Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Making you become

“’I will make you fishers of people’” Matthew 4v19

This is a hugely encouraging verse for all of us. As I think about this, I see the following:

• God has a very clear purpose for each of our lives. His purpose is for us to be involved in bringing other people into God’s kingdom. Of course we all have different parts to play, but we are all together to achieve the same purpose in this world. It is a purpose to benefit the people around me. It is to contribute to their lives being transformed by the grace and love of God.
• I am not alone in this: the command is plural. We are all together in this.
• It is not about me doing fishing, but about me being a fisher. This ties in exactly with the next chapter in Matthew where Jesus says “you are the light of the world” and “you are the salt of the earth”. The only requirement of the light and the salt is to maintain their stand-out attributes and to be present in the world.
• My capacity to do this is dependent on Jesus because he has given a clear promise: “I will make you.” The same verse in Mark gives a slight expansion, “I will make you become fishers of people.” You are the work of Jesus as he transforms you day by day! And Jesus always does a great job!

What should our response to this be? Surely it is to ask him, “Lord you have said you will make me a fisher of people, and so I ask you to fulfil your promise in my life.” And then it is to be out in the world as the person Jesus is making you to be!

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Follow

“’Come follow me,’ Jesus said” Matthew 4v19

Jesus said “Follow” to those he was inviting to be his disciples. The original Greek word has the root idea of “get in behind.”

The call to follow was rooted in who Jesus was and how you respond to him – Do you think he is worth following?

This was not a casual call, but a call to lifetime commitment. Jesus later said in Matthew 16v24, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Jesus is saying that the secret to real life in all its fulness is to put following him above everything else in life. That is a tough call, but a very worthwhile call.

And so, in Matthew 4 we read, “At once they left their nets and followed him.”

I pray that you will be willing to commit to follow Jesus with all that it may mean for your life.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Come

“’Come, follow me,’ Jesus said.” Matthew 4v19

Jesus said “Come” to many people. But Greek has a more than one word which translates into English as “come”. The one here really means “Come in close.” Jesus is calling us into a closeness with him, to be right beside him. It is not so much a call for direction as a call for intimacy. It is a call into his close friendship circle.

It is the same word that Jesus uses when he says,

• “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11v28), and
• “Come and have breakfast” (John 21v12).

Jesus is calling you in close, to “eat” with him and to be refreshed with him.

I recall when I was back in business that when the Global Quality Director (an American) called meetings to deal with big quality issues, he named them, “Come to Jesus meetings.” He was conveying the view that coming to Jesus was all about confessing our sins. But coming to Jesus is about so much more than that!

Jesus does not want you to be distant, no, he counts you as his friend (“You are my friends if you do what I command” John 15v14). He wants to live life with you and you to live life with him.

Are you close to Jesus today? If not, Jesus invites you in and also says, “Seek and you will find.”

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Why Follow Jesus?

“He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3v11

These are the words of John the Baptist as he points to Jesus who is about to appear on the scene.

Many have the feeling that following Jesus is about a restrictive set of rules and trying harder to be good.

This is not what Jesus is about at all. Yes, God wants us to “produce good fruit” in our lives (3v8-10). And yes, there is a judgement coming (3v12). But Jesus brings the good news that he changes us from within. A core message of Jesus is that it is the heart that counts, but the heart then flows into outer actions (see for example Matthew 7v17, 12v34, 15v19). This heart change is brought by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And so John the Baptist gives the extremely good news, “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” The baptism of the Holy Spirit enables you in both character and in spiritual gifts.

Have you been baptised with the Holy Spirit? Do you know the filling of the Holy Spirit today? Do you know the Holy Spirit changing you into the character God wants you to have? This empowering is an excellent reason to follow the way of Jesus! Come to Jesus today and ask him to empower you by His Spirit.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Why Follow Jesus?

“When Herod realised that he had been outwitted.” Matthew 2v16

Here is a great reason to follow Jesus – the powers of this world could not touch Jesus unless God allowed them to do so.

