Why have we made it about chocolate?

Personally speaking, I find it hard to reconcile giving up chocolate (only to then gorge on it when the 40 days are up) with preparing ourselves for reflection on the crucifixion. Yes Jesus was tempted with food, and yes fasting is great to focus us on God but, and forgive me for being sceptical, I cant see how a yearly plan to diet from a favourite treat for a few weeks really prepares you. Its more like another chance to have a go at the New Year’s resolution. Better yourself, try and be thinner, make that diet stick. I cant see that being the point of the crucifixion.

So I asked some friends what they are doing- one is trying to do something new every day and learning verses. Given that this guy already works in a church I can safely assume that the new thing every day will be God focused. Also, I know the guy- God is his number one focus. Good man.
The second response I got was to memorise a full book of the Bible. No mean feat, this was presented by a father and as such can help father and son grow together. I like it.

My disclaimer- please dont assume im attacking everyone who decides that food/shopping/less magasines is their lenton activity. For some, these things truely are obstacles that need to be overcome and I fully support you in your endeavours, especially as some of you have mentioned to me that it would be a stumbling block. What I do not like is it becoming a fashionable activity that nobody really expects to get anything from.

So what am I doing? Im going to write. Every day I will try and write something new so by the end I should have 40 poems/extracts/thoughts.

I’ll try and get them up here when I can, but apart from phone internet, there are only a few moments such as now that I can get full access.

In closing I leave with a poem I wrote for last Lent, reflecting many thoughts as above and I offering sincere good wishes and encouragement to anyone, doing anything, who wishes to prepare for Easter and the actual message it brings.

“Lent”.

What can I bring to reveal my heart,
Forced out for all to see.
Bright eyes burn and lips move quick
In a second, to rate my worth.
What can I bring to show to them
That I take this seriously?
With cracked, raw hands and a heavy heart
I make my offering:
Retail abstinence and diet plans,
What has this become?
I weep and now give up this farce;
And decide to seek my Lord.

http://theresurgence.com/2010/09/30/coveting-the-acceptable-sin

Dr/Pastor John Piper once did a series on Romans which lasted for years, entitled ‘The Greatest Letter Ever Written’. Although I have not read his series on it (although admittedly it is on my vast list of resources to check out) I agree with that summary of it.

Romans is spectacular. A few summers ago I went through a rather intense period of biblical study. It was the summer of my sister’s wedding and it dawned on me, rather suddenly, that my knowledge of the Bible was limited and I was relying on sentiment from the new and emerging ‘teachers’ and, at the time, nooma dvds (that has since been repented of lol). Romans was a book where I found so many answers and so many questions. It was a book that changed my world view because it changed my God view. It is a strange feeling when your world view changes. Things you have held before, or never even thought of before, become so very important under the spotlight of revealed scripture. Why do we believe this, why do we not believe this, why, why, why. And then the answers come, nuggets of gold in a desperate and earnest search to find God; to love Him more fully, to follow Him more closely, to have every fibre of your being aching to know the truths that He wants us to know, which are like life rafts amid the twists and turmoil of the world- There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, it is by grace not by works, for those He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son- these truths are like wings of grace that carry burdened souls.

It is a weighty book and again and again it slams home the truth that we are second and God is first. Appropriately it has been subtitled ‘shaped by grace’.

Romans is a lesson in submission.

And Romans is for everyone. It is a packed book but thankfully we are a church which has Maturity as one of our pillars, we cannot pass by this opportunity. So I would suggest that we not take this book or this series lightly. Personally, I feel that too often the Christian church does not search for the deep answers because we have mistakenly replaced a childlike faith with a childish faith.

Last night we only did Ch1:1-7. I hope we spend weeks, months, and even keep it going until next September. If we can fully grasp what Romans offers, we will be a totally transformed Church. It has immense potential, I really feel that. Lets challenge ourselves, reaffirm foundations, unsettle what we take for granted, ask the difficult questions, wrestle with the issues and realign ourselves to God.

I hope it devastates us. I can’t wait to get started.

We have all been encouraged to fast either for half a day or the full day as we show outwardly that we are taking this seriously and that we earnestly want to seek God. Not only that but it was a command from Jesus; ‘when’ you fast, not if. Are you going? If so how are we going? Are we saying ‘its a prayer day so I better make an appearance so I’ll have a quick prayer and go’, or do we say ‘I’ll go but I hope it doesn’t take up too much time, its Saturday and I have ‘things’ to buy’, or will we come saying ‘here I am. Speak. Help me listen. I’m here until you do’.

