iGod

A new year of promise, pageantry and potential. What’s not to like?

I am rather excited about this year. Now I admit it might just have something to do with the fact that it is the year of the Olympics. My family were fortunate enough to get allocated some tickets for the games. Okay, so it’s not an event that I would naturally choose to watch but, hey, the others are happy. Yes, I am slightly embarrassed to tell you what it is, so let’s just quietly move on shall we?

2012 is also a leap year, which means you liberated women can propose to the man in your life on 29 February.

It is also the Chinese Year of the Dragon, though I am not quite sure what anyone is ever suppose to do with that knowledge, but thought you should know anyway.

The other big event is, of course, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. There will be a river pageant like in days of old floating down the Thames with a boasted flotilla of 1,000 boats.

A specially designed river barge will hold her majesty, which we are told will be 64 feet in length, decked in red and gold. That will be quite a sight to behold, but nevertheless I can’t seem to get the image out of my head of the queen being told to jump off the barge and open the locks by her husband. “Put your back into it, Liz, we’ve still got another six to go until we reach Windsor!”

The other day I found a somewhat dubious online blog called The Year 2012 that gives you an endless stream of information on all things 2012. It contains the weird, wonderful and just plain wacky. And, if you were to believe everything it said, you’d probably want to stay in bed for the whole of the year.

So what are you thoughts on the future? Excited, Worried? Non-plussed?

At the beginning of each year I usually encourage our church to reflect a little on our own personal visions for our lives. We ask: what are our expectations? What do we want achieve? What do we want to improve upon?

Maybe it is improving the quality of the relationship with our children or spouse. Maybe it is something simple like reading more, praying more, giving more. Maybe it is working on some personal character issues.

The point is we are created to be purposeful. We believe that God wants us to reach our full potential as human beings and get the most out of the precious life given to us.

After all, didn’t Jesus say, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full?”

So we go into the New Year with fresh expectations that it will lead to a year of life-changing experiences. It will undoubtedly have its challenges and difficulties, but it is in these times that faith is fashioned and our awareness of God’s involvement in everyday life grows.

For many of us, 2012 it will undoubtedly be a full year, but hopefully will be a personally fulfilling one too. For the Christian who believes in the Life-Giver, it comes with that deeper profundity still, which is something that we are more than happy to share with you. Maybe one of your own life goals could be to come to church sometime soon.

Whatever you do, I wish you a very happy and life-enriching New Year.

ASD

Life Version 2.0

(My article reproduced from Community News)

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it when it makes my life easier, but absolutely hate it when it interferes with my routine and it becomes the master, not the servant.

Quite unabashed, I have been an Apple Mac user ever since my second year at ‘vicar factory’ back in the early 90s. Before then I kindly borrowed someone’s Toshiba Portable MS DOS computer, which in truth wasn’t that portable. Not only was it heavy and left dents in my knees, but the battery life was shorter than a queue to the Crazy Paving Appreciation Society’s Annual Lecture.

Nowadays, alongside my lighter laptop, I also have my mobile or should I say ‘smart phone’, but as I discovered recently this has not been without its problems.

I attempted to upgrade my phone software to the latest whizzy-whiz, faster, better-than-ever-before version. Also known as iOS 5. In truth, I was not unhappy with how things were before, but the thought of something better and free, well…it was simply an offer I couldn’t refuse.

So on a quiet weeknight I hit the download button to let technology do its best. Unfortunately it decided to do its worst. With a big gasp I watched my entire set of emails, calendars and contacts disappear before my eyes. (And, no, my emails weren’t backed up!) If ever there was a time to find a grown man crying in a corner it was then. The promise of a better-connected life had let me down.

It has made me think how we can often put a lot of blind faith in things that are not necessarily proven, but given enough hype can accept anything as truth. We want to believe that something will make our lives better.

It is natural to want to upgrade the standard of our lives. We can look at the current version and think, “This just sucks! Maybe something has to stopped functioning in our life or we see something in someone else’s and want what they have.

