Glory to the Father (5)

To God belongs the glory, which basically means He deserves all honor. And 'He' is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, of course. In this blog series, I highlighted the glory given to the Father.

If you want to learn more about the exchanging of honor and glory, please read chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 of the Gospel of John over and over again. It will surely bless you.

I would like to end this blog series with the prayer of Jesus as recorded in John 17. Verse one says:

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.

Right until His final hours on earth, Jesus had the desire to give glory to His Father. He did not want to keep it for Himself. There was this constant exchange, which I find fascinating. Desiring to give back to God what we receive from Him in the first place. What if we lived our lives that way?

Jesus lived His life that way, for sure. In verse 4 He says:

I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Such marvelous words. Let's make them personal. The Lord has works to do for you and me, there is no doubt about it. He planned it that way (read Ephesians 2:10 in as many translations as you can)!

👉What is it He called you to do? I strongly believe we all have something particular to do, apart from the general works we are called to do as believers. If you don't know what it is, pray, seek Him, and ask Him. If you already do know what it is, do it. Stop procrastinating, stop making excuses. Pick it up again if you are discouraged. Let's bring glory to the Father here on earth by completing the work He gave us to do!

Great, greater, greatest...

Our friend Brian in the food bank in Israel

We continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. I hope you are as curious as I am about the lessons we can learn. This time I want to stop at a familiar passage in chapter 9: the feeding of the five thousand.

When I was reading that story again, I noticed that Jesus offers His disciples a great opportunity to do something special. The disciples were worried about the large crowd of people that surrounded the Messiah. In the meantime Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom and He healed people with all kind of diseases. When evening came the disciples came to Him with their worried thinking and asked Him to send the people home. And you know what Jesus' reaction was? You give them something to eat! In other words, why ask Me to do something about it, this is your chance, test your faith, put it into practice. Do something!

Luke 9:12-13, Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” Their response to Jesus' command was a clear sign of unbelief and doubt: We have limited resources Lord. You don't seriously mean that you want us to solve this problem?

Do we recognize this response? Jesus wants us to do great things, and often all we can see is obstacles and limitations. Jesus sees opportunities; we see limitations and have excuses. In the Old Testament we can find a similar story in 2 Kings 4:42-44. The man of God (Elisha) orders his servants to feed 100 people with 20 loaves of bread. They had their doubts, they found it hard to believe in the impossible: How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.

In the Old Testament we see this great miracle performed by men, in response to God's word. In the New Testament we see an even greater miracle performed by Jesus. And what about us? What does Jesus say to the people who believe in Him? Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12).

What is your excuse?

PS 1: Talking about feeding the multitudes, take a peek at Brian's blog

Talent & the Kingdom (6)

So far we have learned a lot from Jesus's words regarding the parable of the talents:

• The advancing of the Kingdom is an assignment for the believers
• Jesus will ask us what we have done with the talents he gave us
• Building God's Kingdom is not an option!
• God is still the owner of our talents, we are the stewards
• Everyone has received at least one talent from God

Let's go back to His words, one more time. Matthew 25:14-15 says, Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. What struck me the most in this scripture is the part where it says 'each according to his ability'. That shows the love and care and precision of our heavenly Father. We will receive just what we can handle, something that fits our personality. That means our talent is unique for the building of Gods Kingdom.

We are able to do something in a way, no one else can. Of course, there are many people with a writing talent. Personally I know hundreds of people who do a much better job than I do. My writing talent in itself is not so special. But... my writing talent in combination with my character, background, humor, and knowledge is very special! The way I see things, perceive things, process things in my mind and the way I add a  personal touch to a story... THAT makes my talent unique.

So it is with your talent. Maybe nothing special in itself... But, in combination with your unique personality, experiences and background it becomes a unique tool for God. He desires to use everything and everyone to spread His Word and Truth around the globe; whether we use a pen, brush, screwdriver, or crochet hook!

Talent & the Kingdom (3)

The very last parable Jesus shared before His crucifixion was the parable of the talents and the Kingdom. I believe His disciples really got that message, because after Jesus went back to heaven to be with the Father, they went on their way to build God's Kingdom.

With us, things are often different. We can hear so many sermons preached on such a parable that we tend to forget what it is all about. Let's look again at the introduction Jesus gives: Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey (Matthew 25:14-15). The man calls his servants. That same calling goes out to all of us. Each person who gives heed to the call of God to put his or her life in His hands automatically receives the call to build the Kingdom.

To build the Kingdom means to tell other people about Jesus, using whatever means you have been given. It is written about Paul that boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28:31). Jesus came to earth to announce the coming of His Kingdom. He talked about it all the time, even for forty days in a row after His resurrection (Acts 1:3)! Can you image your pastor teaching about the Kingdom for forty (Sun)days :) There is definitely a lot to learn about this subject!

Maybe you do not see how God's invisible Kingdom and our visible work come together. Maybe you're just waiting for good things to happen, or maybe not? The Bible clearly teaches that we are co-laborers with Him and that there is work to do (which we have so beautifully called 'the great commission). Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians (4:11) about this kind of co-laborers: These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision; they have proved to be a comfort to me. People who work for the Kingdom of God are a comfort for their spiritual leaders, not a danger.

Just try to imagine that Jesus calls you and some of your friends, as in this parable. He entrusts you with something, he gives you something you can work with... let's call it tools. Money, talents, opportunities... it doesn't really matter what we call it. The question is... are we willing to use it?

3) Building God's Kingdom is not an option!