Bringing God's KIngdom

It has always been a matter of great concern to me that many countries that are ruled by dictators or tyrants, have a praying Church, yet it seem as if their prayers are not answered. Despite all their crying out to God, the dictator carries on ruining the country and devastating people’s lives. When I see these rulers cruelly subjecting people, making their lives a misery, selfishly exploiting the country to the detriment of the poor, I want God to judge them.  And I want him to judge them now. I want their dictatorships overturned and something nasty to happen to the tyrants. So why doesn’t God act?  I’ve been seeking God for the answer to this.

First of all, this cry for justice has echoed down the centuries. The psalmists were often heard to say, ‘How long, O Lord?’ before you act (Psalm 13: 1, 35: 17, 79:5 and others) and in the book of Revelation we hear the martyrs waiting in heaven asking the same question. They long for God to act  - to be God in fact.

I felt God say that he loves every one of those dictators and he is giving them an opportunity to repent, because the punishment they will receive is so awful, so fearful, so horrific and it will last for eternity, that God is giving them opportunity to turn from their wicked ways. Nebuchadnezzar was given that opportunity and he in fact repented.  Every dictator and tyrant will be judged justly and with righteousness but it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 

Whilst I understand this, it feels very unsatisfactory. What about the poor people suffering terribly at their hands? If feels like their lives are worth less than the dictator and their oppressive regime. God assured me that he loves all and will provide and protect all who turn to him. 

The kingdoms of this world are not the Kingdom of our God. God says he rules and reigns even in the darkest hellhole as Corrie Ten Boom found in the Nazi concentration camps. 

Too often people want a Godly government to do what the ecclesia, the Church ruling and reigning, should be doing. Christians pray for the overthrow of an ungodly government to be replaced by a Godly government instead of realising that it is the Church who must reign and bring God’s Kingdom into their lives, regions and nations. 

Where God’s Kingdom comes through the Church, people are saved, healed, delivered and provided for. They may live under a heavy burden but they should not only look for earthly governments to save them. Our prayers must not be just for the overthrow of evil and wickedness which we must do but much more for the establishment of God’s Kingdom rule and reign. As God’s Kingdom is established, the darkness has to flee as His Kingdom brings light and life. 

Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries

I watched a clip from Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries in northern Mozambique which illustrates this perfectly.  The whole area is a terrible war zone. As she spoke you could hear helicopters flying overhead to continue their warfare. The entire huge campus of Iris Ministries was full of internally displaced refugees and in the midst of this the Kingdom had come. People were being fed, saved, healed. The Mozambique government could do nothing. They were too busy fighting a war. The Church had arisen and brought the Kingdom. It wasn’t easy but God was showing his love to all.

What is our role in all this in the West? The poor need the prayers and the financial support of the rich and the rich need the prayers of the disadvantaged. We must pray not so much for a change of government but for God’s Kingdom to come. That in the midst of injustice, in the midst of tyranny, God will come in loving power through his Church, side-lining the oppressor. 

It doesn’t seem fair and it isn’t but in the midst of oppression, God will come overthrowing evil and bringing his love and at the end of all things, everyone will be judged in righteousness and all wrongs righted. 

Living free

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8: 36

I find it very difficult to visit zoos, animal or safari parks, in fact anywhere where animals are kept in captivity. Once you’ve seen animals in the wild, seeing them in captivity is hard because you know they were not born for this. 

I understand of course that protecting endangered species in zoos is a way of possibly safeguarding their future and zoos do have a huge educational purpose to fulfil for the vast majority who are not fortunate enough to see them in their natural habitat.

Having said that, I remember the story of a polar bear cub talking to its parents: 

 ‘Mum, Dad aren’t we polar bears?’

‘Of course,’ they reply.

‘Aren’t we meant to live in the Arctic?’ 

‘Yes,’ they reply.

‘So why are we living in London Zoo?’ 

Many animals in zoos are of course born in captivity which is meant to give credibility to the fact they are content, and certainly once animals start to breed in captivity, many animal experts feel that is a sign that they are settled. However I can’t help wondering, and of course we will never know, if something within them always craves for the savannah, the jungle, the sea, the desert, the Arctic, the Antarctic, the place they would naturally call home. Every animal seems to be ideally suited for their habitat even when that habitat seems incredibly hostile to our human eyes. Just watching a David Attenborough nature programme reveals that to us. 

