A Dangerous Faith for a Vocal Majority argued by a Remnant

In 1903, William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army made this statement:

"I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost; Christianity without Christ; forgiveness without repentance; salvation without regeneration; politics without God; and Heaven without Hell."

The statement made over a century ago is now being seen around the globe. More and more people are turning to an apathetic faith, disregarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit and even some calling themselves "progressive" christians (I use a small 'c' deliberately) declare that all religions draw from the same aquifer. The problem of Christianity is that it is more like mathematics than psychology: other religions may be closer to the answer than some, but in the end they are all the wrong answer.
Recently I read an article declaring we live in a post-Christian era.

I tend to agree. As such there will be things that the vocal masses will demand. Equality for religions, gender, sexual orientation and so forth.

Some of these are in line with the message of the Bible, some are not.

We as Christians must have the courage to stand for the Truth in the Bible. We should recognise that we are in the world, but not of it.

What should post-Christian morality look like? Equal rights under this new era for all. This - in principle - sounds a lot like what Jesus said. Look closer into the issues and you see something different however.

I have to write this article as a Blog entry because I have a feeling no editor would be prepared to publish it in this post-Christian era.

Jesus told us to accept people and Love them. Agape Love them.

He didn't tell us to condone their actions.

He didn't say to ignore their/our sin.

We live in a day of forgiveness without repentance. We are accused of not being "real" Christians if we don't agree that forgiveness is enough on it's own. Why bother with the whole repentance thing at all? It just causes conflict in the individual being forgiven and those offering the forgiveness. So we just offer forgiveness freely. So freely that we declare the behaviour "normal". Secular society has become what William Booth said it would. Churches teach around the subject of the Holy Spirit. The church I grew up in never mentioned once that I recall the concept of being "born again" or baptised with the Holy Spirit. The first time I went to a pentecostal service and heard men speaking in tongues I thought everyone was mad or it was part of a cult.

God has been removed from the political arena. Republicans and Democrats both claim they are on God's path in the USA. The ANC in South Africa has declared God loves them so much they will rule until Jesus returns. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour parties in the UK all have boasted at some point that they have strong ties with the church and roll out candidates who go to an Anglican service at Easter and Christmas to prove it.

Jesus spoke plainly about the afterlife. If we read the Gospel with fresh eyes and as if we were hearing it for the first time it would be impossible to not see that He believed in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell as real places.

Today we speak of Heaven as a place where everyone goes after they die. Images of wings and harps and fluffy clouds abound.

I like the portrayal of the afterlife in the movie "What Dreams May Come". There's work to do there, but it's labours of Love. Families are reunited. There's no sadness or fear on the heavenly side. But there's the other side. A side where souls are forever lost in torment. They spend eternity in darkness and confusion.

That's as much of the analogy as I like since the theology is a bit wobbly, but it's a good picture of the alternatives.

In short, Booth was seeing moral degeneration of society on a slope with no grip at all. In effect we are becoming what he feared and what he tried to slow down through the Salvation Army: a society of mob-rule and God-fearing Christians in the minority.

Look back 100 years and you see what Booth saw. World War One descended society into chaos and started a century of unparalleled horrors the Inquisition would have recoiled from.

Look back 2000 years and you see eleven men huddled in an upper room waiting for the Roman army or the Sanhedrin to break down the doors and kill them.

But look what happened. Those eleven men and the ones who then followed them became the movement of a Godly Army, cutting through society's rules and norms - which were much the same as the "new" laws we see being passed. As the writer of Ecclesiastes noted, there is nothing new under the sun.

Christianity is a dangerous path. It divides families and communities established for generations. I've witnessed it divide congregations. I've also seen it bring something new.

Something Strong.

Be a Truth speaker.

Stand up for our God and watch Him respond in kind. Avoid the trap of doing things without Love as your reason and follow through because we Love Jesus.

Live a Dangerous Faith and be ready, armed with the Truth of the Gospel to defend and even die for the Truth of Faith in Jesus.

Watch Revival come as a result.

The Nature of God: Comforter

"If you love me, you will keep my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever. The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees nor knows him. You know him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you."

John 14:15-17

Jesus spoke these words to the eleven remaining disciples after Judas had left the Last Supper. A teacher I respect enormously, Andrew Wommack, describes the three chapters of John's Gospel from 14 through to 16 as a 'Christian Survival Kit' for Jesus's followers.

The first encouragement, repeated many times in the Gospels and - so I've been told but haven't actually counted myself - is an encouragement used 366 time through the scriptures: "Do not let your heart be troubled", a count that comforted me as it means even in a leap-year the voice of God has a different reason for us to rest in Him every day.

The disciples didn't grasp at their last meal with Jesus before His arrest exactly what He was saying. If they had, perhaps the next three days would have been very different for them. Paul wrote later that all Scripture is useful for our teaching (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17) and this holds especially true to the teachings Jesus gave as a comfort to His followers on what we call Maundy Thursday: the night of His arrest.

The promised Holy Spirit would descend on the Apostles at Pentecost and was accompanied by boldness to speak because of the comfort it had bestowed on them. Peter, the same man who had three times denied Christ at His execution now delivered the first sermon:

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know — Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 
Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

Acts 2-;14-41

The words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the promised Comforter to come, inspired 3000 people to give their lives to Christ that day. I'm certain English does not do justice to the nature of the words in their original language whether it was spoken in Aramaic or Greek, but the message is one we need to hold on to at this time.

The times are changing. Social change is causing upheaval of societies in a way not seen in a hundred lifetimes. Many practices St Paul specifically condemned as sinful are being embraced by "liberal" teachers as acceptable and not offensive to God, presumably because poor, misinformed Paul didn't have access to 21st century society and it's social norms.

But be comforted.

Allow the Peace only Christ's Holy Spirit can bring to us wash into our lives and let Him bring peace and comfort to us.

What's Important?

"Spending counterfeit incentive

Wasting precious time and health

Placing value on the worthless

Disregarding priceless wealth

You can wheel and deal the best of them

Steal it from the rest of them

You know the score, their ethics are a bore"
Lyrics from "Mr Businessman" by Ray Stevens

 Faced with a choice at the moment. It's not easy to make life-changing decisions when it will have an affect on more than your own life.

My choice: Where am I supposed to be?

Currently I'm living in South Africa, a country I've come to call home since I moved here in 2003 but has become increasingly hostile towards foreigners. I'm British by birth. I've mentioned that in several previous posts. My wife and I have a business here that's growing - albeit slowly. But it's a single-string income. If something happens to her we have no income.

So my choice. I've actually made it, but it has been hard. For the last few weeks I've been applying for jobs in the Christian sector of British employment. It's not a large sector, and the pay rate is lower in general - not in all cases - than in secular business.

But it's my choice. I found an old cassette of Cliff Richard singing the song I quoted at the start. Listening to it again made me think hard about where I am and what I'm doing with my life.

This isn't the life God called me to over twenty years ago. I touch an individual here and there, maybe even make a difference to them too - which I value. But it's not where my heart is.

I've spoken to my wife and she agrees - reluctantly - that I should push the doors to return to England. She has to do courses to maintain her professional standing in South Africa which happen to be a requirement for her working in the UK as well. Two birds with one stone.

Since I made the decision there have been several changes, necessary ones but not ones I'd expected so soon. My right arm at work, a young lady I had come to rely on to help me keep things running put us into a position where we had to ask her to leave. By God's Grace she has remained a friend, and that is something I'm truly Blessed to say. Her replacement is efficient in her own way, which is one I find it hard to work with. We're different personality types and, well let's just say I march to the beat of my own drummer! I'm difficult to work with until I establish a rhythm with colleagues, mercifully this happens fairly quickly.

So I'm applying. I'm looking to expand my reach into a country I'd left not expecting to return to. I've experienced racial discrimination first hand. I've had to take subsistence-level employment that is aimed at school-leavers still living at home. I've had personal health issues and my family has been hit with cancers, chronic ailments too many to name and financial issues.