The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said famously in a university plenary speech:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

The immensely successful and talented Steve Jobs recognised his products were not ultimately enough in them self. That is quite something, isn’t it?

Life has a spiritual profundity that modern science still struggles with any integrity to make redundant. There remains this longing in us all to be known, loved and accepted for who we are, not for what we have achieved. Many Christian commentators have called this a God-shaped hole wanting to be filled by himself through his Son Jesus Christ.

If the promises of God are true and Jesus is who he says he is, it requires a full upgrade to a new way of seeing and experiencing life. The old version will never do.

St Augustine, the early church father said rather wryly:

“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: ‘Come to me all you that labour and are heavy burdened.’” [quoting Jesus]

Is God’s Life Version any better than the modern alternatives around?

I give the last word to Paul the low-tec Apostle who said this about the great iPriest, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

10 Commandments for Church Planters and Pastors

A cracking top ten by Rich Nathan, Senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus, Ohio:

Pastors and church planters face enormous demands as we try to juggle family responsibilities, ministry, and often, school and part-time jobs. How can we live sustainable lives? We read of tragic pastoral failures on a weekly basis. Most pastors don’t last in the ministry for five years (perhaps the only way we pastors are like pro football players!). I’ve been a pastor for 25 years. Here are ten practices that have enabled me to pastor for the long-haul.

#1 Build a rock-solid daily personal devotional life with God. This simply means that you spend time every day soaking in God’s presence. You can handle an enormous amount of pressure, if your foundation is solid. Pressure is not the problem. Weak foundations are the problem. If your foundation is shaky, you won’t be able to handle very much at all. Maybe you’ve heard the expression: “You can’t fire a cannon out of a canoe.” If you are really going to accomplish something; if you are going to be able to achieve and do the great things that God has in store for you to achieve and do, you need a strong foundation. The cannon of your life needs to be bolted into granite. And the granite of your life is your rock-solid personal time with God every day.

#2 Choose a prayer partner, who is a peer and with whom you can be utterly transparent. What I have personally done in my own life for the past 20 years and what we require of every pastor on the staff of Vineyard Columbus is to have a prayer partner. At Vineyard Columbus we take one day every month outside of the office talking and praying with our prayer partner. We have a set of accountability questions that we ask each other such as:

a. Are you struggling with sexual purity in any way?
b. Have you seen any pornography, or anything on TV or in a movie that you shouldn’t have watched?
c. Have you done anything sexually you shouldn’t have done?
d. Are there any emotional attachments forming with someone who is not your spouse?
e. Have you handled your money and financial dealings with absolute integrity?
f. Have you experienced any breach in any relationship? Are you at peace with everyone?
g. Have you forgiven everyone for everything?
h. Are you experiencing intimacy with God on a regular basis?

#3 If you are married, schedule a weekly date night with your spouse. It is really important to stay current and to fuel romance and intimacy with your spouse. My wife and I have a regular date every Monday. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It could be coffee and a long walk through a park or a leisurely breakfast. But schedule a weekly date with your spouse outside your home.

#4 Get financial counseling from a professional financial counselor. Strongly consider (if you are married, with your spouse) going to a course like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Life is sustainable when your financial house is in order.

#5 Ruthlessly avoid all compromising situations with the opposite sex. There are few things that derail people from the plan of God more than sexual impurity. Jim Downing, who is one of the patriarchs of the Navigator organization, was asked some years ago: Why is it that so few people finish well? His response was profound. He said: “They learn the possibility of being fruitful without being pure. They begin to believe that purity doesn’t matter. Eventually, they become like trees rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm.” Live a sexually pure life.

#6 Take care of yourself physically. Join a gym. Get into the habit of walking with a friend. Watch your diet. It is not enough that you’re involved in ministry. It is not even enough that you grow in internal purity and intimacy with God. You are a whole person. Your life is integrated - body, soul and spirit. You cannot neglect your body or your emotional life and continue to do well. So, take care of yourself physically.

