Our development as Christians has very little to do with our actual age. It doesn’t even seem to have much to do with how long we’ve been Christians. A teenager who’s only been at church a few years can be a more mature Christian than a grown man who’s been a Christian his whole life. Because your faith doesn’t grow with time, it grows with practice. If we enthusiastically choose to get ourselves baptised, or confirmed, or anything like that, but don’t move on to the deeper aspects of our faith, we may get on to the path but we’ll just stand still. And when people stand still for too long, they get distracted by things around them, and might forget what brought them to this point in the first place! Nobody wants to be fifty years old and still relying on their mum to do all their washing and cooking. In the same way, our spiritual maturity should be something we want to develop all the time. This means two things; listening to God, and doing the stuff, both in your church, and wherever else you happen to be!

Our development as Christians has very little to do with our actual age. It doesn’t even seem to have much to do with how long we’ve been Christians. A teenager who’s only been at church a few years can be a more mature Christian than a grown man who’s been a Christian his whole life. Because your faith doesn’t grow with time, it grows with practice. If we enthusiastically choose to get ourselves baptised, or confirmed, or anything like that, but don’t move on to the deeper aspects of our faith, we may get on to the path but we’ll just stand still. And when people stand still for too long, they get distracted by things around them, and might forget what brought them to this point in the first place! Nobody wants to be fifty years old and still relying on their mum to do all their washing and cooking. In the same way, our spiritual maturity should be something we want to develop all the time. This means two things; listening to God, and doing the stuff, both in your church, and wherever else you happen to be!

All through history there have been priests in every kind of culture and society. They’re not always called ‘priests’; they are given lots of different names. But their function is always the same: to build a bridge between the people and God. God Himself called men to be priests in Israel, but because humans being humans, they invariably messed up. And when they did, the bridge fell down. With Jesus, things are different. Because he is our new high priest, and he is God’s Son, the bridge has now been built from God’s side, which means there’s nothing we can do to break it down. Sure, some churches still have leaders who are called “priests”, but for those Christians it now has a slightly different meaning; these Christian priests are people who minister to God’s flock and helps them to find the bridge that the real high priest has built for us.

All through history there have been priests in every kind of culture and society. They’re not always called ‘priests’; they are given lots of different names. But their function is always the same: to build a bridge between the people and God. God Himself called men to be priests in Israel, but because humans being humans, they invariably messed up. And when they did, the bridge fell down. With Jesus, things are different. Because he is our new high priest, and he is God’s Son, the bridge has now been built from God’s side, which means there’s nothing we can do to break it down. Sure, some churches still have leaders who are called “priests”, but for those Christians it now has a slightly different meaning; these Christian priests are people who minister to God’s flock and helps them to find the bridge that the real high priest has built for us.

Have you ever been to a shop or restaurant because you heard that they had a special offer on, only to find that the special offer only applies on certain special days? Not so special after all. Any ‘special’ offer the world makes you invariably has some sort of a time constraint. Maybe it’s only good on Tuesdays, or maybe only between 11 and 1 ‘o’ clock. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found a voucher in my shopping entitling me to some discount, and then noticed in the small print that the offer expired three months ago. God is also making us an offer; the offer of finding rest in Him. But God’s offer is different, because instead of setting a specific day for it, He has said that this offer applied “today”. And “today” means now, whatever day of the week, month or year it happens to be. We don’t know when Christ will come again, but until then, as long as you have ears to hear the offer, and a mouth to tell people about it, it’s staying open.

Have you ever been to a shop or restaurant because you heard that they had a special offer on, only to find that the special offer only applies on certain special days? Not so special after all. Any ‘special’ offer the world makes you invariably has some sort of a time constraint. Maybe it’s only good on Tuesdays, or maybe only between 11 and 1 ‘o’ clock. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found a voucher in my shopping entitling me to some discount, and then noticed in the small print that the offer expired three months ago. God is also making us an offer; the offer of finding rest in Him. But God’s offer is different, because instead of setting a specific day for it, He has said that this offer applied “today”. And “today” means now, whatever day of the week, month or year it happens to be. We don’t know when Christ will come again, but until then, as long as you have ears to hear the offer, and a mouth to tell people about it, it’s staying open.

