A new era?

There has been much talk over the last little while of a new era, not just a new day or season, but a new era. Some may say I do not see anything that different. Where is this new era?

However, if we look at new eras in the Bible, none of them started that auspiciously but they all became planet changing; Noah, Abraham, Moses / Joshua, King David and Jesus himself.

Noah’s obedience ushered in a whole new era based on righteousness when God washed the planet of sin and iniquity through the flood, but it started with Noah obediently spending 120 years building an ark in the desert. For over a century, he would have had to endure the mocking of his contemporaries but even they must have wondered when all those animals turned up and entered the ark and it began to rain. Once the planet had been cleansed, God started again with Noah and his family – a new era that had started very inauspiciously.

Next, God called Abraham to found his dynasty, his people, the Jewish nation through a son not yet born to an old couple, because ‘Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness’ Genesis 15: 6. He trusted God, despite his and Sarah’s old age to give them a son. He was even prepared to sacrifice this son of the promise.  Now, despite every attempt of man and the enemy, the Jewish people flourish and have returned to their Promised Land. 

Moses too could never have realised the call on his life after his aborted attempt to fulfil his calling in his own strength. For 40 years Moses lived in the desert with the sheep, probably wondering if the call on his life had been lost forever with his reckless act of murder. For 40 years the entitlement and privilege of the royal Egyptian lifestyle was removed till all that was left was a man who had no illusions about who he was. ‘Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.’ 

Yet when God called him, he didn’t even jump up and say, ‘Here I am God. Send me.’ Five times he told God, ‘No!’. But God knew what was in him and by the time of the announcement of the tenth plague, Moses left the great Pharaoh’s presence ‘hot with anger.’ He was now so confident of who God was and what He could do that he led the Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt, took them across the Red Sea and despite all their moaning and complaining, led them for 40 years in the wilderness. God used Moses to build a new nation based on worship to their God at the tabernacle. It was a new era and foreshadowed the later great act of deliverance of the Son of God. Moses’ assistant Joshua completed the assignment and took the next generation into their Promised Land. 

Then Jesus himself, the ultimate promise of redemption for all mankind, started with a baby born to poor parents, placed in a manger because there was nowhere else to put the infant Son of God. Hardly the expected start. Even after his 3 years of ministry doing good and preaching the Kingdom of God, the crowds that had been so blessed, turned on him and demanded he be crucified. Yet that was all in God’s plans and crucifixion led to resurrection and the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost ushering in THE new era – salvation for all. 

The hallmark of all these new eras were obedient men and women, doing what God asked of them. It’s the same in our day We are called to walk in obedience to what God is saying to us and the Church. Has the new era already started with the revivals spreading across the universities and campuses in USA? Time will tell but we do know: 

28 “And afterward,

    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

    your old men will dream dreams,

    your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women,

    I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Joel 2: 28 – 29 

May we too be men and women of obedience and faith to trust that God is bringing about incredible events in our day that will see millions swept into the Kingdom ready for the return of the King of the Kings. 

Moses - it's never too late

I always find the story of Moses most encouraging. Despite his mistakes, despite his age, despite his doubts and fears, God used him powerfully. God saved his life and turned an arrogant and then fearful man into his vessel, submitted to him – a humble man, more humble than anyone else (Numbers 12: 3) and through him led a whole nation out of captivity into a new land, as God had promised. 

Moses was born into a time of infanticide and survived. He not only survived but thrived in the court of Pharaoh and according to Stephen, 'was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action' (Acts 7: 22). He was also raised knowing he was a Hebrew, and he had a destiny, to rescue his people from slavery. Like many before and since, he tried to make his destiny come to fruition in his way and time – and it didn’t work. Instead, he had to flee into the desert to Midian for 40 years. 

I sometimes ponder what Moses thought about his destiny during those 40 years. I am sure he thought it was all over, settled down in his new life with Zipporah and probably put his time in Egypt down to experience. I mean he hardly needed the wisdom of the Egyptians to be a shepherd. But again, it is surprising how many of God’s leaders were shepherds. Maybe we should send today’s ministers-in-training for a module on shepherding! 

And then after 40 years, God met Moses at the burning bush and commissioned him now ‘to go to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt’ (Exodus 3: 10). By this time, at the age of 80, Moses was not keen to go back to Egypt and Pharaoh. All his pride, all his trust in his own ability had vanished and now he had to learn to trust God.  Five times he argued with God about his calling and in the end, the only concession he negotiated was for Aaron to go with him and speak on his behalf. This was his calling and not even his brother could fulfil it. The man ‘powerful in speech and action’ had disappeared and the humble man powerful in God’s word and action was beginning to take shape.

