Saturday, August 30, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fall Of A Man
Last night a current affairs show broke a story that’s been flying around the internet for a few days now. You may have heard it, it’s the one about the guy in ministry who claimed to be dying of cancer and wasn’t. Now sadly as with most things we only really know what the media wants us to know, we are given edited and sometimes incomplete information. There was so much I wanted to know and so much that frustrated me.
For me I think the biggest struggle was the fact that even his family believed his lies. Now I’m married and there is no way my husband would go through something like that without me having met with his drs and gotten very involved, and not just me but then I’m in a family that has drs and nurses in it so you know they’d want the details. Now please understand I’m not coming down on his family I am, like many, simply trying to understand.
I would like to add another facet to this story and that is he is not the only person I know of to have played this part. For the sake of this story I’m going to call this woman Tessa. Tessa came into our lives as a friend of a friend. We welcomed her in and hadn’t known her very long before she announced she had been diagnosed with cancer. We cried with her, offered her our support and so on. During this time she also got engaged. Then for some reason she stopped coming around.
Long story short, it turned out she was a con woman. We later figured out she stopped coming around because she knew we’d tumble to the fact she was lying, as not long before this my mum had died from cancer. Unfortunately the lies didn’t come out until she’d made a mess of her fiancée financially and emotionally screwed over him and others. This little event didn’t come close to lasting two years like this minister’s deception.
It’s easy to sit back, condemn and throw stones but the story cannot end here. I am sure many, many people have been hurt and feel abused by this minister, as someone who has had a loved one die from cancer I’m disgusted at his deception, and yet there is more to be said.
I want to just throw some random thoughts out there.
1. It takes a lot of effort to live a lie like this, it was something he had to choose to do everyday for a very long time, it’s not something he simply fell into.
2. He says he didn’t do it for money, even though it seems quite a bit is involved, that being the case there had to be some payout for what he did. Is it possible it was recognition? The buzz from being known and admired.
3. Last night, and this was the first time I heard this bit, he said part of the reason he did it was to hide his problem with pornography. Don’t get me started there.
It strikes me quite clearly that this is a wake-up call for the church regarding accountability. As someone on the outside looking in, or rather someone who was on the inside and isn’t so sure where she stands now, I’m seeing a lot of surface, a lot of emotional - a cynic might say manipulation. I am also seeing the church making modern day golden calves (Exodus 32). We are putting people on pedestals. This is dangerous, the only one we should worship is God.
Sit up and take notice church, we need to be careful, we need to be accountable, we need to be prepared to ask and answer the hard and personal questions of each other. Above all we need to ensure that popularity and emotion never outstrip the core message of God and his love for everyone of us no matter what we’ve done.
For me I think the biggest struggle was the fact that even his family believed his lies. Now I’m married and there is no way my husband would go through something like that without me having met with his drs and gotten very involved, and not just me but then I’m in a family that has drs and nurses in it so you know they’d want the details. Now please understand I’m not coming down on his family I am, like many, simply trying to understand.
I would like to add another facet to this story and that is he is not the only person I know of to have played this part. For the sake of this story I’m going to call this woman Tessa. Tessa came into our lives as a friend of a friend. We welcomed her in and hadn’t known her very long before she announced she had been diagnosed with cancer. We cried with her, offered her our support and so on. During this time she also got engaged. Then for some reason she stopped coming around.
Long story short, it turned out she was a con woman. We later figured out she stopped coming around because she knew we’d tumble to the fact she was lying, as not long before this my mum had died from cancer. Unfortunately the lies didn’t come out until she’d made a mess of her fiancée financially and emotionally screwed over him and others. This little event didn’t come close to lasting two years like this minister’s deception.
It’s easy to sit back, condemn and throw stones but the story cannot end here. I am sure many, many people have been hurt and feel abused by this minister, as someone who has had a loved one die from cancer I’m disgusted at his deception, and yet there is more to be said.
I want to just throw some random thoughts out there.
1. It takes a lot of effort to live a lie like this, it was something he had to choose to do everyday for a very long time, it’s not something he simply fell into.
2. He says he didn’t do it for money, even though it seems quite a bit is involved, that being the case there had to be some payout for what he did. Is it possible it was recognition? The buzz from being known and admired.
3. Last night, and this was the first time I heard this bit, he said part of the reason he did it was to hide his problem with pornography. Don’t get me started there.