If God’s promises are so great and God is so loving, why doesn’t everybody receive the benefits? That’s what some people ask, and for some people it’s an obstacle to even believing in God. But as todays verse states, nothing has ever been missing from God’s promises. His part of the bargain is complete. A famous monk called Anselm explained it this way: if you don’t receive an apple from me it can mean one of two things. Either I did not offer you an apple, or I did offer you an apple and you just didn’t take it. The Israelites didn’t enter God’s rest, and it’s not because God wasn’t holding the door open. It’s because they didn’t have faith to enter. Lots of Christians will tell you they spent years wondering why God wasn’t giving them the comfort, or peace, or salvation they expected from Him, only to eventually find that He’d been there with His arms outstretched all along. They simply needed to reach back in faith.

If God’s promises are so great and God is so loving, why doesn’t everybody receive the benefits? That’s what some people ask, and for some people it’s an obstacle to even believing in God. But as todays verse states, nothing has ever been missing from God’s promises. His part of the bargain is complete. A famous monk called Anselm explained it this way: if you don’t receive an apple from me it can mean one of two things. Either I did not offer you an apple, or I did offer you an apple and you just didn’t take it. The Israelites didn’t enter God’s rest, and it’s not because God wasn’t holding the door open. It’s because they didn’t have faith to enter. Lots of Christians will tell you they spent years wondering why God wasn’t giving them the comfort, or peace, or salvation they expected from Him, only to eventually find that He’d been there with His arms outstretched all along. They simply needed to reach back in faith.

Have you ever drawn or painted a picture, or built a model, or created anything that involved some sort of assembly? Or how about watching a new structure being built in your town? Have you ever noticed that whilst it’s still being made, it looks a total mess until the last piece is fitted or the last brush-stroke is applied? Only then does it look the way it’s meant to. The building God is raising up on earth is His Kingdom, and we are the building blocks. But if you look at the Church today, it can really look like a total mess, just like the unfinished model. So many people bickering, being unkind, not living godly lives. The Israelites in the Old Testament were at least as bad, so much that God said outright that they would never see the building finished. But now that Christ has come to be in charge of the house, we have the promise that if we hold on to our faith, we will see the completion of the building. The Israelites had Moses as their foreman, and he was good at his job. But for our foreman, we have the architect himself – Jesus Christ. Of course, the work’s nowhere near finished yet, so Moses still sets us an example to follow by being a “faithful servant in all God’s house”. Maybe God is calling you to be Moses in your department of the building project!

Have you ever drawn or painted a picture, or built a model, or created anything that involved some sort of assembly? Or how about watching a new structure being built in your town? Have you ever noticed that whilst it’s still being made, it looks a total mess until the last piece is fitted or the last brush-stroke is applied? Only then does it look the way it’s meant to. The building God is raising up on earth is His Kingdom, and we are the building blocks. But if you look at the Church today, it can really look like a total mess, just like the unfinished model. So many people bickering, being unkind, not living godly lives. The Israelites in the Old Testament were at least as bad, so much that God said outright that they would never see the building finished. But now that Christ has come to be in charge of the house, we have the promise that if we hold on to our faith, we will see the completion of the building. The Israelites had Moses as their foreman, and he was good at his job. But for our foreman, we have the architect himself – Jesus Christ. Of course, the work’s nowhere near finished yet, so Moses still sets us an example to follow by being a “faithful servant in all God’s house”. Maybe God is calling you to be Moses in your department of the building project!

Some people ask why Jesus needed to come in human form so that our sins could be forgiven. Why couldn’t God just forgive us from Heaven? Well, there are lots of reasons, and the theology can get pretty mind-bending at times. But the bread and butter of it is this. The devil is like a wicked bank manager who deliberately got us men into debt by tempting us with a loan he knew we couldn’t afford to pay back. This is how we became trapped by Satan. Jesus came to pay off our debt, but to do that He needed to take power of attorney over our accounts. He did that by taking on human flesh, and living a human life just like the rest of us. Maybe that’s a lot of theology to take in, but think about this. How many millionaire celebrities do you think would be willing to come and live in your shoes, even for a few weeks, in order to pay off your debts? Probably not many. But God, who is so much greater, was not ashamed to come and live among us in the person of Jesus. Now Jesus in his bodily form returned to Heaven, because the debt was paid and finished with. But His Holy Spirit is still with us today to help us know that we are free from debt forever.

