Obedience to God's will

I like it when God speaks very clearly to you in the Bible. Today feels like one of those days.

The three passages for morning prayer today were Psalm 77, Jeremiah 43, and Mark 3:19b-end.
The final passage ends with Jesus stating, "Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother" (Mark 3:35). Knowing God's will can sometimes prove tricky - we pray and seek guidance, hoping that He will make plain his path for us.

However, I think we get rather hung up on the unknowns for shame of our disobedience in the knowns. We are all guilty, me especially, of simply not doing what I know I should.

Jeremiah was faced with a similar situation. The remnant of the people of Judah had watched their puppet king/governor, Gedaliah, assassinated. (I want to write more about the brilliant drama from Jeremiah 35-45 in a later blog) In response to the assassination the ring-leaders of the insurrection come to Jeremiah and ask him to seek God's will. However, they had already decided what God's will should be for them. The Babylonians were bad, and posed an ongoing threat to those who remained in Judah. There was the chance they might come back and take more people away. Therefore, what was more obvious than the need to retreat to Egypt? It makes perfect sense.

"No!" - says Jeremiah. God asked the people to simply stay put, live in the land (Jer 42).

But this is not good enough - say the people. Indeed, they accuse Jeremiah of lying - of inventing the prophecy, which is rank lunacy when you consider how spot on Jeremiah had been up until then.

But isn't this so often the case. We hear the command - we fail to act. And the failure is so often because we don't like the command - it doesn't fit in with our agenda, or our understanding of the situation. It isn't, as we like to think, that we don't know God's will; we do know it, but fail to walk according to it.

I am so often amazed that I behave in this way. And as I read the Psalm this morning I saw a way out of this pitfall:

"I remembered you, God, and I groaned;
I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.
You kept my eyes from closing;
I was too troubled to speak.
I thought about the former days,
the years of long ago;
I remembered my songs in the night.
My heart meditated" (Psalm 77:3-6, TNIV)

Four simply words that we can use to help us discern, and (more importantly) obey God's will. And in the main it involves remembering how he has acted in the past. When I'm asked for evidence of God I can point to the historical reliability of Scripture, but I also point to my personal, real experience of God's activity in my life.

So we firstly remember (v.3). We take time to make a record of our memories. I, for instance, keep a journal, that is a permanent reminder of all that I have done. The sins especially remind me of my need of God, but his faithfulness and the settled pattern of increased holiness is a precious reminder that God is with me. Each day I commit to setting down on paper what has happened to me, the highs and lows. I think it is also important to 'count our blessings' to simply list and number the myriad ways God provides for us: homes, cars, clothes, food, sometimes good food, health, the NHS, education, free schooling, friends, family, husbands, wives, children, brothers and sisters, Doctor Who (LOL), cinema, music, ale, curries, etc, etc...on it goes. When we enter into worship we should always take with us the profound sense that God is for us; not against us.

Next we meditate. Both on God's word, but also our daily lives. I'm not very good at meditating on Scripture, and I think I need to work on it. However, just lately I've found myself writing my diary with greater purpose. I want to see past the facts and try to see what was going on in my heart and soul when I said this, or did that: meditating on life, if you will. And what I find is that God is constantly at work around me. I have found, for instance, that stopping to record what my wife said to me, and reading more closely into the feeling and emotion that surrounded what she said, can lead to some fairly straightforward insight into how my behaviour has affected her. As a result I can ask God, by His Spirit, to heal, to forgive, to guide, and especially strengthen me to remedy bad behaviours. I also see missed opportunities when I meditate - the person I should have simply chatted with to dispel feelings of sadness and loneliness; the new acquaintance who would have welcomed a discussion about God; the neighbour who needs me to be more supportive...on it goes...

Next we call to mind (the RSV uses this phrase in place of the second remember). This implies something more interogative, which for me means re-remembering. I forget LOADS from my recent past. So as well as writing a diary, I need to re-read it, going back years, months, and even days, as a reminder of how I need God and what I need prayer for. My wife is astonished I remember so little of my past, so I need to do this. Now I'm not advocating a navel-gazing introspection that immobilises us. Introspection of this sought drives us into prayer and praise. We also - I think - become more confident in accepting God's will when we see how our lives are shaped when we do or don't.