It strikes me quite clearly that this is a wake-up call for the church regarding accountability. As someone on the outside looking in, or rather someone who was on the inside and isn’t so sure where she stands now, I’m seeing a lot of surface, a lot of emotional - a cynic might say manipulation. I am also seeing the church making modern day golden calves (Exodus 32). We are putting people on pedestals. This is dangerous, the only one we should worship is God.
Sit up and take notice church, we need to be careful, we need to be accountable, we need to be prepared to ask and answer the hard and personal questions of each other. Above all we need to ensure that popularity and emotion never outstrip the core message of God and his love for everyone of us no matter what we’ve done.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Abundance - pt 2
It takes an abundance of character to follow in the footsteps of our heroes of faith, it doesn’t take an abundance of clothes, music, tv’s, cars, houses, furniture and so on. Paul ends his letter to the Ephesians emphasising the point.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you
with power through his spirit in your inner being 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 saints to grasp how wide and long, 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 fullness of God. Now unto
him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly (immeasurably)
more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at
work in us. To him be glory in the church and Christ Jesus through-
out all generations, forever and ever.
Ephesians 3:16-21
Paul doesn’t pray for material stuff, he is focussed instead on God’s power and love. He prays we are strengthened with power, grounded in love, which produces power which brings better understanding on God’s love, which is more valuable than wisdom. All these things seem intrinsically tied together. Love, strength, wisdom and power. They work together to give us quality of life, life to the full. Verse 20 needs to be read as one sentence with verse 21. Twenty describes God’s ability and twenty one states we give Him the glory. Twenty is about what He can do, not a guarantee of what He will do. In particular it is not a guarantee of financial stability, or wealth complete with two or more cars and McMansions for everybody. It may be worth noting here Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s ‘however’;
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before
you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the
God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us
from your hand, o king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we
want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18
These verses clearly show that God is able to do things but that doesn’t mean He will.
Bottom line is I’ve been as guilty as any for misinterpreting these verses but the more I study them the more I’m convinced wealth has nothing to do with it. Can we be wealthy and Christian? Certainly. And God definitely calls certain people to be money makers for his kingdom but he doesn’t call all of us to be. Do I like stuff? Yes. Do I think we all need to give it all up? No. I think we need to seek God out and ask Him what He wants us to do. He will tell us. Some things though are right in front of our eyes. God calls us all to be more Christlike and embrace the purposes He has put aside for us. We are called to be more like David and seek His heart.
It may also be worth noting that a financial reading of the scriptures makes it easy for us to fall away from faith – if we don’t get. It also makes it easy to judge others if they don’t have and it would completely count out a great number of people in this world if our benchmark for faith is financial abundance. Abundance of character and needs to survive, well that’s another matter entirely.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you
with power through his spirit in your inner being 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 saints to grasp how wide and long, 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 fullness of God. Now unto
him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly (immeasurably)
more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at
work in us. To him be glory in the church and Christ Jesus through-
out all generations, forever and ever.
Ephesians 3:16-21
Paul doesn’t pray for material stuff, he is focussed instead on God’s power and love. He prays we are strengthened with power, grounded in love, which produces power which brings better understanding on God’s love, which is more valuable than wisdom. All these things seem intrinsically tied together. Love, strength, wisdom and power. They work together to give us quality of life, life to the full. Verse 20 needs to be read as one sentence with verse 21. Twenty describes God’s ability and twenty one states we give Him the glory. Twenty is about what He can do, not a guarantee of what He will do. In particular it is not a guarantee of financial stability, or wealth complete with two or more cars and McMansions for everybody. It may be worth noting here Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s ‘however’;
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before
you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the
God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us
from your hand, o king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we
want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18
These verses clearly show that God is able to do things but that doesn’t mean He will.
Bottom line is I’ve been as guilty as any for misinterpreting these verses but the more I study them the more I’m convinced wealth has nothing to do with it. Can we be wealthy and Christian? Certainly. And God definitely calls certain people to be money makers for his kingdom but he doesn’t call all of us to be. Do I like stuff? Yes. Do I think we all need to give it all up? No. I think we need to seek God out and ask Him what He wants us to do. He will tell us. Some things though are right in front of our eyes. God calls us all to be more Christlike and embrace the purposes He has put aside for us. We are called to be more like David and seek His heart.
