God's training plan

There is no doubt that it was one thing for God to take the Israelites out of the slavery from Egypt but quite another to get the slavery of Egypt out of the Israelites. That first generation of Israelites, with two notable exceptions, never overcame the slavery of their souls. They had been released to walk free, they had seen the mighty miracles of God but inside every one of them was still a slave.

The problem is that slaves have no passion, no purpose, no vision and no personal direction.  They have no rights and there is little pleasure in life because all they are doing is fulfilling other people’s purposes.  They have little or no sense of personal destiny.  They have no freedom of any sort and no ability to choose because their owner provides for them. What they lack most of all is any leadership capability because they rarely if ever lead.

It would have been almost impossible to find someone to take these million slaves out of the slavery of Egypt from amongst the Israelites but God had a wonderful plan. He needed to raise up a Hebrew, one of their own but one not raised in slavery. God hand picked Moses and then trained him up for 80 years.  Moses needed to be comfortable and confident in two different places; a palace and the desert. For 40 years this Hebrew was raised as a prince in the palace and for another 40 years he learned how to shepherd in the desert.

God was working out his plan for both Moses and his people.  When Moses tried to pre-empt the plan by intervening in the lives of the Hebrews and killing an Egyptian who was beating them, God used the event to take Moses from the first part of his training plan (the palace) to the second part (the desert). God uses our mistakes, presumptions and assumptions to work out his plans.

Moses I suspect knew there was a great call on his life. Why else would this Hebrew boy have been brought up in the palace when everyone else was making bricks? However the flame of destiny must have been burning very low by the time God suddenly appeared at the burning bush after 80 years.

Moses’ confidence in his abilities by this time was shot to pieces but that was fine.  God wanted to teach him to be confident in God not in himself. There was no way anyone would be able to bring about the 10 plagues and part the Red Sea if they were looking to their own abilities.  God taught Moses plague by plague, confrontation by confrontation with Pharaoh to trust him. By the time of the tenth plague it says in Exodus 11: 8 Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

This was the Moses who was so scared of re-visiting the palace and confronting Pharaoh at the beginning that he begged God several times not to send him but to get someone else to do it.  By the time of the 10^th plague he knew who his God was and how Pharaoh was defying the plans and purposes of the Living God. It was the same spirit of holy boldness that David had when he slew Goliath. 

Moses was God’s man for the task and God trained him till he was ready to fulfil his divine calling. God has a destiny and calling for you and, though it may not look like it, he is working it out often in small painful steps. Despite our shortcomings, complaining and grumbling God will bring about his plan and purpose in our lives. He doesn’t give up even when we do.  Keep faithful, keep trusting, God is at work.

Brighter visions beam afar

Sages leave your contemplations

Brighter vision beam afar

Seek the great desire of nations

Ye have seen his natal star

The wise men must have been used to some heavy duty thinking as they studied the heavens and pondered the significance of the course of the stars and other heavenly bodies. However when they saw Jesus’ star, they realised that something or rather someone of great significance had come into the world.

They left their safe world of learning and esteem to journey across a desert to an unknown land and people to find a king born to the Jews. They were not Jewish yet they realised from their studies that someone of great significance for all people had come into the world.

They left everything to find him, travelled across inhospitable landscape, bearded Herod in his palace, which was probably a dangerous thing to do and yet persevered till they found the child.

Years later the disciples too left everything to find and follow Jesus. Peter, Andrew, James and John left their fishing business and Matthew left his lucrative tax collecting business.

Even today many are having to give up so much to follow Jesus. Muslims converting to Christianity are often ostracised by their families and may find it hard to find employment. In some countries Christianity is outlawed and believers are put in prison or even killed for their faith. They suffer much to follow the great desire of nations.’

In the West we may not have to leave family, friends, jobs and careers to follow him but ‘a brighter vision beams afar’ and it may require us to lay down some of our preferences and pastimes to follow him. The one thing that is certain is that it will be worth it.

The wise men may not have known what they had missed if they had stayed at home but I am certain they were so thankful they made that journey and would have considered it of great worth. They would have had no idea that their journey would become an integral part of the story of the birth of Jesus, remembered by millions every year but that would be nothing compared to actually seeing and worshipping the Saviour of the world.

We may never know how our journeys will affect the wider world but it is always worth pursuing what God has placed on our hearts, even if costly, because if nothing else it will shape our lives forever just as I am sure the wise men’s journey shaped them for the rest of their lives. 

Simeon and Anna

When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord Luke 2: 22

Jesus had been born in Bethlehem as prophesied and eight days later Mary and Joseph went the five miles to the temple in Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice in keeping with the Law of Moses.

