How great IS our God?

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,  and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.  The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Then he placed his right hand on me, and said ;
Do not be afraid. ...
I am the First and Last
I am the Living One
I was dead but look, I am alive forever and ever.
And I hold the keys of death and Hades. ~ Revelation 1:12-18

I have been listening to the sermons of Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones recently. And I listened to him talk about the verse from John, 'for as many as those who believe, to them he gave the power to become children of God.'
In this sermon in particular he starts to address the subject of The Fatherhood of God.
He is a man from a different era but in some ways ahead of his time.
He talked of how He, God, is referred to as the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliberately so that people will know that he is not like Their own father, because the image of some people's fathers does not summon the response of love.
And he speaks of the warmth and affection of God as a Father..... But he ties it in with respect and reverent fear.
He speaks in a way that makes it clear to me that since his day we have lost this aspect of parenting and culturally lost out on an understanding of this aspect of God.
He is to be feared.
And the strength and authority he commands are, at once fearful to us, but also our source of protection. His fierceness against our enemy is a thoroughly reassuring thing, provided we are on the right side of him.
And we see John's response to this terrifying vision of Christ, with Blazing eyes and a sword protruding from his mouth. John falls down as though slain.
But what Jesus does is so touching and so reassuring.
He places his right hand on him. Affirming him. It is a kind hand bestowing favour.
And he tells him not to be afraid.
And that he is omnipotent, conquering death, earth, time and hell.
The only one who should be truly feared, offers us security.
How powerful is that?
I need some perspective on my life on earth and this provides it in spades.

A friend whilst at bible college once told me of a vision he had of Jesus, standing in the cosmos, the earth literally his foot stool. And this vision really added to him a sense of perspective and security! I have never forgotten the retelling of that.

Don't ask today, 'how big are my problems? ' Or ' How great is my faith? '
Ask this.
How big and how great is my Lord?
Sing with me
How great is our God,
And all will see,
How great,
How great is our God?
Amen.

Great Grace

And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. ~Acts 4:33-34


I love this. The text almost resonates with a gasp. SO powerfully that people even looked after each other!!
It is something when God raises Christ from the dead, and it is something else when Peter and John heal a paraplegic, but yet the fact that believers live together like this, taking care of each other's every need. That is worthy of emphasis amongst such other miracles.

And tell me, where else in scripture does this occur?

The spirit moves in the Bible in many wonderful ways, but this is unprecedented.
And revival has been described as a community saturated with God.
And I believe this is the evidence of it.
God is love. And by this shall the world know you belong to Jesus. That you love one another.
And that brings me back to the verse in 1 John that I wrote about a few weeks back...
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
The love of God finds expression like this. It manifests itself. It can do no other. Love is not an onlooker. Love is an action. Genuine love may start as an emotion but it will always find expression.

And we see that in no better light than in the manifestation of God's love in Jesus.
For God SO loved the world that he sent his only son.
God knew the need and he met it, in the most perfect way possible.
Love cannot sit on it's hands.
Some very strong warnings exist in scripture for those who turn away from the need of their family members.
And yet here we see a community of people not all related expressing this familial love to one another and it is a thing of wonder.
For this love we must first understand and experience God's love for us, as he 'sheds abroad in our hearts his love, by the holy spirit '.
We do not love first but we are first loved.
And that love has an overflow. It saturates communities.
Love God. Love yourself. Love your neighbour.
But you see, in reality, there are no punctuation marks. Love is seamless. To love God is to understand his love and the overflow is not an effort.
Therefore we do not stand in condemnation. It is not to say, 'oh no. You didn't help that person. You bad Christian. Are you sure you are saved because God's love clearly isn't in you. '
No.

It is not about effort.

We have to be full of love and mercy for it to be able to overflow.
Like the parable of the unforgiving servant illustrates, mercy flows down.
And he who is forgiven much, loves much.
Dear family.
We are loved with an everlasting love.
Fill your heart with that today.....
And let it overflow.
Amen.

Vival

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.~ Acts 4:32-35

 

I love that the first thing the spirit seems to bring is worship. Nothing else is quite fitting, as the Apostles and believers declare the praises of God, (and the onlookers hear them in their own language). And they are also impassioned and speak boldly without fear. Oh Lord, do we need some of that.

