Cnoc-a-Phobuill

There is a hill up between Durness and Tongue called Cnoc-a-Phobuill, from this hill the missionaries from Eilean Neave preached to the people, hence the name 'hill of the people'. Eilean Neave was probably occupied by Celtic Christian monks from around AD 600-800. So this little offshoot blog is simply somewhere where I can put big articles away from the main blog, I will alert new articles via the main blog...hope you enjoy

Transcript is from second half of sermon

Audio File of whole sermon

Yet as is the confession of our faith, God did eventually turn up on the property in the person of Jesus Christ, the messianic King and suffering servant of creation.

John the Baptist (also known as Elijah) drew the outline and then Jesus came and coloured it in, declaring that every single eternal purpose was to be accomplished in his visitation.

He came, he saw, he conquered and then he disappeared, and from what I reckon and have observed, there is no heavenly city and no effective kingdom that has solved the world’s problems.

So where does that leave us, well clearly not alone, and clearly not wandering, listen to Hebrews 11

By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Abraham was looking for something with solid foundations, not transient religion or reliance upon self. Any of that ring a bell…? Stranger/Foreign Country/tents

11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he^[a]considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Verse 13, these people were living by faith (faith in Jesus? - well obviously not as he had not visited at this point) faith in who…verse 11, faith in him who is faithful.

What did that faith look like (by the way we are getting close to who are good and bad fish), well it looked like this… They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.

What happens to these people – well let me make it really clear…those people who by faith alone, look for a future hope, a city built by God, who do not look for possession, or fame, or name, or legacy but look up and ahead…God is not ashamed to be called their God, and he has prepared a city for them. What has he done? He has finally erected that heavenly city in the midst of the eternal garden, and it is in eternity that they will tend and nurture all he has prepared for them, living in community and peace and soul satisfaction.

But quickly now, we need to return to those fish on the beach, probably flapping their last and gasping for air, for we have been away for quite some time. What is the criterion for separation? Faith and faith alone.

What does that faith look like, well it looks like a whole pile of people who don’t have regard for themselves because they have a regard and a passion for a future hope.

Let me if I may add a little flavour to your faith and hope…we are not judged on our past performances, but rather we are judged by what Jesus did for us by taking the evil into himself, by pointing the bow heavenward, the greatest example and pattern for how it looks when someone has a future hope, for the glory set before him he endured death on our behalf, even death on a cross.

You see what has happened on the beach? Every thing has reached the millennial shore, there is forgiveness for everyone. Let me shock you a little if I may…both heaven and hell are populated entirely and only by forgiven sinners, the reason for hell is that some people just do not want any part of that forgiveness, they do want to be at the party, and they reject the grace of God.

Matt 13:49This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The righteous are those clothed in the right clothing of Jesus Christ, the wicked are those who gatecrash the party and find they are naked, just like Adam & Eve in the beginning, naked when they realise that it is only by God’s power that they lived in the light.

You know why so many people reject the grace of God? Because they never invented it!!

Really, they will not accept a gift, because there is nothing anybody can do to receive a gift, which is the nature of a gift. These teeth gnashers are saying ‘don’t you dare give me a gift God, I can make it on my own, and to be honest, this gift you are giving me was mine anyway, I had a right to it!!! Selfish to the very end.

And God turns and declares, ‘well sorry my friend, but I am happy for all those who have accepted the invitation, but we have to celebrate and be glad, whether 1 or 99, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. You are not going to spoil the party, so if you cannot bear the shame and joy of being forgiven then you need to get the hell out of here, literally.

Can you believe that being forgiven can be a shameful and joyous thing, I know deeply by the scars I wear what this means…times I have raised a clenched fist to heaven and shouted, ‘don’t you dare forgive me (stronger words) and I have wrestled and fought and He has stood over me, when all the mockers and finger pointers have gone, and he has said, ‘your sins have been forgiven, now go in peace’. Oh the shame and the joy of being forgiven by God!!!

Hurry now, we need to sort these fish out…hang on a minute though, we do not judge the nets contents…ever…we just trawl and haul and welcome and end up on the beach ourselves.

