Author: Proud Mpofu

By Eddie Lombard

27 Jesus told her,  “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Mark 7:27-30

Jesus is in Tyra, a Gentile area. He meets a woman that falls before Jesus desperate for her little girl to be healed.  She is described as Gentile by birth and in culture. Mark deliberately does this to highlight her nationality and draw our attention to tensions that existed between Jew and Gentile in Jesus’ day (vs 26). You can imagine Jesus’ Jewish companions thinking to themselves: what is she thinking coming to Jesus? Does she not know that Jesus came for the Jew? What will Jesus do, will He really help our enemies who don’t deserve God?

As Jesus answers her, He deliberately highlights this tension between Jew and Gentile by telling her that the “bread was first for the children then for the dogs”. At first it looks like Jesus shows favoritism toward the Jews, but like most of Jesus’ teaching there is more than what meets the eye. The conversation happens on two levels: she is concerned for her daughter but Jesus uses this opportunity to show that God’s priority to the Jews has never excluded the Gentiles, and that both Jew and Gentile need to respond appropriately to Him.

Jesus could have used a very different, less confrontational story to make His point but He tells the ”bread and dogs” story (vs 27). He did this deliberately to remind us of His feeding miracles. This section of Jesus’ teaching is deliberately sandwiched between Mark 6, where Jesus fed the 5000 Jews in a Jewish area, and  Mark 7 where He feeds the 4000 Gentiles in the Gentile area. It is in this context that Jesus tells the “bread and dogs” parable. Jesus offers both Jew and Gentile “the bread of life” and in both cases “they ate their full” and there was food left over. Jesus clearly shows that He came first for the Jews but that did not mean He did not come for the Gentiles too. This would have been very offensive to the Jews of Jesus’ time. The big question Jesus highlights in this interaction with the woman was her response. In vs 29 Jesus commended the women’s response because she responds exactly how Israel should have responded but didn’t. She responds in humility and obedience before the Lord, unlike the Jews who refused to humble themselves before God, as seen in the other section of Jesus’ teaching sandwiched between the two feedings, Mark 7:1-23. The result is that she went home and found her daughter healed.

This passage gives us a great warning. God has no favorites. You are not in His family because of anything special God saw in us. We are in the family because we came humbly to Christ with great guilt for our sin and begged Him for His mercy. It is only by grace we have been saved.

Prayer point:

Ask God to open our eyes to see our great guilt for our sin

Ask God to show us His great mercy for us in Jesus

By Roydon Frost

(Acts 4.24-30)
When we read Acts we can sometimes get the feeling that those first Christians were super-believers of some sort. It may seem that they were running off a zeal that was unique to those early days – the kind of energy that comes with anything new. There is also a case to be made that the Spirit was wielding the word in a special way in that first generation to birth and build the church. But even if we account for the uniqueness of that time, when we look to ourselves it feels like it’s been downhill ever since. Prayer is a prime example. We come off as prayer pygmies compared to the spiritual giants of the apostolic era.

But that’s only half the story. The prayer we will look at today comes from Acts 4. It is a powerful and challenging picture of the church at its best, but in the very next chapter, we get a brutally authentic picture of the church at its worst: greed, theft, deceit. In the early church there were factions and rivalries (Acts 6.1), there was distrust (Acts 9.26), there was error and dissension (Acts 15.1-2), there was disagreement and even separation (Acts 15.39). And yet, through it all, “the word of God continued to increase” (Acts 6.7; 12.24; 13.49; 19.20). So, if we read carefully and broadly, we see the early church as it was – a mixed reality. Where they were fruitful and godly, it was a work of the Spirit; where they were barren and corrupt, it was the residual sin in their lives. That sounds strangely familiar. While we don’t celebrate their failure, it is liberating to see the early church as it was. It means we can pursue their passion and focus in prayer because while we certainly struggle with the same sin, we also have the same Spirit living within us. So, if we got to pray with our brothers and sisters from the first century, what would it look like?

Praying always, as a priority
The first instinct of the early church was to pray. They prayed for conversion (Acts 8.15), they prayed for healing (Acts 9.40), they prayed for those in prison (Acts 12.5), they prayed for guidance (Acts 1.24; 6.6), they prayed for mission (Acts 13.3), they prayed for leadership (Acts 14.23). They were a people devoted to prayer (Acts 2.42).