So my question.

What's important? What really matters?

I've been relatively affluent in the past. I've been on an income below the poverty-line as well. Paul said he could find God both in plenty and in lack, and so have I. Even when the financial institutions call and ask for a payment I have the strength to say "join the queue" to them. Literally.

I've learned what really matters is that I am in Christ and He is in me. That I love my wife with all my heart. And that together we can focus on what's crucially important.

Living our life the way Jesus wants us to live them, where He wants us to live them. He is our provider, not our business or employer.

The only thing that's truly important?

Jesus died so I can Live.

Simple Things 2

Back when I began this blogging project I wrote of the simplicity of Jesus in His message of being the Water of Life.

You can find the post back in July 2011 if you choose to.

Jesus gave us a simple path, straightforward and unique in the simplicity of it: follow Him and be saved.

"Saved". What does the word mean?

We use it the same way we use "Gospel".

Without thought.

The greek word often translated "saved" meant many different things. Salvation of the Spirit, redemption from Hell - and Jesus seemed to think this was a literal destination, so we probably should even though certain groups believe we should be more"enlightened" on the subject - also it speaks to financial stability with an abundance to let God show His Covenant with us through our material prosperity and ability to administer it to give in His name to the needy. In places it is used to refer to healing of the body in this lifetime.

One simple greek word.

We read so many things we forget the simple ones. We miss subtle nuances from the original language and the twinkle in Jesus's eye as He tells a Samaritan woman it's not right to give the children's food to the dogs. From her response there must have been no judgement in His statement, merely an invitation to her to exercise her faith given to her by His Spirit.

Simple Truth.

Simply put.

Keep it simple. Let your yes be yes and your no, no.

Give, don't lend. Loans can lead to resentment, but Jesus didn't lend His power to us, He gave it. Freely and without limit as long as we use it as He would. No resentment.

Simple Freedom.

Keep it simple.

Context is Essential

I recently found an accurate quote from CS Lewis on a web page devoted to what is termed "Progressive Christianity". Any regular reader knows my opinion of the movement is one of well meaning but ultimately misguided people, but that's another topic.

I've seen posts before, of course, but what hit me about this one was how the words had been twisted to suit the meaning of the person using the quote rather than the intended meaning from the author.
The quote was:

"If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are wrong all through"

Alarmed, I went to my CS Lewis collection - Google - and typed in the quote. There came up before me the entire passage from Mere Christianity:

If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.
When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic – there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others."

Relieved, I calmly read the entire context over again.

Lewis is right, of course, in that there are religions very close to the Truth out there. It's what makes them so plausible. I was told by a convicted con-man once that the best lies are 90% truth. Any more lie and it becomes too far-fetched. Any more and it's too easy to spot the lie.

The most important thing we can do as Christians is to be mindful of the context of the Bible and the people who wrote it. John never imagined television. But could it be that the Second Coming will be televised? Revelation 1:7 - out of context - suggests it. "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him". Of course, Revelation isn't saying CNN will be there to capture the Rapture. It simply implies that all will see Him - perhaps "see" would be better interpreted as "recognise"? I'm not a Greek scholar and I won't pretend to be. I know a few words here and there, but not the one translated as "see" here. But in the context of the whole passage, recognising Jesus for who He was and is makes as much, if not more sense than literally seeing.

"So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself"; "Go and do likewise"; "What you do, do quickly". The three quotes out of context could build a suicide theology. Perhaps a comic twist, but it makes the point. The words of Jesus must be understood in the context of His entire ministry. Similarly, Paul's letters and the rest of the entire Bible must be taken in the context of the time and place.

But we must also look and understand them within today's context.

Covering her hair was the modesty of a woman in 1st Century Jerusalem. The women who showed their hair were usually prostitutes, so what Paul actually means when he writes that women should keep their hair or head covered was to not dress like a hooker - a very different statement. Similarly, whilst commanding women to obey their husbands he says husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church. In that context, loving our wives as sacrificially as Jesus loves us is a very difficult challenge. To make every action we undertake a selfless act to help grow and nurture our spouse's very existence is very different from being a dominating and overwhelming taskmaster to her. The writing is to encourage mutual respect. Paul emphasises the roles of men and women as different, but of equal value. Each is a reflection of God, and taken in the context of the letters this should be obvious.

Context is critical to everything we say and do. Politicians claim their words are taken out of context on a regular basis. Sometimes they are, and sometimes not. I'm sure I take words out of context despite trying not to. It's almost impossible to get everything in the context it was originally intended to be understood in. Sometimes a joke is only funny at the specific moment it's told. Recounting the story later fails to capture the essence of the moment.

I'll keep trying to see the whole context of Scripture. Parables, history, poetry and dialogue all interwoven with the time they were transcribed and the understanding of the writers make it hard, but we owe it to them and ourselves to see the whole Truth in the words. I love the Amplified translation of the Bible because for words with multiple meanings it gives a deeper understanding of the English words. The Greek word for romantic love, "eros", bears no relationship to that for brotherly love, "philio", communal love,"storge", or Godly love, agape. But all are translated as "love" in English.

There may be examples where this is reversed and English words have multiple understandings to foreign tongues.

So we should all keep looking for context and subtleties in the Bible and anything else we quote to bolster our argument so we tell 100% of the story.

Surely striving for that is what Jesus would have us do?

Is It Necessary?

 Our lives are too cluttered. My wife constantly tells me I have too many things - and she's right. I'm a diagnosed hoarder (yes, it's a real diagnosis). I struggle to throw things away. I recently found a box I made in woodwork class when I was 13. Rather than discard it I polished it and found a use for it - but an unnecessary one.

Our Christian walk is usually full of these same things on a spiritual level. We get drawn into a quagmire of rules and regulations to help us live a "Godly" life, but which actually stifle the very freedom Jesus intended us to have.

My grandfather was a Salvation Army officer during the second world war and for some time afterwards. He would volunteer to work Christmas Day so his colleagues could have the day with their families when he took a second job as a hospital porter. He believed it was a Christian thing to do. I tend to agree.

He was less cluttered than me on a spiritual level - physically not so much - and as a result he lived a much freer existence Spiritually than I have been able to. He would go out and sell the Salvation Army newsletter "The War Cry" on the streets every week up to and including the day God called him home at the age of 80. He genuinely didn't care what people thought of him in his uniform sitting in the street come rain or shine. He just sat and talked about his friend, Jesus.

We all need someone like that to remind us of the necessary simplicity of the Christian walk. At its heart, the Christian walk is about friendship with God. He wanted our company in Eternity so much that He arranged to have His arms nailed open to invite us in, and His feet nailed closed so we could see he wouldn't run. He gave us power and freedom beyond anything we could imagine or ask according to the amount we would allow Him to use through us (see Ephesians 3:20). We need to remember as we ask to see Jesus work in our lives that He wants to work more than we want Him to.

It's not possible to ask too much when we ask in line with His will, and it's not possible to out-give His generosity.

We live in so much spiritual clutter that we lose sight of the core of the Gospel: relationship.

The "necessities" we fill our days with are irrelevant for the most part. We stand on ceremony, genuflecting or bowing or showing "respect" when we pass a cross or a cemetery. Utter nonsense. But we do them.

We are so caught up in being "correct" that we miss being right with God. We become modern Pharisees, living to a set of restricting rules and regulations which are unnecessary in Christ.

Our goals should be twofold:

1. Give everything we are and have of ourselves to Christ as His instrument
2. Do whatever we want

At a glance they appear contradictory, but if we focus on the first then our wants will become His wants. What He wills for us to do will become so much a part f us that it'll be all consuming for us to do them because of the relationship we have with our Saviour. If we truly place Christ at the center the we will naturally seek to do His will. It's what Jesus was talking about when He said through John 14 & 15 about those who truly love Him will keep his commandments. It's not from a sense of obligation or through gritted teeth, but from a relationship alive with the very Spirit of God on the
inside of us.

When Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost it wasn't from fear of not speaking, but from relationship.

Healing the cripple at the temple came through relationship. Appointing people anointed to hand out gifts to the poor, widows and orphans was an act of Love springing from relationship. The Apostles were willing to, but recognised they were not called to do this honour.

We need to return to a place where we find Him in all our actions, not where we build rules and regulations to force us into patterns of behaviour. We may differ on some issues regarding what is and isn't sinful - and that won't go away quickly - but we need to place our focus on building a right relationship with God, selfless and set apart for Him and His Worship. Everything else will fall into place.

We've become, as I said, so bogged down by rules that we've lost the freedom. We have denominations who say we must be strict about the maintaining of Sunday as a "special" day. Why?

Jesus picked corn on the Sabbath. He healed on the Sabbath. He taught and worked on the Sabbath. Why shouldn't we? I'm not saying do away with church meetings, but don't judge the people who can't attend regularly because they need to put food on their children's plates.

Where we spend eternity has nothing to do with where we spend Sunday morning. We need to stop judging trivial nonsense as though it were Gospel and revert back to the simplicity of the Gospel itself. When Jesus forgave the thief on the cross alongside Him, he wasn't commissioning him to make disciples, He was welcoming in a lost sheep. It's never too late. Who are we to judge someone's heart? We don't know their story. We can't know their pain.

We judge the irrelevant and miss the point. We all do it - me included. For me it's a work in progress.

It needs to be for all of us.

Stay away from the trivial irrelevancies and recover the Truth in the simplicity if Christ's Love - the Gospel.

It's time to un-clutter our Spiritual walk, lose the baggage and return to Him who first freed us.

The Nature of God: Friend

"You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is about; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he may give you. This is what I command you: keep loving each other!" [John 15:14-17 CJB]

Jesus is repeatedly accused of being a friend of sinners in the Gospels. It's a clear sign of His nature as God and a perfect Man that models what our nature was intended to be. Relationship is central to His message, but never so clear as it is in the fifteenth chapter of John when He speaks to the disciples.

The statements can be easily misunderstood. When Jesus says we are His friends if we do what He commands it is clearly not meant to be coercion on Jesus's part. It is simply a fact. He calls us friends more because we follow His commands as a natural consequence of being His friend, not to win that friendship. This is mirrored in human relationships. I do not behave in certain ways to my wife as an obligation, rather it is an overflow of the loving relationship we have that drives me to do things I might not otherwise do to deepen our relationship. For example, I am a diagnosed sufferer of ADD and OCD, both of which tend to unfinished projects and hoarding "to get to it later", but later never comes. My wife, Rene, has been a saint in her tolerance of my issues and as a result I want to change my patterns and overcome as far as I can the issues which caused the trigger of the illnesses - undiagnosed depression for almost 15 years and PTSD. Even I find myself hard to live with because of the clutter in my life. Rene supports me but she leans towards minimalism in her surroundings, or at the very least order (as she understands it) which is very different to the mind of someone with my psychopathology. I choose to change in my relationship with her for the same reason I choose to be transformed by my relationship with Jesus. I love them and I don't want to be in a situation where my actions reflect badly on them.

Everyone has demons they are dealing with. In most cases these are metaphorical, although I have been witness to several actual exorcism-type prayer sessions and I firmly believe there are very real spiritual powers actively seeking our destruction. I believe when CS Lewis wrote "The Screwtape Letters" he hit a deeply profound and too often dismissed element of Christianity. We are in a war that we can only truly win if we stick with our Heavenly Family (see, I'm not off topic!)

Jesus calls us friends, not slaves. God does not seek blind obedience, but relationship with us as individuals. I find it mind-blowing that if in all of history I were to be the only person ever to accept the sacrifice Jesus made, He would still have gone through everything just for me.

Or you.

We forget that at our peril. Each person has a testimony of what God has done in their lives and how He has used them to bless others. I remember a service at a church I attended where a young man I'll call Ed stood up and said "I feel God wants me to say 'Smarties' as a response to someone here."

There was a stunned silence and Ed took his seat again. At the end of the service we were talking when a visitor to the church came over to us and said to Ed "I asked God if He was real to prove it by having someone make a fool of themselves and say 'Smarties'. Will you pray with me?" It was an honour to lead this man into a relationship with Jesus as a result of such simple obedience on Ed's part. How many others in the service had had the same thought and not spoken out? This man may go on to become a great man of God who changes the World, all because Ed had the courage to say one surreal word in faith because his Friend asked him to.

Another occasion I was praying alone about financial issues over something I believed God wanted me to do but I simply couldn't afford on my income. I never interrupt my quiet times, but in the middle of it my phone rang and I was compelled by something in my spirit to answer. A friend on the other end said to me "Dave: I was just praying for you and God told me if He places the order then He pays the bill. What are you planning?"

Family. God watches over His own. All 7 billion of us. His photo album must be huge. And He knows us intimately and invites us to know Him at the same level, to know even as we are known by Him.

This is not some transcendental Shylock demanding His pound of flesh, but a loving, caring Father wanting to do the best for every one of His children.
When Jesus taught the "Lord's Prayer" - actually a model for how to pray not literally the words to use, that's religion not relationship - He invites us to call God "Abba". "Daddy" is the best fit for the context. Religion got hold of it and twisted it a bit and made God more distant, less directly involved.

That's not the God we see in the Bible.

We see a Daddy looking after His family. Whether it was parting the red sea for the Exodus or simply holding the hand of a single leper He did it to build relationship with His family.

With us.

As His Friends.

The Loss of Humanity

I don't normally write political stuff here. It's usually not what the site is about, but there's a link to the agenda of the ministry if you'll bear with me...

This week was a travesty for the fight internationally against corruption and crimes against humanity. And it was perpetrated by Jacob Zuma and his cronies. A man known to be responsible for genocide, ethnic cleansing and torture to name but three of the charges the ICC has laid against Omar al Bashir, president of Sudan.

As Christians we need to weep not just for the victims of al Bashir, but the blood now on the collective hands of South Africa by its president's actions.

This is not the South Africa that Mandela gave up his freedom for. He fought for equality and dignity for all members of a society that needed to heal. For peace.

Zuma and his allies have decided to take a stand against the "imperialistic" attitude of the Western world towards Africa. And apparently human rights have no part in what Africa should be.

Imagine a world where that message was the message of it's saviour.

The message that the rich and powerful can commit heinous acts of torture and murder if it serves their own personal agenda. Zuma, I have read, is in a position of authority in his local church. What kind of a church is it that fails to hold this man accountable for the crimes he commits against God?

And there's the big link.

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused and imprisoned. Yet he was never once rebuked by God for his own actions. His faithfulness led him to go from imprisoned slave to the second most powerful man in Egypt. Imagine a man being freed from death row to be inaugurated as Vice President of the United States in a day. That would be the modern equivalent - if the man on death row were also not an American.

To the outside world things may appear to have changed in South Africa, but what has happened it the opposite. The country exchanged a minority rule by rich, nepotistic, greedy people who appointed their friends and cronies to positions of power and influence and robbed the majority of the country blind for decades who were of white European ancestry. What the country now has is a minority who are rich, self-entitled, greedy people appointing their friends and cronies into positions of power and influence and rob the majority of people in the country blind, but now it's ok because they are of black African descent. Not only that, they are of the right Black African descent.

The tragedy is that the increasingly invisible majority have their human right to dignity stripped from them. They are herded still into "informal settlements" outside major cities. The largest near me is Khayalitsha. In the last ten years it has more than tripled in size as people flood in to the city looking for streets paved with gold and work possibilities. All the meantime being deceived by the lie that BEE - Black Economic Empowerment - will trickle down to them from the top.

The ponzi scheme South Africa calls its government has to eventually fall apart. Another Zimbabwe awaits. Increasingly South African qualifications are viewed sceptically by other countries as the pass marks have been lowered for certain ethnicities to allow for "equal distribution of labour" If it's a guy with a pick and shovel, fine. If it's a brain surgeon, less so.