It may also be worth noting that a financial reading of the scriptures makes it easy for us to fall away from faith – if we don’t get. It also makes it easy to judge others if they don’t have and it would completely count out a great number of people in this world if our benchmark for faith is financial abundance. Abundance of character and needs to survive, well that’s another matter entirely.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Abundance - pt 1
This is a topic that at times has really frustrated me. There have been moments when I’ve thought the western church focuses on it too much, which really only means I’ve heard a lot of people speaking on abundance and prosperity over the years. Let me give you my thoughts on abundance.
There are four New Testament verses that spring to mind regarding this topic, now I know this isn’t a complete list but these are the verses I’m going to look at over the next two entries.
Matthew 13:12
Whoever has will be given more and he will have an abundance.
Luke 6:38
Give and it will be given unto you, a good measure pressed down,
shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap.
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come
that they may have life and have it to the full (in abundance/
abundantly)
Ephesians 3:20
Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly
(immeasurably) more than all we ask or imagine according to his
power that is at work in us.
I think it is important to note that not one of these verses actually says you will have all the money and stuff you want. We like to think they do but if we look at the contexts a rather different picture is painted.
In Matthew the verse is found in a discussion of why Jesus used parables. The verse directly before 12 is
He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been
given to you but not to them.
Matthew 13:11
The verse after is;
This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing they
do not see; though hearing, they do not understand.
Matthew 13:13
The abundance here seems to be referring to wisdom. If you seek wisdom and use wisdom you will gain more and wisdom leads to a balanced and contented life, (look at Proverbs) but not necessarily one full of stuff.
The next verse is the one from Luke, once again take the verse by itself and you could interpret it to mean a whole bunch of things, but for the sake of a little clarity lets look at the verse before it.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and
you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Luke 6:37
Why then do we assume the very next word, ‘give’, is referring to money? Of course there is the possibility that the only person who thought these things about these verses was me.
Back to Luke. It makes far more sense to consider verse 38 in relation to verse 37. When we do this the meaning that becomes clear to me is: we need to give mercy and grace and be compassionate and these things will be extended to us.
It is probably worth noting here that the good measure is ‘pressed down and shaken’, which to me indicates being put under pressure and roughed up a bit. This then leads to the thought of being tested for purity. Maybe here is where we need to ask ourselves a question; are the things we are giving genuine or are we putting on a façade? Do those feelings truly come from the heart or are we merely going through the motions because we hope to gain from it?
When I look at my life I’d like to be able to say I’ve done things for the right reasons but the truth is I haven’t always. I’ve taken these verses to be talking about money and have said ‘I’ll give’ and believed if I did I would then get the money or stuff I wanted. I’m sure then that means my motives were wrong, I may have been thinking about the cause but I was also thinking of how I could benefit. Self is so devious, maybe that is a topic for another time. When I’ve been pressed down and shaken I’ve come up lacking. Don’t get me wrong I love giving but that’s not the point, there are times I’ve given with wrong motives in my heart and that means the measure I was using was faulty.
When we move on to John we add something else into the mix. This verse is found in the middle of Jesus talking about being a good shepherd. The verse before it is;
I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. He will
come in and go out and find pasture.
John 10:9
So here we are talking about being saved, being given life, which ties right in with verse 10. However it is probably the ‘have it to the full’ bit which is more the sticking point (some translations say ‘in abundance’).
For just a minute I would like to focus on the second half of verse nine, ‘He will come in and go out and find pasture’ The sheep is still responsible for feeding itself and drinking. The shepherd ensures the sheep doesn’t get killed or wander off too far but the rest is up to the sheep. This indicates to me that we have been given eternal life (life even after we die on earth – so I don’t think this is a promise to not let us die here) but within the boundaries of that life we can choose where to go and what to do. If we listen to the shepherd we will have the things we need. The sheep are put in a place to have more than they need but it doesn’t say anything about stuff they don’t need but may want. I realise this may be a simplistic reading of this but Jesus chose to use sheep to make his point not some human organisation. For animals abundance is having more than enough of what they need. We tend to make abundance about wants rather than needs, about material things rather than about anything else.
There are four New Testament verses that spring to mind regarding this topic, now I know this isn’t a complete list but these are the verses I’m going to look at over the next two entries.
Matthew 13:12
Whoever has will be given more and he will have an abundance.
Luke 6:38
Give and it will be given unto you, a good measure pressed down,
shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap.
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come
that they may have life and have it to the full (in abundance/
abundantly)
Ephesians 3:20
Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly
(immeasurably) more than all we ask or imagine according to his
power that is at work in us.
