“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the Living God?”      1 Samuel 17:26

The shepherd boy, fresh from the field hears the taunt of the giant. The giant who the entire army of Israel is afraid of. His chain-mail alone weighed 5000 shekels – about 125lb. I weigh about double that, and the thought of even trying to walk, never mind do battle in that kind of weight makes me need to rest.

Goliath is a huge man. Six cubits and a span – around 9′ 4″ tall. I’m 6′ tall. Half as tall again as me, plus four inches.

David is a youth. Nothing more than a young farm-hand, tending the sheep in the fields. It’s doubtful he’s more than 5′ 5″ tall as he’s still basically adolescent – if he weren’t he’d already be in Saul’s army with his brothers.

For forty days, twice a day, Goliath has been issuing his challenge. And for forty days the Israelites have been silent. They see as the spies who first went into the land with Joshua and Caleb did. They are small in their own eyes.

David sees him how Joshua and Caleb saw the giants in Canaan. Just another notch in the Covenant-holder’s belt.

David’s own brothers doubt him. But David is a man with a Covenant, and he knows what that Covenant means.

The challenge is accepted. Casting aside the sword and armour Saul tries to give him, David picks up a few smooth stones, his sling and his staff and walks out to meet the derisory Philistine. Goliath is insulted and sneers as David takes his stand. David’s response to the jeering of the giant is simple:

“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” 1 Samuel 17:45

Goliath rises slowly and makes his way to the field of battle. David runs to the field. He arms his sling and releases. Goliath falls and David takes the giant’s own sword and beheads him.

It’s a familiar story told in Sunday-schools all over the world. It was taught to me when I was so young I don’t remember the first time. But it’s only recently re-reading it with a more mature mind that the point of the story sinks in.

David, on paper, didn’t stand a chance. Goliath has been a warrior longer than David has lived. But David knows his God. He knows the promise of his God, and most importantly he knows this Philistine is facing his God, not him.

We find ourselves in the situation of David from time to time in our lives. We all face giants. Poor health, loss of income or home. Hunger. The giants taunt us daily. Every time we enter a borrowed room to sleep. Every time we take the medication the doctor says we need. Every mealtime we have nothing to give our family. The giant rattles his armour and declares war.

Too often we behave as the Israelite army does. We stand back and let fear take our hearts.

But we see in the movies a glimpse of the Truth of the covenant. Think of Aragorn’s speech in “The Return of the King” as the last army of Middle-Earth faces the army of Mordor, outnumbered and surrounded. Think of Theoden’s rally cry to the Rohirrim earlier in the movie to urge them to battle.

And we have David as an example. The best example as this is not fiction, this is Biblical. This is the Covenant our God has made with us. He will not desert us. He walks every step alongside us. He fights our every battle through us.

And that’s the point. Through us.

We sit and wait for God to solve our problems for us. But that’s not the promise.

“Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super-abundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]— To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).”                                                                                                                                            Ephesians 3:21-22 Amplified

OK, I try to stay out of politics on this blog. Just this once I find myself needing to say something political.

Donald Trump is running for President. That’s his right as an American. He, like all the Presidential candidates, seems to have made a point of stating they are members of a church. In his case he defines himself as a Protestant, Presbyterian to be precise. He’s pro-moral issues by being anti-abortion and against same gender marriage. Because his understanding of the Bible from one perspective tells him it’s so.

I’m a Protestant. In my time I’ve been a member of Anglican, Baptist, United Reformed, New Frontiers and an array of other denominations according to where I was living and which one I was drawn to by my heart. I’ve even attended Catholic Mass from time to time.

Here’s the thing.

None of what I’ve done makes me a Christian.

Sitting in a Protestant pew for the last 35 of my 43 years hasn’t made me a Christian any more than sitting in my garage for the same time would have made me a mechanic.

Christianity is unique in that it invites individuals to have a personal relationship with a Living God through that own deity’s personal sacrifice of taking human form and dying on our behalf for the specific purpose of entering into that relationship.

We accept or reject His invitation freely, but never by default. I ask God to remind me that He already forgave me the sin I commit daily, whatever it may be on that day. I speak to Him as a friend and Father and ask His guidance on the matters I need to deal with ranging from how best to do my earthly work within the structure of His being to major issues like “should I emigrate?” or “should I change jobs”. The big one for me twelve years ago was “Do I marry this girl?” (He said ‘yes’).

