Monthly Archives: March 2013

It Pays to be Grateful

Christian Life, , , ,

IT PAYS TO BE GRATEFUL

“It happened that as He made His way toward Jerusalem, He crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met Him. They…raised their voices, calling out, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’

“Taking a good look at them He said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’

“They went, and while still on their way, they became clean. One of them…turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God…and he was a Samaritan.

“Jesus said, ‘Were not ten healed? …Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?’ Then He said to him, ‘Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.'” Luke 17:11-19 (The Message).

We live in a world of indescribable beauty and lavish abundance, provided for us by a great big loving God. He does not even discriminate between those who love Him and those who don’t. “‘…He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked,'” said Jesus – Luke 6:16b (NIV).

And yet we live in a world of abominably ungrateful people. Ingratitude is not only the ‘thank you’ people never say, but also the careless and thoughtless destruction of our planet that goes on all over the world every day; the exploitation of our resources, the scattering of litter, the pollution of our soil, our water, our ocean and our skies, and the decimation of our flora and fauna, all in the name of ‘progress’.

And what about the gifts, skills and talents people exploit with not a thought for the Giver? Any glossy magazine you can pick up is full of the glaring absence of the gratitude and acknowledgement that God deserves for every good and perfect gift. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen.” Romans 11:36 (NIV).

There is a price to pay for ingratitude. It sets off a chain reaction in people’s lives that has an unthinkable end. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles…Therefore God gave them over…to a depraved mind…They have become filled with every kind of wickedness…Although they knew God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practise them.” Romans 1:21-32 (NIV).

However, there is a reward for those who acknowledge God as the source of the goodness and favour they experience every day. Nine lepers in our story experienced physical healing but nothing more. They did not find it necessary to express gratitude to God for what He had done for them, but the Samaritan who returned to say thank you and give glory to God, got much more than he anticipated. Not only did he have a healed body but also a renewed life.

Jesus spoke of ‘salvation’ as the added outcome of his grateful heart. What did that mean? Salvation is much more than the narrow idea of escaping hell and going to heaven when we die. To be ‘saved’ means to become whole again by being rescued from the futility of a selfish and self-absorbed life into a life which is being refashioned into the image of God who is “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.” Exodus 34:6 (NIV).

Such a life is useful, fruitful and fulfilled, resembling the Creator who intended for us to be like Him by giving ourselves away in loving service to our fellow men. This cannot happen without the radical heart transformation which happens when we recognise the futility of running our own lives and we turn over the reins to Him.

Gratitude to God and acknowledging that He is God and we are not, is the first step in our journey towards wholeness. God graciously responds by doing the miracle of giving us a new heart and a new disposition of love and faith in Him.

Invite the Misfits

Christian Life, , ,

INVITE THE MISFITS

‘Then He turned to the host. ‘The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbours, the kind of people who will return the favour. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be – and experience – a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favour, but the favour will be returned – oh, how it will be returned! – at the resurrection of God’s people.'” Luke 14:12-14 (The Message).

Today my contribution is in the form of a testimony. Several years ago, the leadership of my church caught this vision and decided to do exactly what Jesus said, invite those who were ‘from the other side of the tracks’. The combined churches of our town run a soup kitchen, so we gave formal invitations to those who came regularly for their soup and bread.

The church members ‘came to the party’ with great enthusiasm. Donations of food poured in – a beast from a farmer and sacks of vegetables were turned into a sumptuous banquet for the down-and-outs. There were ice creams for everyone, a warm ‘beanie’ hat and fruit to take ‘home’ after the party (and who knows where ‘home’ was?). The young people made the church hall into a festive dining room with balloons and streamers, and then, on the appointed day, the people came streaming in, ragged, dirty and smelly but very excited and orderly.

And in with them came the awesome sense of God’s presence in such power that some of us were weeping and others trembling as the people filed in. It was almost as though Jesus Himself had come to grace the party. And He had, for did He not say, ‘If you have done it to the least of these, my brothers, you’ve done it to me’?

The people were seated in a circle and served as though they were royalty. Never had they received such a welcome and been treated with such honour. It was all about them and we, the ones who were so used to having the good things and being served, tasted the joy of turning the tables for an afternoon, serving without any anticipation of a return invitation.

The food disappeared at lightning speed – some enjoyed up to three and four helpings of delicious stew cooked over an open fire. Adults and children ate until they were ready to burst. Together with their meal came a simple gospel message told by a man whom God had rescued from the gutter and given another chance at life.