I think it is important to note that not one of these verses actually says you will have all the money and stuff you want. We like to think they do but if we look at the contexts a rather different picture is painted.
In Matthew the verse is found in a discussion of why Jesus used parables. The verse directly before 12 is
He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been
given to you but not to them.
Matthew 13:11
The verse after is;
This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing they
do not see; though hearing, they do not understand.
Matthew 13:13
The abundance here seems to be referring to wisdom. If you seek wisdom and use wisdom you will gain more and wisdom leads to a balanced and contented life, (look at Proverbs) but not necessarily one full of stuff.
The next verse is the one from Luke, once again take the verse by itself and you could interpret it to mean a whole bunch of things, but for the sake of a little clarity lets look at the verse before it.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and
you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Luke 6:37
Why then do we assume the very next word, ‘give’, is referring to money? Of course there is the possibility that the only person who thought these things about these verses was me.
Back to Luke. It makes far more sense to consider verse 38 in relation to verse 37. When we do this the meaning that becomes clear to me is: we need to give mercy and grace and be compassionate and these things will be extended to us.
It is probably worth noting here that the good measure is ‘pressed down and shaken’, which to me indicates being put under pressure and roughed up a bit. This then leads to the thought of being tested for purity. Maybe here is where we need to ask ourselves a question; are the things we are giving genuine or are we putting on a façade? Do those feelings truly come from the heart or are we merely going through the motions because we hope to gain from it?
When I look at my life I’d like to be able to say I’ve done things for the right reasons but the truth is I haven’t always. I’ve taken these verses to be talking about money and have said ‘I’ll give’ and believed if I did I would then get the money or stuff I wanted. I’m sure then that means my motives were wrong, I may have been thinking about the cause but I was also thinking of how I could benefit. Self is so devious, maybe that is a topic for another time. When I’ve been pressed down and shaken I’ve come up lacking. Don’t get me wrong I love giving but that’s not the point, there are times I’ve given with wrong motives in my heart and that means the measure I was using was faulty.
When we move on to John we add something else into the mix. This verse is found in the middle of Jesus talking about being a good shepherd. The verse before it is;
I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. He will
come in and go out and find pasture.
John 10:9
So here we are talking about being saved, being given life, which ties right in with verse 10. However it is probably the ‘have it to the full’ bit which is more the sticking point (some translations say ‘in abundance’).
For just a minute I would like to focus on the second half of verse nine, ‘He will come in and go out and find pasture’ The sheep is still responsible for feeding itself and drinking. The shepherd ensures the sheep doesn’t get killed or wander off too far but the rest is up to the sheep. This indicates to me that we have been given eternal life (life even after we die on earth – so I don’t think this is a promise to not let us die here) but within the boundaries of that life we can choose where to go and what to do. If we listen to the shepherd we will have the things we need. The sheep are put in a place to have more than they need but it doesn’t say anything about stuff they don’t need but may want. I realise this may be a simplistic reading of this but Jesus chose to use sheep to make his point not some human organisation. For animals abundance is having more than enough of what they need. We tend to make abundance about wants rather than needs, about material things rather than about anything else.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Two Roads
How much of what has happened to us responsible for where we find ourselves? I don’t know about you but I’m a bit, no a lot, fed up with hearing people say this happened to me that’s why I did this terrible thing, or why I am the way I am. Yes sure our past shaped us but we are responsible for the choices we made and the ones we’ve yet to make. We can’t change what others do to us but we can choose how we react. We can choose the things we do to and for others and the things we do to and for ourselves.
Robert Frost wrote ‘Two Roads diverged in the yellow wood……..’ That’s what every day is like. We have many choices to make everyday, which road do you take?
I like the idea of taking the road less travelled I’ve always felt a little out of kilter with the general population. Sad as it may seem crime, shattered families and dysfunctional lives seem to be the norm, and the goals we strive for appear more important than the means we use to achieve them. Am I the perfect model of a life of integrity and living responsibility? No not by along shot. I try but I’m not always successful. Sometimes integrity is more difficult, less self serving and not as clear cut as we’d like it to be.
There is another double path mentioned in well known literature.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and
broad is the road that lead to destruction, and many enter
through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that
leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going
to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter
through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try
to enter and will not be able to.
Luke 13:23
It seems to me that often the way the Christian message is presented is that once you become a Christian you will find yourself on the wide and easy path. However the bible doesn’t say that. It says
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
light.