Yet sorted they will be, and the sad part of it all, because of the wilful refusal of some to accept the reconciliation of God they never make it from the net to the bucket.

Those who live in a way that shows a longing for a heavenly city built by God go away to a banquet and a feast, but what happens to those others, I’m so so very sorry, but we have an invite to a party, we need to go, we will just have to leave them to spend eternity flapping and gasping on the beach.

Labels: lairg dingwall church sermon

Matt 13:47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, 48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Now this parable deals with the end of the age, the final wrapping up, but put away any thoughts of rapture and tribulation etc.

Our understanding of the end in broad terms will allow us more freedom to live our lives today in a sense of peace and assuredness. We will see in this final act the very thing that Jesus has been teaching so far in his parables. This Kingdom is catholic or universal in its calling and appeal and yet it is deeply mysterious and refuses to be nailed to a preset series of rules and controls.

The main object we initially encounter is a net, in the Greek text this version of net is only used once, the word is sagene or dragnet, the others used are amphiblestron or throw net and diktyon or general net or network.

Now if you have ever seen deep sea fishing you will know that a dragnet is towed along the ocean floor, nothing escapes, nothing is left. Here Jesus uses it to emphasise that the final gathering will not omit anything, all will be included.

You will also notice if you have seen deep sea fishing, that it is not only fish that get caught. The net will gather up seaweed, rocks, old tyres, fish, squid, prawns, in fact the flotsam and jetsam of the ocean depths.

What Jesus is teaching is that everything will be caught up in that final act, not just people, but animal, vegetable and mineral.

If it were only people waiting for salvation then why would Paul write that all creation groans with longing to be set free from its captivity?

Did Jesus not say ‘if I be lifted up I will draw all things unto me? Will the new heaven and earth not be populated with all of nature, tree of life, city of God, rivers of life, all kinds of animals…we really do need to drop the idea that God’s plan of redemption centres around man alone and ultimately around me!!

Just as the net fetches everything from the sea to the millennial beach, so to the kingdom will deliver the whole earth to God. The new heavens and earth are not replacements for the old damaged ones, they are transfigurations of them. As one writer says, ‘the redeemed order is not the created order forsaken, it is the created order, all of it, raised and glorified’.

Now check your versions…there is no mention of fish in this parable, and whilst I think Jesus did mean fish indirectly, what can we make of its lack of insertion.

I am not sure if you have watched the BBC1 documentary called ‘Trawler men’? (The sheer weight of the description ‘trawling’ should give us insight into the work of the net and the kingdom.) This show features the ups and downs of three Peterhead fishing boats as they ply their trade in the freezing northern seas.

They are, in the main, fishing for prawns, and this invariably means drag net fishing. What strikes me though is Jesus knowledge of fishing when compared to this BBC documentary. Each time these men bring in the nets we find that it is not just fish. It is often fish of different sizes, but also prawns, starfish, squid, torpedoes and not a few rocks as well.

Dragnet fishing pulls in everything as I have already pointed out, what the passage calls ‘of every kind’. This shows the universal nature of the net and of the kingdom. Yet what is noticeable here is the lack of judgment or separation whilst the net is in the sea. How impossible for a trawler to separate the contents of the net whilst underwater, the whole lot, of ‘every kind’, no distinction between good and bad, is pulled to the shoreline.

Clearly a day of separation is on the way, but if the net saves its separating till all is pulled ashore, then how much more should the kingdom, and therefore the church, avoid the business of judging the contents of this great universal fishing trip.

We have in Scotland some of the finest game fishing in the world, the rich and famous flock to this corner of the UK to battle with the sport fish in our rivers.

The church, as representative of the Kingdom and therefore the dragnet approach to fishing, should resist all temptation then to act as these sport fishermen, only looking for the trophy fish, those people who are well thought of and have something to offer the church.

Even more so, bearing in mind the dragnet imagery, the church should not get into a habit of rejecting the flotsam and jetsam and old junk that will turn up in the net, remembering that it is not the trawler man who will decide who is or who is not fit for the to sit at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

The church (each one of us) has a role to play in the here and now, and not in the future. If Jesus in this parable refuses to sort the net till it reaches the millennial shore, then we should imitate that pattern.