Will we go for a fast prayer and a quick fix, a ‘faster, faster’ attitude, or a fasting mentality where we deny ourselves, clam up, and listen to God? 

I think I need to pray that my attitude will be right.

I cannot remember the man, but he said ‘when people meet together in earnest prayer, there is no limit to what God can do’.

The past few weeks have led me to conclude that we need to expect answers, be courageous, pray for opportunities, and make good on pledges to follow them through.

See you tomorrow morning.

This isn’t about bashing him for saying ‘good meaning rules’. There are other aspects to Christianity than jumping on everyday who says there may be a rule to follow. No, what gets opened from this is the place of Christian faith in everyday life. How does the faith that you hold on to work itself out in the real world? Is it even for the real world? Perhaps it’s that cliché of being a Sunday faith. People get tired of clichés. Maybe this topic is cliché.

I sometimes lose the plot when I see health, wealth, and prosperity messages. I watched some God show on FreeSat and for the entire message he went on about one verse, saying if you believe this gospel you will not be affected by the recession, you will not suffer by having less possessions(!), you will be abundantly blessed if you embrace yourself and don’t allow negative thoughts to intrude (and this wasn’t even Joel Osteen folks!). Please go say that where the Church is persecuted and is now growing faster than the Western world or in the third world countries where their faith in a sustaining God just oozes from them. See what they make of that God you are preaching about. I’m not interested in a faith that puts the pursuit of the gift above the Giver, that doesn’t stand when the bombings begin again, that finds its validation in earthly success. The world is messed up. The world isn’t roses and puppies. The world tells you to seek fame, fortune, pleasure. But for the life of me, I can’t see that being the main point of the Bible. It says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; Paul said that if we don’t have Christ then we may as well ‘eat and drink for tomorrow we die’. Christ overcame the world that feeds you all this rubbish. And this is where the worlds collide. On Sunday morning we heard that you cannot serve God and money. You can’t serve God and the world. But so many try and amass worldly gains through heavenly methods.

Historically, Calvinists would try and answer whether they were elect. It burned within them to find out if they were saved. They were also a frugal people and they worked hard. What happened was that as they worked hard, spent little, and invested their money back into their crops etc, their wealth grew. They took this as a sign of God’s favour on them. Some see this as the birth of Capitalism.

Are we doing the same? James says that a faith without works is dead, but I don’t see that material gain means you’re saved. I struggle to link this with Paul who didn’t boast in anything except Christ, with the disciples who gave away their possessions, with Jesus who said to expect to be treated badly, for the writer of Hebrews who indicates that if we are not treated in harsh ways then there may be nothing within us that Satan needs to suppress.

Some are blessed, and it is wrong to say that God does not bless His people. But don’t get caught looking at the blessing as the goal. A sign points beyond itself. When the sun shines, the rays come down but when you follow the ray up to the clouds you see the One who made it. Don’t miss the point thinking that if things aren’t rosy then you’ve done something wrong or if your wealthy your holy. If we hold to this view, what happens when something goes wrong? If we lose our money, or our job what happens to our view of God? He becomes sinister, taunting, vicious and all of a sudden we see the Christ who used to bless us and love us as being a proponent of those beliefs ‘that don’t work out in real life’. If you live by Christian materialism (oxymoron as it is) it will be your undoing because it can’t be further from the truth.

Some of the most admirable people I know suffer daily. Through illness, deformity and the like. But they do not feel victimised, they have not lost God or somehow haven’t gained His favour; no, what makes them radiant is that they hold to the promises found in Romans 8, ‘28And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?’, Genesis 50:20a, ‘you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good’ (notice the expectation that evil will be done against us which God uses for good rather than being exempt from everything).

These have been precious verses and powerful verses. These are the truths that can change your whole perception on life. All things work together for the good of those who love God. All things. Not some. Not just that good financial decision you made, that job promotion you got. All things. That breakup, that test result, that persecution for what you believe. We are being conformed to the image of His Son. His Son suffered, His Son said not to store treasure on earth, and seek to further yourself as your main goal in life.

His Son said that He was sufficient in whatever we face and that His strength is made perfect in weakness.

In whatever you’re facing today, whether it be abundant wealth or whether it be sickness, seek Christ as your treasure. You may be the richest person alive, but is Christ your treasure? If you are poor and feeling oppressed, is Christ your treasure above what the world is currently throwing at you? Be active in it. The world throws things at believers every day. If you are to stand firm you need to actively reinforce yourself with verse like those above. You have your own I am sure. It needs to be reinforced, reinforced, reinforced. Pray in the Spirit, read the truths and examples in the Bible. Many there had a horrible time, but in the end were rewarded for their steadfast adherence to Christ. Seek God for who He is, not what we have made Him; start with God as the centre of the universe and work your way out. We are not the reason for its existence, He is. Please don’t build your vision of Him on material things or personal gains.