Matthew 11:28-30
The important thing to note is that there is a burden. We are burdened without God and we are burdened when we walk with God but it is a different type of burden. The game plan given to us is exchange our burden for his, learn from him and we will find the burden light and we will be able to rest.
We are also told,
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails
of many kinds…
James 1:2
Surely this means we should expect trials. We would be naïve to expect a wide, smooth and clear path when clearly we are being warned that the way will be tough.
This seems to indicate that God is more interested in developing us as people than he is in making sure we are comfortable along the way. God wants to shape us into the people he knows we can be, not into a group of people who sit in the comfort of their own lounge room, debating theories of eschatology or the minutiae of theology, while the world passes them by.
The bible uses concepts like purifying and refining. Think about that for a minute when you purify water you boil it and when you refine metal? Great heat. We often don’t like to think about that. When the fires of life are turned up and the pressure rises it’s very tempting to get out of the kitchen. God however wants us to stay.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego literally were refined with great heat. We all know they came out, we focus on that but I think far more important is their ‘however’.
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before
you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the
God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us
from your hand, o king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we
want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18 (emphasis mine)
These men knew they might die and they accepted that. They knew how to withstand the heat. Do we? Would we be able to stand our ground and do what we know to be right, what God is calling us to do, when the price could be so high? Can we keep our integrity when the pressure builds? Can we keep going forward when the trees close in and the path becomes rocky and difficult to see? Can we make the right choice?
So we are promised trials, races and fires, not to mention temptations, and we are not guaranteed a completion of the vision in our lifetime? So where does that leave the safe comfortable faith that seems to be promised a lot?
Hebrews 11 is the hall of faith, it’s kind of interesting to note that we seem to look at the names and skip right over the unnamed others listed at the end of that chapter.
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained
and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two;
they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheep-
skins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts,
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were
all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what
had been promised.
Hebrews 11:36-39
These are the people who knew and understood that faith came with a price. There are vast numbers of people in our history who stand in that cloud of witnesses who understood that too. Agathonice of Pergamos; Agatha of Catania; Julitta of Caesaea; Afra of Augsburg; Crispina of Thagara; Perpetua, these women all gave their lives for their faith. Then there are those who stepped out into strange lands, unfamiliar cultures to bring their faith to those who didn’t know, these women knew hardship like a great many of us couldn’t possibly know. There are many, many women whose names we don’t know but who chose to live by the faith they professed, they forged trails and did incredible things, that’s the sort of faith that speaks to me. Theirs is a faith that isn’t flashy or showy, it doesn’t scream at you but they lived it.
There are many, many women around us whose actions aren’t publicised or written about but their faith is just as profound and they are often more influential than they realise: The woman who does her best to raise happy, well adjusted children in the face of poverty or other hardship; the woman who reaches out to others even though her life was almost destroyed at the hands of another; the young woman who miscarried the child she desperately hoped for who wraps her arms around the teenager who has just found out she is pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. There are many more examples everyday of these awesome women of faith I want to share one from my life. My mother was a woman like that. We didn’t have much and the hardships we faced were compounded by the fact my father was an alcoholic but she always did her best and taught me so many valuable lessons. While she never would have thought much about her influence in the lives of others when she died her funeral was standing room only out of the doors. People came from many miles away just to be there to say goodbye and many stood to share what she meant to them. Her faith was quiet, solid but very passionate, deep and true. That’s the sort of faith that speaks to me.
The fire, the passion, to hear what God was saying to them and the courage to do it, that’s inspiring. We’re not all called to be martyrs, and we’re not all called to be missionaries but we are all called, and if we answer that call my guess is it’s going to require us to step out of our comfort zones and allow God to stretch us.
I wonder if you could say that modern faith has two roads, the narrow and the wide and we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that the wide path is the narrow one by virtue of the fact it is narrower than the one the world outside travels down. After all God answers prayer, and wants us to live in abundance, all we need to do is follow a few simple rules.
I don’t know how my courage is, I’m trying everyday to step where I believe God is asking me to step. All I know is that I want something deeper than the faith I’ve known for so very long.
Also when you think about it, for all the problems there are on the narrow road, the path less travelled hasn’t proven unpassable, look at the people who have gone before us. We all start from a different place and we all travel it differently but we have chosen to travel it. So I say hello weary traveller, lets walk together for a while. You are not alone.
Robert Frost wrote ‘Two Roads diverged in the yellow wood……..’ That’s what every day is like. We have many choices to make everyday, which road do you take?