In the temple they met a pair of elderly, devout people who had been waiting patiently for the Messiah. First of all Simeon came up to them. He had been promised that he would see the Lord’s Messiah before he died. He rejoiced that this day had come and very accurately prophesied to Mary that ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

Mary and Joseph marvelled at what was said but more was to come. The very elderly Anna, a lady whose life was devoted to prayer and fasting also came up ‘at that moment’ and told anyone who would listen that this child was the Messiah (the redemption of Jerusalem).

I love the patient faithfulness of these two elderly people, devoted to the Lord. They had not given up as the years passed by. They had not settled down to a passive, inactive, elderly lifestyle. They were as fervent in their faith as ever.

In today’s culture, young is beautiful but the Bible is full of the very elderly being significantly used by God; Abraham, Moses, Gideon’s parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth. So often the elderly laid the foundation for the next generation to build on.

As I have written before, the elderly in the back of the church can be a huge fount of wisdom and experience to tap into. Unfortunately they are largely ignored as irrelevant whilst the younger generation like to learn from their own mistakes without tapping into the wisdom that is available from those who have gone before.

I wonder how many others at the temple paid any attention to Simeon and Anna that day. Despite telling anyone who would listen, were they ignored or did anyone take note that the greatest event for the Jews and Gentiles, the Saviour of the world had just been presented at the temple?

Many of today’s elderly have been waiting and praying patiently for years for revival and have lived through previous outpourings and know a thing or two about them. Some of them may well have the promise from God that they will not die till they see revival. They may even have a head’s up on what God is doing for any willing to listen to them.

God loves all generations and wants to use everyone, young and old to reach a lost world. Crossing the generational divide is a wonderful expression of God’s heart. As we come to the end of 2014 let us not give up on the promises of God but by faith take them into 2015, believing that he who has promised is faithful.

Christmas Eve 2014

During Advent this year I have been reading J John’s daily devotional Advent Reflections. I have been struck again how God fulfils his purposes in often quite unexpected ways and uses the most unlikely and sometimes downright ungodly people to achieve his plans.

In particular I marvelled that God would use a Roman emperor who thought he was a god to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem and used one of the most evil, wicked rulers, Herod the Great, to get the magi to their destination.

What is incredible though is the reaction of the religious leaders when the magi arrived at Herod’s court and asked, ‘Where is he that is born King of the Jews?’ Herod called them and they correctly told both Herod and the magi that the King of the Jews, the Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem.

The magi then hotfooted off down the road to Bethlehem. So why didn’t the religious leaders go as well?’ It was only 5 miles away.

If an entourage of Middle Eastern magi pitched up on your doorstep, having travelled months to get there to come and worship your Messiah, you might think the religious leaders would want to investigate what was going on. They dismissed it though out of hand. They assumed, quite wrongly, that these magi couldn’t possibly know what they were talking about. The very people that the Messiah came to save couldn’t believe that God would talk to some Gentiles rather than to themselves, the religious leaders of the Jewish faith.

Too often, as Christians we wrongly assume we know how God works in a given situation. But God is God and he will do things his way. He will even use ungodly leaders to fulfil his purposes. Too often our prayers are for God to raise up Christians to places of influence and my goodness don’t we need that? Our societies and leaders need the Josephs and Daniels at the highest levels of government, media, education and so on.  However we also need to be open to see God working and answering our prayers in the most unlikely ways, using the most unlikely people.

The sad thing is that though the Jews have been praying for their Messiah for centuries, only a few recognised him when he came. Despite every indication given both at his birth and then during his ministry that Jesus is the Messiah, only a handful believed it.

My prayer is that our prejudices and short-sighted assumptions do not prevent us from seeing what God is doing in our day and that we do not limit God to working the way we think it should be. May our eyes be open to all he is doing and our hearts ready to receive him however and with whoever he chooses to use.

Bombs not food

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24: 4 - 14

The other day I went to a concert at The Royal Albert Hall, the iconic concert hall, in London. They searched our bags as we went in. Whilst we were waiting for the concert to begin, a young man asked me rather worriedly, if it was alright to bring food into the hall because they had searched his bag. I told him that I thought the security people were searching bags for bombs, not food. The young man obviously felt rather foolish when he realised the seriousness of the situation. 

Over the last few days I have come to realise that we really are living in serious times. There have always been e mails floating around about how the west will be overrun by Muslims in 20 years time.  I have not taken this too seriously as statistically it never seems to quite add up and many Muslims have no intention of overthrowing our nation and imposing Sharia law. However the events in the Middle East and especially what is happening in northern Iraq and Syria have changed my mind. 

