Forgiven, With Love

In my reading this morning I was struck by two topics related to forgiveness I never noticed before.

The first, the assumption in 2 Corinthians 2 that someone who has caused offense will be distraught at the discovery that offense has been caused. This is evident in that person being ‘punished’ by the community – presumably excluded in some way from the goings-on of the community. In a culture where Christians met in homes and gossip was deadly, it’s easy to understand. But Paul says, not only forgive, but comfort that individual. Forgiveness, a decision of the heart, is insufficient if the person is not restored – and therefore given a chance to offend again.

Full restoration means full trust by association. The strength and depth of the Christian community entirely depended on it. This was a community with much stronger ties and closer bonds than we can imagine in our somewhat fragile, easily-offended, possibly-shallow Western Christianity.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. He continues, ‘I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him’ (2:8).

That’s a positive word.

That means being positive.

It is significantly easier to deny being annoyed at someone than it is to affirm them. It is easier to say ‘it’s not true that I don’t love you’ than to say ‘I love you’. Paul asks for the latter. He wants the offending individual completely restored to the community such that it is as if the offense never happened. Only then will the person be truly inspired not to cause offense again – responding to the love and grace of his brothers and sisters.

 

Our communities of believers need this kind of love, and often, this kind of comfort.

Forgiveness sets people free. Affirmation inspires people to be bound again – to each other, with love. And that’s exactly the kind of church we should be in.

2011
12/19
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Tidings

As I muse, ever so occasionally, on what to write here next I am struck by the fact that Christmas has once more crept upon me with increasing stealth: it’s a mere 13 days until the big one and I’ve barely noticed.

How can this be? I remember watching the clock tick by with excitement and impatience in equal measure as a child, winding myself up ready to barrel out of my room and down the stairs  at 4am Christmas morning, to witness the world’s largest pile of presents, wake my parents up at this ungodly hour and then be told to go back to bed and wait until a more reasonable time – 05:30.

Now, I barely noticed as the street decorations turned on, the carnage of the markets and high streets began… you get the picture.

I think this is largely due to the fact that we don’t have watch TV in our house. We have a TV, but we don’t have a license, and only watch catch-up TV, sans ads.

Either way, I’m quite glad. Ruth and I have had an opportunity over the last few days to thank God for Christmas. The real Christmas.

The coming of the Messiah, in the most humble form, trusting an inexperienced teenager to care for him while he developed in the womb, and then on through early life, enduring hardship and exile to avoid a ruthless tyrant.

Giving glory to God for what He achieved in his wisdom, our foolish understanding will never fully appreciate.

Maybe some aspect of the ‘real’ Christmas is about family, gathering, sharing, laughing and feasting together.

And the other aspects too. Giving, and receiving.

One thing that struck me about Christmas this year; Jesus received some gifts.

But he gave even more. He gave himself.

This year, remember giving is more important than receiving.

And as you give, give some worship to the one who deserves it most.

I’m excited about Christmas!

Merry Christmas. And have a phenomenal 2012.

2011
12/12
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The Future

When I was 17 I left school a year early. My reasoning was simple; I just didn’t like school.

With exams done, instead of returning for the classes I’d signed up for for the three weeks until summer holidays, I went along to a training camp run by scripture union for emerging youth and children’s leaders, called Base Camp.

What followed was one of the best weeks of my life, and with the benefit of hindsight I believe I know why.

Firstly, there was freedom. Most of the people arriving at camp knew few others, (I knew nobody!) and as such there was freedom to disregard relational expectations imposed on us by people we knew and be who we wanted to be. Like it or not, we all play up to or strive to meet the expectations of others – who may have known us for so long that their opinion or expectation is based on who were were rather than who we are. It is hard to change in the company of friends.

Secondly, there was mutual desire. Morning, noon and night spent in the presence of God – incredible, heavy times of worship and learning. Team-building exercises between. Desire for relationship and friendship was massive; in the most emotional circumstances, that’s what kept us going.

Years of relational development was crammed into that one week.

Thirdly, there was fun: over food, football and fellowship!

We – the first truly ‘postmodern’ generation – doing what postmoderns do.

Fellowship strengthens people. Losing it is a risk. When the campers left the island on a ferry, I was left behind, as my parents were heading over. I cried the tears of the broken-hearted for hours. It’s a risk worth taking though!