#7 Do not confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity. You are gifted. You may know a lot. You may help many people. None of those things are the same as spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a matter of your internal character, your honesty, your willingness to forgive everyone for everything, your joy during trials, your trust in the sovereignty of God, your endurance in hard times, and your unwillingness to compromise integrity. Don’t confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity.

#8 If you are married, take a great marriage inventory with your spouse and have a professional marriage counselor discuss the results with you. Here at Vineyard Columbus we offer a marriage inventory called LIMRI. We have regular marriage retreats. Do a marriage inventory especially at the front-end of pastoring, and every few years after that.

#9 Join a small group (and if married, join with your spouse). Christianity is a team sport. We cannot grow successfully apart from biblical community. Join a men’s group, a women’s group, a coed group, or a recovery group where you can know and be known.

#10 Cultivate the fear of the Lord and a fear of sin. We sinners always dreadfully under-estimate the cost of sin and dreadfully over-estimate our ability to manage the consequences after we choose to sin. Sin costs and once you choose to sin, the consequences are out of your hands. We read in Proverbs 14.26-27, He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children I will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.

Deuteronomy 10.12-13 says, And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Psalm 34.9 tells us this: Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalm 128:1 says: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.

 

ASD

Wasting time

A little while ago I was in my study when our youngest daughter came in to tell me rather excitedly that she was about to go off for her first ever sleepover at a friend's house. She had meticulously packed her little pink bag with wheels the night before in anticipation. It was a monumental day in her small uncomplicated life and so subsequently was almost beside herself with anticipation - but I was busy. very busy, doing very important pastor-like things.

Every few minutes or so she would come in and tell me she was about to go. I said I would be there in a minute to see her off. She must have been down about five times to get my attention. It was beginning to get irritating as I was in the middle of my deepest thoughts and it wasn't as simple as just leaving my desk. 

After a while, I noticed the silence. Then it happened, the awful deadening sound of nothing hit me. My heart quickly began to race. I jumped up from my chair and rushed into the hallway and saw that her carefully packed overnight bag by the front door had gone. The family car in the drive had gone too. I was devastated. I felt like the worst father in the whole entire world that had ever been born or will ever be born. My heart broke with shame. That thing to me that was so important just two minutes ago now seemed of no importance whatsoever.

In the Bible there is a famous passage to be found in the book of Ecclesiastes where the writer, King Solomon, wrote that 'there is a time for everything, a season for every activity... A time to laugh, a time to cry.... a time to live and a time to die.'

There is nothing like a missed opportunity to help prioritise what is important to us.

What was so important to me was only important to me, no-one else, not least to my beautiful seven-year-old daughter. I wondered if you have ever had that similar experience. You realise you have spent your time and efforts on the wrong thing and found out too late to do much about it.

Time, I believe, is a gift from God, as is life itself. Every second, every minute, every hour, day, year, is as precious to someone else as it is to you. How we spend time with another person is just as important as the time we spend on a task.

Jesus was often accused by the great and so-called good around him of wasting his time on people who did not matter to society. They thought he should be using his time as a rabbi better doing more religious things. Instead he chose to mix with people such as prostitutes, employees on the take and the social outcasts.

So if Jesus Christ was willing to waste his precious time on seemingly insignificant people and things when he had only three years to do his work, then maybe we can all reflect whether our time can have greater purpose too.

What can seem like a waste of time may actually turn out to be worth more than gold. It may not produce anything tangible, build anything, make us money or get a job, but something special might just start to happen.

When my daughter came home the next day she rushed into to see me with the biggest of hugs and smiles as she told me all about her 'late night'.  I put everything down to listen and asked her questions. I then told her in a hushed tone, sitting her on my knee, that I loved her. She put her hand over my mouth, rolled her beautiful green eyes at me and sighed in a very grown up matter-of-fact way, 'Oh Da-ad, I know you do. And I love you too.' 