What a memorable day! At the end of it we were bone-weary, deliciously happy and filled with a deep sense of God’s pleasure. He was there and we felt it. We were smitten with a vision and experience which has never left us. Since that first banquet, which we dubbed our ‘kingdom extravaganza’, our church has held several more banquets and a party for the children of AIDS-infected and affected families.

‘Misfits from the other side of the tracks’ may be our opinion of the unfortunate ones who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but to Jesus they are His brothers. To Mother Teresa who served the homeless and dying from the streets of Calcutta, they were ‘the face of Jesus in disturbing disguise.’

Isn’t it time the church of the Lord Jesus climbed down off her high horse and put on the apron of servant hood and, like her Master, knelt down and washed feet instead of engaging in useless rituals which have nothing to do with the reason why Jesus came?

He said, ‘Follow me’, that’s all. We made up the rest.

God’s Kingdom is Among Us

Christian Life, , ,

GOD’S KINGDOM IS AMONG YOU

“Jesus. grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, ‘The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.'” Luke 17:20, 21 (The Message).

The Pharisees just didn’t get it! They were looking for God’s kingdom in the wrong place. They thought that the kingdom of God was regional, geographical and political. They could not grasp the truth that God’s rule could be among them and within them.

When Jesus began His public ministry, His first announcement was, “‘The time has come…The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.'” Mark 1:15 (NIV). The good news is much more than that He died for our sins to take us to heaven. The good news, prophesied by the prophet Isaiah centuries before is, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Our God reigns!'” Isaiah 52:7 (NIV).

How sad that the ‘good news’ that is generally proclaimed today has been watered down to an escape route from hell! Jesus came to declare and demonstrate the good news that God is in charge, here, now, in the worst of our circumstances, when the stock market crashes and the bottom falls out of our world. He is here with His love and power to change our hearts, to transform us from selfish, self-seeking people into loving and caring sons who trust Him and spend their lives making other people’s lives better at their own expense.

The Pharisees rejected Jesus’ message because, like the rich young ruler, their ‘kingdom’ was ruled by the love of money. They could not serve God and mammon and they had chosen mammon.

The strange thing is that, had they only realised it, the potential to live God’s way was already in them. All they needed to do was to change their minds, receive and believe the truth and they would have been a part of the growing number of people who had moved out of the selfish lifestyle that led to death, into a way of living that copied Jesus.

So, what is the kingdom of God?

Every earthly kingdom is influenced by the ‘god of this world’ – the devil – and is built on the principle of selfishness and greed. Every government and every constitution is designed to exercise a measure of control over people so that society does not deteriorate into total chaos. Thus we need laws to control people’s behaviour. We have every kind of system to regulate and direct what people do, and policing and legal processes to punish those who step outside the law.

But none of these measures can control the heart of a man. Every human being is born
with a bias towards greed and wickedness. This is the legacy of Adam and no amount of legislation can change our disposition.

The really good news is that God can. By paying our debt and releasing us from slavery to Satan, Jesus has invited us into the realm where God rules. As we yield ourselves to Him, He takes up residence in our spirits and redirects us into the truth that He is God, not the devil, and that we are no longer under obligation to the devil and his ways. We are free to love and give instead of demand and grab, and that is the disposition of Jesus and the way God does things in His realm.

The kingdom of God is not limited by geographical or political boundaries. Wherever God is in control of a human heart, He is there. His kingdom can function in the midst of paganism, idolatry and false religions if one person believes and follows Jesus. And so God’s kingdom grows as one life touches another, as the old hymn puts it:

“So be it, Lord! Thy throne shall never,
Like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
Thy Kingdom stands and grows forever,
Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway.”

(John Ellerton, 1826-93)

He Simply Comes

Christian Life, , ,

HE SIMPLY COMES

“He went on to say to His disciples, ‘The days are coming when you are going to be desperately homesick for just one glimpse of one of the days of the Son of Man, and you won’t see a thing. And they’ll say to you, ‘Look over there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Don’t fall for any of that nonsense. The arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see. He simply comes,’” Luke 17:22-24 (The Message).

Jesus warned His disciples time and again that bad times were coming because His people had refused to receive Him. He wept over Jerusalem because of the people’s insensitivity to their opportunity. Because they had rejected their Messiah, the Roman army would come and raze Jerusalem to the ground, demolish their temple to a pile of rubble and kill their people until their blood ran like a river in the streets.

Like a thief in the night, Jesus appeared on the human scene, unexpected and unannounced except to the few who were looking for Him. Even His words and His works did not convince them and they killed Him as a fake. How they would long to turn the clock back when Rome finally took revenge for their rebellion against their overlords! They had foolishly called down His blood on their own heads, not realising that their own mouths had sealed their doom.