Jesus, as you know only too well, did not shy away from sinners, so why should the church? Now I know you will maybe be thinking, ‘your wrong Dave, the church welcomes sinners’. But I know better you see, for experience tells me that the church whilst welcoming sinners, only welcomes those who repent and then never seriously need forgiveness again.

Oh yes I know it always welcomes those who gossip, or are envious, or who manipulate or have bad tempers, you know those ‘little’ sins…but God help those who commit adultery, or get divorced, or who live as unmarried.

How many times do we forgive? 70 x 7 which equal 490, only 490? No, Jesus used 7 x 70 as a way of expressing through the number associated with perfection the amount of times we forgive, the perfect amount! Do you want a figure?

Okay let me give you a Kingdom maths lesson 7 x 70 = (not 490, remember this is the mysterious world of the kingdom of God, yes 490 in the world. What would we do if it were 490, anyone guess, we would keep score) but here it equals perfect forgiveness, or in other words, eternal and never ending grace. If you take nothing else away today, then take this, and I mean it most seriously and gravely, just how big is the cup you use to measure forgiveness to others? ‘Because I tell you this, it is the same cup you will drink from in the heavenly kingdom and here on earth.

I think I will leave it there, and we never even got the net onto the beach and got round to the sorting between good and bad, maybe we will sort them next week.

Labels: lairg dingwall church sermon

When I first I undertook the preparation of this exposition in Dutch
for the Christian people among whom I labour, it was under a deep
conviction that the epistle of Hebrews contained just the instruction
they needed. In reproducing it in English, this impression has been
confirmed, and it is as if nothing could be written more exactly suited
to the state of the whole church of Christ in the present day.
The great complaint of all who have the care of souls is the lack of
wholeheartedness, of steadfastness, of perseverance, and of
progress in the Christian life. Many—of whom one cannot but
hope that they are true Christians—come to a standstill and do
not advance beyond the rudiments of Christian life and practice.
And many more do not even remain stationary but rather turn
back to a life of worldliness, formality, and indifference. And
the question is continually being asked, “What is the need in
our religion that, in so many cases, it gives no power to stand,
to advance, and to press on unto perfection?” And what is the
teaching that is needed to give that health and vigour to the
Christian life that, through all adverse circumstances, it may
be able to hold fast from the beginning, firm until the end?

The teaching of the epistle of Hebrews is the divine answer
to these questions. In every possible way, it sets before us
the truth that it is only the full and perfect knowledge of
what Christ is and does for us that can bring us to a full and
perfect Christian life. The knowledge of Christ Jesus that
we need for conversion does not suffice for growth, for progress,
for sanctification, and for maturity. Just as there are two
dispensations—the Old Testament and the New—and just as the
saints of the Old, with all their faith and fear of God, could not
obtain the more perfect life of the New, so with the two stages
in the Christian life of which this epistle speaks. Those who,
through sloth, remain babes in Christ and do not press on to
maturity are ever in danger of hardening their hearts, of coming
short, and of falling away. Only those who hold fast from the
beginning, firm until the end; who give diligence to enter the
rest of Christ; and who press on unto perfection do, in very deed,
inherit and enjoy the wonderful new covenant blessings secured to
us in Christ. And the great object of the epistle is to show us that
if we will but follow the Lord fully and yield ourselves wholly to
what God, in Christ, is ready to do, we will find, in the Gospel and
in Christ, everything we need for a life of joy, strength, and final victory.

