Think For A Minute

A warning against Idols!!

2011-02-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

Some verses to remember

Exodus 20:3-5

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them

Exodus 20:23

Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold

1 Samuel 15:23

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Colossians 3:5

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry

Romans 1:24-25

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

A definition to ponder…

That on which the affections are strongly (often excessively) set; an object of passionate devotion; a focus of your attention; anything that draws you away from God.

A question to truthfully consider…

What are the idols in your life?

We no longer carve our idols out of stone or cast them out of Gold. No, the idols we have today are far more dangerous. They come better disguised. We don’t physically bow down to them and set them on alters – but they are the attention of our focus, our worship, our adoration. Some of them, when we think about it, are pretty obvious. Let’s take a look at our live in regards to…

Work

Family

Friends

Television

Computers

Sport

Money

Health

Books

Education

Writing

Music

The list could go on and for each individual it will be different. Where is your security? Is it in God or in the things you do? In your work, your ability to earn money, the title you have, the power you yield, the influence you have, the lives you control? Where is your focus? Is it on God or on your family or your friends? What do you spend your time doing? Do you spend it with God or playing on the computer, watching television, playing sport? What is the focus of your concern? Is it the things of God, how you can serve Him better, how you can draw closer to Him or is it on your health, your family, you career, your education, your debt, your possessions? When was the last time you spent a couple of hours watching a good film, engrossed in a great book or watching some sporting event? Yesterday? Last week? My guess is that it won’t have been too long ago. And when was the last time you spent a couple of hours with God? I’m not letting you off the hook here and including going to church, or reading the Bible, or reading a Christian book, or doing God’s work in the community. I’m talking about spending time in God’s presence, listening, seeking, dwelling, soaking. Yesterday? Last week? Last year? Never?

Thankfully my life is so perfect that I spend every minute with God… he says choking on every word. This challenge is far more pointed at me than anyone else. However, as I think it all through perhaps one or two of you might think along with me. If you can honestly say that you have made good progress in putting God first, making him the real focus of your life I’d love to hear from you – you have much I could learn from. I mean that in all honesty – when we find real tangible ways to put God first, to remove idols from our lives we need to share and encourage others. The Christian life is hard, there is no two ways about it. Let us share our struggles but also our successes. Not to brag or to build ourselves up but to share the recipe for success with others to build them up and draw each other closer to God.
Now, the idols I’ve mentioned so far are fairly obvious when we think about them. I just want to mention some that I believe are more veiled and in some ways, therefore, far more dangerous. You may well disagree with me, in fact, please do!! Let me know what you think. I’m wanting to help people think through these issues alongside me so I’ll just put them out there and see what you think…

Church Building projects

The Bible

Feeding the poor

Sermons

Community projects

Church

Prayer

Theology

Grace

Fear

Now I guess some of you are now thinking that I’ve totally lost the plot, but bear
with me. Now, most of the things I’ve listed are good and honourable things to do and have a place in the lives of most Christians. And there is the rub, they do have a place, a rightful place but are they in their rightful place in our lives. Are they in the right place or have we elevated them? Where is the focus of our church is it on God or has it become skewed? Has the building project taken over that focus? Has the sermon become the focus of our service and not God himself? Have we subtly, over time changed our focus from God onto His word. Did we start off the community project as part of our worship of God but in fact it is now all consuming and we now live for the community project? Has the grace of God in our lives become more important than God in our lives? These are subtle things. It’s easy to convince ourselves that we are working for God, when in fact we are now just working. Surely reading God’s work is one of the best things we can do? However, we can’t put the cart before the horse. We can’t raise the Bible to a position above that which it was meant. The Bible is a tool to point us towards God. It is a wonderful, mystical, marvellous thing for of truth and wisdom and inspiration but Bibliolatry is still idolatry.

We need to be so careful. We need others around us to speak into our lives and keep them on line. We need wise people from outside our churches to examine them and see if they are continuing to keep the main thing the main thing. It only takes a little nudge, a human perspective and not God’s to take us miles away from where we should be. A small shift in focus one day can mean being totally out of focus from then on. Join me in this discussion and in praying that we would be able to identify the idols in our lives and have the strength to do something about them. Pray that you would have wise people around you that you can be accountable to and who can and will speak into your lives. Let us fix our eyes on the creator and sustainer of our faith and keep them there!!

What Gets You Out of Bed in the Morning? part two

2010-10-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

In part one we talked a little about the need for vision in our churches and also the need for a strategy for implementing that vision. I guess I should have called part two “What gets you out of bed in the morning – this time it’s personal!!”

Do you have a personal Vision? What is God calling you to do on a personal level? Who does God want to be for you this year? What specific part of God’s character does He want to reveal to you to help you on your journey? How can you ensure that you walk with God is better this year than last year? How can you ensure that you continue to become more like Jesus and not less like Him? The Bible gives us a great foundation as to the sort of people God calls us to be; but who does God want us to be as an individual? What does God what to inspire us to be for Him?

Now I’ve bamboozled you with questions I’m afraid I’m not going to go on and answer them for you. I’m afraid there are times when we just have to seek out God’s will for our lives on our own. I can’t tell you what God is wanting from you, what sort of vision He wants to give you – I have a hard enough time discovering that for my own life!!

So, what the point in trying to develop a personal vision? Well, just as a vision drives a church so a personal vision drives a person. Most people enjoy an adventure and what better thing than to be given your own personal adventure from God! When you know God’s vision for your life as an individual what better drive do you need? God may be calling you to something that no other individual in the world, indeed in the history of the world, can do. Now if that doesn’t excite you, check your pulse now, you may well be dead!!!

Now I know it’s one thing to get excited about having a personal vision for your life, it’s quite a different thing discovering what it is. Unfortunately there is no simple formula for discovering it but here are a few pointers.

Prayer.
Let’s start with the obvious!! Tell God that you want to discover His personal vision for your life. Tell Him you’re available and willing and want to place yourself at the centre of His will for your life.

Bible Study
Let’s make sure we have that foundation of God’s will for the lives of His children. As you study ask God to show you His will for your life. Ask that He would illuminate (make stand out) certain passages or even words. When He does write them down, see if patterns start to emerge.

Meditate
Take the passages and meditate upon them. Learn what the mean using commentaries and study guides. Ask God to show you what they mean and how He wants them to apply to your life.

Know Yourself What is your passion?
What has God given you a heart for? What are your skill? What are you trained to do? What do other people recognise in you? What are your faults and failings? Be honest and open, after all you’re the only one going to see this!! This part of the exercise is part of testing your vision. For example, if you believe God is giving you a vision to be a missionary in Africa working as a doctor and you’re 85 with no medical training a fear of foreign parts and bed bound the chances are you might need to think again about your vision. Unfortunately it’s not always as obvious as that you hopefully it might give you some idea.

Know your gifts?
There’s a famous saying that say that God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. God gives us gifts in order to serve Him and those to whom He has called us. So what gifts has God given you? It might be worthwhile doing a gift survey like the one found here… http://churchgrowth.org/analysis/intro.php If you can find out what God has gifted you in it may become clearer as to the vision He has for you.

Write it down
By now you might be starting to have an idea about your own personal vision. Get something down on paper. It doesn’t have to be eloquent, no one needs to see it but you. It may include some Bible verses or just some words that have struck you as you have sought God. Pray about what you’ve written down and ask God to clarify and also to remove anything that He doesn’t want there. Try and get it down to a couple of sentences. Does it make sense? Does it excite you?

Test it!
With all things we receive from God it is good to test them. Is it in any way contrary to His Word? Does is sit well with you? Perhaps you could share it with a close Christian friend or your pastor. What do they think?
So hopefully now you have a personal vision, from God, just for you!! WOW! How exciting is that!! Now the hard part… in part one we said that there is no point in having a vision if you don’t know how to realise it in practical terms. So here we go again and it’s that word “strategy”! I know some of you will hate the word, it seems so practical, scheming almost but it is a word I believe we should embrace. Strategy is where the rubber hits the road – it’s where our vision becomes a reality, where the outworking of our personal vision takes place. So I’ll leave you with yet another set of questions to think about…

How is this vision going to become a reality?

Who would it be good to speak to in order to help me do that?

Do I need to involve others?

Do I need training or support?

What are the practical out-workings of this vision?

What can I start to do today to fulfil this vision?

What long term ideas do I need to think about in order not to let this vision slip?

Who would be great to support me in this vision?

How can I keep this vision alive?

Let me know how you get on – if you have any questions please do let me know.

What Gets You Out of Bed in the Morning? part one

2010-10-16T01:02:00.000-07:00

I guess most of us go to a church that has a vision statement. It might say something like “Gather, Go, Give, Grow!” or “A Hub and a resource of our village, and beyond, even internationally”! to slightly misquote the vision statements from my last two churches. I am someone who strongly believes in vision! I believe that without vision Churches lack direction and drive. However, I also believe that with vision comes the need for strategy. I have seen churches with a strong, God given, vision but with no strategy to go alongside it. They seem to think that because God has given them a vision He will bring that vision about, they just have to sit back and let it happen. I believe vision is a lot like prophesy. Prophesy speaks to our potential! If God give us a prophesy it tells us what we could achieve, but we still have to put in the hard word of getting to that place. For example if God gives us a prophesy that we will become Lawyer we still need to put in the leg work of applying to university and studying hard etc. If we have the attitude that God has told me I’m going to be a Lawyer therefore I don’t need to work we will fall short of what God is wanting in our lives. If we don;t put in the work, take the exams etc. we can’t look back and say that the prophesy is wrong as we have not worked to our potential.

