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Body-Builders |
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Issue 17 from |
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In this issue ·
NEW – Old Testament Survey
Correspondence Course ·
Feedback For new subscribers: ·
Introducing
“Artios Ministries” |
Welcome to Body-Builders! This is a new series of teaching articles intended to
bless and build the Body of Christ. I trust you enjoy this the seventeenth issue, and I
welcome your feedback. For my latest personal newsletter, please click here. Every blessing, George Alexander For Artios Ministries |
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Opinions vary as to the exact historical basis of this
nursery rhyme; but many of us are familiar with the words: Oh,
the grand old Duke of York, He had ten thousand men. Now suppose you were one of the Duke’s men. And he marched you all the way up to the
top of the hill, and then he turned you around and marched you right back
down again. What’s the point? You were down, then you were up, and now
you’re down again. Why bother? That’s my question when it comes to mountaineering or
even hill-climbing. Why expend all
the effort to go up, when you know perfectly well that all you’ll do when you
get there is come down again? My
climbing friends tend to give me one of two answers: either “It’s a
challenge—you climb it because it’s there!”; or “Before you come down,
you have the experience of the view from the top.” Personally I relate to the second of these reasons more than
the first, and so I make a mental note—“Never allow yourself to be talked
into climbing on a foggy day!” On one occasion, Jesus took His inner core disciples up
a mountain and down again. It was
even cloudy at the top! And yet the
experience stayed with them for the rest of their lives. It was literally what we’d call a
“mountaintop experience”. Here is the account from Luke’s Gospel: 28About
eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and
went up on to a mountain to pray. 29As
he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as
bright as a flash of lightning. 30Two
men, Moses and Elijah, 31appeared in glorious splendour, talking
with Jesus. They spoke about his
departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. 32Peter and his companions were
very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two
men standing with him. 33As
the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to
be here. Let us put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses and one
for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) 34While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and
enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35A voice came from the cloud,
saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36When the voice had spoken,
they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and
told no-one at that time what they had seen.
Luke 9:28-36 The Mount of Transfiguration was an experience unique to
Peter, James and John. Yet we can
relate to it through our own awareness of the mountaintop. When God takes us up the mountain: Be blessed by the experience Why take Peter, James and John with Him? If they had not been there, we would not
have had the report of what happened!
Jesus told them to keep the whole thing to themselves until after His
resurrection (see Mt 17:9), but after that the details could be revealed as
related by three eyewitnesses.
However it seems that the main reason for their presence was for their
own benefit, for their spiritual experience.
They had been sleepy, but sleep fled as they saw the
brightness of His clothes, and Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus in
glorious splendour. Peter said, “It
is good for us to be here,” and that was true! God wants us to have spiritual experiences. To seek these or to try to make
them happen is generally unwise.
But God still wants to initiate them.
They can come in personal prayer, or in powerful meetings, or even in
public settings. They can come in
times of intense spiritual focus, or unexpectedly in more mundane
circumstances. But however a
spiritual experience comes, experience it. Don’t sleep through it!
On this occasion, Peter, James and John woke up; but the same three
disciples were less successful in that regard in Gethsemane. Don’t miss it, don’t run away from it,
take it, enjoy it—be blessed by it. Be aware of the danger As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him,
“Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters — one for
you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Lk 9:33 This is our natural human tendency. We want to mark the spot of the
significant experience, to box it in or cover it over, to hallow the site—“let
us put up three shelters”. So we
build a mausoleum over the location.
Or we erect a church building, like the Church of the Nativity. We attempt to preserve the experience and
make a holy place of the site where it chanced to occur. In Numbers 21, God’s people were dying from being bitten
by poisonous snakes. God’s instruction for the deliverance of the people was
for Moses to make a bronze snake and set it up on a pole. Whoever was bitten could then look to the
model snake on the pole, and as a result would live. When the danger was past and the
experience over, the bronze snake was preserved in honour of what had happened. However by the time of King Hezekiah some
650 years later, it had become an object of worship and the people burned
incense to it! Wisely, Hezekiah
destroyed it. It had served its
purpose a long time before. In most of our towns and cities we have grand
structures, church buildings that once were functional and filled with
people, but now are simply monuments to what God did. Having started with enthusiasm and life,
we’re now saddled with the upkeep of the shell. There may be architectural and historical interest—but the
shell testifies to what God once did, rather than to the God who does
these things. (That may help us to be
pragmatic with our old buildings.) Experiences and meant to be experienced. Enjoy them, be blessed by them—and let them
go! As Peter said, it’s good for us
to be on the mountain, but don’t let’s box in our experiences, build empty
shelters and worship what God did!
That’s the danger. Be concerned with the reality After the mountaintop experience, some of us would want
to stay on the mountain and wait until God moves again! But for Peter, James and John it was time
to come down. At the foot of the
mountain, they were faced with harsh reality—arguing, crowds, teachers of the
law, and human need. 14When
they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the
teachers of the law arguing with them.
15As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were
overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. 16“What are you arguing with them about?” he
asked. 17A man in the
crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit
that has robbed him of speech. 18Whenever
it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes
his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked
your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” 19“O unbelieving generation,”
Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
……... 25When Jesus
saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I
command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26The spirit shrieked,
convulsed him violently and came out.
