Ralph Neighbour Jr once wrote a book called The Seven Last Words of the Church. Do you know what they are? ‘We Never Tried It That Way Before!’

This attitude has been a destructive and sinister influence in many churches. Where a handful of enthusiastic people are imaginative enough to conceive of new life, new levels of spirituality or new patterns of worship, a pocket of negative, conservative people will make a firm stand of resistance.

Not because they have any biblical or theological argument against the new concepts, but just because they never tried it that way before.

When someone dreams of healing gifts, or words of prophecy becoming part of the life of the congregation, a group of church stalwarts denounce the idea. On biblical grounds? Hardly–there are none! But, ‘they never tried it that way before.’

When someone imagines an exciting ministry, others oppose the idea. Too much work? Not the right program for the church? Perhaps? Perhaps, too, they simply never tried it that way before.

When God made the world, he had never done it that way before either.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Galatians 6:14)

Every vision, every creative idea, has to be brought into focus through the cross. Only then do we see it in perspective. If we are not willing to subject everything to Calvary, we will never be allowed to see it through.

There is no resurrection without crucifixion, no life without death.

This means saying to the Lord, ‘Thank you for helping me to dream this dream. It is exciting and full of potential. But I am willing to give it to you so that you can decide what is done with it.

‘If you want to kill it, that’s all right with me. And if you want to raise it to life again, that’s all right too. I bring it under the cross.’

Whenever a vision becomes so important to us that we can’t let it go for any reason, we are in a dangerous position.

If we can’t keep our dreaming focused through the cross, we will see a distorted picture–and the result will be less than God intended.

This sounds hard and even unfair perhaps, but it is how the kingdom of God works.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

I once interviewed Mrs Daisy Osborn, wife of the well- known missionary evangelist T. L. Osborn. I asked her what was the greatest miracle she had seen. She told me how a little boy had been brought to one of the crusades in Africa who had no eyes at all. He had been born not only sightless but eyeless, too.

One night, a mass prayer was offered for the healing of the sick. The next morning, the excited mother brought the lad to the Osborns so that they could see for themselves what had happened. The little fellow lay in his mother’s arms looking up at them from two bright, open eyes!

The story was well verified because the child was known to others in the area. For years afterwards, in fact, people used to come like pilgrims from near and far to see for themselves what had happened.

Miracles are not only for Bible days–they still happen today. God has not changed. Jesus Christ is still the same as he always was (Hebrews 13:8).

To live creatively is to believe in a miraculous God!

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

Isaac Watts’ hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’, written in 1707, is widely sung and widely loved. Charles Wesley reportedly said he would give up all his other hymns to have written this one.

It’s the first known hymn to be written in the first person, introducing a personal religious experience rather than limiting itself to doctrine, although its doctrine is profound.

Watts wrote five stanzas for the original version but put the fourth stanza in brackets, indicating it was the most likely one to be left out, if need be. Its message is moving–

His dying crimson, like a robe,

Spreads o’er his body on the tree:

Then am I dead to all the globe,

And all the globe is dead to me.

When we realise the incredible price Jesus paid to redeem us, by giving his life-blood, then we too, die–to the world and all that is in it. We realise where true value lies.

And we live daily crucified with Christ, always carrying about in our bodies the dying of the Lord (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 4:10). It may mean pain. It may mean tears. It will certainly mean self-sacrifice.

But that is the way of the cross.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

When Peter and John were entering the Temple one day, a lame man asked them for some money. Peter’s answer is very revealing. ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk’ (Acts 3:6). The man was instantly cured.

Peter knew he had something to give the man. So he didn’t even pray for him. He just gave him health in the name of Christ.

He believed so strongly in his ability to cure the man, that he lifted him to his feet to enable him to walk.

The implication is that the man was not healed until Peter lifted him up. Only when Peter put his faith into action was there a result.

The man’s recovery depended not only on the power of God but on Peter’s own confidence in himself to be the agent for that power. Peter explained it like this —

By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see (Acts 3:16).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

When they were confronted by the hungry crowds on the Galilean hills, the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people to the surrounding villages for food.

Jesus’ reply is astounding: ‘You give them something to eat’ (Mark 6:37). They thought he wanted them to pay for the food–which would have cost them nearly a year’s wages.

He was actually offering them the opportunity to perform a miracle.

It is clear he believed they could do it if they wanted. The problem was that they didn’t!

They had faith in God and his ability to perform such a miracle. But they didn’t have faith in themselves to be his agents.

Many times we are in a similar position. We are quite sure God can do anything he wants to but we are not at all sure we can! We are not even confident God can do what he wants to do through us.

Yet Jesus taught clearly this is what can happen.

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you’ (Matthew 17:20).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

Our competence comes from God.  This is clearly indicated in statements like Paul’s,  ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength’ (Philippians 4:13) and ‘Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 2:14).

This point comes out strongly in his second letter to the Corinthians. Here the apostle explains that we are not competent in ourselves and we cannot claim anything for ourselves.

‘But our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant’ (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

Here is a balanced attitude.

• Without Christ we are nothing; in Christ we are everything.
• Without Christ we are weak; in Christ we are strong.
• Without Christ everything we do is flawed; in Christ everything has eternal value.
• Without Christ we have no hope; in Christ we have eternal life.

No wonder Paul can cry elsewhere,

‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Romans 8:31).

When we understand who we are in Christ, and when we adopt a correct faith-image of ourselves, we are able to do anything that God asks us to do!

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

It is exciting to think about working miracles in the name of Jesus and doing all kinds of spectacular things. But there are some important points to remember.

When living creatively, we must be prepared to fail. Now no doubt this seems a strange thing to say. Surely the idea is to succeed.

But when we enter the faith realm, success is only possible when the risk of failure is present. Otherwise, it is simply not faith. Faith is unnecessary when failing is impossible.

One of the best-known stories of faith in the New Testament is the story of Peter walking on water. When Peter climbed out of his boat, he must have known there was a possibility of sinking.

If there was no such possibility, then there would have been no miracle. Nor would he have needed to use his faith. In fact, it was only the risk of sinking that made a miracle possible.

• We cannot have a miracle without a potential impossibility.
• We cannot experience resurrection without death.
• We cannot have healing without sickness.
• We cannot enjoy God’s miraculous provision without first being in desperate need.

The greater the risk of failure, the greater will be the glory to God when we succeed.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

The apostle Paul tried to explain to the Corinthian believers what it meant to die to self–

We have this treasure in earthen jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us… We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed (2 Corinthians 4:7, 10).

Dying to self in order that we might be raised only by the hand of God!

Here we see the blend of a willingness to die and a confidence that out of that death will come new life. This, says Paul later in his letter, is the spirit of faith.

This principle applies to living for Jesus. It is remarkable to our 21st century way of thinking, with its huge focus on salesmanship, making life easier, and being as ‘user-friendly’ as possible, that Jesus actually discouraged people from following him–

Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple… Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27, 33).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.