The Clifton Bible Project: 2013-10-06

Oct 12th

1 Kings 15 Ezekiel 45 Colossians 2 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Col 2:6-7

I’ve just been around to see how the kitchen extension next door is getting on. The floor has been laid now on top of the breeze blocks that are on top of the foundations. This building is being built on what has been laid already.

‘Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord (that’s the foundations), continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him…’

My neighbour’s extension is being built brick by brick on firm foundations and we need to be building our lives brick by brick on our foundational faith that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. What we need each step of the way is more of Jesus. We’re back to the goal we looked at in Philippians 3!

‘Being a Christian is like riding a bicycle; unless you go forward, you’ll fall off’[1]. We have to go forward in the direction we’ve begun.

If the builders next door started building the walls away from the foundations, they would be fragile and likely to collapse, they’d be breaking the planning permission that has been granted and they’d be disregarding the instructions of the designer and the client.

But my neighbour’s builders are building according to the design they’ve been given, on the foundations they’ve carefully laid and I expect they’ll provide the dream kitchen requested.

Our lives, built on the foundation of who Jesus is and what he’s done for us, will be, v 7, ‘overflowing with thankfulness’ as we build with deeper knowledge of Jesus.

(part time member of staff)

[1] Tom Wright, ‘Paul for Everyone, The Prison Letters’ p164

Oct 11th

1 Kings 14 Ezekiel 44 Colossians 1 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Col 1:5

‘…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is already stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.’ The Colossians have well built foundations (see yesterday’s reflection)!

This gospel is described in verses 19-23; God, through Christ, has reconciled all things to himself by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Jesus is, v 15, the image of the invisible God….and through his blood we who were, v 21, once alienated from God and were enemies in our minds because of our evil behaviour are now reconciled to God!

Like the concrete foundations need to set before the walls can be built, has this monumental reality set yet? Are we building our lives on this foundational truth?

(part time member of staff)

Oct 10th

1 Kings 13 Ezekiel 43 Philippians 4 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Phil 4:1

Once again we read ‘stand firm in the Lord’ (see reflection on Phil 1).

As you know from yesterday’s reflection, my neighbour is having their kitchen extended. For two weeks now, there has been a small digger and three strong men armed with spades digging the foundations for this extension. 3 days ago, concrete was poured into these ditches and now the concrete has set, the breeze block walls are beginning to appear above the mud.

Have you ever noticed how much of the time builders spend on a building before anything seems to happen? Making foundations seems to take for ever! But if the foundations aren’t secure, the building won’t be.

Paul’s call to us to stand firm refers to 3:20-21 = ‘our citizenship is in heaven….’. Our world is not our home. The foundations of our life are meant to have an eternal perspective and a child of God identity.

Are we building our house on the rock or the sand (Matthew 7:24-27)?

(part time member of staff)

Oct 9th

1 Kings 12 Ezekiel 42 Philippians 3 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Phil 3

I am writing these reflections at home. My neighbour is having their kitchen extended and every few minutes I feel as though a drill is about to appear through the wall on my left. I have tussled with the idea of going to talk to the builders and explaining that I work from home and need to concentrate, and could they do this drilling tomorrow, but I have decided I can work despite the noise, I can focus on the task of writing despite the destruction going on a few meters to my left.

V 13 ‘But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.’

Oh, it is so easy to be distracted from our goal of knowing Christ Jesus. Life crowds in on us like the almost deafening grinding of the drill next door. There is so much to do (in my life this means: writing letters, cleaning the bathroom, emptying the dishwasher, lots of emails I haven’t read, sandwiches to make for the school pick up, people I should have phoned last week…..)! How do we refocus on our goal?

You are doing it, if you’re reading this and the Bible passages for today you are doing part of the pressing on toward the goal that Paul is writing about – well done!

(part time member of staff)

Oct 8th

1 Kings 11 Ezekiel 41 Philippians 2 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Phil 2:14-16

No church is perfect, no person is perfect, no relationship is perfect…there are always things we can complain and argue about and so we do and this is what the world sees. The world sees the Church argue about whether women should be Bishops and that’s it, a cloud has obscured the stars in the dark night sky. The world hears us complaining about our church leaders and that’s it, a cloud has obscured the stars.

I love camping. I love the simplicity of only having the bear minimum to cook with and eat with. I love being so affected by the weather. I love that it really makes a difference whether there are clouds in the night sky, blocking out the light from the moon and the stars, making it necessary to have a torch to walk around without tripping over a guy rope. I love that when there are no clouds in the night sky the light from the stars is enough to see where you are going.

Our complaining and arguing is like clouds in the night sky obscuring the word of life. While we complain and argue the world is left to trip over the guy ropes and get lost in the dark. When we speak positively about our church family, we shine and then others can see the word of life, the gospel, the news about who Jesus is and what he’s done.

(part time member of staff)

Oct 7th

1 Kings 10 Ezekiel 40 Philippians 1 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Phil 1:27-28

A few weeks ago (9^th Sept) Paul was giving the sermons and he shared a picture that a number of the staff had felt the Holy Spirit give them as a way of encouraging Paul and Jackie. We saw Jackie and Paul on the front line of a battle, the other staff were right behind our leaders, ready to support them and step forward to join them when necessary. Other staff members had a very similar picture of a Rugby scrum with Paul taking the worst of the attack. Many of the staff were also reminded of Ephesians 6:10-20 and Paul’s call to ‘Stand firm against the devil’s schemes….stand your ground….stand firm’. In our reading for today from Philippians we hear this phrase again ‘Stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel…’

In my experience of moving cattle, every person must stand firm, because if anyone blocking the road moves for fear of the cows heading towards us, there will be a gap in the human barrier, and the cows will run through it creating the problem of finding them and getting them back into the right field.

Every Christian needs to stand firm, not because of a confused cow or because we want to win a Rugby match but because we are in a battle against the devil’s schemes. We need to stand with our leaders and fellow members of Christ Church, not letting through, our united, firm line, any issue that will disrupt our impact in the world as carriers of the gospel of Christ.

(part time member of staff)

Oct 6th

1 Kings 9 Ezekiel 39 Ephesians 6 (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Some people aspire to a second home in the country – perhaps a cottage in Cornwall or a gite in France – spending their time now in one place, now in another. Christians live in 2 worlds at the same time, citizens both of heaven and earth.

In Ephesians 2:6 Paul had talked about Christians as having already been raised and already being seated in the heavenly realms even as we live our mundane daily lives. The same thought appears in Ephesians 6 where we find that we are engaged in a battle in the heavenly realms. But we do not leave one realm at the end of the week for our weekend in a second home: we stay both citizens of this world and of the heavenly realms at the same time.

This is a familiar passage and we may easily lose the sense of strangeness in describing Christians as needing to dress like Roman legionaries, putting on armour in readiness for war. Even stranger is the fact that the armour and weapons are things like ‘truth’, ‘righteousness’, ‘salvation’, all of which are used elsewhere to describe Jesus himself. What it shows is the seriousness and significance of Christian life. This is not something we dabble in during our weekends or evenings away from the world of work (or wherever we spend most of our time). There is a spiritual battle going on whether we choose to engage in it or not but we can be reassured that the weapons God gives us are enough for us to ‘be strong’ and ‘stand’.

Are you taking seriously the spiritual battle? Are you living as a citizen of heaven even as you go about your daily life?

(member of the congregation)