I count many of those campers as friends, ten years later. Some of them are my closest friends.

It got me thinking about life since then, especially church life. The best, most emotional, most trusting, most memorable, most strengthening, most ‘edifying’ times of ‘church’ life since then have been the times spent in close fellowship. Praying in a tiny living room with my friend Simon. Worshipping in God’s presence for hours at band practice in church. Sitting drinking hot chocolate in the Adamo in Stirling with the students. Hanging out with our house group leaders for hours.

In fact I reckon I learned more about the Christian life from these times too.

There is no doubt that what Ruth and I try to do with church will be to bring as much of this close fellowship as possible. Yes, it hurts when it goes wrong; trust can be betrayed and integrity has to be maintained.

But to be relevant as a church in the 21st century we need to break out of our traditions and our habits and start being who we need to be.

We need to stop sacrificing fellowship in favour of Sunday mornings where we come along, hear a nice unchallenging message, sing some nice songs, drink some coffee or tea and then go home with a feel-good factor that lasts all day but runs out by Monday morning.

We need to stop sacrificing fellowship in favour of prayer meetings where we come along, pray for x,y and z but not about the needs of the person sitting beside us who we barely know in any kind of depth.

We need to stop sacrificing fellowship in favour of religious, skin-deep behaviour.

The world is watching. They’re looking for authenticity. So let’s be authentic Christ-followers and share more than just 90 minutes together every Sunday. Let’s share life. Let’s have authentic prayer about real, life-affecting issues.

Let’s have some authentic fellowship and maybe for the 21st century people watching it’ll turn into authentic witness.

‘Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.’ Heb. 10:24-25

2011
12/01
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On Unity

It’s so noticeable in the Lord’s Prayer (in John) that a huge part of Jesus’ desire for his disciples (and their disciples, and their disciples) was for unity. To gain strength from each other, to support each other.. Jesus knew that the group, united, could establish far more, achieve far more, withstand far more than they could separately.

Paul clocked the same thing: we emphasise Ephesians 4:11 as important – but the gifts are there to empower and engender unity.

For the life of me I’ve never understood why there are so many denominations – and more spring up every day.

Part of our culture in the west is that people can just move on – a consumer culture. There is little or no loyalty to a community or even an ideal. A common complaint from leaders is that disagreements are not handled maturely by those who disagree; more love is needed, less taking things personally. People in disagreement just move on, found something new, and run the risk of remaining immature their entire lives because they have never had to confront issues with anything approaching maturity.

This, we need to deal with.

Recently, at the bible college where Ruth and I study, I set up a focus group to identify ways to bridge the denominational gap: to come up with ways to inspire and empower emerging leaders from bible colleges and discipleship programs across the UK to network, share vision, and learn to work together. We called the group ‘Unity’. I desperately hope it works: we need a united church to stand now, more than ever, in the face of 21st century challenges; to spread the gospel in its true, Kingdom-living, mission-driven form; to seek not just revival but restoration for our nation.

Over the next weeks and months we will be contacting organisations which operate across denominational lines to gather support and input into what can only be termed Our Big Idea.

Please pray for us. Please pray for unity. Please pray.

2011
11/23
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Simplicity

In the absence of a journal I thought I’d write a blog this morning, on a subject close to my heart at the moment. In my preaching preparations recently I’ve been working through the most basic tenets of the Christian faith, emotive actions by God which require an identical response from us. Love, for example. Joy. Peace. Grace.

It is a source of great joy for me whenever I hear of someone ‘getting it’; really understanding and embracing the fact that the Christian life is profoundly simple.

It is a source of pain for me when I hear preachers – and teachers – who completely fail to relate their subject matter to the application in daily life, even when that simply means, do nothing. It is an eternal truism that the western world is constantly looking for something to do, rather than something to be. God does both, equally well. Sometimes we just need to be. Sometimes we just need to do.

And so it is with Grace.

We have received inestimable, unlimited, unfathomable, beautiful grace. We should never underestimate the wonderful offer of restoration, with everything that entails; expensively given, freely received.

So uneasy are we, in fact, about this gift that we cannot handle it, unless we properly understand it. We constantly look for something to give God, something to appease his wrath, something to offer. We feel guilty for being guiltless; we feel sinful for being counted righteous. Our broken minds cannot fully comprehend the extent to which grace has been given us.