It comes from a place of relationship, not religion. That’s what Jesus spent His ministry on Earth trying to get through to everyone. It’s what the Bible teaches in both the Old and New Testaments. The Gospels give us the story and the Letters give us the “how-to”.

Jesus Himself told Nicodemus that a man needed to be reborn to enter a relationship with God. His death and Resurrection then opened the invitation to everyone as Peter demonstrated the day after the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples.

Christianity isn’t about politics.

America is a post-Christian country. Sadly most of the world are post-Christian societies. Bible-founded laws are repealed and Church-founded reforms to improve society are eroded by secular laws all the time.

But none of that is Christianity.

Christianity in its most basic and Glorious form is simply an invitation from a Loving God to enter into a personal relationship with Him.

It’s personal.

It’s that simple.

In 1903, William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army made this statement:

“I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost; Christianity without Christ; forgiveness without repentance; salvation without regeneration; politics without God; and Heaven without Hell.”

The statement made over a century ago is now being seen around the globe. More and more people are turning to an apathetic faith, disregarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit and even some calling themselves “progressive” christians (I use a small ‘c’ deliberately) declare that all religions draw from the same aquifer. The problem of Christianity is that it is more like mathematics than psychology: other religions may be closer to the answer than some, but in the end they are all the wrong answer.
Recently I read an article declaring we live in a post-Christian era.

I tend to agree. As such there will be things that the vocal masses will demand. Equality for religions, gender, sexual orientation and so forth.

Some of these are in line with the message of the Bible, some are not.

We as Christians must have the courage to stand for the Truth in the Bible. We should recognise that we are in the world, but not of it.

What should post-Christian morality look like? Equal rights under this new era for all. This – in principle – sounds a lot like what Jesus said. Look closer into the issues and you see something different however.

I have to write this article as a Blog entry because I have a feeling no editor would be prepared to publish it in this post-Christian era.

Jesus told us to accept people and Love them. Agape Love them.

He didn’t tell us to condone their actions.

He didn’t say to ignore their/our sin.

We live in a day of forgiveness without repentance. We are accused of not being “real” Christians if we don’t agree that forgiveness is enough on it’s own. Why bother with the whole repentance thing at all? It just causes conflict in the individual being forgiven and those offering the forgiveness. So we just offer forgiveness freely. So freely that we declare the behaviour “normal”. Secular society has become what William Booth said it would. Churches teach around the subject of the Holy Spirit. The church I grew up in never mentioned once that I recall the concept of being “born again” or baptised with the Holy Spirit. The first time I went to a pentecostal service and heard men speaking in tongues I thought everyone was mad or it was part of a cult.

God has been removed from the political arena. Republicans and Democrats both claim they are on God’s path in the USA. The ANC in South Africa has declared God loves them so much they will rule until Jesus returns. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour parties in the UK all have boasted at some point that they have strong ties with the church and roll out candidates who go to an Anglican service at Easter and Christmas to prove it.

Jesus spoke plainly about the afterlife. If we read the Gospel with fresh eyes and as if we were hearing it for the first time it would be impossible to not see that He believed in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell as real places.

Today we speak of Heaven as a place where everyone goes after they die. Images of wings and harps and fluffy clouds abound.

I like the portrayal of the afterlife in the movie “What Dreams May Come”. There’s work to do there, but it’s labours of Love. Families are reunited. There’s no sadness or fear on the heavenly side. But there’s the other side. A side where souls are forever lost in torment. They spend eternity in darkness and confusion.

That’s as much of the analogy as I like since the theology is a bit wobbly, but it’s a good picture of the alternatives.

In short, Booth was seeing moral degeneration of society on a slope with no grip at all. In effect we are becoming what he feared and what he tried to slow down through the Salvation Army: a society of mob-rule and God-fearing Christians in the minority.

Look back 100 years and you see what Booth saw. World War One descended society into chaos and started a century of unparalleled horrors the Inquisition would have recoiled from.

Look back 2000 years and you see eleven men huddled in an upper room waiting for the Roman army or the Sanhedrin to break down the doors and kill them.

But look what happened. Those eleven men and the ones who then followed them became the movement of a Godly Army, cutting through society’s rules and norms – which were much the same as the “new” laws we see being passed. As the writer of Ecclesiastes noted, there is nothing new under the sun.