But the point of my focus today is on something that is not always emphasised. At least not in my experience.
This passage, and the first four chapters of Acts concerning the birth of the church, are often held up, and rightly so, as the model for church, in harmony with God, fellow believers and the surrounding community, as they move in the power of the spirit, bringing the kingdom of God with social action, worship and preaching and healing.
And this kind of revival church is what many of us aspire to. Except that this is not revival. Because it is the first time on earth that the body of Christ has been in operation like this, it could more accurately be described, not as revival, but as 'vival'!
And I have often longed for the radical sense of community that Acts-church seems to offer. Growing up in the seventies renewal movement, my church was a whole lot closer to this model than anything I have seen since. I will perhaps touch on this later in the week. But I want to say, once you have tasted the manifest passion for Jesus, expressed in living in loving community, nothing else quite hits the mark. It feels like a hole in your church experience. A void which, as an adult, I have yet to see filled. Our individualistic society is so at odds with it. And some quarters of the church are too, to it's detriment.
But it starts with a move of (and a response to) the spirit. And once the initial explosion of worship and proclamation has ebbed, what then is the next effect of the Spirit?
It is simple. One word can some it up. It is the correct response to the Spirits moving.
That word;
Devotion.
To the word/teaching. That can never be overestimated...... or understated.
I'm taking that as a given.
But the part I want us to think about today is this Devotion to fellowship.
Christianity is a faith that lives through community. We do not thrive in isolation. We thrive and grow together.
I'm not saying solitude is a bad thing. It can be essential. But for seasons and moments. But isolation is not good. It's Ice-olation. Out alone in the cold.
Scripture says that God places the lonely in families.
And to love God is to love people. And particularly, the people of God.
Let us devote ourselves to fellowship,
As we fellowship with God.
Amen.

Bearing Burdens

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.~ Galatians 6:2-5

I find it fascinating that Paul instructs us to carry each other's burdens and yet finishes by saying we should all carry our own load.

At the time of writing this, I was due to be preaching in a few weeks time on the subject of giving. The verse that inspired this is from 1 John (3:17). If you have material possessions and see a brother in need, but do not help them, how can the love of God be in you?

And then I started thinking about the early church. How they sold all they had and gave to all as they have need.
One could argue, an early form of the benefits system!

In my church there are a lot of conservatives and thinking about how to present this to them, as a socialist, made me consider their approach to individual freedom and responsibilities. A tory friend, yes I do have them, pointed out to me that as Christians it's is our individual responsibility to look after the poor through acts of charity. And I concede, there are two major drawbacks to the benefits system.

1. Those who receive them can often become dependant on them and lose the incentive to work. Not all, but some, for sure.

2. That those who should be engaging in charitable work can ignore the problem because the state is doing that already, and 'that is why I pay my taxes'.

Now I could go into this extensively but I really want to point to the way Paul puts both of these things into juxtaposition.
We cannot ignore the need around us. It is not good for us to do so, both individually and corporately as a church.

 I believe charity does begin at home within the church, but it extends beyond that. But there is no putting a value, spiritually speaking, on what helping others does for us. The love of God is abiding in us and being expressed through us. What a joy.

And we are shown here that individually we are to take responsibility for our own burden also. Not being too proud to accept help but not to be complacent about the help we receive. To honour God in all aspects of our lives.

Elsewhere we are told he who will not work should not eat.
Vastly open to misinterpretation but all the same, essential to hear. We are not to be leeches.
It's primarily about a culture of honour. That is the kingdom of God.
It comes down to this. Love God, respect God. Love and respect others as you love and respect yourselves.

Each should bear their own burden. But we should bear each other's burdens also.

And the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

The Night I Unintentionally Saved a Girl's Life.

So this post, as you will be able to surmise from the title, paints me in rather a good light. And, for once, I want to hold up my actions as exemplary. I did save a girls life. But I didn't perform a death defying rescue. I simply made a phone call. Not a 999 call under emergency circumstances. I simply invited a girl to a party and, In the click-bait language of social media...."YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!!"


It was new years eve, 1992. I was 19 and I was home for the Christmas period from a year long residential course I was on, training me to be a missionary/church-worker. Some of my church friends were having a get together, as we had done on the previous few years. As there were only a handful of us around, (And although it was not my party to invite people too) I started trying to think of some of our youth who were perhaps a bit younger than my contemporaries.  Soon we had broadened out the guest list to make about a dozen or so of us. And I was quite pleased with myself. I had kind of made this party happen!

It wasn't until I was at the hosts house, and the party was underway, that I realised I had left someone out.

"A" was a girl of about 15. She was quiet, a little shy, friendly and, it seemed to me, quite a sociable young lady. She had kind brown eyes and always had a big smile.

