Sentinels At Every Gate

If you read my blogs often, I hope you've noticed that I try to be honest about where I am, I feel it's better to do that, than to just coldly preach the Gospel. I've always wanted you to see that everything I say comes from the heart and is genuine... not just from a text book, that you may know that my faith is a living one and not counterfeit.

I've had it a bit rough lately... if you are interested in knowing the context, read up my earlier blog entry, entitled A Rough Ride. I failed to stop making myself feel downcast. Sometimes it's the little things that drag you down, not the big ones. As the saying goes it's often "the straw that breaks the camel's back."

When I was young I locked myself behind behavioral walls to keep people from getting close and hurting me. Having learned from that fatal mistake... I am now the kind of person who hungers acceptance from the people I care about. Rather pathetically I can take silly little things like a drought of Christmas cards to heart... I know, stupid huh? Sometimes if you feel a certain way, it is all too easy to misread signs.

I had a picture the other day. I saw myself in the centre of a circular room with many doors. Each door was guarded by an armed sentinel, holding out their right arm in a "do not enter" gesture". This distressed me a great deal, because I hate feeling trapped. What is quite frustrating for me is that in all areas of my life, that is exactly how I feel - whichever door I try, for whatever reason... entry is barred. It's a bit like having the Argonath from Lord of the Rings standing in front of me... intimidating me and forbidding me entrance into the world of men.

The Argonath

So I decided to look for a scripture concerning gates, and I was struck by some verses in Nehemiah 13. In that chapter, the gates of Jerusalem are shut and barred for the Sabbath... to keep it holy. It has dawned on me this morning that perhaps that is all that is going on. For God has spoken to me before and reminded me that "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength" (From Isaiah).

Maybe I've had a touch of the Martha's (Christian cliche). During his ministry, Jesus stayed at the home of Mary and Martha:

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Perhaps this is merely a time to sit and meditate. There are promises out there for me, but they are dependant on God's grace. I know they are coming... but it is by his sovereign choice that they will come... and not by my desire or effort.

I need not fret at trying to force those gates, it is for holiness they are shut and not for frustration.

A couple of scriptures a friend once told me have come into my thinking lately:

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." 

Zephaniah 3:17

and:

"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!"

Isaiah 30:18

Certainly reading on into the following verses of Isaiah 30 gives me cause for hope.

Waiting is a hard game, especially when we don't know when a resolution will come. I always remember Professor Robert Winston's programme on the human mind. Some children were involved in an experiment. They were given a small lump of chocolate and told they could either have that, or have a larger amount in a "little while". Now to you and I the choice is clearly logical, wait for 5-15 minutes and it's a choccy fest! However, at a young age children do not have a properly defined sense of the passage of time. Most who were under the age of four... opted for the here and now, what they could see before them.

But even as adults... we are no different when it comes to the things of God, are we? We do not have a proper sense of the time in the eternal or cosmic sense... we see life in terms of our lifespan on Earth. This causes us to want all our objectives to be achieved in the here and now. God knows all the things he has for us in the fullness of time, so he's not as hasty. All we need is a little patience and trust. This, I tell you as a mere apprentice, or at best a journeyman... by no means am I a master.

Finally, for the patient - for those who wait, God promises this:

"but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Isaiah 40:31

So, for now; in the words of a famous Guinness commercial - "Here's to waiting!"

Small Beginnings

Do you ever wonder why churches are packed at Christmas... and not so busy at Easter? As a child, I was once taught by a lay minister (who looked suspiciously like Ben Kenobi), that if you could only make one service a year... it should be Easter and not Christmas.

Yet each year we see the midnight services on Christmas Eve and the Christmas Day communion are filled to bursting. .. whilst Easter services are rarely any different in attendance figures. Why do you suppose that is?

It's very simple, Jesus as a baby is very inoffensive - nobody has a problem with the infant Christ because there is very little radical about a baby. Yet when we see Jesus as an adult, it is a direct challenge to us where we are. Do we take him at his word? Accept his amazing techings and more than this... accept that he lay down his life for us... rose to new life, and will come to claim us as our risen King? Or do we put the baby away with the rest of the decorations, when the season of goodwill is finally over? It's a deceptively tough choice isn't it? Do we keep our rose tinted nativity scene, and never look into the consequences of that event? Do we look at the cute baby and think how amazing it was that God the Father kept him safe through all the threats and hazards... that he went to all that effort to bring that very special baby into the world.... and yet still fail to be moved by the reasons WHY God did that... and WHAT happened next and WHO the baby was? Do we?