The cure the epistle has for all our failures and feebleness—the one
preservative from all danger and disease—is the knowledge of the
higher truth concerning Jesus, the knowledge of Him in His
heavenly priesthood. In connection with this truth, the writer
has three great mysteries he seeks to unfold. The one is that
the heavenly sanctuary has been opened to us so that we may
now come and take our place there, with Jesus, in the very presence
of God. The second mystery is that the new and living way by which
Jesus has entered—the way of self sacrifice and perfect obedience to
God—is now the way in which we may and must draw near. The third
mystery is that Jesus, as our heavenly High Priest, is the Minister of the
heavenly sanctuary and dispenses to us its blessings—the spirit and the
power of the heavenly life—in such a way that we can live in the world
as those who are come to the heavenly Jerusalem and as those in whom
the spirit of heaven is the spirit of all life and conduct. In this heavenly
priesthood of Jesus, heaven is opened to us day by day, we enter it by
the new and living way, and heaven enters by the Holy Spirit. Such is
the Gospel to the Hebrews that this epistle brings. Such is the life to
which it reveals the way and the strength. The knowledge of the
heavenly character of Christ’s person and work is what alone can make
heavenly Christians, who, amid all the difficulties and temptations of
life on earth, can live as those whom the superior power of the upper
world has possessed, and in whom it can always give the victory.

In offering these meditations now to a wider circle of readers, I
do so with the prayer that it may please God to use them to
inspire some of His children with new confidence in their blessed
Lord, as they learn to know Him better and give themselves up to
expect and experience all that He is able to do for them. I have not
been afraid of continually repeating this one thought: Our one need
is to know Jesus better and the one cure for all our feebleness is to
look to Him on the throne of heaven and really claim the heavenly
life He waits to impart.

Just as I was about to write the preface to the Dutch issue during the
first week of last year, I received from my beloved colleague as a New
Year’s text—with the wish that it might be my experience—these words:
“Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth them
up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured
before them” (Mark 9:2). I at once passed the word on to my readers,
and I do so again. May the blessed Master take us “with Himself” into
the “mountain,” even the Mount Zion, where He sits as Priest King upon
the throne in power, each of us “apart by himself.” And may He prepare
us for the blessed vision of seeing Him “transfigured before us,” seeing
Him in His heavenly glory. He will then still be to us the same Jesus we
know now—and yet, not the same, but rather His whole Being, bright
with the glory and the power of the heavenly life that He holds for us
and waits to impart day by day to them who forsake all to follow Him.

In humble trust and prayer that it may be so, I commend all my readers
to His blessed teaching and guidance.

The good ole Worship Service, staple diet of the church as we know it, the Sunday morning ritualistic event that crosses all denominations. It seems that no matter where you go, the style may be different, but at its heart it is a self perpetuating monster that gobbles up its participants. We are slaves to the religious machine, from Fundamental to Emergent, there is no escaping the slavery we have willingly become chained into.

I was at a local church just the other day, and I was shocked (dismayed) by the sheer weight of complexity to the service. There was more electronic equipment on show than in MI3, it made me wonder how we coped without it all. There were 2 laptops, 3 microphones, 1 projector, 1 OHP and various things they all plugged into an overcrowded power socket. This was worship in the heart of the Matrix.

I am sure that most churches would equal this show of electronic equipment, and I fear many would far surpass this small offering to the technology God, but my gripe is not with techie stuff, its not even with style. Though I have to agree with Jason Baeder when he says ‘In the emerging church, some trends are encouraging, but it seems that we’re swallowing the worship service paradigm relatively whole. Instead of 1950s traditional styles, we’ve developed a strange hybrid between Catholic Mass and a Willow Creek seeker service’.

But style is not the issue at stake, it is simply that we have become a people for whom servicing the service is one of our gods. Sit back and think about the Sunday event that happens in your church experience….still thinking? Right now try to work out just how much time and effort it takes to produce the service. Here are some pointers, all these are guesstimates, fill your own in. Remember that this is all for a 60 -90 minute service.

When the Sunday ends, the planning begins for the next Sunday...

1 – 4 hours of worship group practice

Sermon preparation 5 – 40 hours, all lengths I have seen quoted, one website even offered a guide to how to prepare, amongst which they stated. ‘Plan for uninterrupted prep time, get a good computer, get a good word processor, bible program, illustration database, computer dictionary, Powerpoint and join a sermon study group' plus a whole lot more crap that Jesus and the Apostles forgot to do (curse you Bill Gates, why were you not around in the 1^st Century ).

