Keep calm and carry on

If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great offences to rest. Ecclesiastes 10: 4 NIV

If the temper of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place [or show a resisting spirit]; for gentleness and calmness prevent or put a stop to great offenses. Ecclesiastes 10: 4 Amplified

I am sure you will have seen one of the Keep Calm and Carry On posters, T shirts, mugs and so on that are prevalent everywhere nowadays. They and all the subsequent spin offs in the Keep Calm range are based on a Second World War Ministry of Information poster that was prepared in case of imminent invasion. Funnily enough these posters were never used and it was only because a book shop owner found one of the few remaining ones in 2000 and put it up in his shop that led to its current fame.

 This verse from Ecclesiastes could be wonderfully illustrated with a Keep Calm and Carry On poster.  The context of this verse is that of a king or ruler losing his temper with a courtier or servant who has not actually done anything wrong. The courtier is advised not to stamp out of the king’s presence in anger and offence but to stay where they are and keep calm. This we are assured will lay great offences to rest.

Few of us will be in this particular situation of serving an earthly king but the same principle can be applied to those who have some authority over us whether our boss at work or the leaders at church. Too often when we are grieved and offended by false accusation or just a misunderstanding, the first temptation is to storm out of the room or reply angrily to what is being said.

However, the same principle that the Teacher advises can be applied here. It is better to stay put and keep calm. Often that in itself will calm the whole situation down. Leaving in a huff inflames an already inflammatory situation.  Calmly explaining yourself if asked is fine but yelling and justifying oneself, does not help. In fact I think justifying yourself is often unnecessary. If the accusation or comment is false, the truth always comes out in time. God will always justify you and if you know that you have done nothing wrong, then you can rest in that assurance.  

The Teacher of Ecclesiastes, who was probably Solomon, would have had a kingly perspective on this and he knew what he was talking about.  Sometimes the pressure of kingship or leadership will lead to a king or leader speaking out inappropriately and maybe falsely maligning someone. He was not condoning it but showing the best way to deal with a situation like this.

Keeping calm, showing respect and carrying on shows great dignity on your part and you in turn will be respected.

 

He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen

I thought I would share with you something that I have read and re-read many times which I have found really helpful in my Christian walk - and I hope you do too. It is from He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen.

I used to be driven to do something great for God.  I volunteered for numerous opportunities and worked hard in the hopes that some book I was writing, some church I was planting, or some organization I was helping would accomplish great things for God.  While I think God used my misguided zeal in spite of myself, nothing I did ever rose to the level of my expectations.  Instead, my pursuits seemed to distract me from God, consume my life, and leave me stressed out or worn out.

I’m not driven anymore. I haven’t tried to do anything great for God in more than a decade, and yet I have seen him use my life in ways that always exceed my expectations.  What changed? I did, by his grace.

My desire to do something great for God served me far more than it ever did him. It kept me too busy to enjoy him and distracted me from the real ministry opportunities he brought across my path every day.

I used to start my day laying out my plans before God and seeking his blessing on them. How silly! Why would I want God to be the servant of my agenda? God’s plans for my day far exceed mine. I can almost hear him now as I awaken: “Wayne, I’m going to touch some people today. Do you want to come along?”

It’s amazing how gentle that is, but all the more powerful because it is.  I don’t have to go. God’s work won’t be thwarted by my lack of participation. He will touch people anyway, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. He does things I’ve never dreamed of and uses me in ways I could never conceive. His focus on touching people instead of managing programs has revolutionized my view of ministry. It requires no less diligence on my part but directs that diligence in far more fruitful endeavours.

If you’ve never known the joy of simply living in God’s acceptance instead of trying to earn it, your most exciting days in Christ are ahead of you. People who learn to live out of a genuine love relationship with the God of the universe will live in more power, more joy, and more righteousness than anyone motivated by fear of his judgment.

For your personal journey
Spend a few moments thinking what you are still counting in your relationship with God. Is it failures? Minutes in prayer?  Number of converts?  If you find yourself doing those things, ask God to help you receive what he has already given you. Stop doing anything that seeks to earn his love and learn to do what you do simply because you already have his love. This is quite a change of mind that only God’s Spirit can produce.

