The last time Mark spoke was on the topic of ‘Immanuel, God with us.’ Last night he continued the topic to look at ‘God in us.’ Only one word difference, but a new sermon!

Romans 8:11 TNIV tells us that ‘if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.’ The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.

Power can be defined as energy. We like powerful appliances (from the relatively mundane hair straighteners to powerful cars and motorbikes to music amplifiers!) Often, though, we like powerful gadgets because we don’t feel powerful in ourselvevs. The good news is that it is God’s power in us, not our own. 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 TNIV reminds us that ‘Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour.’ Because of God’s nature, He is generous enough to share His power with us: ‘In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.’ (reiterated also in Ps 68:35). God is willing to share His power and strength with us.

The purpose of this power in us is explored in Colossians 1:9-11 TNIV: ‘being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.’ God’s power in us enables us to hold fast, to achieve, to endure, to withstand opposition. His strength enables us to be strong (see Eph 6:10 TNIV) and because His Spirit lives in us, life is given to our mortal bodies (see Rom 8:11 TNIV).

The most powerful car in the world is useless, however, if the accelerator is not pressed down! If we don’t use God’s power, it’s wasted. This power is stored in ‘jars of clay’ (2 Cor 4:7-9 TNIV). We might not look anything special on the outside, but God’s power makes us resilient people, not easily squashed or crushed. We need to ensure that our ‘jars’ are emptied so that God can fill them. We need not fear that God is incapable of doing this for He has glorious riches with which ‘He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being’ (Eph 3:16 TNIV) and is able to do ‘immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us’ (Eph 3:20 TNIV). God is working in us in unquenchable force, but we need to allow His power to work within us rather than remaining dormant and unexplored. We need to let God’s power loose!

We also had a birthday to celebrate:

Stephen spoke this morning on the battle we face, reminiscing about school assemblies from his youth when the hymn ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ made him wonder what exactly the Christian life entailed! Sometimes, even as Christians, we are very aware of the battle within, wondering which way to turn as we feel conflicted between our own desires and God’s ways.

Rom 7:14-25 TNIV shows us that Paul was aware of this conflict in his own life. We often feel that there is ‘another law at work in me’ and that we are a ‘prisoner of the law of sin.’ We desperately need rescue! Thankfully, God delivers us through Jesus (see also Rom 8:1-2 TNIV, Gal 5:16-23 TNIV).

The Christian life is not ‘a walk in the park’, a pleasant stroll that is always easy. We have to be actively engaged in the warfare and can only win as we abide in Jesus (see John 15:1-8 TNIV), for He is the Victor and any victory we win will be through Him. The battle is not necessarily won instantanously but is a growing experience, a gradual change as we learn to walk in God’s ways.

‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ (Words: Sabine Baring-Gould, 1864. Music: Arthur Sullivan, 1871.)

Radio 4 has a programme called ‘The Moral Maze’ which is (according to its website) a ‘combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week’s news stories.’ I was reminded of the programme as we discussed various modern-day moral issues at the Bible study on Thursday night. Applying Biblical principles to everyday life scenarios is surely what we are called to do in our everyday lives as our thinking is renewed.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German pastor and theologian who was killed towards the end of the Second World War) raised the first voice for church resistance to Hitler’s persecution of Jews, declaring that the church must not simply “bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself.” It is not easy to stand up for truth in an age where truth is deemed to be relative and determined by one’s own personal opinions. We discussed the moral issues raised by the production of cheap technology: at the Foxconn factory in China (manufacturers of gadgets for the likes of Apple, Sony, Nintendo and HP, among many others) has a grim history of suicides amongst its workers because of their desperate working conditions. At Foxconn’s flagship plant in Longhua, five per cent of its workers (24,000 people!) quit every month, yet the company sees no need to change its policies because there are so many others to take their place. Steve Jobs (former CEO of Apple) once remarked that the suicide rate at this factor ‘was lower than the overall suicide rate of the United States’, implying that this problem was of no significance or consequence. Why do Western companies invest in such factories? Why do we as consumers with an insatiable thirst for cheap gadgets not consider the true cost in human terms of their production?

Another example of such moral dilemmas has recently been in the news with the collapse of a building in Bangladesh housing factories supplying clothes to various budget clothing brands. 194 people died and up to 1,000 people were injured in the collapse. Mostafizur Rahman, the director of the Industrial Police, blamed the Rana Plaza factory owners for ignoring the instruction to evacuate after the first faults were discovered. “We had asked them to operate the factories only after a structural inspection by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. But the factories’ owners ignored our directives and decided to reopen their units on Wednesday,” he said. The £13 billion clothing industry in Bangladesh clearly valued profit over human safety. But we in the West are the ones who demand cheap clothing and who fail to consider how this is achieved.

It is much easier to raise the questions than to answer them! But asking the questions is the first step, perhaps, to realising that there is a problem and to asking God for ways that we can be involved in solutions rather than compounding the problems. We can feel helpless when we look at global injustice and wonder what our lone voice or lone stand can achieve. We shrug our shoulders and feel we cannot make any difference at all. But history is littered with individuals who have stood up for something, jammed that spoke in the wheel and effected great changes. Sam Childers, the author of ‘Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan’ has said “there is nothing anyone could ever say to convince me that one person cannot change a nation. One person can do unbelievable things. All it takes is that one person who’s willing to risk everything to make it happen.” When we think of one person with God, we are reminded that we have a majority! “One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised.” (Joshua 23:10 TNIV)

Our culture is ultimately dominated by the ‘ruler of the kingdom of the air’ (Eph 2:2 TNIV). We forget this at our peril, for, as John Stonestreet has said, ‘Anyone who wants to join in the kingdom-building work of God will face satanic opposition.’ The moral maze in which we live is not mere philosophy or an hour’s debate for a Radio 4 programme. It is life-threatening and life-changing. As we allow God to renew our thinking, He will help us to find alternative ways out of the maze to see the kingdom of God established on earth.

