The post Pursuing God’s Heart Yourself – 3 Bible Books first appeared on Cor Deo.

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Jonathan talks about how easy it is to reduce ministry down to a litmus test for evangelical orthodoxy, but then tells his own story of growing into a fuller appreciation of the magnificence of Jesus.

To see the full interview, you just need to sign-up to the Cor Deo mailing list and we will make the full interview available to you!  Click here to sign-up – http://eepurl.com/drPqj1

The post The Pastor’s Job – Jonathan Thomas first appeared on Cor Deo.

Please do sign up to receive our newsletters as that will keep you informed about every online event that you can attend or access via the archive.

Here is a little introduction we have made to John’s Gospel, focusing on three unlikely characters who gave great testimonies to Jesus:

The post Cor Deo Online Launches! first appeared on Cor Deo.

Later this month we will send an update with a schedule of Cor Deo refresher sessions for July and August.  We hope you will be able to join us, either live, or by watching a recording of a session.  The online gathering recordings will only be available to people on the Cor Deo email update list.  Other shorter videos will be available to all on our YouTube channel.

Two action points to get ready:

1. If you don’t already receive the Cor Deo periodic email, please sign up here to receive your invitation to our online gatherings.

2. Please subscribe to the Cor Deo YouTube channel and hit the notification bell so that you can see all the public videos that are coming in the next weeks.

Thanks so much!

A couple of items already on the YouTube channel that you might like to check out are a playlist of Bible reading highlights through John’s Gospel called Journey Thru John (21 highlights, one per chapter, from Peter), as well as a video Peter made alongside FOCLonline called Seven Suggestions for Enjoying the Bible More Consistently.

The post Lockdown Legacy first appeared on Cor Deo.

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Have you ever had the experience of reading a verse in the Bible that you’ve read perhaps 50 times before, and all of the sudden it jumps off the page at you?  I had that experience recently in reading through 1 John 3:2 “…but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  My heart went, “Wait—what?”  I read it again.  I have certainly always believed that being in the presence of Jesus one day would be glorious, but this verse is saying that in the moment when we see him as he truly is, we will be like him.

Now my heart began to race.  When we finally see Jesus face to face, just the sight of who he is—his love, his beauty, his glory, his fullness—will be transformational.  So transformational, in fact, that we will be like him.  That reality makes my heart long even more for that day!  When I ponder the ugliness of my own heart, and how I’m so drawn to respond out of selfishness and pride, it’s hard to imagine that I could ever really be like Jesus. And yet, the Bible is telling me that I will be like him someday, when I see him as he is.

As I continued to ponder the wonder of this, another thrilling reality struck me. Trapped in my fleshly body, with the ongoing wrestle of the Spirit and the flesh at odds within my heart, I cannot fully see Jesus as he is now.  But the truth still holds.  Even now, with all of my fleshly trappings, the more I see Jesus as he is, the more I will be like him, because the sight of him is transformational.

Our relationships with people bear this out, don’t they?  When you spend time with an elderly saint, who has walked with Jesus for decades, don’t they just seem to radiate his love?  Isn’t there a gentleness and care for others that some of us younger folks can’t quite make sense of?  There is something about having walked with Jesus day by day, year after year that is transformational.  They have seen Jesus with growing clarity, and seeing him has changed them.

Now, it’s true that there is no substitute for years of walking with Jesus. Seeing him through the ups and downs of life over a period of many years gives us glimpses of him that we just wouldn’t get in a day or two.  Still, wherever we are in our lives, we cansee Jesus more and more clearly.  He longs for us to do just that.  That’s why he’s given us his Spirit to unite us to himself and to continue to draw us close.  The Spirit is constantly welcoming us, constantly wooing us, to see Jesus as he is.

Just one example is the Spirit’s invitation to see Jesus through the Bible. On page after page, we see how Jesus loves and cares for those who are sick and hurting, how he reaches out to those who are marginalized, how he is patient with his failing friends, how he confronts wrong, how he serves and gives, and how, in the ultimate expression of his love, he lays his life down on the cross to give us hope that one day, we will not only be withhim, we will belikehim.

But, why?  Why would Jesus do all of that?  In John 3:16 we’re told that that God, the Father, so loved the world that he sent Jesus so that no one would be lost, but that all would be brought to eternal life. We see Jesus speaking what the Father gives him to speak (John 12:49) and doing the will of the Father (John 6:38).  We see the Father speak his love and approval over Jesus again and again, as Jesus carries out his earthly ministry and is obedient even to death on the cross.  So beloved was Jesus by his Father that his love overflowed to us—as he came, he cared, he served, he spoke, and he died.   The love of our God is an overflowing, outgoing, giving love. That’s the transforming love we see when we see Jesus.