Christianity is a dangerous path. It divides families and communities established for generations. I’ve witnessed it divide congregations. I’ve also seen it bring something new.

Something Strong.

Be a Truth speaker.

Stand up for our God and watch Him respond in kind. Avoid the trap of doing things without Love as your reason and follow through because we Love Jesus.

Live a Dangerous Faith and be ready, armed with the Truth of the Gospel to defend and even die for the Truth of Faith in Jesus.

Watch Revival come as a result.

“If you love me, you will keep my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever. The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees nor knows him. You know him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you.“

John 14:15-17

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know — Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 
Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

Acts 2-;14-41

The words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the promised Comforter to come, inspired 3000 people to give their lives to Christ that day. I’m certain English does not do justice to the nature of the words in their original language whether it was spoken in Aramaic or Greek, but the message is one we need to hold on to at this time.

The times are changing. Social change is causing upheaval of societies in a way not seen in a hundred lifetimes. Many practices St Paul specifically condemned as sinful are being embraced by “liberal” teachers as acceptable and not offensive to God, presumably because poor, misinformed Paul didn’t have access to 21st century society and it’s social norms.

But be comforted.

Allow the Peace only Christ’s Holy Spirit can bring to us wash into our lives and let Him bring peace and comfort to us.

“Spending counterfeit incentive

Wasting precious time and health

Placing value on the worthless

Disregarding priceless wealth

You can wheel and deal the best of them

Steal it from the rest of them

You know the score, their ethics are a bore”
Lyrics from “Mr Businessman” by Ray Stevens

 Faced with a choice at the moment. It’s not easy to make life-changing decisions when it will have an affect on more than your own life.

My choice: Where am I supposed to be?

Currently I’m living in South Africa, a country I’ve come to call home since I moved here in 2003 but has become increasingly hostile towards foreigners. I’m British by birth. I’ve mentioned that in several previous posts. My wife and I have a business here that’s growing – albeit slowly. But it’s a single-string income. If something happens to her we have no income.

So my choice. I’ve actually made it, but it has been hard. For the last few weeks I’ve been applying for jobs in the Christian sector of British employment. It’s not a large sector, and the pay rate is lower in general – not in all cases – than in secular business.

But it’s my choice. I found an old cassette of Cliff Richard singing the song I quoted at the start. Listening to it again made me think hard about where I am and what I’m doing with my life.

This isn’t the life God called me to over twenty years ago. I touch an individual here and there, maybe even make a difference to them too – which I value. But it’s not where my heart is.

I’ve spoken to my wife and she agrees – reluctantly – that I should push the doors to return to England. She has to do courses to maintain her professional standing in South Africa which happen to be a requirement for her working in the UK as well. Two birds with one stone.

Since I made the decision there have been several changes, necessary ones but not ones I’d expected so soon. My right arm at work, a young lady I had come to rely on to help me keep things running put us into a position where we had to ask her to leave. By God’s Grace she has remained a friend, and that is something I’m truly Blessed to say. Her replacement is efficient in her own way, which is one I find it hard to work with. We’re different personality types and, well let’s just say I march to the beat of my own drummer! I’m difficult to work with until I establish a rhythm with colleagues, mercifully this happens fairly quickly.

So I’m applying. I’m looking to expand my reach into a country I’d left not expecting to return to. I’ve experienced racial discrimination first hand. I’ve had to take subsistence-level employment that is aimed at school-leavers still living at home. I’ve had personal health issues and my family has been hit with cancers, chronic ailments too many to name and financial issues.

So my question.

What’s important? What really matters?

I’ve been relatively affluent in the past. I’ve been on an income below the poverty-line as well. Paul said he could find God both in plenty and in lack, and so have I. Even when the financial institutions call and ask for a payment I have the strength to say “join the queue” to them. Literally.

I’ve learned what really matters is that I am in Christ and He is in me. That I love my wife with all my heart. And that together we can focus on what’s crucially important.

Living our life the way Jesus wants us to live them, where He wants us to live them. He is our provider, not our business or employer.

The only thing that’s truly important?

Jesus died so I can Live.

Back when I began this blogging project I wrote of the simplicity of Jesus in His message of being the Water of Life.

You can find the post back in July 2011 if you choose to.

Jesus gave us a simple path, straightforward and unique in the simplicity of it: follow Him and be saved.

