Planted by Water

Reading through Jeremiah recently, I came to the great chapters about God’s promise to restore his people (Chps. 30 & 31) and I found myself reflecting on the kind of things that I believe God has been restoring to his church over the last 30-40 years. Many of you, like me, have been a part of what has been called ‘the restorationist movement’ but of course the principles God has been restoring are not limited to any one ‘movement’ or ‘grouping’ of God’s people. My commitment, anyway, is not to a movement, or to a group, a school of thought or a particular fad; it is to God’s purpose to build his church and establish his Kingdom.

Restoration is ultimately not just about restoring the church to a New Testament model, but is about the accomplishing of God’s eternal purpose - ‘the restoration of all things’ (Acts 3:21). In the outworking of that eternal purpose in recent times, however, I believe God has restored and is restoring to his church important truths and principles. Some of his people have been more responsive than others, as loyalty to religious tradition often dulls the spirit. And we must all always be on our guard that we don’t turn into a religious tradition the living voice and spiritual work of the Holy Spirit.

So, back to Jeremiah. There are lots of truths/principles that jumped out at me, and so I’ll cover them over the next few days. But here are a few of the principles I believe that God is restoring to his new covenant people, the church, and that I am seeking to embrace for my own life and for the people of God that I have the privilege and responsibility of leading. (I can obviously only mention them briefly):

• Restored to the land (30:3) - the land speaks of our inheritance in Christ. Knowing who we are and what we have in Christ is so vitally important.
• Breaking the yoke/tearing off bonds (30:8) - we have been brought into the liberty of the sons of God! Praise God! It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. I don’t have to be enslaved to fear, religion, guilt, sin, my past, other people’s views of me, small-thinking, my genes etc. etc.
• Kingdom (30:9) - God has been revealing afresh the truths of his Kingdom - the now and not yet of the Kingdom (or as my friend Matthew Ling would say, the not yet and now - let the emphasis be on what we can embrace now!) and the fact that the Kingdom is destined to fill the whole earth!
• Faith - peace/security through deliverance from fear (30:10) - thank God he is restoring Faith to a church that has been filled with fear, insecurity, religious guilt, arid intellectualism etc. This life we live we live by faith!
• Discipline/Rule (30:11; see also 31:18-20) - there has rightly been a big emphasis on grace, but not to the point it becomes an excuse for licence. God disciplines those he loves and we are called to discipline ourselves - to bring the rule of God’s Kingdom to every area of our lives.

Hope that whets your appetite. More to follow tomorrow.