I want see to see Jesus. I want to know him more, love him more, be more like him. May the noise of life in this world not drown out the Spirit’s voice as he speaks to my heart, “Come, see Jesus.” Because seeing him as he is will change me.

The post Seeing Jesus first appeared on Cor Deo.

For instance, think about how important the Incarnation is to your Christian faith.  Most will agree that Jesus was born in order to die, that Easter is the reason for the season and other pithy little seasonal quotables.  For some, that may be pretty much the full extent of its impact.  In order to live a perfect life and die in our place, the Son of God had to first become one of us – hence the Incarnation.

As we often say in Cor Deo, if that were the whole truth then it would be reason enough to praise God for all eternity.  But it is not the whole story.  The Son of God did not become one of us merely to perform the rescue work at Calvary.  There is much more to it than that.

Here are a few paths to meander down in your thoughts:

1. Revelation. When Jesus became one of us at Bethlehem (or technically, at conception), his was a mission not only of rescue, but also of revelation.  He came to show us the Father.  That does not mean simply that Jesus’ morality revealed God’s standards, nor even that Jesus’ character reflected the Father’s values, but that in the Incarnation we get to see what kind of God God is.  He is the kind of God who is humble, who is self-giving, who is sacrificially loving, who is inclined towards those he loves, who will do whatever it takes to pursue and woo hearts bent away from him in abject rebellion.  Our God is an Incarnating kind of God, a God who moves towards us when we don’t deserve it, and a God who dives into our mess to lift us out.  Yes, Jesus was on a rescue mission, but it was first of all a revelation mission.

2. Identification. When Jesus became one of us at Bethlehem, he did not have tunnel vision for Calvary.  Yes that was the intended destination, but he did not simply come and bide his time until that mission became possible.  He truly became one of us.  He loved, he cared, he laughed, he cried.  We are told in Hebrews 4 that he was tested in every way just as we are, yet without sin.  Remember that temptation only needs to rise to the level of our compromise, but since he never did, it must have risen to full force.  Yet without sin.  He is more than able to sympathise with our weaknesses because he did not choose to hide in a castle until his Calvary mission, he came right into the heart of human life and human pain.  He truly became one of us, identifying to the full, so that now we have a high priest who can fully sympathise and represent us forever before the heavenly throne.

3. Union. When Jesus became one of us at Bethlehem, he was not on a thirty-three year excursion into humanity.  He did not pop into our world only to shift into celestial reverse and head back out to the throne leaving his humanity behind.  Jesus is fully God, fully man, fully one, forever.  The Incarnation was not temporary.  This means that he can continue to reveal the Father to us in a unique way forever.  This means that he can continue to represent us to the Father in a unique way forever.  And this means that his rescue mission was not to bring us to a better place, end of story.  It was to bring us much deeper into the wonder of God’s love than that – he became one of us so that he could become one with us.  The great union of the Trinity has moved deliberately into humanity through the great union of divinity and humankind in the person of Jesus.  And that great union of the Incarnation was a necessary step not only to forgive us for our sin, but to make possible our union with Christ that will be our forever delight.

There is more to add, but let’s at least start there.  God the Son became human so that we can know God in a way we never could before, so that we can be represented before the Father better than we could have ever imagined possible, and so that we can be brought right into the very heart of the Trinitarian relationship through marriage.  For God the Son the Incarnation was not just for Christmas, nor even just for thirty-three years and a rescue mission, it was forever, and it was for us.

As we head towards another Christmas let’s be sure to ponder the wonder not just of that first Christmas, but the daily wonder of a God who moved toward us in such a stunning way.

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Peter Mead’s Pleased to Dwell: A Biblical Introduction to the Incarnation is a great read in the build-up to Christmas.  24 short and gripping chapters make for a great devotional read during the days of Advent.  Now is the time to order a copy so you have it in time for 1^st of December.  If you have read it before, please share any positive reviews to encourage others to read it this Advent!

The post Just an Annual Incarnation Celebration? first appeared on Cor Deo.

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There’s a chilling sentence tucked in at the end of Judges 2, “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD…”   How could that have happened?  And then, I remember…

Many years ago I unexpectedly found myself a single mother of two young children, then four and five years old.  As I was searching through the Scriptures for hope and encouragement, I was profoundly impacted by the words of Deuteronomy 6:5-9:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Now, I’d been a Christian since I was a young child, had attended church my entire life, been to countless Bible studies, and had even done a stint at Bible college.  Still, as I read those verses, my heart was confronted with the reality that I didn’t love God like that, nor did I know the Bible thoroughly enough to talk about it as I was sitting at home or walking along the road.  God’s words were not written, even metaphorically, on the door frames of my house or on my gate.  When I think back on that moment, it’s a poignant reminder that my own children could have been part of “another generation after them who did not know the LORD.”

