What are you putting away as you tidy Christmas up?

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

Phew, it’s over. Presents given and received. Gifts unwrapped. Turkey cooked, eaten and remains frozen for the inevitable turkey curry, turkey fricassee, turkey … Christmas has been well and truly done, and wasn’t it great? Carol singing, Christmas events and services, Christmas morning – all opportunities to share our faith and tell others about Jesus.

Now the new year is upon us, it is nearly 12th night, and time for the Christmas decorations to be carefully boxed up and stored until next year. Easter eggs will be appearing in the shops in the coming days. For some the credit card bill will drop through the letterbox with the cost of Christmas in cold black and white, for others it is time to start saving for next Christmas. All too easily we move from Christmas to the next thing on our calendar.

The Psalmist, David, knew the danger of moving on too quickly, for him he could see the risk of forgetting what was important. He cried out “Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits.” He recognised the agency of God in his every day life, it is God who forgives his sins – and David knew he had many to be forgiven. It is God who heals all his diseases. It is God who redeems his life and crowns him with love and compassion.

As I reflect on those words I wonder how we would write them today? If we are honest we might admit that all too often it is the therapist or counsellor who helps us live with our compromised lives; it is the NHS who heals all our diseases; it is our hard work that satisfies our desires with good things. In short, we rely on almost anybody other than God.

Now of course there is nothing wrong with therapy and counselling, with the excellent NHS or indeed with hard work. But there is a lot wrong in a life that forgets God and all his benefits and that substitutes reliance on those things for reliance on God.

So as the year turns and Christmas is put away, why not take a check and consider what else you are putting away, what you put away as you leave the building where your church meets on Sundays, and ensure that with David you can say those marvellous words from Psalm 103.

What is your Advent resolution?

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

Isaiah 9:6-7

Advent is upon us. The start of the church year. A time of reflection. A season to anticipate the coming of the saviour into the world – the return of Christ who will bring all things to completion.

Or at least it ought to be, but as the world heads into Advent what is going through our minds? For some it will be fear based on the actions of ISIL/ISIS in Europe recently. For others it is the frenetic activity required to prepare at work for the Christmas break. For others its the organisation of Christmas itself, perhaps coping with the ever increasing excitement of children around them. For some it will be sadness at the memory of loved ones no longer around to celebrate Christmas with them. So many pressures and thoughts competing for our attention!

Yet in the passage in Isaiah we find some words that we could meditate on to help us to recenter and to find hope in Christ. There are amazing promises in the short paragraph. For example, to us, yes us, a child is born, a son is given. To us? Who are we for such a gift? What love the Father has for us, what grace. And not just for us because of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Whatever is going on around us the truth is that Christ’s peace is extending across humanity and across his creation.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” It wasn’t some bit of wishful thinking, some acknowledgement that God should be allowed to get on with what he was doing. It was a prayer that committed the one praying it to be the hands and feet that saw that kingdom come, to see God’s will being done. To make that happen Jesus left us with the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, who empowers and enlightens us, who enables us to be the answer to the prayer that we pray.

So Advent is a time when we can meditate on the wonderful truths of Jesus and all that God has done for us. As the church year starts we can make our “new year” resolutions, resolutions to be the answer to the prayer that we pray daily to see God’s kingdom come and his will be done, to be people of peace filled with God’s Spirit bringing light and life to those we encounter, introducing them to the God who gave everything for us and for them.

May 7th, time to love your neighbour!

“Love your neighbour as yourself”
Luke 10:27

The command to love your neighbour as yourself was part of the answer the expert in the law gave Jesus when challenged by him to summarise what the law said. Jesus told him he had answered well and that if he followed his answer, which was to love God and love his neighbour, then he would find eternal life. But the man responded with the question “who is my neighbour?” and Jesus replied with the parable of a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. You can read the full account in Luke 10:25-37.

We are now just a few days away from a General Election and having had so long to pray and think about it, we should be becoming clearer about who we will vote for. The Christian vote is distinctively different because Christians are the only group in society who will never vote for their own benefit, but always for the benefit of others. We are the ones who are asking our Lord “who is my neighbour” and then considering which party will serve their needs best as opposed to our needs.

