by Troy Thackwray
Praise God for systems, methods, agendas, formulae and routines etc etc etc...they do tend to make certain events run a lot smoother.
But God's love is no respector of man-made rules and stipulations.
Where religion (with its rigorous conditions) "established" a repelling "magnetic force" between God and sinner, Jesus came and revealed the true nature of His love towards us by breaking through these religious "boundaries" and RECEIVING the SINNER unconditionally - in the vileness of his raw sinful state!
It's sadly ironic how the Pharisees (unknowingly) tried to limit Christ Himself with the very law He was the author of - hahaha!
Jesus never broke His law (It wasn't even an effort for Him to succeed in this regard. Although it cost Him everything, He merely did what He knew His Father telling Him to do). It just so happened that by walking in Holy Spirit and being compelled by His love, that He fulfilled its righteous requirements once for all.
Even John the baptizer brought clarity to the LOVING nature of the Kingdom of God.
He strongly addressed the crowd regarding their selfish focus on religious routines and "conscious-easing" formulae, all the while oblivious to the Father's heart.
They asked John what they ought to do, and he explains how, if they have a spare tunic, to give it to one in need.
Now the "modern pharisee" will take this God-breathed scripture of life and "kill" people with "The importance of managing your "tunics"", or, "Be sure never to own too many "tunics"", or, "The importance of sowing your excess "tunics""...
Do you notice the common trend of mis-interpretations here? Every statement is a reference to "self" - "what I should be doing with my "tunics"". Although it seems that John is addressing their actions, He is actually addressing their flawed motives in their existing actions - "pure" believing gives birth to pure motives and pure motives bare the fruit of pure behaviour.
I don't believe he was referring to their "tunic management" at all. I believe he was addressing and PREPARING THEIR HEARTS for what the Kingdom was really about - NOT their self-imposed rituals, but rather to know the HEART OF GOD and to walk in HIS LOVE.
His KINGDOM OF LOVE is constantly advancing to provide "tunics" for those who don't have - AND THIS KINGDOM OF POWER AND LOVE...IS WITHIN US!
The power to give away "tunics" does not lie in being constantly reminded to give away "tunics" (there's no life in that), but rather to know the Father's heart of love towards US AND THE "TUNIC-LESS" (hahaha) - it's His love that compels us! :-)
Jesus loves you all!!
Showing posts with label Troy Thackwray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Troy Thackwray. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
"Priesthood of All Believers"
This was written by my good friend Troy Thackwray on his blog "His Goodness Revealed". Its Good!!
"Priesthood" of All Believers
For centuries people have pointed fingers at preachers and teachers of the word of God, labelling many as hypocrites and for being two-faced because their lifestyles don't actually line up to what they are preaching (does this sound like a familiar accusation to you?).
What is wrong with this picture? Does the fault particularly lie with those accusing the preachers?
Maybe to a degree it does, but when man starts preaching "Perfect Lifestyles" as something to attain and maintain, they set themselves up for unnecessary abuse in the ministry.
How, then, is it possible for ALL to be a "Royal Priesthood" and effective ministers of the word of God, if ALL have sinned and fall short of His Glory?
The answer is simple: When we find ourselves established in and preaching Christ's perfection and not our own, we will discover how easy it is to preach the word of God.
Although we certainly do encourage each other to walk in Christ, no one is "qualified" to preach perfection as the gospel - only Jesus has the credibility to change our behaviour,and praise God He does it graciously and peacefully.
However, EVERYONE is "qualified" to preach the goodness, perfection and love of God, and no one needs a perfect lifestyle for this!
I'm not denying that integrity and a godly lifestyle are influential attributes that show credibility and respectability, but when we find ourselves preaching these attributes, we effectively preach condemnation, and we also unknowingly activate a personal "time-bomb" that will go off as people begin to notice discrepancies between what we preach and how we live."
"Priesthood" of All Believers
For centuries people have pointed fingers at preachers and teachers of the word of God, labelling many as hypocrites and for being two-faced because their lifestyles don't actually line up to what they are preaching (does this sound like a familiar accusation to you?).
What is wrong with this picture? Does the fault particularly lie with those accusing the preachers?
Maybe to a degree it does, but when man starts preaching "Perfect Lifestyles" as something to attain and maintain, they set themselves up for unnecessary abuse in the ministry.
How, then, is it possible for ALL to be a "Royal Priesthood" and effective ministers of the word of God, if ALL have sinned and fall short of His Glory?
The answer is simple: When we find ourselves established in and preaching Christ's perfection and not our own, we will discover how easy it is to preach the word of God.
Although we certainly do encourage each other to walk in Christ, no one is "qualified" to preach perfection as the gospel - only Jesus has the credibility to change our behaviour,and praise God He does it graciously and peacefully.
However, EVERYONE is "qualified" to preach the goodness, perfection and love of God, and no one needs a perfect lifestyle for this!
I'm not denying that integrity and a godly lifestyle are influential attributes that show credibility and respectability, but when we find ourselves preaching these attributes, we effectively preach condemnation, and we also unknowingly activate a personal "time-bomb" that will go off as people begin to notice discrepancies between what we preach and how we live."
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Gods Discipline
By Troy Thackwray
"Hebrews 12:7 is clear on the nature of God's discipline - that "it is for discipline that you have to endure". Which means that the process of correctly enduring hardship is, infact, our discipline (this word "discipline" is also referred to as "chastened" in some translations, but in the Greek simply means tutorage, education, training - it's got nothing to do with punishment or any form of reaction between God and us, regarding sin or bad behaviour!).
While Hebrews 12:7 describes the nature of our discipline, Hebrews 12:10 describes the purpose of this discipline, which is "for our good, that we may share in His holiness".