The parents of the generation referred to at the end of Judges 2 were those who had seen God’s presence with them in the wilderness as cloud by day and fire by night, who had experienced His provision and protection in the wilderness for 40 years, who had seen Him flatten the walls of Jericho and bring the other miraculous victories that had given them the land in which they now lived.  Some of them would have been children when they witnessed how God parted the Red Sea and saved the entire nation of Israel. And yet, a generation arose after them who did not know the LORD.

God had implored them not to let that happen, not just once in the verses above in Deuteronomy 6, but many times. In Deuteronomy 4:9, the Lord says, “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children…”  In Judges 4 we’re told how the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground, and how the Lord commanded them to set up 12 stones as a memorial so that, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’”  Psalm 78 says, “He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments…”  In the New Testament, too, the Lord instructs parents to teach their children about him.  In Ephesians 6, fathers are told to bring their children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  These are but a few examples from the whole of Scripture.

With the jolting words of Judges 2 in front of us, how do we avoid being the forerunners of a generation after us who doesn’t know the Lord?  Certainly, we need to pursue knowing Him more deeply so that our hearts and lives reflect who He is to the next generation.  They need to see our hearts being responsive to the Lord and His Word as we live, work, parent, and serve.  We need to be transparent about our failures and struggles and the way in which the Lord loves us in the midst of them.  And, we need to speak often of His steadfast love and faithfulness through all of joys and sorrows of life.

Recently I had the great blessing of hearing a woman in her 80s speak about God’s faithfulness in her life.  Her father had abandoned her and her mom when she was a toddler.  Her stepfather was killed in World War II.  She had grown up to become a teacher of missionary children in the Philippines and had gone on to serve by encouraging missionaries all over the world.  As a single—and in recent years, elderly—woman, she had traveled through many dangerous cities.

As this lovely woman spoke, she recounted God’s faithfulness to her through all of her life experiences, both good and bad.  When she finished, one was not left thinking what a remarkable woman she is (though she certainly is), but rather, what an amazing, loving, faithful God she has loved and served all these years.  Though she doesn’t have children of her own, this is the God she has shared with countless children all over the world.  She is a precious example of what it means to share with the next generation what knowing God—really knowing Him—means.

I’m a single parent in my 50s.  You may be a parent of infants or grown-ups, a single man or woman, a pastor, a teacher, a big brother or sister, or a grandparent.  Will you join me in seeking the Lord so that decades from now it will not be said of us, “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD…”?   Instead, let us share with the next generation what Jesus said in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

The post Know the LORD first appeared on Cor Deo.

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A few months back I shared a reflection on a conversation we’d had during the Cor Deo Women’s Programme regarding John the Baptist and how, as a friend of the Lord, he took joy in pointing the Bride of Christ to her Groom, Jesus.

It’s something I’ve continued to ponder.  I’ve thought about the times when a brother or sister in Christ was struggling, whether with discouragement, faltering faith, overt sin, or some other burden, and I have attempted to draw them back to Christ with well-chosen Bible verses and sage words of advice.  How much better to instead speak of the beauty of Christ and his overflowing love, in order that their hearts might be won again to him!

In recent months I’ve known of several fellow believers who have begun to withdraw from other Christians as they’ve wrestled with the heavy issues of life.  They wonder whether God loves them or could love them.  They wonder whether they’d be rejected by other believers if their issues became known.  In some cases, they’ve become ensnared in sin and have hardened their hearts towards God and others.  Whatever the cause, they seem to withdraw, rather than leaning in to draw support from others.

Sixteenth century pastor and theologian, Richard Sibbes, spoke very poignantly of this kind of spiritual “sleepiness.”  He wrote, “Men disposed to be asleep desire to be alone.  Those that are likewise disposed to take a spiritual nap, will avoid company, especially of such as would awake them…Men in sleep dream of false good, and forget true danger…In sleep the preciousest thing men carry about them is taken away without resistance…” (The Love of Christ 67-68).  How sad, and how true!

I’m sure all of us can recall situations where someone seems to have hardened their heart towards God with such fierceness that they are loath to hear of him.  I wonder, though, whether in some instances we drive people further away by our approach.  What if, rather than offering platitudes or “you ought to’s,” we were to speak of Christ?  Sibbes wrote “Again, tenderness of heart is wrought by an apprehension [understanding] of tenderness and love in Christ” (The Tender Heart 21).

Consider how loving, tender, and good the Lord truly is.  If you are heartbroken, the psalmist tells us, “He heals brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3).  If you are burdened, Jesus says, “Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  To those who feel empty, he says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).  To those who are crushed by the weight of their sin, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6).  There is no pain, no loss, no sin, and no grief that the Lord cannot wash over in his overwhelming fountain of love.