The Sunday School (childrens and adults) has to be prepared by the various teachers, so lets say 4 teachers taking 3 hours each.

Then we have the rotas, door rota, flower rota, tea and coffee rota, washing up rota, creche rota, visual presentation rota. Maybe there is a bookstall that needs manning. Notice sheets, website updates and much much more. (Think of conferences, the time involved in getting ready for those events!)

Now take all this and imagine you are in temporary premises, as lots of fellowships are, you then have the setting up and taking down of all this stuff. Mind you at least you dont have the mortgage, insurance and sky high egotistical power struggles that having a building produces.

I'm gonna stop, it just depresses me, but with all that said, can you begin to see just how much is involved in producing a 1-2 hour service. Does it not seem to be a complete burden? The church I visited recently have been doing this routine for 10 years I guess, week in week out, and it was much the same at the last church I was a member. So much effort, so much time, and all for what? Possibly it has always been this way, was this how it was in the New Testament.

Well they met Lydia by the river, Paul preached in Athens, at the jailers house, at Jason's, Jesus preached along the way and many many other examples. the point being that they did not need to prepare at all, for they were constantly in a state of preparation by the dynamic yet simple lives they led following Jesus.

This is not an advert for 'house churches' for they are normally building services shrunk into a house setting to make the attendees feel more biblical, kind of 'Honey I shrunk the church'.

My point is simple, we spend far far too much time preparing for the service, the service becomes our driving force, and less and less time just following Jesus, doing as he commanded. We have become slaves to the machine, and for the most part all we do is serve other peoples dreams and aspirations, feeding their already inflated egos.

We will never break free I fear, for deep down so few trust God, we are happy with our mechanised lives, our conformity, our mundane clinging to second, third, fourth best. We are in no way priests of the King, for we have become like Lazarus, feeding on the scraps from under the tables, living a dogs life...dare we break free, I wonder?

Warning...this post contains one instance of explicit language.

[continued from here]...for all to bow down and worship, and his name is success. Success has pervaded every area of life and culture, secular education is under attack from this taskmaster, and as Sabrina Broadbent, a novelist and English teacher, says 'her students are ground down by the pressure of success'. Speaking of her students, her picture paints a scene of utter futility and bondage when she says 'At first, they told me, they had quite liked school. But now, after seven years, they couldn’t bear the pressure, the endless exhortations to succeed in order to prepare a survival route through the struggle and debt that they now saw was adulthood'. Her article is well worth reading in full, and can be found at women.timesonline.co.uk.

Even Christian religious education is under this onslaught, preparing men and women for ministry in which they must succeed, Dr.Harold Dean Trulear, Associate Professor of Religious Education at Howard University and pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Twin Oaks, PA gives this sound bite at a recent conference detailing the danger of an enforced requisite for academic success.

Dr Harold Dean Trulear audio file 02:26minutes...PLAY.

Much of this desire for success has pressed into the gospel through teachings by men like Robert Schuller and the positive confession movement.

Success is the demonic desire to have ascendancy and pre-eminence, and ultimately to make a name for oneself. To receive the 'rich trappings' that success brings, and to feel wanted and needed is the reward of this pursuit at all costs. For those who claim to be part of the Kingdom of God this presents a problem, for the DNA of success is inherently different to the DNA modelled on weakness, servant hood, compassion, love and kindness for our neighbour.

The construction and blueprint for the Kingdom is found in the ministry and model of Jesus, it is into His image the disciple is being conformed. To chase success will only 'kick against those goads' , the goads that work to direct us to that perfect image.

Success takes no prisoners; it is an insatiable monster that requires constant feeding. Therefore those of us believe that Mark's gospel has some relevancy for our lives should step into our callings as exorcists, take up our ministry of exorcism, and cast out all those elements that stand opposed to the weakness of the Kingdom of God.

I think Eugene Peterson in The Message gives a good insight into those elements as detailed by Paul in Galatians 5 when he amplifies the verses saying...(bold is my emphasis)

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on...[more].

