2 Peter 1v1

Simeon Peter a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. (ESV)

It has been said before but it bears repeating, we so often gloss over the greetings as mere formalities but as they form part of God’s Word they are full of richness of meaning and this is no exception, we need to repeatedly ask ourselves when reading scripture, why did the author  write these specific words, when enquiring like this we can dig out a lot more application than just taking them on the surface value.

So why does Peter start off by recalling to our minds that this is Simeon or Simon that became Peter, one of the main reasons is to establish his authority as a witness to Christ,  as we will see later this will be important when the question of  the true gospel is raised in regard to false teachers. I think also there is an element of identifying with the readers that there was a change that took place in his life which stems not from his own work but that by the righteousness of our God and saviour Jesus Christ. He was Simon, which means ‘hear’, who Christ made into Peter which as most  know means  rock. He heard Christ and believed and was given the Christ’s nature as a solid rock, a foundation stone, we all receive Christ’s nature when we hear and believe. He is showing us that he is also just an ordinary man empowered by God, no different in quality from anyone else, highlighted in the phrase ‘faith of equal standing’. His authority and righteousness stem not from himself but from Christ, and when we believe the same applies to us we become a stone that others can build upon in their belief or that those who refuse to listen will stumble over.

The next words confirm his authority as a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ’ but again raises the recognition that being an apostle whilst of significant importance is not a reason to be a dictator or  considered a superior standing, more importantly the emphasis is on himself  being a servant of Jesus Christ. And who does Jesus Christ serve, well as Christ himself pointed out he serves believers by becoming the scapegoat, by taking on human flesh, and facing temptation as we do, by washing the disciples feet, and ultimately being the sacrifice that takes the penalty in our place. This is the picture of biblical leadership we see pictured in every God designed relationship - that of servant leadership, we lead by considering other needs above our own and serving, we love one another by obedient service to our leaders, the biblical shepherd does not herd the sheep by frightening, cajoling and chasing them, but by going first, preparing the way, and calling them to follow, which when they recognise the voice those who belong to him will do. Likewise we are to be one anothers servants. Given the recognition or title or job of elder, or deacon, or Sunday school teacher, or youth leader or treasurer or whatever is not an entitlement to lord it over others but a privilege and responsibility to serve others, and ultimately to serve God through acts of ministry he enables us to do.

‘A faith of equal standing’ shows also that there is no difference in the readers faith to that of Peter, the basis of that faith is the same, there was not anything in Peter’s experience that made him better or made it more sure. Our faith is just as sure, our faith is based on the same infinitely stable and solid ground of Christ, it is not based on how we feel, or how we think, or how we behave though these are indicators and evidence of our faith, it stands on Christ alone.

I’ve already said it but we can never hear the story enough that it is not by anything we do that makes us righteous in God’s eyes, it is the work of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, it is his righteousness that clothes us, the very word translated ‘obtained’ in greek ‘lang-khan'-o’ denotes the casting of lots, not something that we can earn by our effort  or even reach out and take but rather something is given to us due to circumstances beyond our control, in this case the implication being it is God’s choice. (sneaking a look ahead at vs 3 ‘who called us to his own glory and excellence’)

So in summary Peter points out that we can have confidence in the words he writes because they come from God and not from him, that our faith is of equal standing which is based on Christ work and God’s own choosing  and therefore we can have confidence in it and that this faith works itself out in us being servants of Christ and of one another.

Charity 94.7 Cycle Challenge Martin House

In case you haven't been following I have decided to dedicate my Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge to raise funds for Martin house. I've set up a JustGiving Page (http://www.justgiving.com/Jeremy-Pointer) to provide a means to recieve your donations. Read more about why there  Please give generously but wisely according to your means.

Alex With an Owl

Alex enjoying the 2012 Paralympics

Enjoying Biscuits

Derek, Alex, Louise aaand Big show!!