The humanity of Jesus wept for the disenfranchised of all castes and backgrounds. The Divinity of Jesus went to the Cross for them.

While Pilate washed his hands, Jesus washed their Souls.

To see a true leader we must look to Jesus.

• Humble - never stating He was either more or less than who He was.
• Loving - every action borne from a place of complete Love, whether allowing a prostitute to wash his feet with tears or driving dishonest traders out of the Temple
• Strong - He stood up to His enemies and faced them down
• Gentle - He lifted the people who came to Him and restored them
• Passionate - He gave everything He had to see His people uplifted and fulfilled
• Selfless - He gave up all personal earthly treasures to allow the prosperity of His Children

What a contrast to what we see in Worldly leaders today, not just Jacob Zuma, but almost al political rulers are the opposite of those standards they claim to live by. Most Western leaders pay lip-service to the notion of being "christian", yet wouldn't recognise Jesus if He sat in on a Cabinet meeting.

I wish the list I gave had a wonderful acronym, but it doesn't. At least, not in English.

We must be the true leaders to restore the humanity lost, cast aside by the rich and powerful. I came across a family recently where one member had lost everything financially and was about to lose their home. Another member of the family had the resources to help and refused, even stating they were offended to be asked. The rich family member's husband is connected to power.

Power corrupts. It diminishes humanity. JRR Tolkein showed it in The Lord of the Rings. Saruman is seduced by Sauron from being a wise wizard to nothing more than an egotistic maniac with the sole dream of having more power. Smeagol is swallowed alive by the One Ring of Power and becomes Gollum, twisted and evil from the power of the ring he loses himself in the power he holds.

So be humble. Be loving. Be strong for the weak to lean on you, be gentle so they don't fear to approach you, be passionate so they can see the love you carry, and be selfless in your actions. These are the marks of a true leader.

These are the things that will restore Humanity and draw all people ultimately to Jesus and the Father.

Missing the Point

I am an avid fan of the TV series "Bones". Having been living in South Africa for the last 12 years I discovered it by accident at a DVD rental store and then went out and bought the seasons as they became available. I do this with all the series I enjoy as I - unlike my wife - enjoy watching them repeatedly. Incidentally, my thanks goes out to the inventor of headphones - I think you saved my marriage.

While watching an episode from Season 9 tonight, "The Spark in the Park", I found myself drifting into a thought that rarely happens when I'm watching. I generally use amusement in the classical meaning - muse being thought and therefore a-muse being without thought. It's a way to relax at the end of a day.

The plot of the show concerns, as all the shows do, a murder. In this case, the murder of a Physicist's daughter. Naturally, the protagonists, Booth and Brennan, gradually peal back the layers until the killer is identified. The end of the show left me thinking, however, that something was missing.

The father is visited by Bones, Brennan's nickname, to see how he is coping. His way to get through is to calculate his daughter's life as a mathematical equation from body at rest in her crib at birth to body at rest at her death.

He misses the point in doing so. I don't doubt that somewhere out there is someone who could do the same for me with regard to my brother's life, but life has so much more to it than mathematical equations can express. Maths cannot explain a smile, a memory, love. It cannot even begin to fathom the depths of a person's Soul.

The father draws comfort from science.

It can only last for so long. The solace he finds will be short lived because his own equation goes on, her being a part of it, influencing every interaction that follows. My whole personality changed when my brother died. I had been driven and was learning focus at the time. I would have developed into a type "A" personality, and there are a few tendencies in me that still show that, but in Robin's loss I found a need for type "B" traits as a means of survival. They allowed me to access my Soul and accept Christ, something I may not have been able to do had I not made the change.

Of course, we don't see the ongoing timeline of the victims in the show. That kind of loss is often too difficult to portray. I find it hard 30 years after Robin's death to explain my feelings about it. There is great sorrow and great joy intertwined in the loss. I was lost emotionally for some time. That led me to make BAD decisions about girlfriends in particular. I jumped in with one when there wasn't any real feeling - sorry - just that it was convenient. I had power in the relationship, not love. My next relationship was similar, just shorter. In between I missed out on a wonderful person because I didn't want to have the hurt of the loss of the relationship when it ended, so I live with the loss of it never having happened.

Maths may describe my life. Or Robin's. Or the existence of everything in the universe. But to truly explain my life takes more than numbers. It requires something that transcends mere science and enters the realm of Faith.

"Pure" scientists are often agnostic or atheistic in my experience. There are always exceptions of course - something "Bones" touches on in that one intern is a devout Muslim - and they are often left with more questions than answers as their knowledge grows.

Science can only explain so much, then Faith has to fill in the missing pieces. Questions such as "if there was nothing before the Big Bang, what caused it?"can't be answered by science alone. But Faith is the substance of things hoped for we are told in Hebrews. The universe is a result of God's Hope and Faith producing the Big Bang. Scientists can't deal with this concept because God doesn't fit in the microscope.

Relativity, from my limited understanding, suggests everything happens at the same time for light, so at the speed of light there is no passage of time. In that context, Jesus describing Himself as the Light of the World so many times makes sense of his saying "before Abraham was I am" in John 8:58. He, as God, is light, so for Jesus everything is now. As He hung on the Cross in linear time 2000 years ago He experienced every sin and thought we would ever have and took it into Himself from Adam to the day of His return and Judgement. God as Light makes this possible. Time as a linear progression only does not.

Science has missed the point by ruling out religion and Faith. I know very devout Christians who are also scientists, my wife among them as a doctor is able to see God's hand in the bodies she treats and His life in the lives of others.

As Christians we must be careful not to go the other way and disregard science. Evolution is a hot potato we often don't touch, and I find it hard to believe I'm descended from algae, but we see evidence of it in everything around us. Wolves were tamed and selectively bred into the dogs that sit at my feet while I'm writing this over hundreds of generations. Cats, rabbits and goldfish are all included, there's no denying evolution within species.

I don't know where to stand on some issues so I keep an open mind as far as I can. I agree with some teachings from other beliefs, but not all of them.

We need to stay on point, and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We have to keep ourselves open to the possibility of anything changing at any moment.

Maths can't give us the point of life, only the equations of the physical.

As Christians we must look beyond that.

Non-Prophet Organisations

I was contemplating what has come to be referred to as the "Fivefold" ministries in Ephesians recently. I found myself troubled as we generally only see three of the five represented, especially in the news.

We hear a lot about Pastors and Teachers, particularly when they make changes to their standpoints on controversial issues like Tony Campolo did this week. I respect and admire Dr Campolo's work, and have done for over 20 years since I first came across him at a conference in England. Much of my current belief system was shaped by listening to his teaching and reading his books, and I stand by the foundation they gave me.

Similarly we hear a lot about evangelists. These days to be described as "Evangelical" has become something of an insult bandied about by the loony left who embrace panantheistic ideologies as being in line with Christ's teachings and suggest we say "Our Mother" at the start of the Lord's Prayer - for the record, Jesus never once uses the word "Amma" to describe God, where the personal pronoun is used it is, without exception, "Abba".

On the other side we have the right-wing extremists who seek to beat the Gospel into people. These religious zealots hold the same mindset as those who burned the "witches" in Salem or condemned producing the Bible in the language of the common man, whether it be English, German, French or whichever country they resided in. It was a weapon to be used to subjugate the masses and keep people in place.

Evangelists have got a bad name because of these extremes, and we see televangelists as the worst of them all. Flashy cars, expensive suits, private jets are standard equipment for many of these people we regard with disdain.

Of course, behind the glamour and glitz there is often a humble man who gives abundantly of his time and money to help those less fortunate. But we only see the half-hour or one hour show once a week. We don't see the other six days and 23 hours. We choose too often to ignore it and condemn the excesses of their assumed lifestyle.

