No sense of entitlement

If you love those who love you what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Luke 6: 32

But love your enemies, do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.  Luke 6: 35 – 36

One thing that is very prevalent in UK at the moment, especially amongst the younger generation, is a strong sense of entitlement. They feel they are owed work, money, entertainment, youth clubs and so on. It is their right to have these things. They see that others have them so they also want them. What they do not see is that people have often worked hard for these things and they are the fruits of their labours.

My sister was a local magistrate and one Christmas a woman came before the bench charged with shop lifting. She was unemployed and felt her children deserved a good Christmas and so she had stolen £500 worth of Christmas goods in order to give them the Christmas she felt they should have. She did not think there was anything wrong in what she had done.

Recompense and compensation are all around us and we are constantly told it is our right to have them. If you have an accident, someone must be blamed and you must get compensation. Everything is someone’s fault and they must not only recognise their fault, they must pay for it.

As Christians we must guard against any sense of entitlement especially to redress and compensation. We are not entitled to anything yet through Jesus and his incredible sacrifice on the cross, we have absolutely everything. It is by grace, the unmerited favour of God, that we receive it all. However in order to live in the fullness of all that Jesus has for us we must follow his example. Jesus was entitled to the highest honour, respect and glory. Yet he was mocked, scorned, ridiculed, beaten and crucified. What he did though was forgive his oppressors.

We may not be treated in this way but we too will have times when people mistreat, misunderstand and misuse us and the way Jesus dealt with his enemies and those who mistreated him is the same for us. He says forgive your enemies and do good to them. We may feel that if someone has wronged us we must have an apology and they must put things right but that is not Jesus’ way. We cannot demand compensation and restitution. Like Jesus, we must forgive those who hurt or misuse us and we must bless them as well. Too often though we think we have forgiven people, yet we go on speaking ill of them. In so doing we hurt ourselves most of all. However as we bless them, we release them from our unforgiveness, bitterness and judgement and any sense that they owe us anything and in so doing, we release ourselves also.

A sense of entitlement never brings anything good to us. A loving joyful acceptance of God’s amazing faithfulness and abundant provision to us brought to us by grace brings blessing upon blessing to our lives.

The downside of healing the leper

Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:  “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Mark 1: 42 – 45

This is the story of a leper who came to Jesus and asked him to heal him. He had such faith that if Jesus was willing, he would be healed and his faith was rewarded. Jesus was willing and he stretched out his hand and the leper was immediately healed.

However Jesus told him with a strong warning not to tell this to anyone. In the Amplified it says Jesus charged him sternly (sharply and threateningly, and with earnest admonition) and [acting with deep feeling thrust him forth and] sent him away at once. Jesus had good reasons for doing this. As a result of the leper’s talking freely, it caused Jesus to be seriously inconvenienced and it certainly severely hampered his ministry. Jesus ended up having to live away from society.

 We can understand why the man wanted to tell everyone and his reasons may have been good in that he wanted God to be glorified for his miracle or it may just be that he wanted to be openly welcomed back into society. Leprosy was a terrible cause of social exclusion and normally lepers would live and die away from family and friends, so to be healed was a memorable miracle.  However Jesus warned him strongly and sternly not to tell anyone and yet he ignored Jesus and went and told everyone.

 I doubt if the leper realised what a problem he was causing Jesus. He just did what he thought was best but it is obedience that God values.  God has the bigger picture and can see things from all angles for all people. When God asks us to do things his way it is because he really does know best.

Perhaps next time God asks us to do something his way, the first thing is to obey. Then we can take it up with God and ask him why it had to be this way and he may well tell us or let events unfold that show that he knew something we didn’t. That has happened to me on several occasions and I know now to go with not against the check in the Spirit because inevitably later on, all will become clear.

God wants our obedience not because he wants slavish robots who cannot think for themselves but because he wants us to walk freely in the joy of knowing that God’s ways are best for everybody and will bring the greatest blessing to both ourselves and those around us.