Healing the nations

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fall. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.  Ezekiel 47: 12

This passage in Ezekiel 47 is one of my favourite passages of Scripture. The river of God is the river of life because it flows from God’s sanctuary. Everything about the river of God speaks of abundance.  The river flows from ankle deep to so deep that no one can even cross it (47: 5). A great number of trees (47:7) grow along its banks. The life giving water turns salt water to fresh (47: 9).  Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows with large numbers of fish. (47: 9). The river is so abundant in life that fishermen will fish all along the banks of what is now the Dead Sea.

Even the marshes and swamps, not touched by the river, will be useful for salt. Finally abundant fruit will grow from the many trees growing on both banks of the river. The trees are so healthy and full of life that their leaves do not wither and their fruit doesn’t fall to the ground. In fact the trees produce a fresh crop of fruit every month.  Their fruit is picked for food and the leaves of the tree are for healing. In Revelation 22:5 which also speaks of the river of God, it says the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.

What a wonderful picture this is of the life giving river of God. It is full of hope for the believer that God wants to bring fullness in every way to unpromising, barren situations. It speaks of the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who wants to flow through our lives, our churches and nations bringing his life giving abundance to all he touches.

How we need that work through the life flow of the Holy Spirit. In particular we need the healing of the nations. The planet is full of wars and disputes. Nation is rising up against nation and there is hatred everywhere. There is so much entrenched racialism and bitter hostility often going back centuries that needs the restoring work of the Holy Spirit. 

In eternity Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:4). Jesus died for everyone and in heaven there will be a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).

I believe though God wants churches to be places not just of healing from sickness and disease but also healing and restoring relationships between people including healing between nationalities from racialism and prejudices - now. The Church can be a picture of genuine love and fellowship between people from all nations that provides a picture to unbelievers of God’s love for his world.  Nowhere else can there be genuine love between people of all nationalities than in the Church where God’s river flows.

 

Higher thoughts

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

I am sure you have seen circulating round the internet and Facebook messages with words that appear all jumbled up and yet you can still read them.  The latest is one with numbers instead of letters and again after a moment you can read it.  It shows the abilities the brain has which we do not tap into. 

There was a picture on Facebook yesterday of an autistic young man who after just a 20 minute helicopter flight over New York, had drawn a huge intricate picture of New York with all the buildings in all their detail and in correct proportion to one another. It was incredible.

All this leads me to say that our brains and therefore our thoughts are an untapped resource. I know that statistically we only use a small percentage of our brain power and when you look at these things, you realise that is true. 

In eternity, our minds will be free from sin and restored to see, understand and think Godly thoughts.  We will understand things we did not have a clue about here; things that never made sense, especially in relation to God, will start to clarify in our minds. We have eternity to learn about things far too lofty for our minds at this moment.

However, I do not think that means we have to just sit back and wait for the sweet by and by and let our minds grind along the bottom of the sea of understanding. God wants to renew our minds, first of all to know him and then to realise what great plans and purposes he has for our lives. He wants to transform our minds so we will know his good plans for us (Romans 12:2). He wants to wash our minds with his word so that all those ungodly beliefs, doubts and insecurities get cleansed away (Ephesians 5:26).

Finally I think he wants us to know and understand things that we never knew or understood before.  He wants to open up the wonders of creation to inquiring minds and as the Creator reveal his thoughts and ways to us. He wants to release creativity in ways we have never been able to even imagine before. I believe we should be asking God not just to renew our minds to Godly thinking but also to expand them and reveal truth, wisdom and creativity to us; to help us learn and express fresh wonders every day.

Even in eternity, I do not think we will ever plumb the depths of Godly wisdom and knowledge but our renewed and liberated minds will wonder and marvel afresh at what an incredible, almighty and truly awesome God we love and serve.  Nevertheless we can start now to revel in enlarged minds that soar to higher thoughts than we ever thought possible.

