The battle to trust that God is good?

That's not just a question an unbeliever asks is it?  It is a question that as believers we revisit and wrestle with again and again and again.  Do I believe and trust in the goodness of God when suffering hits?  When I lose my job?  When church is a struggle?  When I face ridicule for my faith?  When I can't have children? When I fail my exams?  When I am still single?  When my spouse dies?  Is God good?

Is God good when I am declared to be in remission, is he still good when I am told the cancer has come back?  Is God only good when his will aligns with my will?  When my kingdom meshes with his kingdom?  Does God's goodness look different now than it did for believers in the 16th Century or 19th Century or in Africa or South America today?  Or is God at root just good in an unchanging eternally reliable way?

If you are really honest how would you answer those questions.  Just take a minute or two to read back over them and ask yourself that question in each and every one of those situations.  Take a few minutes to pray through your answers with God, be honest, he knows anyway.

I've come to realise over the last couple of months, yet again, that my grasp of the goodness of good is situationally and circumstantially slippery at best.  God's goodness is not slippery, but my grasp on it is.  It's not that God's goodness is like a bar of wet soap, but that my hands (and heart) are covered in fairy liquid as I try to hold on to God's goodness in the face of changing circumstances.

I've been reading through Jeremiah Burroughs 'The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment', let me be honest it's be a slog, but a profitable one.  Because it has challenged me again to face up to my lack of contentment because of my lack of a firm enough grasp on the goodness of God.  At one point in the book Burroughs encourages his congregation to sit and write two lists, one beside the other with your struggles and blessings in columns alongside each other.  He strips life down to our utter dependence on God for everything and thus encourages us to see everything as blessing, but also confronts us with our predisposition for feeling enviously entitled to what we see others having.

I've been feeling this especially in the area of ministry over the last few weeks.  As we've faced up to 5 of our congregation moving away with work it has felt hard.  Losing more than a tenth of your church family is painful.  Especially hard on the heals of other loses over the last year.  It is hard to be content, until Burroughs has reminded me what God has given me that is eternal and everlasting and of so much more value.

God is good even as people move away.  God is good as our leadership gets smaller.  God is good as personally we say goodbye to good friends and feel the pain of that.  God is good as God's answer to our prayers to send us more workers seems to be to take some of the current ones away.  God is good because it is his church not mine, his mission not mine, his gospel that we proclaim for his glory not mine.  And God cares more about all those things than I do at my very best.  God is good because ehe has proven he is historically and eternally.  Sometimes we need to wrestle with that until we come to the point where we can say it and believe it is both true and real again.

A Biblical Oxymoron: The Christian Coward

Christians don't cower.  As a church we've been working our way through Acts and we've seen again and again that God is at work in amazing, astonishing, awesome ways though his emboldened and empowered people.  Twinned to that I've been deliberately using some questions for deeper meditation in my own personal Bible reading and this morning was thinking through Joshua 1, which has that same thrust - Christians don't cower.  Joshua is called to be bold and courageous not fearful and insipid.  The key to understand this call is the motivational clause, Joshua can be strong and courageous because he has God with him.  In Christ we have no less, Christ has reconciled us to God, the almighty God of Hosts has become our Father, and Jesus has poured out the Spirit into our hearts, we as much as Joshua have reason to be strong and courageous.

Yet that is not often the way we feel as God's people, and even if we do on a Sunday morning that feeling often evaporates by Monday morning.  Why?  Because I forget the very nature of the God who is as with me on Wednesday afternoon as on Monday morning, who is my Father, who has blessed me beyond my wildest imaginations and invited me to play my small part in his plan to establish his kingdom.  I am to be strong and courageous in my living for Christ because I know God is with me.

Being strong and courageous doesn't mean not feeling fear but it does mean not giving into it, putting it into perspective, calling it out for what it is.  Like shining the light on that object whose shadow looms large and causes terror for your child at night, to reveal it not to be a thing of horror but a crumpled worn sock that has simply escaped the washing basket.  Shining the light of the glory of the God who is with us on our fears unmasks them, revealed them for what they are and liberates us from their crippling effects.

So what?  Where have I failed to live in the light of God being with me?  Where has that forgetfulness led me to live by fear rather than courage?  Where has it led me to refuse to step out in faith and risk failure.

I wonder often for us as churches if it is in settling for the small.  The mission God gives Joshua is huge, the mission Jesus gives the early church is earth spanning and it is not impossible because he is with them.  Yet I have to be honest, often I am just praying for the ones and twos.  There is nothing wrong with that but is it courageous?  Is it trusting in God or trusting in what I can handle?

What about my dreams for Grace church, what constrains that vision?  Is it fear of failure?  Is it my horizons?  Or am I being strong and courageous because God is with me?  What would a strong and courageous dream look like?

Here's some blue sky thinking, that I think somewhere over the last year I've lost sight of, here's what God could do given who he is and what we could do given that he is with us  notice I'm not saying God must do it, or that he will do it, this is not a prophetic word but a possible dream.  Our area is full of needs, it needs a doctors, a pharmacy, family facilities, community provision, a hub to meet and greet, it needs a place for support and counselling, it needs a playground and a park, but above all it needs the gospel.  What would it look like for us as a church to be bold and try to meet that need?