I had the privilege of meeting a well known evangelist some years ago at a conference. I "knew" him through his TV show, and went with my own anger ready to jump on him for his greed and excessive lifestyle. But the man I met that day was very different from what I imagined from the TV show. He had the same passion and vigour as we saw on the screen, but it was tempered with a humility that caught me completely off guard. As I spoke to him, he asked my opinion on what he had been speaking about. The sincerity of our conversation was totally opposite from what I'd expected.

He introduced me to some of his colleagues from behind the scenes who travelled with him. He chose his crew carefully and was quick to introduce me to one specific member. He described him as the conscience of the group. A man who was gifted in Prophecy.

This mighty giant of TV made sure he had someone with him at all times to keep him grounded and keep him cognisant of his humanity. He made a point of stating his ministry would fall apart without this input.

Too often we think of prophets as fortune tellers who predict the future. It's a common misconception. The Prophets of the Old Covenant predicted Jesus after all.

But they were so much more than that. Jeremiah was an advisor to kings. Daniel and his friends became the conscience of their captors, and Joseph became de-facto leader of Egypt through the wisdom gained by prophecy.

We forget too easily how we reached the place we are now. America was founded in part because of religious persecution and a desire to worship God in a particular way, and for that way to be handed down. Fast forward a couple of centuries and the America of 2015 bans teaching the Bible in its schools, and under no circumstances should there be a mention of intelligent design when dealing with creation in public schools.

At the other extreme again, there are the so-called "Creationist" private schools that teach the planet is only 6000 years old (approximately) based on the genealogies in the books comprising the Old Testament.

Both sides need to be tempered with true Prophecy. An understanding of the meaning of the Bible beyond the simple grammar and verse to the Spirit behind it. By cutting true prophecy out of the equation as both extremes do we change the picture completely. When King David rode into battle he carried a bronze sword, not an iron one. In the New Testament, the soldiers used iron and steel to nail Jesus to the Cross and pierce His side.

Prophecy interprets and allows us to understand that the technology had changed and life had changed with it. David was a great military leader because he relied on prophets to guide his battle plans and he listened for God's voice. He never imagined atomic bombs capable of destroying a city with a single strike as the Allies did with Hiroshima in 1945. His tactics were guided by wisdom through prophets guiding him how God would use the methods available to him.

Churches today often abandon the idea of prophecy. Many think it ended when the last of the 12 disciples died. Understandings of modern times are spoken through the eyes of modern society and sociologists rather than sages of Spiritual leadership.

In the last hundred years we have seen two global wars that wiped out the majority of a generation each, leaving young men with no fathers. The result is what we refer to as the second half of the 20th century. Generation X - my own generation - who wander lost much of the time because our fathers had no fathers to guide them so often. Generation Y - my generation's children - are now growing into the age of adults with the guidance of children.

Where are the prophets for today?

Where are the voices who will stand up and say we need Jesus. Who will say amid the jeering and embracing of false teachings and idolatry that we need to change how we live?

Churches in many countries are considered non-profit organisations.

Let's stop be non-prophet as well.

God's Nature: Free Will

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” [Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV]

In our image. Our likeness. Modelled in the same way we are.

God’s description of the humans He just made is unlike anything He did before. Plants, animals were all created as beings that had a measure of life to exist through His Word in them. Mankind had more than that. It had God’s own character – freewill – seared into the psyche.

The ability to choose its own destiny.

The ability to know right from wrong.

The devil knew this. It’s what made the first temptation so easy. He could see man had a choice.

But man had already made the choice. He chose to exaggerate God’s command.

When God told Adam in chapter 3 not to eat of the fruit nothing was said about touching it. Yet it appears that Adam added to the rule God had given and told Eve that even touching the fruit would result in death. So when the serpent touched the fruit and “lived” the foundation for the fall was set. The trap was primed. Eve had received the instruction second-hand, not directly from God Himself. Adam’s embellishment, made to seemingly protect, separated the rule of man from the law of God.

One rule. One law.

Destroyed by exaggeration.

Eve is deceived, but Adam is there with her as she moves in to take a bite. The one who has this chance to banish the enemy, to go to battle for his wife the way God designed him to do, falls at the first test. Instead of striking the apple from Eve’s hand and banishing the demon, he lets the temptation live.

I live, as I’ve mentioned in other articles, in South Africa. It’s a hot climate. Even in the winter time the daytime temperatures are regularly in the mid 20’s Celsius (mid 70’s Fahrenheit). It results in the height of summer in clothing becoming so small that in many cases it might as well be left off completely.

Noticing it is one thing. Allowing our thoughts to enter into more than acknowledgement is another. Flesh appears all around, some of which you are easily able to put out of your mind because it leaves a scar wanting you to gouge your eyes out – there should be a size limit on certain fabrics, particularly Lycra – and some because the young (and to be fair not-so-young) carry it well.

It’s turning for the second look that’s the trouble. That’s where noticing becomes lust, for both genders and all generations. Unfortunately for all age groups, but that’s a topic for another article.

The nature of God is to allow us freewill. He won’t step in to prevent us taking the second look because He placed it in all of us to not make it. Drawing close to Him gives the strength we need to do so. The other thing is that he places in us the knowledge that we shouldn’t tempt others to stumble by our behaviours. I work with two muslims and a hindu, my wife and I and one other partner are Christians. Yet we never have pork products in the communal fridge and the meat we – or rather I – buy for the business is halal for the sake of our relationships with our colleagues. Harmony in the workplace is vital as these little gestures speak about our sensitivity to them in a way that putting Bibles in their rooms would not. We veto any magazine with a religious theme as we are a secular business, whilst eliminating the ones which are overtly sex-focused because we are aiming at young families and frankly they don’t need, “How to improve your Orgasm” as the front page headline for their kids who just learned to read, and worse for the children coming for counselling for abuse.

We exercise free will as given to us by God to ensure there is a balance. We don’t refuse treatment to anyone based on gender, orientation, nationality or religion – let me know if I missed any and I’ll gladly add them to the list. I’ve had the opportunity as manager to interact with some amazing people from all different walks of life in the last year. I try to express my faith the way Jesus extended His, without judging the person but being aware of the action. At the end of the day, that’s where free will comes in.

Being able to separate the individual from the action.

I have gay friends and straight friends. Christian, Muslim and Hindu as well as atheist friends. I try hard not to be a different person with one than the other. I refuse to compromise my beliefs and capitulate, but we respect one another. We have more disagreements about business than religious views – which is how it should be. Slowly people eventually ask me what’s different in me as the “Christians” they know spout judgement and hell fire to them.

Not my thing as it’s not my Jesus. When He went to the synagogue in Luke 4 Jesus stopped reading as he declared the day of Jubilee. The next verse in Isaiah declares the day of vengeance of our God.

The implication is simple. For now we have a choice.

People are hungry to choose Jesus, but He’s so often misrepresented that it’s hard to find the one to give your free will to.

Some look to actions, orthopraxy, as the method of salvation. But orthopraxy alone is not enough. Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 13:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. [1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NKJV]

Speaking in tongues, prophecy, knowledge and even faith are worthless without love. The love referred to here is agape love – all consuming and overwhelming. Making these right actions from a wrong motive are worthless. We need the understanding to drive the action.

We need the Love. And we have been given the will to find and act on it.

Free Will. We need to exercise the Free Will Jesus gave us back after Adam surrendered it. Then, and only then, can our actions be meaningful.

Be cautious what you do with your free will. You have the power to look a second time, but the second look is planned and often motivated by ungodly lusts in both men and women.

But the choice is ours to make.

God's Nature: Only the Best

I've been heavily into John's Gospel for the last few weeks, refreshing and revitalising as I feel a dry spell in my heart coming on and need to soak in God. I generally like to spend time in John for this because there's so much in that Gospel to soak up.

In Chapter 1 we see the description of Jesus and His incarnation being recognised by John the Baptist.

At the start of Chapter 2, John moves into a mundane situation. An everyday occurrence. In this case it's a family wedding. Jesus, his family and disciples are invited guests. It seems the groom has made an error of judgement at this party. Either more people arrived than he expected or he underestimated their capacity for wine consumption. In either scenario we are left to hear from Mary that the wine is finished.