Finally, I ponder...which reminds me of the hymn lyric, "ponder anew, what the Almighty can do" (from Praise to the Lord, the Almighty). And I think this is about turning our mind to the challenges that face us now. What can we learn of God's previous faithfulness that might inspire greater trust and confidence in his future activity - even when the way seems dim, or dangerous. We also have to ask ourselves - are there any areas of my life where I am knowingly disobeying God - either his revealed will and purpose for my life, or His Word? If there are then we should apply to our resistence to His will our knowledge of all he has done, not least the work of Jesus on the cross, who presents to us, the perfect example of obedience.

Aggressive Selfishness

I have started to reengage with twitter/facebook since returning from holiday. I must admit that I want to be more thoughtful in the time I give to blogging...don't want to rob my work. So I'll try to be brief.

I'm so disappointed with the state of this country right now. In particular, I am disappointed people are simply rolling over and allowing MPs to try and take a lead on 'fixing' the brokenness.

I was reading James 3 this morning:

"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder"
(James 3:16)

As I re-read sermon notes from a series on James I heard two years ago by Jonathan Lamb, I came across a line he'd said, which referred to the 'aggressive selfishness' our children see around us. Mindful of all that's happened, I can't help feeling that in so many ways we are reaping what we've sown.

And the envious ambition is everywhere:

MPs seek to line their own nests...and I don't care a jot if they were "operating within the rules"...they were fundamentally selfish, seeking to create their very own safe and comfortable existence. Some MPs are noble and full of integrity...but what we saw was very VERY few who had not claimed unfairly.

Our Bankers and Financiers seek such gargantuan rewards, such enormous bonuses, such inflated salaries as to make me blush. (Okay...so do footballers...but they have a very simple conundrum...beat the opposition, stay fit, don't sleep with your best mates wife....) Bankers are guilty of envy and selfish ambition because of the risks they were prepared to take.

Then there's the press - the guardians of truth - the exposers of falsehoods. Have they led by example? No. Again...some are deeply honest, but what concerns me is the degree to which it is those at the top, who allow bad men and women to do bad things. And why? Why might media barons be so quick to turn a blind eye? For profit - surely that is the truth, and our spirits know it. Some journalism is fact finding, but papers are sold to make profit. Financial gain...

And this sense of personal financial gain is so often why the police themselves, our law enforcers, can agree to take back-handers, bungs, etc.

But I wonder, those of us who've watched on. Did our MPs, our Bankers, the Press, etc...did they have serious consequences to face? Not really no. MPs largely kept their jobs, some not even having to make statements to the House of Commons; Bankers, well the Government decided to bail them out, making me and you liable for their excesses and risk taking; the Police, the Press...no there will always be bent coppers, and a devious press.

So is it...really...any wonder that our Young People should behave as they've done; these Young People who have witnessed this aggressive selfishness with no consequences?

Now, please don't get me wrong. The looting, stealing, burning, (apparently) raping, and rioting are despicable actions.

But how dare, how VERY dare our leaders sit in judgment on a generation that is, largely doing what it has seen others do around it: acting out of selfish ambition with no fear of consequence.

James describes envy and selfish ambition as a form of wisdom, but not from God. This wisdom is "earthly, unspiritual, of the devil" (James 3:15). Or to put it plainer, of the world, the flesh and the devil.

Now, I don't want to try and seek some moral high ground. I am just as guilty of selfish ambition, and of envying other people's possessions and homes. But I daily commit to live in the power of the Spirit, which is a gift from God as a consequence of my being 'in Christ'. And the Spirit wants me to grow a totally different type of fruit:
- Peace-loving
- Considerate
- Submissive
- Merciful
- Fruitful (a reference perhaps to the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22ff.) or of being effective in ministry
- Impartial
- Sincere - not a hypocrite. (Taken from James 3: 17)

These, surely, are precisely the types of attitudes and behaviours we want to see on the streets and in the communities around our country? But the truth is, as the Bible testifies, that these cannot be generated, or at least sustained, by good-will alone. A government think tank will not enable us to live like this. We are sadly at the mercy of Satan and his attempts to destroy us, the world and it's value-system of money, sex, and power, and then our own weakness and fraility that renders us impotent to face down these challenges...