Each one of us was born in captivity and until we let Jesus set us free from our habitat of sin, guilt and shame we will always be living captive. Once saved, Jesus doesn’t put us into his zoo but releases us to be all that he created us to be. We are meant to be free - free body, mind and spirit. God has such an amazing plan for each of us. 

Our final home will of course be heaven, ultimately the new heaven and earth because this is where we were created to live, on the redeemed earth totally restored to it original plan and purpose and something within each one of us craves that home. In the meantime though each of us has a habitat that God has called us to live in.  What is sad is when Christians settle for less than God has called them to.

Sometimes Christians remain living in the old self of sin not realising that Jesus has redeemed us from that old life.  Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new. 2 Corinthians 5: 17 Passion Translation. What a great promise that is, and one that the devil will do all he can to keep us from realising. 

There are times when Christians allow circumstances to overwhelm the Word of God. Too often believers would rather submit to their circumstances than realise that what the Word says is true. The Bible is called the word of truth. Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ John 8: 31 – 32.  Taking hold of the Word, declaring it into our lives releases truth and freedom. 

Finally Christians can be content to settle for less than what God has created them to be. They would rather live in the captivity of comfort than find their real place of destiny. Like those in the parable of the sower, they hear the word but are choked by worries, riches and pleasures of life and they do not come into the full fruition God desires. 

The Christian life is not an easy life but it is so worthwhile and God has a beautiful plan and purpose for each of us individually as well as corporately. My heart is that we do not live either geographically, or spiritually and emotionally anywhere but right slap bang in the middle of what God has called us to be. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God Ephesians 3: 16 – 19. 

Act of remembrance

For some time now I have been taking communion daily and meditating on the meaning of it. It seems that God continues to reveal layers of significance and I just wanted to share a little of this with you.

The first thought I have been mulling over is that in all four Gospels and the passage in 1 Corinthians 11, the writers all stress that communion was taken in the midst of betrayal. This incredibly important act of remembrance was instigated in the face of betrayal, and not the betrayal by one of the thousands of followers, hoping to make a quick buck, but by a close friend, one who dipped his hand in the bowl with Jesus, any act of great fellowship - Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. 

I find it almost frightening how easy it is for disciples to be deceived, to believe that what we are doing is what God wants us to do. We read that after the betrayal, the scales fell from Judas’s eyes and overcome by terrible remorse, he killed himself. Please God keep us humbly close to you that we too may not be deceived into doing and saying things that are not of you. 

Then Jesus took the bread and broke it ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ You can imagine the disciples looking at one another wondering what Jesus meant. Someone may have remembered the occasion, recorded in John 6: 53-58:

53 Jesus replied to them, “Listen to this eternal truth: Unless you eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have eternal life. 54 Eternal life comes to the one who eats my body and drinks my blood, and I will raise him up in the last day. 55 For my body is real food for your spirit and my blood is real drink. 56 The one who eats my body and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. 57 The Father of life sent me, and he is my life. In the same way, the one who feeds upon me, I will become his life. 58 I am not like the bread your ancestors ate and later died. I am the living Bread that comes from heaven. Eat this Bread and you will live forever!” 

We have eternal life not by taking communion but by accepting Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, his body broken for us, his blood shed for us is the only way to salvation. The communion meal represents and reminds us of this. 

As we take the bread, we recall that ‘by his wounds we are healed.’  The word for healed is also for salvation. Jesus broken body saves, heals and delivers us. His death brought complete salvation; body, mind and spirit. I like to bring my family and friends struggling with health to Jesus at this point. 

‘Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.’ This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ 

In the midst of betrayal and no doubt with the upcoming acts of desertion, denial, and unbelief from the disciples in his mind, Jesus offered the cup representing his blood to his disciples for the forgiveness of their sins. If ever there was a moment to remind ourselves that being perfect is not a prerequisite for salvation or communion, this must be it. Jesus knows and forgives our sins as we humbly bring them before him. 

