No filters please

This morning I heard two things that deeply impacted me.  Firstly I was listening to a message from John 4 about the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at the well in Sychar. The woman had more than a bit of a past but Jesus didn’t hesitate to get into conversation with her.

The speaker spoke about how we can filter out certain people in our lives. It may be the rich or the poor, the sexually immoral, the educated or uneducated, foreigners or certain foreigners but we all place filters on others as to whether we wish to come into contact, socialise or get to know certain people but not others.

Jesus placed no filters on his life. He came into contact and spoke and ate with the rich or poor, educated, uneducated, prostitutes, tax collectors, foreigners – in fact anybody and everybody - even Samaritans. Jews and Samaritans didn’t mix – Samaritans were mixed-blood race of Jews and there was great hostility between them. 

The disciples who had gone into the village to buy food were more than a little surprised to return and find Jesus in conversation first with a woman and then a Samaritan but through his contact they all stayed two days and the whole village got saved.

The second thing I heard was of the Irish band Bluetree going to Pattaya in Thailand – a hotbed of the sex tourism trade. They went to minister in the city.  One of the brothel and bar owners asked them to come and play in his bar as it would be good for trade. Instead of being offended, the band worshipped for two hours in the midst of this bar and brothel and spontaneously the song God of This City was born.

Suppose the band had filtered out this brothel, the owner and the prostitutes as not an appropriate place to worship. Instead they brought light into one of the darkest places – surely bringing love, grace and hope.

I am challenged by who I filter out and yet I am encouraged by those who take the good news of Jesus and his love to the ‘least of these’ – the very people God loves and wants to rescue. As Christians we are all trophies of grace. None of us had anything to bring to Jesus and yet he came and rescued us. 

I pray God touches our hearts with compassion for the lost and shines light on our filters that we may see past our prejudices to people who need Jesus just as much as we do. 

Grace and the Feeding to the 5000

I have just been re-reading Philip Yancey’s brilliant book What’s so amazing about grace?  In the light of this I was reading the Feeding of the 5000 in Matthew's' Gospel and realised what a grace filled occasion it was.

The context for this miracle was that Jesus has just been told that John the Baptist, his relative, the forerunner of his ministry, has been beheaded by Herod.  I am sure Jesus was very upset and the Bible says ‘When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place’ (Matthew 14: 13).  

However Jesus was not going to get any private grieving time or time to process what had happened or talk to his heavenly Father because the crowd ran round the lake and were waiting for him.  Most of us, I am sure, would not have been pleased to see them but Jesus full of grace and truth healed all their sick.

As evening approached, the disciples, full of worldly wisdom, asked Jesus to send the crowd away to get food and lodging for the night. Jesus however replied ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’ (Matthew 14: 16).  

The disciples must have been amazed.  Most people hearing this suggestion would have gladly agreed and been happy to get rid of the crowd of needy people but Jesus not only does not seem to want to get rid of them but he actually expects the disciples to feed them.

In Mark’s Gospel the disciples told Jesus that for them to feed the people would cost half a year’s wage – a lot of money in anyone’s currency – but in the currency of heaven, all that is needed is 5 loaves and 2 fish.

Grace – being given something you don’t deserve – does the impossible and feeds a huge crowd, so that everyone ate and was satisfied. There was no portioning out the meagre rations. It was eat and be satisfied; have as much as you like.  Not only that but there was more food left over at the end of the meal than they started with. 

Grace is an attitude of life that Jesus exemplified. Jesus never decided if someone was deserving of a miracle or healing. He just did it. He healed all their diseases (Matthew 4: 24). Jesus didn’t look at the enormous, hungry crowd and teach them a lesson in personal responsibility, he graciously fed them.

Of course there were times when having healed someone, Jesus told them to ‘go and sin no more.’ However Jesus never waited till someone had got their act together before healing or providing for them.

When Mother Teresa spoke to President Clinton and top government officials at a National Prayer Breakfast, she confronted them about the appallingly high level of abortion in USA and it is just about as awful in all the Western world. She told them that if Americans did not want their babies, give them to her and she would take them and find homes for them. 3000 babies were sent to her. That is a level of grace and trust in God that falls into the Feeding of the 5000 category.

Mother Teresa was moved by compassion just as Jesus was. When he saw need, his heart was touched and he extravagantly met the need.  Grace does not decide the rights and wrongs of a situation; it just loves to bless.

I am so thankful for the grace God and many other have shown me. My prayer is that I grow in grace and compassion every day.

Be careful lest you fall

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! I Corinthians 10: 12

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7: 1 – 2

We know it takes only ‘faith as small as a mustard seed and you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move (Matthew 17: 20) but the converse is also true. It can take one tiny seed of criticism, judgment, doubt and unbelief to grow into something very unhealthy.

