How do we live a pure life??

It's post Easter, and I've realised with horror that I've drifted an enormous amount these last few months. There is a lacklustre feel to my walk with Jesus - it's half-baked and most of the time it's simply that I don't prioritise my life to include time in his Word. I realise that many people would consider my expectations to exacting and demanding, but I know that my life craves time in His Word.

Consequently, I'm trying to stick to my plan of completing the five offices each day (but in my own way). The Common Worship lectionary has three sets of readings for each day: Main office (which can be used at communion services midweek), Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. In addition, I use Prayer During the Day for a midday pause, and Compline (Night Prayer) before bedtime. The psalm reading in the main office is usually quite short. Yesterday's were Psalm 119:9-16. It packed a punch!

It opens with the blog title: How can a young man keep his way pure?

It gives some straightforward advice.

1. Word
It refers to living a life according to the Word, which includes adhering to its commands, hiding the Word in a person's heart. There is also a clear sense of wanting to be taught. I have been acutely challenged this last week that when I sin I become more hostile to God, my fleshly nature deconditions my moral compass. When I am in God's word, the cleansing properties enable me to not stray into sin. Verse 11 suggests that the hidden word "in my heart" is there that "I might not sin against you". Of course, Bible reading is no magical incantation that protects me as a spell would, but proximity to God's thoughts, His morals and desire for me ensures that I see sin more plainly for what it is.
Are we all committed to reading His Word?

2. Seek
The idea of seeking God with my whole heart is a real challenge. I know that I can do a lot of the word stuff from a theological perspective. It's an academic challenge. But do I do it because I want to spend time with Jesus...
This is a real challenge when my life is modelled on a pattern of prayer that is so strict. I can easily become convinced that my failure to meet deadlines or habits will guarantee sinfulness. This is where the guts come in.
I cannot relate to God with my mind alone - I am to long/yearn/desire Him. Does my soul pant for him?
The purpose of coming to God's word is that we might encounter Jesus. We see him, however, not only in the pages of the Bible, but in the world around us - the neighbour, our colleague, the beauty of nature...
Do I purpose each day to encounter Jesus?

3. Praise
The psalmist enjoins us to Praise God. Specifically we're commanded to rejoice in his Word. I think this is really helpful. When my heart grows cold and my desire for God wanes, as sin creeps in the first thing that falls off is my Bible reading. I'm forever asking myself - when did I stop reading my Bible? Was it when I sinned? Or did I sin because I stopped reading God's Word? (Not that I'm seeking a legalistic approach - just that sense of closeness to God). I can see all too often in my journal that when I stop reading my Bible, I slowly grow less enthused to seek God. However, when I return to God in praise, when I recount all he is doing in my life, suddenly I begin to desire His presence more, which in turn leads to a hunger for time in His Word.
Do we make time each day to praise Him?

These three approaches also loosely fit the mind-body(guts)-spirit(heart) motif we see in Scripture. We read God's WORD - MIND; we SEEK Him - BODY(GUTS); we praise his name - SPIRIT(HEART).

I love the way the psalms weave patterns of wholeness into our lives.

Response to THINK

Another interesting question from THINK: what helps you feel close to God?

I guess my immediate response is to suggest that 'feeling' close to God is a misleading pursuit. We are not about feelings, for this implies that happiness is a core element of our faith. The truth should be that our secure and certain standing in Christ, based on his cross, and the promise of eternal life leads to a life of hope and peace, part of the fruit of the spirit. We are marked as deep people able to face the unpleasantness of life.

However, the certainty of life eternal, and the truth of God's love for me does, I think, require an emotional response. Every day I get consumed with the desire to ensure people like me. It deeply affects my ability to make decisions, some which need to be tough. I am so worried about what people think I often pretend to be someone I'm not. So as I reflect on closeness to God, I wonder whether I would feel closer if I spent more time reflecting on the truth of the gospel, particularly reflecting on God's feelings toward me, how he sees me.

I suppose too that closeness is about proximity. When do I draw close to God?

In worship, certainly, I am more aware of his presence. In part as I'm thinking about Him, which makes me remember his presence, which in truth hasn't left me at any point. Sometimes, I hear people disregarding worship as somehow self-serving. I understand the anxiety. Some churches pursue a style of worship which exalts the experience to such a degree as to lose sight of God, and it becomes about the feeling of worship, not the discipline of worshipping God himself. True worship engages with spirit and truth (John 4). It should be enabled by God (Spirit) and focused on God (truth), not our petty emotions.

