Adam had an assignment from God on the Earth that God had created. His assignment was to ‘rule’ (Gen 1:26) and to rule in God’s name (as God was and is King) but, and it is a significant but, Adam alone was created in his image. Adam was quite a bit like God, not “God” but like Him ie in his likeness. The animals were not like God but Adam was and it was Adam who was given this awesome responsibility- to delegated rule, in God’s place, over the whole created order. When creation looked at, listened to and sensed Adam they were seeing, hearing and sensing God- that is until the fall when Adam fell short of the glory of God. We, however, in covenant with Jesus, in this time, are on the journey of being changed back to God’s image ‘from glory to glory’ (2 Cor 3:18).
This is called sanctification and Paul referred to this “progress” of the faith
‘Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith’. Philippians 1:25. But back to Adam.
Adam was to be God’s manager or steward, representative, go-between or mediator.
Ps 115:6 ‘The heaven …the eternal holds himself , the earth He has assigned to men’. (Moffat Translation). God did not give away ownership of the earth, God has assigned responsibility to humans.
If you are unfortunate and end up on the wrong side of the law and appear in court you will most likely need the services of a lawyer who will spend much time listening to you and represent your case to a judge. Your lawyer will stand between yourself and the judge , the opposing lawyer and all the evidence being presented against you – the lawyer will mediate- interpose between two parties.
Adam, as we know, was not successful in his assignment and God sent another human the ‘last Adam’ to succeed where the first Adam failed. Christ came to represent God on Earth. He became the mediator or go -between, representing God to humanity. But wasn’t Adam supposed to represent God to creation ? The irony here is that humanity now needed their own intercessor, Jesus, to mediate for them. Jesus mediated God to man and also man to God – this is the priestly ministry of Jesus.
The risen Jesus is now functioning as our advocate interceding on our behalf to the Father. Our relationship with him guarantees our prayers access the Father because they are mediated through Jesus and are therefore in his name. Jesus has gone between ourselves and God and reconciled us to the Father. Jesus has also stood between us and Satan and broken his evil hold on our lives. In these ways Jesus has brought redemption to our lives by breaking the power of Satan and reconciling us to the Father. Jesus the ‘last Adam’, has done it all!
So we, now redeemed, may resume the journey to engage in the original assignment given to the first Adam – to represent God to creation. This assignment has never been revoked – we just needed to be redeemed.
How are we getting on with the ‘progress in the faith’ in representing God to the whole of God’s created order?

The psalms have been the song book of the people of God for many years and some of them (like psalm 83) can worry us – especially as they were used in public worship! So how do we make sense of these troubling verses.
One of the most important interpretive keys for scripture is that the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed and the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed.  That is very helpful for me because the Bible is unfolding in revelation and it is only in Jesus that things come together.

Jesus brings all the previous Biblical insights together.
What we are seeing in the Psalm is a picture of spiritual warfare. Before Jesus came along the battle between good and evil was chiefly played out in the physical realm. Paul says (Ephesians ) that our battle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual powers and principalities.
God has made a good Creation but presently it is dominated, in the spiritual realm by powers that seek to undermine the work of God and make creation a bad place. The evidence is before us each night on the main news programmes.
In the Psalm we are seeing battles that involve Kings and people groups around Israel. These people are all connected to the powers of evil and worshipping these powers. The King is seen as the chief representative through whom these powers act. (Just as, in the Bible, the Kings of Israel were to be the public representatives through whom God would act.)
Today we are possibly prone to forget that surrounding God’s people are enemies that seek our downfall and destruction  – we forget that to our loss. The world is not a neutral place. You and I are a battleground for spiritual realities.
“O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how Your enemies are astir, how Your foes rear their heads.” (Psalm 83:1-2)
Such was the prayer of God’s Old Testament people when they were surrounded by enemies who were attacking them. God’s Old Testament people felt as if their whole world was arrayed against them. Hence, they were desperate for God’s help. God has offered us help in that he offers us the way of Jesus.

