The Whole Package

Posted on by November 20, 2013
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Daniel 6:4 –Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

Shakespeare gave some wise words to Polonius, The Lord Chancellor in Hamlet, to give to his son Laertes:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not be false to any man.

It speaks to integrity. Integrity is an increasingly rare quality these days. According to a survey published by Gallup in October, 73% of Americans say corruption is pervasive in the USA. Cheating and copying have become routine in schools and colleges. Curiously, when it comes to personal relationships, though, it seems that most of us still have high expectations! What lies behind the contradiction?
Most of us are very good at compartmentalizing — putting things in a box. We can separate our view of relationships from our view of work, or church, or social life …
There is, however, no room for compartmentalization if our standard is Biblical integrity. Luke 16:10 says “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” it’s a thing that I think of as being “the whole package”. It’s really no good having 90% integrity.
Daniel was the whole package. And he must have built his character early. It seems clear that he was a youth when taken to Babylon — and the first thing he did was to “purpose in his heart not to defile himself”. He took a big, bold decision not to eat the special food on offer because it was not clean.
Daniel faced opposition in his “career” too, which is where the verse at the head of this piece comes in. Darius purposed to put Daniel in charge of the kingdom — and the other officials really wanted to prevent it. They couldn’t find a spot on his record.
Daniel had really proved himself time and again. When he was asked by the previous king, Belshazzar, to interpret the “writing on the wall” he didn’t succumb to the temptation to sugar the pill. He told Belshazzar the blunt truth — even though the fury of a king could easily mean death.
There were no “integrity-excluded” compartments in Daniel’s life. There are other great examples in the Bible — think about Joseph who refused Potiphar’s wife, Job who refused to curse God no matter how bad things got, or Peter who was such a leader in the early church. Peter, of course, gives us one more lesson — that failure doesn’t necessarily mean a loss of integrity, but a starting point for building on a solid foundation.

So often nowadays it seems leaders are not men of integrity. They fail and brush it aside as though it were nothing. What are we doing to build character into the generations to come? Teaching them about these Biblical men of integrity, and maybe even old Polonius, would be a good start!

Selfies

Posted on by November 19, 2013
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2 Timothy 3:1-7 —This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

When I wrote about mirrors yesterday, I didn’t mean to encourage narcissism! If you’re looking in a mirror while you’re reading this, stop it!

Every year the Oxford English Dictionary selects a “word of the year”. This year the word is “selfies”. I think I hear the first editor, James Murray, spinning in his grave!

“Selfie: Noun, informal, a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”. To quote the OED: “The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date. Language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors reveals that the frequency of the word “selfie” in the English language has increased by 17,000% since this time last year.” Oh my! How interesting we think we are.

We are “lovers of our own selves”. This is one more sign that the end times are upon us. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not predicting the imminent end of the world. But I am saying that this is the kind of thing Jesus was talking about in the Olivet discourse when He said “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.”

That passage from 2 Timothy is interesting. I might even start to use it as a way to filter my social media posts. Am I being boastful, proud, incontinent, fierce, despising those who are good”? Then that post doesn’t get posted. Maybe I’ll use it to think about my “friends” too. Are they blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without natural affection, false accusers”? They might find themselves being unfriended!

“Now hold on”, I hear you saying, “aren’t you overreacting to a bit of harmless fun?” Well maybe I am. But vanity and pride led to satan’s fall. Ezekiel 27:17 tells of the folly and the fall: “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.” I’m not so sure the fun is harmless — Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Swear off selfies. You know it makes sense!

False Mirrors

Posted on by November 18, 2013
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James 1:22-24 – But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Mirrors are deceptive aren’t they? They hide some flaws, and accentuate others … and might give a completely false impression.
It can be the same in life as well. There are different mirrors that show us different pictures of ourselves. We’ve all seen the reflections …

There’s the mirror held up by other people. It’s an interesting mirror because it can be (at least) two-faced! There’s the picture of you that people show you face-to-face, and then there are the reflections that bounce of other people. Two proverbs come to mind: “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. (10:18) and “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin” (26:28).

Another mirror is the mirror of experience. Another potentially two-sided glass! We can see ourselves positively and negatively. It often starts in childhood. One UK website describes our basic view of ourselves as “the Bottom Line: usually formed in childhood, biased and inaccurate, based on a child’s-eye view … formed on the basis of misunderstandings about experience, because you had no adult experience with which to understand properly what was going on.” Once the baseline — positive or negative is set — we tend to reinforce it when things happen by those things that support our view of ourselves, and ignore those that don’t. The Bible is full of advice about how to deal with a faulty self-image. One of my favorites is Psalm 139 verses 14-16. God knew me in my mother’s womb — I am no surprise to Him, and I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” — but by no means perfect!

