I am weak but He is strong.

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."

This apparently is a quote of St Augustine.

I am aware of the important place this man holds in Church history. I honor his influence and teaching.

I think I can see the point and angle from which he gives this advice.

I strongly disagree with it.

I would rather advise: pray and work knowing that everything depends on God, a God who is just and merciful, a God who loves his enemies, which included us, a God who loves us so much, that he didn’t hold back from giving up his own precious and dearly loved Son, for our sakes, and therefore has no reason to hold back any other good thing from us. A God who is truly unbiased, able to consider every individual in the course of events and history, in order to justly and mercifully bring about his purpose, which is to bring everything under the authority of his Son, Jesus. A God who is never far away from any one of us.

I think we can do a lot of damage when we act as though everything depends on us. Not only do we make bad decisions, unnecessarily offending/hurting people we don’t love, but also we burn out, realising the unending list of painful chores that we are faced with, having to fix the unfixable problems that inevitably raise their heads, every day, not to mention the mess we make through our own self importance.

And unfortunately, we do pray as though everything depended on God. We don’t really believe it, but we pray nicely, as if we did.

It is much better to pray badly, from a true need, knowing we are truly weak, unable to cope with the simplest issues in our own strength, and having exhausted all other resources. God is always present. He is always blessing and providing, though we often attribute our successes to our own strengths/abilities.

It is much better to believe that God can fix things, (which he does, in his way, in his time, in his love and mercy) and work at the tasks we are responsible for (our God-given responsibility), knowing that God gives us all the strength we need, in spite of Satan’s many devices, which God allows him to throw in our direction. And God promises never to push us beyond what we can stand, and always to have a way through our difficulties which he provides), even though this may mean walking through the valley of death (with and in his presence).

I am weak, but you are strong. I can do everything that you ask of me, because you are with me.

Child-likeness

Currently I am on my own, away, on work related travels. I've had time to think and observe. 

I may have good observational skills, or maybe just a good imagination, but I look at peoples faces, and often feel I can interpret their emotions. I hear snippets of conversation as I walk past total strangers. And adding to that, my own behaviours and attitudes, I get the impression that we spend a lot of time complaining, moaning, judging and generally being stressed and unhappy. 

There is an exception; children.
In particular, the under ten year olds.

They seem to make the best of their situation and find joy in the oddest places, yet they aren't embarrassed to express pain or disappointment very publicly, (as well as joy) but this expression seems more honest or wholesome or something (in comparison to us adults).  I also find children very prone to forgiving and forgetting.

What is it we loose as adults???

Security in the eventual good outcome of whatever our current circumstances are?

The ability to switch off the negative emotions and enjoy the moment?

Maybe we can't switch them off when we don't honestly express our pain, instead simply complaining about the person/people whom we blame for our suffering.  By the way, does getting even ever actually heal our pain?

There's something beautifully simple in childhood. Optimism and joy. Excitement at what is just around the next corner. Dreams about our future that we are patient to fulfil. Trust in our parents,. Trust in those in authority. Faith in God. A positive attitude about ourselves and our abilities.

How sad it is when we start doubting all of the above and reinterpret the world around us with a much more negative attitude.  Of course many painful circumstances take their toll on our character, sometimes at a tragically young age.

But Jesus  can and does restore our child-likeness .

You’re Never So Wrong As When You're Right

 I heard this advice from a preacher maybe twenty years ago. It’s not a quote from the bible. But every so often I remember these words and am once again reminded and convinced of their truth.

So I thought I would try to explain the apparent conflict of logic in this statement, and reveal some of the beauty and truth that is contained in these few words.

Sometimes we think we are right, and we may argue the point with someone who disagrees with us, maybe we realize at some point that we are actually wrong, and learn from the experience, and the argument resolves, or maybe we are stubborn and won't admit defeat, but deep down we know we are, or might be, wrong, so, at the very least, there is some prick of conscience to hold us back from total annihilation of our opponent for the sake of it. This is not what the statement is about.