The cup represents the new covenant spoken of in Jeremiah 31: 33 – 34 which concludes with ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sin no more.’ This covenant to unfaithful Israel promised forgiveness of sins and a new relationship and it is open to all – you and me.  God promises that ‘I will be their God and they will be my people.’ Covenants are cut with the shedding of blood, are binding, and God never breaks his. In the past the Jews found forgiveness for sins though the shedding of the blood of bulls, sheep and goats. Now a new covenant has been cut in Jesus’ blood as the perfect, all sufficient sacrifice.  He promises to look after us, protect and provide for us as our God. 

The blood of Jesus is incredibly powerful and I like to pray the blood over my family by name, friends, church and any others that God has laid on my heart. 

It was love, not duty or responsibility, that took Jesus to the cross and love that kept him there till he could cry, ‘It is finished.’ 

I believe God is calling us from the tradition of only taking communion at church on Sunday into taking communion as often as we like to remind ourselves of what Jesus did on the cross for us, the completeness of that work and God’s promise to take care of his people through the new covenant cut at Calvary. 

I recommend The Power of Communion by Beni Johnson. 

Star of wonder

Star of wonder, star of might, star with royal beauty bright.

Isn’t it amazing that at the end of this year, the year that has shaken the planet to the core with the coronavirus, where not one single nation has been untouched, there is an event in our skies that everyone can see and marvel at.

It is the conjunction of Jupiter, the king planet and Saturn, the ruler and though these planets are hundreds of millions of miles apart they are passing one another in such a way that they appear to form one bright star in the night sky that all can see on Earth.  In the northern hemisphere it is equally significant as it appeared at its brightest on 21 December, the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. 

Even the most secular people are calling it the Christmas star. Surely it is no coincidence that at such a dark moment on the earth, when the virus is once again running rampant, a star to bring hope is shining in the darkness. 

This same conjunction may have been the star that heralded the birth of Jesus and brought the wise men to come and worship the king, the Light of the World. Just as that star proclaimed the new era, Immanuel God with us, so this star too is a sign that God is birthing a new era for planet Earth, the era of the King. 

As we face this very different Christmas and an uncertain 2021, may our hope not be placed vainly in 2021 being a better year just because it’s not 2020, or in a vaccine or anything else but in Jesus Christ the King, and in a God who loves us and sent us a sign that he has it, he’s in control.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15: 13 

Christmas is cancelled?

Christmas is cancelled.  Christmas is off for many people in UK and Europe. Disappointment, anger, resentment is bubbling up. We can’t celebrate Christmas as we would like with family, eating turkey, drinking and generally enjoying ourselves. 

What is God doing?  

As I wrote before, God did not send this virus but he did permit it. I believe through this pandemic, God is turning our hearts to him; gently taking away everything that intrudes between himself and people, starting with his own people and then with the world. Christmas after all has become a parody of the celebration of the birth of Jesus. For most people they have no idea what they are celebrating; they just want to celebrate. 

I am as disappointed as anyone that we won’t be seeing our family whom we haven’t seen in months. I love it when we get together and I have the pleasure of cooking a delicious dinner for everyone before we settle down to open presents and play games. But if I let disappointment rule in my heart and emotions, I’m going to miss the greatest opportunity to know God better, to find him as Lord of my life overwhelming every frustration and pain with his presence.

This is our time to know God, really know him, his goodness, kindness and love and share this with all those around us who have no hope to fall back on as we do, because that is what knowing God gives us – hope. We may have to socially distance this Christmas but that doesn’t mean we can’t communicate – we just have to communicate differently.  

This Christmas, carol services have moved online and I suspect many people will search and find one and hear not only the familiar carols, but also the good news that Christmas is about God becoming man and dwelling amongst us. I believe that with hearts feeling tender and sore from the disappointments of this year, people will be open to the Gospel as never before. They need hope to lighten the darkness of the pandemic which seems to be throttling the nations. This is a unique opportunity for our family, friends and neighbours to hear the good news from the comfort of their homes. 