We know from our recent time in South Africa what a terrible and destructive fire can come from one small spark.  James tells us that ‘a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark and the tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body’ (James 3:  5 – 6).

I have been dismayed recently by how one small negative remark about another person can grow into a feeling of deep distrust and suspicion about that person based on nothing more than another's idle remark.

Even worse I found out how quickly I can slip into terrible criticism and judgment of others based on what I have read in the media or seen on television. It feels so justifiable when leaders are corrupt and hypocritical or worse when the body of Christ starts taking large chunks out of one another, to feel angry and self-righteous.

However I quickly came to realise I was standing right on the edge of a slippery slope only a small step away from falling right over. Fortunately God reminded me from reading Steve Backlund’s book Igniting Faith in 40 days that ‘criticism and condemnation will actually decrease personal and corporate faith.’ Chastened I backed down from my anger and self-righteousness and extended the grace I like to receive but find hard to give.

So what do we do when faced by sin and shortcomings in those who we feel should know and behave better? Pray. Pray for them that God would open their eyes, not because we are right and they are wrong but because if they are sinning then they are damaging themselves as well as the church or nation.

We must forgive especially if it is personal and then hand the people to God for his righteous workings in their lives. Finally we must bless them. This moves us from the low ground of hatred and anger, judgment and criticism to the higher ground of grace. It sets us free and moves us away from the edge of self-righteousness which leads down the slippery slope to hypocrisy.

Jesus is our perfect example. Nailed to the cross, crucified as a common criminal yet having done nothing wrong, having spent an exemplary life of doing good to others he forgave those who were wronging him. Jesus life was a life of love and grace. He said ‘For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world’ John 12: 47.

Next time the small seed of criticism and judgement gets sown in your heart whether by yourself or others, weed it out quickly. Set yourself free.  Let’s live the life of love and grace that Jesus won for us on the cross.

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. 

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. 

Heaven or hell

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  John 3: 17 – 18.

Hell is not a word much in evidence these days except perhaps as a euphemism for a hard time; I had a hell of a day or it was hell.  However no one mentions hell as a place, a destination. It is considered at best politically incorrect or at worst downright rude to talk about hell.

Yet the reality is that hell is the eternal destination for most people because they have not chosen the alternative. Everyone will go to hell unless they receive God’s gift of eternity spent with him in the wonders of heaven. This gift comes free because Jesus paid for it completely.

No one wants to believe hell exists which is hardly surprising but if it does exist then people hope it will be a place of partying and doing everything ‘miserable sinners’ love to do together. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that hell is a place of eternal punishment and torment. The worst thing is that this will be away from God and everyone else. There is no partying in hell – partying is in heaven with Jesus, the angels and all the other believers. 

The tragedy is that no one needs go to hell. Everyone can go to heaven but only if they accept Jesus’ gift.  Most people hope to get to heaven by their good works but the truth is that no one can ever do enough to satisfy a perfect God – only Jesus did that.

As Randy Alcorn recounts in his book Edge of Eternity: I (Jesus) loved you as you were but I loved you too much to let you stay that way. Rather than give up on you, I gave myself up for you. I chose to go to hell for you rather than go to heaven without you. The gift I extended to you is free but not cheap. It costs you nothing. It cost me everything.

Christians used to be happy to talk about hell but I think it usually came liberally laced with condemnation, judgement and hypocrisy. No one wanted to listen to that.

People need to know how much God loves them and has a wonderful plan and purpose for their lives. They do not need or want to be told they are sinners – they know that. What they need to know is that there is a Saviour who came to rescue them from their sin and its consequence.

Christians who know the love of God and live in it are a powerful witness to those still struggling to make sense of life. They can talk about the terrors of hell and the wonders of heaven with Godly conviction and love.

Christians have been intimidated and become embarrassed to speak about hell for fear of offending people. The thing is though that thousands are going to hell daily because we have been frightened into not talking about it.

Today I believe as Christians we need to learn afresh how to speak about heaven and hell in love and grace and talk about the wonderful gift  of eternal life in heaven that Jesus holds out to all who come to him.

I believe the Holy Spirit will help us if we trust him to be our teacher and guide. Let’s not be put off from declaring the truth but with great grace let’s promote truth about eternity as God gives us opportunity. 

A man after God's own heart

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” Acts 13:22

When God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem and anoint a new king, one of Jesse’s sons, his first thought when he saw Eliab, the first born, was that this must be the one (I Samuel 16: 6). Samuel was looking for a king as the people had, a king like all the other nations had, a king like Saul, tall and handsome.

God told Samuel not to look at the outward appearance because God does not look at these things, he looks at the heart. God was looking for a king who would have his heart and do the things God wanted him to do.