Through the obedience of performing the 10 plagues, Moses learned that the only way to become the man God wanted him to be was to trust God and do things his way 

Miracle upon miracle followed; the Israelites plundered Egypt of quantities of gold, silver and jewels (enough to build the furnishings of the tabernacle), the angel of death passed over their homes with the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, a million people with all their animals left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and the powerful Egyptian army was annihilated. But they were free at least from the land of slavery, even if the slavery mentality was never fully delivered.   

For 40 years, Moses led these tiresome, doubting, idol-worshipping, grumbling and complaining people to the edge of the Promised Land. His destiny was fulfilled even if he never actually entered the land himself. Moses had to deal with his brother leading the people into idolatry, his brother and sister leading a rebellion, various other tragic rebellions but he also met with God in powerful, divine visitations. 

Moses’s story is one of encouragement. No matter how old we are, God has not finished with us till we take our final breath. If you are feeling God has forgotten you, your destiny is lying in tatters it is time to pick it up, dust it off and apply faith-filled prayers and see what God will do because ‘Nothing is impossible with God’ (Luke 2: 37). 

Presence in the days ahead

God tests our hearts in Life’s transitional moments, because the priorities we set at gear-change times can fix our course for years to come. Peter Grieg Dirty Glory

There is no doubt that this season of virus and lockdown has been a gear-change moment for all of us. Most of us have had the opportunity to re-evaluate our priorities, what and how we spend our time and with whom. Many Christians have taken the opportunity to reconnect with God in fresh ways. This has been an occasion of spiritual encounter and as we have experienced his presence, it has been wonderfully re-invigorating.

The question now is ‘What next?’ As lockdown eases and we start life in our new normal with different working practices, less travel, children starting to return to school, meeting family and friends again, how are these fresh experiences of God, these spiritual encounters and his presence going to affect us? We have two choices I believe. Settle or move on.

When Peter and John were immersed in the glory of the Transfiguration, they wanted to settle and build shelters for everyone. But Jesus had a calling to fulfil. He had not finished his teaching ministry, let alone his ultimate destination of the cross and resurrection. Refreshed he moved on back down the mountain and into his destiny.

We can take our new normal and add the presence of God to it, or we can make the presence of God the priority. I want the presence of God to lead me and shape the days ahead.

Gear change moments are incredibly important. The decisions and practices we establish in this new era, will dictate how life pans out in the future. This may feel like a wonderful new normal, less travel, opportunities for more family and friends time but without the presence of Jesus going before us, they will soon feel just as faded and jaded as the old times. Of course you may be in the midst of great uncertainty with your work, huge stresses with your family but how much more do we need to seek the presence of Jesus to carry us in the insecurities of the days ahead?

As Joshua and the Israelites stood on the banks of the River Jordan ready to move into the Promised Land, this is what happened.

² After three days the officers went throughout the camp, ³ giving orders to the people: ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. ⁴ Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. Joshua 3: 2 – 4

None of us have been this way before. We’ve never experienced a virus like this. We’ve never been confined to our homes for weeks before and we’ve come out of this season unsure of the way ahead. However the one thing we must do is follow the presence. God will guide us.

This is the time to discern God’s voice. I believe he is calling each of us into his new normal and that may require stepping out of the boat onto the water.  Not squeezing God into our changed schedules but making God the destination.

Moses got it. Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” Exodus 33: 15 - 18

You see what distinguishes us from everyone else is not going to church, having cleaner lips, spending our money better, being kinder. It is God’s presence. As we seek God for his presence it will overflow into every area of our lives, touching all those we come into contact with.

However like Moses, let us also be people who having experienced his presence now say ‘Show me your glory.’

Born to burn

Romans 12: 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord

The church was born on the day of Pentecost in fire. 

Acts 2: 1 – 4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Fire draws a crowd and the fire of God drew the crowd at Pentecost. It transformed a fisherman into an orator who preached with passion and conviction and 3000 were saved. It so inspired those early disciples that they revolutionised their world. They were prepared to die for the one who had died for them.

There are many references to fire in the Bible and most of them have to do with either the presence of God or his judgment.  As Simon Ponsonby wrote ‘If we will not embrace the fire of his love, we will experience it as the fire of his judgment.’

Moses met God at a burning bush – a place made holy by God’s presence so that Moses had to remove his shoes. I believe God placed a spark of his fire in Moses at that encounter that changed him from a timid shepherd into a man who could confront Pharaoh, one of the mightiest leaders of the known world. 

We read in Exodus 11 that after Moses had accosted Pharaoh for the final time ‘Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh’. What had happened to the timid shepherd? The fire of God had changed him.

Many of the rebellions against God and Moses in the desert were dealt with by fire from the golden calf (Exodus 32:20)  to Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16: 31 – 35).