My dream is 'The Lighthouse'.  A community use building with a doctors as part of it 1 or 2 days a week, with a open pharmacy alongside it.  It also houses offices for organisations like Relate, Christians Against Poverty and others, Grace Cafe is open and provides a place to meet and make friends and build existing relationships.  There are a couple of halls which can be hired but are also used to provide free of charge youth, children's and toddler groups, midwifery services and so on.  Outside is green space with a children's play area and a place for children to climb and play whilst also providing benches for parents to sit, get to know one another and build relationships.  In short 'The Lighthouse' is the community hub that we have never had.  And that building is the base from which Grace Church holds out the gospel, meeting there Sunday by Sunday and during the week, being light in the darkness as it serves the community and preaches the gospel.

I've had that dream for ages, the question I'm mulling over is what would it look like to be strong and courageous with that dream?  But actually the bigger challenge is to be strong and courageous in meeting those needs we can now whilst waiting and praying to see if my dream is God's will.  There are limitations given the spaces we currently have available and the people and time available, but God is with us, he is the power and authority and all the strength we need to hold out the gospel here and now to those he has called us to reach.

Why is there so much poverty and inequality in the world?

That’s a great question isn’t it? Why do the richest 10% of the world’s population hold 75% of its income whilst the poorest 10% hold only 5%? Why tonight will 1 in 7 people go to sleep hungry? Why do over 300 million children go hungry every day? Why does a child die every 5 seconds of every day of hunger related causes? Why in our world do 1.2 billion people have to exist on less than 85 pence a day? And over 3 billion strive to live on less than £1.70 a day?

Today more people will die from hunger than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis put together, why? And it’s not just the poverty is it but the way it isolates, marginalises, exhausts and makes powerless.

As we explore what the Bible says about why there is poverty and inequality, we’re going to do so by asking three questions: Is God indifferent? Why does it exist? Why doesn’t God act?

1. Is God indifferent?

We have to start with that question don’t we? Poverty and inequality is a reality in our world. God is all seeing and all knowing so why doesn’t he do something about it?

Leviticus 19v9-18. Here’s God speaking to his people calling them to live life at it’s best. This is society as God envisages it, society with no poverty and inequality. (9-10)Landowners would be generous and provide for those in need to be fed. (11)There’d be no stealing, lying, or deceiving; everyone would be dealt with fairly and honestly. (13)There’d be no delaying of payment or looking for ways to wriggle out of paying people they’re wages, no need for a minimum wage or employment tribunals. (14)The disabled would be cared for. (15)There’d be access to justice in law for everyone. (16-18)And community would be marked by care, concern, forgiveness and love for one another.

If that’s the community God longs to see his people become, clearly God cares for the poor and the needy. If you glance back to v1-2 we see the motivation for Israel to live life like this. “Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am Holy.” God wants his people to be like him.

Sometimes people say a child is just like their dad or mum. What do they mean? That they have the same characteristics or looks. What is God saying here to his people? Be like me. Love others just as I do.

God is gracious and good and cares about the poor and seeing inequality and injustice overturned. His people are to mirror God’s love for others. God isn’t indifferent to poverty and inequality and the powerlessness and suffering that comes with it. As you follow the Bible’s story you see that Israel frequently fails to be like in God in its love for others and care for the poor. And God acts, God intervenes, God sends prophets.

You know the signs you see that say beware of the dog. The dogs are there to ensure you stay off property that isn’t yours. The prophets function a bit like that; they are covenant watchdogs. They are there to ensure Israel live as God’s people, to keep them away from places they shouldn’t go and things it is unwise to do. But tragically Israel don’t listen and here’s the message God sends them. Amos 8v4-6 p.874 God charges Israel with abuse of the needy and the poor, with injustice and dishonesty that impoverishes others. He calls them to repent or he’ll turn their singing into weeping. Or Isaiah 10v1-5 where God charges Israel with making oppressive laws, perverting justice, robbing widows and orphans. And promises that a day of judgment is coming when he’ll judge their oppression of the poor. We could replicate those calls over and over again. God is passionately concerned for the poor and hates oppression and injustice. God isn’t indifferent to poverty and inequality.

That leads us to another question

Why does it exist?
Reaching conclusions just off what you can see can be dangerous can’t it. A magazine photographer was told to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene stopped him so he asked his office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go quickly to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived, a plane was warming up on the runway. He grabbed his equipment jumped in and yelled, “Let’s go! Let’s go!”

The pilot swung the plane into the wind and soon they were airborne.

“Fly over the north side of the fire,” yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.”

“Why?” asked the pilot.

“Because I’m going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures!”

After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you’re not the instructor?”

There’s a similar danger if we just look at the world and from it draw conclusions about God that we will get God wrong because our assumptions are wrong. So God, graciously, gives us the Bible so we can know who he is, why the world is like it is and who we’re made to be.

The Bible starts off by explaining how the world became like it is. God created a world full of rich lavish overflowing provision. He gives it to humanity to enjoy and calls on them to steward it wisely. To care for it as he would, to love him and one another in the way they use the plentiful resources of the world he created.

