God "Does a Gandalf" on Me

One of my favourite scenes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is the early sequence where Gandalf confronts Bilbo over his addictive possessiveness with regard to the One Ring. Sadly the sequence is not on YouTube yet, so I'll do my best to recount it for you:

Basically Gandalf... suspecting the true nature of Bilbo's trinket, gently suggests that Bilbo hand it over.... but Bilbo is too caught up in the Ring's power to obey and becomes increasingly possessive and even agitated - to the point of shaking his fists at Gandalf (not a good plan).

It's at this point that Gandalf suddenly changes his attitude... the room darkens, he appears to grow...

and he thunders out in a terrifyingly loud voice...

"BILBO BAGGINS! DO NOT TAKE ME FOR A CONJURER OF CHEAP TRICKS! I AM NOT TRYING TO ROB YOU..."

then he becomes the friendly old man again...

...and gently concludes...

"... I am trying to help you."

Bilbo is overcome with tears of conviction and realising the gravity of his error, runs into the arms of his friend.

Although the story doesn't quite leave it there,the eventual outcome is that Bilbo... respecting Gandalf's authority, obeys and abandons the Ring.

I love the sequence because this is my experience of God's authority. He's my closest friend...but every now and the, I get out of line and he has to play the sovereignty card on me.

Today was such a day.

Lately I've been dragging my heels a bit and rebelling against God on a couple of issues. Why? Because I've grown irritated with the long wait on his promises... and also for the worst of all reasons... simply "because I could".

This morning's first reading was from Jeremiah:


"This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.'"

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Whoa heavy stuff... and I was left in no doubt whatsoever as to how God was challenging me...but just in case there was any doubt... in came Exocet number 2:

"Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

Luke 14:25-33

It's worth pointing out here that in the first part of that, Jesus wasn't being literal... he was using hyperbole. He doesn't expect us to literally hate our families (because that would contradict God's law), what he does expect is that we put those things firmly behind our relationship with him. God should be our priority.

Either way I was on my knees. I felt that God was saying to me that he had plans and promises for my life, and trusting in that should be enough for me. If I don't trust him and decide to rebel against him, he can easily take that blessing away and give it to another. Furthermore I'm not in a position to argue with this. He outguns me and is calling me to account. I'm not allowed to fight anymore... it's time to send out delegation and talk terms of peace.

I felt his disappointment and deep hope for me, these are my words but it is exactly how it felt:

"Nick, I know what is on your heart and all I'm asking is for you to wait a little longer... the things you need will come. It's not a lot to ask. It hurts me that you choose to act against that and rebel instead of just trusting. You know better than this. Don't you realise I don't have to give you any of these things? It is all by my grace."

I am instantly reminded of the times as a child when I asked my parents for something for Christmas and it was expensive. Because of the nature of the treat,good behaviour was required of me until Christmas Day... there were times I slipped up... and naturally it was on my mind as to whether or not I had crossed the line... whether the present would remain out of reach because of my disobedience.

My response was very swift. Like Bilbo, I realised the gravity of my mistake and felt a sudden steely determination not to let things slip. Strange as it sounds I actually like it that God is prepared to be stern with me...and not simply abandon me to my stupidity. I love him for that.

All this led me to thinking about the time that the Disciples asked Jesus to "increase their faith".

It seemed like a good idea... with a few minor modifications.

I asked God to increase my faith.
I asked God to increase my hope.
I also asked God to increase my love.

And the greatest of these is LOVE...

The Cost of Correction

Many years ago Arun Gandhi (grandson of the political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi), moved back to South Africa with his father to continue the struggle against apartheid. One day Arun was asked by his elderly father to drive him to a meeting in Johannesburg, then drop off the car at a garage for it's service before picking him up from the meeting at 5pm.