The same is true for churches with a vision. It’s easy to believe that since God has spoken and given us a vision that it will automatically come about. However, with vision come responsibility and a call to action. God has give us the direction but we still need to plan the route and walk that path. God gives us vision to show us our potential we still need to put in the leg-work. We need to work out the strategy to get there. It’s nice to have a catchy tag-line but much better to have a vision that gets you out of bed in the morning and actually works. When looking at your church and their vision I think of it in terms of, if a stranger came to your church and got involved, after a couple of weeks would they be able to to have a stab at what your vision statement is? If they can’t, is your vision actually being carried out or is your church divorced from their vision?

Let’s have a look at a completely fictitious example. Let’s say God gives a church a vision of… “to feed the hungry, heal the sick. Preach the Good News and drive HGV aid convoys to Africa.” Now, what should the church do with that vision? They could sit back and thank God for the vision and Praise Him that they are preaching the Good News, but that’s only part of the vision. They could pray expectantly believing that God was going to provide them with a group of newly found HGV drivers along with doctors and nurses. They could, as many churches do, do nothing and just wait for God to fulfil it. Or they could sit down and prayerfully put together a strategy. How are we as a church going to feed the hungry, where is the need in our area, who have we got in our congregation, what resources have we got available, who do we know with a heart for these people, what else in our area might we plug into? Having answered those question the church now has a platform to move on from. They can put people and actions together and not only have a vision but start to fulfil it. There is massive potential in your church if only it would unearth it. We’re told to work out our faith in fear and trembling and the same is true of our visions. What do they really mean? How can we work towards fulfilling them? How can we bring them alive and make them the thing that gets people out of bed in the morning?

Some of us aren’t in a position to influence the leadership of their church but what about these questions… How could you help to fulfil the vision that your church has? Where could you get involved? What has God given you a heart for? Do you really understand the vision of the church and if not who could you turn to for clarification?

Schindler's List

2010-04-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

I love to watch a good movie. The difficult thing I find is finding one amongst all the rubbish that is out there. Now, one of my all time favourite movies for a whole host of reasons is Schindler’s List. It’s not an easy movies to watch and can be heart wrenching one minute and soul destroying the next, but I can help but love it. It’s a film that tells of and shows man’s inhumanity to man and yet at it’s heart is one man’s fight against the evil powers that be. I find parts of the film really difficult to watch but there is one part that gets me every time. The film is near it’s end and they have all been told that the war is now over. The Jews are starting to return to their homes and Oscar Schindler is about to leave one of his factories. Now that it is all over he is suddenly struck by what has been going on and it hits him that he could have done more, he could have saved more lives. He looks at his watch and says that this would have bought a few more lives. He falls to his knees overwhelmed by the fact that he could have done more. He doesn’t well up with pride that he saved so many he is overwhelmed with grief that, perhaps, he could have done more. The pain he is feeling at that point is almost overbearing.

You can almost guess what I’m going to go on to say!! We need to live our lives so that we don’t look back with regret. It is almost an impossible task I believe, because like Oscar Schindler there is always more that can be done. However, let that not be an excuse for us. There is always more to be done, but there is usually more that we could do. I’m not saying that we should run ourselves raged and die at 31 of a stress induced heart attack, but I am saying that there is a world dying out there. Both physically and spiritually the work is there to be done. Will we like Schindler put ourselves out to help save many and then still regret that we could have done more? Or will we sit back and wait for others to do it? Will we see the task as too big and therefore give up before we’ve even started or will we be faithful to the work God has called us to do in our little area of life and slowly make a difference?

I love the story of the boy and the starfish…

One day, an old man was walking along the beach in the early morning and noticed that the storm of last night had washed thousands of starfish up on the shore. Up ahead in the distance he spotted a boy who appeared to be gathering up the starfish, and one by one tossing them back into the ocean.
He approached the boy and asked him why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time.
The boy replied, "If these starfish are left out here like this they will bake in the sun, and by this afternoon they will all be dead."
The old man gazed out as far as he could see and responded, "But, there must be hundreds of miles of beach and thousands of starfish. You can't possibly rescue all of them. What difference is throwing a few back going to make anyway?"
The boy then held up the starfish he had in his hand and replied, "It's sure going to make a huge difference to this one!"

There is so much good that each of us can do if we focus on individuals and the small things we can do rather than get swamped by the bigger picture. I am the worst of culprits. I’m with St Paul as I see the good I should do but I don’t do it. Let’s encourage each other to do our bit, however small, to change this world for the better.

Being Prepared

2010-04-27T00:33:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 55:6

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Some people called it a miracle an act of God. I didn't see it that way. I believe in miracles, I believe that God can move in extraordinary ways beyond our comprehension. However, in this instance I think this wasn't the case. One man had the lives of hundreds in his hands. It looked like a certain disaster with the loss of many lives. All power was gone. All hope seemed to disappear as well. A plane with no engines, in a built up city, with no runway within reach. The odds weren't good and the outlook looked worse. Yet one Chesley Sullenberger was at the controls. He coolly and calmly landed his plane, it's crew and 148 passengers safely, not on a nearby runway or open road but on the Hudson River. People called it the "Miracle on the Hudson", but as I said before I don't think it was. Did the passengers on that plane pray for a miracle. my guess is many of them did. Could God have performed a miracle, I know he could. So, why didn't he? Because Captain Chesley Sullenberger was in control. I guess he had about 2 minutes from realising they were going down until they hit the river. Mr Sullenberger didn't have time to refer to the manual, I guess even if he had have done there wouldn't have been much info on how to land with no engines in a river. However, Captain Chesley Sullenberger had been a fighter pilot and he had been a commercial pilot for 29years. All his training, all his experience pointed to this one event. He knew how to fly this plane, he had flown in every weather condition and had flown for thousands of miles. He had trained, he had prepared, he had practise and because of that, he was ready! He got that plane down safely and saved the lives of those 148 passengers and his crew. It wasn't because of some miracle it was one man was trained, experienced, ready and willing.

Now most of us won't be called on in our lives to land a plane on water or to do anything so dramatic. However, as Christians, we are called day in and day out to make decisions for Christ. If we are trained, willing, practised, experienced and ready we will make wise, discerning decisions. If we are not, the chances are our decisions will be far more touch and go. We need to put in the hours to train ourselves in godliness and righteousness in order, not only to be ready when Christ comes or we are called home, but in order to live the lives God has in store for us. I believe that the Holy Spirit will rarely bring to mind a verse that we have not put into our minds beforehand. If we don’t study God’s word, if we don’t put in the effort it can inhibit the work of God in our lives. If we put in the work, if we study, if we pray , if we seek God we begin to know the heart of God. We can live our lives in the knowledge that He will direct our paths and decisions we make when on auto-pilot will be good and wise ones. When the plane of our life faces a sea of uncertainty it will be the hours of training that we have put in that will make the difference to whether we sink or swim.

1 Corinthians 13: 11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Hebrew 5: 11-14
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Easter - It's in the Details

2010-04-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

There are certain passages of the Bible that you can read time and time again and you read them for the 50th time and something hits you anew. Most of us have read the Easter Story over and over again. So there is probably little I can tell you about it. However, I learnt something new about it this year that I wanted to pass on!

John 20: 3-9

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

I’ve read this passage many times and the two things that have struck me are these. Why does it mention that the cloth that covered Jesus’ head was folded up separately? Why does the other disciple go into an open tomb and suddenly believe, especially as we are also told that the still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. I think I would have a pile of questions not a belief!! Where was Jesus, who has got his body, why has someone removed his clothes?

Perhaps it’s just me, but even if I had thought he had come back from the dead I would have been thinking - OK Jesus has risen from the dead- and the first thing he did was to rip off his grave clothes but then stop to neatly fold up the napkin that was around his head? So why weren’t the disciples thinking that? They weren’t thinking that because the knew things that I didn’t! The disciples lived in a culture that I simply don’t know enough about.

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, we have to understand a little bit about Hebrew culture of the day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished.
Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.
The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm finished.." But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because..........

The folded napkin meant,

"I'm coming back!"

So the disciples didn’t think the grave had been robbed - the clear message that had been left for them in the tomb was “I’m Back!!”

Finding God in the Mundane

2010-04-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

If there’s one thing we as Christians do well it is criticise our church services. Not always negatively but we like to think about them, what was good, what was bad, and what was just downright bizarre!! If we’re being good with think in terms of what brought us nearer to God and what we didn’t find helpful in our walk. We greet the pastor at the door and thank him for a good sermon, which normally means that, for once, we agreed with what he said! We discuss the service over Sunday lunch and decide what we would have said or which hymns we would have chosen.

This is a little bit tongue in cheek but you get what I mean.

The more I have thought about church services and sermons and worship etc. I’ve discovered that it’s all about me! I used to believe that a good, well thought out, service would bring me closer to God. A poor sermon was the fault of the pastor and would, in no way, help me in my journey of faith. Now I believe it is all to do with my attitude, my openness, my level of concentration, my expectation, my focus, my willingness to listen and hear. I believe that God can speak to me through anything. I know he can speak to me through his creation. I know he can speak to me in the silence. He can speak to me in the mundane and in the normal. So, why can’t he speak to me through a dull sermon or a slow and plodding hymn?

