I used to think Jesus was clever ....

I used to think Jesus was clever because of the way he could take every day things and use them to illustrate the spiritual. The saying I used the other day “We reap what we sow” is an example of this. There is more to this saying that the simple implication that our actions have consequences. For example if you plant one potato in the spring, how many do expect to get when you dig up in the fall? Well yes many (some 30 fold, some 60 some 100). This works both positively and negatively, and we can rejoice in the abundant harvest of the good, and weep for the overwhelming harvest of the bad.

The “s” word (sin) has virtually gone out of our vocabulary in this “anything goes” culture in which we live. But you can be sure of one thing (or you will be eventually) that the things the Scriptures call sin all have unwanted consequences. In terms of reaping what we sow one preacher put it this way: “Sin takes us further than we want to go, keeps us longer than we want to stay and costs us more than we want to pay.”

So I used to think that Jesus was clever, but in the end I realized that He is far more clever than I ever imagined. I came to realize that He designed creation to be a living parable of the spiritual. So there are both weeds and wheat, joy and sorrow. Spring is a parable of resurrection, fall reminds us that all things come to an end. And as we can see the beauty of the fall in the fall colours, so we can learn to grow old gracefully and appreciate the finer things of life. Or (as I used to do in our all too short summers) resent the fact that the weather is getting colder, and the days shorter. After the fall, if we have eyes to see and patience to wait, we can see that it's not always winter. So when we go through the seasons of barrenness, when it looks like everything is dead, through our experience of the seasons we can see that God is at work even in that time preparing for the new birth and the new growth of spring.

Jesus is widely regarded as the best teacher the world ever had. Both His words and His creation can instruct us in the way that we should go. And if we are listening we will reap the good fruit of listening. If we are not we will reap the harvest of not doing so. In particular we cut ourselves off from the source of all real love and joy and peace and hope. The Lord is speaking to us in creation, in the stars as the heavens declare the Glory of God. He is speaking to me in my gardening as am gardening for the first time in years (more to come). The question then is this “Are we listening, are you, am I?”

You think you're misunderstood!

Not that long ago, I was complaining to the Good Lord that I feel misunderstood. His tongue in cheek reply to me boiled down to “You think you're misunderstood? Buddy you ain't seen nothing. What about all those obnoxious religious types who say they represent me but don't? What about all the self righteous hypocrites who claim to speak for me but don't even know me? What about all the blame, all the bad mouthing I get when things go wrong, all the false accusations all the nasty things people say and think about me? You think you have a problem. My son, you ain't seen nothing.”

Jesus tells us that there is a thief, that he has an agenda and it is to kill steal and destroy. He is also a liar and the father of lies. He seems to have two strategies: In the West he seems to want to persuade us that he does not exist. Our African brothers and sisters on the other hand, know well that he does, and that he likes to display his power both to fascinate and to induce fear!

His strategies seem to be very effective. When things go wrong we need someone to blame. In the West it is either God or those who believe in Him, or it's the other buddy. Don't get me wrong, we are by and large far from guiltless. As I pointed out the other day, the default is to blame anyone but ourselves. Part of this is that we listen to the father of lies, are deceived by him and so unconsciously do his bidding. And part this, is our widespread rejection of the guidance that God has given us in the Book He inspired.

There is a Biblical principle that we reap what we sow. If we plant potatoes we don't get carrots. Our rejection of the moral laws of the Universe have unwanted consequences, and God, in His love, wants to use the pain of these consequences to bring us back to Himself. This is how I found Him. When the School of hard knocks finally brought me to the place where I stopped blaming others, I could start to see that His ways are good and right and proper. I turned to Him and found peace and joy and hope and strength to do what without Him I could not, and cannot do. I too had misunderstood God, I hadn't thought He cared. When I turned to Him I discovered relationship with the nicest person in the universe. It's not rocket science “God good, Devil bad.” Who will/do you follow? Whether we know it or not, one way or the other we follow him or Him! Don't agree? If you don't and I am right, you are deceived. Perhaps its me who is deceived, but then I do have peace and joy, and I am a lot more patient than I was. Sounds like God to me :)!

“The woman You gave” … Playing the blame game.

