Much Too High A Price

Matt 13:46; “Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it”.

Have you ever said to someone, ‘Oh, you paid too much for that’….?

None of us like paying over the odds. I think our outings for a new vehicle always carry a certain resoluteness not to get ‘ripped off’ and end up paying more for a vehicle than we were comfortable with. We often guard our wallets to avoid such a scenario and yet there are times when we feel the pinch of paying ‘much too high a price’.

 

Last year I had this idea that I was going to start two collections (both of which I did complete). The first collection would consist of a banknote from every country in the world, minus a few islands. (I figured I didn’t need a banknote from Pitcairn). The next collection was a little more challenging as I decided to find banknotes for all European countries involved in World War I. That meant that each banknote from the participating countries had to be printed and in circulation prior to the start of the Great War, that was evoked June 28,1914 in Sarajevo. No small feat. And, if truth be known I probably paid ‘much too high a price’ for old banknotes from Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg. Some may look at these notes and think that it is ludicrous to spend large amount of funds on old paper, but for me I was willing to pay more for these ‘treasures’ of a world forgotten by many. They have become invaluable to me.

It was whilst pondering on these banknotes and their prices that I was quickly reminded of a song that my good friend Devin Webb sang with Michael Neale; “Much to High a Price”. Here was the line that struck me like a hot blade;

“You paid much too high a price for me
Your tears, your blood, the pain
To have my soul just stirred at times
Yet never truly change”.

This old song has lyrics that cut deep if you let them. I found myself with the song stuck on repeat as I meditated once again on the price the Christ paid for mankind. Jesus truly is that merchant that went out and sold all He had just to purchase this pearl. This pearl of great price. Oh, the deep and far reaching love and mercy of our Lord. Being obedient unto death for our sake and yet as the lyricist states; we often have our souls stirred by this very truth, and yet our propensity is that we never truly make a change.

It is moments like these that I am challenged and even feel charged to ‘step up’ and make sure that I don’t allow my soul to feel the stirring of the Living God only to remain the same as before the spiritual stirring began. Don’t let moments of stirring pass you by, receive them, ruminate on them and then let them change you.

Water Gate

Neh 8:2,3; “Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday.”

A few weeks ago there was an important date in the Jewish calendar. The date I am referring to is the 1^st of Tishri, which signals the beginning of a new civil year. (Their religious calendar commences on the 1^st of Nisan). All around the world Jewish people were celebrating what many of us know as ‘Rosh Hashanah’ or ‘The Feast of Trumpets’. During this time I was drawn to the only biblical noted observance of this particular feast. Mentioned in both Ezra and Nehemiah, the same story is told. We read about God’s people returning to Jerusalem after their 70 years in captivity in Babylon. The scene is set, and all the people are gathered together at the Water Gate whilst the Law is heralded to them by Ezra the faithful scribe.

There were many things that attracted my attention in these passages, but none stronger than the structure we know as the Water Gate. There were ten gates around the city of Jerusalem and yet this is the gate that they all met at. Sitting to the north of the Fountain and Dung Gates, the Water Gate would keep a constant flow of water into the Holy City. There may have been certain circumstances that led them to meet at the Water Gate rather than any other gate but I find it tantalizingly thought provoking to say the least. On this special day in their history, this 1^st of Tishri, this New Year’s Day, there was about to be a new beginning and it was all going to be centered on God’s Holy Word. A Revival and Spiritual Renewal were about to take place in the great city, that had not seen since the days of King Josiah and the high priest Hilkiah. So what is the spiritual importance of the Water Gate?

The Apostle Paul states in his letter to the Ephesians that there is a ‘Spiritual Cleansing’ when we are ‘washed in the Word’. Furthermore, In the Gospel of John we see Jesus state that the disciples were clean because of the ‘word He spoke to them’. If then, the Word of God has a cleansing aspect to it, it is fitting that the Water Gate is where everyone gathered. The question for you and I today is this; Do you/I need to revisit the Water Gate? Do we need to be submersed in God’s Word in ways that we have not been before, so that a ‘Spiritual Renewal’ can take place? Let us then surround ourselves with God’s Word, let us not neglect it and cease to bathe in it. If we visit the Water Gate and hear His voice, I pray that our journey to the neighboring Fountain Gate, where the living waters of Christ flow in abundance, will in turn flood the earth with blessing….

Wood you Altar that????

Job 8:7; “Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.”

‘We must have the best’, ‘The production must be engaging’, ‘If people aren’t attracted to it, they won’t come’.  These are all lines that many of us have heard before, either in our work place or in our churches. But what is ‘the best’? What makes something ‘engaging’? What ‘attraction’ will ultimately draw people?

Recently, we have been spending some time looking at what God was doing in the first decade of the 20th century.  In 1904 in a small town called Loughor in South Wales, God was using a man called Evan Roberts. A 26 year old form collier was given incredible visions and a zeal to see the lost become found in Christ Jesus. This revival swept the nation and over 100,000 people were converted. A revival that saw unlearned men leave the coal mine after a long shift and then preaching with great eloquence at night. A revival that saw the Pit Ponies flummoxed and disorientated when they could no longer understand their masters directions due to the lack of curse words used. A revival that saw sight restored to girl that only had eye sockets. A revival that at its core started with the simple and humble prayer; ‘More Lord’. The church simply just asked the Lord for ‘more’. More of His Presence, more of His Power and more of His Spirit. People came because of what God was doing, not because the building or production looked like.

By the time 1906 arrived the Welsh revival, through various connections had spread to Los Angeles. More precisely, 312 Azusa Street. Originally constructed as an African Methodist Episcopal Church in what was then a black ghetto part of town. The rent was $8.00 per month. A newspaper referred to the downtown Los Angeles building as a "tumble down shack". Since the church had moved out, the building had served as a wholesale house, a warehouse, a lumberyard, stockyards, a tombstone shop, and had most recently been used as a stable with rooms for rent upstairs. It was a small, rectangular, flat-roofed building, approximately 60 feet long and 40 feet wide, sided with weathered whitewashed clapboards. Discarded lumber and plaster littered the large, barn-like room on the ground floor. Nonetheless, it was secured and cleaned in preparation for services. They held their first meeting on April 14, 1906. Church services were held on the first floor where the benches were placed in a rectangular pattern. Some of the benches were simply planks put on top of empty nail kegs. There was no elevated platform, as the ceiling was only eight feet high. Initially there was no pulpit. Frank Bartleman, an early participant in the revival, recalled that "Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe boxes, one on top of the other. He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting, in prayer. There was no pride there.... In that old building, with its low rafters and bare floors...” Furthermore, the Altar was a single piece of wood resting on two chairs. CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT IN A WESTERN CHURCH TODAY???

I suggest for your thoughts today that we consider what it means to ‘Have the best’. I am not opposed to churches with large campuses and well-kept buildings with their nice furnishings. Many have diligent spiritual man and women exercising their great gift of stewardship in them. But seldom do we find great moves of God having their genesis in a palace. It is much more like God to use a stable. Great things in God often start with humble beginnings.....