Then when worlds collide, He will still stand tall in our lives.

I was reading CNN today. 2 articles interested me; one about a Church holding a Quran burning event and the other about Muslims wanting to worship alongside Christians in an old mosque, now a Cathedral. The first one said that as the Quran leads people to Hell it should be stopped. This was, as you can guess a fundamentalist Church. The article had the usual cringe moments, but I take their general meaning to be ‘stop allowing something to exist that causes people to go away from God and to Hell’. We may not agree with methods (uber fundamentalist in your face, pointing, judgemental etc) but I think the kernel of the point is sound.

The second one wants Muslims and Christians to worship together. This is the old argument that we worship the ‘same’ God. The article reads ‘Mansur Escudero, a Spanish convert to Islam, is leading the movement that is pushing for the right of Muslims to pray at the Cordoba Cathedral, ” I don’t think it’s important for Muslims. I think it’s important for humankind,” Escudero says. “We think this is a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture. People of different religions living together.” We think this is a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture. People of different religions living together’.

Whereas there is nothing in the Christian faith to say that we shouldn’t live together, I think it is blatantly clear that there is one God, and that God is only known through Jesus. Reject Jesus, you reject God. That, in my eyes, is more important for humankind.

So what do we do when we face these issues? Do we follow culture with a banner of ‘tolerance above all’, allowing it to be the guide for everything? Or do we have an element of ‘if it stops people getting to God it isn’t good’? I am very wary that the Christian church, especially for our youth, and especially through the words of certain Christian teachers, is in danger of losing the supremacy of Christ over all. Influential speakers, some who have touched our own shores, come with attitudes that the Christian faith is only one way, a step in the evolution of the spiritual and that we (every faith and every religion) are all one. These are those who speak to our youth and set in younger minds a dangerous lowering of Christ’s status in the name of harmony and tolerance. I do not agree. Period. Less and less do I see people ablaze with passion for the supremacy of Christ above all else. There are some and they are excellent. Many I see with a passion for tolerance, to be your best friend. All in the name of vague spirituality that doesn’t see anybody saved. They never ‘offend’. But what happens when Jesus is offended by this? There is nothing on earth that we can do that is more important that presenting Jesus as above everything; that He had to bear our load, that He died, that He was raised physically and that all power and authority on heaven and earth is His, and His only. That He is the one and only way and no amount of spirituality that claims a vague knowledge of a ‘God’ is enough.

We are a soundbite generation that lives for bursts. We give everything for small projects and then we die off for a year. Too often we save ourselves for one act of service every year and then feel we’ve ticked the box, done enough with a group of people large enough to see us do it and then we go back to the mundane. What message do we send by doing this? Our God, and more importantly our Jesus, is only for a while? He’s forEVER! Serving God for a few months a year (take a few weeks of projects and the Sundays combined to give a total) is NOT enough. Where are the people who cannot stop talking about God, talking to God, reaching out for Him, and going into the middle of their communities all the time? Why are they always the exception rather than the rule? Our church did 40 Days of Community and we all said ‘we’re going to keep this going, we won’t let this fizzle out and die’. Well, it has. Why can we not ignite a passion that stays lit? What is wrong with us!?

I partially think it is because we have a lesser view of Jesus. We do not see Him yet for all He is. He still isn’t above our comfort, He still isn’t above our money, He still isn’t the one we trust to keep us safe and secure allowing us to step out for Him. We are filled with spirituality which has turned into sentimentality. We are so aware of our province’s past that we dare not speak out for Jesus too loudly. So we don’t say no to other religions or practises.

We leave that to the ‘nutjobs’ who will do it anyway and we can hide behind them in our homes in silence saying ‘we actually think that too’.

I mean, they’re going to do it anyway, why do we have to!? Because it’s our call. Our call is to speak out for Jesus, above everything else. It is often us who refuse to speak outside, refuse to condemn sin that should be ashamed. I’m not defending the methods of some of the more extreme people but at least they have the guts to say it. We hide in our churches where people already know what is going to be said and believe roughly the same thing. We preach to the choir and think we’re great. So back to my original question; why do we say these things in Church? Why do we say them in Church and not in public? We often often often quote ‘preach the gospel and if necessary use words’. That’s all well and good, but Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, etc etc etc used words. They didn’t mime their way around. They didn’t say ‘I’ll keep quiet and let them guess what I’m on about’. Paul didn’t stand on Mars Hill and do interpretive dance; he spoke and on terms the people understood. Actions speak, YES, but so do words. Let’s use everything God gave us.