I am looking for God's people to stand up and very simply say: "society is broken, and that's because we are ALL broken. There is noone who can save himself, or us. Noone, but Jesus that is. Let me tell you about him?"

To conclude (and I am sorry for ranting and probably saying some things people will deeply disagree with) I have felt myself singing the words to this song as a response this last week. This is my prayer as we step out in faith:

Restore, O Lord
The honour of Your name
In works of sovereign power
Come shake the earth again
That men may see
And come with reverent fear
To the living God
Whose kingdom shall outlast the years

Restore, O Lord
In all the earth Your fame
And in our time revive
The church that bears Your name
And in Your anger
Lord, remember mercy
O living God
Whose mercy shall outlast the years

Bend us, O Lord
Where we are hard and cold
In Your refiner's fire
Come purify the gold
Though suffering comes
And evil crouches near
Still our living God
Is reigning, He is reigning here

Restore, O Lord
The honour of Your name
In works of sovereign power
Come shake the earth again
That men may see
And come with reverent fear
To the living God
Whose kingdom shall outlast the years

Graham Kendrick & Chris Rollinson
© 1981 Kingsways Thankyou Music

Boredom, distraction and emotional eating.

When was the last time I was bored? Do I lead a boring life?

“Boring” is such a powerful criticism. We fear our lessons being labelled ‘boring’, or worse that we ourselves are seen as somehow boring.

But I wonder if I do get bored, perhaps bored too easily. I look at my little boy (who admittedly is only 21 weeks old) and I see a personality emerging, a personality that is fundamentally curious interested, but seemingly quickly bored. He needs to be on the go all the time. We have friends whose now very bright toddler, has always been quickly bored. Or was it a more easily distracted disposition?

I wonder whether this is a distraction thing (as opposed to boredom), because I think I have this problem.

Firstly, I think I am so worried about what people think, that I actively encourage a hectic lifestyle. This lifestyle means we couldn’t possibly be labelled boring, but at what cost?

But then secondly, I very quickly start new projects, but don’t finish them. Is it that I get bored of the many ideas, or that a newer/fresher idea pops up that piques my interest more?

This may seem a bit nit-picky, but I can’t help worrying that this is all realted to my weight battles and eating habits. I wonder whether I eat from boredom? Or maybe as a distraction? Or maybe it's about something deeper? Emotions.

Where do I derive my emotional pleasure? Where do my endorphin releases come from? I eat because I say "I'm hungry", when I know in truth I’m not hungry.

There are two real reasons: the feeling (it is a pleasure) and from boredom (it’s something to do)
But this is a scary idea. Am I bored at home? Have I forgotten how to enjoy the company of my wife – chatting to her about anything and everything, or am I bored of the same old conversations? Am I so paralysed by fear of boring-ness that I resist doing things that might eventually lead to balance and comfort and a settled lifestyle for fear that people will see this 'growing up' as getting boring?

Or am simply stressed?

Or maybe I’m wired to be distracted and bored easily?

I posit this idea because I do think I’m a certain type of person who needs to constantly look to new projects. I have taken, on many occasions, a typology test, the results of which can be researched further.

In personality terms I am an ENFP (Extroverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiving – the opposites being Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging) There are two sites that explain more of what this person is like: http://keirsey.com/4temps/champion.asp, and http://typelogic.com/enfp.html

It’s interesting to note how they suggest that Idealists (the broad category of four types I sit in) need to have alone time to recuperate when stressed. I’ve always battled with Jen (my wife) on this one.

This is a fascinating area for me...one that holds lots more questions than answers.

For certain, I need to review my life patterns and start to complete projects I start.

I also need to stop making excuses and get walking...