I like the idea of taking the road less travelled I’ve always felt a little out of kilter with the general population. Sad as it may seem crime, shattered families and dysfunctional lives seem to be the norm, and the goals we strive for appear more important than the means we use to achieve them. Am I the perfect model of a life of integrity and living responsibility? No not by along shot. I try but I’m not always successful. Sometimes integrity is more difficult, less self serving and not as clear cut as we’d like it to be.
There is another double path mentioned in well known literature.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and
broad is the road that lead to destruction, and many enter
through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that
leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going
to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter
through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try
to enter and will not be able to.
Luke 13:23
It seems to me that often the way the Christian message is presented is that once you become a Christian you will find yourself on the wide and easy path. However the bible doesn’t say that. It says
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
light.
Matthew 11:28-30
The important thing to note is that there is a burden. We are burdened without God and we are burdened when we walk with God but it is a different type of burden. The game plan given to us is exchange our burden for his, learn from him and we will find the burden light and we will be able to rest.
We are also told,
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails
of many kinds…
James 1:2
Surely this means we should expect trials. We would be naïve to expect a wide, smooth and clear path when clearly we are being warned that the way will be tough.
This seems to indicate that God is more interested in developing us as people than he is in making sure we are comfortable along the way. God wants to shape us into the people he knows we can be, not into a group of people who sit in the comfort of their own lounge room, debating theories of eschatology or the minutiae of theology, while the world passes them by.
The bible uses concepts like purifying and refining. Think about that for a minute when you purify water you boil it and when you refine metal? Great heat. We often don’t like to think about that. When the fires of life are turned up and the pressure rises it’s very tempting to get out of the kitchen. God however wants us to stay.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego literally were refined with great heat. We all know they came out, we focus on that but I think far more important is their ‘however’.
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before
you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the
God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us
from your hand, o king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we
want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18 (emphasis mine)
These men knew they might die and they accepted that. They knew how to withstand the heat. Do we? Would we be able to stand our ground and do what we know to be right, what God is calling us to do, when the price could be so high? Can we keep our integrity when the pressure builds? Can we keep going forward when the trees close in and the path becomes rocky and difficult to see? Can we make the right choice?
So we are promised trials, races and fires, not to mention temptations, and we are not guaranteed a completion of the vision in our lifetime? So where does that leave the safe comfortable faith that seems to be promised a lot?
Hebrews 11 is the hall of faith, it’s kind of interesting to note that we seem to look at the names and skip right over the unnamed others listed at the end of that chapter.
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained
and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two;
they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheep-
skins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts,
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were
all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what
had been promised.
Hebrews 11:36-39
These are the people who knew and understood that faith came with a price. There are vast numbers of people in our history who stand in that cloud of witnesses who understood that too. Agathonice of Pergamos; Agatha of Catania; Julitta of Caesaea; Afra of Augsburg; Crispina of Thagara; Perpetua, these women all gave their lives for their faith. Then there are those who stepped out into strange lands, unfamiliar cultures to bring their faith to those who didn’t know, these women knew hardship like a great many of us couldn’t possibly know. There are many, many women whose names we don’t know but who chose to live by the faith they professed, they forged trails and did incredible things, that’s the sort of faith that speaks to me. Theirs is a faith that isn’t flashy or showy, it doesn’t scream at you but they lived it.
There are many, many women around us whose actions aren’t publicised or written about but their faith is just as profound and they are often more influential than they realise: The woman who does her best to raise happy, well adjusted children in the face of poverty or other hardship; the woman who reaches out to others even though her life was almost destroyed at the hands of another; the young woman who miscarried the child she desperately hoped for who wraps her arms around the teenager who has just found out she is pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. There are many more examples everyday of these awesome women of faith I want to share one from my life. My mother was a woman like that. We didn’t have much and the hardships we faced were compounded by the fact my father was an alcoholic but she always did her best and taught me so many valuable lessons. While she never would have thought much about her influence in the lives of others when she died her funeral was standing room only out of the doors. People came from many miles away just to be there to say goodbye and many stood to share what she meant to them. Her faith was quiet, solid but very passionate, deep and true. That’s the sort of faith that speaks to me.
The fire, the passion, to hear what God was saying to them and the courage to do it, that’s inspiring. We’re not all called to be martyrs, and we’re not all called to be missionaries but we are all called, and if we answer that call my guess is it’s going to require us to step out of our comfort zones and allow God to stretch us.