Jesus made it clear that He was no phenomenon to be viewed as an object of curiosity or interest. When He came the first time, He came quietly. No-one heard the angelic announcement except a few humble shepherds on a hillside outside Bethlehem. He simply came. Those who visited Him were invited by the Father Himself. The rest were unaware that Messiah had made His appearance in human form.

Even when He comes to dwell in the spirit of a human being, He comes quietly. Jesus assured Nicodemus that the work of the Spirit is like the wind. You cannot see the wind but you can see and feel its effects. So it is with the Spirit of God. When He comes, as Jesus’ personal representative on earth, to take up residence in a human heart, the effects of His coming are real as the new believer is rescued from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light.

His return will not be a phenomenon to be observed, but a sudden, visible and earth-encircling flash, like a flash of lightning which lights up the sky from east to west. His return heralds instantaneous changes, not like the ideas conjured up by the imagination of movie writers and producers. As much as they are intrigued by the concept of “the end of the world”, they all, strangely enough, ignore its association with the one who created it in the first place.

Nuclear war, heavenly bodies crashing into the earth, massive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes line up to take responsibility for the final demise of our planet, but God is omitted in the mix. However, the Bible tells us that He will destroy all evil by the word of His mouth and make all things new. This makes sense since it was His word that brought forth the world in which we live in the beginning.

It is not God’s plan to destroy the planet which He created to be the perfect home for man. Just as He did with the flood, He will destroy all the wickedness on it, and restore it to its former perfection to be the dwelling place of all those who have responded to His invitation to join His family through faith in his Son.

“Then I saw a new (renewed) heaven and a new (renewed) earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea….And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them…’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV).

He did not say, “I am making all new things,” but “everything new”. When God renews all things, He comes full circle, completing what He started in the beginning and perfecting forever His family of men and women who have been recreated in the image of His Son. When Jesus returns, He will simply come and that’s it, forever.

The time to decide is now…

Forgiveness is a Lifestyle

Christian Life, , ,

FORGIVENESS IS A LIFESTYLE

“‘Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times in a day. and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.'” Luke 17:3-4 (The Message).

What Jesus is advocating here is not reluctant and sporadic forgiveness but a generous and open-hearted attitude to people who offend us as a reflection of the Father’s attitude towards us in spite of the way we behave towards Him.

Forgiveness is the foundation of our relationship with God, and His forgiveness stands securely on what Jesus did on the cross. He paid the debt of all the sin of all people for all time when He gave up His life as a sin offering for us.

When we sin against another person, we sin against God. David understood this. He had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in battle to justify his lust and adultery but, when his sin was exposed, he cried out to God, “‘Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.'” Psalm 51:4 (NIV).

Sin incurs an unpayable debt and only because of God’s mercy, made available to us through Jesus, can He cancel our sin and clear our record of guilt. Because the blood of Jesus has washed us clean of sin for all time, there is nothing that can separate us from His love.

However, God requires a reciprocal attitude from us. Since He has already forgiven the sin of those who sin against us, we have no right to hold them guilty. To do so is to act illegally because we cannot demand payment for what had already been paid for. If we refuse to forgive another, we automatically cancel God’s forgiveness of us. Now that is a scary thought! That means that we will experience separation from God and have to bear our own guilt.

Not to forgive our fellow man for the paltry things he does against us is to misunderstand the greatness of the debt we incurred against God and the enormity of His mercy that provided a way of forgiveness at the cost of His own Son’s life. Because we tend to focus on what the other person has done to us rather than on what we did to God, we hold on to our offences instead of letting them go because we can.

But there is something deeper to this issue of forgiveness. God forgave us through the death of Jesus to restore the unity between Himself and us because the entire universe can only function properly as a unit. When the relationships between humans remain fractured through offenses and forgiveness, the whole of life unravels, leaving in its wake chaos and destruction.

Forgiveness is God’s way of restoring unity with Himself and unity between people. When we forgive and reconcile, we contribute to the healing of our world. When we refuse to forgive, we fail to co-operate with God in His work of restoring everything to its original purpose of reflecting Him in the universe. We add to the destruction of our world.

Since God has already cleared the debt of the one who sins against us, all that is required of us is to look the guilty person in the eyes and declare, “You owe me nothing.” It’s not about making excuses for their failure. It’s about setting them free from their debt and restoring the unity that expresses who God is. And that is not only an act but a lifestyle.