Our vote isn’t driven by whether we are pensioners, single, married, wealthy or poor. It isn’t driven by what nationality we are or the deal each party is offering our region of the UK. It isn’t shaped by ideologies such as a belief in privatised or nationalised industries, or large or small state. It isn’t influenced by what our parents voted, what neighbourhood we live in, or who our friends are.

Our vote is determined by the answer to one question. “Who is my neighbour?” Because when we know who our neighbour is then we can work out how best to love them in casting our vote. From the parable Jesus told in Luke 10 and his other teachings, and from the writings of Paul, it seems reasonably clear that our neighbour is primarily the poor, the oppressed, and the needy.

All this makes voting vitally important for us as Christians. If we don’t cast our vote then we are failing to raise our voice on behalf of the poor, oppressed and needy. We might proclaim that we aren’t political, but we do have a calling from our Lord to cast our vote. When we vote we are acting as disciples of Jesus, proclaiming his kingdom, and doing our part to see it coming to earth.

The churches in the UK have a campaign, “Love your neighbour: think, pray, vote”. Let’s determine to make sure we don’t miss this precious chance to show love for our neighbours.

Chasing that next dream

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.
Matthew 6:34

My cousin runs East of Scotland Microlights and when we holidayed in Edinburgh last October he finally persuaded me to go for a flight with him. To my amazement I found I thoroughly enjoyed the flight – it was like being on a motorbike but with no trees, cars or safety barriers to hit! The decision was made, I have to learn to fly.

With a bit of work I sorted out three weeks of leave in the spring and set about getting a medical certificate from my GP. A medical certificate should have been easy, but it seems not to have been. So I’ve been involved in a frustrating 2 month multi-visit discussion as we work through various issues.

After the last visit I was despondent as without the medical I can’t solo, and if I can’t solo then I can’t get my licence and I was on the verge of cancelling the whole trip. Then I had an email from my cousin’s wife. She emailed about those who pass their test, get a licence, buy into a microlight and then park it in the hanger waiting for the perfect weather to fly it, whilst it just sits there unused.

As I pondered this I realised that I was focussed on the destination, the licence, rather than the journey, learning to fly. I then remembered the words of Jesus quoted above. The process of learning to fly is part of the journey. On that journey I will get to spend three weeks with my cousin and his wife who so tragically lost his 21 year old daughter to suicide last year – there are fantastic opportunities to spend time with them, to simply be with them in their grief, and maybe to bring some of the goodness of God’s kingdom into their lives. Then, of course, there is the sheer fun of the lessons themselves.

It didn’t take much to realise that this lesson applies to so much more of life than this unique opportunity. Many of us live wishing or waiting for the better things of tomorrow. By being focussed on tomorrow, we fail to follow Jesus’ command to live in today. We rob God of some of what we can offer as our minds are elsewhere rather than here and now.

A focus on tomorrow leaves us living in disappointment and discontent and wishing we were elsewhere instead of enjoying where we are now. So let’s take a moment at the start of this month to commit to God that we will live in today, and enjoy the day that he has made, and leave tomorrow in his safe hands.

The best of intentions

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground, for it is time to seek the Lord
Hosea 10:12

One month into the new year and our resolutions and best intentions are probably already beginning to fall by the wayside as the pressures of day-to-day life take their toll on us. My own resolution to exercise instead of taking a lunch break every day failed in the first week of the year, although I have managed since then to get back on track!

Through Hosea God was speaking to a people whose hearts were not for the things of God, urging them back to him. As I was preparing for a recent evening sermon on 1 Corinthians 13, that famous passage about love, I was struck by a commentator who said that our emotions reveal our values and beliefs. As I pondered this I started to wonder what my emotions said of what I value and believe. What is my emotional response to people and situations – is it always a response of love that reflects their intrinsic worth in God’s eyes? Or do I find myself irritated or angry by something they have said or done? As I thought about it I realised that in some instances my responses were good, but with a moment of honesty I realised that I also had some poor responses. I wonder what you realise about yourself as you notice your emotional response to people and situations?

To put this in Hosea terms, when we find ourselves not responding in love it is an indicator of hard unploughed ground in our hearts. We cannot reap the fruit of unfailing love because there is hard unploughed ground. Yet the call is to break up the hard unploughed ground and to sow for ourselves righteousness, reaping the fruit of unfailing love.