 

Let my words be few

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfil it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfil your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfil it.  Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. Ecclesiastes 5: 2, 4 – 6

 When I first read these words from Ecclesiastes, I did not take into account the significance of making a hasty vow. I was more concerned about the problems of hasty words and the problems they can cause.  However I kept being drawn back to the matter of a vow and when I looked into this further, I realised that God views the keeping of vows as a very grave matter. There are many instances especially in the Old Testament of the importance of fulfilling your vow. 

Nowadays I think we rarely make vows in the same way but we can make hasty promises or deals with God and these are equally important matters. Words along the lines of ‘O God if only you will …… (fill in your own blank) then I will ….. (again fill in your own blank).’ Unfortunately what may happen is that when God keeps his side of the promise, we forget our part. We may be thankful that God has acted in the situation that was troubling us but we just move on.

God however has not forgotten and a vow or promise must be fulfilled; we must keep our part of the bargain.  Unfortunately it is very common nowadays that people do not keep their promises.  Even Christians cannot be relied upon to keep their word which is tragic.  We should be the most reliable and dependable people.

I hate it when people make promises to me that I know they cannot or will not keep. My philosophy is ‘if you don’t mean it, don’t say it.’ We are under no compunction to say or promise or vow anything, so we must be careful what we say or promise.

Broken promises and broken vows break trust and therefore damage relationships. I think that is why it is vital that we fulfil vows with God. Take Hannah, who made a vow with God that if he gave her a son, she would give the baby to serve the Lord. Suppose that when Samuel was born, Hannah reneged on her vow. She would always feel guilty and her relationship with God would be forever damaged. I know a pastor who said he would do something for me and didn’t. Next time I saw him, he could hardly look me in the face or greet me. Broken vows break relationships.

Making a vow with God is extremely important but so is a promise with someone else. I think that is why Jesus said, ‘Again, you have heard it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord’. But I tell you do not swear an oath at all … simply let your yes be yes and your no, no.  (Matthew 5: 33 – 37).

We must let our words be few when making vows and promises so we can keep them and maintain unity and trust with God and our family and friends.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Is life meaningless?

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my work and this was the reward for all my labour.

Yet when I had surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve.

Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.    Ecclesiastes 2: 10 – 11

 There can be times when we look at our lives and wonder whether we have achieved anything worthwhile. The writer of Ecclesiastes, thought by many to be King Solomon, evaluated his life and despite all that he had achieved (and Solomon achieved more than anyone else I Kings 4: 29 - 34), he wrote that it was all meaningless. In fact he says, ‘for a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless (2:21).

 At some point in your life, you may realise you are not going to do some of the things that you thought you might do or even wanted to. These can be hard pills to swallow. Perhaps you have not got married, had children, got the promotion you expected. Perhaps an accident, disability, ill health, divorce or redundancy have stopped you achieving what you thought of as your heart’s desire. Nevertheless that does not mean your life has been meaningless or worhtwhile.

We can look at our life and draw some wrong conclusions. If we evaluate our lives by the world’s standards, very few of us will have any achievements to commend ourselves. The world only values the outwardly successful, famous or beautiful. However if we look at our lives from God’s perspective with an eternal mind set, things look very different. God values the faithful, trustworthy, honest, diligent, persevering, kind, loving, joyful, peaceful person. What matters most is not our achievements but our fruit. 

 Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy says of those people who see their life as a failure; much of the distress of these good people comes from a failure to realize that their life lies before them; that they are coming to the end of their present life, life ‘in the flesh’ is of little significance. What is of significance in the kind of person they have become. Circumstances and other people are not in control of an individual’s character or the life that lies endlessly before us in the kingdom of God.

For the Christian, this life is not all there is. This is just the start and we look forward to a life in eternity when all things will be restored. The best really is to come and we must not look at our life or anyone else’s and see it as meaningless or a failure. We have a wonderful future with God and we must always keep our eye on that truth for God has incredible things beyond our imagination here on earth ready for us when our earthly life finishes. Our life truly is going from glory to glory.