Christians are being martyred, persecuted and forced from their homes in huge numbers not just in the Middle East but in North Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Sudan, Nigeria to name but a few places. There can be a real tendency in the western church to think that this persecution is happening over there and we may pray and give to help them and even be thankful that it is not happening here. 

However the rise of extreme violence, barbarism, terrorism and brutality on a scale not known for many years have forced me to realise I must stop worrying about the metaphorical food in my bag and start thinking and praying about the very real prospect of bombs in the bag of the person next to me. 

Twice recently I have read that the Archbishop of Mosul in northern Iraq has said:  "Our sufferings today are the prelude of those that you, Europeans and Western Christians, will also suffer in the near future.... Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle East, because you are welcoming in your countries an ever-growing number of Muslims.... Islam does not say that all men are equal. Your values are not their values. If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed into your home." 

I report this not to frighten us because Jesus said not to be alarmed but to be aware, alert and praying.  I have been asking God to show me how to pray and what I can do.  It is early days yet but God has shown me a few things to pray and do practical things about.

Firstly Jesus assured us that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations.  Never have we had so many nations in UK as today, so never have we had such an opportunity to preach the Gospel to them without ever leaving our shores. 

Many Muslims from scattered communities are now in refugee camps with wonderful Christian organisations ministering to them both in terms of humanitarian aid and the Gospel. We can both pray and give to these organisations. 

I have been praying for the gathering of intercessors to pray authoritatively with divine wisdom into these times. I pray our churches will awaken to these days and as individual Christians we will be alert and active in our faith and prayers. 

This is not the time to fear but to rise up in faith. Many of us have been Christians for decades; now is the time to pay back the investment we have had into our lives in terms of teaching, ministry and prayer. I believe God is calling us to higher things and to fulfil a destiny and calling on our lives that has not yet been fully realised. 

There are battles to be fought, prayers to be prayed, souls to be saved and God is calling each one of us to play our part. Hallelujah! 

Higher than our ways

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55: 8 - 9

I love the fact that God’s ways are nothing like our ways because his ways are full of grace, truth, mercy and compassion.  Every time I read an account in the Bible of Jesus’ dealing with people, he treated them with love and not with the judgement, criticism and condemnation that man would use.  His way with adulterers, sinners and tax collectors was so different that the religious people complained about it all the time.

Everyone wanted to stone the woman caught in adulteryer to death which the law did not require (John 8: 2 - 11). According to the law, both man and woman were ‘to be put to death’ (Leviticus 20:10).  Jesus dealt with her differently.  First of all he confronted those who had caught the woman with their own hypocrisy and then he instructed her not to sin any more. 

Jesus always had an answer to the tricky questions. The Pharisees hoping to trip him up, confronted him with whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not. He just took a coin and instructed those listening to give to Caesar what was his and to God what belonged to him. Anyone else asked that question would have probably tied themselves up in knots over whether it was right to support the invaders and conquerors of their country which is what the Pharisees wanted. Jesus again confronts their hypocrisy and cut to the heart of the matter and those trying to trip him up were not just silenced but amazed (Matthew 22: 15 - 22).

When Jesus and his disciples were watching everyone give their gifts into the temple treasury I am sure the disciples would have been impressed with those giving great gifts but Jesus turned their attention to the widow whom most people would have overlooked and the two tiny coins that she gave. Jesus commended her for her outstanding generosity and re-aligned the disciples’ thinking on giving. The amount you give is not what matters.  It is how much you give out of what you have that is the true test of generosity. 

The disciples, like all of us, were constantly impressed with the outward appearances.  They drew Jesus’ attention to the magnificence of the temple (Mark 13: 1 and Luke 21: 5) and Jesus again re-aligned their thinking by prophesying the destruction of the temple which happened in AD70. Jesus wants us to focus our lives on matters of eternal significance. So many wonderful empires and buildings have come and gone. What matters is the eternal truths of God’s word and living our lives by them not being impressed by passing glories. 

God constantly seeks to re-align our ways and especially our thinking to come into agreement with his ways and thinking.  I am amazed at how often my thinking about God is so faulty and yet with love and grace he redirects me to his truth and then helps me change the way I think and therefore the way I live. 

God’s Word is a wonderful book which cleanses our minds as we read it. The Holy Spirit uses it to point out truth, convict of sin and instruct us in better living. He never condemns or tries to control or manipulate us. God is not cross with us or seeking to tell us off or punish us.  We have nothing to fear from God. His single aim is to liberate us from sin and its effects so we can walk in freedom and truth and fulfil the plans and purposes he has for our lives.