Living as a minority

Our bishop, Nick Baines, has blogged today on comments he's made about being a minority. I think this is a very important debate to had - how do we function as a 'national' church if we're a minority. However, I'm not sure about Nick's suggestion that we should look to the Muslim community as an example. This is my response to Nick:

This may seem somewhat facile but is it not more appropriate to think of
dwindling Christian communities as early church, where they were more
mission-orientated and certainly a minority?

There is a fundamental difference in the histories of the two faiths. Christians look back to an early church that was persecuted; Muslims look to a more triumphalist origin. This creates a different mindset.

I agree with your final paragraph that there are important challenges facing the church, but what conclusions could we draw from the Muslim community?

It is certainly true that parishes in Bradford are overwhelmingly outnumbered, made all the more frustrating when members of the congregation 'drive in' to church on a Sunday having left some time ago when the tide of immigrants became a worry. (This is a worrying trend, perhaps - Christians who feel called to worship in an area but not live there?)

The concern is that we end up with a siege mentality if we compare ourselves with our Muslim brothers and sisters. Churches don't think of being active, rather it's about protecting their church, the culture and congregation. We are about maintenance not mission.

Instead, we should, as you suggest, see the opportunity, which is to rethink our strategy of outreach, how the building is used by the community, how we present the gospel, how we seek to find culturally relevant ways of presenting Jesus. These are all things the early church did. I am not, as a Bradfordian, convinced we see this in the Muslim community around us.

Perhaps I'm not seeing this in the same way?!

What do people think?

The Venns

The name Venn conjures images of diagrams, does it not? This Venn diagram shows the intersections of the Greek, Latin and Russian alphabet. They are rather pretty in their own way. A chap called John Venn created them. Good for him.

Fascinatingly, the church commemorates John Venn's family today: his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather: Henry Venn, the great-grandfather; John Venn, the grandfather; and Henry Venn the younger, his father.

There is a helpful entry about them at this site.

Henry Venn (great-grandfather) was a clergymen who was deeply influenced (as a member of the Clapham Sect) by William Law's important book, 'Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life'. Over time he altered his view of Christian living.

"...Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to God." So begins William Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. Originally published in 1729, Law's book stands as a powerful challenge to Christians. Law teaches that if God is "our greatest good," then the wisest way to live is to please God through a life of worship, adoration, and devotion. Since many fail to live this way, Law diagnoses why and suggests certain concrete practices as a remedy. Thus, no one interested in becoming more devout could ignore this dynamic book. Law's call has encouraged several generations, and does not fail to encourage believers even today with a serious call to a devout and holy life.

Henry Venn changed his Christian perspective, and through personal and generational influence came to personify the evangelicalism many of us adhere to today. I am particularly mindful that this year's Keswick has as its theme - Word to the World. John Venn (grandad) came to help found the Christian Mission Society (CMS). The spiritual background to the emergence of CMS was the great outpouring of energy in Western Europe now called The Great Awakening. John Wesley an Anglican priest and failed missionary became a key player in the UK version of the story. Not all those influenced by the revival left the Anglican Church to become Methodists. One such was John Venn, the saintly rector of Clapham. His son (the diagramatician's father) Henry Venn the Younger, was born at Clapham in 1796. He also eventually devoted himself in 1846 entirely to the work of the Church Missionary Society. He was secretary for thirty-two years, and his organizing gifts and sound judgment made him the leading member of the Society. His aim was that overseas Churches should become “self-supporting, self-governing, and self-extending”. He was instrumental in securing the appointment of the first African Anglican bishop, Samuel A. Crowther, in 1864.

"What Venn the Younger did, in essence, was to wrestle with the reality of
cultural distinctiveness and to map out a missionary strategy that both took
this seriously and sought to extrapolate an implement biblical and historical
principles of church growth. And in doing this he was no lonely beacon seeking
to spread light amid the darkness of his generation. He was rather the most
articulate and systematic exponent of ideas that had a very wide currency in
missionary circles and beyond…"

...writes Peter Williams. The Venns saw the powerful transforming power of the gospel, but crucially saw that it had to take root in a persons living - all of it, which means a persons culture is to be taken seriously.