It's all too easy to sweep the remainder of the story under the carpet and forget who Jesus is. As Charles Wesley wrote in his carol Hark the Herald Angels Sing (one of my faves), Jesus was:

Born that man no more may die:

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

This day, I'd like to challenge you. When you next look at a nativity scene... look deeper. If you feel able, meditate on it. I'd like you to picture in your mind Jesus as a child. Think of all the things you could have done if you were there? Herod tried to kill him... the shepherds and wise men came to adore him. How do you want to react? Think of that child growing up as a boy; as a young man; as an adult. Do you still want to stand by him? Think of the things Jesus did and said. Then think about the greatest thing he did. Think about the fact he lay down his life for you. Finally I want to challenge you with words from an old carol:

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Would you be willing to do that? It does not matter what condition your heart is in. We are all broken:

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:26,27

Christ came to heal our hearts, to make us right with God. He came to our world... our physical home; that we might be able to one day come to his world... our eternal home.

I read this morning that a little girl... just hours old, was left abandoned - cold and naked in the streets. Nurses in Yeovil (where she was found), have dubbed her "Angel". In our society, we frown on people who would abandon a helpless child to die... and rightly so. However, I wonder... is that technically what we do every Christmas - abandon Jesus in the manger and return to the rush or madness or pain of daily life?

There's an old cliche that has been adapted from an RSPCA saying - "God is for life... not just for Christmas!"

Whatever you do this Christmas, I pray that God blesses you immensely and draws near to you. May you know the peace of God... the peace that passes ALL understanding.

May you have a very merry Christmas.

N

Small Men

I was horrified the other day, to hear the latest outburst from Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For those who are unaware, Mr Ahmadinejad publically declared that the Holocaust was a myth. Of course, Mr Ahmadinejad is only referring to the Jewish holocaust... for that is the only one that is affected by his prejudice. I'm sure he would not deny the massacre of Poles, Gypsies and Communists... because they are of no interest to him. You see, he wants the nation state of Israel to become non existent.

I was watching the television with my father, the last time Mr Ahmadinejad spoke out declaring that Israel should be "wiped off the map". My heart was grieved and my blood started to bubble up. Dad sat there calmly puffing on his pipe and said "it's because he is small!" That sounded rather un "PC", so I asked him to expand on what he meant. Dad simply pointed out a psychological truth: that many men of small stature subconsciously feel intimidated around others, and so use aggressive political gesturing... to compensate. Great isn't it? A nation is being governed by a man with an inferiority complex.

I have to say, to a certain degree I am in agreement with my father. I have witnessed similar actions by similar people in my life. The worst bully in my secondary school was one of the shortest lad's in our year. Somebody else I know frivolously cracks on to every girl in sight irrespective of whether he or they are in a relationship or not, oh I'm sure most of the time he isn't going to take it further... but I find it disturbing that he uses girls in this way... just to satisfy his inferiority complex and appease his ego.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not suggesting all short men are ruled by inferiority complexes that make them bad people... I'm just saying it's something a few short men are prone to. In truth there are tall men in stature who are very small men at heart... there are also very short men who are giants of compassion and nobility. It's the psychology I'm assaulting, not the height.

It is not enough to recognise these men and their actions for what they are, that is no solution in itself. Mr Ahmadinejad governs a country that has expressed a nuclear interest. Whether or not his polical rhetoric comes from posturing, or from his own mistaken deep-seated beliefs; he cannot afford to gamble with such aggressive statements. Even if it is not his intention to act on such flawed ideological whims... there are people in this world who will either believe he is... or use his statements to suggest he is. It has happened before... very recently. He would do well to read the story of the boy who cried "wolf"... for his situation is a mirror image of it. He makes inane statements and nobody seems to act, so he continues.

One day the wolf may come.

Then who will heed him?

I'm not a strong supporter of US foreign policy, but I would imagine Ahmadinehad is the perfect worm to bait the hungry hawks whose feet are swift rush into blood!

Oh, and for anybody who is left in any doubt about the Holocaust, the estimates for Jews slain are reckoned between 4.1 - 6 million. Non Jewish victims including Gypsies, POW's, homosexuals and Russians amounted to around 5-6 million... for every death a name, for every name a face... stolen in acts of abhorrence.

It happened.

For more information on the story this article refers to, go here.

For more information on the Holocaust, go here.

