Everyone's a Critic

It's funny... here I am, back in the saddle and I was hoping to write all about my escapades at the Maze SU Camp last week. However it didn't quite work out like that.

I've been feeling pretty low since getting back... and it hasn't been helped by some of the things people have said. I totally accept that one of my gifts (and curses) is the fact that people will always bounce off of me. They relieve their anxieties by lightheartedly mocking my eccentricities. Normally I'm fine with this... so long as I get a reasonable amount of encouragement... but I've skirted dangerously close to the limits of my toleration recently and yesterday I hit the bottom.

I knew that I had abandoned my Bible studies in favour of the passages and prayer I was involved in at the Maze. So I sat down tonight and caught up with my readings - 3 chapters of Nehemiah to be precise. It's a good book, I recommend reading it.

Whilst I was doing so, my mind was led to posting something else entirely separate to what I wanted to write and so I share it with you now.

Recently I've had a couple of hits on my blog searching for information on various missionaries in the context of them being fraudulent.

This is not a new phenomenon.

Many times I have researched preachers from the past and have been grieved by stumbling into fierce character attacks by people (maybe I should say super apostles), who are quick to denounce different preachers... and it is usually based on circumstantial argument and not spiritual discernment.

I don't for one moment assume that every preacher out there is on the level... and I don't take the word of any mere man as gospel.

However, neither will I condemn a man or woman as readily as some of the folk who are out there do.

My message is for them... and it is quite simple:

Be wary of impulsive criticism. Do not grieve the Spirit, do not anger God. Do not call what God has made holy, unholy.

When I was a boy I struggled with a passage in Matthew's gospel concerning blasphemy against the Spirit. Gradually as I grew in wisdom, I learned that this was actually about hardness of heart - namely continually attributing God's goodness to the evil works of the Devil.

I don't particularly care who you personally have taken issue with. In my experience, I have heard people denounce Brother Yun, Smith Wigglesworth and C.S. Lewis - yes that's right... even the 20th century apologist isn't safe! Who's next in line? Spurgeon? The Wesleys? Billy Graham? Names are irrelevant though - this is just as applicable to Pastor Paul or Reverend Rod as it is to the "big guns". I ask you to consider your thoughts,words and motives. Most of all I ask you to examine your hearts in the light of scripture.

Do you speak out of jealousy, a desire to be controversial.... or merely to be heard? Or are you just being sheepish and following the "critical crowd"?

I guess what I'm challenging you to do is to give serious thought to everything you hear. Why is it we so easily swallow rubbish... but when good food comes along we turn our noses up? Do not treat spiritual food in the same manner that children resist proper nourishment.

If something comes from God recognise it as such... I do not say this merely to turn you away from a dark path... but rather in the hope that you find good spiritual food.

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

Ephesians 4:29-32

An Example of the Goodness of God and People Working Together

This story is a little long, but please bear with I I think it's worth it:

A few months ago somebody recommended an autobiographical book to me. It was The Heavenly Man by a persecuted Christian evangelist in China called Brother Yun. I got round to buying this book and reading the first chapter.

Sometime after that (I'm guessing it was when I crashed my car), I lost the book.

A month or so later and it's now last weekend. An Internet friend of mine sends me a package, as a little thank you for the times I've listened and advised over problems. I opened the pack and what was inside? another copy of The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun (Thanks Charlotte).

So at this point I'm already praising God for some awesome goodness! But it's not the end yet... I'm on my way to catch a lift to work on Tuesday. In my bag I am carrying the Brother Yun book and my Bible. It's getting close to the time I need to be picked up, so I break into a jog. Little did I realise that the weight of my Bible bouncing up and down, would force the rucksack open. As I ran down the road I was completely unaware that both my Bible and the other book had fallen out. I am completely surprised at lunch time to get a call from my Mum telling me that a girl had found my Bible and dropped it into the police station... and that a police lady would drop it round later (I put my name and address in the Bible now because my last Bible went walkies at Coventry Cathedral of all places).

I was overjoyed that my Bible had been recovered... but nobody had seen the other book, neither the girl who found my Bible... nor the police lady who walked home along the same route I had taken. I set out to look for the book myself, I left no stone unturned... I looked in bushes, I looked in a skip and I even went downtown to check the charity shops in case anybody had found it and not known what to do with it. It was hopeless though... there was not even a trace of my book.

I felt really bad because not only had I lost the book again... but I had let a friend down.... a friend who out of the goodness of their heart had bought me the book as a gift. Now it happened that they were online when I got home, so I resolved to fess up! When asked if I was alright, I answered "uh uh" but it was misread and they thought I said "uh huh" meaning everything was OK.

Something deep inside me told me to take the conversation as it was and not reveal what had happened. I think I knew deep down that this tale was not over.

The following morning, I was walking to my pick up point feeling a bit pants (to put it mildly). As I passed the police station I see an old lady across the road and in her hand... is the Brother Yun book. I was astounded and overjoyed. The lady didn't appear to have great eyesight and was pretty frail looking... yet somehow, she had seen the book fly out my bag and had gone out to retrieve it. She wasn't fast enough to catch me (now that would have been impressive), so she retained the book in her safekeeping.

She must have sat looking out of her window for a good half an hour looking out for me. So despite losing everything and despite myself, God gave me everything back in that situation.

God is great!

As I didn't have the opportunity to thank the girl who returned my Bible, I decided to buy a Body Shop voucher and have invited her to come to the new Alpha Course that is starting up tomorrow night. Maybe God still isn't finished... maybe he still has work to through all this. Please pray that if this girl needs to hear the Gospel, she will feel motivated to come out of her own free will and curiosity.

Heh heh... I love it when a plan comes together!