Just like in some countries today, King Herod was determined to stamp Jesus out as soon as he could because he saw Jesus as a threat to his own authority. His plan was to kill the toddler Jesus. Step in God! God gives a dream to the magi to tell them to go back home by another route so they cannot report to Herod where Jesus was. And God gives a dream to Joseph to get his family moving to Egypt out of harm’s way. God sees the threat and God sorts it.

It was the same when Jesus came to his death – he voluntarily went to his death saying, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels?” (Matthew 26v53) 12 legions is 72000 angels to fight what may have been a few hundred soldiers. From a human point of view Jesus was heavily outgunned, from a heavenly point of view the opposite was true.

Here is the good news – when we come alongside Jesus, we come under the same protection he has. God protects us by his means (e.g. dreams above), and so we do not need to use the means of the world. And God’s means heavily outweigh the greatest might of humanity.

So stay in God’s protection today by keeping close to Jesus. May you “find refuge in the shadow of God’s wings” (Psalm 36v7)

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Why Follow Jesus?

“They will call him Immanuel which means, ‘God with us’.” Matthew 1v23

Matthew’s gospel is often regarded as a discipleship manual by Bible scholars. The next few weeks, we will have a look at the highlights of this gospel.

The first few chapters give us good reason to follow Jesus. Here in the first chapter, Matthew shows clearly through the virgin birth that not only is Jesus of God, but he is in fact “God with us.”

If we define God as the creator behind all that we see – bigger and greater in every dimension than us, then Jesus is that God becoming one of us. If there is no other reason to follow Jesus, this is an awesome reason – after all, he knows why we are here and how we are made.

How do we know this is true? Because we have the testimonies of each of Mary, of Joseph, and of the Old Testament prophecies written hundreds of years before which foretold this. The evidence of his later life also backs up the reality that Jesus was no normal human being – he was God’s Son, come from heaven.

It makes perfect sense to stop following other things and start following Jesus. May God help you do so.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Dealing with Guilt

“God has uncovered your servants’ guilt.” Genesis 44v16

We continue to follow the Hope Bible Reading chat with Joseph’s brothers struggling with guilt.

You may recall that, out of jealousy, the Joseph’s brothers had decided to kill him, but then relented and merely sold him as a slave. They told their father they had found Joseph’s coat with blood on it and pretended he must have been killed by an animal. In this, they had caused their father much grief and made him much more protective of his youngest son Benjamin.

Now they meet Joseph in Egypt. It becomes clear that for the last 22 years, the brothers had concealed their sin from others, but it remained an open wound in their hearts. As a result, they were interpreting situations in the light of their guilt. And so they speak today’s verse about themselves, “God has uncovered your servant’s guilt” and in Genesis 42v21 “Surely we are being punished because of our brother”.

On the other hand, Joseph has had the opportunity in Egypt to receive healing for the harsh way he was treated. While he tests his brothers’ attitudes, he does not repay them what they did to him. Rather he treats them graciously because he has recognised that, “It was not you who sent me here, but God.” (45v8) and later, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good … I will provide for you and your children.” (50v20)

Yet, despite Joseph’s grace towards them, the underlying guilt is still nagging away at them. And so, they continue to anticipate revenge from Joseph (50v15). Their expectation of Joseph’s attitude is not based on his character, but on their guilt.

We have much better news! Jesus has the power to take away all our sin and guilt. He can make your heart completely clean so that we no longer operate under the cloud of guilt, but under the rays of grace and forgiveness. What guilt continues to hang over your life? Maybe today, you need to lay it bare before God and meditate on the powerful Word of God which says:

• “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1v9) and again,
• “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103v12), and again,
• “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8v1).
• “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.” (Hebrews 10v22)

Let God’s Word be medicine to your soul!

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Prophetic Dreams

“Joseph had a dream.” Genesis 37v5

Is a dream I had prophetic? What should I do with it?

In today’s Bible reading chat we are introduced to Joseph at the age of 17. In Genesis 37, he has two dreams. In the first, he and his brothers had sheaves of wheat and theirs bowed down to his. In the second, the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. The most obvious meaning of each of the dreams was that his brothers and even his father and mother would bow down to him.

