I am an avid fan of the TV series “Bones”. Having been living in South Africa for the last 12 years I discovered it by accident at a DVD rental store and then went out and bought the seasons as they became available. I do this with all the series I enjoy as I – unlike my wife – enjoy watching them repeatedly. Incidentally, my thanks goes out to the inventor of headphones – I think you saved my marriage.

While watching an episode from Season 9 tonight, “The Spark in the Park”, I found myself drifting into a thought that rarely happens when I’m watching. I generally use amusement in the classical meaning – muse being thought and therefore a-muse being without thought. It’s a way to relax at the end of a day.

The plot of the show concerns, as all the shows do, a murder. In this case, the murder of a Physicist’s daughter. Naturally, the protagonists, Booth and Brennan, gradually peal back the layers until the killer is identified. The end of the show left me thinking, however, that something was missing.

The father is visited by Bones, Brennan’s nickname, to see how he is coping. His way to get through is to calculate his daughter’s life as a mathematical equation from body at rest in her crib at birth to body at rest at her death.

He misses the point in doing so. I don’t doubt that somewhere out there is someone who could do the same for me with regard to my brother’s life, but life has so much more to it than mathematical equations can express. Maths cannot explain a smile, a memory, love. It cannot even begin to fathom the depths of a person’s Soul.

The father draws comfort from science.

It can only last for so long. The solace he finds will be short lived because his own equation goes on, her being a part of it, influencing every interaction that follows. My whole personality changed when my brother died. I had been driven and was learning focus at the time. I would have developed into a type “A” personality, and there are a few tendencies in me that still show that, but in Robin’s loss I found a need for type “B” traits as a means of survival. They allowed me to access my Soul and accept Christ, something I may not have been able to do had I not made the change.

Of course, we don’t see the ongoing timeline of the victims in the show. That kind of loss is often too difficult to portray. I find it hard 30 years after Robin’s death to explain my feelings about it. There is great sorrow and great joy intertwined in the loss. I was lost emotionally for some time. That led me to make BAD decisions about girlfriends in particular. I jumped in with one when there wasn’t any real feeling – sorry – just that it was convenient. I had power in the relationship, not love. My next relationship was similar, just shorter. In between I missed out on a wonderful person because I didn’t want to have the hurt of the loss of the relationship when it ended, so I live with the loss of it never having happened.

Maths may describe my life. Or Robin’s. Or the existence of everything in the universe. But to truly explain my life takes more than numbers. It requires something that transcends mere science and enters the realm of Faith.

“Pure” scientists are often agnostic or atheistic in my experience. There are always exceptions of course – something “Bones” touches on in that one intern is a devout Muslim – and they are often left with more questions than answers as their knowledge grows.

Science can only explain so much, then Faith has to fill in the missing pieces. Questions such as “if there was nothing before the Big Bang, what caused it?”can’t be answered by science alone. But Faith is the substance of things hoped for we are told in Hebrews. The universe is a result of God’s Hope and Faith producing the Big Bang. Scientists can’t deal with this concept because God doesn’t fit in the microscope.

Relativity, from my limited understanding, suggests everything happens at the same time for light, so at the speed of light there is no passage of time. In that context, Jesus describing Himself as the Light of the World so many times makes sense of his saying “before Abraham was I am” in John 8:58. He, as God, is light, so for Jesus everything is now. As He hung on the Cross in linear time 2000 years ago He experienced every sin and thought we would ever have and took it into Himself from Adam to the day of His return and Judgement. God as Light makes this possible. Time as a linear progression only does not.

Science has missed the point by ruling out religion and Faith. I know very devout Christians who are also scientists, my wife among them as a doctor is able to see God’s hand in the bodies she treats and His life in the lives of others.

As Christians we must be careful not to go the other way and disregard science. Evolution is a hot potato we often don’t touch, and I find it hard to believe I’m descended from algae, but we see evidence of it in everything around us. Wolves were tamed and selectively bred into the dogs that sit at my feet while I’m writing this over hundreds of generations. Cats, rabbits and goldfish are all included, there’s no denying evolution within species.

I don’t know where to stand on some issues so I keep an open mind as far as I can. I agree with some teachings from other beliefs, but not all of them.

We need to stay on point, and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We have to keep ourselves open to the possibility of anything changing at any moment.

Maths can’t give us the point of life, only the equations of the physical.

As Christians we must look beyond that.

I was contemplating what has come to be referred to as the “Fivefold” ministries in Ephesians recently. I found myself troubled as we generally only see three of the five represented, especially in the news.