In fact, all of us who know Jesus can have our hearts drawn to love him more as we hear from one another how marvelously gracious he is.  How much more one who is being lulled to sleep!

We can remind each other how he demonstrated the depth of his love for us as he poured out his life on the cross, how he forgives, comforts, and blesses, and how he guides, protects, and encourages.

Sibbes, wrote, “As when things are cold we bring them to the fire to heat and melt, so we bring our cold hearts to the fire of the love of Christ; we consider of our sins against Christ, and of Christ’s love towards us; dwell upon this meditation.  Think what great love Christ has showed unto us, and how little we have deserved, and this will make our hearts to melt and be as pliable as wax before the sun” (The Tender Heart 57).

In the hustle-bustle and heartbreaks of life, it is so easy for our hearts to be distracted.  It’s so easy to have our view of Christ clouded by circumstances.  So, whether our brothers and sisters are “wakeful” or “sleepy,” let us share generously a fresh view of the love–and loveliness—of Christ!

Read More…

— Sibbes, Richard. The Love of Christ: Expository Sermons on Verses from Song of Solomon Chapters 4-6. Edinburgh, U.K.: Banner of Truth Trust, 2011. Print.

— Sibbes, Richard. The Tender Heart. Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust, 2011. Print.

The post Sharing a Fresh View of Christ first appeared on Cor Deo.

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Easter has come and gone for another year.  But Easter will never fade for God’s people.  Think about the Apostle Peter, for instance.  He was a rugged fisherman called by Jesus to become one of his core followers.  He watched and experienced all that we read about in the Gospels.  He was at the heart of most of the action.  When it came down to it, he wanted to be there for Jesus.  When it came down to it, he couldn’t make it faithfully through the night.

Then things went from bad to worse.  Jesus was killed.  The disciples were in hiding.  Peter had not been able to say sorry for his denial of the man he so dearly loved.  Saturday passed.  Sunday morning came.  Women came to report that the tomb was empty.  Peter raced John to the tomb and that day he met the risen Christ more than once.  Surely in their private conversation, Peter would have expressed his heart to Jesus over what had happened?  Two weeks later, on a Galilean beach, Peter was given the chance to express publicly his love for Jesus.  He had failed, but he was not finished.

Every encounter with the risen Jesus must have thrilled their hearts, but before too many weeks had passed by Jesus returned to His Father and they waited in Jerusalem.  On Pentecost, it was Peter that boldly stood to declare what was going on.  Peter pronounced persuasively that the pangs of death could not keep hold of Jesus and he had risen from the dead!

Easter was very real for those who saw the real Easter.  And for a few weeks, their enthusiasm is to be expected. But surely the delight must fade?  Every event eventually fades, doesn’t it?  Not for Peter.

Fast forward over three decades and Peter writes a letter to some dispersed and discouraged Christians in Turkey.  As soon as he launches he is gushing about the reality of Easter again!  Thirty-plus years and his passion remains undimmed!  Peter could not help but write about the covenant mercy of God that led Him to cause us “to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!”

Peter went on to write about that hope: an inheritance kept where it cannot die, be defiled, or disappear.  The heavenly hope was, for Peter, no “pie in the sky when we die” – it was a real and life defining certain expectation.  But the hope Peter spoke of was more than just the heavenly inheritance to come. It was also a present tense living hope.

How does the resurrection of Jesus shape our lives today?  What do we have as well as the hope that lies ahead?  Peter writes that we have perspective in the midst of challenging trials.  The suffering that besets God’s people now has purpose – it proves the miracle of our faith.  The suffering we endure now with faith results in greater glory to the God we look to in the midst of the trials.

As well as perspective, Peter writes that believers have an unexplainable love for Jesus.  Because he rose from the dead, Jesus is not simply the object of our nostalgia, like a spiritual Elvis or JFK.  Jesus is alive and that means that while we do not see him, we do love him.  As hard as it is to explain the hope that characterizes God’s people, it is even more difficult to explain the love that we have for Jesus Christ.  It is a first-rate spiritual miracle for a self-absorbed and incurved human heart to be turned inside-out so that it doesn’t hate Jesus (our natural condition), but loves him from the heart!

Finally, as well as perspective and love, the believer also has inexpressible joy.  When we see Jesus our joy will overflow, of course, but now, even though we do not see him, we rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.  True believers suffer, true believers endure, but true believers are people of joy.  It comes from the perspective we have, it comes from the love that is birthed within us, it comes because Jesus has conquered the greatest enemy – death itself.

Since death is defeated we live, present tense, with a living hope, with victory-shaped perspective, with unexplainable love, and with inexpressible joy.  We live, present tense, because Jesus lives, present tense. Since death is defeated, Easter must not and cannot fade for us.

The post Easter Does Not Fade first appeared on Cor Deo.