 

The guarentee of our future inheritance

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory Ephesians 1: 13 - 14

One of the amazing things that people who have visited heaven before their death tell us about is the ability to communicate without using the spoken word. This is how it is described in one account I read:

Communication was forming in my mind without the need for sound. ‘Hey how are you doing?’ a man asked matter-of-factly. ‘How long have you been here?’

I told him I had only just arrived but I was stunned, because it was like he was speaking with two voices. Underlying what he’d said was this stream of affirmation that continuously kept telling me what an amazing person I am and what wonderful qualities I have. I will never be able to express the joy I felt at this.  Excerpt from Real Life, Real Miracles by James L. Garlow and Keith Wall.

Telepathy, which is what we call this, is God’s creation which was stolen by the devil at the fall. The devil now has full use of it on earth which is why as Christians we must not use it but at the recreation of all good things, telepathy in all its original power and beauty to communicate not just words but ideas, pictures, affirmation, love will be restored to us just as it is in heaven.

Of course this is how God communicates with us now. He rarely uses the spoken word but he uses his written word and also forms thoughts, ideas and pictures in our minds. He constantly seeks to affirm us with his love. He talks to us continuously without speaking aloud, if we are listening. We may not speak to one another using this means of communication but God does.

This is just one of the many things that I believe we now have as a deposit through the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing what is to come.  In Bible times a seal was not just a sign of ownership but also could be used as a pledge or down payment which would guarantee the full amount, paid later. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as such a guarantee. When we die or when Jesus returns, everything we have just a tiny part or glimpse of now will come to us in its fullness.

We will see, know and understand then what we have only an inkling of now. So many things lost in the fall will be redeemed to us fully; communion with God, health, strength, vitality, prosperity. As Paul says, ‘we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).

We will be fully redeemed and restored to how God meant things to be and how wonderful that will be for us all            `.

God's seal of ownership

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  II Corinthians 1: 21 – 22

There is no doubt that there are images in the Bible that are used to explain spiritual matters that are unfamiliar to us today. For instance when I read that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and there are several places where this occurs, the image conjured up in my mind is of my dad with a stick of red sealing wax, lighting the end so it melted and then the red wax dripped messily onto the string of a parcel. He then pressed his signet ring onto the wax to seal it. No one bothers with that nowadays. It was done for security purposes so one could see if a parcel had been interfered with.

In Bible times and through into modern times, a seal was a most important item of ownership. Items with the king’s seal impressed on them meant they came from the king and belonged to him. If anyone wanted to know the authenticity of something, they looked at the seal. Sometimes it was formed using a clay tablet or cylinder and sometimes it was a ring. In various places in the Bible, if someone was given the king’s or father’s signet ring, it meant they operated on behalf of the owner. It was a sign of authority.

Today I sat and thought about what that meant for us as Christians that God has placed his seal upon us, the seal being the Holy Spirit.  It means we belong to God and we can live under his anointing and authority. So often though in the west, people do not want to belong to anyone; no one owns them. They want to be independent, free thinking people. That however is a very dangerous place to be because they have little authority of their own and they are left unprotected.

Dependency on God does not mean we are mindless people, unable to think for ourselves. It means we are people who have the mind of Christ and are free to think higher thoughts and with greater creativity than ever before. ‘So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed’ John 8: 36. Jesus has set us free from sin and its consequences and so we are free to be who God has made us to be. His plans and purposes for our lives are infinitely superior to our plans.

God is good and has no desire to see us bound. Rather under his ownership, which Jesus bought with his precious blood, we are not slaves but sons and daughters with all the privileges of being in the royal family. A seal may not be something we are familiar with today but the concept of being under God’s protection and ownership does not bind us into slavery but liberates us into our true destiny.