She and her family had really joined the church during my first years away, so I didn't know them very well. Her older sister was a similar age to me, and I knew her a little, socially though parties and the like, but not "A". However "A" and I had bonded a little at after-church coffee  over our shared enjoyment of metal music.

So when I looked at our little gathering and realised that "A" was not there, I could not begin to think why I had not invited her...other than the fact that it was not my party, but that had not stopped me inviting everyone else!

And, when I suggested it to the rest of the merry-makers, I realised that, apart from a couple of the younger ones, most people in this group did not seem to have a great connection with her, as more than a couple of voices were slightly disparaging about the idea.

And, being my outspoken self (at least amongst this group of friends) I argued them (The disparaging ones) round  and eventually they agreed that I could invite "A".

Her mother answered the call, when I phoned from the phone attached to the wall under my friends staircase. We got on very well, (the mother and I) and she seemed delighted that someone had called for her slightly reclusive daughter.

"She's in her room, Matthew" she said in a rather jaunty sing song voice, "I'll just go and get her".

I had, at that point, never been to their house, and didn't know how long it would take for her to reach her daughter's bedroom, but I knew it wasn't so big that it took the 5 mins or so it took A's mother to return to the phone.

When she did return, her voice was drained of all jauntiness.

I wasn't offered an explanation. I was told very simply,

"Matthew. Something's happened. I have to go".


It wasn't until a few days later that I found out what that something was.

"A" had attempted to take her own life.



She had taken an overdose of some kind of pills and my last minute invitation had caused her unconscious body to be discovered. Thank God. They managed to save her.

I am writing this blog because I had almost lost all memory of this event when, out of the blue, just a few days ago, I started to think of  "A".

A few years back her parents, who have long since left the area, came back for a trip down memory lane and had wandered into our church bookshop, where I was working as a volunteer that day.

I naturally asked after their daughters who I had not seen for the best part of twenty years.

And, what surprised me was that "A" was not only okay......but positively thriving. It seems she is living today in America and is happily married with kids and living on a gorgeous ranch which they own. I saw the photos, and it was gorgeous. Not that it is important but I don't think they are short of a bob or two, let's put it that way.

And, as I remember gazing at those photos, I am amazed that I should have been instrumental in the saving of her life. I am even more amazed that such a confident, beautiful and successful woman had ever even contemplated ending her life, let alone taken action to ensure it.


There are a few lessons.

I cant tell you why she did it, or how it came to that state of affairs, but I know "A"s sense of loneliness and worthlessness was not only a misconception, but it was also  a lie. I also know she had allowed herself to be isolated and that her sense of misery and worthlessness was compounded by that.  Which in turn propelled the isolation.
There were a number of people who cared about her, but she was not in a place to hear those voices. She had disconnected and as a result, reality was distorted and pain amplified.

And here is a lesson for us as a wider society. A little bit of care goes a long way.
I was not burdened with any sort of supernatural sense that "A" needed help. I merely thought that she should not be left out. And I reached out.

There are so many nights where I might have been more self-absorbed and would not even have thought of "A".

Thank God, New year's eve 1992 was not one of those nights.


I think we need to be looking out for those who are withdrawing and disconnecting. We never know what they are going through.

And I think we should be more willing to reach out to one another. To go the extra mile. To carry someone's load. Or even, (and tragically, sometimes this is all it takes) to take an interest. Just a simple act of kindness or friendship  could save someone's life.

Comfortable Discipline

"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."

~Hebrews 12:4~

 

 

 

No kidding.

I sometimes think I have hardly broken a sweat.

 

This is just a shortish blog I wanted to write to acknowledge a lesson (at least partially) learned today.

Listen. The writer to the Hebrews uses this passage (that the previous verse is lifted from) to encourage his readers to persevere in the midst of hardship and affliction. Consider Jesus, he says, who endured so much before receiving his prize, that you yourselves will not 'grow weary and lose heart'.

"Hang in there!" basically.

And then he flips everything on it's head.

This hardship you are facing, the hardship that you may be tempted to view as evidence of God's abandonment?

Nah.

 

That is a sign of his love for you! Endure it as a discipline, because we all know that a loving Father disciplines his children, and that is what this is. A discipline. that is why you are being allowed to go through this. Because he LOVES you.

Yeah. Sure.

For starters, the culture in which this understanding of loving discipline is assumed, is far from one I recognise in my own life.