In a 21st Century environment this is an inconvenience easily resolved by going to Tesco, Wal-mart or whichever the nearest wine retailer is to top up supplies. In 1st Century Cana this was not an option. Mary calls on Jesus to help the groom and his family from avoiding the humiliation of the situation.

Although His time is not come, Jesus defers to His mother's wishes, honouring her as His mother. He spots six jars which will hold around 30 gallons each (150 litres +/-). That's 180 gallons of water. 900 litres. almost a thousand standard bottles of wine to be produced.

Jesse Duplantis says often in the messages I've heard of his "God's not enough - He's too much!"

Such is the case here. Instructing the servants to fill the jars, Jesus turns 900 liters of water into 900 liters of the finest wine. Not just any wine, but the best. God doesn't deal in inferior goods. Only the best is good enough - and He will raise the bar where He wants.

The steward calls the groom over and comments on the wine.

“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:10 NIV)

 The Best.

No cheap plonk or table wine for Jesus. Only the absolute best will do. This is a representation of God, after all.

A thousand standard bottles of the finest wine are given freely. He's too much.

This shows us the nature of Jesus, and the nature of God Himself.

Later, Jesus says "Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19) So we hear from Jesus Himself that He only does what God does.
Only what God does.

1000 bottles of choice wine. The very best.

The inference? God only gives the best.

Look at your life. Look at what is going on in it.

If you're anything like me, there's problems. I get problems with my health. For six weeks I've had chronic nausea and vomiting because my Medical Insurance forced me to change diabetic medication based on cost, not clinical results. As a result I'm seriously ill physically right now - it may or may not get better with time, but this is where I am right now. My wife has been sick for several years, facing a terminal illness in fact. Our finances went down the pan and we live on financial gifts from our family having sold our home, car and business to raise money for medical treatment for her.

Problems abound.

But not once have I said that God has placed these in my life to teach me something.

That's not God's nature. Not the God Jesus demonstrated. I challenge anyone reading this to find a reference in the entire New Testament where Jesus caused illness or poverty to come into someone's life as a blessing. One reference showing Him turn someone away saying they needed to learn from what they were going through.

I've left churches for suggesting that. If you have a God who does that, you worship the Devil. These things are listed as curses in the Old Testament. They don't become Blessings in the New Covenant.

God's gifts are the BEST.

Satan will try to prevent us from receiving them - often with a lot of success because wrong but well-meaning teachers have told us that these things are sent to teach us. They base this on one quote from Paul's letter to Romans

 ^"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-4)

The concept that these tribulations and problems issue from God to build our character, hope and perseverance levels has been popular for decades. It's convenient. It removes responsibility on the suffering individual to get up and fight the real source of the pain being endured. It prevents us from fighting with the sword of the Word of God to counter the effect of this suffering in our life.

Jesus cared about the humiliation the groom at Cana would suffer if there was no more wine. He cared so much He produced far more than they could possibly need.

He did it again at the feeding of the 5000, turning a packed lunch into a feast for 5000 men plus their families. There could have been up to 20,000 people there that day, and there were 12 baskets of food left over. God's too much.

Again.

And again.

This behaviour of Jesus, so simple we can miss the significance of it, is a siren letting the World know it's creator is here. Telling Creation that second-best is no longer good enough for God's Children.

All through 1000 bottles of wine.

God's character is revealed in all His Glory in six simple stone jars and 180 gallons of water.

He gives the best and only the best, no matter where you are in the feast. In spite of all that has gone before, all our own best efforts mean nothing. God surpasses our best intentions in less than a heartbeat.

That man dying of cancer. The girl with HIV. The boy born blind. The bankrupt father trying to make a home for his family. They can all call on God through Jesus and expect the best. Healing. Restoration. Provision into abundance.

Look at Jesus's actions. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. Yes, He condemned the love of money preventing people from receiving Him, but we also see men like Nicodemus - wealthy men - being welcomed into His family. Zaccheus surrendered his love of money and exchanged it for a love of God. Nowhere does it say he walked away penniless. Poverty is not God's Best. Abundance is.
1000 bottles of wine. Abundant provision.

God's nature is to give freely to His family. And by accepting Christ we are His children. His Family,

yet we settle for less than the best because we don't recognise the immense significance of small examples in the Scripture.

Abraham believed God and received wealth so great he was asked to leave nations because his household was bigger than the nation. Solomon asked for wisdom and received not only that, but wealth unsurpassed in the history of mankind.

And we think that the God who would do that in the Old Testament will withhold in the New.

We fail to grasp the simplicity of God's nature. Yes, He is complex on some levels, but His generosity is demonstrated over and over again in the Bible. Why do we not see it?

Read the wedding story in John 2 again, and look at God's nature to give.

And if that's not enough to convince you He only gives the Best, read chapter 3 as well.

He gave Himself for our salvation. Why would He refuse our daily needs?

His character shown in the Bible demonstrates clearly that He won't.

Don't believe anyone who says otherwise.

Option 3

Often, too often, when we pray we give God an ultimatum. Lord is it choice X or choice Y?

We forget to leave space for God to offer a different option - His Will for our life.

There are paths we can take that seem safe and religious and even right, but they may well be a disguised trap to lure us away from His simple Truth.

Come, give me your burdens and let me carry you is the invitation we are offered. We generally try to hold on to the troubles and be carried, but Jesus wants us to lay those fears down and rest in His arms.

What is your weight today? What is your burden?

Perhaps it's financial. Maybe it's a career choice. Should we have another baby?

So many choices we all wrestle with and all seem like a "yes" or "no" answer is what we need. Perhaps we need something different.

In the movie Brewster's Millions from years ago, the protagonist, Monty Brewster, is given a task: spend $30m in 30 days and he will inherit $500m. But at the end of the 30 days he must stand with nothing but the clothes on his back. He must get value for his money, nothing frivolous.

As part of his attempt to chew through the money for the prize he runs for mayor under the slogan "None of The Above". As the job would carry a substantial salary he would lose the inheritance if he takes it. So he withdraws for the greater prize that is to come.

I'm sure the allegory was unintentional, but it rings true in me tonight as I write. My prayers recently have included the phrase "or whatever You have in mind for me, Lord."

Things change. I've had offers come in I'd never have dreamed of and the doors are opening faster that I could have imagined. Granted some will close again, but the important thing is that I couldn't even see the doors before. Now they are opening to me and a myriad of potential futures awaits me.

So I'll keep this short.

Remember when we pray that it's not always "either or".

Stay open to option 3.

Your Hurt - God's Opportunity

This world isn't perfect. I think we can all agree on that.

There is hurt and suffering all around us. Living in South Africa it is apparent to me on a daily basis. Every day I am approached by children with torn clothes and no shoes asking for food - not even money. The sad reality is that the suffering is all around us.

Sadder still is the nonchalance of the elite in society. The South African President, Jacob Zuma, had improvements on his personal home done at the taxpayers expense, something that caused short term outrage. But it hasn't been mentioned for several months in a major story by the state-run news media. Nobody wants to rock the boat.

If the money, several hundred million Rands (tens of millions of dollars) had been used to help the truly needy it could have provided shelter for thousands of child-headed homes, or education for the poorest children, food for the homeless. The list is endless.

Now I'm not writing a political blog, and whilst I despise the corruption in the power circles and cronies that goes on here it's not my point.

We have an opportunity as Christians to let God help when we hurt or see another person hurt.

Our pain we feel when we see injustice, avarice, greed, nepotism and apathy from the "leaders" whether they be in South Africa, England, Canada, USA or wherever gives us a glimpse of God's heart for the broken. If we let Him, He can turn our hurt into an opportunity for His goodnss to be shown.