Me crossing Nelson Mandela Bridge 2011 94.7 Cycle challenge

Elder Ordination

 Today I was formally accepted as an Elder at Krugersdorp Baptist Church, for those that don't know this has been a long and sometimes difficult process.
Of course there were a few jokes about getting old to be an elder.
Honestly though while in one sense this is an honour the overwhelming thoughts in my head lie in the recognition of the solemn responsibility that goes with this. It's bad enough that I'm 'serious' a lot of the time anyway, now the 'officialness' of this privilege rests it's weight on top of that.


"For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." (Titus 1:7-9 ESV)

If it sounds like I'm apprehensive well I am a bit, but in another sense I'm looking forward to serving the people of Krugersdorp Baptist in a more meaningful way. A week or so ago my boss posted a picture with two non overlapping circles, the smaller circle representing our comfort zone and a bigger circle labelled 'where the magic happens' Most of us just carry on living never reaching beyond what we know i.e. in our comfort zone, for all sorts of reasons this is not one of those for me, I'm going to be stretched and whilst I wouldn't use the word 'magic', and I will most definitely not be relying on only my own strength I know I'm reaching into that bigger circle.

Only God has made this possible, in His infinite wisdom he has brought me along a path, which includes a lot of mistakes and failures on my part, that has prepared me for this work, nothing I am or have done in my own strength has brought me here, only my absolute faith and hope (which He gives me anyway) in God through Christ and in the power granted by the Holy Spirit are going to carry me through. This I know "He who has begun a good work in me will bring it to completion at the day of Christ"

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

(Galatians 2:19-20 ESV)

Ride for a cause?

On 18 November 2012 I will be riding the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge again. I could just ride or I could use the opportunity to try and raise some funds for a cause. There are lot's of worthy causes around and some of which can be found here http://www.cyclechallenge.co.za/Home/CharityBonds . Out of those I've chosen three of the bigger ones to mention, all three related to supporting Cancer research and support.
http://www.thecows.co.za/facq.aspx http://www.pinkdrive.co.za/about-us/ http://www.pinkchicks.co.za/

A family related one: One of my nephews, Alex Mason, has Friedreich's Ataxia a neurological degenerative disease and makes use of services offered by Martins House in the UK http://www.martinhouse.org.uk/


I'm certain some of you will have other suggestions, and perhaps the opportunity can be used for more than one cause, but I wouldn't want to divide the spoils too much.



Help me choose by voting in the voting panel which should be near top right of this page.

So I haven't posted in a while, usually you just get the studies of 1John, the last one of which was a survey of 1 John and I just read some verses I wanted to highlight, now I need to choose what to do next for our Tuesday night prayer meeting messages.

Also I decided to do some of the free courses available at class central  http://www.class-central.com/ and have completed the first course CS101 which is a intro to Computer Science. 

Now trying to do ST101 Intro to Statistics and CS215 Algorithms  which I'm finding quite challenging. Doesn't help that I've got to review my high school maths as well to get through this.

After 6 weeks being off the baaiesukkel I decided to take up the challenge of riding every day of the Tour de France http://www.letour.fr , so far I've managed 285Km this past week at the woeful avg speed of 21Km/h with about 2300m of climbing HR avg 84% of max. Of course this is nothing to what those guys are doing around europe but for me it's good. I'm also sure I'll get my speed up a bit as  I go on.

Most of the rides have started and ended with this view from the front door (photo taken last october) at some ridiculously low temperatures (it's the middle of winter here). I've been navigating using Jupiter and Venus in the sky. If I'm going to go madder I might as well do it properly leaving at ~4:30am. I'm going to try and incorporate a bit more sanity this week doing more rides to/from work though.

Anyway it's late so I think that's enough from me for now.