I have received loving discipline from my parents. Of course I have. But my parents were children of their generation, and the mostly permissive liberal society in which I have lived my life, had an affect on the kind of discipline I received. And it's consistency.

When we think of discipline, we are tempted to think of punishment. But punishment is only a small tool in the tool box of discipline. Discipline is training. It shares roots with the word 'disciple'. There is always a purpose to it. It is an evidence of God's love because he wants to equip us to be able to face whatever will come our way, and to grow up into righteousness.

In lyrics that pay a direct reference  to Psalm 24, "Love rescue me" a song written and sung by Bob Dylan and Bono, we hear the words,

 

"I have cursed Thy rod and staff,

They No longer comfort me,

Love rescue me"

 

 

And I get it. I really do. It's a heart cry for mercy. It is a soul pleading for comfort of an altogether more tender kind.

But I can't help but be drawn to this idea that it is based on a misconception. That is okay because the song does not attempt to teach theology but to convey an emotion. But David understands, as a Shepherd himself, that these instruments of correction are really the tools of protection, that these tools of remedy are also tools of rescue.

I have heard Jewish people joking about how being the chosen people, they wish God would have chosen someone else. And we can kind of understand why. If discipline is the expression of love, sometimes we wish he would go and love someone else.

He doesn't let us off easy, that's for sure.

But he cares enough to keep working on us.

This daily crucifixion stuff is really tough. Seriously tough.But ,as the writer reminds the Hebrews, 'You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.'

 

That may not be true of some, but it is certainly true of me.

Today God allowed me to face some of the consequences of my own sinful impatience.

 

Yeah. I got caught speeding.

It may cost me more money than I can afford.

But it is a lesson I cannot afford not to learn.

This costly lesson, is far less expensive than my not learning it.


Some years ago He drew my very specific attention to some verses in Galatians, where he told me not to sow to the sinful nature, but rather to sow to the Spirit.

Those who sow to the sinful nature, as I had done today, will reap from that nature destruction. Destruction of my finances, in this case.

 

And he reminded me, that what he wanted for me was to sow to the Spirit.

It is not a reluctant act of restraint that is to take the place of my intended sin.

And it is not bottled up fuming resentment.
I do not merely acquiesce to do 'The right thing'.

 

No. I am to Sow to the Spirit.

That is an act of worship, love and devotion.

What greater thing can there be than to sow to the Holy spirit of loving Father God?

What at first seems like an act  of sacrifice, becomes and act of loving worshipful devotion to the one who loves me to the uttermost.

This kind of discipline is invaluable.

And from it, we reap everlasting life!

And more than that, the writer to the Hebrews tell us, that although No discipline is pleasant initially, for those who have been trained by it....well, they produce a harvest of righteousness and peace.

Yeah. God disciplines those he loves.

In the end I was rejoicing over this discipline, and in his love expressed to me in it. And it is painful. I can't afford the money, and I feel naturally angry towards myself for my stupidity. But I am pleased that it happened, if I can truly learn this lesson.

 

I will joyfully sow to the spirit.


And I will patiently await my harvest.

Thy rod and thy staff,
They comfort me still.

Crisis of Faith

The Christian author and humourist Adrian Plass once defined a Christian Speaker as someone 'Whose problems only exist in the past tense'. On reading this I immediately identified. I am a speaker as well as a writer, but no distinction is necessary between the two. It is suffice to say, I believe, that there is often a desire when communicating a message (whatever medium is used to present it) to come across as someone who has, at least in part, got it together. That is sort of implicit in the idea that we consider ourselves and our words worthy of some of your attention.

That is not to say that showing some vulnerability is not a part of that, as Mr Plass hinted at. We are happy to speak of weakness. Indeed, if you have heard my sermons then you will know that my weakness is a recurring theme.... Illustrations of this however seem to often exist only  in those types that say 'This is a lesson I have learned'.

Very conscious of this, I often now try and own on-going weaknesses in both my blogs and my sermons. But that isn't to say that I am not selective....both in what I reveal.....and in how much I reveal.

This preamble is really just to bring you to this point. This is a blog in which I will speak about an ongoing issue for which I definitely do not have answers. I am in the middle of this right now, but part of me is hoping that, in the writing, I will perhaps resolve some of those things as I write.

Allow me to tell you of an incident that occurred during my children's last weekend visit with me. My youngest son is a simmering cauldron of unspent energy right now. He is only 9 and he almost cant sit still at present. So on the Sunday in question he had grown bored with the lethargy of his old man and announces that he is off to the garden to play football.