We hear a lot about Pastors and Teachers, particularly when they make changes to their standpoints on controversial issues like Tony Campolo did this week. I respect and admire Dr Campolo’s work, and have done for over 20 years since I first came across him at a conference in England. Much of my current belief system was shaped by listening to his teaching and reading his books, and I stand by the foundation they gave me.

Similarly we hear a lot about evangelists. These days to be described as “Evangelical” has become something of an insult bandied about by the loony left who embrace panantheistic ideologies as being in line with Christ’s teachings and suggest we say “Our Mother” at the start of the Lord’s Prayer – for the record, Jesus never once uses the word “Amma” to describe God, where the personal pronoun is used it is, without exception, “Abba”.

On the other side we have the right-wing extremists who seek to beat the Gospel into people. These religious zealots hold the same mindset as those who burned the “witches” in Salem or condemned producing the Bible in the language of the common man, whether it be English, German, French or whichever country they resided in. It was a weapon to be used to subjugate the masses and keep people in place.

Evangelists have got a bad name because of these extremes, and we see televangelists as the worst of them all. Flashy cars, expensive suits, private jets are standard equipment for many of these people we regard with disdain.

Of course, behind the glamour and glitz there is often a humble man who gives abundantly of his time and money to help those less fortunate. But we only see the half-hour or one hour show once a week. We don’t see the other six days and 23 hours. We choose too often to ignore it and condemn the excesses of their assumed lifestyle.

I had the privilege of meeting a well known evangelist some years ago at a conference. I “knew” him through his TV show, and went with my own anger ready to jump on him for his greed and excessive lifestyle. But the man I met that day was very different from what I imagined from the TV show. He had the same passion and vigour as we saw on the screen, but it was tempered with a humility that caught me completely off guard. As I spoke to him, he asked my opinion on what he had been speaking about. The sincerity of our conversation was totally opposite from what I’d expected.

He introduced me to some of his colleagues from behind the scenes who travelled with him. He chose his crew carefully and was quick to introduce me to one specific member. He described him as the conscience of the group. A man who was gifted in Prophecy.

This mighty giant of TV made sure he had someone with him at all times to keep him grounded and keep him cognisant of his humanity. He made a point of stating his ministry would fall apart without this input.

Too often we think of prophets as fortune tellers who predict the future. It’s a common misconception. The Prophets of the Old Covenant predicted Jesus after all.

But they were so much more than that. Jeremiah was an advisor to kings. Daniel and his friends became the conscience of their captors, and Joseph became de-facto leader of Egypt through the wisdom gained by prophecy.

We forget too easily how we reached the place we are now. America was founded in part because of religious persecution and a desire to worship God in a particular way, and for that way to be handed down. Fast forward a couple of centuries and the America of 2015 bans teaching the Bible in its schools, and under no circumstances should there be a mention of intelligent design when dealing with creation in public schools.

At the other extreme again, there are the so-called “Creationist” private schools that teach the planet is only 6000 years old (approximately) based on the genealogies in the books comprising the Old Testament.

Both sides need to be tempered with true Prophecy. An understanding of the meaning of the Bible beyond the simple grammar and verse to the Spirit behind it. By cutting true prophecy out of the equation as both extremes do we change the picture completely. When King David rode into battle he carried a bronze sword, not an iron one. In the New Testament, the soldiers used iron and steel to nail Jesus to the Cross and pierce His side.

Prophecy interprets and allows us to understand that the technology had changed and life had changed with it. David was a great military leader because he relied on prophets to guide his battle plans and he listened for God’s voice. He never imagined atomic bombs capable of destroying a city with a single strike as the Allies did with Hiroshima in 1945. His tactics were guided by wisdom through prophets guiding him how God would use the methods available to him.

Churches today often abandon the idea of prophecy. Many think it ended when the last of the 12 disciples died. Understandings of modern times are spoken through the eyes of modern society and sociologists rather than sages of Spiritual leadership.

In the last hundred years we have seen two global wars that wiped out the majority of a generation each, leaving young men with no fathers. The result is what we refer to as the second half of the 20th century. Generation X – my own generation – who wander lost much of the time because our fathers had no fathers to guide them so often. Generation Y – my generation’s children – are now growing into the age of adults with the guidance of children.

Where are the prophets for today?

Where are the voices who will stand up and say we need Jesus. Who will say amid the jeering and embracing of false teachings and idolatry that we need to change how we live?

Churches in many countries are considered non-profit organisations.

Let’s stop be non-prophet as well.

I’ve been heavily into John’s Gospel for the last few weeks, refreshing and revitalising as I feel a dry spell in my heart coming on and need to soak in God. I generally like to spend time in John for this because there’s so much in that Gospel to soak up.