But there is only one correct response to grace.

It is to respond likewise.

As God is graceful, be graceful. As God acts with grace, do the same.

 

2011
11/10
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Legacy, #2

Sitting here listening to ancient music from a bygone era of my life, an era of parties, wasted time and last-minute assignments, I’m reminded of too many things I once thought about doing and disregarded. Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets. I try hard not to live in the past. But at the same time I look back and wonder, what might have been?

My lovely wife spoke yesterday at the Mattersey morning chapel service, about legacy. As students we hear about 80 messages a year, easily, plus another 60-ish at church during the course of a year. That’s a lot. Sometimes messages aren’t that easy to remember. But I had the benefit of hearing Ruth going over what she was going to say, and so it sticks in my head. And one thing more than most: what is my legacy going to be?

It leads me to the question of, what should my legacy already be? And all those things that came up as good ideas that I didn’t take further when I was younger, I won’t regret. But maybe now, living to establish a legacy, is a good time to start acting on the things I think about. God, after all, needs ‘do-ers’ as well as thinkers.

2011
05/14
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United We Stand?

Sitting here thinking on points of doctrine and the Kingdom of God I have a chance to write down some of the thoughts I’ve had over the past few weeks. I still claim, as I have always done, that identifying problems with things is only negative if you don’t work in parallel to identify ways to overcome those problems – yet it’s often a kind of relief to splurge thoughts onto ‘paper’ and then move on.

So… tally ho chaps, thoughts away!

To anybody with enough time and inclination to think it through, it is fairly obvious that there are problems with the ‘church’, both nationally and internationally. The internet has become a great place to voice disillusionments which are not only common but rife, especially among the educated younger generation, but also among the older generations who have often invested more than more time and effort – and not least money – only to be completely let down by a failure of leadership and a massive problem of ‘sin’ – especially gossip – in our churches. Where the internet doesn’t reach, a coffee or meal does.

To those people I ask, take care not to put the unchurched off church, and take care to provide solutions to problems, not run from them! The church is full of broken people after all.

But I believe the problem with the church goes much deeper than most have thought it. In fact, I believe the very model and function of our churches needs to change not only to meet the needs of modern society, but also to return to the biblical model set out for us. Flawed as the early church was (no church has ever been perfect?) our ignorance of its values and installation of our own traditions has left us low on influence, weak on love, and ignorant and arrogant to our communities in equal measure.

Some local churches stand against what I’m saying, but they are a small part of the big picture. There is much outreach to the poor in local churches: there are very few national-scale movements for this area. But the church is called to lead the nations in this area, and others. If the church took its proper, biblical place worldwide (certainly west-wide) on social concern, would there be any need for other, non-church social works?

Inside the church, why have we restricted ourselves to ancient forms of worship? On this issue, many churches cannot agree. Traditions in one church lock its members into the 18th and 19th centuries. Sacramental reliance sees only a select few are allowed to ‘serve’ – the opposite of what the church is supposed to be. A ‘service’ cannot be a service until everyone is encouraged to serve.

The non-traditional churches are just as hard hearted. People are encouraged so often to think inwardly, to themselves and their own ‘prosperity’. And since when did God guarantee healing (in this life)? It hurts me to think of the pain I caused others with my own lack of understanding of the bible’s teaching on healing. One-sided bible teaching is a bit pathetic, really.

No, the church as a whole is too ignorant of the hurting in the world and the pain caused in the name of Jesus.

Something radical has to happen.

The church has to unite.

In my country there are so many denominations it makes my head hurt. It makes me wonder if, in returning there, I will cause more harm than good by dividing them still further. My heart says working together as a national church is the only way to win back the people to God – in a country where religious divide has caused more hurt than almost anywhere else on the planet. Still, there are pastors so scared of losing their flock to other churches that to ‘protect’ them they will not agree on cooperation on even a city-wide level, let alone nationwide. Pastors, be secure in God, not your jobs.

Yet the call of God is for the unity of his people.

We agree on so much. We disagree on so little. But uniting in the ‘much’ can make us a global force that cannot be contended with. We can change the world. We can end poverty – that’s an achievable goal. And that’s just a start.

Until we start living like the Kingdom of God is here already (and it is), then we are going to have problems.