One Solitary Life

A child is born in an obscure village. He is brought up in another obscure village. He works in a carpenter shop until he is thirty, and then for three brief years is an itinerant preacher, proclaiming a message and living a life. He never writes a book. He never holds an office. He never raises an army. He never has a family of his own. He never owns a home. He never goes to college. He never travels two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He gathers a little group of friends about him and teaches them his way of life. While still a young man the tide of popular feeling turns against him. One denies him; another betrays him. He is turned over to his enemies. He goes through the mockery of a trial; he is nailed to a cross between two thieves, and when dead is laid in a borrowed grave by the kindness of a friend.

Those are the facts of his human life. He rises from the dead. Today we look back across nineteen hundred years and ask, What kind of trail has he left across the centuries? When we try to sum up his influence, all the armies that ever marched, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned are absolutely picayune in their influence on mankind compared with that of this one solitary life...

I have read several diferent variations of the above writing, this isn't the one I'm most familiar with... but apparently it is the original. I chose it because it is the only one I could find that references the fact that Jesus rose again. I'd add the following for your consideration: Even those who do not believe in Jesus cannot escape being influenced by his story. For... art, literature and culture have been saturated with him literally and through semiotics and allegory.

How many songs... how many poems... how many books... how many paintings... how many movies... how many programmes while not explicitly being about him... have absorbed elements of Christ's story? Too many to tell!

Do you feel mediocre or insignificant? Do you come from humble backgrounds? Rejoice, that is how Jesus started and he changed the world forever. If you want to be a world changer... follow him.

Jesus is alive, but to truly experience him... you have to accept him... not just as an obscure and vague historical figure... but as the man who died for our sins and rose to reign as king and prepare a place for us.

He lives...

A Rough Ride

Things have been a bit choppy lately, I have definitely felt a great deal of internal oppression for one reason or another.

Firstly - as you may recall, I was feeling very downcast about the future at my church. Despite knowing the future blessing that God intends to pour out on the church, I had become despondent about the interference of man... some people seem to be looking to diocese and deanery to secure the future... and not trusting in God. However, God had gently convicted me that at the end of the day he's in control... and he can use man's disobedience and stubbornness to his advantage. He also reminded me that the physical situation is not relevant to the spiritual plan. Israel was not a sovereign nation when Jesus the Messiah, came to save us.

Having jumped that hurdle, it wasn't long before my peace was disturbed again. After I was made to doubt the generic blessing for our church... I was attacked with doubt about personal blessings that I am waiting on God for (December is a bad time for me, with regard to a certain area of my life). I was seeing certain things and people were inadvertantly saying things that triggered various painful memories. Not only this, but in a similar vein I felt oppressed about my home situation. My lack of ability to support myself at present. You might think that all these things, that i see as an attack... are coincidental, but the frequency of them happening suggested something else to me. Besides, something was going on... because at the same time God was speaking things that were countering all the negativity. I ran into a few familiar scriptures at somebody else's church:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]

to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins

and restore the places long devastated;

they will renew the ruined cities

that have been devastated for generations.

Aliens will shepherd your flocks;

foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

And you will be called priests of the LORD,

you will be named ministers of our God.

You will feed on the wealth of nations,

and in their riches you will boast.

Instead of their shame

my people will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace

they will rejoice in their inheritance;

and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,

and everlasting joy will be theirs.

"For I, the LORD, love justice;

I hate robbery and iniquity.

In my faithfulness I will reward them

and make an everlasting covenant with them.

Their descendants will be known among the nations

and their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will acknowledge

that they are a people the LORD has blessed."

I delight greatly in the LORD;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the soil makes the sprout come up

and a garden causes seeds to grow,

so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise

spring up before all nations.

and:

Those who sow in tears

will reap with songs of joy.

He who goes out weeping,

carrying seed to sow,

will return with songs of joy,

carrying sheaves with him.


I also found the following on Cien's space, which helped pick me up out of the dirt a bit:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/CienSubRosa/blog/cns!1pk_vJePRMlchtI6n_7uc4LQ!432.trak

Now you might say I was being rebuked for feeling worn down... but I don't think that's it. It seems really important to God that I don't get downcast at this time. I'm not the only one feeling the pinch either, friends of mine have recently struggled in their own way. With this much negative activity going on, it's only natural for me to consider that something good may be close at hand. After all, the best way of stopping an army attacking is to lay siege to it while it is being strengthened.

It's important to recognise evil agendas deeds and activities for what they are. I would appreciate any prayers of encouragement at this time. Not for myself, but for my church and for the people of God in my area... the town of Alcester, the village of Great Alne and all the surrounding area.