I wonder if you could say that modern faith has two roads, the narrow and the wide and we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that the wide path is the narrow one by virtue of the fact it is narrower than the one the world outside travels down. After all God answers prayer, and wants us to live in abundance, all we need to do is follow a few simple rules.
I don’t know how my courage is, I’m trying everyday to step where I believe God is asking me to step. All I know is that I want something deeper than the faith I’ve known for so very long.
Also when you think about it, for all the problems there are on the narrow road, the path less travelled hasn’t proven unpassable, look at the people who have gone before us. We all start from a different place and we all travel it differently but we have chosen to travel it. So I say hello weary traveller, lets walk together for a while. You are not alone.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Broken People
We are all broken people! We all have our cracks and imperfections, even gaping big holes. Not one of us is perfect. Yet God loves us anyway. He loves us all the same. He is no respecter of persons; a poor man or woman who seems to have nothing is as much the focus of God’s attention and as able to be a recipient of His love as the man or woman living in the mansion in the posh suburb with the cars, pool, tennis courts, boats and whatever else money can buy. Sometimes it’s easy to forget but brokenness transcends race, creed and socio-economic background.
It is something that affects us all but none of us like to admit we are broken. The thing with being broken is that it means something isn’t functioning the way it is meant to. Smashed to pieces or a loose wire, a stereo won’t work properly either way. Lots of things are the same, including people. Not everyone is smashed but I’m pretty sure most of us have, or have had at some time, a loose wire or two. These may not stop you functioning but they may mean you’re not functioning to the capacity for which you were made.
Broken in relation to a person, can cover such a vast number of things; from abused and crushed to those things which cause us to hold back from engaging with others. It can also include that drive inside us that seems to lead us to; relationships with the wrong people, hurting others before they can hurt you, addictions. The list can go on.
But no matter what the brokenness is they all have a couple of things in common: 1. the only person who can instigate the healing process is ourselves; 2. not one of us is so broken that God can’t love us and make it so we can function at our own personal capacity.
Let’s focus one point one for a minute. We are the only one who can make the decision to not allow our brokenness to hinder us. Others can tell us what the problem is or what to do about it but unless we acknowledge the problem and chose to do something about it, nothing will change. There are a couple of steps here, acknowledge and change. You can’t chose to change if you don’t first acknowledge and acknowledging can be embarrassing. We don’t want people to know we have a problem even if it’s obvious to them. We’d much rather have others think nothing is wrong or that we are happy being broken, no matter how much hurt we cause ourselves and others in the process.
Once we have acknowledged our brokenness one of the choices we can make is to allow God to step into our lives, take our brokenness and make something whole, beautiful and unique out of it. We can go down into the pit of blame, excuses and victim mentality or we can go up and know that with help we can reach our fulfilment and probably somewhere along the way the beautiful creation we’ve become, scarred though we may be, will be able to reach out to someone else and offer them a hand as they try to scramble out of the pit.
God is able to heal and renew, He loves us that much, but He also loves us so much He allows us to experience the things that cause us to grow. We need to remember here that many things happen in our lives because of the choices we make. God won’t take our free will and ability to think for ourselves away from us when we choose to follow Him. Despite this He is able to take the bad situation, however we got there, and turn it around.
You intended it to harm me, but God intended it for
good to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives.
Genesis 50:20
And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Following this train of thought, if we choose these things can help us to flourish, even though it may be extremely difficult to see how at times. All these things contribute to our uniqueness. No brokenness is beyond God’s ability to repair if we are just willing to work with Him. It’s not God who puts us one the shelf to be forgotten and collect dust, nor does He put us in the ‘too hard’ basket, we do a good enough job of that ourselves. It isn’t God who expects us to be perfect, it’s us. God isn’t one to wrinkle His nose up at our perceived imperfections, rather He sees them as the very things that give us value and uniquely suit us to the purpose He has for us.
It’s important to remember that God likes to work through His children. We are here to help each other, not to stand in isolation like an ornament on a shelf. Like the wire that has been resoldered you can see where the fault was and the repair has been made, so it is with us. If we embrace our repairs we can help others find the way to the repair shop and they will know, because of how we function, that they are in good hands.
It is something that affects us all but none of us like to admit we are broken. The thing with being broken is that it means something isn’t functioning the way it is meant to. Smashed to pieces or a loose wire, a stereo won’t work properly either way. Lots of things are the same, including people. Not everyone is smashed but I’m pretty sure most of us have, or have had at some time, a loose wire or two. These may not stop you functioning but they may mean you’re not functioning to the capacity for which you were made.