Sooner or later we need (whether we do it is another question) to start to ask “How did I get myself into this mess?” Human nature seems to be such that in seeking to answer this question, we will likely look for someone to blame. We come by this honestly (even when it is dishonest!). When God asked Adam in the garden if he had eaten the forbidden fruit, the first words out of his mouth were “The woman you gave ...” In other words, it's the woman's fault, and actually God it's your fault too, You are the one who gave her to me!

It's not hard to find someone to blame, I mean nobody is perfect, least of all me. But have you noticed (especially in others) we all seem to have this tendency to minimize our own faults and maximize the other buddies? We see this in Adam too. In stead of taking responsibility for his own decisions, he laid the blame full on the Mrs. I mean she started it right? The problem with the blame game though, is that it does not lead to fullness of life. It can leave us unhappy, bitter and cranky, and far too often we finish up with a shipwrecked relationship. Well he/she does not understand me, he/she is selfish, he/she only thinks of number 1, is always doing things to deliberately annoy me. It's enough to make you into a recluse!

In many ways I just described me, at least me before I encountered the Lord. At the break up of my first marriage I blamed her 100% for the difficulties, it was only later that I started to discover that I was (and am) far from innocent. It seems to be very common in a relationship break up for both sides to lay 100% of the blame on the other one. Part of the problem is that we don't know ourselves very well. I have come to suspect that the one I would have the most difficulty with is a carbon copy of myself walking down the road in the opposite direction. In other words I have found it a real challenge when I come across my own faults in an other. I noticed this first in others. Shortly after conversion, I encountered this young woman who came our meetings. She talked and talked and talked non stop. Taking her home one time she was going on and on about another person in the group. “I can't stand him,” she said. When I asked what it was about him that she disliked here response was “Well you can't get a word in edgeways!” It was a perfect of example of a Biblical saying which talks about our judging in others, the very thing we do ourselves.

It is so much easier to see the other person's faults. What is not so easy is to see them in ourselves. We will be examining (checking out) a saying of Jesus about the truth setting us free. The Scripture also talks about speaking the truth in love. My experience is that no matter how gently, how much love and affection I have for the other one, most people seem to find it almost impossible to hear the truth. We seem to fall into two equal and opposite errors, we speak the truth but not in love, or we conflict avoid keeping quiet pushing the “little foxes” under the rug until what is under the rug is a monster. So often though, when we speak the truth even in love, we enter into a tunnel of conflict, and more often than not we exit post haste the same direction we went in! What I am saying is that our ability to give and receive the truth is something of a lost art. But healthy relationships cannot exist without vulnerability, honesty and humility.

In my first marriage I fought too much, in my second not enough. Fighting can be constructive or destructive. Learning to control our anger is important. Seeing each other's point of view is so very very necessary. Learning to listen is paramount. The best place for us to come in our relationship difficulties is to the foot of the Cross of Christ. You see when we compare ourselves with each other we are not wise, but when we compare ourselves with Jesus, we have more of a realistic picture of who we are, and what we should be. As they drove cruel spikes into His hands and feet He prayed “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” I have a ways to go. How about you? At the foot of the cross, I see I have not arrived, but at the foot of the cross I see that there is full acceptance and forgiveness. At the foot of the cross we are leveled, "for all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God". Knowing how much we need to be forgiven helps us to see how much we need to forgive. At the foot of the cross we start the process of becoming more like Him. At the foot of the cross we, and our relationships, start to become whole.

Will it matter 50 years from now?

She was understandably upset, her two year old daughter, who had been quite for most of the trip suddenly started squawking. We were about to land in the midst of a pea souper fog in jolly old St. John's Newfoundland on this Victoria day Weekend. As usual the weather is the pits!

The squawking was not what upset her, it was the reaction of a fellow passenger who was angry at being disturbed by the noise. He had made his displeasure known in no uncertain terms, and had stalked off down the isle out of hearing, the instant the seat belt signs were tuned off. She was left there feeling like a criminal for not controlling her daughter's squawking (her ears were probably hurting from the descent!).

I looked the young woman in the eye, smiled at her and told her “You daughter was simply expressing what we all feel – coming back to the pitsy weather on the holiday weekend.” As I talked and explained how some people have unreasonable expectations she began to calm down. She is only 2 for goodness sake! I don't remember most of what else I said, but do remember saying that one of the things I had been trying to do when I am upset is to ask the question “Is this going to matter in 50 years from now?” And it is isn't then I am not going to allow it to matter now. Life it too short to allow unreasonable people to rob me of my joy.