The one other mirror I want to mention today is the mirror provided by society. Isaiah 30:9-11 says “This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord : which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” We live in a world of false messages, where white is black and black is white. The world’s mirror may be the worst of all.

There is a true mirror of course … God’s word can show us who we are … but it is easy for us to forget who we are and slip away. The reward for clear sightedness is great. If we pick the right mirror and look honestly into it one day we will see ourselves very differently “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Stir Up!

Posted on by November 17, 2013
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Hebrews 10:22-25 — let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised; and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another : and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

You know those moments when you’re reading a familiar scripture, and something pops out that you never really noticed — or at least never really thought about — before? When it happens to me I always visualize God getting out His highlighter and saying “Here Ian — look at this”. I had one today looking at this familiar passage in Hebrews. The verse that gets most attention is, I suppose the one about “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” which is so often used as a club to bash those who might be slipping away from perfect church attendance. Let me set aside the wrong-headedness of the bullying approach (which I’m glad to say none of those that teach me are prone to using) and just say that it was the verse before — “and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” — that popped out at me today. Somehow, I never realized before just how much those 14 words said. Before I dig into that one verse in detail, though, let me make one comment about verses 22-24 as a group.

Now I love the King James translation, but in this case it hides a small gem in the text. The NASB translation of verse 23 makes it clear: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;” This translation of the Greek word “helpidos” makes it clear that verses 22, 23 and 24 speak — in turn — of faith, hope, and love. With that gem polished, let’s lay it on one side and look at my highlight verse.

“Let us consider one another.” There is a sense in the original language of “continually” considering. It should be our constant care for one another. We should be observing and understanding each other, regularly and attentively. And who should we be considering? Who are the “one another”? Fellow Christians, of course. In principle, every member of the church. The focus will be local, but the scope might reasonably be universal giving point to missions and church planting.
“To provoke” : As I thought about this, I was reminded of a sweet tradition in the Anglican Church. Next Sunday will be “The Sunday next before Advent”. It’s an old tradition in England to stir Christmas puddings on that day in honor of the “Collect” for the day. (for those who know nothing of the Anglican/Episcopalian church — “Collects” are short prayers before the readings in the main services). The Collect for the Sunday next before Advent is “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” I can’t be certain, but I think this ancient prayer was written with Hebrews 10:24 in mind. The word translated “provoke” — “paraxismon” could well have been translated “stir up” — or irritate or aggravate. We should keep bugging one another!
“Unto love and to good works”: This, after all, is the point of the Christian work. It is the discipleship to which we are called, and to which we are to call each other. Paul makes it clear in his letter to his dear “son” Timothy: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Think about it. Be stirred up. Think about one another. Stir up!

Fallow Ground

Posted on by November 16, 2013
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Psalm 37:6-7 — And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Myra and I are praying about ministry. It’s not that we are doing nothing, but we feel we should be doing something more. Equally, we know that we might be misguided — we might have allowed a burden to be laid on us by other people’s expectations.
“Well,” you might say, “that’s your problem, but what’s that got to do with me, and why put it in a devotional?” Well, I write about whatever the Holy Spirit makes “top of mind”. And the thing about this one is, I don’t think our situation is unusual, so I thought I’d share and hope that it would help.

A few years ago, we were running a home group, and were actively involved in children’s ministry. We might even have been overdoing it — but we were growing, and we could see fruit. Then life changed …
We were called to vocational ministry and started building our financial support. As part of the process we were asked to detach ourselves from other ministry activities. Recognizing the need for priority and obedience, we did as we were asked. We learned so much from that journey, although in the end the challenge of raising support in the economy of the last few years defeated us.

The thing is, when the ministry that had called us cut us loose we were suddenly not very active in any ministry. We each have things we do … But essentially we’re lying fallow and praying for direction. We’d appreciate your prayer support!
What I have come to believe, in this season of prayer, is that there may never be the “big answer” that we have been hoping for. In his book “Crazy Love”, Francis Chan quotes a lady called Annie Dillard as saying “How we live our days is …how we live our lives” and he goes on to say “We each need to discover for ourselves how to live this day in faithful surrender to God”. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe surrendering is about being available day-by-day, and being ready to do the small things.

Maybe being fallow is “resting in The Lord” — and not such a bad thing. There’s a reason why farmers practice crop rotation and let even the good fields lie fallow — it’s so they will, in due course, be more fruitful.
If, like us, you’re feeling a kind of spiritual restlessness — divine discontent — wait patiently for The Lord, and live each day in faithful surrender …
And pray for Myra and me!