We will look at just one example from Acts 4. Peter and John were just released under threat after a major confrontation with the authorities in Jerusalem. Humanly speaking, the prospects for the early church were bleak at best. And then they prayed the prayer of Acts 4.24-30:

Praying for God’s glory
They started by praising God and his Sovereignty in Creation (Acts 4.24). They lifted their eyes above the socio-political smog to see a glorious vision of God. It was the pattern their Lord gave them in his prayer, and we will be richly blessed by opening our prayers in the same way.

Praying through God’s word
Before they spoke again, they listened. They let God do the talking, through his word (Ps 2 in Acts 4.25-26). He reminded them that he is not only Sovereign in Creation, he is also Sovereign in Redemption. His King sits on the throne of the universe and the nations rage in vain. What a comfort to the people of the King.

Praying under God’s will
They remind themselves that while Herod and Pilate and the High Priest had their plans (Acts 4.27), God had his (Acts 4.28). And God’s plans always come to pass. God’s plans are always for his glory and for the good of his people. “Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” (Acts 2.36)

Praying for God’s work
It is ever so striking. This church is under extreme duress. Its leaders are in immediate personal danger. All this pressure comes from proclaiming the word, yet the prayer of the church is… for boldness to proclaim the word! Here is evidence of the Spirit at work. We will never have God’s kingdom as our prayer priority, we will never have the courage to pray such a prayer, unless we invite the Spirit of Christ to have his way with us. If we want to pray with our brothers and sisters from the early church, and pray like they prayed, perhaps that’s where we should start.

By Martin Morrison

Our relationship with God is never more or less than a relationship of grace. Grace brought us into the family, grace will keep us in the family, and only grace will get us home. But God’s grace is not always a comfortable grace. But why, you say?

As sinners we become far too comfortable with our sin. The thought that once bothered us, becomes an action that no longer plagues our conscience. The unexpressed irritations which at times troubled our hearts, have become full blown expressed anger which we now rationalize. The caring, forgiving marriage has now given way to a cold-war détente. The fastidious commitment to honesty and truth telling has meandered into blurring the lines and being economical with the truth. Sadly, there are even times we sin with impunity, presuming that God will forgive, it’s his job isn’t it! You knew it was malicious gossip, but couldn’t stop yourself from telling everyone! Gossip can be such a delicious morsel! You knew you should have kept silent, but blowing your own trumpet was just so irresistible!

You see we all have a perverse capacity to be comfortable with what God says is wrong. So there are times when God blesses us with painful, uncomfortable grace. He really does love us more than we can imagine. And so there are times when he crushes us, so that we may feel and see the pain of our sin and run to him for deliverance. This truth is taught by both David and Paul.

In Psalm 51:8, David says, “Let the bones you have broken rejoice”. Say that again David!! Broken bones and rejoicing don’t normally go together. Are you smoking something? No says David. When you touch a hot stove and burn your hand, you instantly avoid the hot stove. Without the physical pain, you would continue to burn your hand and cause irrevocable damage to yourself. In the same way, God may break your bone, in order that you may realize that your relationship with him is in danger. Think about it, the physical pain of an actual broken bone is small change, compared to your body being thrown into an irrevocable hell.

God had given the Apostle Paul extraordinary revelations. However, to keep Paul from becoming conceited and proud, “….a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me….three times I pleaded with the Lord that it should leave me. But he said to me,” My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with my weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak then I am strong”. To our knowledge, that thorn was never removed by God. Strangely Paul was content. He had the spiritual insight to know that the thorn was small change to the conceit and pride that could so easily consume his heart.

So God’s grace isn’t always comfortable. At times it can be excruciatingly painful. Like a broken bone. Like a thorn in the flesh. The reason being that he isn’t working primarily on our comfort. He is working on our character. He isn’t primarily concerned about our happiness, because he’s primarily concerned about our holiness.

Right now, think of your broken bone. Think of your thorn in the flesh. Ask God to give you the spiritual insight to become content in your present station in life. Ask God to use the thorn or bone make you content in the grace of God and the power of Christ. Of course, its easier said than done. Which is why you need to close the door and turn off the device and talk to God. Again.

For further reading: Whiter than Snow. Meditations on Sin and Mercy. Paul David Tripp. Available on Amazon Kindle. (See Chapter 7 in particular for this devotion).
The Gift of Pain; Fearfully and Wonderfully Made; In the Likeness of God. Dr Paul Brand & Philip Yancey. Philip Yancey also wrote, What’s so Amazing about Grace?