And everything in the world was perfect until humanity listened to a lie and began questioning God’s love and goodness and decided we didn’t want to live according to God the creator’s instruction. Until we decided we’d be better of deciding right and wrong for themselves. The result of that one decision to de-god God, to take what he’d given but rule it our own way fractured everything. The world is dislocated as God’s good instructions are ignored, relationships fracture as man selfishly determines not to care and love others but to get what he wants. And most importantly relationship with God is lost and with it all the wisdom God gives on how to live life skilfully, at its best, in his world.

Sometimes we learn the hard way that we need to follow instructions. Just think about flat pack furniture, the person who created the furniture tells you how to build and use it. When you don’t listen to their wisdom things go wrong, as sometimes has to be pointed out to us. Flat pack is simple. Now imagine brain surgery, brains are phenomenally complex. But I’ve just read a book by a brain surgeon, does that mean you’d be happy to let me operate on you? No, why not? Because it takes phenomenal wisdom and skill to be able to perform such delicate and skilled operations. Yet we, living in an infinitely more complex world decide to go it alone and ignore our creator’s instructions on living skilfully in his world.

The Bible honestly records the consequences of that; murder, oppression, a selfish desire to assert oneself, hatred, hoarding, and as a result pain, suffering, loss, poverty and injustice. And God isn’t indifferent; in love he warns and in love he acts in judgement on the pain and suffering he sees all caused by the sin of rejecting him. But always man drifts back to sin, to living life for self, rejecting God not loving him, oppressing others not loving them.

Poverty, injustice and inequality aren’t God’s creation they’re ours. Just think about our world right now; God has given us enough, the problem is how we use it. What percentage of the world’s global income do you think it would take to eradicate poverty? It’s estimated it would take $175billion, that sounds huge. But it’s only 1% of global income. Isn’t that staggering. What stops that happening? It’s not that God hasn’t given us enough but we need to learn to love God and love others and live by his wisdom.

Or take hunger. 16,000 children will die today of hunger, 16,000 died yesterday and 16,000 will die tomorrow. Yet what’s the biggest health challenge facing the UK? Obesity. Over eating. The UK’s average calorie intake a day is 3440. We typically need 2000 for a lady and 2500 for a man. We eat 50% more calories than we need on average. Yet in the Democratic Republic of Congo the average calorific intake is only 1590, in parts it is much, much, lower. There is enough to go round it’s just that we hoard it. Why? Because of sin, because we rule by our rules we don’t listen to God’s wisdom on living life well.

Someone has said “Sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice in his world. But I’m afraid he might ask me the same question.”

Sin has turned us away from God and away from others and curved us in on ourselves. That’s why no government or system has solved the problem of poverty. It’s not an organisational problem it’s a heart problem. The problem lies not with God but with us and our selfishness and greed.

But that poses the question:

Why doesn’t God do something about it?

God isn’t indifferent, he’s loving and generous and cares passionately about justice and the poor. But we ignore him and so lose his wisdom on how to live in a way that would eradicate poverty and inequality. So why doesn’t God do something is the question people often ask. But as that quote alluded to the problem isn’t with God it’s with us, so in asking that we’re inviting God to judge. And not just the big faceless them but actually injustice, oppression, greed lurks in our hearts not just out there. It’s my problem as much as anyone’s problem. And we don’t want to face God as judge.

One day God will judge. But God is gracious and so he doesn’t judge instantly. Instead he does something unique and amazing; in Jesus God the Son enters into the world and experiences poverty and injustice, he lives a life alienated and marginalised, misunderstood, lacking power, and experiencing rejection and injustice. He enters into not just humanity but poverty and inequality.

Born to an unmarried mother with the scent of scandal and illegitimacy following him everywhere he goes. Born in poverty not a palace. Without a house or a home. Frequently misunderstood and marginalised by those who had power and influence. Thought mad even by his family. Persecuted, falsely accused, rejected, isolated, friendless, powerless and condemned to death as a result of the greatest miscarriage of justice the world has ever seen. Why? Not just so God can say well I know what you went through. Sympathy, even empathy doesn’t help us. But so that he could take the punishment for every injustice that you and I have ever committed. To bear God’s just anger for our rejection of God and his wisdom for life in his world and all the consequences that follow.

Jesus comes to rescue us from the cause of poverty; sin. He comes to create a people who will overcome poverty giving a glimpse of what life will be like when he returns when there will be no hunger, poverty, inequality, or injustice. A people bear the family likeness, who live looking just like their heavenly Father because they love as they have been loved by the God who held nothing back from them. A people who therefore think differently about life and stuff.

Acts 4v32-37 p.1035. Shows us the transformation that experiencing God’s love and grace in Jesus brings. Do you see how it echoes that passage we started off with? This is a community who know God’s rescuing love. Which they don’t deserve but experience by grace and who, because of that, overflow with love to others. “So that there was no needy person among them.” Why? Because when there’s a need others sell their possessions and meet that need, because they’re loved by God and overflowing from that love is a love for others.