I am praying for our church services to touch many people in our town and area like never before. Normally our carol services are packed with lots of fun things happening that maybe distracts the congregation from the heart of Christmas – the good news of a baby born to save the world from their sins.  This year my prayer is that the message of Christmas is broadcast loud and clear across the nation. 

Despite everything, we have so much to be thankful for and as God’s people may we climb out of the pit of disappointment and run into the arms of our Saviour, finding there the comfort and hope we all need. Then let that hope spill over from our lives into the lives of those around us. 

Happy Christmas – be blessed. 

Advent - re-setting our priorities

This coming Sunday, 29th November 2020, is Advent Sunday. Advent is a season that has been eased out of many churches nowadays which I feel is a great shame. In fact the whole Church calendar has been discarded in favour of celebrating just the big ones – Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. 

I would love to see the season of Advent make a comeback in every church not just the more traditional ones. Advent helps us prepare our hearts to celebrate the first coming of Jesus. We remind ourselves that Emmanuel – God with us, God made Man – came and lived on this Earth.  I like to use Advent to meditate on the wonder of this and the role the key players had in the birth of Jesus.

However, the more important aspect of Advent is that it helps us focus on the Second Coming of Jesus, the conclusion of all the first things and the shutting of the door to the old era and anticipating the new. 

This event, due to its delay, is not so much forgotten as placed on the back burner for future reference if needed.  The difficulty arises when like the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25: 1 – 13 we can easily get caught out. We know the bridegroom is coming but it may not be in my lifetime, so I’ll not attend to my lamp.  We forget we must always be ready. Indeed Jesus concludes the parable with, ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do no know the day or the hour.’  In fact Jesus labours this point that we must be ready because no one knows when Jesus will come again.  

Advent is a really useful time to remind ourselves of this; to review our preparedness for Jesus’ Second coming. Have we been effective witnesses, have we remembered the poor, the widows, the orphans? Will I bring sheaves of corn with me or have I been preoccupied with my own life, with virus, lockdown, and Christmas preparations? Or am I anticipating with joy Jesus’ Second Coming and the Wedding Feast of the Lamb?

I believe God is using the virus to work out something truly incredible on the planet – to see revival, souls saved, restoration and preparation before the Second Coming. 

As we consider Advent this year, I believe our response needs to be a deep clean in our own lives and in the life of the Church. Christians are all part of the Body of Christ and each one of us has a role and responsibility to be the solution and not the problem. 

Jesus needs his Church firing on all cylinders bringing the Kingdom to this world and we all have a part to play. We are all significant because only you have the connections and influence that you have. God wants to use you to bring life and hope and to show the way out of the virus of sin into a new life. 

Speaking from experience, it is all too easy to dwell on the disappointments of 2020 but God is calling us to rise up and bring light and hope to a world that has badly lost it way. We are called to pray and influence the nations so when Jesus comes again we will be ready, expectant and our lamps full of the oil of the Holy Spirit. 

Advent is a great time to re-set our priorities, to rejoice in God becoming Man, Emmanuel, but with fresh faith prepare ourselves for the Advent of Jesus, the soon coming King. 

Crowds are remarkably fickle

Crowds are remarkably fickle. They are easily influenced. Crowds followed Jesus wherever he went enjoying the miracles, hoping to be fed and generally in it for themselves. 

When Jesus entered Jerusalem just a week before his crucifixion, the crowd, inspired I think by the Holy Spirit, welcomed him with great enthusiasm shouting ‘Hosanna. Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord.’ They laid branches and clothes on the road and gave Jesus the right royal welcome that he deserved. 

There would have been crowds in Jerusalem all week, there for the Passover but when Jesus was arrested, tried and sentenced to death this same crowd who had been following him for years, had welcomed him into Jerusalem, turned on him and egged on by the religious leaders bayed for his blood. Jesus was deserted by not just the disciples, but also the crowd. 

Several weeks later the crowd were back in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost and drawn by the sound of rushing wind, they gathered and Peter preached his famous sermon and the fickle crowd who had deserted Jesus in their droves now turned to him to receive salvation. What a glorious day!

In these uncertain days of coronavirus, how essential it is that we are disciples of Jesus and not just part of the crowd. Crowds are notorious for yelling for what they want and not necessarily what’s good for everyone. We only have to see how crowds gather in complete defiance of government rules for our safety to do what they want. 