'There is a time for everything'.

ASD

Time out for summer

Much to the amusement of my church I recently went camping for a few days with the family. Though I admit it is probably more accurate to say glamping. This is the luxury form of camping, a growing trend among people like me. We are the self-confessed wimps who when it comes to staying outside for prolonged lengths of time choose to have a little bit of luxury to make the ordeal just that little bit more manageable. Well, what do expect from a West Londoner living in East Anglia?

So after searching the internet from the comfort of our solid bricks and mortar home we found ourselves a yurt, a Mongolian-style tent on a camp site near Southwold. This had a double bed in it, along with decking and chairs to allow you to watch the big Suffolk sky sunsets on those hot barmy Summer evenings. Although, in our case it was more of a case of snatching the sun while we could before dashing for cover as the next rain shower suddenly appeared.

Still the kids loved it and, in truth, I did too.

After having the coldest winter for 30 odd years I guess many of us are ready for some kind of break. We can feel the tension building, can’t we? For those of us with children we find ourselves running around all over the place. The end of the school term means numerous discos, concerts, class days out, transfer days etc. It is fast and furious and certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Now it has to be said that stress is a funny thing. Often we can fail to recognise it until our body eventually starts to kick up a fuss by becoming sick and tired, and we feel generally low in spirits.

Paul the apostle knew a thing or two about camping. In fact, we read in the Bible that he actually made tents. In biblical times there were people who lived in tents all year round. (Something I personally find hard to comprehend but, hey!) These tents were far from holiday camps, they were places where families were brought up and work was done.

For Paul he saw the similarities between a precarious life living in a tent and the human body. Like canvas he described our bodies as temporary things. In other words they have a limited shelf life and are not designed to last forever. However, as he goes on to say, the soul is. We can look forward to an eternity with Christ

Meanwhile, we have to look after our bodies. Paul wrote to one young 1^st century church that while we are in our tents, our bodies, we will groan and be burdened with the strain of life and all its daily challenges.

Therefore, it is important that we all listen to our bodies and take care of the fabric – including the mind and spirit. We must learn to take time out and properly rest.

After all, we are created to rest. In the Bible’s very first book, Genesis we read that God rested after creating the world. Was it that God was exhausted? I doubt it. It is more likely it was to reflect on his work at creation and take pleasure from it.

We might feel we desperately need a break, we might not, but one thing is for sure it is good to take a break from the routine and reflect on our work too. It’s a good discipline to lean back and enjoy the fruits of our labour.  

This summer I hope and pray your tent will feel better for a bit of time out. If you’re not going away, maybe plan for some local days out somewhere.

Meanwhile, just to let you know that our church does not meet formally in August as are resting our leaders and Sunday Support teams. However, you are welcome to join us for one of our summer socials. See our website for details. We start Sunday services again on 4 September at the Delphi Centre. All welcome.

ASD

Learning to go slow to go fast (short article)

(Recently written for a local community magazine.)

There was a story of a man who prayed to God for patience. After about two minutes the man looked up at his clock and said, “Well?”

I must admit I am not a patient person by nature. If something can happen now, why wait? The only problem is living life always in fourth gear can be exhausting. We may appease ourselves by saying we have no choice but to go that speed, but more often than not there is a price to pay.

I read recently that a speed camera trap on the M6 has netted £3m. An incredible 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle. The previous year’s record was held by the M11, so obviously East Anglia must have slowed down a little.

Have you noticed that impatience can lead to anger? We may find ourselves getting irrationally cross when we are ill or when the car breaks down or when something unexpected steals our time. It can affect our nearest and dearest relationships, whether we are conscious of it or not. For instance, we can miss out on enjoying our marriages and families. Time lost forever.