If I go to church in the right way God will speak to me through anything. If I go to church in the wrong way the best sermon in the world could easily pass me by. It’s not about what the worship team or pastor puts into the service it’s about what I’m prepared to take out of it. I used to work for a church in Paris, France. It was an Anglican Church and during one of our AGMs someone became a Christian. There was no alter call and nobody preached the gospel but God spoke to that lady in the boring business of a church meeting. She was prepared to listen and had the right attitude. That day her life was changed. Can we find the right way to attend church? Are we prepared for God to speak to us in the normal and the mundane? Can we spend less time pulling the service apart and more time seeking God in the service? It’s not easy - some services are, for us, more conducive to drawing near to God. However, are we prepared to put the effort in during the times when it’s not so easy?

To Judge or Not to Judge

2010-03-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

Many Christians feel it is wrong to Judge - is this a right belief?

So is it true that as Christians we shouldn’t judge others? Many people believe that Matthew 7: 1-2 means that we should under no circumstances judge others.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Let’s face it, it sounds pretty conclusive. However let’s look at in it’s context and also at other parts of the Bible.

So if we take this passage at face value it means that we can never point out a fault in others, even if it is a truly constructive comment. It means that we can not practise any sort of church discipline as that would require some sort of judgement. We would not be able to expose any who teach in in error. We can also not speak out against Christians who live in homosexual relationships, live together outside of marriage or indeed do anything that we believe is contrary to the Christian lifestyle.

So is this right?

Let’s have a look at what James 2: 12-13 says.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

Does this shed a bit of light on the passage? After all we will all face judgement at some point, whether we judge or not.

If we look at the context of these verses we see that in some cases correct judgement must be made. In Matthew 7: 5-6

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

We see that judgement can be made in the right way. We can take the speck from our brothers eye once we have removed the plank in our own eye. This will involve examining our motives in judging. Are we judging for the furtherance of God’s kingdom or to build ourselves up and make us feel better or look batter.

Verse 6 shows us that we need to make judgement as to who are dogs and who are pigs.

If we look further a field in Matthew 7: 15-20

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise very good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

We can see that we are actively encouraged to judge good prophets from false prophets.

So let’s have a look at other parts of the Bible:

John 7: 24

Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.

So, we are warned to not make wrong judgements, judgements based on appearances. However, we are told to make right judgements.

1 Corinthians 5: 9-13

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you.

Here is a clear call that we must judge those who call themselves our Christian brothers. Not only are we to judge there actions we are called to harsh action and not even associate with them.

1 John 4: 1

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Testing the spirits requires judgement, not just of the spirit but of the prophet.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Good and Evil

2010-03-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

What if the problem with our world is not that there is too much evil in the world but not enough goodness. What if the main problems are not violence, drugs, crime. hatred, lust, injustice etc. etc. What if the main problem is that there is not enough good being done. What if the problem is not enough Godly people are doing Godly and good things.

I believe that Peace from God is not the removal of things that take away our peace but a counteractive force that means that whatever our circumstances we can be at peace. I think of it as being like a diving bell as long as the pressure inside the bell is greater than the pressure acting on it by the ocean everything is fine. As long as God's peace inside is greater than your outside circumstances everything is fine. Remove or lower the inside pressure and that is where the trouble starts. The same is true of goodness and evil. If the pressure for goodness outweighs the pressure of evil things are ok. However, if we drop the amount of godness in the world then the problems start. In our world the levels of goodness have always been at a lower level than the levels of evil and hence the state of our world.

In many ways there is little we can do about the evil things that occur in our world. We can pray, campaign, imprison and punish but the problem still continues. We can however do something, however little it might seem, about the level of goodness in our world. We can start with ourselves and with our churches. We can do good to our friends, neighbours and communities. We as individuals can up the level of goodness shown to others around us. You can of course substitute the word goodness for love. If we can model goodness and love it could be the start of something great. I don't know how you start a revolution but I guess it's got to start somewhere and that somewhere could be with you. Let's start the Goodness Revolution together - are you in?

Don't put off the Big Stuff

2010-02-20T04:51:00.000-08:00

I want to tell you about my best friend Rob. As best friends go he was at the top of the tree. We first met when we were about 12. We went to the local church youth group together and hit it off straight away. One of the most noticeable things about our friendship was that we had nothing in common. On the surface at least. We would go for months and months and see each other each day, we talked for hours, but I’m not sure what about. We never had an argument. We both went to church though I’m not too sure what our faith was like back then. In our late teens Rob started to drift away from church. We didn’t have too many deep conversations back than but I remember clearly one we had. It was a Sunday night as Rob collected me after church to go out for the evening. He said that church didn’t fit well into his lifestyle at the moment. When he wanted to be out drinking, sleeping with his girlfriend and so on the church was saying he was wrong. He went on to say that when he was in his mid thirties, settled down with a wife and a few kids he would come back to church. Then it would fit in with his lifestyle and things would be great.

I can see him saying it now, “when I’m in my mid thirties I will come back to church“. Rob died at the age of 34. He never came back to church, though who knows if he came back to God. Rob contracted MS and in what seemed like the blink of an eye he was gone.

There are decisions in life that need to be made. Yet we put them off and muddle through. If we got a letter from government to say we were owed £1millon in back taxes and other repayments we might find it difficult to believe. We might dream and convince ourselves that it’s true and think of all the things we’d spend the money on. We might put on our rational hat and say that it can’t possibly be true as we’ve never paid £100k in taxes let alone a £million. However until you pick up the phone and ask them you’ll never know for sure. Wouldn’t you want to do everything you could to see if it were true?

The Bible claims some incredible things. In the two thousand years since they were written none of it’s claims have been disproved. Doesn’t that say quite a lot? People try to discredit the Bible for they know if they can’t the claims of the Bible mean that they would seriously have to change their life. Man would no longer be the greatest force in the universe and perhaps we’d have to be a little less self orientated. If the Bible were no more than a self-help guide on how to live our lives it would still be a brilliant book. Surely most of us would agree that it is better to love than to hate, to give rather than receive, live in peace rather than go to war, to tell the truth rather than to lie, to forgive rather than harbour grudges, to put people first rather than be selfish, to be faithful rather than be faithless, to honour people rather than be disrespectful. These are great ideals by which to live your life and if more of us did the world would certainly be a better place. But what if there was more to the Bible than just a life instruction manual. What if what it claims actually was true? Don’t you think it might be worth checking out? What if the world was created, if we do need forgiveness, if Jesus has paid the price for us? What if there really is a heaven and hell, a right way to live and a wrong way? Don’t you think it might be worth looking into, asking friends who do believe to explain what they believe and why? Ask questions by commenting here or join an ALPHA group.

We could put all these questions off until tomorrow. But what if, like Rob, we never have the chance to come back and check it out? Don’t put off until tomorrow what you could start today.

Truth and Relevance

2010-02-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

Christianity must be relevant. I hear this so often nowadays. Our church won’t grow until it becomes relevant. People in our community won’t join us until we show them that Christianity is relevant to their lives. Do you hear this? Do you agree with it?

I agree with it. I believe that we need show that the church is relevant. We need to provide people with ways into the church ways to discover it‘s relevance. These things might be parenting courses or toddler groups or things of this sort. However, we need to be careful. Are we, in trying to make the church relevant, providing people with their pudding without providing them with their main course? In today’s society people believe that truth is found in the fact that something works for them, makes them feel good. If something makes you feel good it must be right. You go to yoga and you feel more relaxed and therefore you agree that the systems behind it holds some truth for you. You go to your doctor with a headache and he gives you some medicine and it works you therefore have trust in that medicine and in the doctor (even if all he gave you was a tic-tac). What if the church is doing this? We are providing things for people that make everything feel ok. We’ve looked after their children, we’ve taught them to be better parents and how to drug-proof their kids. We’ve made them feel relaxed and comfortable. They feel good about themselves, they feel there is truth for them in what they’ve been experiencing. The question is though, what have they been experiencing? It isn’t Christianity. It might be the love of Christians, it might be some life skills initiative, but where is the challenge of the gospel? Where is the connection between what Christians can offer and what they really believe.

The church has something that is relevant. Our job is to show people just how relevant it is to them. At present aren’t we acting like a company who finds a cure for HIV, Cancer and all other known diseases and markets it as a cure for a headache? People buy it thinking that it is relevant to them as they get headaches. It’s only years later that, in a bored moment, they read the little leaflet and find in the small print that it also cures everything else. Yet they’ve only been taking it twice a year to cure a headache. These people may have died because they were only shown a superficial aspect of the drug and therefore not put it’s saving powers to work.

If, as we believe, Christianity is true and the claims of the Bible and Jesus are true then Christianity is relevant. We need to celebrate it’s truth and relevance. Are we not moving towards putting the trimmings of Christianity on display and not showcasing it’s truth, relevance and main draw. We are trying to sell Christianity through offering parenting skills, children’s groups, youth entertainment and so on when Christianity has to offer the complete forgiveness of sins, eternal life, a relationship with our creator, help on earth and a hope for the future, being a part of the body of Christ and so much more. If that is not relevant to people’s lives I don’t know what is.

Footnote: Please don’t get me wrong I believe that such initiatives that reach out into the community such as parenting courses and toddler groups (I run one myself) are brilliant and I’d love to see more of them. However, I do believe that we need to look at the whole picture and see how these initiatives are used to move people from the fringes of faith to a full belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ. We have a huge responsibility to the people on the fringes of our church not to let them stay there.

The Race

2010-02-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

I love the analogies we find in the Bible of life being a race.

2Timothy 4: 7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

The idea that we need to train in order to do well and that we are passing on the baton to the next generation and to others around us. As the analogy of the baton is used I often picture athletes running around a nice oval running track with the crowd cheering and the finish line in sight.
The race that I seem to be on, and hearing others talk I don’t appear to be alone, is more like an obstacle course. I seem to get myself in a complete mess, can’t always see where I’m going, sometimes lose the baton completely in the mud and generally end up exhausted having gotten no-where.

