Category Archives: Christian Life

DESIRES

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DESIRES

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

For some strange reason, as a child and a young person, I believed that God would make me do what I didn’t want to do, for example, send me to China as a missionary! Somehow, I had the idea that God was a killjoy who definitely did not want me to enjoy life. I tried very hard not to have any desires in case He sent me in the opposite direction.

It is only as I have grown in my understanding of God’s character that I have come to realise that many of the desires we have are His way of directing our lives in His chosen pathway. God builds into our genes the gifts and talents that fire our desires, and bring us the pleasure and fulfilment in life that He wants us to have.

I have discovered that, instead of trying to squash my desires, God actually plants desires in my heart; He puts them there when He wants me to change direction so that, as I follow my heart, I fall in line with His will.

I have also noticed, in my study of John’s Gospel, how Jesus aroused desire in the people He interacted with, one on one, so that the appetite to know the truth He was explaining moved them towards faith in Him.

Take for example, His meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well outside Sychar. She came to draw water in the middle of the day because her lifestyle and the guilt and shame she felt, cut her off from the village women. Jesus’ request for water startled her. No Jewish man ever initiated a conversation with a Samaritan woman, especially one with questionable morals. Little by little He led her towards a desire for the water He was offering her. Although she still did not understand the spiritual implications of His offer, her blunt request, “Give me this water,” opened the way for Him to expose her heart. His instruction, “Go and call your husband,” caused her to blurt out the admission, “I have no husband,” and opened the way for her to recognise the real reason for her thirst.

Nicodemus is another example of awakened desire that prompted him to seek an appointment with Jesus. Unlike the other Pharisees who refused to recognise Jesus’ divine nature, Nicodemus saw something in Him that made him both curious and hungry. Hidden in his comment to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God…” was a question, “We are both teachers. What do you have that I haven’t got?” Jesus explained, gently and simply, the process by which Nicodemus, too, could enter into the realm of life in the Spirit and enjoy the same power of the kingdom of God in which He operated.

Instead of being afraid of or squashing your desires, allow God to shape them into your future.

BLIND SPOTS

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BLIND SPOTS

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  Matthew 7:3-5

What are blind spots?

Most motor vehicles have blind spots – those places in the rear view mirror where a vehicle behind you is obscured for a moment or on the sides of the windscreen that block your vision of an oncoming vehicle.   If you are not vigilant, a blind spot can be the cause of a serious accident.

We can also have blind spots in our characters or behaviour patterns, flaws of which we are unaware but which cause offense to other people; habits, attitudes, character traits, moods, reactions or responses to people or situations.

These blinds spots very often reveal themselves in the way we treat others. The things we don’t like in others are often a reflection of what is in our own lives. A judgmental attitude reflects a heart that is proud and sets itself above others without realizing that it is a mirror of one’s own life.

We may be moody, critical, sarcastic or angry and be unaware of the way our words or behaviour affects others.  We don’t see any wrong in the way we treat other people and we go on our merry way leaving a trail of emotional injury behind us.

How can we discover and deal with our blind spots so that we can foster harmony in our families, in the church and with friends and work colleagues?

I can think of at least three ways to deal with our blinds spots.

Firstly, we need to be honest. If we refuse to acknowledge our faults, we are fooling no-one but ourselves.  God’s grace will come to us when we are honest with ourselves and with Him. It is foolish to believe that we are above reproach. How much better to recognize that we, like everyone else, are capable of the very things we see and hate in others.

Secondly, we need humility, before God and men.  Pride refuses to acknowledge our faults and do something about them.  Humility allows God to change us. We are all on a journey towards transformation but it can only happen when we humble ourselves and are willing to repent and to respond to the need to change.

Thirdly, we need accountability, a loving, caring person who will help us monitor our progress. This will also take honesty and humility but the outcome will be peace.  

If we are really serious with God, dealing with blind spots will go a long way towards building unity in our families and in the body of Christ.  

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

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BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

“Blessed are the peacemakers because they will be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9

Matthew 5:9-11

The bookends in these final beatitudes are “Blessed are the peacemakers…” and “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

What are peacemakers?

Firstly, if we look at the ministry of Jesus especially described in Ephesians 2:14-18, making peace and reconciling are the same ideas. He put Himself between the two opposing parties, God and man, and brought them together by paying the debt that man owed God for his sin. Jesus bore the brunt of the enmity between God and man so that He could bring them together in peace.

According to Jesus, there is an irreconcilable rift between people who understand God’s heart and bend all their energies towards living God’s way, and those who are trapped in the world system of greed, selfishness and wickedness. This difference in disposition creates such enmity that those who are righteous are victimised by those who are selfish and greedy. 

Jesus Himself is our prime example. People hated their hearts to be exposed. Jesus said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19-20.

When we take the role of a peacemaker, bringing reconciliation between warring parties, and especially between man and God, we are re-presenting the work of Jesus and revealing our resemblance to God. When we do that, we reflect the disposition of our rabbi, Jesus, who is the Son of God.

If we are persecuted for doing this, strangely enough this will bring us real happiness.  This seems rather contradictory unless we look at the reasoning behind it.

