Mairi has got a very low tolerance to cold feet; I could happily wear flip-flops all year round. Mairi is genuinely upset if the temperature of her feet drops by even a fraction of a degree below the average temperature of ‘slipper heaven’ whereas I couldn’t care less.Continue reading “Cold Feet? Muddy Feet”
Some still scenes from the forthcoming “Transformation” film for The Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh…the most desirable city in the UK…apparently.
How beautiful [and delightful] upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” Isaiah 52:7 (ESV)
There isn’t a question mark in this verse because God is making a statement through the Prophet Isaiah rather than asking a question – notice the exclamation of ‘How beautiful’ – it’s as though God can’t take in how beautiful our feet are to Him. There is a longing in the Word of God for the ones God has made.
Listen to King David in Psalm 16:3,
As for the saints (godly people) who are in the land, they are the majestic and the noble and the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
Similarly, in Romans 10:15 quoting this exact verse from Isaiah 52 above, Paul makes a bold and missionally motivating proclamation of the beauty of the church rather than asking the church in Rome to go away and work out if they were worthy or able enough.
No. God delights in us and this is the boiler room of our ‘going’. He call us Hephzibah not Azubah or Shemamah; He calls us My Delight is in her not Abandoned or Desolate (See Isaiah 62).
God delights in us enough to have orchestrated the great condescension of Jesus from the glory and majesty of the throne of God to the frailty of human frame and the freezing temperatures and animal muck of a farmyard.
Imagine being a Daddy and having a beautiful newborn baby boy. Imagine laying him on a cross of torture and suffering. Imagine placing him down naked on a cold, wet winter pavement, turning away and abandoning him.
What love is this?
This Love is our God and our Saviour.
This Christmas I’m taking this verse from Isaiah 52, where God describes our feet as being beautiful, and digging down into why it often is that we live and move and have our being with cold feet rather than the experience of feet that are beautiful.
Why?
Cold Feet is a term often forming part of the stereotype for men and women who have a fear of commitment to long-term relationships or marriage. I’m sure that all of us can relate to this same ‘fear’ when it comes to going hard after God and the great commission – of taking the gospel to the lost.
How about you? Do you have cold feet when it comes to the glorious gospel and ‘publishing’ and proclaiming it boldly for popular consumption? I know I often do.
We need to walk more closely with the Spirit of God.
This Advent I’m making room to reconsider Jesus, the call of God on my life and how it is that I “Go” for the sake of the lost, the church and the glory of His name.
Would you join me?
I’ve spent all week directing a new promotional film for the Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh
Here’s a little teaser in time-lapse form of our friend Grace being transformed
It’s going to be epic…
At the end of October 2015 I was praying about how to finish this year’s reading of the Bible and the thought of studying the gospel of John landed in my mind pretty forcefully. What has followed is a 21-day series called Look at the Lamb.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Outro & Day 21)”
Verses 1-10: Mary Magdalene was distraught with grief and couldn’t sleep so she goes to be as near to Jesus as she thinks she can. Even being near to a dead Jesus is surely better than no Jesus at all. But the stone rolled away and an empty tomb? Mary’s anxious mind first jumps to further insult to injury rather than a miracle of God in her midst.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 20)”
Verses 1-16: The first 8 words of this chapter take one second to read. Scenes from Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ come to mind as we can only imagine what this ‘flogging’ looked like. Isaiah (52:14) gives us a better idea, approximately 760 years before, who details the Lamb for us,
But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human and, from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
Verses 1-14: Two gardens are separated by a dark valley – sound familiar? Jesus leads His men from the scene of the Vine discourse, through the Kidron Valley, to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus would be arrested. It was a place that the company often went to because Judas knew it well (verse 2). The betrayer Iscariot led a detachment of Roman Soldiers to their secret lair, complete with weapons and torches. It was night time and they evidently expected a fight. (see verse 36).Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 18)”
Verses 1-5: It’s good to continue to hear the echo of 16:33 as we start with 17:1 because this unique window into Jesus’ prayer life starts with,
After Jesus *said this*, he looked towards heaven and prayed…
The ‘said this’ is of course the knock-out verse from the previous verse and chapter,
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
This short section teaches us to have a faith-filled confidence in the completed work of Christ when we approach God in prayer, a victory that demolishes any trouble that Satan, or any evil group, can muster. Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 17)”
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