Success often goes hand in hand with effectiveness; current thinking says that if something is non-effective it is unsuccessful and should be discarded. Something is only worth keeping if it is successful and effective, and it is exactly this mentality that is leading the church astray, so much so that it now finds itself almost completely out of touch with the Kingdom of God and totally in one heart and mind with the world, now matter how emergent it tries to be.

I know what this is like, this chase for success and effective ministry, for within the prayer letters I write for the Railway Mission, I feel compelled to be effective, to sound successful to the readers, those whose kind gifts enable the work to continue. I ask you, who would want to receive a prayer letter that said 'absolutely nothing visible happened since I last wrote'. Believe me, I have worshipped at the temple of success, and I have signed the constitution and agreed the statement of faith at the First United Church of Successfulness.

The church in its pursuit of success and effective ministry measured by recordable targets is moving very far from God, and I fear that it may have gone so far that God may now say 'I will not permit you any longer to work in my field' (Heb 6:3). Maybe we have flirted with the idols for too long, oh yes we will get to heaven in the end, but like a corpse needs to be carried to the grave, so we will have to be carried to heaven like helpless babies.

You recall that 'God hates divorce' and I think one of the reasons is because of the heartache of broken relationships. This is what commitment to success brings; it encourages broken relationships because in the pursuit of success we almost only ever please self.

Yet maybe another reason God hates divorce is because his bride to be is constantly serving divorce papers on Him. The almighty God, full of love and compassion comes to woo and nurture his bride, yet she rejects and spurns his advances, preferring to lift up her skirts to the world, and her lover has to watch as she prostitutes herself to the world.

You may have seen the film Jarhead, director Sam Mendes' dark and intense war drama. One scene represents what is happening to the church. The US Marines have been away for 100+ days, camped in the Kuwaiti desert, waiting for action in the 1991 Gulf conflict. One plotline follows the relationships of the soldiers and their loved ones back home, the tensions and mistrust those miles of distance can bring. One Marine cheers because his wife/girlfriend has sent him a video of The Deerhunter for them to watch. All the marines gather in a big tent and he inserts the video and presses play, after a few seconds of the film, the video changes to his wife on the bed at home having sex with one of his neighbours, he begins to scream. Then his wife, speaking from the video, tells him that this is payback for his unfaithfulness...a very disturbing scene.

Now God has in no way been unfaithful to his bride, in fact he is faithfulness that we can never understand, yet still the great cosmic audience stands in shock as it witnesses the disgusting show of all manner of idolatrous entities fucking the bride to be as she sells her body and inheritance to the idol gods of success and achievement. Now I think some of you will probably be more offended by the use of such explicit language than the scene that God has to witness each time the church he has purchased for himself gives herself to the bondage he came to set her free from.

I am not sure what there is left to say about this - other than we need to stop trying to be a success, stop trying to meet achievable goals, stop thinking that the universe revolves around us, for as we immerse ourselves in those things that we are already doing for good, then even though we may look to be weak and foolish failures in the world's and often the church's eyes, in Gods eye we will be those on whom He smiles.

The Laodecian Christians were asleep in the light. In Ephesians 5: 14 Paul says ‘awake you who sleep, arise from the dead’. Christ will give you light.
Should we find ourselves asleep then we also need to wake up; we need that power of Gods fire-baptizing Spirit to raise us from the deathly and dank pit into which we have sank. Cast your minds back to that first taste of grace, do you remember how sweet the name of Jesus was back then, is it still as sweet today, as sweet as the finest honey, is that how the name of Jesus is upon our lips...more


Do you remember that first love? In Rev 2 Jesus speaks to the church at Ephesus and says these words ‘Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love...I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

The classic interpretation of this verse often falls short of what the Lord was saying. Does Jesus want us to be hot and on fire, yes, without doubt. Does He want us to be cold and dead, surely not. This is what some scholars would have us believe.

The problem with that rendering is that should this be the case then Jesus would be implying that both extremes are positive. Could it be that Jesus would want us to be cold and therefore completely uncommitted and in a state of death. It should appear to us then that this would be a very unlikely exhortation from Jesus.