What I did not tell her (not enough time, not enough relationship) was that I have a source to help me with this, my relationship with the Lord. In prayer and cooperation with Him I am learning to do this. Journaling helps too, as does sitting before Him and praying through the scriptures.

She smiled at me as I passed her a few moments later as she was waiting for the stroller to be brought up to the door. Her smile told me that I had made a difference (small for sure), and that made me feel good too and was compensation as I came back to the reality of Newfoundland weather!

You are loved, I am loved

The simple truth that we are loved is somehow the most difficult to absorb in the sense that our knowing we are loved makes a difference in our lives. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Yea, yea I know that, but do you really know it?

Stacey Campbell tells the story of how a mouse got loose about her house, and finished up in her jeans. Now Stacy is frightened to death of mice, and this day as she and her husband were driving down the road Stacey discovered this lump in her jeans. When she felt the lump it was soft and furry. It was of course the mouse, and she freaked out. Luckily it was her husband who was driving. “There's a mouse in my pants” screamed Tracey. “I know” her husband responded. But did he know that Tracey had a mouse in her pants, the same way that Tracey knew she had a mouse in her pants? I think not. Tracey knew that she knew, that she knew.

In the same way it is only when we know that we know, that we know that God loves us (in other words that we experience His love in a profound way) that we are changed. Stacey had the kind of knowledge about the mouse that changed her behaviour. So we too need to know that we are loved in this way. When I hear of others who have deep personal encounters with Him, there is something that raises up within me and says “I want that.”

We can have as much of God as we want, the problem many times is that we want other stuff more. I cry out to Him for a closer walk with Him. I tell Him to come to me, no matter what the cost. I tell Him to ignore me when I ask for anything else, when I am distracted by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life! Change my heart oh God! Then I tell myself. I am beloved of God. I need to keep saying it until I believe it, and then I need to say it because it is true! I am loved by almighty God.

Father bring me to the place where I know, that I know, that I know that I am loved by You. In Jesus name Amen!

There is no resurrection without a death

At this Easter time we who know the Lord naturally turn to consider the One who gave himself for us. Starting with His humble washing of the disciples feet, His actions and His attitude symbolize His willingness to take the lowest place. They show His patience with the immaturity of the disciples (and so with ours), His willingness to bear on the Cross the sins of the whole world (including yours and mine), and to forgive those who drove cruel spikes through His hand and His feet. In all this He shines as an example to imitate, but most of us fall far short of this most of the time. In fact we can't even start to be like Him without His help, not even close. If we are to follow Him and to become more like Him, to be transformed into His likeness, then we will need to go through a series of deaths and resurrections in the here and now!

We were looking at Isaiah 30 in our last weekly service. It's worth looking at! We were asking what needed to die in the attitudes of Israel of the exile, and what needs to die in us so that we can become more like Him. When we put our trust in anything except God (as Israel had done), we (like them) inevitable find out that it backfires (verses 1-5). When we continue to leave God out of the equation, trusting in ourselves or even others as opposed to God, we get into trouble. When we refuse to deal with the things in our lives that need to be dealt with (verses 10 and 11), then things build up and build up until, as in verses 13 and 14, the high and towering walls we have build to keep Him out bulge and collapse with a sudden devastating collapse.

Far too often we continue to peruse all our own way until the disaster, the loneliness, emptiness and the pain catch up with us. That is until we reap the living death that “doing it my way” brings. This part of us needs to die, our radical independence from God needs to die, our self seeking needs to die, our determination to get even with others taking revenge into our own hands needs to die, our pride needs to die. These are just some the many things that keep us from Him in the first place, that keep us from peace, that demonstrate that we do not trust Him to work things out for us. We think that if we don't be always be looking out for number one then no one will. And in doing this, we close our ears to His solutions. But when we come to the end of ourselves we hear Him say “I will look after you if trust in me. Do it my way and you will live."