Why is there so much poverty and inequality in the world? Because of sin, because we reject God’s way of living, loving him and loving others. Because we’ve become turned in on ourselves and unlike God who is generous and giving. God isn’t indifferent to it; he will one day judge all the sin that is the cause of poverty and inequality. And by grace he provides a way for us to escape that judgement, because Jesus in love bears our punishment.

And having experienced that love we love others. We become God’s children living by the family values, a new community in God’s church where people glimpse what life lived in God’s kingdom is like. Not immune to need but meeting it, not curved in by selfish greed but loving others, not grasping but generous, not pitying but giving, not full of inequality but welcoming and graciously loving as we have been loved.

Don't judge fruitfulness by circumstances

It's a mistake we all know we make and yet we repeat it again and again.  We know not to judge by externals and yet we find ourselves doing so again and again.  We hear God's gentle rebuke of Samuel as he looks at Eliab, man looks on the outside but God looks at the heart, and we think we have learnt the lesson.  But then we find ourselves instinctively judging by looking at the outside because that is how our society functions, and how we have been subtly shaped to function.

I was reading Jeremiah 24 this morning when I was reminded again of my instinctive wrong judgement, my tendency to judge by circumstance or externals.  Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs, one very good and one very bad.  Who would you expect the good ones to be?  There are two choices in Jeremiah either they are a picture of those who have been carried into exile by Nebuchadnezzar or they are those who have remained in the land of Judah.  And the bad figs which do they represent?

I wonder if instinctively we think those who remain in God's land must be the good figs, whilst those carried into exile must be the bad, its obvious isn't it?  But God's words remind us again of the danger of judging by externals or circumstances, because the good figs are those in exile whom God has sent away, and who he will give a heart to know him as the LORD.  Who will be his people and whom he will bring back.  By contrast those still in Judah are bad, and they stand under God's judgement, they don't know God, won't know God and won't enjoy the land as his people.

Yet all the external indicators would say the opposite, you don't associate exile with blessing, you don't associate Babylon with a place of security and experiencing God's favour.  It reminds us that what matters is not externals but God, with our God any place can be a place of blessing, abundance, security and relationship, be it a wilderness, a cave, in the midst of a storm, at the foot of a cross, or the entrance of an empty tomb.  It calls me not to be alert to circumstances and externals but alert to and aware of the loving grace and power of our sovereign heavenly Father.

God will not be boxed

Its interesting how often we read the bible and find God doing something we may not have expected, or which we expect him not to do.  Take Exodus 1 God works through the midwives who fear him rather than Pharaoh and blesses them for their faithfulness to him.  Or Ezekiel ch 4-23 God keeps on reiterating that he is going to judge Jerusalem, something which neither the exiles or those living there expect yet God does.  God will not be kept in a box, there is nothing he cannot do.  God is God we ought to expect him to do the unexpected.

Ruth - depending on God

We were looking at Ruth 2 on Sunday evening and as I revisited my notes and the passage yesterday I was struck by Ruth's dependence on God. At a time when many Israelites were not depending on God she takes a risk (Bethlehem in the time of the Judges was a dangerous place for a young woman to be out on her own) because she trusts that God will provide.

She goes out to glean trusting in God's provision through his word and he guides her to the field of Boaz, out of all the fields in Bethlehem, and Boaz becomes the godly conduit through which God works.

It got me thinking about our independence as opposed to Ruth's dependence, it also got me thinking about how we like Naomi in the previous chapter often ignore God's means of provision - people - because we are looking for something more miraculous. I was then thinking about Haiti this morning in preparation for Sunday - How can a God of love allow natural disasters? God shows his love in natural disasters through his people as they model his compassion and kindness as they act as conduits for God to work.

Our faulty view of God

Spent most of today studying Ruth - it is a great book and one I'm looking forward to learning from as we go through it on Sunday evenings at Lighthouse.

One thing in particular struck me today as I focused on Chapter 1 - the faulty nature of Naomi's understanding of God. I had never really noticed it before, quite how I'm not sure. But she lurches from praying that her daughters-in-law as she urges them to leave her would know and experience the ('hesed') unwavering, steadfast loyal love of God, to in the same exhortation (v13)saying God has been against her. A charge that she reiterates when she gets back to Bethlehem and tells them to call her 'Mara' (bitter) not Naomi (pleasant) because the Almighty has made my life very bitter, he has brought her back empty and he has afflicted and brought misfortune on her.

Added to all that as she seeks to send them back to Moab it is not just to the people but to their gods. Naomi's view of God is confused and is not grounded in the law (Gen-Deut) and its revelation of God and his character. It is amazing that Ruth woudl want to ally herself with the God of Naomi.

Her circumstances had made her bitter, her circumstances had determined her view of God. The question is which is right is God 'hesed' steadfastly faithful beyond what people deserve or is he responsible for her bitterness, has he left her bereft and without hope. The great irony is that as she describes herself as empty, beside her stands Ruth who has made Naomi's people and God hers and will be the means through which God provides and shows his hesed love for her.

It is striking because I think so often we are like Naomi - circumstances determined how we view and feel about God rather than how we view God determining how we feel about our circumstances.