God’s presence was revealed time and again with fire. Fire on Mount Sinai, the pillar of fire that led God’s people through the desert, Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the chariot of fire that took Elijah up to heaven. The sacrifice at the instigation of the priesthood was consumed by heavenly fire as was the sacrifice at the dedication of the temple.

In the New Testament John the Baptist promised that Jesus ‘will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire’ (Matthew 3:11). When Jesus returns it will be with ‘blazing fire’ (II Thessalonians 1: 7).  Our God after all is ‘a consuming fire’ (Deuteronomy 4: 24).

Paul inspires and exhorts us to be people of passion and fire – to keep our zeal alight and to blaze with spiritual fervour.  

Luke warm Christians have been the bane of the Church and never more so than in the Western church in the 21^st century where respectability and political correctness and God-help-us entertainment have infiltrated the ranks.

God is stirring up a fresh generation of radical, burning Christians. He wants believers who will be like John Wesley. ‘I felt ablaze with a desire to go the length and breadth of Wales to tell of the Saviour.’

I love the quote from W E Sangster when interviewing a nervous young man who said that he was not the type to set the Thames on fire replied, ‘I’m not interested to know if you could set the Thames on fire but if I was to pick you up by the scruff of the neck and drop you into the Thames, would it sizzle!”

God is looking for a generation of sizzling Christians whose lives have been burnt up on the altar of his love who are now ablaze with his presence. Zeal needs a fuel. The fuel is God’s presence, daily pursued by people not prepared to be half-hearted or lukewarm but devoted to their Lord and Saviour.

The giants of our day are not going to be overthrown by timid, fearful Christians but by burning Christians. That does not necessarily mean noisy and outspoken.  Quiet and passionate is powerful.

Let’s put some fuel on the fire of our lives and burn with God’s love that transforms our world.

Footnote: I am grateful to Simon Ponsonby and his book on Romans entitled God is for us. I have shamelessly taken the title of this blog from him.

God loves the outsiders and misfits

It’s Christmas.  The time when we ponder afresh the wonderful news of God becoming a baby, Immanuel, God with us.  This year I am drawn again and again to the misfits, the outsiders that are an integral part of this incredible story.

Firstly Mary, a completely unknown young lady living in Nazareth, a despised town, called to the greatest honour for a woman – to be the mother of the Son of God.  Joseph, an ordinary carpenter, called to stand with Mary and share in the social disgrace of a child conceived outside of marriage.

The first visitors to the infant Jesus were the social outcasts, the shepherds, those lowest on the ladder. The other significant visitors were the religious outcasts, the Gentiles. The contrast between the rural, coarse, illiterate Jewish shepherds and the highly educated, foreign, exotic Gentiles could not be stronger.   Jesus came for everyone not just the rich, the famous, the respectable or religious people and not just for his people the Jews but for all people.

It is hardly surprising though for the Bible is full of stories of those chosen from the outside to become important players in God’s plan of redemption. Moses was an exiled murderer hiding out in the desert so inadequate and insecure he didn’t think he could do anything for God. He certainly didn’t want to go and talk to Pharaoh and be the instrument for the release of the Israelites from captivity.

Or David, the youngest member of a large family of sons so insignificant he was out with the sheep not even in the family home. Some have proposed his legitimacy was in doubt which was why he was looking after the animals. However this was where he learned all the skills necessary to kill Goliath, survive in the desert when a king was determined to kill him and most importantly of all, the place where he developed into a man after God’s own heart. His beautiful psalms are a lasting testimony to the years spent as an outcast but which prepared him to be the greatest king Israel ever had and the ancestor of the Messiah.

Even Jesus’ forerunner and relative John the Baptist was a social outcast and misfit growing up in the desert dressed in camel hair. Yet Jesus said of him among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11: 11). Surely in the desert John developed into the one called ‘to prepare the way of the Lord.’

Jesus didn’t choose his disciples from the religious elite or synagogue. He chose rough fishermen who would become great fishers of men.

All of these men had to flow against the tide of the day, to stand up for the Lord and lead their nation into righteousness.

Jesus himself was the greatest outcast. The Son of God was born in a stable in obscurity and poverty because there was no room for his parents in society. His whole ministry was lived on the edge of society, feted one minute and condemned the next.

However this is a great source of encouragement for us, the ordinary made extraordinary by God’s call. Wherever we are whether we are in the spiritual desert, running from persecution, a social misfit or down the bottom end of society or just plain obscure, God uses people just like us. He calls us from the desert, obscurity, the despised places, the mundane where he has been transforming and training his sons and daughters, his people, his chosen ones to do extraordinary things for him.

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.

Every good and perfect gift

We have nothing to give that didn't first come from your hand,

We have nothing to offer you which you did not provide

Every good, perfect gift comes from your kind and gracious heart

And all we do is give back to you what always has been yours.