When we find ourselves in this place of death, our salvation is found in turning back to Him in “quietness and confidence.” This is where our strength lies (verse 15). Until we come to this place our lives continue to crumble before our very eyes (verse 16 and 17). In the meantime, the Lord waits so that He can be gracious to us (verse 18). Like those who would rescue the drowning need to wait until the frantic struggling ceases before they can be rescued, so He waits for us to stop struggling, to come to the end of ourselves and cry out to Him in surrender. And when we do, He brings us many things including His comfort (verse 19). He shows us the way to live our lives, giving us teachers to show us the way (verse 20), and we learn to hear His voice guiding us in the way that we should go, and helping us get back on the path when we have strayed (verse 21). And not only this, He gives us a loathing for the addictions and the influences that lead us astray in the first place and kept us stuck. He tells us “You will loth them saying 'Get away detestable idols'” (verse 22). He also provides abundantly for us and heals all of the wounds of the fruit of our rebellion. He heals our broken hearts (verses 23-26).

So He waits for you and me, so He can do all of these things. He waits until we start to see and feel and experience clearly the results and consequences of our independence from Him. He waits for us to be willing to die to ourselves, for us to be willing by His Spirit to put to death the deeds and the desires of the flesh (Romans 8:13). And then He promises resurrection in the here and now. At the end of time, yes that of course, but also in the here and now. He came that we might have life in all it's fullness (John 10:10), but it will not happen unless we are willing to cooperate with Him in putting to death that which needs to die, so that His resurrection life may course through us. That is what this passage in Isaiah is all about. It is in turning to Him in quietness and confidence as we sit before Him that His resurrection power starts its wonderful work in us and gives us the will to do what is good and pleasing and fulfilling in Him. Truly there is no resurrection without death! Are you willing to die (am I) so that you (I) may truly live?

If you want to pray: Father I choose to cooperate with Your Spirit to put to death the deeds and desires of the sinful nature. Lord replace those desires that lead me astray, with a desire and an ability to worship You and to give You the praise, the honour and the Glory that You so richly deserve. In Jesus' name Amen

(Love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7)

We are commanded to love God and love our neighbour. The colour of our love (what it looks like) can be seen in our response and attitude in two directions (a) horizontally down here towards each other, and (b) vertically upwards towards God. The Scripture tells us that “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Some versions have it that we love Him because He first loved us, other versions omit the “Him.” For the Christian (i.e. the “we” of the context) both things are true. That is that our ability to love at all, be it Him, others or ourselves is because He initiated and initiates love. He is the (ongoing) source, the motivator and the enabler of love. This is true whether it comes to us through others who may not even acknowledge Him, or if it comes directly in our one on one relationship with Him.

The first, and perhaps clearest time I heard God's voice (I don't know how I knew it was Him, I just did) He asked me “Why are you running away from me Phil, all I want you to do is to love for me.” I cringe when I think about it now, but I told Him “I don't need you for that.” With 20/20 hindsight I should have solved the problems of the World while I still knew everything (I was sixteen).

There was a song “chip, chip” I heard on steam radio when I was boy. The song compared our love to a mansion and how the negative things in life chip away at it. One stanza stands out “One little wrong brings on the gloom, puts a chill in-a every room.” It's easy to love when things are going well, but what is your response (mine) to pain, disappointment, to being manipulated, used, betrayed, despised, marginalized, hated? Life can be (is) tough, and the school of hard knocks knocks the stuffing out of you. It wasn't that long after this, before my mansion of love looked like a war zone! I came to realize how shallow my love was, how much of it was selfish, and dependent on getting it back from others. I will only love you if ....... God's love is unconditional and broken and wounded I needed to come to Him to fill up my “love deficit” as councilors are fond of saying when love runs out on us.

So I want to look briefly at the two aspects of the description of love in the title of this post. Firstly then the colour of our love towards others starting with “Love bears all things.” Jesus is our example here. The Message paraphrase of 1 Peter 2:23 reads “They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.” Please do not misunderstand this, Jesus is no wimp! He was quick to take up the cause of injustice to others. He makes a whip of chords, overturns the tables of the money changes in the Temple. They were cheating the people, and He drove them out (John 2:15). On the other hand personal insults He bears without retaliation, putting His trust God because He knows that God works all things together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:8). What is important to realize here is that our love is diminished when we hold grudges. Bitterness poisons not only us, but those we want to love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:4,5). Love bears all things.

Next, love believes all things. Love is not quick to jump to conclusions about others, about their motives, about what they do and why they do them. Love is not quick to condemn, but will seek to understand where the other person is coming from. Love is quick to believe in others, knowing that believing in them can be the very hand up that they need to enable them to get out of the pit that they themselves or others have dug for them. Love is quick to forgive.

