once you get it, spend it and ignore everything else.”

Paul’s words are not the programmed words of today, we are still stuck on a default setting of 2008, but I wonder what would happen, if we did re-program our thinking and the way we do things. The reality is, that no matter how different Paul's words and thinking is, it is still the right program to reload into our hearts and minds. If it were merely Paul’s words than yes! We may disagree, but these letters that were written down are the inspired word of God. They have absolute authority over everything else.

We have the greatest software program known to mankind, one that cannot and will not fail, one that will bring us to heaven and one that we give us a life worth living today. Its not found on a floppy disc, memory stick or hard drive, but found in the person of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. Use the program and find the benefits, it is one piece of software that will never need upgrading. It is also software that can be used by multiple users, and has no restrictions on its use. It comes with a fantastic guarantee.

Then the God of peace will be with you.

You cannot buy this in the shops ...

Labels: Default. change, Guarantee, Mind, Program

“You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray, and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’ So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared. Isaiah 47:10-12

In the last few days the Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe told his supporters that "only God" could remove him from office.

This could be taken in two ways. One is that he recognises the supreme power of the Almighty God who has infinitely more powerful than a little leader like himself, or secondly that this is a provocative comment to the west and the opposing party led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC party leader (Movement for Democratic Change).

As much as I don’t want to be political , I personally believe that this is a statement made to intimidate and rile his opponents . The bigger implication is that he has forgotten who has allowed him to rule for the past 27 years. As much as his comments were meant to belittle the changes that Zimbabwe needs, he is throwing himself into the hands of God himself. Almost daring God to remove him from his office of president.

We live in a fallen world, and we have no real confidence to believe that any other party would eventually be any different from the one that exists now under Mugabe. But our prayer must be that God would raise up a David in that land and stop the troubles and atrocities that are happening in a land which was once the “bread basket of Africa”.

We are reminded that David never once in his own strength sought to remove King Saul from his throne. He knew it was God’s authority and his alone to remove or allow anyone to reign. Our prayer should be that God would intervene and that God would bring about change in that needy land.

If Mugabe continues in the path he has chosen he could easily be like the Babylonians who these verses were originally intended for. If we abuse the power that God has given us, be it in a small way, or right through to being the president of a country, be warned that God will hold you accountable and judge you accordingly for it.

We are reminded not to put our God to the test, because of God so chose, there is no force in the universe that could prevent God from doing what is just and right.

Pray for this land and pray for its leader that he may turn from this foolish path and seek the living God. Pray also for the opposition that if God so choices and bring him into power will rule in a way that honours God and shows compassion to his people.

As much as Zimbabwe is under this dictator we mustn’t forget there is much about our own politics back in the UK which goes totally against the God of the Universe, pray that we may as a nation repent and turn back to God.

Labels: Authority, change, Politics, Repentance

“ I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people.” Daniel 10:5-6

Sometimes (if not always) it is easy to miss the beauty and spectacular characteristics of nature. It is easy to miss the good in each other, the inner and outer beauty, after all, even though fallen because of sin, we are still made in the image of God. We are after all God’s highest creation. But what about Christ Jesus, do we see him, or like the people with Daniel when he saw this vision, missed it completely.

You can come to church every week, and go away happy with friendships and content by having a good time, but do we see Jesus. Do we miss the point of our weekly ritual?

It is unlikely that we have a heavenly revelation like this one Daniel did and John did as he wrote the Revelation, but do we see him at all? What is our appreciation, what is our understanding of the Man, who is risen, who has ascended into heaven and now sits on the throne of heaven?

Daniel’s vision was from God and these are some of the things that he sees.

· A Man in linen clothing– A picture that Christ is our High Priest, he has entered heaven and intercedes on our behalf.

· A Man wearing a Belt of pure gold– Everything about Christ is perfect,

· His body looked like a precious stone– In the original Hebrew this stone would have been “beryl” Beryl is famous for its perfect, six-sided crystals. The Man who was God, holy, perfect, sublime, faultless, awesome.

· His face flashed like lightening- His countenance represents awe and fear, in unity

· His eyes flamed like torches– Eyes that brighten the darkest place and destroy the darkest evil.

· With feet and arms with polished bronze– His strength and justice is just and pure

· His voice roared like a vast multitude– He can be heard above the highest authority on earth. There is no power, no one who is higher or greater than Christ.

Christ Jesus is more than we can imagine, more awesome than we can sing, more mighty that we can declare, worship him, with all that you have and all that you are..

Labels: Awe, Beauty, Brilliance, Fear, Wonder