I love the story of Joseph in the Bible. Reading and re-reading it I have yet to find any point where he is "disciplined" by God in some way. God gives him a dream so he shares it and his brothers throw him into a pit and sell him as a slave. Once a slave, God Blesses him incredibly and he faithfully serves God first, then Potiphar. To avoid dishonouring God he refuses to commit adultery with Potiphar's wife. She accuses him of attempted rape and he is thrown into prison. Again, God Blesses him in prison and he virtually ends up running the place. He interprets two dreams of two other prisoners, one of whom is subsequently restored and the other executed just as Joseph had interpreted. The restored man forgets about him for some time until Pharaoh has a dream his wizards can't explain. Then the former prisoner remembers. In a single day Joseph is then catapulted from imprisoned slave to second in power only to Pharaoh himself in Egypt - the modern equivalent would be a death row inmate made vice-President after talking to the President once.

Joseph must have hurt when his family betrayed him, but he saw God could turn it around - it was an opportunity.

When Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him and falsely accused him it would be easy to despair, but not Joseph. He kept hold of God's promise in a dream so many years before and waited for its fullness to come.

He could have let hurt overwhelm him when he was forgotten by his cell-mate. He didn't.

He held fast to his vision. It gave him hope. His hurt allowed God to use it as an opportunity to ultimately save many lives.

His hurt became God's opportunity.

Look at your own life. Consider the pain you've been through, but remember the promises God has given you.

Part of my testimony is that when I was sixteen I felt God inspire me to pray for my children. I'm now in my forties and married, but no kids yet. Over 25 years later I hold onto the promise. It doesn't remove the hurt of being childless at this point, but I trust it will change. (Soon I hope!)

Another part was that I would preach and teach in many nations. To date this blog has reached over 20 separate countries. Many of those I hope to visit one day.

I've had much hurt in my life. My brother was killed in a terrible road accident 30 years ago. But from the hurt of that loss God was able to break into my life in a new way and I was Born Again. My dad died of Glioblastoma - brain cancer. It affected his daily functioning and he died by inches over four months. I had just moved church at the time and God used my hurt to surround me with more love and care than I'd ever have believed possible.

There's more, but another time.

Every hurt I've experienced has allowed me to find an opportunity to either draw closer to God or reject Him. Rejecting has never been an option for me. I looked briefly at other religions before I was found by Jesus. I found only dead gods demanding sacrifices and rituals. Wash before you pray and don't touch a member of the opposite sex or you have to wash again before you're "clean" enough to come to their "god". I prefer Jesus's concept of "come as you are - I'll fix you" He demonstrates in the Gospels and Paul and the other writers extol in the remainder of the New Testament.

Hurt becomes opportunity for God to do something wonderful. He even gives it to us in nature as an example. A couple of months ago a terrible fire destroyed much of the mountain near my home, but from the ashes of the fire the Protea plants shoot new growth. Their beauty is only released after a fire burns off the dross and allows the new to come forth.

We are no different.

Just as the fire gave God an opportunity to demonstrate His beauty in nature's rejuvenation, so our hurts, physical and emotional, give Him a chance to demonstrate His power in our lives.

Hurt drives my family at the moment to seek answers. We have a business that is growing in Cape Town, but we have offers from overseas as well. There is the potential to follow both courses, run the business from overseas and have a manager take the day-to-day running of things. Or we could reject either of the two, stay or leave. We're praying to see which is God's opportunity for us. Whatever it is, we'll grasp it with both hands.

Our hurts are deeply personal and right now I don't want to go into details. Suffice to say the decision is quite literally a life-or-death one and we need to hear His voice clearly.

Hurts become opportunities, but we must take them.

They may not come again.

Lean on the Cross

A good friend of mine for over 15 years wrote to me recently. I knew him through church. He comforted me and guided me spiritually through the death of my dad in 1999, a very l0ng-distance courtship with my then fiancee (now my wife) when we were apart with me in England and her in South Africa and dozens more things, all guided by the wisdom of Faith and relationship with Christ.

He's lost his faith. His situation changed and much of what had kept him close to Jesus was stripped away. His family moved to a new town where their new church ostracized them for no reason other than his health. The very people who should have been supporting him and his family pushed them away. His marriage ended in divorce and his health continued to fail.

Society offered him solutions. Grants, medical assistance, psychologists and most of all, unconditional, non-judgemental support for his situation. He was allowed to begin to recover in his own time as he was able to face the issues haunting him supported not by Christians, but by the World.

His rational and well thought through decision has been to turn his back on Christ. He tells me - with great sadness for me to hear - that he no longer believes in Jesus, that Christianity was merely a crutch, one he no longer needs.

How has the church allowed this to happen? This dear friend, at one point closer to me than even my own family, was chased away from Christ by people claiming to be Christian.

I knew another man. He was a boy then, but has matured. Thankfully. He told everyone he could about Jesus. He was a real "you're all going to hell, directly to hell, do not pass 'go' do not collect $200" kind of evangelist in the way he talked to people. In parts of Africa where I now live, there is a real concept of Hell as a literal place. Many people live in a physical and spiritual wilderness and that kind of wake-up call works very effectively. Not so much in the South of England. His growing has made him an effective speaker of the Truth and he reaches people effectively and compassionately. He demonstrates Christ instead of ramming Him down people's throats. And people are drawn to this.

I met a minister from America a few years ago named Dave Duell. He is the most wonderful, down-to-earth man it's been my pleasure to meet. It was a privilege to sit with him and chat not just about Jesus directly, but life and living, the reality of hardship and the way God can turn situations around. When we met I didn't know who he was or what his life had been like to that point. I didn't find out until the following day that he was the Keynote speaker at the conference! He simply saw a clumsy young man trip over a guide rope for the meeting tent and went to help him up. This same man preached the Gospel to Yasser Arafat. He speaks to world leaders fearlessly about Jesus and he speaks to little children exactly the same.

The best teachers I have ever heard have all said the same thing. The Cross is a crutch. We are broken and need to lean on it. My friend I first mentioned used to remind me of this when I was so broken over losing my dad, my first fiancee and a very good job within the space of five months in 1999. He was failed by the Church.

No.

He was failed by those leaders in the church who should have offered support and guidance the way he had to me. The way we are called by Christ to do. The way he did to me. His help, among others, rebuilt a shattered Christian back into a fierce and passionate Warrior for Christ, and I grieve for a fallen soldier and pray he find his path again.

We are all cripples. The issues I battled with in 1999 are still in my life. I battle them every day and more. My life in 2014 included cancer of not one but two family members, financial struggle and continuing to try to help my wife through a life-threatening illness, currently in remission, but one we know will ultimately claim her physical life. Every day is a battle. Every hour a struggle. Every moment I am reminded I do not have the strength to do this alone.

So I lean on the cross.

We are invited by Jesus to do so. He became like us so we could become like Him.

John Eldridge's amazing book "Waking the Dead" puts it like this:

"The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it."

My life has been a battlefield since I became a Christian at the age of 13. There has been death, illness, persecution on a physical and mental level - as much as you get in the developed world, anyway. I have suffered rejection and had many, many chances to walk away from Christ. Each of these causes me to cling to Him tighter now, although at first I was tempted to let go as it would be "easier".

Walk with a crutch. The Crutch of the Cross of Jesus Christ. It will never fail you, never break under the load, and support you in ways you never dreamed possible.

I'm a cripple, and I'm proud of it.

It gives me a chance to show what God can do with a weak and flawed human life.

I'll keep my crutch, thanks World. It's all I need.

Orthodox beliefs or Orthopraxy - works?

I recently have read several arguments regarding the importance of orthopraxy - living a behaviourally "right" life - over orthodoxy - living a doctrinally correct life.

Don't misunderstand me here. Our behaviour is vitally important in our walk with Christ. Faith, James tells us, requires works to demonstrate it. Even Satan believes in God - he has faith God exists.