I believe there is an alternative view that opens up more of the Spirit of the scriptures. To understand the image we must recognise the geographical location of Laodecia. This picture of hot, cold and lukewarm could in fact relate to the water, this being a unique feature of Laodecia and the surrounding region.

The hot waters of Hierapolis had a medicinal effect and the cold waters of Colossae were pure, drinkable and had a life giving effect. There is archaeological evidence that Laodecia had access only to warm water, which would then cause nausea. When the city tried to pipe water in, it could manage only tepid, nauseous water.

The works that Jesus knows are their efforts to be a living witnessing community. The people of the city were receiving neither spiritual healing, the type which the hot waters would bring, or the life that the cold water would bring, in short the church was not fulfilling it’s calling.

This image would have had an immediate effect on the hearers for they would identify with their situation. The effect of their conduct in Christ was like the effect of their own water; they knew how they felt after drinking their water, this is how they made Jesus, the Lord wanted to spew them out of His mouth.

If the Laodecian Christians refused to own up to their identity with Christ, then clearly they had no claim on Christ and come the judgment he would spew them out.
Ultimately the work of the gospel would not be hindered, and I daresay that even our own town of Dingwall, if the church remains lukewram, then God is able to raise up even stones should He desire. He desires though to use those He has called for the work of His.

If we refuse to be a witness, a community of faith that must be a light by the sheer witness of our fellowship and love for one another (for being a witness is not about what we do, but who we are), but if we refuse, then maybe we should just accept the matter and cry out to the Father and say ‘Lord if you cannot do anything through us or with us, then we beg you Father, bypass us and take up another people who do not know you. Save them and sanctify them Father with the Holy Ghost, and send them out into this world that despises you.

There is a great day that awaits us, we have a glorious future, but we are already part of that glorious future, for the kingdom of God has broken into this present evil age. But listen, God Almighty has nothing else to give to this world, I know He sustains it, but hear me out.


The Lord has given His only begotten Son so that man can be saved and find shelter in time of trouble, the Son will not come again as the suffering servant for salvation and death on a cross, He has already given us His Word, their will be no other Bible (JW's and Mormons take note), this is His final word to us and our fellow man, He has given His Spirit in all its fullness and that Spirit is given so as to help us understand his word, to persuade man that he is in rebellion against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to build the Church into that spotless bride.

We have all that we need, what are we waiting for, do any of us lack wisdom, then ask the Lord who alone is wise for wisdom and he will give it to you, do any of you lack power for living godly lives, then ask the Lord of glory and he will endue with power from on high, do any of you lack boldness to witness, then ask the true and faithful witness, and he will give you the boldness to declare his gospel with all clarity.

Time is running out my friends, the disciple is to be either hot or cold.

Hot in the sense of those hot healing waters, like the hot springs around the world that have a medicinal effect, a superheated church, and the Christian is to bring reconciliation and healing to a dying and lost world.

Cold in the sense of those cold living waters. Jesus said let anyone who thirsts come to me, and I will give to him the water of life. The world and our fellow believers need that life giving; cool and pure water that will well up to springs of eternal life.

So this passage is a call for the church, the believer is to recognise his or her state, not to think to highly of oneself, but to see with the eyes of the Spirit. Should they be found naked and blind, then let repentance flow.

Let the blood of the Lamb flow from the cross of Calvary and wash away the sin and rebellion Jesus might present us before the Father without spot and blemish.
We are sons and daughters of the most high God, adopted and settled into this heavenly family, let us live that way with one another.

No matter where we go in this world, be it Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland or distant lands, let Him have his way with us and let us lay aside anything and everything that would hinder our responding in faith to the urgent call that the Lord has for His mission field in which we stand today. I believe that the Lord desires to make this church a blessing to the people around us, and I leave you with the sure knowledge that the Lord of Hosts, the Father of lights, is the Father of all spiritual gifts, equipping and preparing each one of us for the purpose that He seeks to perform in the locality where he has placed us, and I believe without any doubt that He is ready to pour out his goodness on all those who are ready to receive.