Root Out Bitterness

Posted on by November 15, 2013
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Hebrews 12:14-15 — Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

I am constantly checking myself for bitterness. How about you? How about those who are near and dear to you?

I have tended to be rather passive about bitterness – try to keep the peace and live right, and expect that no root of bitterness will spring up to trouble me. I had something of awake up call over the past few days, and realized that this text doesn’t say “lest any root of bitterness springing up in you trouble you” it says “any root”. It might be a root in someone else!

As Christians it seems we have two responsibilities when it comes to bitterness. The first is to make sure that neither we nor those we love have a conflict with anyone else. I used to be confused about two passages in Matthew:

  • Matthew 5:23-24 — Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.


  • Matthew 18:15 (and following verses) Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.


    • Did you get that? If your brother has anything against you, or if your brother (or sister, I’m sure) has upset you — either way it’s the Christian’s job to effect a reconciliation. I get it now. It’s my job to try to fix what’s broken because otherwise bitterness will be planted and take root.

    My other Christian responsibility is to make sure that neither I nor anyone I love has anything against God. Moses gives as one reason for the covenant between God and Israel: “lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;” It’s a warning against the twin evils of idolatry and apostasy. We need to be encouraging each other not to put anything ahead of God in our lives, and not simply to slip away. It’s an easy path to go down — something goes wrong in our life, we wonder why God let it happen, we decide He should have stopped it … We skip church, nobody comes to get us and we never come back, the root of bitterness is planted. We need to go and love those in danger of falling away so that nobody fails of the grace of God, no root of bitterness springs up to trouble us, and no one is thereby defiled.

    Amen

    Posted on by November 14, 2013
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    In The Beginning — Amen

    Genesis 1:1 — In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
    Revelation 22:21 — The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

    The Bible — the most complete story. From chaos to perfection … Can you hear that word at the end? Amen! Such an amazing word. Such an abused word.

    “Amen”. It’s interesting how the word itself has been passed on. The English word sounds very like the Greek word, which sounds very like the Hebrew word. That Hebrew word has a base that means something like “made firm, established”. And that is the story the Bible tells. Through all the ages from primeval chaos to the new heaven and the new earth. God’s plan is made firm, and established.

    “Amen”. How often is it no more than a punctuation on the end of a formal perfunctory prayer? It’s interesting that it is hard to find amen used as a way of ending a prayer in the Bible.

    Amen has other Biblical uses.
    Jesus used it at the beginning of important utterances. What we see translated as “Verily I say to you” could as well be translated as “Amen I say to you” and so “I say to you as a firm and established fact”. In fact Jesus had His own special “super confirmation” — “Amen, amen …”.
    The most frequent use of “Amen” is as a response in agreement of a previous statement:

  • And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord (Nehemiah 8:5-6)

    • And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. (Revelation 5:13-14)

    Uniquely, in Isaiah 65:16 we find “the God of truth” which might better be translated “the God of amen” and confirms that God is the one who is “firm and established” — He is absolutely reliable in delivering what He promises.

    Lastly, Jesus is the great “Amen”. The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says “In 2 Corinthians 1:20 ‘amen’ is used almost as an equivalent to ‘yes.’ Jesus is viewed as God’s means of saying ‘yes’ to us, fulfilling his promises. Jesus is also viewed as our means of saving ‘yes’ to God; through Jesus the ‘amen’ response of believers is presented for the glory of God.”
    So what am I taking from all this? Please don’t say “Amen” unless you mean it! Are you responding to God, or otherwise agreeing with Him — “Amen” — if not, please pick another word!

    It Doesn’t Make Sense

    Posted on by November 13, 2013
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    Matthew 20:16 — So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

    I don’t remember anybody telling me, before I got saved, that Christianity doesn’t makes sense. Everywhere you look in the New Testament, though, it seems like things are backwards!
    The biggest paradox, of course, is that we are sinners — but will not be held sinful … but there are so many. How about these:

  • The last shall be first, and the first last
  • When I am weak, then I am strong
  • Gain is loss and loss is gain
  • To live, we must first die
  • We can see invisible things
  • We are unknown, but well known
  • We are dying, and yet alive
  • We are poor but making many rich
  • We have nothing but possess everything

    • I believe that there is a “master” paradox that underlies so many of these … A Christian is to be “in the world but not of the world”. It’s about how we look at things …

    How do you measure success? The world measures it by the accumulation of material wealth. But we are poor …
    How do you judge significance? The world judges it by visibility. But we are invisible …
    How do you assess strength? The world looks at muscle, money and manpower … but we are strongest when we are weak …
    What do you think love is? The world thinks it’s something that happens to you or that we fall into. We know that love is something we do …