There is a nice straight and clean path running alongside the obstacle course and I look longingly at those that walk that path. They seem to be getting along much better. They are clean, focussed and their baton is gleaming. However, I don’t feel God is asking me to join that path, not for the moment anyway. For this obstacle course is part of God’s training in my life. He calls me to attempt great things for him, and some of these obstacles are great to me.
I love the story of the man who was asked by God to try and move this enormous boulder. Each day the man went out and put all his strength into pushing the boulder. However hard he tried he could not move it, not even an inch. Day by day he went out to try and move this boulder with no success. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Eventually he had to admit defeat and went to God, his head hanging low. He told God that he had failed and had not even managed to move the boulder at all. God replied, “You have not failed, I did not ask you to move the boulder, only to try and move the boulder. Look at your arms and your legs, how strong they are. I have been training you for what I have in store for you.

Sometimes God calls us to perform what look like fruitless tasks. Is he training us up for the future? Is he helping us to be faithful in the small things so that we can be found faithful in the big things?
In my life on the obstacle course there are things that I seem called to do that I don’t understand. Yet in doing them God has been training me. However, just as in parenting, we need to be wise to pick our battles. Some obstacles in our path will test us and make us fitter and more useful to God. Others though will distract us, use up our time and energies and in the end keep us from doing what God desires of us. We need the wisdom to know which obstacles to tackle and when to quietly step off the course onto that long straight path alongside it.

People Follow People

2010-02-09T06:29:00.000-08:00

Last year I read an excellent book by David Murrow called Why Men Hate Going to Church. I would recommend it to anyone, but especially those in church leadership, those who have the ability to change the way we do church. One of the excellent points he makes is that Men follow Men. If there are good male role models within a church then men will be drawn to that. I also think it’s true in general to say that people follow people. If you know someone who’s into football you are more likely to be drawn into watching and maybe eventually liking football.

I want you to think for a moment about your church and your leadership. What are they like? What do they spend their time doing (in work and out of work)? Do they inspire you to follow them?

When I was in my late teens I knew a lot of intelligent people. They went to Oxford and Cambridge and had high academic aspirations. Some of them wanted to gain their degree and then their Doctorate and then return to Oxford or Cambridge to teach. I always thought this was a bit of a shame. It felt to me that you had this section of academia that was stuck in this self perpetuating loop of learning and teaching and learning and teaching… Wonderful minds stuck in a circular movement of self-serving propagation.

Is it though any different within the church? Our leaders, on the whole are there to serve the church, they pastor and they preach and a few of the congregation move into leadership within the church and a very few go on to be pastors themselves. Pastors who preach and pastor and produce leaders and some pastor and so the church goes on. Does this really inspire us to follow?

Now, you’ve had a little think about what your pastor does. If he’s anything like the pastors I know and have known here is a little list of what I can see pastors doing…

1. Preaching
2. Leading Services
3. Leading Meetings
4. Taking Small Groups
5. A bit of Schools work
6. Pastoral Visiting
7. Administration
8. Preparation

Now, each pastor is different and has different priorities and callings, but on the whole can you see pastors that fit that list well? If I look at a pastor through the eyes of this list it’s not very inspiring is it. I don’t look at them and thing WOW!!! I wish I could be more like that!! The list above is a list that serves the church. It is self serving, inward looking, uninspiring.

People follow people!!

What if the list looked a little like this…

1. Feeding the hungry
2. Healing the sick
3. Seeking the lost
4. Visiting the lonely
5. Supporting the addicts
6. Preaching the Good News
7. Teaching Kingdom Values to the community
8. Cleaning the graffiti
9. Preaching the Great Commission
10. Delegating responsibility

What if we encouraged and empowered our pastors to follow this sort of list?

Would you want to follow someone who lived by this list? Let me ask you a question. When was the last time your Pastor brought someone to Christ? When was the last time they went and spent time with the homeless, making them feel special and loved and feeding them?

These are hard questions. They are hard questions for our pastors but they should also be very hard questions for us as people in the pews. What have we required of our pastors? What have we employed them to do? Are we secretly wanting them to serve us or to serve Christ? Are we wanting them to seek and save the lost or build us up?

I have come across people who believe that their pastor is there to serve them, to visit them when they are sick, to guide them etc. I have even heard people say that the church doesn’t care for them as only an elder and two house group members have been to see them when sick and not the main pastor. Have we created pastors who are now simply serving the church. Have we created a group of people who are so far removed from what they should be that we’ve created people even we don’t want to follow let alone people from outside the church? Let us think about who we want to follow and allow, encourage and empower our pastors to be that person.

Peace

2010-02-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

We're told in Phillipians 4: 7

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I had always understood that this meant that it was a peace from God that we couldn't understand. Although this still remains true (at least for me) I now understand it differently and to me it makes much more sense.

We all have questions, problems and things we can't work out. We are all on a journey to find answers. Why did God allow this? Is this right or is it this? What does God what me to do? Some of us have questions and worries that keep us awake at night and ruin our days. Sometimes when we find the answer to a question that has been on our mind we heave a huge sigh of relief and for a while we are at peace. We’ve had our question answered and we are satisfied, at least for a while, until the3 next one pops up. When it talks in Philippians about God's peace transcending (passes) all understanding it is talking about a peace that comes without the need for the question to be answered. It's saying that we don't need to find understanding, we don't need to lie awake at night with those questions going around in our head. God's peace replaces the need to ask why? True peace from God is like the peace you'd find when all your questions and worries have been answered, but without the need to have them answered. In some ways we need to cling on to God for that peace. We need to surrender to Him saying that I will seek your peace, not the answers to my questions. At the end of the day God's peace is something real and tangible and worth seeking. If we continue to look for answers we will always have something missing. Now don't get me wrong, there are things that we can find answers to and it is right for us to look for them and to ask others and to seek God for them. This, however should be a short journey. I believe that we are not meant to spend our lives seeking answers, for to some questions there are no answers to be found this side of heaven. It will just be a frustrating and fruitful pursuit. We need to trust God and seek his peace that bypasses the need to find an answer. Let all your strivings cease and accept God’s peace. Keep those thoughts, those questions, captive and may the peace of God become a reality in your lives.

When did church become so different?

2010-02-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

When you look at the western church today what do you see? Well, I don’t know about you but this is what I see both personally and when trying to look at it from a non-church-attendee’s point of view.

1. A building
2. Services on a Sunday
3. House groups - attended by about
10-20percent of attendees
4. The odd prayer meeting
5. Some social action
6. A cluster of peripheral groups
7. Occasional meals together
8. Some youth work

Now this isn’t, of course, the whole picture. Churches differ but the majority would have something of the list above about them. So then I look at the early church, a church started by Jesus and build upon Peter and I see.

1. Devotion to the apostles teaching
2. Devotion to the fellowship
3. Devotion to prayer
4. Devotion to the breaking of bread
5. All believers were together
6. All believers had everything in common
7. Together they met the needs of the fellowship
8. They met together every day
9. They met in public
10. They met in each others homes
11. They ate together
12. They praised God
13. They enjoyed the favour of all the people

And the result… The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

When you look at the two lists they are poles apart. So it begs the question when did the church change so much? To my mind the 13 points of the early church should be our basis for church today. After all it certainly worked as the Lord added to their number EVERY DAY! When was the last time we had even two consecutive days when the Lord added to our church those who were being saved? (don’t stop and try and work it out - you’ll be there far too long). We can look at the list and find some things that we are doing - I guess praising God would be the obvious one. However, I’d also guess that the first 9 are pretty far from what most churches are doing today. The word devotion would defeat most of our churches in the first four items, Yes, we pray as churches but could we honestly say that as a church we are devoted to prayer? In reality most of us pay prayer a bit of lip service and wonder why we don’t get answers.

When you look at that second list, don’t you just pray that we could capture something of that list in our lives and in our churches? Just think for a minute what it would feel like to be a part of such a church? Just think what it would feel like and how encouraging it would be to have people added to your church everyday not just once in a blue moon? To be apart of something that is vibrant and moving and united and encompassing and driven must be a wonderful feeling. The church has changed from a movement to a stop. When did the idea that a church had to be housed in a grand building separating it from the rest of the community come from?

When I look through the early church list something in my spirit yearns to get back to that. Do you feel the same? I’ve thought of a few ways that I might start - though most of the ideas I have hinge on finding likeminded people (it’s pretty hard doing church on my own). I’d love to find a couple or couples (or families) where we could meet each week and have a meal together and talk about Godly stuff. Where we can build such a depth of relationship that prayer, sharing, devotion to one another, praising God and learning from each other becomes natural, becomes the norm. I believe that God would use such a gathering powerfully. I’d challenge you to have a think about how you could implement an early church ideal in your life. I’d love to hear your ideas and any progress you make.

Prayer - what a lot of questions Part four.

2010-01-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

Preparatory Steps to a Successful Time of Prayer.

1. Find a place of quiet. We live in a noise filled world and yet we are searching for a “still, small voice”. We need to find a place away from the busyness and noise and distractions of our everyday lives where we can just be and spend time with God.

2. Find a Time to Suit You. Each one of us has their own preferences, habits and schedules. We each need to find a regular time of day that fits in with who we are and what we do. Some people say that the morning is the best time to pray, but some of us are NOT morning people and this is fine. Find a time that works for you, but try to stick to it. Remember discipline is more than half the battle.