A morally "good" existence is not enough. To be enough we need to look at the reason for the orthopraxy. What underscores the behaviour? Ghandi lived a morally "good" life. But his actions alone are insufficient. We are all fallen beings, and no matter how much good we try to do in this world we can never overcome the fact we were born into an inheritance of death. Adam's bloodline was stained with Adam's sin against God. We were separated from God because of that. Sin is in us all and no amount of good deeds, saving the whales or only eating vegetables will overcome that. Even ensuring an end to conflict and eradicating poverty would be insufficient.

That was the point of Jesus.

I follow a group on Facebook called "Kissing Fish". It is a page advocating "Progressive" Christian concepts. I disagree philosophically with many of the arguments put forward there, but there is wisdom included in the writing that cannot be ignored. While recently the page featured an article about a question fundamentalists cannot answer - that being "Why would God care more about what we believe about God than how we live for God?" I felt compelled as - for want of a better term to describe myself, and I am open to suggestions - a "fundamentalist" Christian offer an answer.
I won't repeat everything I wrote here - the page is open to view on facebook - but basically it boils down to this: the argument offered was that right actions are more important than right beliefs. I have to disagree.

Right actions in God's work through us are born from right beliefs. Every change in the Bible from Old Testament including David's repentance over murder through the salvation of Zaccheus and Paul's experience on the Damascus Road involved a fundamental change in the belief - the orthodoxy - of the individual which then led to repentance in it's fullest form and a total change of behaviour.

Our actions, like our speech, comes from the fullness of our heart. If we ask in the Holy Spirit and allow Him to fill our heart then our actions will be the resulting Godly action - although admittedly it's a lot harder than it sounds. I ask God in but still harbour ill feeling towards my next-door neighbour for his intolerance of aspects of my situation, namely my dogs barking. It seems small, and it is petty, but it gets in the way of being full of God and being able to reach out to him in a Christ-like manner. On a bigger scale the abuser of a friend's child goes on trial in a few weeks and my anger toward the individual for their actions burns fiercely. So fiercely I don't know if it's anger with the man - ungodly anger - or over the action. God's anger against the abuse of an innocent child cannot be denied - His anger at the action that is. Yet He will still offer forgiveness and acceptance if this perpetrator truly repents and accepts Jesus. The question is whether we are able to. It's a very personal question for me, and one I struggle to answer. Right now I find I cannot forgive the action and I am unable to separate the sin from the sinner in my heart. That action, although internal, separates me from God in that area and allows a foothold for our enemy in my life.

My belief that I need to extend forgiveness to those who have wronged me and the people I love comes from the Christ Paradigm that entered my heart when I accepted Jesus nearly 30 years ago. My ability to live this paradigm fluctuates. And it fluctuates in huge waves.

Oddly, I find it easier (usually) to forgive those who have wronged me directly than those who have betrayed and hurt the people I love. My paradigm is still one that seeks to exact revenge on the wrongdoer rather than forgive and let God handle it. It's a stronghold in my heart that needs to change.

As a writer who is not afraid to speak out against false religion like Islam I sympathise with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo killings in France. I will not be silenced, but neither will I declare "Je Suis Charlie" because I am not. I don't seek to make fun of another person's religion, simply to try to demonstrate through my words and actions that they are mistaken in their beliefs. To this end I will use satire, humour, sarcasm and even self-deprecation to get the message of the Gospel across. There is no more important role that Jesus has given us than to be ambassadors of His Name.

How we go about changing the world begins with a change in ourselves. I've talked a bit about me in this article, my struggles, my beliefs and my paradigms. Some of them match the orthodoxy beliefs I want to live by. Some are a work in progress. But in any area, before we can demonstrate orthorpraxy, our orthodoxy, the core of what we believe that fuels our actions, needs to be correct.

Faith without works is dead.

Works without Faith is pointless.

Check your paradigm - and do it regularly.

Curtain Repair Men

 Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. [Mark 15:38 NKJV]

At the moment of Christ's death, God Himself entered the Temple and ripped the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the people. It was torn as recorded in all the gospels from top to bottom, indicating this was not the work of conspiracy which would tear from bottom to top because of the nature of the curtain.

God rent the curtain and at that moment declared a New Covenant.

So why are we so determined to repair the curtain? Many ministers I've heard declare God to be a Holy God - which He is. They declare Him to be omnipotent - which He is.

They declare Him to be unapproachable. They missed something in that declaration.

" No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you" [John 15:15 NKJV]

All things made known to us. Initially in person of Jesus Himself, then through the Holy Spirit. Christ came to us in a form where we could relate to Him as a human being and develop the kind of relationship with Him we were supposed, no designed to have with Him through Adam.

God, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, speaks to us. He enters our hearts as far as we will let Him in and He meets us where we are. The Holy of Holies is now the human heart. Anyone prepared to open themselves to Him becomes the Temple itself and God moves in with as much luggage as we allow Him to. The big difference is His luggage consists entirely of gifts for us.

Think about God's primary motivation. Everyone knows John 3:16, but how many of us look beyond into the next few verses?

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” [John 3:17-21 NKJV]

We spend so much time on the sixteenth verse we miss the power of the context. Not to condemn us - something too many churches do. An invitation to leave darkness and enter into His Light. It is clear that the condemnation we feel is not from God. God convicts us of righteousness. Satan is the accuser who will make us condemn ourselves.

We believe the lie that we can't return home. We're not deserving of forgiveness. Every agreement in that vein begins to stitch up the curtain and separate us from Jesus and His Love.

It's a common theme in other religions. My wife's best friend is a muslim and in order for him to be able to pray he has to use a special cloth to wash himself in a specific order to be able to present himself before Allah to worship and pray so he is worthy.

I pray in the bath because it's comfortable and nobody disturbs me. I don't have to bow to the east to pray. Whilst I'd love to visit Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth and the Holy Land in general I won't get a better spot in Heaven if I do.

The major denominations in general - there are individual churches within them who don't do this - tend to be curtain repair men. I grew up in an Anglican church where I served first as a chorister then when my voice broke I became a "server", the equivalent of an altar-boy I guess. I remember being drilled repeatedly week after week for lighting the altar candles in the wrong order. I didn't get it. Under my alb I was usually in shorts in the summer, jeans in the winter. I got corrected if the knot on my belt was wrong. It had to sit in a certain position. When I became Crucifer, the individual who carried the heavy brass cross in the ritual I would have to be certain the cross was perfectly straight and at the right height relative to my size. The rules and regulations I realise now some 30 years later were busy repairing the curtain. I was permitted to cross into the area behind the altar-rail, something nobody who wasn't the "right" person was allowed to do.

Curtain repairs.

Those examples seem negative, but my spiritual foundation was laid there, and much of what I write is a direct result of what I learned about God from the years I spent at that church as my faith grew. I didn't agree with some of it, and wasn't afraid at the age of 14 to challenge the minister over matters of theology. I respected John very much and I learned a great deal from him about what Jesus was about. It was an intellectual foundation that has allowed me to build a heart-based faith with a rock solid foundation under it that has helped me through more crises in the last 30 years than I can begin to express.

But I was still a curtain repair man.

Moving away from home and joining charismatic churches gave me a very different experience. The notion of intimate relationship became important. The orthodox teaching I had sat under allowed me to recognise the essential nature of the outward focus while my personal time focussed - and still does - of developing a relationship both emotional and intellectual with my Friend, Jesus. It allows me to sit alone and have a conversational style prayer with Him. Aloud if I'm completely alone. My work has isolated me from many of my friends, and my personal life outside work involves a lot of time consuming work to help my family with assorted illnesses recently so church on a Sunday has fallen away. I get fellowship where I can find it, and God always brings exactly the right person at precisely the moment I need across my path to keep me accountable.

It stops me repairing the curtain.

Don't get me wrong. God is a Holy God. We need to respect that, but He's our Daddy too. Watching children play and just hurl themselves into their daddy's arms knowing he'll catch them is beautiful God wants that for us. An intimacy of trust.

So quit repairing your curtain. Let the light in and wash the shadows away.

What's to lose? Let Him in so you can receive healing in every area.

Your heart is now the Holy of Holies. Guard it with His Spirit.