I continue with whatever lazy activity I am indulged in and breathe a sigh of relief that he is at least occupied. But then I am interrupted by my niece (who lives with me) saying that My boy is crying and wants me to go to him.

I go out into the garden and find Noah rolling on the grass, clutching his knee and clearly in pain. I ask him what happened and if he is okay, to which he says he tripped over and hurt his knee on the edge of a concrete paving slab on the pathway.

And then he says something which I don't quite catch at first, so I ask him to repeat it.

"It didn't work Daddy!"
"Uhm, what didn't work?"
"I prayed and it didn't work!", He says.
"Oh?!"
"And now I have doubts" He looks very sternly at me.
"Right, I see", I say rather pathetically.
"Serious doubts!"

And a little later, once indoors, the discussion continues along the lines of 'Why, if God can do anything, won't he answer my prayers?'. And then , in response to my rather inadequate answer, "why would God allow any suffering?" And "why would he create a world where bad things happen?" And so we get into free will and everything, which is ironic, as I don't technically believe in free will myself (or at least my viewpoint on this is influenced by Calvinist thinking) but it seems like the best way to meet his avalanching scepticism. And all the while I am offering him answers.....I am conscious that they are answers I have chosen to settle for, because I can never know completely. There are apparent contradictions and tensions which I hold gingerly. But how do I explain mystery and paradox to a very black and white nine year old. And I am even fighting doubt in myself as I try to explain it.

My nine year old, when he was an eight year old, had a very visceral and tangible experience of God at Soul survivor, two summers ago. He has always astounded me with his spiritual interest and perceptive questions....and on occasion his answers too. But now, gone were his memories of the feeling he had experienced at Soul Survivor. Forgotten was the certainty the he expressed when wide eyed and breathless he had announced to me that summer night, "It's real, Daddy. It's really real!"
But I knew what was in his mind. It wasn't that he was thinking 'God exists and he is a different God to the one I thought him to be'. The doubt I sensed was about God's very existence at all, because (and I can only assume here) He knew God to be all loving and all powerful. So that his 'failure' to answer this call for help may well indicate that this God simply does not exist.

And there are many others on this planet who have come to that exact conclusion.

I do my best to address it, and I even chuckle to myself. It is a moment of identification. He hurts his knee.....and his entire belief system crumbles and dissolves in a matter of minutes. This seems to be a microcosm  that, for many an adult, contains the elements of the unravelling of many a faith in a time of crisis.  And I think, in that moment, 'There must be a blog in this'.

Now, as for Noah's knee? Well, there is a happy ending to this tale. After all my theologising and explaining.....and seeing that this explanation (the one I haven't really given you!) wasn't really cutting the euphemistic mustard with him, I felt a 'twinge' of what I call the 'Holy Spirit'. Ok, it was the Holy Spirit, by my best gifts of discernment. And that twinge was telling me to pray again. And all my better instincts were telling me not to set God up for further failure. What if, in his sovereignty he refuses again to convince my son of his love by relieving him of his pain? God does that quite a lot in my experience. If I was God I would go about all over the place proving the living daylights out of my existence and love. But I am most certainly not God.

So I pray a prayer of half hearted faith but with some authority, it feels. And ask that Noah's knee will get better, and within an hour he would forget that it had even been hurt. I move on quickly, being careful not to ask how he feels. We have come to a theological stalemate but the discussion seems to have completed itself. So after I pray I send him on his way, still looking rather doubtful.

About ten minutes later the boy who could hardly walk and was hobbling around....was jumping up and down on the trampoline without any discomfort at all.

And of course some of the things I should have said to him came flooding back, about perseverance in prayer, and  praying according to your faith.

And I do laugh a little at myself, and the doubt I was masking while trying to solve his dilemma. How easily we forget when the trials come. And I think I have got it. that God is teaching me not to lose it over what appears to be a minor blip but to hold fast to the eternal things like his Love and his Promise.

And I think about how I can use this illustration to write a blog to encourage others (as well as myself) to not panic at the waves and wind, but to trust the apparently sleeping Jesus, who is, I am reassured, in the boat with me.

And then, a few days later, I get a phone call, and it's one I have been dreading for a while.....and all my good intentions to stand fast whatever the storm, dissolve before my very eyes.

God has a sense of humour. Of that I have very little doubt.

I will tell you all about that phone call in my next blog and of my on-going crisis of faith.