Saturday 16 November 2013

God blesses but does that mean he approves?

I ask this question because I have been studying Jacob this week in preparation for Sundays ministry.
The situation is this Jacob deceives his father - that's right he lies to him, in order to obtain the family blessing. He then subsequently has to flee from home, and as he spends the night with the stone for his pillar, he has that tremendous dream of the ladder from earth, to heaven. In that dream the LORD blesses him. This is no ordinary blessing but is the blessing of Abraham.
So do we take it that Jacobs actions in deceit, in sin, were approved of by God. We must not. As Paul will later write "shall we abide in sin that Grace may abound?"
The answer he gives is an emphatic no.
Abraham's sin is not to be excused because God blesses him, neither Joseph's brethren because that is the way they were naturally saved from the famine. We can think of those wicked hands that crucified Jesus. Some of them later believed.
It is not the sin but the grace of God. God blessing in spite of our wickedness and unworthiness.
I have heard this being used to justify all sorts of anti biblical and extra biblical practices in services of worship and church life.
So to answer the question. We can not take the blessing of God as an approval of our actions, especially when they go against his revealed holy standards. All we can do is be amazed at the grace of God towards us, upon which we depend.

Sunday 10 November 2013

We will remember them

A good number gathered to remember the fallen.



From the going down of the sun to the rising of the same




We will remember them