Another facet I'd not thought about before is that Naomi is part of the lost generations following on from Judges 2:10 "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel." I wonder if that is why her understanding of God seems so faulty, if that is what prompted the family to flee to Moab?

A world divided over worship

On Sunday from Genesis 4-11 we saw the consequences of sin worked out as the world divides over worship.

With Cain and Abel we see right and wrong worship. The big question in Gen4 is why does God approve of one offering and not the other? It’s in wrestling with these questions we will learn.

There is a clue in (3,4)Cain brings “some of the fruits of the soil” whereas Abel brings “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock”. We are given an insight into their hearts and worship. There is another clue(7) in God’s warning to Cain to “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” The issue isn’t with the offering – it isn’t that God dislikes fruit and veg – but with the offerer.

Heb 11:4 makes that clear “By faith Abel brought a better offering that Cain did.” The offerer is not approved of because of the offering but the offering because of the offerer. Abel was righteous his offering was only part of his worship expressed as the activity of his life, whereas Cain’s heart and living was wrong so his offering was wrong.

The division between those who worship God rightly and those who don’t continues in rest rest of the Bible narrative. We see it in the genealogy(ch5) with a line who worship God and a line who don’t. We see it with Noah who worships God with a hammer, as he accepts God’s grace to him hears God’s word and lives his life in the light of it – his building of the Ark is an act of worship to God. Twice the account draws our attention to this by emphasising Noah’s obedience(6:22, 7:5). And as God judge’s humanity for their wrong worship Noah is saved by grace and worships God because of it.

This division over worship continues right down to today. There are two fundamental issues for us as God's worshipping creation; the first is that right worship is worship of God as he reveals himself in scripture, secondly that God determines how we worship him rightly. Both of these run counter to our culture which says any worship goes and what you worship doesn't matter.

Real Spirituality

This is a comment from Tim Chester over at the resurgence blog:
"Biblical spirituality is about:

• Bible meditation, not mystical silence
• Passionate engagement, not rural retreat
• Growing together, not individual solitude

In other words, biblical spirituality, at its core, is about the word of God, the mission of God, and the community of God."

It reminds us that spirituality is not found in the intense retreat but in reading God's word, in engaging with the mission that we are given as Jesus disciples and in loving and serving one another in God's new community.

Money and the Gospel

If you click on this link there ia a sermon on The Gospel and Money by Tim Keller: http://download.redeemer.com/rpcsermons/vision2005/Gospel_and_Your_Wealth_-_11-06-05.mp3

It is helpful reminding us that everything we have is given by God, but that it also remains God's given to us for us to invest for him.

Doubt

We were looking at Luke 7 yesterday where John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus is he the one. It is a fascinating passage where Jesus doesn't recoil in horror or rebuke John he simply points to the fulfilment of the Old Testament as evidence that he is the one sent from God and there is no other to come.

It is in stark contrast to how we deal with doubt, mostly we sweep it under the carpet and ignore it rather than confront it and go to someone who can help us answer our doubts. Sometimes when someone expresses doubts about faith we react fearfully. I think in contrast the church should mirror Jesus reaction and use the Bible to engage with and answer the issue that has presented itself. Hopefully as a result of yesterday some people will be brave enough to voice the issues that cause them to question and we can deal with them.

Work the godly rhythm

How many weeks holiday do you get a year? The British average is 28 days including bank holidays, do you get more or less? Do you take all your holiday? Do you ever find yourself working longer hours than you are contracted to without being paid for it? A recent survey discovered that the average British worker does eight weeks unpaid overtime a year, that’s like working January and February for free.

Do you answer work emails at home at the weekends or in the evenings? Do you take your mobile phone or laptop on holiday with you – just in case something comes up?

What is your philosophy when it comes to work and rest? Do you work to enable you to rest? Do you live for the next holiday? Or do you rest in order to be able to work? Do you take a lunch break of any sort, let alone an hour?

I was in London last year for a conference and outside one of the big financial institutions in the heart of the city was an enormous banner which said this “3 days until the weekend”. Every morning I went to this conference someone had been there before I arrived and altered the count down, I was half expecting it on Friday to count down the number of hours.

Charles Dickens in 1857 wrote Little Dorrit, in it one of the characters says this:
“What else do you suppose I think I am made for? Nothing, rattle me out of bed early, set me going, give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it. Keep me always at it, and I’ll keep you always at it. There you are with the whole duty of man in the commercial country.”

That was written 150 years ago and it hasn’t changed, if anything its gotten worse. And it isn’t just in the work place is it? So for the young mum there’s the nursery drop off, the toddler group, music club, play dates with friends, nursery pick up, meals to cook, cleaning, ironing, washing to do, and that constant pressure of always stimulating your children as you do each of these things, always encouraging my child as I engage in this maelstrom of activity.

Just think about advertising for a minute. What’s the slogan for Pepsi-max? Live life to the max. What are the selling points that are emphasized of remedies for the common cold or flu? Their ability to get you back up and at them, to help you avoid having to rest. Cram every second full of activity or you are missing out is the message. When was the last time your saw an advert that sold their product on its ability to help you rest? Rest is for wimps!

