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. 

The assisted dying bill

This week the UK House of Lords is debating the Assisted Dying Bill.  The bill seeks to permit people who are terminally ill and have less than 6 months to live and are mentally competent to be able to be helped by a doctor to commit suicide usually by drinking poison. 

Needless to say there is some heated debate in the media about this and some surprising people such as former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and Desmond Tutu have come out in favour of it while current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby opposes it. 

Traditional Christian belief is that human life is a gift from God and possesses an intrinsic dignity and value.  People are created by God in his own image for the distinctive destiny of sharing in God's own life. Human dignity and value are not measured by mobility, intelligence, or any achievements in life. People who are old, sick, mentally challenged, even those with locked in syndrome or in a persistent vegetative state have the same value and worth as fully functioning people. Therefore euthanasia, assisted suicide and so on fly in the face of this because all life has value and no one has the right to consider a life worthless and therefore to be ended, even one’s own.

This Bill and its proponents do not propose assisted dying based on any of these arguments though but as a matter of choice. Nowadays choice is everything from which school your children go to, which doctor or hospital you use, to choosing an abortion. Choice is king and if I choose to do something then that is my business and mine alone. 

Morals, common values, right and wrong have all been slain on the altar of choice. If it feels good then do it. Instead of talking about choice with consequences or rights and responsibilities we just promote choice. 

The problem with the Assisted Dying Bill which sounds so reasonable with wonderful safeguards is that it opens the door to ending someone’s life before their natural time. The Abortion Bill in 1967 was never intended to be abortion on demand that we have nowadays with 200,000 babies a year being given no choice of life but that is what we now have.  

In the same way I believe assisted dying will in years to come lead to voluntary euthanasia and then …. The Netherlands is held up as the liberal ideal in Western society.  Previously though euthanasia and physician assisted suicide were still technically illegal there, doctors were not prosecuted if they followed certain guidelines. The problem was that these guidelines were being interpreted in ever broader ways. Then in 2002 euthanasia and assisted suicide were legalised in the Netherlands. 

The US Patients Rights Council website http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/hollands-euthanasia-law/ comments Right-to-die advocates often argue that euthanasia and assisted suicide are “choice issues.” The Dutch experience clearly indicates that, where voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide are accepted practice, a significant number of patients end up having no choice at all. 

The irony is that during World War II Holland was the only occupied country whose doctors refused to participate in the German euthanasia program. Dutch physicians openly defied an order to treat only those patients who had a good chance of full recovery. Commenting on this fact in his essay “The Humane Holocaust,” highly respected British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge wrote that it took only a few decades “to transform a war crime into an act of compassion.” 

The problem with accepted practice  such as assisted suicide is that it changes the dynamic of everyone’s thinking. You can imagine in years to come how the terminally ill will feel pressured whether deliberately or through guilt to end their life early. They may well imagine they are doing everybody a favour by no longer being a burden or a nuisance to their families. 

In the Daily Mail on 9th July, Professor Theo Boer, a Dutch ethics expert and someone who has carefully watched the effect of assisted suicide in the Netherlands warns Britain not to go down the same path as his native country. He says that the number of assisted suicides has doubled in 6 years. He believes that the very existence of a euthanasia law turns assisted suicide from a last resort into a normal procedure.  Euthanasia is now becoming so prevalent in the Netherlands, he said, that it is ‘on the way to becoming a default mode of dying for cancer patients’.  and he admits he was terribly wrong to have believed regulated euthanasia would work.‘I used to be a supporter of the Dutch law but now, with 12 years of experience, I take a very different view.’

With the increase of elderly people and better health care prolonging life, we have some serious issues to face.  The Liverpool Care Pathway was designed to give excellent care for those in the last days of their lives. For some it worked really well but it was used by some health care professionals to hasten death often without the knowledge or consent of patient or family. I remember being shocked a few years ago when an elderly patient I knew died in hospital of malnutrition and dehydration. Unfortunately that has now become accepted practice in some circumstances for hastening the death of elderly people. 

While I respect the view that people believe they have the right to end their life I cannot support it. We must find ways of helping terminally ill people face death with dignity, by promoting high levels of palliative care and enabling families to be supportive without being burdened and that those terrified of life find the hope and encouragement  to continue.  As Pope John Paul II said ‘True compassion leads to sharing another’s pain. It does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.’ 

I believe instead of looking at euthanasia and assisted suicide or dying to deal with the  problems of increasing numbers of elderly  and terminally ill people, we should open the debate on when the sanctity of life became a matter of choice and seek instead to re-establish some common morals and values that seem to be sadly lacking in today’s society. 

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. I Corinthians 12: 27

The other day I watched a man very patiently walking his elderly dog who was hobbling along behind him on the lead. Of course that dog was not always elderly and in the past I am sure he would have been racing around, chasing a ball or other dogs. Old age creeps up on us all!

The Body of Christ though is designed for everyone, young, old or middle-aged to participate and find their place in. Unfortunately it is too often true that both the very young and very old get marginalised. 

Jesus said:  “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  Matthew 19: 14. This was not a quick blessing and a patronising pat on the head. This is a release of children into fully functioning members of the Kingdom and to participation in the church. 