Mk 9:14-19, 25,26 Sometimes we leave the
mountaintop and come to earth with a bump.
But we needn’t. For Peter,
James and John, Jesus was still with them—and He’s with us! Also the power of God was manifest, even down the mountain (see
Lk 9:42,43). We may not have the
rarefied mountain air, but we still have the presence and the power of
God. The outworking of spiritual
experience is not just revelling in happy memories, but equipping. The need was down the mountain. That was the reality. Human need camps at the foot of every
Mount of Transfiguration. So be blessed by the
experience, be aware of the danger, and be concerned with the reality. It’s wonderful to be on the
mountaintop with God. But it can’t
last forever. We have to come down
again to meet the reality that is other people. The need is on the plain and in the valley. George Alexander February 2006 Note: All Bible
quotations are NIV unless otherwise stated. For a printer-friendly
version of this article, click here.
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News and Update |
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We’re well in to 2006 now, and time continues to move quickly. Much is happening in the Church, in the
world and in the Spirit. It’s still a
great time to be alive! “Old Testament Survey”, the first of the correspondence courses is
now available. For more information,
click here. This month’s article is more of a
one-off, some thoughts on my heart in recent times. All feedback appreciated. In response to a request, printer-friendly versions of the Body-Builder
Articles are now available. To access
the list, click here. Apart from correspondence courses, there’s general update information
on the Artios School of
Theology, and links to any
previous issues of Body-Builders that you may have missed. There’s also a link to my latest personal newsletter. Artios Ministries is being developed in three phases, and Phase 1 is
almost complete. Check out www.artios.org
for updates. If you have difficulty opening these e-mails or if the text looks weird
and you suspect it’s not showing as it was intended to (I know it looks a
little strange in Hotmail for instance), please let me know and I’ll try to
solve the problem. Alternatively, you
could try the web version (click here). I continue to receive more requests to subscribe to Body-Builders. If you have received this e-mail
second-hand and would like to be subscribed, please click here. If you’d like to subscribe a friend,
please click here. (The
friend will first receive an e-mail offering the chance to subscribe.) More news and developments soon …. Return to top
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Previous Body-Builders |
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You may have missed or
mislaid a previous issue of Body-Builders.
If so, don’t despair! They can
be accessed by clicking the links below: Issue
2 (The Beginning of Life) Issue
3 (Getting the Word Out) Issue
5 (The Purpose of the Church) Issue
6 (Pointers to Personal Purpose) Issue
8 (Laying Hold of the Word) Issue
9 (The Community of Perfect Love) Issue
10 (What Should We Do With Christmas?) Issue
12 (Internal Prosperity) Issue
13 (How To Develop Spiritual Strength) Issue
14 (Building the Walls of Your Life — 1) Issue
15 (Building the Walls of Your Life — 2) Issue
16 (Building the Walls of Your Life — 3) NEW! Printer-friendly versions of the
articles only are now available. To
access the list, click here. |
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Artios School of Theology |
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Artios School of
Theology is a modular course leading to a Diploma in Theology from Artios
Ministries. The first run of the
School, with classes held in Dunfermline, is currently under way. The first
module, Old Testament Survey, had eighteen students enrolled, and was
completed in June 2004. The second
module, “Acts of the Apostles” had seventeen students, and completed in
December 2004. That was followed by,
“Gifts and Ministries”, “Spiritual Dynamics”, and “New Testament Survey”,
which finished before Christmas 2005. The current module, Romans, is now
past the halfway mark. For more
information, click here. For general
information on the Artios School of Theology, please click here*. “Old Testament Survey”
is now available as a correspondence course (distance learning). The module comes with a notes booklet,
teaching sessions on audio, and email support. The audio teachings are recordings of the “live” class, and are
nominally 20 hours in length. There
is a charge for this course. To
apply, request more information, or ask a specific question, click here.
Other modules are
currently in preparation as correspondence courses and will be introduced
soon. * If you tried this
and it didn’t work, you may have to download an Acrobat Reader first. This is available free of charge from
Adobe. To get it, click here. |
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Introducing Artios Ministries
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Artios Ministries is a new ministry launched officially
in October 2003. The Founder and Director is George Alexander.
For 12 years, George pastored Liberty Church in Dunfermline, Scotland, before
being released in 1997 to a wider teaching ministry. The
aims of Artios Ministries are: 1.
To proclaim the Christian doctrine and principles through teaching,
literature, and other means 2.
To provide Biblical education and ministry training 3.
To promote good practice and sound doctrine in the Church of Jesus
Christ Artios
Ministries is a charitable trust recognised in Scotland as Scottish Charity
number SC 034194. |
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“Artios” is
a Greek word occurring in the New Testament. It means, “complete, fitted,
completely qualified, with all its needed parts”. It occurs,
together with another word derived from it, in 2 Timothy 3:16,17 “All
scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may
be complete, equipped for every good work.” RSV |
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Contact Information |
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Difficulties or Comments? Just click here and let us know. |
Artios Ministries 13 Whinhill Dunfermline Fife KY11 4YZ U.K. |
01383-739537 (+44-1383-739537) |
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© Copyright 2006 Artios Ministries |
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