Its been said that we live in binge resting culture, we overwork 48 weeks of the year for 4 weeks holiday, and we overwork 40 years of our life to be able to retire. Is work, is busyness the problem? How do I solve it? Should a Christian’s attitude be different? Should my diary look different to that of those around me?

1. Work in the perfect world (Gen 1:26-31)
Genesis 1:31 gives us God’s summary statement of the results of his work in creating the heaven and the earth, and as he surveys the results he says this “God saw all the he had made, and it was very good.” I guess the shock as we look at the passage, for those of us who are tempted to live for the holidays or for the weekend is that this included work. Work is good!

What was Adam and Eve’s work? It was to “fill”, “subdue”, “rule over”, “work”, “take care of” creation. That’s not the job of the school caretaker, but it’s the job of the regent ruling on behalf of the king, in this case ruling creation on behalf of God.

There is work in the perfect world and as Adam and Eve go about their work they worship God as they do so. Work in the Garden of Eden is part of worship – it is the activity of their lives, it is an expression of their obedience to God. God is glorified as they work, as they “fill”, “subdue”, “rule over”, “work”, and “take care of” the creation.

Society says work to rest, go to work to enable you to live comfortably, go to work to be able to afford that nice holiday. But the Bible says go to work to glorify God, work as part of your worship. In fact it says whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.

2. Work in our reality (Gen 3:17-19)
So why isn’t work like that now? It’s fairly clear that the world isn’t as Genesis 1 and 2 describe it and that includes the workplace. In the Garden of Eden there is no need for a work place counsellor, or a Human Resources department, or even stress relief toys.
Yet today 8 out of 10 British workers feel their health has been damaged by demands at work. 1 in 5 men has visited the doctor with work related stress, and 60% of people feel that our workloads are sometimes out of control. So what happened between Genesis 1:31 and 2006?

Turn over a page in your Bible and you’ll see, Genesis 3 tells the story of man’s rebellion against God, a rebellion that tears apart not just his relationship with God and with his wife but also with the world and with work. Just look at the change (17-19), no longer is everything good but work is marked by “painful toil”, “thistles”, “thorns”, it now involves hardship and “sweat”.

Work just like the rest of the world becomes corrupted by our rebellion against God. Sin changes it from a means of worshipping God to a means of worshipping myself. It is no longer about being God’s regent mediating his will and instead it is all about me.

So success at work defines who I am, it determines my self worth, I take on more and more to prove myself to myself, but also to show you. I am busy all the time because I need more stuff, I’m busy because I’m not content, I’m busy because life’s too short not be.

We find ourselves working harder to earn enough money to buy the 32” plasma screen TV. We buy it but rarely watch it because we are working hard to earn the money to buy the 42” plasma screen and so on...

Work is corrupted by sin, it becomes a means of slavery, it becomes all about us. Let’s be honest we like to be able to say we are busy; we like to be busy because of what it says about us. It is viewed as a badge of success, of our being irreplaceable, of our popularity or that of our family.

So if that’s the problem and we face it in every sphere of life, what is the solution?

3. What’s the antidote: The godly Rhythm (Deut 5:12-15)
Did you spot the last three verses we had read for us? (Gen 2:1-3) What does God do when he completes his creation? Does he instantly start on the universe mark 2? No. He rests from his work of creating. He doesn’t collapse in an exhausted heap in front of neighbours or I’m a celebrity get me out of here! The Bible says he rested from his work of creating because it was complete. “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” why? Because “on it he rested from all the work of creating he had done.”

That doesn’t mean he did nothing but instead of creating he is sustaining the universe as the Bible tells us. He rests from his work of creation.

Just glance back at 1:27, we are made in God’s image, if rest is good for God it is good for us. The principle of 1 day in seven to rest is a good one.

In Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Moses is explaining the Ten Commandments to Israel as they are about to enter the Promised Land. How do you view the Ten Commandments?
Laws that must be kept or else? Unrealistic expectations put upon Israel? A harsh God’s means of keeping his people on a tight leash?

Actually the Ten Commandments are a loving and redeeming God’s gift to Israel outlining for the people he has saved the best way for them to live, showing them how to live lives that reflect their status as God’s people and to show to the watching world around them God’s character. And part of that gift is the idea of rest.

The 1in7 principle is part of the gift “For six days you shall labour and do all your work…” The days rest is part of Israel’s worship of God.

What is the reason that Moses gives here for resting on the Sabbath? (15) “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath.”

Why are the Israelites to rest ? Because it is a sign of their freedom from slavery. It is a sign that they have been redeemed from Egypt. A slave has no say over the days and hours that he works, in Egypt the Israelites had no choice in when they laboured, they did as their masters pleased.

But now they are free, now they have been redeemed from slavery by God and as a sign of that freedom, of that relationship they have been redeemed for they are not to work 1 day in 7, they are to rest. In fact the point is reinforced by the Hebrew word used in v13 for labour – it is the word slave. The days rest is a sign that they are God’s redeemed people living under God’s blessing dependent upon him no longer slaves.

The Sabbath, the rest day was a day to remember that freedom, to remind themselves of their salvation and their dependence upon God.