“Saved”. What does the word mean?

We use it the same way we use “Gospel”.

Without thought.

The greek word often translated “saved” meant many different things. Salvation of the Spirit, redemption from Hell – and Jesus seemed to think this was a literal destination, so we probably should even though certain groups believe we should be more”enlightened” on the subject – also it speaks to financial stability with an abundance to let God show His Covenant with us through our material prosperity and ability to administer it to give in His name to the needy. In places it is used to refer to healing of the body in this lifetime.

One simple greek word.

We read so many things we forget the simple ones. We miss subtle nuances from the original language and the twinkle in Jesus’s eye as He tells a Samaritan woman it’s not right to give the children’s food to the dogs. From her response there must have been no judgement in His statement, merely an invitation to her to exercise her faith given to her by His Spirit.

Simple Truth.

Simply put.

Keep it simple. Let your yes be yes and your no, no.

Give, don’t lend. Loans can lead to resentment, but Jesus didn’t lend His power to us, He gave it. Freely and without limit as long as we use it as He would. No resentment.

Simple Freedom.

Keep it simple.

I recently found an accurate quote from CS Lewis on a web page devoted to what is termed “Progressive Christianity”. Any regular reader knows my opinion of the movement is one of well meaning but ultimately misguided people, but that’s another topic.

I’ve seen posts before, of course, but what hit me about this one was how the words had been twisted to suit the meaning of the person using the quote rather than the intended meaning from the author.
The quote was:

“If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are wrong all through“

Alarmed, I went to my CS Lewis collection – Google – and typed in the quote. There came up before me the entire passage from Mere Christianity:

If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.
When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic – there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.”

Relieved, I calmly read the entire context over again.

Lewis is right, of course, in that there are religions very close to the Truth out there. It’s what makes them so plausible. I was told by a convicted con-man once that the best lies are 90% truth. Any more lie and it becomes too far-fetched. Any more and it’s too easy to spot the lie.

The most important thing we can do as Christians is to be mindful of the context of the Bible and the people who wrote it. John never imagined television. But could it be that the Second Coming will be televised? Revelation 1:7 – out of context – suggests it. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him”. Of course, Revelation isn’t saying CNN will be there to capture the Rapture. It simply implies that all will see Him – perhaps “see” would be better interpreted as “recognise”? I’m not a Greek scholar and I won’t pretend to be. I know a few words here and there, but not the one translated as “see” here. But in the context of the whole passage, recognising Jesus for who He was and is makes as much, if not more sense than literally seeing.

“So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself“; “Go and do likewise“; “What you do, do quickly”. The three quotes out of context could build a suicide theology. Perhaps a comic twist, but it makes the point. The words of Jesus must be understood in the context of His entire ministry. Similarly, Paul’s letters and the rest of the entire Bible must be taken in the context of the time and place.

But we must also look and understand them within today’s context.

Covering her hair was the modesty of a woman in 1st Century Jerusalem. The women who showed their hair were usually prostitutes, so what Paul actually means when he writes that women should keep their hair or head covered was to not dress like a hooker – a very different statement. Similarly, whilst commanding women to obey their husbands he says husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church. In that context, loving our wives as sacrificially as Jesus loves us is a very difficult challenge. To make every action we undertake a selfless act to help grow and nurture our spouse’s very existence is very different from being a dominating and overwhelming taskmaster to her. The writing is to encourage mutual respect. Paul emphasises the roles of men and women as different, but of equal value. Each is a reflection of God, and taken in the context of the letters this should be obvious.

Context is critical to everything we say and do. Politicians claim their words are taken out of context on a regular basis. Sometimes they are, and sometimes not. I’m sure I take words out of context despite trying not to. It’s almost impossible to get everything in the context it was originally intended to be understood in. Sometimes a joke is only funny at the specific moment it’s told. Recounting the story later fails to capture the essence of the moment.

I’ll keep trying to see the whole context of Scripture. Parables, history, poetry and dialogue all interwoven with the time they were transcribed and the understanding of the writers make it hard, but we owe it to them and ourselves to see the whole Truth in the words. I love the Amplified translation of the Bible because for words with multiple meanings it gives a deeper understanding of the English words. The Greek word for romantic love, “eros”, bears no relationship to that for brotherly love, “philio”, communal love,”storge”, or Godly love, agape. But all are translated as “love” in English.