Paul says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ”. (1 Cor 11:1)

In many churches we have a rightful expectation that the preached word and the word studied will lead to changed hearts and changed lives. The word has that power to do this and we depend upon the “living word” – Jesus – to grow naturally from a diet of the living word. However, Jesus added at least one further major ingredient into the mix as he was developing his disciples – imitation.
When he sent the disciples out into mission he required of them to preach the kingdom, cast out demons, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and to heal the sick. Precisely what Jesus had been doing in his own ministry. At the end of his life he basically said, “You know everything you have seen me do and teach – you go and do the same”. The disciples were ‘learners’ and imitators – this is the root meaning of the word disciple (Mathetes) to be a learner, and they were learning to be like Jesus in both the areas of competency and character or, put more simply, being and doing.
Paul similarly developed his own disciples. After his Jewish world and expectations were completely changed (through his meeting with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus) Paul, Jewish through to his toenails, embraced Jesus as Messiah. He spent many years re-evaluating what it meant to be part of the community of the one true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He came to understand that this equated to following Jesus, being a disciple – this is what it meant to be the true Israel – the people of God.
The people of Israel had always been a sent people – sent with a message that salvation lies in the covenant with the one true God. This message came finally in the words and person of the sent one, Jesus, and now Paul knew that he had to follow in a similar fashion. In the same way that the Father had sent Jesus so Jesus was now sending Paul  – to be a living word – in both spoken words and lived words. The way Paul was going to extend this “sending” from God was to train and send others. As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sent Paul and similarly Paul sent others. What was a significant part of his training methodology?  Imitate me as I imitate Christ.
As the written and spoken Word transforms hearts and lives to be more like Jesus the extra link is the discipling relationship. In the discipling relationship the information gained from the word spoken and studied can be demonstrated. This “discipling” is the important link between information and the application.
Scripture (studied and preached)
Discipling relationship
Application
Reflection: Who are you discipling and who is discipling you?
Peter Hallsworth, Curate at Christchurch Bridlington

Col 1 :29 ‘It is he (Jesus ) whom we proclaim, warning and teaching everyone in all wisdom , so that we might present everyone mature in Christ.’

Many of us would be quick to say an ‘amen’ to this as it reflects Jesus own words in the great commission  “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. However, I, for one, am interested in the process and context by which this training/ making apprentices of Jesus occurs. What is the attitude that leads to the making of little Jesus’s like me and you. Paul helps our understanding  in the next verse:-
For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires in me
Paul toiled – this would seen to mean that this is hard work and requires sustained exertion to achieve the high calling that is presented to Paul and all who follow Jesus.
Paul struggled against that which would hinder him from his mission. What would hinder him? Most likely the lethargy and perhaps laziness that can have a grip on us. But against this we have the energising power of the Holy Spirit of God to aid us.
If this sounds a bit like hard work then I think we might ask  a question regarding grace. Isn’t all this discipleship stuff  supposed to be a gift (grace). Dallas Willard helps us once more  :-
Grace is opposed to earning, but it is not opposed to effort
 

I have been a fan of Nottingham forest for many years now. In the past, the glory days, I saw them (under the management of Brian Clough) win two European cups and a league championship. I bought the team strip and wore it proudly, sang the team songs on the terraces and for many years I was a committed fan. However, I never put on the team jersey and played for them. (That could have been fun though!)
It is one thing to be a fan of Jesus it is another to be a follower. It is not a bad thing that we are a fan of Jesus. To appreciate his example, his profound teaching and to marvel at the signs and wonders that he performed. No bad thing to be special fan of Jesus especially as he secured salvation for those who live in a covenant relationship with him.

Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-15
If we give Jesus the simple credit of intelligence then these first words must be taken seriously if we are to be followers of Christ i.e. Christians.
Firstly, we see that the Good News is not identified with coming forward at a worship meeting and giving a mental assent to an understanding of the atonement. Important as that is, it is not how Jesus described it. Neither is the Good News here about a place in heaven when we die. In Jesus own terms, it is very much about the present and not just for when we die.
The Good News is the Kingdom of God. Gods Kingdom manifests in the person in whom God’s presence is welcomed and through that empowering presence God has his will and way. It is not so much geographical or spacial but a personal invitation to receive Gods kingdom or enter into it. These are the words the Bible uses with the Kingdom – we can enter it or receive it.
That poses a question to us. Do we want to have Gods rule and reign in our lives? Is this something that gives us a sense of a thrill or does it leave us feeling cold at the thought of reneging our will to His on matters of sexual purity and economic affairs to name just two elements. Jesus will not force his will upon us, the Good News is that we can receive /we can enter into this Kingdom.