In our world where consumption is king, where profit is the bottom line, where productivity is what counts the pressure is on to work every second you can, to fill every second you can. What would your work colleagues think, or your school mates, or your friends and family if you took a day a week totally off work or chores?

For Israel it was a mark of their distinctiveness from the nations around them. It was a sign that they were God’s redeemed and blessed people. Would taking that rest day make us stand out similarly? Would it convey that we are redeemed by God in Christ not by our own efforts? That my self esteem comes from being God’s child not from getting a promotion. Would it mark us out as those do not need to work to please others but who work to glorify God?

The day of rest is a reminder for Israel that they are saved by God. For us it is a reminder that our hope is in Christ, he has redeemed us from slavery to sin, and that includes redeeming our work so it is worship, and redeeming our rest as worship.

Exodus 31:13 “The Lord said, you must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you and the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy.”

It is not that taking a days rest makes us holy, that is legalism. It is that it is a day to remember that it is God who makes us holy through Jesus Christ, to show that we are different from the world, to reflect the character of God.

We live in a world of ever increasing work hours, of ever increasing activity and busyness. Where the activity we engage in defines who we are, whether we are successful or not.

But the godly rhythm is that of rest as well as work. It is one where work is redeemed as part of my worship of God but also where I rest as part of my worship of God.

A days rest is an opportunity to remind ourselves that we are made in God’s image, we are God’s people redeemed from the slavery of sin, and that we are dependent upon him for our salvation in Christ to make us holy.

A days rest does not mean a day without doing anything at all. It may also differ from person to person as to what that day is, just as what is restful differs from person to person. But it is the idea of having a day off from our normal work, off from our usual chores, a break from the routine as a way of reminding ourselves of our status in Christ. We are God’s people saved by God’s grace by the death of his Son and our lives are refitted so that everything, including my work and my rest are for God’s glory.

Where the rubber hits the road is in my determination to alter my diary, to turn off my mobile phone, to refuse to turn on my laptop. To be different from those we live and work alongside.

The godly rhythm is to take a day a rest. Not for the sake of it but as a way of reminding yourself that God is your saviour, he has redeemed you from what everyone around us is chasing after. That “a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions”. That we are freed from slavery to sin to live for God’s glory. To live lives that worship him in spirit and truth at work and rest.

God's church, God's mission

“It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world but the God of mission who has a church in the world.”

What is worship?

Following on from what I have been thinking about as regards worship someone sent me this link to a thought provoking video on You Tube. Click here.

Being relevant

Do you worry when you invite people to church about how they will respond? Will they mock me? Will they ridicule me? They are some of the responses we get but most often it is juts a; 'No thanks, its not for me.'

Why is that? It's not because the gospel does not save because it is the power of God for salvation and that never changes. It is because people do not see the gospel as we do. We know that it is life changing, that it frees, that it brings peace with God, saves us from judgement and gifts us eternal life. But actually our friends, family, work colleagues do not know that.

In fact most people today think Christianity is about keeping a set of rules. It is not real it has not moved with the times. It has little to do with the world that they live in. I wonder if they have a point.

Churches need to show a reverence for God and a relevance for the culture. If we do not have both either we are unacceptable to God or inaccessible to people.

Reading what our children are given to read

I have spent the last year or two undertaking to read some of the books that our young people are given to read in schools to see what was being recommended and influencing the minds of teenagers in schools. It has been interesting.

There are great books like the Alex Ryder series, of which Stormbreaker, was made into a film last year. In it Alex plays a young spy recruited by MI5, these are just good fun books. Another series I've enjoyed are the Eragon books, of which a third is out later this year - again good stories about dragons and elves, good versus evil. There are of course the Harry Potter books, which have provoked a lot of debate but which again are about good verses evil and contain many potential discussion points about Jesus and God.

But then there are books which are altogether more worrying. Not least among them is Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy which will soon be coming to the big screen. I didn't really enjoy the books, but they twist reality so that the church is an evil agent of a perverse God who wants to keep mankind trapped. Christianity is viewed as an expensive mistake which wastes the lives of its victims. The Third book in particular attacks the church and God, as Lyra the heroine takes on the role of the second Eve destined to free man from God's clutches. In The Times (18 Oct 2000), Sarah Johnson described His Dark Materials as ‘the most savage attack on organised religion I have ever seen.’ And therein lies its danger it is written as a novel for children and teenagers espousing aggressive atheism.

It is a challenge for us to engage with such books, maybe even to read them ourselves and be equipped to discuss what they say and why they say it. Are our own children reading them? Or those in our church or youth group? How can we help them to examine the ideas behind the story?

In contrast to what Pullman maintains the evil in the world around us is not the result of God but of our rejection of him, the answer is not to overthrow him, down that road lie the further consequences of Romans 1:18-32. In fact it is telling that in the century when society did leave God's laws and standards we have definitely not bettered ourselves.

God and suffering

The bridge collapse in Minneapolis is a tragedy, how should we respond? What does it have to tell us about God?