1. It is proof that we understand and are living out God’s kingdom in the world and showing the world what it is like to be a son of God.

2. We are in good company because the prophets were in the same boat.

Secondly, the Hebrew word for peace is shalom which has the connotation of wholeness of body, soul and spirit. We live in a world full of broken people, fractured and wounded by their own behaviour and by the offences caused by others. It is God’s desire to restore broken people to the kind of wholeness where everything in their lives fits together in unity and peace. As we live in the kingdom of God, we are being made whole through the work of the Holy Spirit. Our role as peacemakers is to partner with Him in bringing wholeness to others. In this way we will truly be showing our nature as sons of God.

To work at reconciling people to God, to one another and to themselves will result in shalom, and will bring us true happiness, regardless of the persecution we may experience.

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART,

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BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

In my previous article, we looked at the meaning of “hungering and thirsting for righteousness”, a yearning to be generous towards others which will mirror God’s generosity towards us which is the first “bookend” of the literary construction called reverse concentric symmetry.

Pure in heart is the other bookend that encloses the idea of being merciful. It is based on the teaching in the Torah about “tamai” and “tahor”, unclean and clean. Sin is not defined as doing bad things; sin is defined as anything that is not perfect which makes a person “tamai”, unclean. Being unclean separated people from the community and demanded sacrifice to restore them to a state of “tahor”, purity. Being “tamai” was very infectious. Anyone touching someone who was tamai became tamai.  Living in a situation like this made them realise how impossible this was. It demanded someone to rescue them from the ceaseless cycle of being tamai.

Jesus came to rescue to world from being in a state of tamai which separated everyone from God. He was the once-for-all sacrifice which made us permanently tahor before God. Everyone Jesus touched became “tahor” instantly, lepers, blind, deaf, lame, and dead people.  Because of Him we are no longer “tamai” because He has made us “tahor” in Him. To be “tahor” means that our vision is cleared of our selfishness and self absorption and we can more clearly see the suffering of those around us. Jesus said “Be perfect (tahor) as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

In Hebrew thinking there was something called “zikkut”. “Zikkut” described a person’s attitude of heart that reached out to help someone in need, not in obedience to a command but just because of the compassion in the person’s heart that moved him to help. The rabbis taught that “zikkut” enabled one to see the face of God – to see, know and experience God in a deeper way than simply by obeying His commandments.

This is what God said to Shallum, king of Judah, who was selfish and greedy, about his father Josiah. “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 22:16.

In the beatitudes Jesus is saying that to desire to be generous to people in need, sharing your resources with them even if your resources are meagre, means that you will always have enough yourself. You will never go hungry if you share with others.  But, more than that, when we have a burning desire to meet the needs of others, beyond our duty, we will truly understand the heart of God and God will take care of every need of ours in response to our self-sacrificing generosity.

BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL

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BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL

“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” Matthew 5:7

Today we come to the main point in this second trio of beatitudes. Matthew 5:6-8, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy”, is the central thought between the bookends.Being a merciful person is in the middle of being righteous and pure in heart.

In Hebrew culture, firstborns always get justice, second-borns always get mercy. A curse on the second-born father was passed to his firstborn son – e.g. Ham and Canaan, Genesis 9:24, 25. Every firstborn son belonged to God (Exodus 13:2) and had to be redeemed by sacrificing an animal. At the first Passover, God killed the firstborns of Egypt (Exodus 11:5); they got justice for Egypt’s treatment of Israel.

Firstborns got the double portion as a compensation for their responsibilities; firstborns had to take responsibility for the sins of the family; firstborns had to be the judge of the whole family and they had to be the judged of the family; firstborns had to be kinsman redeemer e.g., they had to take over the role of a deceased brother, i.e. marry his widow(s) and produce a son.

John 3:1 – Nicodemus was a Pharisee; Pharisees made up 2% of the population and they were all firstborns. Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born again, from firstborn to second-born so that he could be moved from firstborn who got justice to second-born who gets mercy.

We are all in Adam (God’s firstborn) and get justice. Jesus (the second Adam) took the form of man (in Adam the firstborn) so that He could take the justice for Adam’s race in order that we can receive mercy.

All who receive mercy are expected to give mercy (James 2:12-13).Every word from God is to be full of mercy (James 3:17-18). We are to express to the world the heart of God that is full of mercy, full of passionate grief for lost potential.

The whole issue of being merciful is that God Himself in Jesus took on the form of the firstborn (Adam) to take the justice for Adam’s race. Through the miracle of rebirth by the Spirit of God, we become God’s second-born and are therefore eligible for mercy. Since we have received the mercy of God that has cancelled such a huge debt, we are to imitate the character of God (Exodus 33:19) by showing mercy to all people.

Like the wicked servant in Matthew 18:23-35, not to show mercy to those who offend us is to cancel out God’s mercy towards us and place us back in the position of firstborn – justice, not mercy.

We reflect the heart of God by being generous to those who do not deserve it, just as God has been generous to us so that we ourselves will experience God’s generosity to us and that we can truly know Him, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness – Exodus 34:6.