To take God’s name in vain is much more than simply using it as a curse
word. Blaspheme is a symptom of something bigger. ‘In vain’ means 'to
empty.' So, we’re called, not to empty God’s name of its fullness, but
rather to fill it with the fullness of God's nature and His work.
By His name, God has made Himself known: He revealed Himself to the
Israelites as ‘The great I am', the one and only true God, the 'Beginning
and the End'. And, in the person of Jesus, he has fully revealed himself to
the whole world. His name is Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Prince of
Peace, Everlasting Lord.
When we fill God’s name with the fullness of His nature, we see Him more
clearly, giving Him His rightful status and place in our lives and the
world. To fill God’s name with its fullness is also to acknowledge the
unique work Jesus has done in making us right with God, beckoning us into
God’s presence.
When we don’t empty God’s name of its nature and work, our prayer and
worship lives are transformed. We approach God with confidence, not in our
own name but in Jesus’ name, knowing He is the great God, whose name is
above all other names, who can do anything for us his children.
By Ed Flint
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Jesus and the ten commandments: God’s image must not be made.
The Second Commandment isn’t just about all the idols we worship - the
ones we make ourselves, and the ones we bow down when we make ANYTHING more
important than loving God - but about rediscovering who we truly are. God
did not command his people not to make images of Him (which was was radical
to a worldview that viewed idols and god-presence as interchangeable)
because He’s against beauty or art, or because he doesn’t want us to know
Him. Quite the opposite in fact— because He’s already made His image: US!
Long before golden calves or carved statues, God’s intention was to reflect
His presence through human beings—created in love, for love. We look at how
this ancient command speaks directly to us today: how we see ourselves, how
we treat others, and how we understand God’s presence in the world.
Jesus—the perfect image of God—restores what’s been fractured, and invites
us to live fully as His image-bearers. Maybe in ways we’ve never even
dreamt of. It was always about love, and it will always be revealed and
restored by His love. Today is always the day to receive more of it.
By Hannah Flint
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Jesus and the ten commandments: no other gods.
This new series, Jesus and the ten commandments, is a conversation on how
Jesus embodies – and helps us to embody – the kind of life we are built
for, and the kind of life framed by the Ten Words.
Bill starts with a re-framing of the Ten Words – which we mistakenly call
Commandments – as more about relationship and reality than about rules and
restrictions. When the Ten Words are reduced to rules restricting what we
think of as our freedom, we will try and find ways to do end-runs around
them – and discover that they were actually protections put in place to
enable human thriving the way God intended.
Because Jesus is fully aware of this, He invites us to learn our lives from
Him – to follow in His way. As we do so, allowing Him to shape us by
alignment with Him, we discover that we live in the center of the Ten Words
naturally and without thinking about it. They have become part of what it
means for us to be human.
By Bill Dogterom
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Jesus, the resurrected one. (EASTER)
The resurrection is emphatic: Jesus is said to have bodily risen in time
and space at a moment in history. The resurrection is neither mythical, nor
metaphorical. It happened, and it changed the world forever.
To a world lost to wishy washy relativism, Jesus’ victory over death is the
most sure absolute anyone can build a life on. And the resurrection is
transformational. The victory of God means the end of fear and the end of
any lack of purpose. Those who live in the light of resurrection are able
not to be alarmed, and to go: go and live lives of meaning. And the
resurrection is grace. It’s the gift of God to a world in need. Grace
transforms everything.
Thank God for Easter.
By Ed Flint
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Jesus the irenic, innocent, indestructible one.
At Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the crowd call for Jesus’ crucifixion and
Barabbas’ release.
Barabbas represents violent rebellion, in contrast to Jesus’ refusal to
defend himself. Whether we like to admit it, there is something in all of
us that can find brutal aggression more compelling than the way of Jesus.
When this happens it’s like we’re in the crowd crying for Barabbas to be
set free.
But Jesus is more than just an example of non-violence. He is also
Barabbas’ substitute. And He is ours too. He does what no human before or
since could do. His inncoent death is like a lightening rod for all our
human corruption and guilt. In His body He absorbs Barabbas’s sin, our sin,
and all the sin of the world. And, in death, he kills off all evil, setting
us, like Barabbas, free. His revolution is not a human one, it is eternal.
Unlike any other revolution, it cannot be held back. It is indestructible.
As such, it is the only revolution worthy of our lives. When we commit
ourselves to it, we commit to the only way the world will ever be
fundamentally redeemed.
By Ed Flint
Weekly talks from bread, in Hollywood, CA.
Bread is an open-minded, Spirit-filled, non-denominational church in the heart of Los Angeles. We believe in the world-changing power of Jesus and the present day work of the Holy Spirit.
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