 

Legacy

But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children Psalm 103:17

Legacy was the big buzz word of the London 2012 Olympics by which it meant that the organisers wanted something to live on after the Games that would be an inheritance to the nation.  Everyone hopes that good sporting facilities and an increased desire by people to participate in sport will last long after the happy memories of the Olympics start to fade.

I believe legacy is also very important for us as Christians – that we do not just live for our lives but that we leave something after we have gone to heaven that will bless those coming after us.

We are on holiday in Wales and one day we briefly passed some women who as they went by us were singing away. One of the men with them said to us rather apologetically, ‘Revival has come.’ It is the sort of remark that would never be made in England because we have no recent history of revival unlike the Welsh. The 1904 Welsh revival is still in the collective memory over a hundred years later so when people are singing happily away it is a natural thing to say that revival has come. That is legacy.

An Anglican clergyman Henry Lyte wrote the hymn Abide with me three weeks before he died of TB in 1847.  I wonder if he knows that it is still sung regularly today and especially at FA Cup Finals and would he be delighted that 165 years after his death his hymn was used in the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games to movingly commemorate the 7 / 7 London terrorist bombings?

Jarrod Cooper wrote that of the 1,394 known descendants of Jonathan Edwards, the famed 18th century revival preacher, 100 became preachers and missionaries,100 lawyers, 80 public officials, 75 army and navy officers, 65 college professors, 60 physicians, 60 prominent authors, 30 judges, 13 college presidents, 3 United States senators, and one a vice-president of the United States. 42% of his descendants made a significant contribution to society.

One of Edwards’ contemporaries, Max Jukes had 310 descendants who died as paupers, 150 criminals, 100 were drunkards, 7 were murderers, and more than half of the women were prostitutes.

God talks a lot about generations in the Bible and passing on the blessing to thousands of generations.  The Bible is filled with examples of God blessing people because of the actions of their godly ancestors.  We all leave a legacy; the question is what sort of legacy will we leave? I am very conscious of the legacy that has been left to me both individually and spiritually. My desire is that both as individuals and as a Church, we make a difference in our area of influence and leave a blessed legacy that others can build on.

 

It's the thought that counts

It is more blessed to give than to receive.  Acts 20: 35

There is no doubt that when giving a gift, it is the thought that counts.  Some of the best gifts I have received have had small monetary value but huge value in terms of the thought behind the gift. One Mother’s Day I received four gifts from my children, none of which had great monetary value but each of which said a huge amount about the giver. Each child had taken a great deal of thought to give me something that would bless me and therefore each gift was very precious to me.  Amongst the gifts was a CD compilation of my favourite worship songs put together by my younger son. The thought behind it was amazing that he knew the songs I liked and as I listened to it for the first time, I never knew what the next track would be and so the gift became a blessing over and over again.

It is very hard to give something to someone who seems to have everything. The Royal Family apparently only gives small gifts to each other at Christmas. The Queen was reportedly delighted when someone gave her an apron. She loved it and whoever had given it had thought about it and knew it would give her pleasure.

God has everything and it all belongs to him. In themselves the Trinity are complete. They need no one or nothing more but yet they draw us into this complete relationship of love. Their love is so overwhelming they want all of their wonderful creation to enjoy it. So what can we bring to the One who has and is everything?

The answer of course is the only thing we have to give – our lives, our hearts and our love. So many people want to live independently of God not realising they are denying themselves the greatest gift that has been given to humanity – a relationship with God. What else could anyone want? Everything else pales into insignificance.  Yes man’s greatest treasure so often is his freedom and his independence, not realising that actually he is not living free but in bondage to sin, pain and suffering.  Only a life given freely to the one who gives life can lead to true freedom for mankind.

Jesus gave us all he could give; his life. The greatest gift we can give is our life given back to the one who loves us so much he died for us so we could enjoy fellowship and true freedom with him.

Older brothers

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. Genesis 37: 5

 Joseph as we know had a lot of trouble with his older brothers who were so irritated by his dreams and jealous of his coat that they tried to get rid of him. In fact they would have killed him if Reuben had not stopped them and so they sold him to slavery instead. David too had trouble with his jealous brothers when he was the one chosen and anointed to be king by Samuel (I Samuel 17: 28). Moses was the younger brother and he had trouble from Miriam and Aaron’s jealousy (Numbers 12). Of course the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son was also upset by the father’s forgiving attitude when his profligate brother arrived home having spent his share of the family fortune.