When I wake up early every morning I can’t help but think of all the things I have got to do that day. It is very tempting for someone like me to get on the laptop straight away and start working, but over the years I have learnt to park my thoughts, be it temporarily and learn to be in the presence of God. So what do I mean by being in the presence of God?

Quite simply, it means saying some prayers and turning to a passage in the Bible and meditating on it. In my conversations with God I hand over my concerns, pressures and anxieties. I surrender my issues of time and human capacity and ask God to show me what is important, rather than urgent. It is amazing how easily we allow the lesser things to steal our time to stop the more significant things from being done.

I find myself naturally praying for wisdom and discernment. In my church tradition we call this a ‘quiet time’, but nowadays I tend to call this my ‘worship time’. The daily discipline gives me a constant reminder that I am not God of my life, but he is, if I will let him. This is my act of daily worship to someone who is infinitely greater than me and able to do immeasurably more if I only ask him.

John Wimber the founder of the Vineyard Church, my denomination, said famously to the church, “To learn to go fast you have to go slow”. We have to focus on being before doing. Take time to simply be. Or as I say to my leaders, in terms of spiritual growth, we are not about getting the job done, but the person finished.

Whether you are a church-going Christian or someone who just about believes in God I would encourage you to get a modern translation of the Bible, flick through the front index and find the book of Psalms. Maybe try to read one a day. You can then also look up the book of Luke and read about Jesus and the things he said and did.

I promise you, prayer and the Bible do transform us, but you need to have patience. Maybe, like me, that is your first prayer. I encourage you to give it a go. You can buy a Bible through our church website bookshop or from WH Smith. Prayer is free.

ASD

Another boring routine post? Far from it.

Someone told me recently that since they had retired they had seen themselves lose their weekend. I had wondered if it was a reference to perhaps them getting a part-time weekend retirement job, but actually it was a little more mundane than that.

Since they had stopped working their Saturdays and Sundays seemed like any other day of the week. Each day felt pretty much like any other.

It is easy for many of us to complain about our Mondays to Fridays and live for the weekend. We can go even so far as to say that the daily work routine gets boring. We wake up, have the same cereal, leave home the same time to go and do the same old job. Of course, some people feel absolutely secure with routine and hate any thought of change and I respect that.

Yet here is the funny thing, these days we hear a lot about stress and burnout in a way that probably perplexes our parents and grandparents. Not saying that it is not real. Far from it. We may attribute it to working too many hours, long travel time, an intensive job, demanding boss and not enough time to ourselves. But there can be just as much stress from life not turning out as we would like, living with unfilled ambition and dreams.

We can have an idealised view of what our life should be. We can fall into that thing called entitlement, which is when we feel we deserve happiness or success due to our hard work or something we have achieved.

I remember a highly paid worker telling me that he deserved his big bonus because he did long hours, but I told him that I knew people in the catering business who did equally as long hours if not more, but on much less pay. It is all a matter of perspective. He argued, of course, that he carried the weight of responsibility.

Life has to do with a lot of conditioning of what we think it owes us. It has to do with maybe wrong expectations, especially when life does not go to plan and, indeed, goes backwards, not forwards. We find ourselves getting worn out, low and dissatisfied with our daily routine. It can even make us physically and emotionally ill.

So here is how I deal with it. Some days I just need to get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other and stop going by my feelings. I look to find contentment and joy not in success-bound situations, but in the simple things. I remind myself to stop trying to look for recognition from my peers or parents or comparing myself with someone my age and background. I stop myself from saying I wish it was Saturday and look forward to getting the most out of today.

Contrary to what some may think, biblical Christianity has never promoted a routine-free life or even a successful life. Actually, quite the opposite. The Christian life is full of daily disciplines where God is to be found often in the seemingly mundane everyday experience of life. In fact, as one theologian has said, “Ritual is a reminder of God’s continued faithfulness.” The Bible says in the Psalms, “His love endures for ever.” Elsewhere Jesus says, “He who endures to the end will be saved.”