3. Remove Distractions. There in no point in finding a place of quiet if you know the kids are likely to burst in at any moment. You’ll be sitting there less in expectation of meeting with God and more in anticipation of being disturbed. Before you start to pray have a think about whether you need to take the phone off the hook or put the money out for the milkman to stop yourself being disturbed. It might be worth thinking about setting an alarm to tell you when to finish. It might sound silly but the last thing you want to do is constantly be thinking about the time and whether you should have left yet to go to your next meeting when you should be focusing on God.

4. Find the Correct Position
Think about finding a prayer position that works for you. You want to be comfortable but not so comfortable that you start to pray and 2 hours later you wake up!!!

5. Have a Notebook to Hand. This is useful for two main reasons. 1. As a help to removing distractions. If you start to pray and then it pops into your mind that you must remember to take the meat out for tomorrow, instead of focusing on that so you don’t forget, make a note in the notebook and refocus back on God. 2. If God shares something with you or a verse comes to mind, jot it down. Over the weeks you may find a pattern and looking back you’ll be encouraged by what God has been saying.

6. Have a Point of Focus. It can be quite hard to turn off from all you’ve been doing and focus on God. It may be useful to have something to focus on. Some people use a verse or two from scripture to centre themselves. However, some find it useful to focus on a candle, a cross or an inspiring photograph.

So, what now?

If I want to go and see the Queen I have to get a lift to the station, a train into London, a tube across London and then walk all the way up to Buck House. That’s before the nice guard at the gate tells me I haven’t got an appointment and therefore not a hope of meeting with the Queen. It’s not easy meeting or talking with people in high places, but with God it’s totally different. He is there just waiting for us to communicate with Him. It’s part of why He made us and we have access to Him 24/7.
So where do we start? It’s easy, it really is and yet we so often forget. If we want to visit the queen we need an invitation and a lengthy journey but God has made it some much more easy to meet with Him. How do we get to talk to God, how do we enter His presence? Quite simply, He says, we enter into the presence of God with thanksgiving. It’s not rocket science, we don’t need to wait for an invitation or go on a long journey. We enter God’s presence but being in an attitude of thanksgiving and praising him. So, having found our quiet place, the right time, position etc. and removed all distractions we start with thanking God. We have so much to thank God for even on our worst days.
So now we have entered the presence of God what happens next?
Now, this is a good question. Ask ten church leaders how to pray and you’ll get 12 different answers. However, in it’s most basic form now is when you have a conversation with God. No two conversations will be the same—sometimes you will approach him with boldness wanting Him to act—sometimes you’ll be very humble asking for forgiveness and sometimes you’ll just want to sit and listen to what He has to say. Most times it will be a mix of many different things.

How do I know what to pray?

Here are a few pointers to ask yourself when praying.
● Will the thing that I am praying fit in with a just and righteous life style, or is it superfluous and just born out of my fleshly desires?
● Am I being submissive to God's will, and will I gladly accept whatever God is willing to give me, if anything.
● If my prayer is answered will the result honour God?
● Will it harm or hurt someone else.
● Will what you pray for delight God?
● Does my request contradict or conflict with the Word of God.
● Will it further my spiritual growth. Will what I pray for bring me closer to God?

Prayer - what a lot of questions Part three.

2009-11-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

Prayer that gets an answer.

Basically this couldn’t be simpler - or at least the theory of it couldn’t. What we’re looking to do is find the will of God and pray in accordance to that. We’re wanting to find out what God wants to do and then asking him to do just that. Often we are far too eager to wade in telling God what we want Him to do or even what we think He should do. What we fail to do is to ask Him what it actually is that He wants to do.

So, a friend becomes ill and we immediately start to pray that God would heal them. A brother loses his job and we pray for a new job, and quickly. A colleague get anxious over something and we pray for peace. To us it seems obvious the situations have changed - to us it seems for the worse - so our answer it to get God to reverse what has changed. Someone becomes ill we want them to be not ill, someone becomes unemployed we want them to be employed, someone is anxious we want them to be not anxious. Hang on a sec though, what if God wants to use these situations for teaching and instruction. People get sick and we pray for healing but God doesn’t heal time and time again. Does this not show us that it is not God’s will to heal (in those situations). We are therefore praying against the will of God. Not only is this futile and a waste of our time and energies but it is also a dent to our faith. If we are praying for healing and it is not forthcoming, over time, this will help diminish our faith in a God who heals. What if God wants to heal but only after a lesson is learnt or certain things have been done. We won’t know this until we search for the will of God. If God doesn’t want to heal in certain cases why fill the suffering person with false hope that He might. How much better is it to tell them god’s will and release them into that will. If it is known that it is God’s will for someone to die what an honour that is to know that. It gives the dying person time to put there house in order, have conversations that they’ve been meaning to have for years, tell their loved ones how much they love them and be a great witness of how God numbers our days and gives us a certain hope even in the face of death.

So, we need to take a step back. We need to tame our tongue and our emotions seek God for what He wants to do in any given situation. It’s not just a case of praying “Let your will be done”. It’s a case of asking God what his will is and then praying that with confidence. If we know the will of God we can pray knowing that God will answer with a great big YES. I always used to pray in faith knowing that God COULD do what I was asking, but with little faith that He WOULD actually do what I was asking. This was because I was asking God to do what I wanted Him to do not what He wanted to do. The Bible makes it quite clear that if we pray according to His will He will answer us - if we pray according to our will we enter the lottery of whether or not our will happens to coincide with the will of God. The Bible teaches us that whatever we ask in Jesus’ Name will be given to us. I used to believe that tagging the words “In Jesus’ Name Amen” onto the end of the prayer would give the prayer more power or more chance of being answered. I used it as some sort of magic formula for getting my prayers answered - and even though it didn’t work I continued it for years. I have now come to realise that praying in Jesus Name means praying with and under His authority. Praying in Jesus name, in essence, means the same as praying according to God’s will.

1 John 5:14-15

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we have asked of him.

So finding God’s will and then praying that gives us a confidence in pray that we have never previously had. We can pray with the confidence and certainty that God will answer our prayers. Not that God could do it but that God will do it.

Part 4 will help us explore how we seek God’s will in practical terms.

Prayer - what a lot of question - part two.

2009-10-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Part 2

So how do we pray?

If you’re like me I’ve heard more tips about how to pray than I have about gardening. Now you’re thinking and this is just another tip why should this one be any different from the hundreds of others I’ve tried and found not to work. Well, in truth it might not be, but to me it makes so much sense and at the end of the day what have we got to lose?

When we come to prayer it is usually our mouths we open first before our ears. God is longing to speak to us, Job 33: 14 if only we are ready to listen. So how do we pray? We pray with our ears and our mouths. God knows what we want before we even ask so it shouldn’t be our top priority to come to God with our requests. We see this clearly in Matthew…

“when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “

Jesus goes on to teach the Disciples how to pray in what we now know as the Lords Prayer. So, what is this teaching all about? These disciples ask Jesus how to pray and what they get in return is one prayer? Or do they get a template on how to pray? So what do we have? He had been in close communion with His Father and he knew the right way to approach and communicate with Him. The Lord’s prayer is template on how to commune with the father. Let’s have a look…

Our Father

Approach Him with respect recognising the right relationship between God and us.

In heaven

Let’s make no mistake who we’re talking to here, we are approaching the creator God of Heaven who made all that exists. Heaven is out of sight, and a world of spirits, therefore our conversation with God in prayer must be spiritual; it is on high, therefore in prayer we must rise above the world, and lift up our hearts.

Hallowed be your name

Hallowed - to make holy. Holy be your name, Holy is your name. A statement of Worship and statement of Praise. Psalm 100 tells us that we

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. “

Basically worship, praise, thanksgiving draws us into the presence of God. If we want to get God’s attention there is no better way than to praise Him.

Let Your Kingdom come

Let your rule, your reign, commence. Have your way with me. I am your servant. I am willing to be submissive to all you want to do in and through me. I acknowledge you are the King and ruler of my life.

Let your will be done

Not my will Lord, not my agenda, but yours. I want to know your will. I want to pray that Your will in all situations, whether I like it or not, be done. Now, I think this is a massively important point and one we continually pass over. We are so busy telling God what we want Him to do for us and those we know we miss what He might be wanting to do. We come with our shopping lists asking God to heal this person and help that person and give this person money and that person a job etc. etc. and we don’t stop to ask God what he would like to do in any given situation. We need to step back, say God this is the situation, what do YOU want to do in it? Seek God for His will and then ask Him to do it. When we find God’s will and then pray that into a situation we suddenly find God answers. Funny that!!

On Earth as it is in Heaven

We long for Christ to return and for God’s perfect rule to begin. Until then we are told that the Kingdom of God is at hand and we want to experience as much of that reality as possible. We are in the world but not of the world. We live here but are not under its rule. We want to usher in the Kingdom of God, we believe it starts in the here and now and we want that Kingdom on earth to expand.

Give us today our daily bread

So much can be taken from this one little line, in fact you can take it word by word.
Give

We are asking for the kindness of God. We’re not asking for a loan or for something we deserve or have earned we are asking for an unmerited gift from God.

Us

It is a term of inclusion. We’re not just asking for ourselves but for those around us. For those we love and care for.

Today

Here is our sense of urgency. As a new day is upon us we recognise the need for God’s provision. We need God’s provision for each day of our lives whether we recognise it or not.

Our

Here we recognise that we want God’s provision for us - we do not want the bread coming from others or due for others. We acknowledge that there is enough to go round and we don‘t want more than our share. We’re asking God to help us not to be selfish or greedy but to want what God wants to give us.

Daily

Thinking not of tomorrow, but trusting God for that, we ask for what is needed for today. We are aligning ourselves with our parts of the Bible that urge us not to worry about tomorrow but to stay focused on the here and now.