Broken in relation to a person, can cover such a vast number of things; from abused and crushed to those things which cause us to hold back from engaging with others. It can also include that drive inside us that seems to lead us to; relationships with the wrong people, hurting others before they can hurt you, addictions. The list can go on.
But no matter what the brokenness is they all have a couple of things in common: 1. the only person who can instigate the healing process is ourselves; 2. not one of us is so broken that God can’t love us and make it so we can function at our own personal capacity.
Let’s focus one point one for a minute. We are the only one who can make the decision to not allow our brokenness to hinder us. Others can tell us what the problem is or what to do about it but unless we acknowledge the problem and chose to do something about it, nothing will change. There are a couple of steps here, acknowledge and change. You can’t chose to change if you don’t first acknowledge and acknowledging can be embarrassing. We don’t want people to know we have a problem even if it’s obvious to them. We’d much rather have others think nothing is wrong or that we are happy being broken, no matter how much hurt we cause ourselves and others in the process.
Once we have acknowledged our brokenness one of the choices we can make is to allow God to step into our lives, take our brokenness and make something whole, beautiful and unique out of it. We can go down into the pit of blame, excuses and victim mentality or we can go up and know that with help we can reach our fulfilment and probably somewhere along the way the beautiful creation we’ve become, scarred though we may be, will be able to reach out to someone else and offer them a hand as they try to scramble out of the pit.
God is able to heal and renew, He loves us that much, but He also loves us so much He allows us to experience the things that cause us to grow. We need to remember here that many things happen in our lives because of the choices we make. God won’t take our free will and ability to think for ourselves away from us when we choose to follow Him. Despite this He is able to take the bad situation, however we got there, and turn it around.
You intended it to harm me, but God intended it for
good to accomplish what is now being done, the
saving of many lives.
Genesis 50:20
And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Following this train of thought, if we choose these things can help us to flourish, even though it may be extremely difficult to see how at times. All these things contribute to our uniqueness. No brokenness is beyond God’s ability to repair if we are just willing to work with Him. It’s not God who puts us one the shelf to be forgotten and collect dust, nor does He put us in the ‘too hard’ basket, we do a good enough job of that ourselves. It isn’t God who expects us to be perfect, it’s us. God isn’t one to wrinkle His nose up at our perceived imperfections, rather He sees them as the very things that give us value and uniquely suit us to the purpose He has for us.
It’s important to remember that God likes to work through His children. We are here to help each other, not to stand in isolation like an ornament on a shelf. Like the wire that has been resoldered you can see where the fault was and the repair has been made, so it is with us. If we embrace our repairs we can help others find the way to the repair shop and they will know, because of how we function, that they are in good hands.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Circus
My hubby took our eldest to the circus on the weekend. She had a blast, in fact they both did but he came back with some interesting information. This particular circus has been banned from certain suburbs because they have animals, now you need to understand something here, by animals I mean horses, dogs and goats. Yep not an elephant or tiger to be seen. So why have they been banned? Because animal rights activists says it’s abuse. What to have dogs jump and frolic in front of people – when I had dogs they liked nothing better. Or is it the horses jumping over things and being ridden. Maybe it’s the goats? No apparently it is the fact they have been trained.
I just don’t get it all these animals are ones we can keep as pets or ones we use for a purpose. Where does the line get drawn? What’s next – race horses, guide dogs, heck I hope you don’t like goats cheese or wool. Soon you won’t even be allowed to have pets because if this legislation continues you won’t be allowed to train anything for any reason. I guess that means the end pet dogs to protect houses from burglars. Oh there goes insurance rates again. And definitely no more pony rides for little girls.
I just don’t get it all these animals are ones we can keep as pets or ones we use for a purpose. Where does the line get drawn? What’s next – race horses, guide dogs, heck I hope you don’t like goats cheese or wool. Soon you won’t even be allowed to have pets because if this legislation continues you won’t be allowed to train anything for any reason. I guess that means the end pet dogs to protect houses from burglars. Oh there goes insurance rates again. And definitely no more pony rides for little girls.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Something Short and Sweet
Last night while talking to my five year old I said I was beautiful, she replied with,
"You're a girl, all girls are beautiful."
If only we were able to remember that.
I knew the day would come but I thought I had a few years before I heard,
"But Mum I know everything."
and at only five what's she going to be like at fifteen.
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