Some people ask why Jesus needed to come in human form so that our sins could be forgiven. Why couldn’t God just forgive us from Heaven? Well, there are lots of reasons, and the theology can get pretty mind-bending at times. But the bread and butter of it is this. The devil is like a wicked bank manager who deliberately got us men into debt by tempting us with a loan he knew we couldn’t afford to pay back. This is how we became trapped by Satan. Jesus came to pay off our debt, but to do that He needed to take power of attorney over our accounts. He did that by taking on human flesh, and living a human life just like the rest of us. Maybe that’s a lot of theology to take in, but think about this. How many millionaire celebrities do you think would be willing to come and live in your shoes, even for a few weeks, in order to pay off your debts? Probably not many. But God, who is so much greater, was not ashamed to come and live among us in the person of Jesus. Now Jesus in his bodily form returned to Heaven, because the debt was paid and finished with. But His Holy Spirit is still with us today to help us know that we are free from debt forever.

Knowledge often comes with responsibility. If someone confides in you, you have a responsibility not to blab about them and use their confidence in you against them. If you find out that a particular road is dangerous, you have a responsibility to warn as many people as you can not to go down that road. When Jesus came, God brought us a new message. If you’ve heard that message, then you have a responsibility to respond. God’s put a lot of trust in men and women by sharing these things with them, and that’s because He loves us. Our correct response is to love Him back, by not neglecting our responsibility in regard to this new message of salvation. The message is that Jesus “experienced death in every person’s place” so that we can have eternal life. If you know this for yourself, then it is your responsibility to do your part in making sure everybody gets a chance to hear about it. This is a message that has been passed on since the time of Christ, and will be passed on until He comes again. So let’s not allow ourselves to be a weak link in that chain.

Knowledge often comes with responsibility. If someone confides in you, you have a responsibility not to blab about them and use their confidence in you against them. If you find out that a particular road is dangerous, you have a responsibility to warn as many people as you can not to go down that road. When Jesus came, God brought us a new message. If you’ve heard that message, then you have a responsibility to respond. God’s put a lot of trust in men and women by sharing these things with them, and that’s because He loves us. Our correct response is to love Him back, by not neglecting our responsibility in regard to this new message of salvation. The message is that Jesus “experienced death in every person’s place” so that we can have eternal life. If you know this for yourself, then it is your responsibility to do your part in making sure everybody gets a chance to hear about it. This is a message that has been passed on since the time of Christ, and will be passed on until He comes again. So let’s not allow ourselves to be a weak link in that chain.

It seems like belief in angels is very popular today, especially ‘guardian angels’. But a great many people seem to get excited about the idea of angels watching over us, whilst at the same time scoffing at the idea of the Son of God dying for our sins. But when you hear the words that have just been read, doesn’t that seem crazy? For one thing, the word ‘angel’ means “messenger”. That means if angels are real, then the person who gave them a message to deliver must be real. Angels, by their very existence, point beyond themselves to someone greater. So dreaming and gushing about angels, whilst all the time ignoring Christ, is like taking down posters of a great superstar and replacing them with photographs of that superstar’s road crew! Yes, angels are real, and they are sent to watch over us and speak to us. But these citizens of heaven are all delivering the same ultimate message; “Come and meet our king, nothing compares to Him”.

It seems like belief in angels is very popular today, especially ‘guardian angels’. But a great many people seem to get excited about the idea of angels watching over us, whilst at the same time scoffing at the idea of the Son of God dying for our sins. But when you hear the words that have just been read, doesn’t that seem crazy? For one thing, the word ‘angel’ means “messenger”. That means if angels are real, then the person who gave them a message to deliver must be real. Angels, by their very existence, point beyond themselves to someone greater. So dreaming and gushing about angels, whilst all the time ignoring Christ, is like taking down posters of a great superstar and replacing them with photographs of that superstar’s road crew! Yes, angels are real, and they are sent to watch over us and speak to us. But these citizens of heaven are all delivering the same ultimate message; “Come and meet our king, nothing compares to Him”.