We are called to be people who follow Jesus and are influenced by what he is doing in these days. There are plenty of prophets of doom but not nearly enough prophets who bring the good news of Jesus and his salvation. The crowd is baying for lockdown or no lockdown and especially for their right to celebrate Christmas as they want to. They want a ‘normal’ Christmas but it is almost certain that is the one thing we won’t be having.

This must be the year when the Church gets out of their buildings and proclaims that Christmas is not about family, children, parties, presents or anything else, but about the birth of Jesus Christ. As Christians let’s focus on that – celebrating that in whatever way we can, bringing the good news of Jesus wherever we can and telling of his great love whenever and however we can.  

The amazing news in the midst of all this gloom is that God became Man and dwelt amongst us. As Christians we must tell of how we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth. Everyone can experience this.

I am hoping and praying that the Church will get out onto the streets this Christmas and be a different crowd – an army of Godly followers not following the crowd but bringing the crowd to Jesus. 

Bloom where you're planted

I was listening to a very good message by Nicky Gumbel, when an unexpected and unwanted lie slid into my mind. God must love Nicky Gumbel more than me. Look what he’s achieved. Great big, well-known church in London and Alpha, such a fruitful worldwide ministry. He must be one of God’s favourites. What have I done? I don’t even know anyone famous and successful.

Before I tumbled down this slippery slope any further, I put the mental brakes on and called my treacherous mind back to the truth. I am unique – fearfully and wonderfully made. I’m the apple of my Father’s eye. I am who God wants me to be. I look the way God wants me to look and as Nicky Gumbel said in his message ‘I have been planted where God wants me to bloom.’ 

He was speaking about this in the context of the Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon. They were hoping the exile would soon be over and they could go back to how life used to be – back in Israel. Does this all sound every familiar in the context of the pandemic? 

God however spoke to them in Jeremiah 29 and told them to put down roots, build a life, pray for the city or place they had been sent to and then God said: For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. Jeremiah 29: 11 – 13 

God has great plans and purposes for us in these days. We are where he wants us to be. We can bloom and be fruitful right where we are. We don’t need things to go back to how they used to be. We don’t need to be rich and famous or even prominent to achieve what God has called us to be and do. We need to be faithful. 

One of my main focuses in life has been to raise our family and now they are grown up and there are grandchildren galore, there is much to pray for. There are 21 people in our own, immediate family! That takes some praying for. I may not have any daily responsibility for them. They may be scattered around the world but they are certainly not out of sight or out of mind. They are settled in my heart. I am praying not just for their salvation but they will, every one, be passionate about their relationship with God. I want to raise a generation of giant slayers. That’s where I have been called to bloom. 

God hasn’t called any of us to twiddle our spiritual thumbs and hope the pandemic will be over soon. He has called us to be a Godly influence where we are. Nicky Gumbel tells the story of the supermarket check out lady who sat at her till, got to know the names of her customers, listen to their stories and tell them she’d pray for them. When she died, the church was packed with these same customers coming to pay their respects for this lady, who had had such an impact on their lives - sitting at her till. 

We most certainly don’t need to be prominent to be significant. Our prayers, our conversations with family and friends can have the most enormous ripple effects. If we don’t make Jesus a topic of conversation with the people we know, who else is going to? When in trouble, people like someone who they think has a hotline to God to pray and advise them but helping them form their own relationship with God is so important. God has called us to bloom where he has planted us. It may not look very exciting, it may not be very prominent but it is significant if we make the most of our Godly relationship to pray and bring God’s presence into our circle of influence.

If I'd known ...

I was wondering recently what I would have done differently if someone had told us a terrible pandemic was coming which would affect the whole planet and completely transform our lives.

If I’d known we would be unable to travel and see family and friends, what might I have done? If I’d known that I couldn’t hug my children and grandchildren, how could I have prepared? If I’d know that going shopping would be very different, having to queue and wear masks. If I’d realised that even going to IKEA would turn into an awkward and unwelcome shopping experience. 

Queuing outside shops.