Whatever your pledges were as you entered 2015, one thing God is asking of each of us is to break up the hard unploughed ground in our hearts – the selfishness, individualism, envy and so on. Ploughing is hard work and takes time, but God’s call is clear. Then we need to ask God to sow his love afresh in our hearts as we chose to put aside the things that harden our hearts so that he can grow his love in us. As we do this we will reap the fruit of unfailing love as our emotional response to people and situations changes, reflecting God’s love into the lives of others, bringing light into their lives, and introducing them to the God who loves them so very much.

Let us pledge to make 2015 the year when our hearts are ploughed and entirely yielded to God and his purposes so that we can reap the fruit of unfailing love as we seek him.

God heals today, why do we keep it a secret?

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Luke 10:17-18

Jesus appointed seventy-two people and sent them out to heal the sick and to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near you. He told them that the harvest was plentiful, but there were few workers, and they should ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field; and with that he told them to “Go!”

Today there is no shortage of harvest. We live in a country with a lot of lost people in it. The number even identifying themselves culturally as Christians is declining and the number who truly know Jesus and are his disciples is a tiny fraction of the total. There is a huge harvest field out there full of people captivated by sin and death, subject to the rule of Satan in their lives. Caught in worship of false gods such as money, jobs, social status, good looks, materialism – the list is endless. Most utterly unaware of their state – an identical problem to that facing Jesus’ disciples all those years ago when he sent them out.

Jesus’ parting words were to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. Proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near was central to Jesus’ ministry and he made it central to the instructions he gave his disciples, i.e. us.

There are many ways in which we can show that the Kingdom of God has come near, through the way we live, our humility, our passion for justice, our generosity, our willingness to suffer, and so on. But as Jesus made plain one of the clearest acts of love to demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom of God is to show people the powerful impact of the Holy Sprit on their minds, emotions and spirits. When the seventy-two returned having cast out demons and healing the sick they were overjoyed – imagine how those who had been released from demonic influence and who had been healed from sickness felt! Imagine how easy it was for the seventy-two to tell them that the Kingdom of God had come near once they had been healed.

And the result? Jesus said he saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. When the good news of the Kingdom is proclaimed and demonstrated through signs and wonders in the way that Jesus has commanded us to do and that he modelled for us, then Satan is dethroned from his place of influence and control in the lives of individuals, and his rule and influence in this world is replaced by the rule and influence of the Kingdom of God.

The church in this country has kept this good news to itself for too long and spent too much time only offering healing in its buildings, its time we took God’s healing out into the market places, work places, streets, pubs and so on. Its a job for every disciple as Jesus commanded; will you step out obediently?

For an excellent book that explores this theme see Bruce Collins book “Jesus’ Gospel Jesus’ Way”

Constancy of heart

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. … Set an ambush behind the city” (Joshua 8:1-2)

As I was reading in my quiet time one sunny morning in March this passage from Joshua really stood out for me. Joshua had led the people across the river, and they had conquered Jericho. I’m sure you remember the account of how they marched around the city once a day for six days, then on the seventh day they marched around seven times, gave a war cry, and the walls fell before them.

Following that victory they had suffered a surprise defeat and had lost heart. Achan had been unfaithful to God by hoarding plunder God had said he couldn’t have and the people of Ai had easily defeated the Israelites. This is the setting for the passage I was reading.

God gave Joshua instructions, he reminded him of his calling to be strong and very courageous, although he did this by saying “do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Then God did something that over time became a pattern for Joshua, he told him to capture Ai by setting an ambush rather than by marching around it for seven days. How much easier it would have been for Joshua to believe that God was delivering Ai into their hands if they had used a tried and tested battle technique. But this wasn’t to be the way for the Israelites – throughout the battles that Joshua led them in God gave different instructions on how to fight each one.

What God was teaching Joshua and the rest of the Israelites was that they were to trust in him and to follow his ways. The constancy God was looking for wasn’t that they kept doing the same things, rather it was that they kept doing things the way he told them. He was looking for a constancy in their hearts, a willingness to not simply settle into a regular pattern and feel safe in it, but a willingness to trust God and move on as he directed.

And so it is for us today. God looks for the same constancy in us. A faith that is built on relationship with him, a faith that is willing to step out and follow his lead. He wants us to be people who listen for his voice and respond wholeheartedly to his call, a people who offer all of ourselves to his service.