Psalm 8: 2 says, ‘from the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise to silence the foe and the avenger.’ Children’s praise silences the devil and should be encouraged at all times. It is not enough that the children are quiet reading, colouring or playing on an iPad in church; they should be fully participating in the praise and worship, ready to bring a word or pray. As parents we set such a low bar for our children and unfortunately they rarely jump over it. 

The old can also be ignored and too often all we expect of them is to stay quiet in church!  However I believe it is the detriment of many churches that they do not actively encourage the elderly to still be a participating part of church. They may be hobbling along, their minds may be slower and their short term memories unreliable but if you take the time to sit down, wait and listen you will hear some gems.

Locked up in that elderly body that doesn’t work the way it used to is a pile of treasure, a wealth of wisdom waiting to be mined. It will take time and patience but it may be time well spent. It may save you making mistakes from those who have gone before and have learned the painful way from those self same mistakes. They will almost certainly have been there, done it and got the T shirt. 

A group of 50 - 60 year olds counted up the time they had spent serving the Lord and it came to over 1000 years. That is huge resource to draw on. How much more is there in the very elderly many of whom have been walking with the Lord over 50 years. 

The Body of Christ was never designed to be a group of middle aged people leading the church and actively encouraging the youth to step up and play their part. It is a body that functions at its best with the childlikeness of the little ones mixed with the passion and enthusiasm of the youth, tempered by the experience of the middle aged and guided by the wisdom of the elderly. 

All have a part to play and none are expected to be excluded by the lack or abundance of years. It takes time and effort to include the very young and very old but the result will be a more rounded and better equipped church to fulfil its destiny ‘to go out into all the world and make disciples …’. 

Practice makes perfect

There are two things that I have noticed about playing sport. The first is that you the better at what you practice and that looking the part does not necessarily mean you are a good player.

The same is true of the Christian faith. We get better at what we practice and most certainly outward appearances can be deceptive.

We find that as we practice consistently reading our Bibles, praying, worship and fasting these things get easier. However it is far more than these spiritual disciplines. As we grow in the Christian faith we get much better at trusting God, at forgiving, at recognising and resisting the attacks of the enemies, at standing on the truth, at loving others, at not being discouraged at every setback and at breaking the bad habits and developing good ones

Unfortunately it is also true that as we practise bad things we will get better at them. That is why Paul wrote to the Galatians:   The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Galatians 5: 16 and 20 – 21. Paul was talking to believers here not unbelievers. Instead he encourages us to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit (which) is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5: 22 - 23 

God also has a programme or spiritual journey for each one of us that is personal and is designed to help us grow more Christ like. It is a process and as we learn the lessons set before us we grow into the person whom God has made us to be and fulfilling our God given destinies.

The Holy Spirit is the most wonderful counsellor, guide, friend, exhorter, comforter, encourager and teacher and we have the Bible as the most incredible book to help us. We have the church and fellow believers to stand with us, pray for us and to strengthen us in our faith as fellow pilgrims on the journey. 

God wants us to succeed and even in the severest of trials, he is there with us and I am totally convinced that God will bring good out of every negative circumstance. He is honing and refining us. Perseverance is the key.

The writer of Hebrews encourages us: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. He brews 12: 1- 3

Don’t give up. Keep practising the good and you will succeed.

Education in God's hands

There has been some correspondence recently on a small corner of Facebook surrounding an article written on the BBC website about Christian education and in particular the use of ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) as a school curriculum.

Now I would be the first to agree that as a curriculum ACE has some difficulties but to say, as some would suggest, that it is ‘a system of indoctrination for fundamental and anti intellectual ideology’ or ‘fascist ideology wrapped in Christian language’ is giving the system more kudos than it deserves.

I would rather my children were educated using ACE than brought up in a system that believes nothing, has few morals and no values; a system that permits everything and then wonders why there are so many problems created by the freedom it cherishes so much.

I may be thought to be narrow minded because of these statements. The reality is I am very broad minded because I believe in a God whose love knows no bounds and whose plan and purpose for both individuals and mankind is so good, so awesome, so incredible and so far reaching that it is worth pursing with an energy and passion.

God does not want us indoctrinated into some sort of religious system and he certainly does not want to limit our knowledge, understanding and experience. God wants to expand our minds from the limitations of human knowledge and experience to the endless possibilities available to those who dare to see things his way.

ACE may be fallible and ‘narrow’ but it has the potential to open minds not only to God himself but also to the wonders of an awesome God who loves his creation because he made it. Creationism is not the last resting place of a few deluded, educationally lacking, intellectually challenged individuals but the only possible conclusion to a universe finely tuned and perfectly balanced for life on earth.

Scientists both Christian and non Christian marvel again and again at the precision of the dimensions and make-up of Earth, our solar system and the universe. It takes a far greater leap of credibility to believe in the random creation of the universe than a universe designed by an awesome Creator, smarter and infinitely more intelligent than his creation.

It is interesting that those who are most vehemently opposed to ACE and sometimes Christian education as well are those who want to exclude God from their lives and the planet. Unfortunately God is too big and too loving to permit that. He never has and never will wash his hands of any of us but will pursue each one of us extravagantly, recklessly and relentlessly till our dying day. His grace and love know no bounds.

ACE may be flawed but God is flawless, loving, kind, good, intelligent, gracious and everything than anyone from any culture, nation or time could ever desire. In him and him alone are found ‘all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge’ and he and he alone will satisfy our very souls.