If I’d known that going to anywhere like a National Trust property would mean booking in advance, reduced numbers, social distancing, and then having to sit outside with a takeaway coffee and cake in the autumn chill, would I have stayed at home? If I’d known that social distancing meant treating everyone cautiously as a possible virus carrier and that our social life would be severely dented, what might I have done?

I feel as if we sleep walked into the pandemic, not having a clue what was facing us. At first it was quite enjoyable with the slow down in life but we didn’t have to home school children, while trying to work at home ourselves, in a small flat in the middle of a city. I didn’t lose my job nor was I furloughed. The pandemic is a great leveller. Everyone from the Queen to the humblest citizen had to stay at home unless they had an essential job, but it is the consequences now that have perhaps been the most shocking.  Our whole lives have not returned to what was normal and it does not look as if we will ever do so. 

What might I have done if I’d known?  I’m not sure there is anything I could really have done except perhaps been prepared mentally.  However that could have been counterproductive, as we may have imagined things far worse or quite differently. Someone recently asked why did God not warn us?  

I don’t know but the one thing God has promised and in my opinion has proved very faithful is that he will never leave us or forsake us.  My relationship with God, which was not that bad before, has deepened. I have never prayed as much or as strategically as I have in recent months. I have learned how to pray for nations and governments. I have learned to pray and trust God with the big things of life.  I have learned to be thankful for everything and maybe that is what I might have done if I’d known …I might have appreciated all that I had with a far greater depth of thankfulness. I may have valued everything and not taken so much for granted. 

I have also learned that ‘All things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.’   There is much good that has come out of this – the Church has emerged from its closed buildings onto the internet and has encountered so many more people. 

The Church, along with many others, has reached out to the poor and needy in our society. I remember the singing vicar who walked his streets singing Christian songs to encourage his parishioners. The Blessing has become an anthem of 2020. There have been many inspiring stories as people have reached out selflessly to those in need.

Abroad, those living in the greatest poverty before are living even more fragile lives once coronavirus hit their countries. It has been so good to stand with them in prayer and finance. 

There is now one absolutely certain fact. Everything has changed and almost certainly, nothing will go back to how it used to be.  Life may not be what I want, but I’m going to appreciate what I have now and take nothing for granted. It’s no point complaining; we still have much to be thankful for. 

God is working out a much bigger plan and purpose that should keep us focused, prayerful and expectant. We all have a part to play. The world needs Christians who can bring hope and life to those struggling with unemployment, debt, sickness and despair. There is a harvest out there and the Lord of the Harvest needs his harvesters ready with scythes and fishing nets. 

I never realised 2020 was going to be like this and none of us knows what 2021 might be like but even if the virus is still challenging our lives, still bringing unexpected and unwanted change, still confining us and making our relationships challenging, God is faithful and trustworthy. God is in control. 

Please leave a comment about what you might have done 'If I'd known ..."

Love never fails

Recently, I watched the film Quartet again. It is a funny and moving story surrounding an old people’s home for retired musicians. What a lovely idea. Every year they hold a concert to raise funds for the home and every musician who is still able takes part.

Into this scenario comes a retired diva to live in the home, once married to one of the other residents. The air crackles with tension which is gently resolved. The finale is four of the finest operatic voices from their day singing the Quartet from Rigoletto.

 

I love the film which is extremely witty and filled with uplifting music. However I knew nothing about the opera Rigoletto or its storyline. I was shocked therefore to discover it is all about the debauched court of an Italian duke. It is bawdy and frankly vulgar as well as being a story of betrayal, revenge and murder. It is a true tragedy.

 

How can such a terrible tale have such wonderful music? Everything evil wrapped around by everything enriching and beautiful. How can it be?

 

I immediately thought of the Garden of Eden – God’s paradise on Earth. Totally beautiful, perfect and everything that is good into which comes evil incarnate. Why did God permit the devil to enter his perfect world?

 

The answer is love.

 

William Shakespeare wrote ‘Love is not love that alters when alteration finds.’

 

God is love and he does not change even when evil comes into his perfect world.  True love is not fickle, it doesn’t give up. As we read 1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8, we see what true love is really like.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.⁸ Love never fails.