 Older brothers are sometimes jealous of their ‘baby’ brother and it may go back to childhood. Certainly in ancient Middle East culture much emphasis was placed on the oldest son who would carry on the family name and inherited half of his father’s wealth. So for a younger brother to be singled out for greater things often at an early age such as Joseph or David would have been very galling.

 The church is unfortunately full of ‘older brothers’, jealous of the success of their younger brothers who may seem to be more talented and anointed. Older brothers have real trouble blessing the success of others. I have said this before but others do not need to fail in order for us to succeed. We can all succeed in Jesus. Jealousy leads to awful acts of revenge and bitterness. Younger brothers will succeed despite the attitude of the older brother and the older brother is then just seen to be bitter and resentful.

All of God’s blessings are there for all of us – we do not need to covet other people’s blessing. We need to seek earnestly for our own and bless others in theirs even if they are younger than us either in years or Christian walk or appear to be more successful. Success in the Kingdom is measured though by obedience to what God has called us to do. We must resist the temptation to measure success either by comparing ourselves to others or by worldly standards – wealth, prominence or numbers. We can be a source of such encouragement to others if we only bless their endeavours and rest secure in what God has called us to do.

The Lord bless you and keep you

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.  Numbers 6: 24 – 26

Personally I find it very hard to imagine the Lord’s face and especially the expression on it. There is something in me that is a little bit worried that there will be a hint of disappointment, a fleeting impression of hurt, a glint of exasperation or frustration or worse still a look of irritation but as usual the truth is quite different.

I know that in reality the expression on God’s face will be one of so much love, grace and approval that we would find it hard to look at. Approving, loving glances are probably so unusual for us that we might even be embarrassed. We know what we are like and that we are not worthy to receive such love and affirmation yet that is what God gives us. He knows what we are like and yet his love and approval flow over us. His voice whispers, ‘I am so proud of you,’ and that may be something no one ever said to you before.

The Lord’s face is graciously turned towards us today and shines upon us. I like that. I love the warmth of the sun on me and God shines his love on us. We can feel its warmth with not a cloud of hurt, disappointment, exasperation, frustration or irritation in it.

As we learn to be more like Mary and sit at Jesus’ feet and look up into his face, we will feel and I mean physically feel his love for us. As his face is turned towards us, his peace washes over us.

Let this wonderful blessing be yours today.

The balloon of offence

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Romans 12: 14
Bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you Luke 6: 28

It is an unfortunate fact that offence is just as rife in the church as anywhere else. I do not know if this is because we expect higher standards from Christians especially Christian leaders so we get very disappointed and offended when people do not come up to the standards we expect.

God spoke to me today that offence is like blowing up a balloon. The more we feel offended and think and talk about it the more air we put in the balloon and the more life we give to it. The balloon of offence is easily inflated but it is also easily deflated.

They key is our old friend forgiveness. I wrote about this on 5^th February under the title Forgive and be forgiven but just to briefly recap, forgiveness is not a feeling but a choice. We choose to forgive no matter how we feel. Forgiveness releases both ourselves and the one who has offended us. In particular it releases us from bitterness and resentment and is one of the major keys to walking the path of freedom that Jesus won for us on the cross.

Unfortunately offence binds us back up again and the more we inflate the balloon of offence by hanging onto the hurt and talking about it to others, the larger it all gets. Forgiveness though is like putting a pin into the balloon but to get the complete freedom and victory we not only have to forgive but also to bless those who have hurt us. This is really important as blessing is like pouring good things over the person who has offended or hurt us. Like forgiveness, we may not feel like it, but it is a choice to make and as we make that choice I can assure you it helps tremendously. It is hard to hang onto anger and hurt when we bless people who have hurt us.

If someone has offended you, forgive them and bless them. Deflate the balloon of offence and urge others to do the same. The devil loves to keep offence going round and round the church. Let’s stop his schemes and love, forgive and bless one another.