Very occasionally we know beyond doubt that we are right. Whether it is because we have studied the matter in question at great depth or maybe we have first hand knowledge of details that our opponent is not privy to. The issue might be a moral one. It may be a point of theology. It may be unrelated to anything to do with God, but the important point is that we are certain of our correctness, not a single doubt, we have seen the evidence ourselves, we might even be the authors of the book in question.

The problem is how we handle being right beyond doubt.

We are never so wrong as when we are right.

This statement implies, and it is also my personal experience, that we will go further than is morally necessary to stand up for the truth, even a small point of truth.

In other words, when I am unquestionably right, and I am being questioned, that is when I will battle most fiercely, most unmercifully, most unlovingly, most viciously, most ruthlessly, most recklessly. It’s as though all controlling factors are set aside, and there is no holding back. The problem is that our pride takes over, especially when we are right, and that we do the most ungodly things when we are actually on higher moral/legal/spiritual ground. Sadly, this is terrible.

 We ridicule people, we embarrass them, we belittle them. We show our ugliest side when we are right.

We are so painfully used to being wrong (our fallen nature, our sinfulness, satan’s accusations always at us), that when we are right, rather than show patience and forbearance to our opponents, we let them have it, fully, with both fists. We are left spiritually and morally worse off than if we had simply been wrong in the first place.

God is not like this. God is patient with our wrongness. When Jesus was slapped in the face for speaking the truth, he did not call down legions of angels to defend him, he simply asked why he was slapped, and to point out what he had said wrong.

I suspect war is about being right. Certainly any personal wars that I have fought have this factor involved.

We could simply live patiently with being right and pray that the person in error would have their eyes opened.

When Jesus was crucified, he prayed, “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing”.

            As Christians, in our personal lives, it is good to honour this prayer, which led to our forgiveness, and to ask God to continue the great flood of grace that was poured out then.

            This is why we love and forgive our enemies. They don’t know what they are doing, even if they look like they do.

By the way, we are sometimes wrong…

Bad Report

One of my children recently brought home a mid-year report. It was bad.

At least 4 different subject teachers suggested he was easily distracted, talked too much in class, and was not performing to potential.

I was given the report a day after it arrived. It caused a major argument between my wife and I (the subject of the report was away at a friends house at the time). I sat down and made big scrawling red marks over all the bad comments, circling them, and summarizing them at the bottom of the page.

It seemed to help me cope with the disappointment and anger I felt.

Still I had to ring him, and express my disappointment over the telephone. I know he was in tears at the other end. I started to feel bad about my anger.

He received an appropriate penalty, i.e. loss of technology rights for a month.

Why is a bad report so confronting?

My spouse prefers to lay blame on teachers, I prefer to lay blame on the child, but had plenty of blame to lay on my spouse about not passing the report on sooner. The blame game was flowing. And we are a Christian family.

It made me think today about Eden. How Adam blamed Eve then Eve blamed the serpent. They all were punished. We still feel that failure. Not to mention all our own failures. Every bad report is a subconscious reminder of our own bad report, our own failures, not living up to what we were created to be, the extremely large volume of terrible thoughts and actions that Satan has tucked away somewhere to bring out on judgement day, to show that we belong to him and not to God.

The unbelievable, amazing thing is that, when Satan opens that book, each page will be pristine white and blank, then, when he closes it to check again the title on the cover, instead of my name he will read the name “Jesus”.  Because Jesus led a perfect life and gave it to me. As far as my volume was concerned, it got sucked into the irresistible gravitational pull of the black hole that was present in the cross, when Jesus gave up his life for me.

We know our sins are forgiven, yet we often live as though they are ours to atone for.

Jesus is Lord. He has done it. Amen.

Shout It Out

verse 1

Once we were lost

not even a shred of hope,

True joy couldn't live in our hearts,

All our failures and hurts weighed us down.

Then Jesus came

and he spoke to us peace from God,

He took all our sin and our shame

and he cancelled it all by his blood!

chorus

Shout it out, shout it out,

we're so excited,

all our wrongs have been wiped out,

the Lord has done it!

We're forgiven,

We've been made holy,

Jesus Christ has set us free.

verse 2

Now we've been found,

There's a new joy within our hearts,

though we fall we have grace to rise up,

and the strong arm of God to sustain;

double chorus

the Lord has set us free

O-o-o-o

shout it out, shout it out

all our wrongs have been wiped out

We're forgiven,

We've been made holy,

Jesus Christ has set us free.

The Lord has set us free.

Love Your Enemies

I heard a sermon recently during which the speaker shared how hard it was for them to love people who are unloveable. They had experienced loved ones being targeted and harmed repeatedly.

I was reading today in Matthew when Jesus says, “Love your enemies”.

This is a hard teaching. It is much easier to be angry with those who hurt you. It is easier, in the heat of the dispute, to fight back. And later on, when you are smouldering over the events that have transpired, it is much easier to plan revenge than to forgive.

And what happens when the problem continues. You forgive once, twice, but still the problem recurs. The painful event repeats itself, the hurt re-inflames. There must be a limit, somewhere to draw the line?

Worldly wisdom says things must change, that we must take control of a situation, stand up to our bullies, leave the abusive partner, take legal action, refuse service, move away, resign the job, go to court, stand up for what is right, fight for your share, fight fire with fire, etc.

There is some wisdom in these decisions, and I must admit to counselling people to leave a situation rather than plot to harm or even kill someone who is continually hurting you, even in a marriage. Better to leave than to kill; harm minimization makes some sense to me.

Jesus answered Peter’s direct question, how many times must I forgive my brother in one day if he sins against me? 7 times?

The answer was seventy seven, or seventy times seven, or infinity really.

In other words, people who love Jesus must be always forgiving those who sin against them.

We do not have this innate ability.

Yet we can pray for the Holy Spirit to give us power to do the things God wants us to do. And that prayer will be answered.

God loves the un-love-able.

That’s us, just ask anyone who hates you.

If we believe in a forgiving God, we must also forgive. Not that our unforgiveness nullifies God’s forgiveness, we can’t undo God’s work (though it might feel like it), but we can resist him, and swim against the strong, strong tide of his love. Better to go with it though, and forgive. When we forgive each other we are participating in the great work of the cross, giving witness to the powerful blood of Jesus.

Do you believe that your sins are forgiven?

Lets love our enemies.

Who's got the problem?

I sit in church most Sundays.

I often lead the worship.

I have my good and bad days (with leading worship, as well as everything else).

Right now we are between ministers, so we get to hear quite a few different people speak, some for the first time, which is great, others are old hands, like myself. Recently we had one fellow who, when he spoke, said nothing controversial, and was sounding reasonably biblical, but he was steeped in 50’s-60’s culture, robed etc. He spoke a bit about the past, and I felt a bit nauseated thinking about what I imagine was a very ritualistic, religious (in the negative sense of the word) style of worship that I can only imagine used to occur in the 50’s and 60’s, in your average suburban Methodist church. The message seemed more a remnant of yesterday, than a message for today. His style may well have pleased some of our older congregation.

I guess I had had a bit of trouble with the sound system, and so, had been a bit distracted in thought and not as open as usual.

Right now though,  I am reflecting more on the deeper question; why do I get critical?

I was not present in the 50s and 60s. Clearly, there were times of life and surging within the church then, so who am I to pass judgement over the past?

Have I reached an age of awareness, fearing that likewise, the next generation or two may look back at my time as a time of lifelessness and stifling in the current uniting church?