Because in the Kingdom of God, there is only one bride, one church. In the Kingdom of God, the people subject to the Lord do not stand divided.

United we stand. Divided, we fall.

It’s time to stand.

2010
11/06
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It’s Time

Confronted with a stark reality over these past few days I’ve been feeling remarkably uncomfortable. Like, really uncomfortable.

It is nothing short of a certainty that the greatest gift ever lavished onto humanity, barring perhaps ‘life’, is ‘time’.

Time to grow up. Time to learn. Time to work. Time to develop a personality over many years. Time to  waste, if you choose. Time to spend wisely, if you’re persuaded that’s the way to go. Time to influence others. Time to change.

The Bible has plenty to say, and not just that great Ecclesiastes passage so oft-quoted. Most of what the Bible has to say about time is about using it wisely. Let’s have a look:

Prov. 10:4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.

Eccles. 10:19 If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks.

Prov. 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

That’ll do for now. Interesting that the Bible clearly corrolates hard work with great reward, and wasted time with a ‘sagging roof’. This of course is because ultimately, you cannot have idle hands without wasting time.

This, however, is not a study of what the Bible says about time. It’s really not.

The last item I wrote was a pretty simple text on dreams, calling and how to respond to it. This one is simply about a personal need to learn a lesson once and for all without being stuck on repeat.

The greatest gift I was ever given was the time I have to do the job I was put here to do.

The difference between ‘good’ people and ‘great’ people is spending time with a purpose, rather than just spending time.

The next step for me? It’s obvious. It’s about time I stopped wasting time, and starting appreciating the greatest gift I’ve been given.

It’s time.

2010
09/02
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On Legacy

Life’s bizarre. It would seem that just when you think you’re at the end of your tether, something happens to change your outlook. Similarly, highs come and highs go, and the only debate that’s often left is just how we can avoid sinking low before the next high of the ride.

I like to plan. If you could cut open my head, and look at my brain, it’d say ‘Plans Are Us’ on it. Actually, it wouldn’t, it’d be grey and covered in blood, so don’t try it, but you get the idea. Plans.

When I met Ruth I laid plans. We talked a lot about our future together. How many kids we’d have (I said 5, she said 2, we compromised on 2!), where we’d live, what ministry we wanted to get involved in, and so on. We probably should have talked more about my weird taste in furniture, how you change a lightbulb and how many times I reckon you can wear a pair of pants between washes.

Now we’re at college, and plans are all changing again. It’s strange how when you meet certain people – from the past, who knew you when you were a tot, or from now, who’ve only known you ten minutes, you get to think in different ways. Last week I was reminded of dreams I had when I was small, and in my teens, and this week I’m reminded of dreams I’ve had since my early twenties.

And so the rollercoaster begins all over again, or at least in my mind. Here’s the crux of it:

  • Most people believe that to change the world positively you need only influence the lives of those around you, who will go on to influence the lives of those around them, and so on.
  • Many people are inclined to work to bring about positive change, and lack the resources. They are fantastic, and need to be empowered.
  • Many people are perfectly happy with the world the way it is, provided it is not them that are affected by the negatives at large in said world. This is selfish, and needs to be challenged.
  • Many people are not happy but lack the inclination to bring about change. This is stupid, and needs to be challenged.
  • The greatest events of this century will occur because of teamwork.
  • I believe it is impossible for one person to have a truly global impact in a positive way, however entirely possible to have a local or national influence that can change that ‘world’ in a positive way and roll out from there.

I believe that Ruth and I are called to such a challenge. Our goal is to significantly influence our nation in such a way that positive change is rolled out across the world. I believe it starts with social change: ending poverty in our locality by extravagant generosity and empowerment; challenging addicts to make positive decisions and empowering those decisions to be put into practice with practical support; standing up to corruption and greed in national and local government; a reminder of the responsibility on all Christians that our faith is not just a promise of eternity, but a commitment to spend our lives well; a call to a renewed culture of prayer across our nation.

How we obey our calling is the current conundrum, and the reason my planning brain has crossed a valley and is rising up another hill.

“While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight, I’ll fight to the very end!”

“We must wake ourselves up! Or somebody else will take our place, and bear our cross, and thereby rob us of our crown.”

“To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor. You must in some way or other graft upon the man’s nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine.”

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

2010
08/23
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