Worship is vital, it plugs us into God and as such is about drawing close. And this is all the more important when our daily lives are so fractured and disconnected. Worship makes me 'see' God, much like Isaiah did in person (Isa 6). When we see God there is that inevitable sense of unworthiness - leading to the promise of forgiveness.

Closeness to God requires us to know Him and then know ourselves, which I then see as a command to serve others. This service is not about browny-points, but helping those around us also know Him and themselves.

I think I'm incredibly privileged in my role as Chaplain, for I can do precisely these two things. I can help articulate what the God I worship is like, who he is, but I also get to hold up a mirror to the organisation and individuals, and ask the question - who are you? What are you like? What words can we use to articulate what our nature is like? Where there is creativity and beauty, intellect and insight - where are these from? But also, where there is ugliness, racism, hatred and unloveliness - where are these from?

I pray that I spend more time seeking opportunities to remember God's permanent immanence, while also pointing to him more in my life.

The angels went to Shepherds first. Shepherds. We have some rose-tinted concepts of shepherding - images of sweet, clean sheep and luscious grass. However, these guys are likely to have been real down and outs, really disconnected - really socially unacceptable.

Which made me think (as it does) of Shameless. I don't necessarily endorse all the shenanigans of the characters on the Chatsworth estate, but they represent a very real corner of our society, which in the Americanised version are best described as 'trailer-trash'. The middle-class church avoids gazing overlong in their direction...but God does not.

On the flip side, I am mindful that much of my last few months is concerned with meeting important influencers in colleges. And then we have the Queen's New Years honours list published today. With the announcements comes the opportunity to meet the sovereign herself. In the U.S. I'm confident invitations to hang out with the President are few and far between!

And here is the AMAZING truth of this season - despite the glitz and commercialism. God deigned to be born into a scene of poverty, and then reaches out to share this occasion with those regarded as beneath most classes - the Shepherds.

God has absolutely no agenda - he cares not for status or ability or achievements or odour or respectibility. He is foremost a God for all.

As we approach the New Year I wonder whether my human relations have caused me to ignore the enormity of this openness on God's part. Each and every day I am invited, not to the crib, but into the presence of the risen and ascended King - our Lord Jesus. Can you imagine, or even get your head round this?

Furthermore, as I think back over the last 12 months I am filled increasingly (certainly it gets greater each year) with a sense of shame and regret. There are so many times when I did not be all I could be. Why did I not avail myself of God's presence, his time, and his wisdom?

This coming year I want the invitation to the Shepherds to stay with me, to remind me that THIS DAY a Saviour is waiting to be with me, speak with me and dispense his advice, guidance and strength.

Happy New Year!!

Wise and cheerful Hugh

Today is the lesser festival of the intriguing character, Hugh of Lincoln.

There are two excellent (and brief) entries on Hugh on wikipedia and britannia biographies, which shed some light on his story and personality.
One particular excerpt jumped out at me:

"As a bishop he was exemplary, constantly in residence or travelling within his
diocese, generous with his charity, scrupulous in the appointments he made. He raised the quality of education at the cathedral school. Hugh was also prominent in trying to protect the Jews, great numbers of whom lived in Lincoln, in the persecution they suffered at the beginning of Richard I's reign, and he put down popular violence against them in several places."

The articles also alude to his diplomatic tact, allied to his gentle humour, which enabled him to have a close relationship with the English monarch. Indeed, at one point he is recorded to have playfully shook Richard I to thaw a bad temper. With the best will in the world, deference and decorum make me surmise our own archbishop is unlikely to have a similar relationship with our monarch! Hugh is also portrayed as a caring bishop who tended to the young, the sick and the old (and the dead!). He had a fierce sense of justice, which impelled him to risk his own life in the defence of Jews.

Today's readings are supplemented with 1 Timothy 6:11-16, in which Paul adjures Timothy to pursue: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Godliness, God-like-ness, might also be rendered Christ-like-ness. In Christ we are made holy and righteous, and we are to daily pursue this, knowing the condition of our hearts. But we move on from this to our lifestyle and our attitudes. Christ came to serve. I too am called to a life of service - to the rich, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned.

In Hugh we see practical examples of what this might still look like for us. Hugh saw himself as a servant of God's people - not as their Lord. There is, indeed, only one Lord. And Hugh's life points to Jesus: his servant heart. Can I claim similar?
- He honoured his appointments. Do I?
- He gave generously. Do I?
- He cared for the sick. Do I?
- He acted justly. Do I?
- He defended the persecuted. Do I?
- He visited his brethren. Do I?
- He chapioned education. Do I?
- He even laboured in the building of Lincoln Cathedral. Do I labour on God's church, seeking to leave a legacy while also offering worship?
- He was tactful and diplomatic. Am I?
- He was good humoured. Am I?