There may be examples where this is reversed and English words have multiple understandings to foreign tongues.

So we should all keep looking for context and subtleties in the Bible and anything else we quote to bolster our argument so we tell 100% of the story.

Surely striving for that is what Jesus would have us do?

 Our lives are too cluttered. My wife constantly tells me I have too many things – and she’s right. I’m a diagnosed hoarder (yes, it’s a real diagnosis). I struggle to throw things away. I recently found a box I made in woodwork class when I was 13. Rather than discard it I polished it and found a use for it – but an unnecessary one.

Our Christian walk is usually full of these same things on a spiritual level. We get drawn into a quagmire of rules and regulations to help us live a “Godly” life, but which actually stifle the very freedom Jesus intended us to have.

My grandfather was a Salvation Army officer during the second world war and for some time afterwards. He would volunteer to work Christmas Day so his colleagues could have the day with their families when he took a second job as a hospital porter. He believed it was a Christian thing to do. I tend to agree.

He was less cluttered than me on a spiritual level – physically not so much – and as a result he lived a much freer existence Spiritually than I have been able to. He would go out and sell the Salvation Army newsletter “The War Cry” on the streets every week up to and including the day God called him home at the age of 80. He genuinely didn’t care what people thought of him in his uniform sitting in the street come rain or shine. He just sat and talked about his friend, Jesus.

We all need someone like that to remind us of the necessary simplicity of the Christian walk. At its heart, the Christian walk is about friendship with God. He wanted our company in Eternity so much that He arranged to have His arms nailed open to invite us in, and His feet nailed closed so we could see he wouldn’t run. He gave us power and freedom beyond anything we could imagine or ask according to the amount we would allow Him to use through us (see Ephesians 3:20). We need to remember as we ask to see Jesus work in our lives that He wants to work more than we want Him to.

It’s not possible to ask too much when we ask in line with His will, and it’s not possible to out-give His generosity.

We live in so much spiritual clutter that we lose sight of the core of the Gospel: relationship.

The “necessities” we fill our days with are irrelevant for the most part. We stand on ceremony, genuflecting or bowing or showing “respect” when we pass a cross or a cemetery. Utter nonsense. But we do them.

We are so caught up in being “correct” that we miss being right with God. We become modern Pharisees, living to a set of restricting rules and regulations which are unnecessary in Christ.

Our goals should be twofold:

1. Give everything we are and have of ourselves to Christ as His instrument
2. Do whatever we want

At a glance they appear contradictory, but if we focus on the first then our wants will become His wants. What He wills for us to do will become so much a part f us that it’ll be all consuming for us to do them because of the relationship we have with our Saviour. If we truly place Christ at the center the we will naturally seek to do His will. It’s what Jesus was talking about when He said through John 14 & 15 about those who truly love Him will keep his commandments. It’s not from a sense of obligation or through gritted teeth, but from a relationship alive with the very Spirit of God on the
inside of us.

When Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost it wasn’t from fear of not speaking, but from relationship.

Healing the cripple at the temple came through relationship. Appointing people anointed to hand out gifts to the poor, widows and orphans was an act of Love springing from relationship. The Apostles were willing to, but recognised they were not called to do this honour.

We need to return to a place where we find Him in all our actions, not where we build rules and regulations to force us into patterns of behaviour. We may differ on some issues regarding what is and isn’t sinful – and that won’t go away quickly – but we need to place our focus on building a right relationship with God, selfless and set apart for Him and His Worship. Everything else will fall into place.

We’ve become, as I said, so bogged down by rules that we’ve lost the freedom. We have denominations who say we must be strict about the maintaining of Sunday as a “special” day. Why?

Jesus picked corn on the Sabbath. He healed on the Sabbath. He taught and worked on the Sabbath. Why shouldn’t we? I’m not saying do away with church meetings, but don’t judge the people who can’t attend regularly because they need to put food on their children’s plates.

Where we spend eternity has nothing to do with where we spend Sunday morning. We need to stop judging trivial nonsense as though it were Gospel and revert back to the simplicity of the Gospel itself. When Jesus forgave the thief on the cross alongside Him, he wasn’t commissioning him to make disciples, He was welcoming in a lost sheep. It’s never too late. Who are we to judge someone’s heart? We don’t know their story. We can’t know their pain.