Who has given to you that it should be paid back to him?

Who has given to you as if you needed anything?

To you and from you comes all things O Lord

And all we do is give back to you what always has been yours.     Matt Redman

We do truly come into the world with nothing and we leave taking nothing with us.  We arrive as naked babies and we depart leaving all we have accumulated over the years behind us.

In this materialistic world we place huge value on things, our possessions and who has got what. We admire the rich and their lifestyle and despise the poor. Yet as Christians we must get hold of the truth that everything we have comes from God’s kind and gracious heart.

‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ the Psalmist declares in Psalm 24:1. God and God alone is the Creator and whilst his creation may be very pleased with their efforts at creating things including wealth from what he has provided, the reality is that even these abilities come from him (Deuteronomy 8: 18).

When God gave Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle and all its furnishings, he anointed Bezalel ‘with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts – to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship (Exodus 31: 3 – 5). Moreover God appointed Oholiab to help him. Their skills came from God.

It can be rather galling to think we are not as brilliant as we thought and that everything we have has not come from our own efforts. However actually getting hold of this truth that it all comes from God is very liberating. 

God has given us gifts and abilities because he wants us to use them both for our enjoyment and to bless others. If we let God use us, our abilities become liberated from what we can do to what God can do through us. I am sure Bezalel was amazed at what God enabled him to create.

Even in the area of wealth creation, God will use us to be a great blessing to all around us. We all know ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35) and it is indeed a great joy to give gifts or money. Our world desperately needs people who can handle wealth correctly and the first step in that is acknowledging it didn't come from us and our own labours in the first place. When we realise everything comes from God, it is so much easier to pass it on to others, knowing that God will always pour in where we have poured out.

The Bible is full of assurances that God will satisfy our desires as we trust him (Psalm 37: 4 and 145: 19 as examples). We never need fear being generous.

We have nothing to offer God that didn't come from him in the first place. Our very breath is a gift from God.  God wants to bless us with so much more but the key is to realise it all came from him and with thankful hearts try to become a giver with a heart like God’s because he is the ultimate Giver. 

God of the miraculous

One of the advantages of taking a topic when reading the Bible rather than reading through a Gospel or another book is that incredible themes start to lift off the pages.

One thing I have been reminded of recently is that God is the God of truly outstanding, amazing miracles. Not just that but when God is about to do something significant, it is always accompanied by the miraculous.

 Noah built an ark in the desert for 120 years and God brought the water to float it. Abraham and Sarah were not just old but ‘as good as dead’ (Hebrews 11: 12) yet their one son (born to Sarah aged 90) birthed the whole of the Jewish race

. 

Moses, an 80 year old no-hoper, was so insecure that he argued with God 5 times about his inability to fulfil his calling. Yet he ended up leading a motley group of slaves out from one of the most powerful military nations in the world at that time. In the process he performed outstanding miracles including the parting of the Red Sea which led to the complete overthrow of the military might of Egypt. God miraculously provided water from a rock for approx 2 million people and fed these people morning and evening for 40 years.

They entered their Promised Land when God again parted the waters, this time of the swollen, flooded River Jordan. The Israelites then took the first fortified city they came across – not by military might – but by walking round the walls every day for 7 days and the walls collapsed.

And so it goes on; curses turned into blessings (Numbers 24: 10 - 11), shepherd boys becoming kings (Psalm 78: 70 - 71), mighty armies overthrown by the power of praise (II Chronicles 20: 22) and many more until we come to most incredible miracle of all; God himself giving up all his glory, majesty and power to become a tiny baby born of a virgin. This happened in an insignificant town, not in a palace and not even in a home but outside with the animals.

The Christmas story is full of miracles – miracle babies born to elderly parents like Zechariah and Elizabeth, a virgin birth, the glorious heavenly host revealed to humble shepherds and Gentile magi travelling miles to follow a star to worship a king that his own people did not even acknowledge.

He continually reveals himself today as a miracle working God.

Sometimes I think our God is just too small. We struggle to believe that the God who parted the Red Sea will come in and make a way for us where there appears to be no way. We battle to realise that the God who fed two million people every day for 40 years will provide for us and that the man who raised Jairus’ daughter and Dorcas (to name just two) will breathe life into our hopeless looking, dead situations.

Or that the same God who inspired 5000 people to be saved in one day can save our family and friends.  Or that the God who forgave Zacchaeus and the woman caught in adultery will forgive our sins. Or that the God who healed Naaman the leper will heal our eczema and so on.

Our faith is so small and yet our God is so big.

Let’s ask God to forgive us for our unbelief and help us stir up again the gift of faith that he has given each one of us so that we can come to our miracle working God and be amazed at the things he wants to do in and through our lives.