By Eddie Lombard

6 Jesus replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Mark 7:6

I still remember the first time someone called me out for not “social distancing”. I got angry. Why did that happen, why did my heart react in that way? In Mark 7:1-23 Jesus puts his finger on what must have made many people angry. He exposed the heart of the problem and it is the problem of the heart.

In Mark 7 we see the Pharisees taking offence at Jesus’ disciples not “keeping to the traditions of the elders” by eating with hands that they saw as unclean. Jesus immediately pointed out their hypocrisy. These “traditions of the elders” were only play acting.
“they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” vs 6.
The Pharisees and those who religiously kept the law only did it with their lips, that is only on the outside for people to see. The real test of loving God is a test of the heart that only God can see. What is truly important to them is the following of their man-made traditions for men to see.
Jesus gets to the heart of their sin in vs 14-23. Nothing from outside a man can make him unclean, it is what comes out of his heart that makes him unclean. What he does in this passage is to show us the sinfulness of our own heart. Sin is ‘born” there. The reality is that we need rescue from our own heart.

Jesus used COVID 19 to expose my sin. I liked the fact that I could do what I wanted, when I wanted. But that was only a privilege not a right. When my freedom was taken away, my heart reacted with anger. I needed to see my sin, I needed to repent of my sin. I needed to find my freedom in Christ and not in this privilege we have to go where we want and do what we want.

What sin has Jesus exposed in your heart through COVID 19? What makes you angry about the time we find ourselves in? Our hearts are the birthplace of all our sin. Sin is serious. Sin needs to be brought to the light so that we can repent and turn back to Jesus in faith and repentance, so that we can honor Jesus with our hearts.
Amen

Prayer Point:
Ask the Lord to help you see your sin. To expose your heart and its sinfulness
Ask the Lord to help you repent and believe again

By Roydon Frost

ESV Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. 12:1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; 2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, 4 and the doors on the street are shut– when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low– 5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets– 6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. (Eccl. 11:9 ESV)

“Chaos”; “confusion” – words that are common currency for those describing the times in which we live. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is no stranger to either. He preached 3000 years ago but his description of life “under the Sun” rings strangely familiar. In so many passages he seems to be preaching straight out of our existential angst: the complexity, absurdity, frustration, futility and (in his own favourite word) “vanity” of this earthly life. Ecclesiastes isn’t a prayer, but if it was, what would the Preacher pray? Or what would he counsel us to pray, at a time such as this?

Thank God for the good in life, and enjoy it.
The young man in 11:.9 is encouraged to enjoy life to the full and not to wallow in the realities of hardship or pain, because this earthly life is fleeting. But note that the truly good life is lived in the sight of God, not apart from him (11:.9; 12:.1): “This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Eccl. 2:.24-25). Contrary to popular opinion, enjoying the good things of this life and living in the presence of God are not incompatible. In fact, the wisdom of the preacher is that you can’t truly have one without the other. He would want us to notice, receive and enjoy God’s good gifts with a resilient attitude of prayerful thanksgiving. That said, the Preacher doesn’t have his head in the sand…

Acknowledge the bad, and our part in it.
While he celebrates the good in the orderly patterns of everyday life, he is equally candid about the dark side. There is no pious pretence that all is well for the holy. There is no prosperity peddling of seeds and words and men of God, who (just add faith) can deliver the victorious life, guaranteed. The Preacher is as wise as a serpent, he is savvy, a man of the world. He has street smarts. He has lived enough to know that bad things happen to good people, and that good things are on a slow funeral march to the grave (read Eccl. 12:.1-8 again). Death is the final absurdity, and it casts a long shadow. But make no mistake, as he acknowledges all this, the Preacher is not shaking his fist at God. He is not having a rant at his Creator. He is in search of truth and so he will not allow himself to avoid the truth of his own culpability. He is guilty. We are guilty (Eccl. 7:.20,29). If chaos has entered the world, it came with mankind. Ecclesiastes is no pity party. It is a sober look at the real state of the world, and honest admission of our part in it. The Preacher would want our prayers to reflect that sort of honesty and humility. And then he would want us to take heart…

Fear God and keep his commandments.
The Preacher’s conclusion is that while there is much good in life “under the Sun” (i.e. life apart from God), in the end it is futile and transient. Trying to cling to the goods of this life is like trying to hold water in your hand – the harder you grasp, the quicker it passes through your fingers. Better to recognise that there is life beyond the Sun (Eccl. 12.13):

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

To fear God is to know him and be in right relation to him. To keep his commandments is to Love him, with all your heart and soul and mind and strength; and to love your neighbour as yourself. Only Jesus Christ kept the whole duty of man. In Him we take up that noble duty. It won’t leave us where we were – paralysed by the seeming absurdity of it all – because it gives true meaning and purpose to life under the Sun. It won’t crush us, as it should, because he has gone before us and we serve as mere witnesses to his victory. In Christ, our lives have what they could never have apart from him: purpose, meaning and hope. Our Preacher would want us to pray, and to live, in light of that Truth.