The reality is that love has to be freely given and freely received.  Love permits terrible choices to be made - to choose evil over good even though the consequences are terrible.

 

God allowed the devil to deceive Eve even though the outworking would be tragic. If he had stopped her or not let the devil into the Garden, it would be a form of manipulation and control, not love. Eve’s decision, freely made, led to the destruction of so much of God’s incredible creation and cost the life of his Son.  

 

But love always wins. Romans 12: 21 says, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Love overcomes even terrible wickedness. In the end God will have his way – he will restore his beautiful creation, planet Earth to the perfection he always intended. This time evil will be completely destroyed and Man, the highest of God’s creation, his redeemed ones who have freely chosen him, will inhabit this restored world for all eternity.

 

It never fails to move me deeply. The perfect Son of God killed in the most barbaric manner in order to save his wayward, sinful and uncaring creation, Man. That is true love.

Show not tell

As an author, I am constantly encouraged in my writing to ‘show not tell’.  This means that it is not enough to say ‘The sunset was beautiful.’ Far better to write, ‘the sun sank in a magnificent blaze of red, orange, and pink that stretched across the sky, before disappearing below the western horizon, ushering in the night.’

God is the master craftsman of ‘show not tell’. In the book of Genesis, God tells us about creation; what he created, but when we gaze upon the creation, seeing what God has shown us, it makes us exclaim like David,

When I consider your heavens,
   the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,    which you have set in place,

 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8: 3- 4

 Creation, despite man’s terrible plundering, abusing and despoiling of this ‘green and blue planet’,  it is still superb, glorious, stunning. The night sky unspoiled by light pollution has to be the light show to surpass all light shows.  There are times when I am literally speechless at the stunning beauty of majestic mountain ranges or overwhelmed by the chilly splendour of the polar regions in all their breath-taking snowiness or the loveliness of solitary marshland, winding rivers and estuaries.

Surely God shows us his glorious creativity in the sheer variety of birds, fish, reptiles and mammals that inhabit planet Earth. One of the creatures that most amuses me most is an extravagant black and white bug that hovers in the heat of South Africa, all quivering frills and tassels. It never fails to make me laugh. However it is fish that amaze me in their incredible diversity and when we think that most of them were unknown, concealed in the depths of the ocean until the technological advances of 20^th century brought them to our television screens. What an extravagant, magnificent Creator God we have!

However the greatness of Creation is nothing compared to how God has shown his love for us. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5: 8. 

God did not wait for us to get our lives sorted or even turn to him. He initiated the great sacrifice of his life for ours whilst we were still sinners.

God so desired to restore man’s broken relationship with him that he was prepared to go to any lengths necessary.  It was love, incredible love that took Jesus to the cross and love that kept him on the cross.

How did this amazing gift come to us? By grace – the greatest demonstration of God’s love towards sinful man.  Simon Ponsonby writes: ‘Grace – abundant grace – grace is a gift. Grace is not grace if you earned it; a gift is not a gift if you bought it. Grace is not a reward, or a payment, or a due. It is outrageous, undeserved, unmerited, divine favour’.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2: 8- 9

We have nothing to bring to God, there is no sacrifice we can offer, no treasure that didn’t first come from him, all he asks of us is our love – that rather poor trickle of affection that draws us into the richest of relationship. In his arms we truly learn how valued, loved, appreciated, adored and precious we are to him.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  1 John 3: 1.

God is showing us the greatest treasure of all – his love. He doesn’t tell us how much he loves us, he shows us through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, taking our punishment, forgiving our sins and as we surrender our lives to him, he takes us on the greatest adventure of all -  the discovery of our true identity as children of God and the amazing plan and purpose he has for our lives.

The benefit of hindsight of lockdown

I have a confession to make. Looking back, I really enjoyed the first few weeks of lockdown, with a few exceptions. For the first time in ages we had to slow down, we had to re-evaluate our lives and all the things we rush around for had to fall away, and we focused on just the things that really matter to us; keeping in touch with family and friends, taking a daily walk, enjoying the countryside.  I loved the spring weather, beautiful flowers and green leaves budding, the quietness and hearing the birdsong, but most of all having more time to spend with Jesus every day. 