Now Arun realised it would take some time to wait for the car, so he decided to bide the time by going to watch a film at the nearest cinema... which just happened to be showing a double feature that day. He emerged from the cinema and checked his watch. Horrified, he realised that it was already past 5 o'clock. He rushed to the place where his father was waiting, on the corner in the pouring rain... rapidly thinking of plausable excuses for his lateness. Then he said "Father, you must forgive me. It is taking them longer to repair the automobile than I thought it would take, but if you wait here I will go and get the car. It should be ready by now."

His father silently bowed his head and looked downward, then after what seemed like a long time he finally said "When you were not here at our meeting time I called the garage to see why you were late. They told me that the automobile was ready at 3 o'clock! Now I have to give some thought as to how I have failed, so as to have a son who would lie to his own father. I will have to think about this. So I am going to walk home and use the time during my walk to meditate on this question."

Arun could not bring himself to just drive off without his father. Instead, he followed the elderly man home watching him stagger along the muddy road as the rain fell down upon him. Arun continually flashed the car headlights to try and gain his father's attention... but it was to no avail. His father relentlessly stumbled all the way on the long journey towards home. Overcome with remorse for his actions, Arun repeatedly beat the steering wheel and said over and over to himself "I will never lie again! I will never lie again!"

It is a true story - Arun himself recounted it to Tony Campolo when the two of them met.

It is also true that this is exactly how God corrects us. God has a plan for us right from the very beginning in fact even before we are born. However, being selfish and broken by our sinful nature. We rebel against that plan... either by not doing what is right, or actively doing what is wrong. We are disobedient.

The Bible teaches us that the punishment of our disobedience - for being slaves to the sinful nature is death. So what does God do about this? Does he beat us with a big stick or throw lightning bolts at us?

No.

Like Arun's father, God took the punishment of our actions upon himself, by sending Jesus to suffer and die in our place. In the same way that Arun watched his father trudge home in the rain, we look upon Christ crucified... a righteous man willingly taking the punishment for the mistakes of God's children. The price is paid.

However if we look at Arun's response to his father, I believe it gives us opportunity to examine our own attitude towards God. Arun knowing what suffering his disobedience had caused his father... repented and resolved to change his attitude. Imagine you are in that car... that it is you behind the wheel and Jesus is walking down the road ahead of you carrying his cross to Calvary.

The way I see it, there are two responses. You can callously drive off home and face the consequences yourself... or you can follow Jesus... continually reminding yourself of the cost of what you have done and resolving daily not to do it again.

Arun's father did not despise him... he wanted Arun to be a good son. Likewise God does not despise you or I (even though we deserve it), he merely wishes us to be restored to be the people he called us to be. Now let me tell you another story... one that Jesus told:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 28:9-14

Maybe you think you are OK and don't need Jesus, in which case I urge you to think on why God considered the situation so grave that he sent his Son to make payment by dying for our sins. Then think what the implications of that are for you personally.

Or maybe you are a Christian and have found Jesus and have a relaxed attitude to your behaviour because you know that the blood of Jesus covers our sins. In which case I urge you to think again what those sins did to Jesus, for:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
1 Corinthians 1:19,20

Discover who you are and what you were called to be in Christ, and if you have forgotten... remember.

Jesus did not just die to destroy our sin, he was raised to enable us to rise above it. He promised us his Spirit would be with us until the end of the age. If you want to know what that's about I encourage you to pray these words:

Dear God, I come to You in the name of Jesus.

I now realize that I have a choice to make concerning my life. I believe that Jesus died and shed his blood for my sins and rose from the dead giving me the way to fellowship with You and to live eternally with You.

Knowing this I choose to renounce my past and I accept the price Jesus paid for me to be total and complete, because You said it is. I choose Jesus to be Lord of my life and to live within me, and I choose to live for You from this moment on.

I believe right now that I am indeed born again. My spirit is a brand new creation and I stand before You heavenly Father worthy not because of my actions, but because Jesus justifies me.

Thank You for loving me and accepting me into your family.

Amen