It was with baited breath that the crowd outside Tesco waited the revealing of the sculpture. It was with a certain amount of surprise then to see the Golden Calf upon the top of it. I must apologise here for being provocative, you see the notes on the day, as well as the artist who made it, took every opportunity to instil in us a notion that this is ‘not the golden calf that the Israelites worshipped’.

I could not help but think ‘why be so defensive’, let the sculpture be what it is, surely art demands that people have the freedom to interpret it with their own eyes?

I think the Sculptor deserves much credit for a wonderful piece of artwork, and the bull on top is representative of a local beast as well as the former mart. Maybe though the golden bull atop the sculpture means more than simply meets the eye, and maybe it is symbolic of all that we have become in this world.

If religion was the opiate for the masses in the world of Marx, then consumerism is now the number one drug of choice for the West. In vivid picture form, the golden calf/bull at Tesco’s seems to symbolise what retail outlets have become, the new centres of worship and communal gatherings. It’s no mere coincidence that places like the Trafford Centre in Manchester have a huge temple like feel, with a cavernous central cathedral area, and often these new worship centres host the priests of this ‘new religion’, the celebrities.

In our nation, Sunday attendance at church was once the normative practice, attendance has floundered somewhat in the changing face of society, and it is now the shopping malls that win the feet of the faithful. It is the global retailers and merchandisers who now have 7 day a week commitment, church membership swapped for loyalty cards, and black ties and hats replaced with corporate uniform bearing names such as Adidas and Nike. The holy books have are replaced by Bella and Best, and the altar exchanged for the cash checkout. The cry of kneel and pray has been superseded by the mantra of ‘chip and pin’. We are in every way, still very religious.

So is this harmful, this slide into greater and greater material dependency? Short term the answer may well be no, but long term I think the effects are going to be devastating for our nation.

We consume and dispose, and very rarely recycle; it is cheaper to buy a new DVD player than have the old one repaired, especially as retail giants like Tesco and the Dixon’s group can command low prices from the supplier. We become more and more individualistic and we have to a large extent lost our sense of belonging within our communities. To try and find commonality and meaning, we gather at these giant retail parks where the pew is replaced by the parking lot. We crave even more, and we demand lower prices, more choice and yet everybody wants a ‘bargain’, why else are outlets like charity shops and EBay such a success.

The big corporate retailers will defend themselves by declaring that they are only meeting demand, but a study of men like Edward Bernays, the blood nephew of Sigmund Freud reveals that the demand has been created rather than met, it was Bernays himself who said "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it”?

We are being controlled, and our group mind is not now focused on values such as family and community, but moves impassively as one great connected consciousness through the ever increasing retail shopping malls.

So what should our response be to the ongoing onslaught of this relentless marketing and consumerist machine? As always in revolution, personal cost is high, for how many of us are willing to pay more for the things we can get for less. We no longer see ourselves as co-operatives, each person is simply out for the best deal possible, and I do not claim any moral high ground, for I myself shop at Amazon for ease of delivery and low prices.

What we can do though is support our local community in all the many ways it appears. We can support our local retailers, (and I do include Tesco as a local retailer who have become a genuine focal point for the community, like it or not). So why not buy your bike locally, and not at Halfords in Inverness, and those tins of paint actually cost much the same if not less at MacDonald’s as opposed to B&Q, and remember our neighbours are the staff in Dingwall’s shops.

So let us drive for the improvement of Dingwall and surrounding areas by our enthusiasm for local projects. Let us support our community councils and residents associations by listening to them and maybe even joining them. We can support our youth ventures by volunteering instead of despising the younger people of our community. We can support our local councillors by applauding the good work they do, realising the dilemma’s they face, encouraging them as they place social action above political allegiance.

We can in fact stick two fingers up at the golden calf and say that we will not become a centre for consumerist greed, but we will celebrate the rich cultural diversity and inherent creativeness that this part of the world and its people contain.

I imagine the Viking invaders all those years ago had to fight many battles to establish a secure place to live, let us continue the fight in our day against the golden calf of consumerism, individuality and marginalisation.