This day I am grateful for the collect for Hugh, which speaks of Hugh's "wise and cheerful boldness".

May we seek and be granted grace to live like this, day by day.

No smoke without fire

"For wickedness burned like a fire,
consuming briers and thorns;
it kindled the thickets of the forest,
and they swirled upward in a column of smoke" (Isaiah 9:18)

Sin is conspicuous. Certainly, we seek to hide it from God, from ourselves, and our loved ones; but sin leaves marks - stains. All too often in my life I have sought to conceal my deepest darkest sins from my wife, but through a combination of her knowing me very well, and changes in me, she knows - and God knows immediately.

This verse has struck me because of the saying, 'there's no smoke without fire', which is all well and good, and often misapplied, but in my life I wonder if people talk about my behaviour, my habits and wonder about what underlies it. I have often been in the habit of running late, but this has lately evolved into a lax attitude to informing people where I am, and what I am doing. I fear that in not working and living transparently, openly and fairly I am opening myself, and therefore, God to criticism.

This is no admission of guilt - but a sense of how my actions might cause people to infer things about my character.

Naturally, we should seek to please God only, but we are God's hands and feet.

This in turn prompts me to consider other points in God's word where reference is made to fire:

"See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and
the evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the
LORD of hosts" (Malachi 4:1)

"The work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose
it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of
work each has done" (1 Corinthians 3:13)

Both verses speak of a future day of judgement. A day Christians need not fear, for we shall not enter heaven, graciously, on the basis of our works. Instead, God will seek to test our works, our offering to Him. Sins and their record will be burnt away, but works of gold, silver, stone, etc will remain.

As I wander through my days, and as I reflect on the lives of countless Saints before me this All Saintstide, am I seeking to build with gold, or am living a life of conspicuous sin, where folk speak not of my godliness, but rumour on my character?

Truth cast to the ground

Daniel's visions/prophecies smack of a man who's eaten too much cheese before bed-time. They are peculiar and strangely at odds with the otherwise more straightforward nature of the Bible.

However, it seems important to accept the text as it is, and in that regard Daniel 8:12 seems clear: "Because of wickedness, the host was given over to it together with the regular burnt offering; it cast truth to the ground, and kept prospering in what it did".

The 'it' in the verse is one of Daniel's famous horns, who for the sake of brevity, can be accepted as a world leader, or movement.

In short, the host (the public, or some Christians) is given over to the horn, as a result of wickedness. This is a strange but compelling instance of God's word warning against falling away, or following after earthly leaders. In the context of Daniel 1-6, it suddenly makes perfect sense. We are to worship God alone, which is why the verse's reference to the 'regular burnt offering' also implies not only a going over of the people, but a ceasing of religious observance.

In an era which regards public worship with increased scepticism, we are to be bold in both our discipleship of Jesus, and the worship of him.

Yet, the burnt offering is more than worship - it is part of the ceremonial activity that meant Israel might be forgiven. Is there a worrying trend in society that seeks to remove the forgiveness of sins from God's remit to that of money, fame, wealth, or the Government. Perhaps when we follow the world, and its leaders, we also accept their view on sin - that we haven't actually committed any crimes. That we are not accountable to the maker and sustainer of the world?

Either way, the eventual outcome when we follow the world, and its leaders, is that scary place where truth appears to have been set aside. We need only think of X-factor, WMDs, the war in Iraq, cash for questions, political grandstanding in Oldham, etc, etc... When we really set ourselves to follow the world, we also commit to being shaped by its values. All too often that requires us to set aside the truth.

But yet...

But yet.

"It keeps prospering in all it does" (Dan 8:12)

We must hear God's word. Despite the ease with which people show allegiance to public figures, the pace with which religious observance is marginalised, and the shame of truths covered up, the world WILL prosper. And that is the greatest test - we do not measure things by results, or apparent results, but by God's word.

Do we today seek to follow Jesus, or the world?

Are we seeking to worship Him this day, thanking him for the gift of salvation?

And do we actively seek to cover up the truth - not only in the public sphere, but to our church brothers and sisters, to our work colleagues, to our family, to our spouse, perhaps to ourselves?

Owl City - In Christ Alone

This is a superb and beautiful version of the famous song, 'In Christ Alone' by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Owl City is a young chap from Minnesota, whose song 'Fireflies' I've posted below: