Seeing the Special and Significant in the Small

I do enjoy Sundays. Gathering with the family of God to praise and worship Jesus, encouraging one another in the Spirit to leave behind the old way of life and press on in faith until we meet Father and Son together in the New Creation.

I also look forward to Sunday lunches afterwards. That said, preparing them is a labour of love, even when you use all the shortcuts going; such as only washing and not peeling the veg. I tell the guests (often students who are grateful for a free lunch and so allowing me to feel less guilty about not peeling) that the roughage of an unpeeled potato is good for them, (although admittedly I don't apply that principle to every area of my culinary repertoire e.g. banana in a fruit salad). In truth, the real reason for avoiding this ritual is that I find the process about as appealing (no pun intended) as the prospect of having to manually operate the blinking of my own eyelids. So will look for any excuse to get out of it.

This week, along with washing up, the students showed their appreciation by building a snowman, or rather, Big Snow Mama in our back garden. It was a sterling effort to say the least, although I'm now nervous that the neighbours will think I'm a member of some strange Aztec Fertility Cult! :-S

I remember back to my own student days when Dorothy, a godly widow with a thick Lancastrian accent and brilliant sense of humour used to feed us almost every week! The meals were varied and delicious, but the one constant every time (apart from the fruit jelly moulded in the shape of a racing car for dessert) was her warmth, love and genuine concern for our welfare. There was comfort in her consistency.

My menu will never be as varied as hers, as those who have been here more than once will testify. But her warmth, love and genuine concern for the welfare of others is something I want to emulate.

It's funny, I feel like a weirdo that when asked what I did on Saturday night, I'll say I stayed in to cook. But in truth I love it, I can listen to my audio bible or a good audio book, sing or even pray whilst I'm working, and moreover, I am convinced that relationships fostered over food change the world. If Jesus could humble himself to that kind of task, then who am I not to...

Postscript: If you do ever get peeled veg from me - then know you're someone who's really special (or who petrifies me ;-).

Choose Life

The notes from my sermon on Deuteronomy 30:11-20...

Context

Moses, the man who has led the people of God for the last 40 years is about to die and is giving his farewell address to Israel. As a people, they are on the verge of crossing into the land God had promised to give to their forefathers about 500 years previously. They were about to step into a great calling as a nation. Through the laws Moses was giving them, it would be their privilege to showcase to the world the greatness of the coming Messiah and something of what the New Creation would look like. He had a simple parting word to give them. Choose Life.

Choosing life meant simply this: Loving, trusting and obeying Jesus - the Lord who had led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, through the desert, who had sustained them with food and drink and now would lead them into the promised land. (Jude 5, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13). Jesus, who had mentored Moses, would now mentor Joshua as he picked up the baton to lead the people on.

Loving Jesus, for the Israelites, meant obeying all 613 laws that he had laid out for them. Following these commands were the way in which they could express their devotion and love to him. Whilst God in his mercy has always made provision for human weakness (for all of us sin and need forgiveness), he has never made provision for a divided heart. Their need was not intelligence, but humble trusting obedience of Jesus.

How does this apply to us today?

In 2010 our calling is the same as Israel's: to showcase to the world the greatness of Jesus and something of glory of what the New Creation will look like. For us choosing life means the same for us as it did for Israel: Loving and trusting Jesus and evidencing that by obedience to all his commandments.

If you are in Christ, then know the truth that neither your past failures nor the present limitations of your circumstances can disqualify you from loving Jesus and trusting him. This life may not turn out to be all you hoped for, but it will be all you need to prepare you for the new creation and life with God. Therefore say no to a divided heart, a compromised allegiance and say yes to whole-hearted devotion to Jesus.

Choose life by trusting Jesus and making good and wholesome choices. Say no to lust, greed, selfishness, negligence, intoxication, gossiping, slander, deceit, manipulation, peevishness and the like and say yes in Christ to love, sincere generosity, diligence, honesty, self-control, self-sacrifice and the like.

We don't live for the routine of eating, we have the routine of eating so that we can live. Our attitude should be the same with the spiritual disciplines. For example, I don't live for the routine of reading the bible, I have the routine of reading the bible because I want to truly live in fellowship with the God who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Israelites did not have the Holy Spirit, like we now have him. They failed in their mission. We who have the Spirit of God living with us and in us to lead us in all these things can be humbly confident that God will not see us fail.

1 John 3:1-3: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Suggested Questions

• What reaction does the phrase: "God makes provision for human weakness, but not for a divided heart" provoke in you?
• Do you have any spiritual routines? If yes, are they life or death to you? Why/why not?
• What goals/resolutions have you set for this year that require you to throw yourself onto Jesus and trusting him? If none, have you set your sights too low?

The Eternal Gospel of God Revealed in Jesus Christ, Right From the Start...

If you wanted a metaphor for how the eternal gospel of faith in Jesus Christ is revealed in the Bible, the following video is a good one.

Just as the title Red Sky, Clouds is obvious early on in the painting (even if the details are yet to be fleshed out); so too Adam and Eve know what they have to do to be saved. That is trust the God who appears to them (Jesus) and all he will do to reverse the curse of their rebellion. In short, they know he will become like them so that he can, by his own suffering and death defeat the serpent, take away their shame and punishment, give them righteousness and renew the whole cosmos so that they can enjoy unhindered face to face friendship with the Father and Son in the Fellowship of the Spirit.

That skeletal message then gets fleshed out over the course of the whole Bible.

And you're sitting there thinking... How does he get that from Genesis 1-3?

Know Where This Is All Going...

Today, along with almost 30 friends, I've begun following a reading plan that will take me through the whole bible over the course of 2010, reading on average between three and four chapters a day.

The first three chapters of Genesis raises a fistful of questions. (I could probably fill up my "question logger" on the basis of just today's reading!) But beyond all my personal interest questions lies a most important question: Where's this all heading...?

Here's my starter for 10, do chip in with comments/charges of heresy and the like.

God the Father selflessly gives the whole cosmos as a gift to God the Son. And to prove that this giving is truly selfless, has chosen to set up in such a way that he doesn't participate in it. Rather, he leaves everything to the Son. No micro managing here!

God the Son, being equally loving and selfless, and not wishing to hog this gift for himself, does everything (creation/salvation) so that the Father can share this gift with him. The goal of Salvation is face to face fellowship with both the Father and the Son.

Jesus became like one of us so that we could one day become like him enjoying the fellowship of his Father.

That is why partial paradise of Eden will be superseded by the perfect paradise of the new Jerusalem. That is why the end is better than the beginning.

We find this difficult to follow because we labour under the delusion that history is all about us.

Put in simple terms, the next time a loved one gives you a gift (e.g. a box of chocs) and you share that love gift with them, you are, in a tiny way, mirroring the divine eternal love of the Father and the Son and summing up the whole of history. Impressive eh?? Bet you never thought chocolate could be that profound!

I barely feel the weight of what I am uttering!

God help me!!

I need a litt... a lot of help in this stuff!

We Brits are great at having resolutions, but cynical about our ability in following them through.

The following list is one I wrote back in the early noughties after reading Jonathan Edwards' long list of the same.

To those of you who are wondering, this is not a post trying to show off. In truth, I'm cringing and squirming as I read some of these again as I often feel like I'm going backwards rather than forwards, (and you may well have observed it). In others I am static. In others still, there are reasons to rejoice. Overall, I feel nervous and not a little hypocritical posting this, but it's all in the spirit of no.28, (never to give up the fight, no matter how unsuccessful I may be!).

You have my permission, the next time you see me breaking one of these or being sluggish in them, to give me a good kick up the pants! Sometimes, it's the only thing that makes me listen.

I'd rather look a fool in front of you with opportunity to change than a fool in front of Christ with no such opportunity...

1. Resolved. To make the God who is Father, Son and Spirit my treasure and to do all for their glory, such that their name is supremely exalted in my life and they are my ultimate joy.
2. Resolved. Daily to meditate on the Scriptures in such a way as to plainly perceive myself to grow in the kind of knowledge and understanding that leads to love for and obedience to Jesus.
3. Resolved. To set aside time (daily) to pray so that no.1 might be truer and no.2 more effective.
4. Resolved. To fast regularly such that all my appetites might be in joyful submission to the will of God rather than causing my self-destruction.
5. Resolved. In the power of the Holy Spirit, to root out, confess and turn away from all sin that I know of in my heart and seek that God would show me all the sin in there, to which, I am still so blind.
6. Resolved. To know all my weaknesses that lead to my sin and learn how I function, that I might grow n reverent fear and avoid repetitions of those sins, believing by faith the promises of Scripture.
7. Resolved. Never to be found thinking, saying or doing anything of which I would be ashamed, were it the last thing I thought, said or did before I stood before the judgment seat of Christ.
8. Resolved. With all the energy God has given me, to live in the enjoyment of Himself, to rest in him and by his grace, to purify myself so that enjoyment might be even more intense, and that I might be more ready for my Heavenly home.
9. Resolved. To subject all my cravings to the will of God, especially those connected with food, sleep, sex, money, power and ambition and adulation from others.
10. Resolved. To live my life in such a way that at no point would I look back and wish I had done things any differently or have any regrets.
11. Resolved. To fear the displeasure of God more than that of any human.
12. Resolved. To live my life the way Jesus would have lived had he walked the earth in my lifetime.
13. Resolved. To eat only as much as I need and no more.
14. Resolved. To acquire only as many possessions as I need for maximum joy in God and for the fulfilment of the Great Commission.
15. Resolved. To use as much of the money God has given me as I can in the relief of the poor, the relief of the suffering church and the finishing of the Great Commission.
16. Resolved. To joyfully receive my share of suffering (with thanksgiving!!) so that the Great Commission might be completed earlier and therefore bring forward the day of the return of my LORD.
17. Resolved. Never to treat anyone differently on the basis of what I might get out of them for my own ends, be those ends material, spiritual, or just the massaging of my own ego.
18. Resolved. No longer to think of anyone or anything from a worldly point of view.
19. Resolved. To live before to the world in such a way that the blood of its judgment is not on my hands.
20. Resolved. To love with all my might the Bride of Christ, his church, as Christ Himself does, and to strive to see the fullness of the glory of her Christ displayed in her, for our joy and the joy of the nations.
21. Resolved. Never to make light of a subject that should be taken seriously, or by my example give the impression that I live only to entertain and be entertained.
22. Resolved. To spend more time contemplating the brevity of this life and the eternity of the afterlife, than I do seeking out entertainment.
23. Resolved. That the truth I speak would never be undermined by the emotions with which I speak it, that I would truly & fully feel what I know to be true.
24. Resolved. To speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, in love and never to be found gossiping or entertaining gossip.
25. Resolved. To be the servant of all, under God.
26. Resolved. To be a blessing to the Bride of Christ by keeping myself pure and living and leading in a way that makes Her excited about God and His Kingdom Purpose.
27. Resolved. Where possible to live at peace with all men.
28. Resolved. Never to give up my fight with my corruption no matter how unsuccessful I may be.
29. Resolved. To weed out all cynicism and self-pity in me and to replace it with glorious love for and hope in God.
30. Resolved. To keep a tight rein on my tongue, saying only what is good and praiseworthy, for the building up of people and the praise of God, not tearing people down and blaspheming his name.
31. Resolved. To give all praise and thanks to God for the talents, abilities and opportunities he has given me, to thank him alone and direct all the praise of men I get straight back to God, that my pride might have no opportunity to boast.
32. Resolved. To cling with all my might to the Death and Resurrection of my LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ, alone in whom all these resolutions are possible, and without whom, I would have no forgiveness, no righteousness, no cleansing power, no resources for the daily struggle to live by faith in him, no joy, no hope and no future. To him be glory, honour, power, majesty, might and authority for ever and ever, for he ALONE, the wisdom and power of God is worthy of it all! Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

Christmas Carols

For me, one of the benefits of going to a boarding school like the one I did, was the many activities that went on outside the classroom to help fill up the time.

I got roped into the school choir. The Head of Music "asked" me, as he did all the new pupils, to audition for it.

The audition wasn't a very democratic experience. Basically, if you could sing, you had to be part of it - especially if you were a boy, as tenors and basses were in short supply. Some of my friends deliberately sung flat, as they saw what was coming. I didn't have the presence of mind or even the boldness to deceive my teachers like that. Moreover, I do love music and I love singing in harmony with others. It's one of the things I miss now as the demands of real life crowd into view.

Here are three non-congregational (i.e. only sung by the choir) carols that we used to sing. The first is one of my all time favourites:

In looking, I came across this version of the Angel Gabriel. I don't prefer it to the original, but it is cool especially when they mix it in with Joy to the World.

I murdered the third verse of In the Bleak Midwinter one year in a solo when nerves got the better of me at the school carol service. People were very kind, but they were trying to rescue my ego! I was upset because of the perceived humiliation and because I had butchered a carol I love! Here it is - unharmed. :-)

In this last carol, I remember thinking what a weirdo the composer must have been to liken Jesus to an apple tree. He must have composed it after drinking a particularly potent vintage of his medieval home brew! I realise now how ignorant I was. His poetic allusions were, back then, way beyond my small mind, but I see it now.

I wonder if he wanted to use pomegranates, but couldn't get them to fit the tune...

Happy Jesus-mas everyone! :-)

Mr Splashy Pants is Better

So... In the week when everybody is celebrating the victory of the ordinary Joe in the street over the bulldozing might of big business; there is another less well known story, that of Mr Splashy Pants, which I personally find more amusing.

By the way, is it me or does the guy in the video remind you of the actor, Martin Freeman?