The Bible study on ‘Culture Wars’ continued last night, looking particularly at key verses in Romans 12:1-2 TNIV. Here, we are urged to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

The way we think is, scientists tell us, all down to neuron pathways in our brain. We form pathways of thinking by joining neurons together. When we are children, we have to learn to do so many things, which comes about through repeated thinking and practice. When we learn to play an instrument, it is a painstaking process involving conscious thought, but eventually ‘muscle memory’ is built up and the pathway is so worn that we no longer realise any thought is going on; we play ‘from memory’ and are hard pushed to explain what we are doing to an onlooker.

The world has a way of thinking that is alien to God’s way (see Is 55:8-9 TNIV, Prov 14:12 TNIV, Prov 12:15 TNIV.) It’s like walking down the pathway on the picture below:

It’s much easier to cross the field by using the path, but if that way is not God’s way, we can easily end up in trouble. God wants our minds to be renewed so that we form new pathways, alternative ways of living, neurons joined in new ways! This will mean crossing the field through rough terrain, but eventually, as we constantly meditate on God’s word (see Philippians 4:8 TNIV for a summary of how we should be thinking and what God’s thoughts actually look like!), we will form new paths to walk on.

When a person suffers a stroke, certain areas of their brain are affected and they may lose the ability to do things they had previously learnt. However, old skills can be re-learnt. New patterns of thinking can also be formed in us so that we align our thinking with God’s rather than allowing the world to squeeze us into its mould (or force us to walk on its highways!) If a path is neglected, the grass or weeds will grow back and eventually the path will no longer be visible. We have to constantly tend the new way of thinking (ensuring those pathways are clear and maintained) rather than going back over the old ways and keeping those fresh. The old has to go; the new has to be nurtured!

“While we may have a simple plan for our life (to be happy, prosperous, successful and at peace), God wants us to learn to trust Him deeply and against all odds.” (Charlie Cleverly, ‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’)

I was a relatively young Christian when I first discovered that the plans I had made for my own life were not the same as God’s plans. This world tells us we deserve to be happy. It focuses on the selfish and makes that seem a praiseworthy goal. Happiness, prosperity and success are evaluated according to criteria that simply do not line up with God’s word, for they arise from the erroneous premise that man is the centre of the universe. They are inextricably linked to material possessions and to academic success. Children want the latest toys and gadgets and think these will make them happy, and, if we are honest, adults are not that different either. We spend our lives pursuing these things because we think they are the pathway to happiness and peace, but we fail to understand God’s plans along the way.

When we become Christians, we often transfer these ideas to God. If God loves us so much, we reason, then He wants our happiness, prosperity, success and peace as well! This is true, but what we often fail to realise is that God knows the best way to those things and also has the true definition of those things. Happiness, prosperity, success and peace are found from our relationship with Him and not from the material possessions, academic success or other worldly criteria we think are necessary.

God’s plan is far greater than ours. He wants us to learn to trust Him deeply and be in relationship with Him and He wants us to be like Christ. His ‘great plan’ is for us to be ‘conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom 8:29 TNIV). That is His ultimate goal. All success, prosperity, happiness and peace are bound up in Christ: ‘For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.’ (Col 2:9-10 TNIV) They cannot be divorced from our relationship with Christ, and He is the Head. We are not the ones calling the shots!

We spend an inordinate amount of time pursuing our own plans and dreams and goals, but my prayer for today is that we pause long enough to ask God to help us to trust Him to work out His plan for our lives and to realise afresh that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain.’ (1 Tim 6:6 TNIV)

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Rom 8:28-30, TNIV)

Dave concluded his mini-series on Ephesians 2:1-7 TNIV last night, looking at verse 7: ‘in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.’

Over the past few weeks we have looked at our state before we came to know Christ and how God’s mercy and love have raised us up to new life and seated us with Christ in heavenly realms. Verse 7 answers the question ‘Why has God done these things?’ for it talks about His desire to show His glory to the whole world through the church, a theme expanded in Ephesians 3:10 TNIV (‘His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.’)

Salvation belongs to God and Rev 7:9-14 TNIV gives us a glimpse into the awesome work God is doing, bringing people from every tribe, language and nation to know Him and giving them white clothes to wear as they declare His praises. We are humbled by our part in God’s plan and can see throughout history how God has been working to bring people to a knowledge of Him.

God’s grace demonstrates His kindness to us. Despite our sinful nature, God’s grace and mercy have been lavished on us and as we respond to that grace and show others that no one is unforgivable, we become living examples of God’s love. We were chosen before the foundation of the world, so loved by God that He gave His only Son to save us and made an everlasting covenant with us.

God’s grace is channelled to us through Christ. We receive all the covenant blessings of God through Jesus Christ, the door into God’s presence and salvation.

God’s grace is limitless. Just as we cannot ever see the whole sea at once, so His grace is beyond our vision. To God, forgiveness comes naturally, for it is part of His nature. His grace is greater than our sins and in Him, there is forgiveness and restoration (1 John 1:7 TNIV). His grace is unconditional, for He welcomes all.

In 1851 Prince Albert organised the ‘Great Exhibition’ to showcase Britain’s importance and value, housed in the newly built Crystal Palace:

A century later, the Festival of Britain was put on to show that Great Britain had come through the Second World War and was still ‘great’:

God has a far greater exhibition to ‘show off’ to the world (including all the heavenly beings). We are part of His exhibition, ‘trophies of His grace’, God’s workmanship demonstrating His timeless, limitless, unconditional love which is available to everyone.