When Joseph shared the dreams with his father and brothers, his father responded with scepticism, and his brothers responded with jealous hatred. This led to Joseph’s mistreatment and being sold into slavery.

What can we learn from Joseph with regards to prophetic dreams?

1. Joseph unwisely shared it with his family. Be careful who you share your dreams with – especially if it involves them in any way.
2. It may be that Joseph shared his dream because of pride. Be careful not to act out of pride or fear.
3. Joseph’s dreams were not a call to action. Rather they were a call to keep hope through very difficult times of injustice, slavery, prison and being forgotten. God works things out in God’s own way. By contrast, almost 2000 years later, a New Testament Joseph had dreams that very explicitly called for action (Matthew 1v20-21 and 2v13). Be discerning.
4. The only ultimate test of a dream’s validity is its fulfilment (Deuteronomy 18v21-22). So prophetic dreams often help us to see God’s hand in it all after the event.

May God give you the revelation that you need to keep persevering with God in the difficult times.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Why does God bless you?

[Laban said to Jacob], “The Lord has blessed me because of you.” Genesis 30v27

Do you ever feel that you have moved out of God’s blessing? If so, this verse from the Bible Reading chat for today is here to encourage us!

Here are a few key elements of how God works in the life of Jacob:

• God chooses Jacob before he was born, and that ultimately defines his life.
• God continually shows grace towards Jacob despite his envy, deceit and greed.
• Jacob many schemes for his own advantage all end up worthless as he leaves home with nothing but fear, yet God provides for him.
• God chooses to meet with Jacob on a few very dynamic occasions, and as he does so Jacob’s character and commitment to God gradually changes.

In this chapter 30, Jacob had been staying with his uncle Laban for 14 years while working in exchange for his wives. This was a way of paying a dowry when Jacob had nothing of his own. But, for all Jacob’s failings, God was enabling a remarkable fruitfulness through Jacob and Laban could see it and he benefitted from it.

How does this carry through to us as New Testament people? Well, in some ways, Jesus is like a Jacob, but without all the faults. As Jacob had 12 sons, multiplying into the Old Testament tribes of Israel, so Jesus has 12 apostles multiplying in the New Testament church of God. And so, as Laban was blessed because of Jacob’s presence, we are right now blessed as we abide in Christ and He in us. Christ is the Jacob without all the faults. Hence Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “God … has blessed us … with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

Yes, God blesses you and me because of Jesus! The blessing of God on your life does not depend on you. It depends on Jesus and your ongoing connection with him. As long as Jacob was with Laban, Laban saw abundant fruitfulness. As long as you are connected to Jesus, you will see abundant spiritual blessing. Paul lists some of these blessings in Ephesians 1 – whereas for Laban it was lots of healthy sheep and goats, for us God blesses us with holiness, love, knowing God as Father, forgiveness of sin, knowing God’s ultimate purpose and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

May you be able to rest confident today that God’s blessing on you relies on you being in Jesus, not on anything else.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Our place in the world

“I am an alien and stranger among you.” Genesis 23v4

This verse from the Bible Reading chat for today says so much about my place as a child of God in the world.

Abraham had lived in Canaan for 62 years, but he still counted himself an alien and a stranger there. The writer of Hebrews in the New Testament refers to this verse in chapter 11 when recalling people like Abraham and says, “And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth … they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one.” (v14-16)

The writer of Hebrews is explaining that we are like Abraham. Just as he looked ahead to a future that he would never receive while on this earth, so we also look ahead to a future that we will not receive while we are here. This is consistent theme in the New Testament:

• Jesus says of his disciples, “They are not of the world … I have sent them into the world.” (John 17v16-18).
• Peter says, “Live your lives as strangers here,” (1 Peter 1v17) and “I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from evil desires that war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2v11)

I am to live very differently to how the world lives. Why? Because I have a very different mindset. Why? Because I am destined for heaven. Why? Because my home is with the Father! That changes everything!

With love and blessing,

Roland