If we are silent (in both action and words), then that is exactly what we will remain. Before you bash me for bashing that man’s quote, Jesus said to tell people, and I take Him as primary example.

So why do we use these words in Church? In John’s Gospel, Jesus talked about His words being IN us. IN us. When His words are in us, they change how we live. Do we believe them, are we living them? Or do we just say it because its Church, and that’s what we do.

If you havent seen what some other churches are doing with music then check out this link:

http://www.resound.org/

To get the awkard bit out of the way, yes this is Mark Driscoll’s church. Love him or hate him, I would appeal to you to look at the site for what it is, and leave out ‘but he told this bad joke, or he said this about that group of people’ for a minute.

here is a whole collection of music by people within his church; some new, some covered. but what is fantastic about it is the way in which the people are dedicated to creating music and sharing it with the world.

often music ministries can become a group of session musicians, some only playing when they really really have to, and dont make the practise longer than it should because thats not what i signed up for. well, what did you ‘sign up’ for then? as a leader in a church, my own understanding is obviously subjective. it is limited for i have only been doing it for a few years and only in two churches, with a few christian unions along the way.

but what strikes me is that 1. we elevate ourselves. at one of our laser (small group) groups, we were talking about music and worship in our services. we remarked that it seems funny that the group of musicians that is to lead the church has hammered into them from the beginning (and rightly so) that we are not to think of ourselves as better than others in the congregation. Yet, before each service, we stream in from the right in a line almost with the logo ‘the musicians are here! now the service can begin!’ we huddle away before the service to pray instead of meeting with those who are entering the church and shaking their hands, chatting to them- seeing how the people we are to lead are feeling. i understand the need to pray, more and more i know that we need to rely on it more during our services, especially in music, but i think we need to go further and interact much more with the congregation. we use our big terms and put on our speaking voices when we lead but im not sure theres any value in that. if your congregation is filled with farmers, dont act like you’ve just come out of a shakespeare play in front of them. as far as i know Jesus met people on their level.

2. we dont give ourselves. this is slightly controversial. yes we give a sunday here and there, but if worship, and specifically worship leading, is a calling, then do we switch the call off 6 days a week? does a minister switch his call off except for a sunday? i would sincerely hope not. we need to be worship leaders/ worshippers every day of the week. and remember, the bloke/bloke-ess standing at the front is only the lead worshiper out of a band of worship leaders and a congregation of worshippers. each of us who play should be taking this more seriously as a call. do we follow the call to sing a ‘new song to the Lord?’ or do we love that we get to play our instruments in front of people and its mainly easier than secular music so it makes us look good? and again, do we think of ourselves as ‘that guitarist asked to fill the gap in that band?’, ‘that one who can pull it together’, or  ’the missing link for this sunday’? are we session musicians? if we are then im greatly saddened by that. time and again iv seen people who are so passionate on a sunday when they get to play the style they want, but ask them on a tuesday to do the same and its gone. folks, don’t be session musicians. Dont duck out of playing if you can, dont see it as a hassle. play every day. write music, write songs. dont limit it to songs. worship is not limited to praise.

your passion is your call- if your passion is only here and there then maybe it isnt your call.

worship is the 21st Century feels as if is starting to whither and dry out. those who are leaders need to address this. dont fob it off to someone else as their responsibility. its not. 

start living your passion as if you believed God called you to play for him. start infusing songs with honesty and an earnest desire to seek His face rather than the latest and ‘greatest’ songs. yes that will please the younger ones, but it does a great disservice to the pillars of the faith who make up the back rows of your church.

i know there are many many more aspects to worship. again, see allys blog post at http://supersimbo.com but these are the few that are weighing on my mind at the moment.

we can get so stuck in the ruts when it comes to worship. lets start singing a new song, from a shared sheet. God and God alone.

if you’re a minister then yeah you need your break from your job. but i think that many christians take the summer break as an excuse to not go to church. im not sure how that fits in with the call to run the race and finish well. that extremely well known, often quoted verse suggests a marathon mentality. we know that. but why do we apply it only when we have decided to come back into the church ‘term’, that usually coincides with the school term. most people hated school and were delighted when they weren’t there. why do many, and i throw myself in, feel the same with church? (i recognise that there are many many faithful and dedicated followers of Jesus who would commit to having church in a bin if necessary, so i dont mean to tar with a brush).