Bread

Here we are asking God for what is needed. Nothing fancy, simply bread. Yes, food to sustain us but also other everyday needs. God knows what we need and He is more than willing to provide that - we don’t need to spell out all our needs we simply need to acknowledge our need of God’s provision.

Forgive us our debts

An acknowledgement of our fallen, sinful nature; that we can be forgiven, redeemed and that God is the one who can forgive us. Taken in conjunction with the previous section the implication being that this is a daily request to continuously and constantly be forgiven. When this is prayed our slate is wiped clean once again.

As we also have forgiven our debtors

A call to duty. What good is it for us if we are forgiven but cannot forgive those who have wronged us? It is a great call to hope that if we can find it in our hearts to forgive those that have done wrong to us - how much more will God, whose forgiveness is perfect, readily forgive us.

And lead us not into temptation

We’ve admitted our sin, asked and received forgiveness and so it is natural that having a clean slate we ask for God’s help to keep it clean and not to err again. We are not saying that we believe God leads us into temptation but acknowledging the guiding hand and power of the spirit to lead us away from situations that may cause us to sin.

But deliver us from evil

We’ve asked for God to guide us away from situations that may cause us to sin. Now we are asking Him for His protection from the one who hounds us, the devil and all his agents. We are also asking for his deliverance from sin itself.

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever Amen

And so we return to praise and adoration. Telling God what He has already told us. Affirming our hope that God can do all that we have asked of Him and so much more besides.

So Jesus was asked by His disciples how to pray and he gave them the Lord’s prayer. Now I don’t for one minute think that this was something that he came up with on the spare of the moment. We’re not told but my guess is that Jesus had been perfecting this prayer for years. Moulding it, perfecting it and using it as His own. If you look at each petition they are all petitions that will receive a YES from God. Does God want to give us what we need - YES. Does God want to forgive us - YES. Does God want to deliver us for the devil - YES. So how can we form our prayers so as to get more YES answers from God? We will see in part three.

Prayer - what a lot of questions.

2009-10-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

I think the concept of prayer is amazing! The fact of being about to hear from God and speak to Him is just incredible. So how come it is one of the main things that we as Christians struggle with?

I was taught at Sunday School that God not only heard, but answered all our prayers. This really excited me until I found out that “No!” was one of the answers that He used and seemed to use it quite a lot. Is this the case though, does God answer all our prayers? What does the Bible actually say on this matter? How should we pray? Is there a way of praying that always does get an answer? In fact is there a way of praying that always gets the answer yes?

John 15:7
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

It’s a lot easier to take hold of the second part of this verse than the first. For a starter the it’s a lot easier to understand. So we remember and hold onto ask whatever you wish and you’ll get it. No wonder we get disillusioned when our friends don’t get healed, our family doesn’t come to Christ and we never get that ideal job. We can’t embrace the second part before we understand and live out the first part. I’m no Bible expert but surely this verse is saying that if you remain in me, remain in true fellowship with me, walk with me and in my ways; If you know me and know how I operate; if you are in tune with me and get to know my will by seeking me; and if my words remain in you; if you obey my teachings; if my words are on your lips; if your life becomes an imitation of my life - then, and only then, you can ask what you like and I will give it to you. Now, the onus here is actually on the first part. It’s not become like me and then ask to win the lottery and I’ll give it to you. The idea is that when you have walked with Christ, know His ways, imitate his life and have his word on your lips you cannot ask for anything that is outside of His will. When you live with someone you get to know their desires and if you know them well enough you get to know their will, what they would chose etc. If we walk close enough to god we will know his desire in any given circumstance and that which we don’t know we can always ask!!

1 John 5: 14 -15
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us -- whatever we ask -- we know that we have what we asked of him.

Again in this passage the important part is not “whatever we ask -- we know that we have”, but “according to His will”. In true black and white layman terms is this not saying - Find out what God wants to do, ask Him to do it, and guess what? He does it!! Yet we continue to ask God for things without a consideration of what His will might be. Then we get annoyed when he doesn’t do what we want Him to! So we are not told that God answers all our prayers - in fact I can’t find anywhere in the Bible that tells us that! (Ok I’m ready and waiting for you all to come back and tell me where it is - as I said I’m no expert!!) What we are told though is to walk with God, have His words (or His will) on our lips, to seek out what God wants to do, pray that He’ll do that and then sit back and watch as He does it. It’s not easy but it’s not rocket science and it could completely transform the way we pray and the levels of confidence and trust in God that we have.

More to follow…

Gaining a Sense of Urgency

2009-07-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I attended a seminar at Spring Harvest run by a friend of mine Rachel Gardener. It was an excellent seminar (I’d better put that in case she reads this!!) and as part of it I took part in a very thought provoking role-play. We were asked to imagine that a group of newly converted refugees had started attending our church. They were, however, going to be deported back to a country with no Christian presence in six months time. We were asked to devise a programme that would equip them with the Christian skills and knowledge they would need on their return.

There was quite a buzz as everyone in our group had something to contribute to this discussion. We talked about discipleship, links to be forged to mission agencies, trades to be learnt, prayer support to be set up, practical support for their six-month stay, gifts to be prayed for, the list went on. There was a sense of urgency and an eagerness to help. People really felt that it was something they could back and get their teeth into.

Then came the damming question…

Why don’t we do that for every single member of our congregations? It certainly is a challenge and one to which I shall return.

Many years ago I was challenged by a friend about the kind of films I watched. He said would I sit and watch 18 certificated violent films if Jesus was sat next to me? I replied that is Jesus was sat next to me I would not only not watch 18 certificated films I wouldn’t go to church, pray or go to work. I would be so interested in talking to him, getting him to pray for me, picking his brain and getting to know him more I wouldn’t have the time or the desire for anything else.

It was not until years later that I realised the absurdity of my words. Jesus IS sat next to me! Jesus IS praying for me! Jesus has given us His Word and His Spirit in order for us to get to know him better! I can pick His brain any time I want! So why don’t I?

Jesus left the disciples with a real sense of urgency. He hinted that some would still be alive at his return. They were left knowing that they had to get the job done, there was no time to waste. What has happened to this sense of urgency. Why do we constantly put off for tomorrow what we should be doing today? We have gotten so good at putting things off that we not only put things off until tomorrow we put things off permanently. We never get around to doing what we know we should. We put off things in our teens until we are adults and then put them off until we are married and then until we are retired and then we die never having done them. Yet if we knew Jesus was coming again at the end of the year we would accomplish so much for Him. We would draw close to Him in ways we have never attempted before. We would swerve Him with new vigour and determination. We would serve others with renewed love and concern.

I remember working for major supermarket in my teens. They used to display a poster in the staff area that said “Things that need to be done in the event of an Area Inspection… Absolutely nothing!!”

The implication being that good practise should be taking place at all times and when an inspection comes nothing should change. So it should be with our lives. Whether we know Christ is coming tomorrow, not for a million years or whether he is sitting right next to us nothing should change. This is far from the truth in my life and, I’m guessing, in the lives of most other Christians as well so why is this the case and what can we all do about it?

So why is this the case?

1. We live in the present and our mind is mainly focussed on the near past, the present and the near future.

2. Our lives are more easily moulded by the physical than the spiritual. What I mean by this is that we live with an “out of sight - out of mind” mentality. We are distracted by things and those around us rather than things like God and Jesus that are out of sight. The spiritual gets pushed out by the physical.

3. We focus on God’s loving, forgiving, patient, grace filled nature. We know when we fail God will forgive us, pick us up, brush us off and give us a fresh start. We conveniently forget His Wrath and Judgement and that we are created to glorify Him.

What can we do about it?

1. Take small steps. If we don’t break the task before us into small steps we will look at the big picture be overwhelmed and therefore do nothing. There is no point in diving headlong into a spiritual change, overdo it and after a week be back where we started. Think of one thing that we could do this week to improve the situation. Once you’re mastered that move on to something else.

2. Why is our spiritual life any different to the rest of our life? If we want to lose weight, be better organised, further our career or take up a hobby we plan. We set goals, make lists, plan our diary, seek advice and so on. So it should be with our spiritual life. We need achievable goals to head towards and advice on how to achieve them. I remember Graham Cooke saying that we should always ask ourselves how our relationship with God, how our praise and worship of God and how our service to God will be better this year than it was last year. This won’t just happen we need to work on it.

3. We need to surround ourselves with people that will join us, encourage us, share our struggles on this journey. Our Christian friends are the best physical aid to our growth as Christians. We need to be there for each other, we can’t journey successfully on our own. We need to work on devices with our friends that can enable us to be that motivation for each other.

4.We need to develop a sense of urgency. Be this through prayer or conversations with friends we need to have a sense of immediacy in our lives. I used to work with someone who lived with a sense that tomorrow she could be hit by a bus. Somehow we need to find that urgency. Jesus may not return tomorrow, we may not die tomorrow but we need to learn to live as if one of those possibilities were the case.

Don't stop meeting together...

2009-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

If I’m honest I’ve never really been much of a fan of going to church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m passionate about God and Jesus and worship and other Christians etc. but it’s just church I struggle with. The church is filled with human beings and will therefore never be perfect, I accept that and also know that I am as bad as the worst of them. I’ve recently read an excellent book by David Murrow called Why Men Hate Going to Church. I would recommend it to anyone, both male and female. Having read it I now understand a little better why I don’t love attending church and have been given some good ideas on how churches could change in order to better accommodate men. However, it doesn’t give me all the answers and doesn’t help me cope until those changes are made (and let‘s face it some of the changes will never be made). Yet, I’m commanded to attend church and therefore that is what I do. I’d be interested to hear if others feel the same.