Sealed with the Holy Spirit: Ephesians 1: 13 – 14, 4: 30; II Corinthians 1: 22, 5:5

Judah’s seal: Genesis 38: 18

Joseph given Pharaoh’s ring: Genesis 41: 42

Zerubbabel promised to be like God’s signet ring: Haggai 2: 23

The prodigal son given the father’s ring: Luke 15: 22

 

 

 

The days in which we live

When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.  Mark 13: 7 - 10

These verses would seem to indicate that we are indeed in the last days – the days before Jesus returns in power and glory.  North Korea is threatening all sorts of things involving nuclear weapons, Palestine and Israel are on the verge of war and there are other wars all over the planet.  There are more earthquakes now than at any time in history and certainly famine is widespread.

The rapid spread of technology means we are more aware of world affairs than at any time in history.  However there have been other times in the past when the church felt it was living in the last days.  I believe in John Wesley’s time, the church believed Jesus would be returning soon. Certainly there must have been times when believers in other parts of the world would have looked at events in the light of these verses and thought Jesus’ second coming was imminent.

So whether these are the last of the last days or just another birth pang, Jesus makes a few things clear.  The first is not to be alarmed.  Our God is in charge of world history. He is not sitting back letting it all happen and then at the last moment sending Jesus to the earth. There are verses all through the Bible which says that God is in control of the nations. Many people will be panicky but we must not.

We must of course be praying diligently and the other thing we must be prepared to do is to be a witness. The Gospel is to go out into all the world and that means each one of us must be prepared to share the good news of God’s love wherever we have opportunity. We may be taken before governments and kings and, if we are, we will be given the words to say but everyone of us will need to be praying and sharing God’s love.

Salvation is what matters most. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). On the cross, Jesus destroyed the power of sin and death so that by believing in him, we might all be saved from our sin to spend eternity with him (I Timothy 2:4). That is the Gospel, the good news. That is what everyone MUST hear and in these increasingly uncertain times, when there are wars and rumours of wars, of banks wobbling and financial institutions crumbling, when governments don’t really know what to do, the Church and we as Christians must speak forth God’s love and salvation to a lost and dying world. 

Heaven - our eternal destination

There is no doubt that the more that I read and think about heaven, the more fantastic it seems to be. There are many books around with testimonies of God’s amazing intervention in people’s lives in the form of miracles and some of these have involved people being given glimpses of heaven. This not only encourages the individual but also us, the reader.

Naturally everyone’s experience is different but all of them are incredible and involve wonderful things. Heaven is indeed a wonderful place and one common theme seems to be that it is completely pervaded by light. One account that I read involved a man whose son had been tragically killed at an early age. He was devastated but God took him to heaven to see his son. He describes this incredible but not blinding light that emanated from everything.  There was light and life everywhere which is not surprising as the Bible is full of references to God being light and bringing light and life to the world.

However, whenever you start to talk to people about heaven, they think you are being morbid. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are going to spend eternity in heaven, if we have given our hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and it is a wonderful thought that we will be with him forever in this incredible place that he has prepared for his people.

I often wonder, especially around this Easter time, why the disciples did not understand or take onboard what Jesus was saying to them about being crucified and raised from the dead.  No one comprehended this though Jesus told them at least five times.. No one was waiting for the resurrection and indeed the disciples had great difficulty believing it until Jesus came and stood amongst them with his nail scarred hands and feet. Was there a veil over their eyes? Was the truth deliberately hidden from them or were they just like us, pushing an unpleasant thought under the carpet?

Dying is so full of negative emotions that in the west at least, no one wants to talk about it. Our eyes are earth bound instead of heaven gazing.  However, we are told to ‘set our minds on things above not on earthly things (Colossians 3: 2). It is not bad luck to think about heaven and dying but a realistic and exciting prospect even if we do not want it to happen today! We can have the attitude that there is so much to live for here on earth that we don’t need to think about heaven.

The truth is that everything we do here affects our heavenly experience. Our life here is a preparation for our heavenly eternal life. I believe that getting a realisation that our earthly life is but a blip before the main event of eternity in heaven helps us live much more effectively here on earth.

Christians should be excited about their eternal prospects. Let’s talk positively about heaven and how to get there. The world needs to know and God has chosen us to continue the work started by the disciples to tell the world that Jesus is the resurrection and has made the way for each one of us to spend eternity with him in the incredible, amazing place called heaven.