Love hopes all things. While love is not quick to believe the wrong about others, there does come a time when we need to face reality. To trust someone when they continue on an ongoing basis to prove conclusively by their actions and attitudes that they are not trustworthy, then we can no longer believe. But we can still hope. To continue to trust when the evidence points to an unwillingness on the part of the other person to change, to see where they are wrong, is not helpful to them. Love needs to say “no” at times. Sometimes love needs to oppose. But love does it for the right reasons, for their sake not for ours. But we can still hope, and we can still pray and we can still love. We need to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.

Love endures all things. Love starts with bearing all things and ends with enduring all things. Well what is the difference? When we can no longer believe, when we can no longer hope, we can still bear all things, we can still endure. The difference is that love goes through the process and remains constant through it all. We can endure through gritted teeth because we have no choice. But to continue to love in spite of it all is a choice (at least it starts with a choice). We do have the choice to choose not to be quick to jump to conclusions, we do have the choice to give the benefit of the doubt and we do have the choice to hope and pray and trust God. And when we do this, when we submit to the character polishing that God intends though our obedience to His command to love our neighbour as ourselves, then we bring in the Kingdom. When we do this we please the only one who in the end counts, we please the Lord. But all this raises a huge questions. How on earth can we do this? Who can love their enemies, who ever did? Well Jesus did! As they drove cruel spikes through His hands and feet He prayed “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). I want to be like Him, I am not, but I want to be.

There is a heresy that I hear Christians saying all the time. “Jesus could do this or that because He is God.” To say this is to deny that Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:2). Jesus did what He did on earth, as a man filled with the Spirit of God. If this was not so, then He could not be an example to imitate. We could admire Him, but we could not be expected to be like Him. On the other hand we cannot be expected to be like Him without the same Spirit that empowered Him as a man. This is why my saying that I did not need Him in order to love for Him was so very, very foolish. I need Him, and I need Him desperately, for this and many other things! With man it is impossible, with God all things are possible (Luke 18:27).

So how does it work, how do we tap into His love? This is the second aspect of what we see in the phrase “We love because He first loved us.” When we turn to the Lord we are included in the “we” of this verse. It has to start there, but it does not stop there. There is a principle behind all this, and it is that we are intended to draw the strength, the desire and the wherewithal to love, from our ongoing connection (relationship) with Him. When we are in right relationship with Him we are positioned to receive His love and to become a channel of it to this wicked and hurting world. And the more we allow His love to pour out through us, the more of it we get it ourselves. How else can we love our enemies? It is not natural. It is not intended to be, it is supernatural and powerful. He does all of the first part mentioned above, supremely. He bears, believes, hopes and endures and continues to pour out His love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). He forgives when we blow it, over and over and over. He endures and continues to believe in us. He hopes and instills hope in us, He bears all things, hopes all things endures and believes and hopes and endures. He believes in us when He tells us that we can do all things through Him (Philippians 4:13). When you do your part (and I mine) He “is all the while effectually at work in you energizing and creating in you the power and desire, both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight (Philippians 2:13 AMP).

So do any of us do this perfectly? Of course not, for “in many things we all fail,” (James 3:2), and no more so than in our oh so finite love. What we need to do, what I need to do, is to cooperate with Him in giving Him place, a platform in our lives to experience His “Love poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:5 again).” There is so much in the World that chips away at our love, that we need (I need) that love to be daily replenished. God's love is a practical love, God's love is an enabling love, God's love is an empowering love. It is not an abstract thing, and it is not an automatic thing. We need (I need) to take time in His presence. The first commandment is to love Him with all that we are and have, and it is as we seek to obey Him that we open up ourselves for Him to pour His love into our hearts. I want more, I need more to continue to love in this wicked and hurting World that by and large only looks out for number one. I cannot love my enemies in my own strength, I cannot. I cannot do it without Him, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

If you want to pray: Father I know deep down that love is the answer, but without You I cannot love as You intend me to love. Even with You it is a struggle many times. It is only when I love You with all that I am and have, that I even begin to fully receive Your love. Please show me my part in getting rid of the things in my life that hinder Your love flowing in and through me. With You all things are possible. With Your help and strength I can do all things. With Your help I can get up when I fall. With Your help I can bring Glory to Your name, and I want to. I want to be like You. In Jesus name.