I’ve never been entirely convinced of the analogy of the church being a fire and when a coal is removed it survives for a while but then goes out. I was thinking about the whole church issue and coals dying when removed whilst I was gardening the other day. In one of those moments of clarity I believe God gave me a new analogy that for me made far more sense and also brought with it a challenge.
I was studying a group of sunflowers that are in desperate need of attention. They like us are growing towards the sun (son), reaching heavenwards, growing and flourishing. They’ve been planted and watered and with the heat from the sun have grown to their present height. However, as I previously stated, they now need attention. If they are not staked and tethered the wind will snap their stalks. If they are not watered the will shrivel and die. It the soil around them is not weeded the weeds will over-take them and crowd out their light. If they are not fed they will grow weak and feeble and may not reach maturity. If their seeds are not gathered in there will be no future sunflowers from this line.

And so it is with us Christians. We can survive on our own, at least for a little while. As we look heavenwards and lean towards the Son we need to be tended and cared for. We need to be encouraged to grow and enabled to flourish. We need to be pruned and shaped, fed and watered. We may be able to feed and water ourselves through on-line sermons and private devotionals. However, the weeds creep up un-noticed and we’re not brave enough to prune ourselves. It is in meeting with each other that we provide support against the storms of life. We feed off each other and lead each other to water. It is together that our fruit is recognised and harvested and that our gifts are recognised and honed and used.

I love Proverbs 27: 17 which states that As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. As we meet together we sharpen one another, we help to bring each other into focus. We help give each other that edge that we need to grow as Christians.
So the challenge!! I see the challenge as two-fold. Firstly, are we being supported by our church, are we being fed and watered? Are our gifts being identified, practised, honed and used? Are we supported and are we being anchored to the stake which is Jesus? Are people helping us in clearing the weeds out of our lives and are we being pruned and disciplined? If not why not? Are we allowing people that freedom in our lives to help us? So what happens if we find ourselves in churches where this isn’t happening? Well I believe that we need to be proactive. I reckon most Pastors or Vicars would be thrilled if you sat down with them and said that you would like more personal discipling or discipline or want to discover your gifts and start to put them into practise. Pastors are surely longing for their congregations to be taking radical steps to move forward with God. If you take this step and your pastor doesn’t respond it is then that you need to seriously question why you are going to that particular church. The pastor won’t always have the time themselves to explore with you in the depth that you would like, but he should have the time to find someone to get alongside you.

Secondly, are we being all theses things for those around us? Are we encouraging others to grow and giving them all we can to enable that growth? Are we being a weed in anybody’s life that is stunting their growth?

This analogy has certainly helped me in thinking through lots of different issues, I hope you’ll find it useful also.

WWJD

2009-06-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

I’ve never worn a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelet. Whether or not that makes me a bad person I’m not sure? (note to self - it’s all the other things that make you a bad person) What I’m not convinced about is that wearing one would make me a better person, a better Christian or draw me nearer to God. I have a friend who wears one as an evangelistic opportunity - so that people ask him what it is and it gives him the opportunity to share his faith. I think this is a great thing to do and I pray that he will be given more openings through this to share his faith. I guess I’m just not convinced that there are thousands of people out there living out the What Would Jesus Do? lifestyle. Ok, I don’t wear the bracelet but I know I’m not.

So, what would a person living out this life look like, act like, be like? I don’t need to answer that question for you. All you need to do is look at the life of Jesus to see what someone asking this question and carrying out the answers would look like.

To aspire to do what Jesus would do is a great aspiration and I wouldn’t want to knock it. However, let’s face it, Jesus happened to be the Son of God, God in human form and to top it all off he was also perfect. So if I were to honestly ask myself What Would Jesus Do the answers I would get back would be quite deflating. So What would Jesus Do?
　
He’d heal the sick
He’d walk on water
He’d go all the way to the cross
He’d confront the leaders
He’d resist all temptation
He’d feed the poor
He’d love all his enemies
He’d die for those who hate him
He’d teach with wisdom and authority
He’d go the extra mile every single time
He’d mix with prostitutes and the outcasts
He’d confront the wrong doers and the Pharisees
He’d command the sea and the waves be still
He would show people God
　
If I could measure up to just one of these things I’d think I was doing pretty great. I think the question I’d like to ask is WWJHMD? Ok so it’s not as catchy and the writing on the bracelet would have to be smaller but I’d be asking What Would Jesus Have Me Do? Jesus, knowing me completely with all my failings, insecurities, lack of faith, self doubt, time restraints etc etc. what would you have me do in this situation or for this person. What can I say that will make a difference? What should I pray? How should I react? I don’t want to be defeatist about this but I can never measure up to the example set me by Jesus, I know that and he knows that. I could live my life in failure continually asking WWJD and discovering that I can’t do most of the things he would do. Or I can ask myself What Would Jesus Have ME Do and at least achieve little goals for Him each day. Yes, I need to become more like Jesus, but I need small steps to help me along the way. I can’t scale mountains in one mighty leap but I can slowly and even painfully scale the heights one step at a time.

So, I’m off to get millions of imaginary WWJHMD? Bracelets made. Perhaps you might join me in metaphorically wearing one.

Perfect Love

2009-06-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

1 John 4:18
　
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…

So, what is perfect love?

The only way I can understand this is in the outworking of Love in the life of Jesus. His life was perfect and so I’m guessing that his love was also. So what was this love like? Throughout the accounts of His life you can clearly see that His love was no passive thing. It was the love He had for others that spurred Him into action. He had a love that reached out to lepers, that took Him places most people would have shied away from. It was a love that didn’t wrap people up in cotton wool but which tackled big issues because they needed tackling. His love didn’t mean he agreed with everyone or bent over backwards to comfort people and make them feel secure. In fact it was a love that made people feel insecure with who they were and what they were doing. His love was love in action.
　
Perfect Love is love in action. Perfect love is love that builds up relationships and points people in the right direction, that reaches out to the poor, that shares the Good News and prays for our enemies. Perfect love is putting ourselves out for others, saying and doing things we don’t want to do but know we should. Love is a doing word not a passive word.

Test Everything

2009-06-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

I love to learn new things and with the Christian faith there is always more to learn. However, with learning new things you have to be careful. I have learnt, as much as possible, to test everything. This is imperative when the teaching comes from a new source, but also with teaching from trusted sources.

The other day I was listening on-line to a sermon about Noah. The preacher stated that we had been led astray by teaching on Noah. He said we’re told in our Sunday Schools and Churches the following story of Noah...

God had created man who had sinned and was cast out of the garden of Eden. Man was left to his own devises and became more and more wicked. This was of course apart from Noah who was the only righteous man. God decided to wipe man from the earth but to save Noah as he was the only righteous man to be found along with his wife, children and their wives.

He continued to say that we therefore see a story about the wrath of God punishing man and God’s justice in saving the one righteous man. He said that he believes that our misreading of the story helps us to massively miss the point. That the story of Noah is a story of God’s grace. This is because, he says, the Bible doesn’t say that Noah was a righteous man, but that Noah found favour in God’s eyes and the word for favour used was the word for Grace.

For days I thought this was great. A story that I had always considered to be about God’s anger and might was actually about His incredible saving Grace. I had even started to write something about it. I then decided to check it out before I went further. The first thing I read was “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among people of his time....” So, his theory of the Bible not saying Noah was a righteous man is immediately blown out of the water. It only took a minute, but, as can be seen, was worth the effort.

Sin - a new look at old vices

2009-06-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

Often I read in Christian books and get told from the pulpit that sin is doing things wrong, that it is missing the mark. I think this is a useful, but only to a limited extent. I have found a way of looking at sin that make much more sense and is a more helpful way to look at it. I have learnt to see sin in relational terms. Sin is the breakdown in relationship. The breakdown in relationship between us and other people or between us and God. If you look at the Ten Commandments, for example, all of these can be seen in terms of relationship between us and God and us and other people. If ,for example ,you steal from your neighbour it will create difficulty in your relationship with your neighbour. If you use God’s name incorrectly it will put a barrier between you and God.

If we see the Christian life in relational terms it helps us see more clearly how God would have us live. Many things that we do have an effect on those around us, but is that effect positive or negative. Seeing our decisions in terms of how they will effect others will help us make good and right decisions. Are our decisions, our actions, building people up or breaking them down? Are our decisions bringing us closer to people and to God or taking us further away?

There are many areas in our modern lives that the Bible does not speak directly about. However, if we have a relational look at the things we do we can more easily see whether they would be the kind of things that God would have us do. Let us take an obvious example, that of taking drugs. Now it does not specifically say in the Bible “Thou shalt not take LSD” so should we or should we not take drugs? Well how would taking drugs effect our relationship with others? Is it likely to draw us nearer to others or push us further away? When honestly looking at it in this context it is clear to see whether it is something God would desire of us or not.　
　
This way of looking at sin has another helpful aspect. If sin is something that hurts our relationship with God and with other the opposite of sin, and what God wants from us, is the building up of relationship both with Him and with those around us. So, we now know to avoid doing anything to that breaks down our relationships we can focus on doing things that build up our relationships with others. We are not always too good at this aspect. We are good at being polite and civil but sometimes neglect to do things that actively build up our relationships with one another inside and outside of the church. So, which of the following could we consider doing for the first time or on a more regular basis?