I’m retired so I don’t have the hassle of going to work, but life can nevertheless be pretty busy and now I had space and time.  Others of you may have been seriously challenged with having to work from home and home school your children, or keep bored teenagers in rein. Some of you may have been frightened by the virus or fallen ill but every single one of us has had our life fundamentally shifted.

Some may not have enjoyed the whole lockdown, but I know many have thanked God for it and the ability it has given us to reassess our life and priorities.

This last week I fell back into my old ways, trying to fill every waking moment with something. God had to really speak to me and ask ‘do I really want this or do I want to go back to a more measured life?’ My new normal, my new reset means I am not going to fill every single hour with something but I’m going to slow down, but most of all focus on Jesus, have quality time with him. I need the space to have time to do things well, to think and to spend with people, not squeeze them into my other activities.

So I encourage you, what’s your new normal, what’s your reset. Is it to rush off to the beaches with everyone else, to be first in the queue at the restaurants, pubs and clubs? Or is it to say that this lockdown has had a fundamental effect on my life and one I want to take into my new normal, to live at a more measured, more meaningful, more fruitful pace.

It reminds me of the passage I keep coming back to in Joshua 3: 2 - 4.  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. 

The Israelites had to follow the ark because they had never been that way before. The ark represents for us the presence of God through his Holy Spirit.  If we’re going to follow him effectively, then we must take time to be with him and find out where he is going and what he is doing. None of us have been this way before.

This lockdown has given me the time to re-evaluate my life and it has been liberating. Your life will be different but I hope you too have been able to reassess your priorities and the things that really matter to you. I trust your relationship with God is closer, more trusting and more loving; that you have an increasing revelation of God’s love for you and what he is calling you to.

God has an amazing plan for his people, he is taking us to places we have never been before. The most important thing is that we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and that we follow the Holy Spirit.

Social distancing to bring the presence of God

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. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.’ Joshua 3: 2 – 4

River Jordan today

When the Israelites set out to cross the Jordan, God gave very specific instructions about what to do. He would provide the miracle of drying up the River Jordan, which was in full flood. The Israelites just had to follow the ark into the riverbed and cross over. However there was one important instruction, they must keep a distance of 2000 cubits or 900 metres. That is quite a distance.

When reading this recently, I immediately thought of social distancing. In the UK at this time, due to COVID19, everyone must keep two meters apart.  Both instructions to keep distance are for people’s safety. At this virus time, it is to reduce the possibility of catching the disease. When crossing the Jordan it was to avoid accidentally touching or coming into contact with the ark.

The ark represented the presence of God, which is both holy and precious. Not something to be treated casually. Uzzah discovered to his cost that touching the ark, no matter how well intended, meant the loss of his life (2 Samuel 6).

God made sure with his social distancing there was absolutely no chance of anyone coming near the ark. At 900 meters away people could hardly see the ark, let alone get close to it. Don’t forget the Israelites had all their children, sheep and goats to cross over, and none of these have any idea about social distancing. Giving a clearance of 900 meters meant that even a flock of wayward sheep could be retrieved, before they became entangled in the priests holding up the ark in the middle of the riverbed. 

Even today, God’s holy presence is still not something to be treated lightly or casually. As we pursue God, to draw nearer and know him better, his presence will still kill the flesh. This is a good thing if we are prepared, but are we ready for what may have to go? Our preferences, opinions, prejudices will be exposed, and will need to be placed on the altar if we are serious about seeking the presence of God. Consider what sacred cows we may have that will need to be sacrificed.  However everything we give to God will seem to be very unimportant when we have the very presence of Jesus instead.

Our lifestyles may have been significantly altered by the virus, but if the presence of God comes in manifest power and glory, not just our lives, but society itself will be even further changed. Isn’t this what we desire? To bring the very presence of Jesus to a hurting, dying world with great signs and wonders. But it is costly.

The Welsh and Hebridean revivals showed that society was fundamentally altered, and not everyone liked it. Those who lived through those revivals though, and embraced God’s presence had their lives transformed till the day they died.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12: 1