These men embody the spirit of the Clapham Sect. Its members were chiefly prominent and wealthy evangelical Anglicans who shared common political views concerning the liberation of slaves, the abolition of the slave trade and the reform of the penal system. The group's name originates from Clapham, then a village south of London (today part of south-west London) where many of the group's meetings were held.

After many decades of work both in British society and in Parliament, the group saw their efforts rewarded with the final passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, banning the trade throughout the British Empire and, after many further years of campaigning, the total emancipation of British slaves with the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. They also campaigned vigorously for Britain to use its influence to eradicate slavery throughout the world.

What strikes me is that this group were lampooned in their day as "the saints", which says as much about the life we are called to lead and the worries and fears we have.

These were a deeply evangelical body who were persuaded of the need for God to be felt in personal devotion, in public proclamation and societal reform. The group published a journal, the Christian Observer, edited by Zachary Macaulay and were also credited with the foundation of several missionary and tract societies, including the British and Foreign Bible Society and, as mentioned above, the Church Missionary Society.

Indeed, the Clapham sect have been credited with playing a significant part in the development of Victorian morality, through their writings, their societies, their influence in Parliament, and their example in philanthropy and moral campaigns, especially against slavery. In the words of Tomkins, "The ethos of Clapham became the spirit of the age".

What a bunch of individuals, eh?

Two thoughts to go away with:
1. To what extent am I living a life that pleases God through patterns of worship, adoration, and devotion?
2. Am I engaging with mission? Do I spread the good news?

Ignatius Who?

I'm going to loosely follow a friend's commitment to a 31-day challenge with Ignatius.

My friend Bryony has a great blog type thing.

Maybe you might like to check it out.

I often refer to Richard Foster, who himself often refers to Ignatius of Loyala as a source of great instruction about the examined life.

Lying lips and evil lives

This mornings readings have struck me in two ways.

Firstly, Psalm 31: 18

Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak
arrogantly against the righteous.

It really hit me how strange a prayer this is for modern lips. And yet, I know that yesterday I was writing in a questionnaire about my fears regarding the shifts in the legal position of faith and belief. I contended that the media do two dangerous things. Firstly, they misreport what people of faith actually believe - often because it's too subtle; and secondly, the overall tone toward faith is that it represents a deficieny in a person. They use phrases like "out-dated" to describe what peculiar people we are. We are abberant, incomplete, somehow flawed.

And this is a lie.

I am more fully who I am meant to be. More Rolf than a non-Christian Rolf would be (perhaps he'd shave his beard off?)

So maybe this prayer is relevant - despite its strong tone.

Maybe we should petition God to silence the arrogant godless who spread false lies?


Secondly, as Judah slipped, somewhat inexorably, toward exile an 8 year old is made king. Yes, an 8 year old, Jehoiachin (2 Chronicles 36:9-10). Now it's not his age that is remarkable [Edward III was 14 when he was CROWNED King of England. Edward VI was 9 when HE was crowned.
BUT Henry VI was nine months old when he was declared King at the death of his father.]
No, age is not the thing.

It's his description.

"He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord"

What!??!! He was only 8!

But that is the testimony of Scripture - he did what was evil. Does this mean he was evil? Or was he tutored to not challenge the evil behaviours in Judah? After all, even good king Josiah stuffed up in the end when he opposed God (2 Chronicles 35:21), which he did by failing to recognise God's voice. Maybe Jehoiachin simply did the same?

He might have indulged in some immoral practices though? Soothsaying, worshipped Baal, or consulted mediums (it's pretty certain he won't have sacrificed any children!). Did he practice that which was forbidden? Surely he could be forgiven for doing what his fathers before him did?

Or maybe, more worryingly, he was, in himself, evil.

What might this do to our view of schooling, of Sunday school, of the role of parents? When I was 8 was I evil?

Not sure there are easy answers to this...

One thing is sure:
- Am I invovled in practices I know God has asked me not to?
- Do I resist or oppose God? Do I shut out the Spirit? Have I submitted to Jesus as my Lord today?
- Can I discern God's voice? Am I listening to God's words from scripture?
- Am I praying for God's protection?

Not just any old Friday, eh?