As we look ahead to Easter and think about Jesus who modelled out that constancy and who died to bear our punishment and bring us salvation, let us stop and consider again the lesson of trust that Joshua and the Israelites learnt, and let us recommit ourselves to unreservedly giving our all to God.

May you find fresh joy in him this Easter as you recommit yourself to his service!

Where you fix your gaze is where you end up going

Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out ‘Lord, save me’

Matthew 14:29-30

Today is one of those rare days between storms, it’s not raining and the sun is shining. Recently however the winds topped 100mph in North Wales, trees in the park opposite my home lost their branches, and large parts of the United Kingdom either sat under flood waters or were at imminent risk of flooding. Two years ago ground water levels were so low that large areas of England had hosepipe bans, today the levels are so high that flooding is expected to continue long after the rain finally stops. Our television news has regularly featured people who were looking at the storms and were afraid.

This set me thinking, and I was reminded of Peter walking on water. His problem was that when he saw the wind he was afraid and began to sink. Let me illustrate why he began to sink with an explanation dear to my heart – an explanation from the world of motorcycling. Sometimes motorcyclists get a bit carried away with things and find themselves in a tight corner carrying a little too much speed to get round safely. When you are riding a motorcycle then there is a golden rule – where you look is where you go. So, if you find yourself in a corner going too fast to get round safely, looking at the corner will almost inevitably mean crashing. If, however, you force yourself to look at the exit of the corner then in all likelihood you will make it safely through the corner and on to the next bit of road.

So it was for Peter, when he looked at the wind he began to sink. Up until that point he had been walking on water because he had his eyes fixed on Jesus. As soon as he looked away toward the wind and the waves he began to be afraid and his fear overpowered him and faith evaporated leaving him with the desperate cry “Lord, save me.”

And so it is for us. Whether it is the wind and the rain, or perhaps financial worries or health concerns, or maybe despite our best efforts things are not working out as we hoped in some area of our lives, the answer in all these situations is to determine to look away from the problem and fix our eyes upon Jesus. So why not use the storms we see outside as a reminder, and each time the wind blows or the rain falls take a moment to say “Lord, I trust in you.”

Let’s be real here …

Have you ever noticed programmes like 60 minute makeover, where part of a house is utterly transformed in 60 minutes – old stuff stripped off and new stuff put up – so a living room, dining room and bedroom would be repainted and papered, furniture, curtains, fireplaces and lamps etc replaced, all in just 60 minutes. Or the 5/2 diet where you can eat what you like for five days a week, so long as you don’t overdo it, and by fasting two days a week you will lose a stone in a month. Or perhaps the new exercise regime where you do  four bursts of 30 seconds high intensity exercise with four minute rests between three times a week and just six weeks of that has the same health benefits as 20 weeks of a normal exercise regime. The allure of rapid results with little effort is very appealing.

We can approach our Christian lives like that. Today there are an amazing number of quick-fix Christian books offering easy steps to an enriched Christian life. We are encouraged to add to these conferences that promise amazing changes in your life, listening to top speakers at events, and evenings of worship led by  big name worship leaders.

The only problem, and its a big problem, is that is not what Christianity is about. We don’t go to church to get a spiritual 60 minute makeover from the worship leader and the preacher, we don’t offer a stipend to a leader to sit back and watch him or her do all the ministry of the church, we don’t try to live our spiritual lives with four bursts of 30 seconds of high intensity spiritual exercise with a few minutes rest between, three times a week – or at least we shouldn’t.

Romans 8:29 tells us we are being conformed to the likeness of his Son. That process isn’t something that can happen by quick fixes. Being conformed to the likeness of his Son involves growing fruit in our lives. I’m no gardener, but I know enough to understand that if you want good fruit then you need to tend and care for the plant, as well as the ground that it is in. You need to prune and shape it, aerate the soil, fertilise it, and keep it moist. Developing fruit needs protected from pests, and  harsh weather – and you can’t plant a  tree and expect to eat fruit the next day; some trees need a few years to mature before the fruit starts to come, and then more years before they produce full harvests.

Growing fruit means cultivating love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives. That can only come about by spending time with God and co-operating with his work of grace, developing new attitudes and crucifying some old ones. It means leaving everything behind and following him wherever he will lead us, it means developing spiritual discipline in our lives. It isn’t quick, but it will make us real as Christians, and as Pope Benedict said in his final tweet “May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.”