There would be many contradictions in scripture if the Holy Spirit was "leading us into all truth" by pointing out our mistakes and failures against an expired covenant of law. Hebrews 12:5 uses an interesting word to further explain this, it says "and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons...". If discipline was punishment, then the correct word here should be "wrath" and not "exhortation", because exhortation means 'solace: comfort in distress, consolation', how would pointing us to the law (i.e. exposing our sins/bad behaviour) by the Holy Spirit create comfort and rest, when the law "increases sin"?
So the question is, what role does the Holy Spirit play in our discipline then?
Comfort...Strength...revelation of truth...gifts to edify...hope -------- all of this against the enemy!
The new testament says that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's a spiritual enemy we have, but an enemy nonetheless. However, how awesome is this:
The only thing about the church that poses a threat to the enemy is our FAITH (our dependance and reliance on God). If he can topple that, he can render us ineffective, yet it is our faith in Jesus (Hebrews 12:2(a)) that helps us endure the schemes of the enemy.
If you think about it, why is it that so many christians are, and remain, immature babies? Is it because God's decided not to discipline (train, tutor and educate) those christians? No.
Some christians remain immature and feeble because either they are not enduring, or they are enduring under law (in themsleves and not in Christ (Heb 12:2(a)...actually, see our new covenant :-) ). It is up to us whether God trains/toturs/educates (disciplines) us - "His grace is sufficient"! And a revelation of this truth will explain exactly why we can and should literally "rejoice when facing trials", because as long as we endure them by remaining unshaken on the promises and word of God, the endurance of these becomes our training and equiping (of our character).
Anyone that says that the hardships themselves are infact from God, fail to understand the cross, the new covenant, the nature of God revealed in the new testament and the nature of God revealed in the old testament.
I specifically refer to "the gospel according to Isaiah" hahahaha - Isaiah chapter 53 & 54. Here we see clear reference to the sufferings of Christ and the glory that will follow, and it's not referring to the glory of eternity [alone], because in this very passage in Isaiah 54:14 we see an awesome promise of peace and protection, and the very next verse highlights 3 spectacular truths:
"If anyone stirs up strife...", well, we wont have to worry about strife in heaven, so clearly these wonderful promises apply to us today (where strife still exists), and not eternity.
This "strife" refers to the enemy gathering together against you (and who is our enemy....?), and God says here that whatever strife occurs, IT IS NOT HIS DOING!
As we remain in Christ, this enemy that rises against us, will fall by us.
IF GOD IS FOR US.......WHO THE "HELL" CAN BE AGAINST US!!!
Love you guys!"
God Blessed you!!
"Hebrews 12:7 is clear on the nature of God's discipline - that "it is for discipline that you have to endure". Which means that the process of correctly enduring hardship is, infact, our discipline (this word "discipline" is also referred to as "chastened" in some translations, but in the Greek simply means tutorage, education, training - it's got nothing to do with punishment or any form of reaction between God and us, regarding sin or bad behaviour!).
While Hebrews 12:7 describes the nature of our discipline, Hebrews 12:10 describes the purpose of this discipline, which is "for our good, that we may share in His holiness".
There would be many contradictions in scripture if the Holy Spirit was "leading us into all truth" by pointing out our mistakes and failures against an expired covenant of law. Hebrews 12:5 uses an interesting word to further explain this, it says "and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons...". If discipline was punishment, then the correct word here should be "wrath" and not "exhortation", because exhortation means 'solace: comfort in distress, consolation', how would pointing us to the law (i.e. exposing our sins/bad behaviour) by the Holy Spirit create comfort and rest, when the law "increases sin"?
So the question is, what role does the Holy Spirit play in our discipline then?
Comfort...Strength...revelation of truth...gifts to edify...hope -------- all of this against the enemy!
The new testament says that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's a spiritual enemy we have, but an enemy nonetheless. However, how awesome is this:
The only thing about the church that poses a threat to the enemy is our FAITH (our dependance and reliance on God). If he can topple that, he can render us ineffective, yet it is our faith in Jesus (Hebrews 12:2(a)) that helps us endure the schemes of the enemy.
If you think about it, why is it that so many christians are, and remain, immature babies? Is it because God's decided not to discipline (train, tutor and educate) those christians? No.
Some christians remain immature and feeble because either they are not enduring, or they are enduring under law (in themsleves and not in Christ (Heb 12:2(a)...actually, see our new covenant :-) ). It is up to us whether God trains/toturs/educates (disciplines) us - "His grace is sufficient"! And a revelation of this truth will explain exactly why we can and should literally "rejoice when facing trials", because as long as we endure them by remaining unshaken on the promises and word of God, the endurance of these becomes our training and equiping (of our character).
Anyone that says that the hardships themselves are infact from God, fail to understand the cross, the new covenant, the nature of God revealed in the new testament and the nature of God revealed in the old testament.
I specifically refer to "the gospel according to Isaiah" hahahaha - Isaiah chapter 53 & 54. Here we see clear reference to the sufferings of Christ and the glory that will follow, and it's not referring to the glory of eternity [alone], because in this very passage in Isaiah 54:14 we see an awesome promise of peace and protection, and the very next verse highlights 3 spectacular truths:
"If anyone stirs up strife...", well, we wont have to worry about strife in heaven, so clearly these wonderful promises apply to us today (where strife still exists), and not eternity.
This "strife" refers to the enemy gathering together against you (and who is our enemy....?), and God says here that whatever strife occurs, IT IS NOT HIS DOING!
As we remain in Christ, this enemy that rises against us, will fall by us.
IF GOD IS FOR US.......WHO THE "HELL" CAN BE AGAINST US!!!
Love you guys!"
God Blessed you!!
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