By Martin Morrison

After Bafana Bafana, my favourite national soccer team is Algeria. You may well ask why? Because one of my all-time heroes is Augustine, who was born in Algeria!!

Augustine who lived from 354 to 430 AD, was indisputably the greatest African theologian. In my opinion, the four greatest theologians of all time were Athanasius from Egypt, Luther from Germany, Calvin from France and Augustine. Augustine is arguably the most influential of them all. The reason for this view, is that Luther regarded Augustine as having hugely influenced his own theology and the theology of the Reformation in the 16th century. I am always delighted to reflect on the monumental influence Africa has had on Christendom and Protestantism in particular.

Augustine lived through the disintegration and fall of the Roman Empire and so personally experienced the trauma of his world falling apart. So it is immensely reassuring that Augustine taught his disciples in the midst of earthly crises where to find rest for their troubled souls.

“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them, Come to me, all you labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.” Of course, he was quoting Jesus in Matthew 11:28.

No doubt, it was this striking truth that caused him to pray, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”.”

I seem to recollect that C.S.Lewis said that God ‘made’ us. God invented us as a man invented a motor car. The original motor car was made to run on petrol. Anything else doesn’t work, no matter how hard you try. In the same way, God designed the human machine to run on Him. He is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other, no matter how hard you try. That is why created things will always leave us empty. They weren’t designed to fill the hole. God cannot give us peace and happiness apart from himself. There is no such thing.

The promised rest of Matthew 11:28, is not merely an antidote to anxiety or fear. It is not merely a prayer for God to calm our spirit in times of turmoil. It is that, but much, much more. It is primarily rest for our souls. Rest from the guilt of sin, rest from trying to earn our salvation through good works, rest from the judgement of God. Ultimate rest, ultimate sabbath is only found in Jesus. Jesus is our final rest. Jesus is our ultimate sabbath.

The rest is not more religion; the rest is not some form of spirituality; the rest is not the church; or the so-called ‘man of God’. No, says Jesus, Come to Me, and I will give you rest.

I can promise you, until and unless you come to Jesus, your soul will always be restless.

For further reading: Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis. The Confessions of St Augustine – both available from Amazon Kindle.

By Martin Morrison

This is one of our top devotions of 2020 published on the 18th of November 2020. Find the full article here

We all do it unconsciously. When we are with our family we discuss family matters which we don’t discuss with non-family members. It is not a lack of transparency or being hypocritical, it is wisdom. Relationships are built in concentric rings. On the outside ring are acquaintances with whom we exchange pleasantries and use functional language. With our friends we are generally more intimate and our conversation goes deeper. With our family, we are the most intimate, being able to discuss private, personal and family matters. Our passage today is for family, not mere acquaintances. We may call it inside information.

In Romans 8, Paul has been giving a master class about life in the Spirit. However, in Romans 8: 29 – 30, he tells the family exactly how it came about that they were recipients of the Holy Spirit. It didn’t just happen out of the blue. It certainly wasn’t luck or fate or chance. No, God was clearly in control in our becoming his children. When a child is born or adopted, it certainly doesn’t happen by chance. No, decisions were made. Much thought was expended. Preparations were made. Well, Paul tells us that it is no different when it comes to those who are children of God.

The Roman Christians to whom Paul was writing were facing varying degrees of persecution and opposition to their faith. Christianity was outlawed and it was a scary time to be a follower of Jesus. If you failed to pronounce, “Caesar is Lord”, there was a bounty price on your head, and thousands in fact were martyred for their faith in Christ. Today in 2020, there are more Christians being persecuted for their faith in secular, Hindu and Muslim countries than ever before in the past 2,000 years.

So, Paul encourages God’s children with some amazing truths, in order that they may be encouraged and remain faithful to Christ. These truths are for all of us, members of God’s family, throughout the ages. They are taught to us to embolden us to remain faithful to Christ to the end…Keep Reading