It is hard at times, not to grow weary of the same process, Sunday after Sunday, with the same people, seemingly unchanged by the truth of who God is and the amazing things he has done for us in Christ, as well as the struggle to get people to enjoy a more modern song, and the struggle to get people to hear God speak, and to stop worrying about the sermon being too long. It can be disheartening.

Yet what is it that I actually long for?

A church full of eager hearts, bursting with joy at the truth of being cleansed from all our sins, willing to overlook the perceived wrongs dealt to us by our fellow worshipers, and ready to love each other, even though we are often unlovable.

A church full of people reverent of God’s word, earnestly seeking to understand and obey his will.

A church full of praying people, seeking to speak out our burdens, and those of others, in trust, to our God.

A church full of encouragers, who see the hand of God at work amongst us, and in each one, drawing each one on to fulfill the good purposes God has for each one.

The presence of God himself, filling all of us with awe and wonder.

By faith we know God answers our prayers and that God is truly present when we meet together.

He can (and does) speak even when the speaker is off track, when the worship leader is out of tune, when the reader keeps faltering, when the prayer is silent, when the worshipers are few, and even when things get a bit old fashioned.

But am I ready to listen????

Satan is also present, ready to give an alternative interpretation of the word, and our circumstances. Ready to stir up disharmony. Ready to dishonour God, by implying that he is not good, and does not care.

But why do I get critical?

I get impatient with God. I want him to do things quicker and better than what I am seeing around me. I also grow tired of my own struggle with sin. I want to be better than what I am, and want to find some way of achieving this myself, in order to gain favour both with God and man.

Anyone who understands the dynamics of humanity, and our fallen-ness will recognize the futility of what I have just stated. I am physically/psychologically/spiritually unable, by my fallen nature, to do anything good.

Offensive, isn’t it. I can feel some of you rushing to my defence, saying, “no Joe, that’s not true, you do so much good.”

Thank you for caring, but the truth is the truth. Neither you, nor I, have the ability, no matter how much we truly desire, to do good, of ourselves.

This is very offensive, I know.

I say this by faith. With joy. Because as soon as I remember this, I also remember that there is one person who has done everything good, and has given us his “goodness bank account” with a blank chequebook, to use freely.

Jesus.

No-one is good but God alone.

Who can save me from this body of death?

Praise be to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The last sleep before the big day

 What was the resurrection like for Jesus?

Joy is the first word that comes to my mind. Jesus died in, and with, faith. What I mean by this is that Jesus was a man; all he knew, he knew by faith. He understood that he must suffer death and rise again, this was the only way to rescue the ones he loved, his disciples, us.

It was the Fathers will. It was Jesus’ desire. But he had no proof or guarantee of what was going to happen. All he had was faith. (An understanding of the scriptures, a leading of the Spirit, a security in his relationship with his Father.)

He was willing, more than any other, before or since, to step out in faith. To heal, to touch, to call back from death, to speak honestly, even when it was negative.

He did this all in faith. He gave himself up at the garden, in faith knowing this was the Fathers will. I don’t think Jesus had many audible verbal answers to his prayers. Yes, the Father spoke at his Baptism, at his transfiguration, but I suspect that most of his prayers were offered up, like us, in faith, with no audible response, just with a trust that the Father is listening and acting according to his good will.

And so when the time was right Jesus, in faith, went to the cross.

When he rose, his faith was vindicated. It was amazing. He knew that all that he had hoped to achieve, had in fact been achieved. A deep moment of satisfaction.

And his satisfaction was not in himself, but in his Father, who raised him up. I think Jesus was deeply grateful. And very joyful. But not proud or boastful.

He didn’t appear to the Sanhedrin, or to Pilate, or Herod, to rub it in. He appeared to Mary, to his disciples. We are gifted with same faith as Jesus. We have the same assurance of rising again, as Jesus had. In fact we have much greater assurance, because we know that Jesus rose, and that he has promised that he will raise us up too. So death, for the Christian, is just the last sleep before the big day.