Rather than write something myself I'm simply going to link to John Pipers blog. Piper's church is within sight of the bridge and many of the staff of his church cross it every day to and from work. This is his response hours after it happened

The nearer it gets the bigger the risk feels

I'm sure you know the feeling, you have been planning something for ages and you feel fine about it. But then the nearer it gets the more nervous you begin to feel. You find yourself going over and over the plans and ideas and how it supposed to go. Then suddenly you begin doing things for the last time beforehand and it hits how close it is.

Well it is now less than a month until South Doncaster Community Church meets for the first time, September 2nd, it is four weeks on Sunday. Most things are in place which is great but I guess there are some big unknowns, that is what is meant to drive us to prayer.

This week has seen us holding a Holiday Club in the school in which we will meet. It has reinforced how good God has been to us in providing the school and the caretaker, who have been brilliant whenever we have met them or used the premises. The Holiday Club itself has been great with about 70 children everyday, and about 120 children and parents at last nights family fun night. Some friends of ours have been taking their children and one of the mums said to me last night that she has heard more about three days of Holiday Club than about a whole year of school and that he loves it. He has even been asking lots of questions about God.

It has been a great link event, raising the profile, making contacts, sharing the gospel, building relationships. Praise God for his goodness to us.

If you don't stand for something...

...you will fall for anything. So went the saying that I was told as I grew up and it is true. If we don't stand for something we are tossed about on the waves of the latest idea or fad. This is true in life generally but it is even more vital when it comes to the truth about God.

God has revealed himself in the Bible and if we want to know him, what he is like, what pleases him then the obvious place is to look in the Bible that he has given us. However, it may be that we find some things there that we don't like or that conflict with out societies values, and that poses a question; what do I do? Do I accept that is what God has revealed or do I seek to mould God into an image of my own choosing reflecting my like and dislikes?

This week has seen many pages of ink spilled debating the schism that is growing in the Anglican communion over the issue of the consecration of practicing homosexuals in the USA. What are we to make of this debate? In the media it is portrayed as a debate between fundamentalists and liberals, or the Western church and the African Church. But it is not, it is a debate over truth, God and sin.

Christianity is not homophobic, some Christians maybe, just as some people in society at large are, but that is not because it is what the Bible teaches. Homosexuality is a sin - in other words it is something that displeases God that will provoke him to judge men and women, just as sex outside of marriage is a sin, just as greed is a sin, just as lying is a sin.

The Bible tells us that as sinners we cannot stand before a Holy God in our sin and expect to live. God therefore sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place bearing our sin and shame, cut off from God so that we never need to be in the most costly act of sacrifice willingly undertaken by Jesus. For those who accept that Jesus Christ has done that for them and who repent of the sins something must happen s a result. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians writes: "Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need." Likewise those who lied must speak truthfully, it is a glimpse of the affect of repenting, in repenting we turn our life around and instead of living opposed to God we live for him.

That means for the adulterer, they put off adultery because God says it is wrong - they may battle for the rest of their lives with the attraction to other men or women but they are to battle with it. The couple having sex outside of marriage are to get married or stop having sex. The homosexual if he or she repents is to stop practicing though they may battle for the rest of their lives with the attraction. The greedy person must stop being consumed with material possession and would be wise to get rid of many of those possessions and give to the poor though they may battle with greed for the rest of their lives. Why? Because they now live to please God, and what pleases God he tells us in his word the Bible.

One cannot repent and yet keep on willfully doing what is against God's revealed will. That is not to say Christians are perfect, Christians are only ever sinners saved by the grace of God in Jesus, we sin by omission and commission, but the Christian should never deliberately set out to live a life opposed to God or you have to question if they have understood what it means to repent and have eternal life.

Sexuality is not the issue, sin is the issue no matter what that sin is. You cannot be a repentant sinner and yet live a life that is blatantly sinful disregarding what God says - that is not repentance. Repentance is to turn from sin to God in Christ.

Truth is the issue as the Bible delivers it, truth about God and what pleases him and what repentance looks like. To pick and choose what we believe about God is to leave us with God in his image, God who conforms to cultures standards, in fact it leaves us with no God, no salvation and no truth.

But God has revealed himself and repentance means living in the light of what has been revealed; that God loves us so much he sent his Son into the world to die in our place and to call us to repent and then live a life that pleases God.

Fear

I've been looking at Luke 5:1-11 for Sunday morning, its the calling of the disciples. What has struck me as I have done so is that Simon's response to Jesus revealing himself via the miraculous catch of fish is fear. We are told that they were "astonished" and Jesus first words to them are "Do not be afraid". Why were they so terrified?

Because of what the miracle revealed about who Jesus was and what they feared it meant for them. They knew they were not right with God and Jesus found them out! The natural response is to be afraid, judgement should follow.

But we don't really do fear, even when it comes to God. So somewhere there is a fundamental difference in our thinking about God and the disciples. I think there are two areas where we fail to appreciate reality here: we have a wrong image of God and a wrong view of sin.

The Bible reveals a God who hates sin, who can't even look on it, who finds it utterly abhorrent. Sadly that is not how we think. The challenge is to bring my thinking in line with the Bibles especially on these two issues and to tell others the truth.