but enough about summer time. does this same principle apply during our christian lives and service? do we want to serve continually or are we driven by ‘terms’ or ‘sprints’ in the marathon that is the Christian life? Do we wait for those opportunities that are ‘worth’ doing or do we seek to serve whenever and however we can? To thrash a point; do we run the marathon or just put on the Christian uniform and do our sprints, looking great when we go really fast, even if it is for a very short time? over and over again i keep getting challenged by the fact that this is to be something you do for your entire life.

you are not to play christian some days and not others. and if being christian has embedded within it serving God and others (which it does by the way) then we are to be serving more often than not. there are of course times when we need breaks. but we should not be holding out for one or two opportunities when there is a world going to Hell. and it doesnt need to be the event thats got ‘whoever coming from whereever’ to make it service. personal, public, private, acknowledged, wide reaching, impacting one person. so many.

but the point is, this is why its called a daily sacrifice and not a ‘dead easy, nice feeling little stretch when you feel like it’.

I should be serving daily, but im not sure if im there yet. My responsibilities have grown to include my wife and hopefully our kids some day. my home is were i can serve by being a husband, but i also serve in church when i can. before you start, im not putting myself as an example. i grumble. too many times i grumble at serving. then people grumble at me and i grumble some more.

I need to realise that service is part of the package and not the optional extra that you add on to your phone tariff.

we have been chosen to be the earthly examples of Jesus! do we get how important that is!? i fear we don’t. I said on sunday that ‘nobody deserves to hear the gospel twice while there are still those who havent heard it once’. that wasnt my own phrase, but i cannot remember where it came from. we’ve heard more than we deserve. and it will be on our heads when He asks us what we did with it.

But we often get so easily fixated on the end; i.e a reward in heaven that we forget about what we are to do here. We reduce Christianity to a plea to be saved from Hell rather than as a lifelong following of Jesus, our God man, recognising Him for who He is and offering up our lives as what He deserves. Often in protestant circles, we emphasise faith so much in order to be the opposite to the roman catholic church that we forget about works. Often, the other way around, works play too much of a part.

So rather than going out ‘in the end’ as Jesus or Judas, who are you going out into the world today as? Jesus? Following his example; filled with the Spirit and faith, being gracious, compassionate, angry when there is injustice but not falling into sin, merciful, forgiving, actually treating somebody in a way that you would like to be treated? Will everything about you just radiate God’s grace and the greatness of Jesus?

Or there’s Judas. Will you choose your paths and accept opportunities based on what gets you your silver? Will your own gain; whether that is upholding your own name, having to prove your own point, not backing down, in essence being the opposite of what God wants, motivate you? Do you treat people in a way that you would balk at if it was returned? These people actively turn their back on Jesus, in full conscience.

Remember that both of these had power. Only Jesus still has power. Judas was lead to his own destruction by following his selfish ways, though he claimed to be a follower.

One or the other; Jesus or Judas. Its make up your mind time.

http://supersimbo.com

read the latest post about theological baby rattles.

its something that I am trying to address; to lose that image (if there even is one) of being a theological know-it-all who must be heard on everything. yeah, im like that.

I was struck that supersimbo had similar thoughts to me yesterday in church. Kate and I were standing in our small congregation last night, small by the usual sunday night numbers, and we were singing songs about opening the eyes of our hearts (‘Open the eyes of my heart lord’) and it says  ‘i want to see you’. When we sing about seeing God what do we mean? Do we want to see His mercy, love, grace, justice, vengeance on the wicked, salvation to those who are now our enemies? or do we want to have the feel good feeling that rises with the drums and when the low end of the piano starts to vibrate through the speakers? we have formulas in worship. iv probably used some when I started off. we’ve reduced it to ‘gentle playing+over emotional sighs=great worship’. or something like that.

Im listening to Stuart Townend on my lunchbreak; right now he’s singing ‘pour over me, pour over me, let your reign flood this thirsty soul, pour over me, your waves of love, pour over me’.

What do you feel when you sing these sorts of words? do we love the melody? or is there a bit of you that actually starts to pound a little harder, your eyes begin to well up, and your breathing begins to change because you ACTUALLY want this?

Personally, when i hear ‘the power of the cross’ and he comes to the last verse ‘oh to see my name written in the wounds, for through your suffering I am free’ a part of me NEVER fails to get caught by that. they are powerful words, more powerful when they are sung as a plea and a response to mercy. less powerful when song because its a good melody.

nothing angers and puts me off more than seeing phony worship. when we sing songs, lets sing from the heart shall we. I dont want to be part of emptiness in church. there’s enough of that around in the world.