It all seems to point to the simple underlying fact that God knows we are going to find life tough at times and just plain hard work, but we do not toil under a hot sun alone. He is as faithful to us as the days are long.

Through those dry difficult periods I have found the rain does come and the seasons often change with it. It is at these times that I realise that my worth is not found in what I do or achieve with my week, but who I am in my relationship with a faithful loving God over a lifetime. Have a good day.

ASD

Video showing Christian shop worker dissuading would-be armed robber

I was touched by the braveness of this young 22-year-old woman working in a mobile shop who found herself being threatened from a desperate man wanting cash to avoid eviction. Faced with a potential life and death situation she chose to offer the hope of Christ to this man. It really is quite a moving video to watch.

Even though it turned out the  gun was a replica it shouldn't detract from the fact that her compassion far outweighed the fear for her own safety. Her courage and conviction clearly shone through.

The shop manager Nayara Goncalves said:

"It touched me. I could never be able to think I could to talk or preach to someone with a gun.

"I just felt like hugging him and saying please don't do this."

Veda Coleman-Wright, of Broward County sheriff's office, said she had never seen anything like it in her 14 years on the job.

An uplifting story to start the week.

ASD

I’d like to share an uncomfortable conversation with you

I had a difficult conversation with someone who is not a Christian, which made me feel deeply uncomfortable and incredibly sad. I was asked a simple question: “Doesn’t being a Christian mean living your life in a different way to the rest of us?

Er...yes,” I slowly replied.

Behind this question there was a whole heap of stuff kicking off. Their experience of Christians has been far from a good one. He has seen them blatantly lie, be foul-mouthed, lewd, be two-faced, put the proverbial knife in the back of others. The list goes on.  In short, he has seen them at their most pious and their most duplicitous.

In a not too gentle way, he was telling me that Christians’ ethics seem confused and leave a lot to be desired. Furthermore, it was not attractive to him.

And if that is not enough, let me now tell you that part of that picture was formed by working with Christian organisations.

How does this sit with you?  With me, it makes me want to squirm.

Now please hear me, I don’t write this from a sanctimonious attitude or am I about to suggest that Stour Valley Vineyard Church is the one getting it right, but my motive for sharing this is because someone else has been denied access to the real Jesus - and that just breaks my heart.

To be honest, I found it hard not to go on the defensive. I said some things such as people will always do people stuff, whether they are in or outside of the church.  I also said that Jesus held his greatest judgement on the religious people of the day who lived by the letter, but not by the spirit.

What would you have said?

At the end of the day I recognise that we are all hypocrites at one time or another and used to being hoisted on our own petards, but the main thing is to recognise this and repent of our ungodly attitudes, and work towards living a pure and holy life in Christ.

My heart’s desire is that people come to know the real Jesus and experience authentic Christianity. The trouble is authentic Christianity has a habit of showing up our worst features to ourselves and those around us.  It exposes us and makes us feel naked.  (If you are not a Christian and reading this please don’t give up looking. It is out there. It really is!)

However, we can’t hide the truth that with God’s mercy comes judgement. The Bible says clearly that all who profess to know Him and live in Him will be called to account for their actions, as much as those who reject Him.

 Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthian church to beware of those who water down the gospel. He says, in effect, that they preach a false Jesus, a false gospel. He goes on to say ‘their end will be met with what it deserves’. Sober stuff!

I am of the firm belief that becoming a Christian is nothing short of a miracle, because left to only us we would make a right old hash of it. Sometimes I think too much blame is put at the convenient door of secularism, when really the problem is inside.

We live with the dialectic tension that we are the body, hands, feet, and voice of Christ, but without his perfection. Yet, by his grace, he still continues to use us.

And what an amazing grace it is too!  It stops me feeling condemned by uncomfortable conversations. However it is a grace given at a price – God’s own son tortured and murdered for you and me. That makes me want to value it not cheapen it.

Following Jesus has got to be a way of life, not a convenience, surely.

ASD