We judge the irrelevant and miss the point. We all do it – me included. For me it’s a work in progress.

It needs to be for all of us.

Stay away from the trivial irrelevancies and recover the Truth in the simplicity if Christ’s Love – the Gospel.

It’s time to un-clutter our Spiritual walk, lose the baggage and return to Him who first freed us.

“You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is about; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he may give you. This is what I command you: keep loving each other!” [John 15:14-17 CJB]

Jesus is repeatedly accused of being a friend of sinners in the Gospels. It’s a clear sign of His nature as God and a perfect Man that models what our nature was intended to be. Relationship is central to His message, but never so clear as it is in the fifteenth chapter of John when He speaks to the disciples.

The statements can be easily misunderstood. When Jesus says we are His friends if we do what He commands it is clearly not meant to be coercion on Jesus’s part. It is simply a fact. He calls us friends more because we follow His commands as a natural consequence of being His friend, not to win that friendship. This is mirrored in human relationships. I do not behave in certain ways to my wife as an obligation, rather it is an overflow of the loving relationship we have that drives me to do things I might not otherwise do to deepen our relationship. For example, I am a diagnosed sufferer of ADD and OCD, both of which tend to unfinished projects and hoarding “to get to it later”, but later never comes. My wife, Rene, has been a saint in her tolerance of my issues and as a result I want to change my patterns and overcome as far as I can the issues which caused the trigger of the illnesses – undiagnosed depression for almost 15 years and PTSD. Even I find myself hard to live with because of the clutter in my life. Rene supports me but she leans towards minimalism in her surroundings, or at the very least order (as she understands it) which is very different to the mind of someone with my psychopathology. I choose to change in my relationship with her for the same reason I choose to be transformed by my relationship with Jesus. I love them and I don’t want to be in a situation where my actions reflect badly on them.

Everyone has demons they are dealing with. In most cases these are metaphorical, although I have been witness to several actual exorcism-type prayer sessions and I firmly believe there are very real spiritual powers actively seeking our destruction. I believe when CS Lewis wrote “The Screwtape Letters” he hit a deeply profound and too often dismissed element of Christianity. We are in a war that we can only truly win if we stick with our Heavenly Family (see, I’m not off topic!)

Jesus calls us friends, not slaves. God does not seek blind obedience, but relationship with us as individuals. I find it mind-blowing that if in all of history I were to be the only person ever to accept the sacrifice Jesus made, He would still have gone through everything just for me.

Or you.

We forget that at our peril. Each person has a testimony of what God has done in their lives and how He has used them to bless others. I remember a service at a church I attended where a young man I’ll call Ed stood up and said “I feel God wants me to say ‘Smarties’ as a response to someone here.”

There was a stunned silence and Ed took his seat again. At the end of the service we were talking when a visitor to the church came over to us and said to Ed “I asked God if He was real to prove it by having someone make a fool of themselves and say ‘Smarties’. Will you pray with me?” It was an honour to lead this man into a relationship with Jesus as a result of such simple obedience on Ed’s part. How many others in the service had had the same thought and not spoken out? This man may go on to become a great man of God who changes the World, all because Ed had the courage to say one surreal word in faith because his Friend asked him to.

Another occasion I was praying alone about financial issues over something I believed God wanted me to do but I simply couldn’t afford on my income. I never interrupt my quiet times, but in the middle of it my phone rang and I was compelled by something in my spirit to answer. A friend on the other end said to me “Dave: I was just praying for you and God told me if He places the order then He pays the bill. What are you planning?”

Family. God watches over His own. All 7 billion of us. His photo album must be huge. And He knows us intimately and invites us to know Him at the same level, to know even as we are known by Him.

This is not some transcendental Shylock demanding His pound of flesh, but a loving, caring Father wanting to do the best for every one of His children.
When Jesus taught the “Lord’s Prayer” – actually a model for how to pray not literally the words to use, that’s religion not relationship – He invites us to call God “Abba”. “Daddy” is the best fit for the context. Religion got hold of it and twisted it a bit and made God more distant, less directly involved.

That’s not the God we see in the Bible.

We see a Daddy looking after His family. Whether it was parting the red sea for the Exodus or simply holding the hand of a single leper He did it to build relationship with His family.

With us.

As His Friends.