    Oh, I forgot one. When somebody wrongs you if your a Christian you get to be the one who puts it right! How does that make sense?
    Are you getting the picture? Now maybe how you look at all this depends on how old you were when you got saved. I know some people who can never remember not being Christians. They’ve never looked at things any other way. But to someone like me who didn’t get with the program until my late 40’s this was turning the world on its head. Frankly, for the first year or so I kept tripping over these ideas that were the opposite of what I had previously believed. Sometimes I had to give myself a little shake and remind myself that the other way hadn’t been working that well for me!
    I have learned that all these apparent paradoxes, and the many others that are in the Bible are consistent with the greatest most miraculous contradictions of all — the one that Paul describes in his letter to the Romans:

    For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

    That’s the miraculous contradiction that underpins the paradox that we sinners saved by grace. That’s the contradiction that defines Christian success — “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;”
    It doesn’t make sense. But isn’t it wonderful!

    A Crying Shame

    Posted on by November 12, 2013
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    Isaiah 1:17 – Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.

    I thought I would be writing about one shame that cries out to be righted — and the Holy Spirit has taken me into another direction, to address another related wrong — another crying shame.
    I thought I was going to be contemplating the Veteran’s Day paradox that we celebrate and honor veterans, but don’t really take care of them — and certainly don’t take care of their families and orphans.
    Somehow the Holy Spirit wasn’t willing to fit in to my plan! That’s where having a great editor helps. A quick chat with Myra and she straightened me out — “maybe you should write about widows and orphans?” It was like the shutters dropped from my eyes, and I could see the words in front of me. Indeed, I should be writing about widows and orphans. In fact I’m overdue. Orphan awareness Sunday was November 3rd. If you have any interest, please go and look at orphansunday.org.
    Why is the widows and orphans issue a crying shame? The latest count or orphans in America was 123,000 (with nearly 500,000 in foster care). There are more that 11 million widows in America. Worldwide there are more than 150 million orphans and 100 million widows. So how much do we hear about widows and orphans?
    Perhaps we don’t feel the need to plead the cause of the widow, or defend the orphan? So let me provide an insight from the “moju project” — a business committed to making a difference: “The life of an orphan is something most of us can’t comprehend. Seven percent of child orphans are stolen and forced into prostitution. Many orphans have no clean drinking water to drink or food to eat and are forced to sleep in piles of garbage on the streets in the sewers. They live their lives void of love, comfort, and security. Their lives are full of fear, uncertainty, sickness, and often result in death.”
    So who cares for widows and orphans? The Bible makes God’s position clear:

    At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: and the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. (Deuteronomy 14:28-29)

    It maybe that this issue resonates especially with me because I was part of a single -parent family in my teen years, and spent some time in orphanages and foster homes. For some time, too, Myra and I were part of a precious ministry in our church trying to help kids of divorced parents. It broke my heart that in the intervening years the position of widows and orphans hadn’t really improved.
    There’s no way everyone can adopt an orphan. We all might not have a widow (or widower!) in our family that we can take care of. But there must be someway each one of us can get with James on “pure religion and undefiled” … “To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” … if we can’t, it’s a crying shame!

    Jehovah Jireh

    Posted on by November 11, 2013
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    Ruth 1:20-21 — And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

    Myra and I were watching a film about the life of Ruth yesterday. Honesty compels me to say that it was not a great movie — not brilliantly made — but the scripture could not fail to carry it. Watching it, I could not fail to be moved all over again by one of the sweetest stories in scripture. But as I watched, also, my mind was drawn to a parallel that I had never seen before.

    Consider Naomi and Job.
    Job prospered mightily, blessed by The Lord. In a moment destruction swept it all away. Naomi had a husband and two fine sons, who had fine wives — but famine devastated the land, her husband and sons died and she was left destitute. How did they react?
    Job accepted his situation … And blessed The Lord. “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” That was Job — a man of faith, who trusted The Lord and waited.
    Naomi took charge of her life. “Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.” That was Naomi — a woman of faith, who trusted The Lord, and helped herself. She was not, though, so accepting: “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.”

    But it’s interesting, isn’t it. Naomi and Job, in their way each trusted in Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. And how did God respond? Why, He provided of course! You know the stories —
    The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning and Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons — even four generations.
    Naomi’s restoration was, in it’s way, even more spectacular. She saw Ruth remarried, and mother of a wonderful baby who, though she was not to know it, would be the grandfather of the boy who would be King David — and place her in the family tree of the Messiah!

    How we handle disaster doesn’t matter too much, as long as we build in a good portion of trust. If we trust, He will provide!