How true it is that man looks at the outward appearance. So often we look at men’s success or failings from the outside – we do not see what God sees – a man’s heart. Today when we hear of Christian leaders, who have fallen into moral or financial sin, it is shocking how quickly churches and individual Christians jump in to criticise and distance themselves from these people.

Whilst I understand that people may feel disappointed that those they admired or whose teaching or ministry has blessed them in the past have fallen, criticising and judging them is not the answer.  I wonder what the reaction of these people would have been to King David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent actions to have her husband Uriah the Hittite killed? There is much to criticise in David’s actions but as he himself said:

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Psalm 51: 17.

David was truly sorry and repentant:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 51: 10 – 12

So often people look at the outward appearance – they do not know the heart of other people – only God knows that. It is not for us to criticise other people’s actions and whilst we also cannot condone sin, it is not our place to judge them – only God can do that.

We are all sinners saved by grace and unless we have walked the path that others have walked and faced the temptations they have faced, we are in no position to comment on their moral failure. So often the price they have paid for their sin is heavy, David lost his baby son. Many will have lost their marriage, family, home, ministry and income.

God and God alone knows their heart.  God not only restored David, he used his moral failure as a stepping stone to his plans and purposes to build an everlasting kingdom through David’s line. It was from this line that God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ was born.

We must pray for our fallen leaders and let God’s amazing grace ‘create in them a pure heart and restore to them their joy of their salvation’.

Freedom not punishment

Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. Acts 13: 38 – 39

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears in not made perfect in love. I John 4: 18

When Jesus died on the cross, he took all of our sin past, present and future and the guilt and the shame upon himself as the perfect sacrifice.  He took all the punishment that was due to us for our sin.  Our sin incurred the death penalty. As it says in Romans 6:23 ‘for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.’ Jesus took the death penalty for our sin and in a divine exchange, gave us the free gift of eternal life.  It was a complete, finished work.

However, as Christians, when we do wrong our mind set can still be that God is angry with us and wants to punish us. We need to get hold of this divine truth that God does not want to punish us for anything.  Jesus took ALL the punishment due to us for every sin when he died on the cross.  God does not want to punish us when we do wrong but to set us free from sin and its consequences.

If we look at God’s Word in the light of God’s desire to free us from sin, it takes us from a vengeful God ready to pounce on every wrongdoing to a God that longs for his people to be liberated from the burden of their mistakes. 

This amazing thought can free us from fear; fear of failure, fear of sinning, fear of punishment, fear of judgment, fear of disappointing God.  We cannot disappoint God because he knows what we will do before we do it. Disappointment comes when things do not work out as expected.  If God knows what is going to happen, he cannot be disappointed. 

When we sin or when God shows us our shortcomings, our proud thoughts and bad attitudes, we must resist every temptation to think that God is angry or disappointed in us. We must take hold of the truth that God is liberating us from these shortcomings.

God hates sin because it separates us from his unconditional love.  God has dealt with sin in sinful man through Jesus’ death on the cross (Romans 8: 3 – 4).  Let us live in the joy of being forgiven children of God who need have no fear of their loving heavenly Father and let us walk in that wonderful freedom. 

Trusting God in the bad times

One of the hardest things I think we are called to do as Christians is to accept the place that God has put us in with grace and trust especially when it is the last thing we would ever want. It may be a place of great trial and difficulty and we do not feel we have done anything to ‘deserve’ it but this is where we find ourselves.

There is an incredible clip on YouTube of a young mother dying from cancer explaining how she is managing to cope in this heart breaking situation.  Four months later she died leaving two small children.

This is some of what she said: People ask me why is God taking me away when a murderer gets to live a long life? There is an implicit assumption in this that I am a good person – I deserve better.  I am not a good person.  I do not deserve better.  As it says in Romans 3: 23 we have all done wrong things.

I have railed against not being able to do what I want.  It is frustrating and I get angry but the root of this is unbelief. What I am saying is I do not believe this is right for me.  God you do not know what you are doing. If you do know then you are not good or you are not in control. I don’t want this.  God you are not being fair because you are not giving me what I want. This is what our hearts say when faced with circumstances we do not like but God is good. He is in control. He is fair.

When I try and make him into a God who serves me – I sin. Our natural bent is to sin and that is our greatest problem.

I am so challenged by this.  I am not in the circumstances of this young mother but I have been in circumstances I do not like. I may rail against God and what is happening. I too get angry and frustrated but this will not help me or those around me.

Too often our default position as Christians is that God is good and therefore only good things should happen to us as his children. When bad things happen, it must be because we have sinned or because the devil is attacking us. This may be true or we may be in this place just because that s where God has us at this time.

Trusting God in these times is the answer; believing that God is good, he does know best and he has a bigger picture and purpose that he is working out in our lives. He has not forgotten or abandoned us but is holding us securely in his hand despite all our emotions that tell us otherwise.  We can and must trust him.

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.