I don’t normally write political stuff here. It’s usually not what the site is about, but there’s a link to the agenda of the ministry if you’ll bear with me…

This week was a travesty for the fight internationally against corruption and crimes against humanity. And it was perpetrated by Jacob Zuma and his cronies. A man known to be responsible for genocide, ethnic cleansing and torture to name but three of the charges the ICC has laid against Omar al Bashir, president of Sudan.

As Christians we need to weep not just for the victims of al Bashir, but the blood now on the collective hands of South Africa by its president’s actions.

This is not the South Africa that Mandela gave up his freedom for. He fought for equality and dignity for all members of a society that needed to heal. For peace.

Zuma and his allies have decided to take a stand against the “imperialistic” attitude of the Western world towards Africa. And apparently human rights have no part in what Africa should be.

Imagine a world where that message was the message of it’s saviour.

The message that the rich and powerful can commit heinous acts of torture and murder if it serves their own personal agenda. Zuma, I have read, is in a position of authority in his local church. What kind of a church is it that fails to hold this man accountable for the crimes he commits against God?

And there’s the big link.

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused and imprisoned. Yet he was never once rebuked by God for his own actions. His faithfulness led him to go from imprisoned slave to the second most powerful man in Egypt. Imagine a man being freed from death row to be inaugurated as Vice President of the United States in a day. That would be the modern equivalent – if the man on death row were also not an American.

To the outside world things may appear to have changed in South Africa, but what has happened it the opposite. The country exchanged a minority rule by rich, nepotistic, greedy people who appointed their friends and cronies to positions of power and influence and robbed the majority of the country blind for decades who were of white European ancestry. What the country now has is a minority who are rich, self-entitled, greedy people appointing their friends and cronies into positions of power and influence and rob the majority of people in the country blind, but now it’s ok because they are of black African descent. Not only that, they are of the right Black African descent.

The tragedy is that the increasingly invisible majority have their human right to dignity stripped from them. They are herded still into “informal settlements” outside major cities. The largest near me is Khayalitsha. In the last ten years it has more than tripled in size as people flood in to the city looking for streets paved with gold and work possibilities. All the meantime being deceived by the lie that BEE – Black Economic Empowerment – will trickle down to them from the top.

The ponzi scheme South Africa calls its government has to eventually fall apart. Another Zimbabwe awaits. Increasingly South African qualifications are viewed sceptically by other countries as the pass marks have been lowered for certain ethnicities to allow for “equal distribution of labour” If it’s a guy with a pick and shovel, fine. If it’s a brain surgeon, less so.

The humanity of Jesus wept for the disenfranchised of all castes and backgrounds. The Divinity of Jesus went to the Cross for them.

While Pilate washed his hands, Jesus washed their Souls.

To see a true leader we must look to Jesus.

• Humble – never stating He was either more or less than who He was.
• Loving – every action borne from a place of complete Love, whether allowing a prostitute to wash his feet with tears or driving dishonest traders out of the Temple
• Strong – He stood up to His enemies and faced them down
• Gentle – He lifted the people who came to Him and restored them
• Passionate – He gave everything He had to see His people uplifted and fulfilled
• Selfless – He gave up all personal earthly treasures to allow the prosperity of His Children

What a contrast to what we see in Worldly leaders today, not just Jacob Zuma, but almost al political rulers are the opposite of those standards they claim to live by. Most Western leaders pay lip-service to the notion of being “christian”, yet wouldn’t recognise Jesus if He sat in on a Cabinet meeting.

I wish the list I gave had a wonderful acronym, but it doesn’t. At least, not in English.

We must be the true leaders to restore the humanity lost, cast aside by the rich and powerful. I came across a family recently where one member had lost everything financially and was about to lose their home. Another member of the family had the resources to help and refused, even stating they were offended to be asked. The rich family member’s husband is connected to power.

Power corrupts. It diminishes humanity. JRR Tolkein showed it in The Lord of the Rings. Saruman is seduced by Sauron from being a wise wizard to nothing more than an egotistic maniac with the sole dream of having more power. Smeagol is swallowed alive by the One Ring of Power and becomes Gollum, twisted and evil from the power of the ring he loses himself in the power he holds.

So be humble. Be loving. Be strong for the weak to lean on you, be gentle so they don’t fear to approach you, be passionate so they can see the love you carry, and be selfless in your actions. These are the marks of a true leader.

These are the things that will restore Humanity and draw all people ultimately to Jesus and the Father.