Having someone over for a meal

Organising a day out with people from Church

Having Bring and share meals at church

Organising a church weekend away

Having a themed evening at your house (games, film, whisky tasting, discussion evening, quiz, party)

Hosting something like a Virgin V or Phoenix Cards evening

Discipling a younger Christian

Getting alongside someone in need

Being a Missionary

2009-06-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

I think many of us have at one time or another considered missionary work to be undertaken by pith helmeted men in deepest darkest Africa. It was certainly the idea I was brought up with. Over the years though I have come to see each Christian as a missionary wherever they may be, whether sent overseas by their church or working in Tescos in the town where they were born. All Christians are on a mission, sent by God, with goals, weapons and a purpose. We might not be financially supported by our church, we might not even be prayerfully supported by our church, but we are God’s missionaries. Having understood this it has really helped me in my everyday activities. I am no longer having to work for a difficult boss, I’m working for God. God has sent me in to certain situations and he will therefore equip me for the task, which may involve courage or just patience to carry through a mundane job. My pay packet is not the be all and end all of my working month because I am on a mission and though the taxman takes a bite at my earthly wages my heavenly wages as safe, secure and soaring.

However, in recent weeks, I’m now thinking that God is calling me to be a missionary somewhere I never thought he’d ask me to go. Although it is not a place foreign to me and holds no fear it is not a place where I’d ever considered myself living out the role of missionary. I believe this role may not just be for me, but for many others as well. I believe that God is calling us to become missionaries in our very own churches. Now this may seem a very strange idea – surely churches send out missionaries – they don’t need missionaries in they’re midst. Well, let’s have a very little look at what a missionary is or what a missionary does.

A missionary tells people about the Good News or the God News. A missionary may show others the love of God through their actions. A missionary may translate the word of God into a language others can understand. A missionary brings alive the word of God in whichever way possible. A missionary undertakes any mission to which they feel God is calling them.

Now tell me that we couldn’t use more if these types of people in our church here and now.

Suffering

2009-06-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

I get asked by Christians and non-Christians alike the age old question of “How can a God of Love let people suffer?” I always want to answer “There are things in this life that we’ll never understand, come to terms with that and move on!!” However, I’m never brave enough. So, how do I answer that question?

I start by saying that any answer you receive from me, or any other person for that matter, will be flawed, incomplete and will never satisfy them as the questioner. However, this is how I look at it and I look at it in three ways.

1. Suffering isn’t all bad.

OK it’s easy for me, who is not in pain, to say that. However, I believe it’s true in two areas. Firstly suffering can bring out the best in people, you refine who you are through suffering, it brings you to a better understanding of the human experience, it helps you understand others better, it is a major learning process and on a spiritual level it helps us to identify with the sufferings of Christ (not that I claim to really understand that - answers on a postcard please!). Secondly, some areas of suffering are preserving and informing. When I lay my hand on the fully on hotplate and I experience suffering it informs me to remove my hand. When I fall and break something it is the suffering that tells me to go and get it treated. So, suffering plays a part in preserving our lives by informing us of potential dangers. The sufferings of others, for example hunger or war, informs us that all is not right with our world. It reminds us of our greed and our anger and our selfishness.

2. Would we allow it?

If you are, or were, a parent would you allow your child to play football? I’m assuming the vast majority of people would say yes. Does that make you a bad parent? I imagine the vast majority of parents would answer resolutely NO! So as a parent you are happy for, if not encouraging, your child to participate in an activity that may cause him fairly serious injury? A sport where broken bones are not unheard of. Where dead legs, bruised arms, pulled muscles, strains, cuts and concussion are commonplace. An activity where not only they may get hurt they may also cause serious hurt to others. Yet with all that considered we would still say that as parents we are happy for our children to participate in it and hundreds of similar, if not more dangerous, activities. We even allow our children to partake in things that could result in major injury or death. For we know that with enjoyment comes risk and with some risk comes enjoyment.

3. What causes suffering?

Well, in short, sin!! Suffering is a result of the fall. Our wrongdoings cause suffering to ourselves and others. Some of this is plain to see. If my anger overspills and I punch you the result of my sin is your blood nose. However, that is just one side to it, the seen result of my sin. What is not seen usually has more far reaching consequences. The bloody nose that we can see may hide a broken bone or other internal injuries. You may have suffered a twist in your neck. In hitting you I may have strained a muscle or broken my hand. There is the fear I may have instilled in you or others that hear about my actions. There is the guilt that I may feel and your bitterness, hatred or a struggle with forgiveness. There’s the breakdown in relationship between us and so it goes on. The bloody nose is the observable, immediate consequence but the unseen ripples, perhaps, cause more suffering. So it is with sin. The consequences of our actions, our wrongdoings, ripple underneath the surface in the created seen world and the spiritual realm. We don’t know how it works but we understand that sin causes suffering, directly and indirectly. The ripple from our sin continue to grow and have effects on those throughout this world. With the fall the created, natural world fell as well. Our fall had a huge effect on the created world and our continuing sin now also has a huge effect.
　
So, as you can see it’s nowhere near a complete answer but you’ll never get a complete answer, deal with it and move on!!!

Missionaries Overseas

2009-06-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

Now don’t get me wrong I think it is good and right to send people abroad to spread the Gospel amongst different people groups around the world. After all we are commanded to go into all the world... However, what I find myself constantly questioning is how we send them and how we receive them back.

Now in writing this I know I’m lumping all missionaries from every church and mission agency into one basket and for that I apologise. These observations come from a limited experience but also from many conversations with those who have had much more experience that I. I also want to state that this in no way based on missionaries that I know or trying to call into question the call that missionaries have to go overseas.

The sending out of missionaries perplexes me. You take one person and dump them in the middle of a strange country and expect them to model the Christian life of community, fellowship and relationship. To me it makes no sense. Surely the ideal would be to send out teams and I know some mission organisations do. Yet still we send out these individuals . Even Paul took along companions. I would have thought it obvious that a team of missionaries would have far great an impact that a series of individuals, but perhaps that’s just me!!
So, let’s have a look at the people we send. My question here is if we are sending people to another country to share the Gospel shouldn’t these people be the very best we have to offer? Shouldn’t they have a wealth of experience, the best possible training and most complete support package that we can offer? After all if we were a business trying to sell a new service to another country we would send our best salesman or even the MD would go himself. However, what I’ve noticed is that churches send people as missionaries that are ill equipped, inexperienced and under supported. Time and time again I hear of people being sent abroad as evangelists and church planters. When I hear of church planters being sent I always ask the question of how many churches have they planted here. The answer always comes back as, you’ve guessed it, none. We’re sending out people to foreign climes to cut their teeth and make their mistakes and play with people’s lives. They then return to plant churches in this country? Well, not that I’ve ever heard of! Doesn’t this seem a bit topsy-turvy? I have also seen missionaries sent abroad where the sending church doesn’t believe in them enough to employ them themselves in the home church context. In fact when many return with all the experience of being a missionary they return to the pew rather than the pulpit. So, are these churches missing an opportunity in using these returning missionaries? I believe we have so much to learn from those who have been out on the mission field. So much is learnt there, experienced and encountered that it seems a waste not to use that resource within the home church. Now, of course many missionaries return and are well used in the local church or continue the good work they were doing overseas back in their home country but I think it is something that each sender needs to consider. It’s exciting to send people overseas to spread the Gospel but we need to bear in mind the very practical aspects of their return as well. This may include such things are culture readjustment, housing, employment, pensions and as mentioned putting that wealth of experience to good use.

Holy Communion

2009-06-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

So what’s all this about? I was sitting through a communion service the other day when suddenly the thought hit me “is this really what Jesus meant?” It was a service much like any other. There was nothing out of the ordinary. There was little in the means of any interaction between members of the congregation, it was all very formal and kid of impersonal, we could all have been in little Perspex cubicles cut off from everyone else. The minister told us we were doing it as Jesus commanded us to in remembrance of him and still all I could think was - is this really what Jesus meant?

Let’s have a little think about what Jesus could have been asking of us.
He was sharing the Passover meal with his closest followers - closest friends. He was showing them more of who he was and what they should be like, especially after his departure from them. It was a lavish feast and as part of it, as with most meals at that time, there would have been bread and wine. So this was a time of fellowship, intimacy, sharing, familiarity, comfort. If a friend of theirs had walked in they would have understood the situation. It was a culturally normal thing to be doing. They would have recognised much of the symbology used in the context of the meal. The breaking of the bread and the drinking from the cup may have been new symbols but were created out of things found at every meal table.

Was Jesus not taking two very ordinary, everyday items to say, when you eat together, when you have fellowship with each other, remember me and what I mean in your lives. Remember the extraordinary when you do the very ordinary. When, each day, you eat bread and drink wine remember the sacrifice I have made for you. In this, the sacrifice of Christ is remembered in the ordinary everyday stuff that we do and especially in our time of fellowship together. It is not something set apart, formalised, done with great pomp and ritual. Wasn’t he saying, that just as we as Christians say grace at meal times, share this symbol to place me at the centre. Did Christ really mean that we should only specifically focus on his sacrificial death once a month in a formal, quite bizarre, ritual. Or was he taking the things of everyday life and saying - when you eat, when you drink, when you meet with fellow believers - I am there with you - remember me - acknowledge my presence - commune with me, let me in on your conversations, remember that the power that raised me from death is available to you now, here, today - use it. What I did, who I am, is relevant to your everyday lives. I want to be at the centre of everything you do. I want you to remember me, remember what I stand for in your lives, not now and then but as regularly as you eat and drink. So remember when you eat and drink just as you are being fed physically, remember, I want to feed you spiritually. As you remember me I want you to remember who you are through me. What I have called you to be. So, eat and drink and remember and go and do.