1 John 5:18-21

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

We see that John reminds us that all born of God do not keep sinning in other words they do not continue to live in sin, but that a specific one born of God I.e. Jesus will protect those who by his atoning work have also been born of God, he encourages us that we cannot be touched by the evil one, that of course does not mean we will not suffer as a result of satans wiles but I think rather that he cannot take hold of us and bring us under his control. He goes on to point out that we know that we are of God, this is so emphatic that I dare to say if we lack this confidence of  being from God we are not  saved, yes we may have short periods of doubt, but when it comes to the crunch if we are confident of our belonging we can find assurance of our election. We see also that the world, by which it seems John is referring to those who are not saved, lie in the power of satan, notice that this lying indicates a resignation or a lack of effort to escape, those in the world have no desire to move out of their 'comfort zone', and don't even realize the danger they are in, they simply lie in ignorance as their eyes remain closed.  On the other hand those who have been chosen by God have been given understanding by the Son of God , they no longer lie in ignorance but rather realizing the truth of their situation, find themselves knowing the one who is true, and thus being 'in him' taking on His very nature becoming holy, as he is holy. There has been some confusion regarding the use of grammar especially with regard as to which 'he' is being referred to in each phrase at the end of v20 I.e. is it the father or the son whom we know, who is eternal life, and in whom we find ourselves as a first cause, is this a proof statement of Jesus being the son also being God, I think we have enough evidence in other passages of John's writings that it can be taken as an and rather than an or, we know from elsewhere of the trinity, and we know that Christ being the son is also God, and God became man through the person of Christ, and that is Christs work on the cross that brings us into the presence of the father and the son as the bride and we know also that the spirit dwells in us and we in him, although we can't fully grasp the triunity of God and how we are brought into unity we can rest that we can know enough of the true God as foundation to trusting him alone for eternal life. John closes with an exhortation to keep ourselves from idols,  many have debated over the years about what John meant by this, some will argue that he meant merely the idols of ephesus, some will argue that he means statues or pictures of God, some will argue that he meant anything that could be used as a description or something that symbolises God. In the end I think elevating anything to more importance than God in our lives, even good things like family or church and also anything that reduces God to something we think we can comprehend amounts to worshipping something that is not the true God and is therefore an idol. We need to be aware that we need to submit to worshiping God in spirit and truth being in awe and wonder and fear of his unmeasurable qualities in all ways and not allowing anything to be a false image of Him.

1John 5v13-17

  13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.  14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.   16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.  17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. (ESV)

Again John reminds us why he is writing this epistle – that we may know we have eternal life. He has been doing this by contrasting the believers experience and behaviour to that of the unbeliever, and here he now focuses on prayer. He starts in v13-15 by encouraging us to pray, and that we can have confidence when we pray according to God’s will, that he will hear us and answer us.

Most of the commentators point out that the v16-17 is a difficult piece of scripture to understand clearly, but what I think John is saying to us here is that we need to pray for the sinner whilst discouraging the praying for people to be rescued from the just rewards of their sin. The sin that leads to death is the only sin that cannot be forgiven, the sin of rejecting Christs work on the cross, and the work of the Holy spirit in our lives.

He encourages us to pray for our brother, ‘our brother’ does not necessarily refer to a brother who already believes but by implication of the phrase ‘a sin not leading to death’ and the fact that all sin of the unredeemed leads to death, we can infer that John is speaking of the elect whether they have already come to know salvation or not. Similarly when John refers to the ‘sin that leads to death’ we can infer that he is referring to the kind of unrepentant sinfulness a nonbeliever is habitually committing. In other words we should be careful to pray for the life of those we see in sin but not necessarily just ask for relief from the consequences of their sin and that we understand that the non-elect will suffer the eternal punishment. That is not to say we shouldn't pray for physical healing, and relief from difficulties, we should, but we should pray more that these things be used to bring repentance and sanctification.

It is noteworthy that when we see a brother sinning, our response should be to pray for them, how often do we not do this but instead, despise, reject, gossip about the persons sin, instead of asking God to save the person or to work in that persons heart that they repent of their sin. Yes we do need to confront the sinner and rebuke their sin following Christs gudelines in Matt 18, but let us first turn to prayer and seek God’s direction through his word praying for their soul.

We can deduce, from what John is saying, that those who have been chosen by God to be saved will not continue in their sin but those who have been chosen by God for damnation will continue in their sinfulness. We can know we are saved if we are fighting against our sin which ‘does not lead to death’. 
Let us take comfort that whilst we fall, the fact that we battle against our sin is a sign that have eternal life.