In Chapter 1 we see the description of Jesus and His incarnation being recognised by John the Baptist.

At the start of Chapter 2, John moves into a mundane situation. An everyday occurrence. In this case it’s a family wedding. Jesus, his family and disciples are invited guests. It seems the groom has made an error of judgement at this party. Either more people arrived than he expected or he underestimated their capacity for wine consumption. In either scenario we are left to hear from Mary that the wine is finished.

In a 21st Century environment this is an inconvenience easily resolved by going to Tesco, Wal-mart or whichever the nearest wine retailer is to top up supplies. In 1st Century Cana this was not an option. Mary calls on Jesus to help the groom and his family from avoiding the humiliation of the situation.

Although His time is not come, Jesus defers to His mother’s wishes, honouring her as His mother. He spots six jars which will hold around 30 gallons each (150 litres +/-). That’s 180 gallons of water. 900 litres. almost a thousand standard bottles of wine to be produced.

Jesse Duplantis says often in the messages I’ve heard of his “God’s not enough – He’s too much!”

Such is the case here. Instructing the servants to fill the jars, Jesus turns 900 liters of water into 900 liters of the finest wine. Not just any wine, but the best. God doesn’t deal in inferior goods. Only the best is good enough – and He will raise the bar where He wants.

The steward calls the groom over and comments on the wine.

“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:10 NIV)

 The Best.

No cheap plonk or table wine for Jesus. Only the absolute best will do. This is a representation of God, after all.

A thousand standard bottles of the finest wine are given freely. He’s too much.

This shows us the nature of Jesus, and the nature of God Himself.

Later, Jesus says “Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) So we hear from Jesus Himself that He only does what God does.
Only what God does.

1000 bottles of choice wine. The very best.

The inference? God only gives the best.

Look at your life. Look at what is going on in it.

If you’re anything like me, there’s problems. I get problems with my health. For six weeks I’ve had chronic nausea and vomiting because my Medical Insurance forced me to change diabetic medication based on cost, not clinical results. As a result I’m seriously ill physically right now – it may or may not get better with time, but this is where I am right now. My wife has been sick for several years, facing a terminal illness in fact. Our finances went down the pan and we live on financial gifts from our family having sold our home, car and business to raise money for medical treatment for her.

Problems abound.

But not once have I said that God has placed these in my life to teach me something.

That’s not God’s nature. Not the God Jesus demonstrated. I challenge anyone reading this to find a reference in the entire New Testament where Jesus caused illness or poverty to come into someone’s life as a blessing. One reference showing Him turn someone away saying they needed to learn from what they were going through.

I’ve left churches for suggesting that. If you have a God who does that, you worship the Devil. These things are listed as curses in the Old Testament. They don’t become Blessings in the New Covenant.

God’s gifts are the BEST.

Satan will try to prevent us from receiving them – often with a lot of success because wrong but well-meaning teachers have told us that these things are sent to teach us. They base this on one quote from Paul’s letter to Romans

 ^“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)

The concept that these tribulations and problems issue from God to build our character, hope and perseverance levels has been popular for decades. It’s convenient. It removes responsibility on the suffering individual to get up and fight the real source of the pain being endured. It prevents us from fighting with the sword of the Word of God to counter the effect of this suffering in our life.

Jesus cared about the humiliation the groom at Cana would suffer if there was no more wine. He cared so much He produced far more than they could possibly need.

He did it again at the feeding of the 5000, turning a packed lunch into a feast for 5000 men plus their families. There could have been up to 20,000 people there that day, and there were 12 baskets of food left over. God’s too much.

Again.

And again.

This behaviour of Jesus, so simple we can miss the significance of it, is a siren letting the World know it’s creator is here. Telling Creation that second-best is no longer good enough for God’s Children.

All through 1000 bottles of wine.

God’s character is revealed in all His Glory in six simple stone jars and 180 gallons of water.

He gives the best and only the best, no matter where you are in the feast. In spite of all that has gone before, all our own best efforts mean nothing. God surpasses our best intentions in less than a heartbeat.

That man dying of cancer. The girl with HIV. The boy born blind. The bankrupt father trying to make a home for his family. They can all call on God through Jesus and expect the best. Healing. Restoration. Provision into abundance.

Look at Jesus’s actions. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. Yes, He condemned the love of money preventing people from receiving Him, but we also see men like Nicodemus – wealthy men – being welcomed into His family. Zaccheus surrendered his love of money and exchanged it for a love of God. Nowhere does it say he walked away penniless. Poverty is not God’s Best. Abundance is.
1000 bottles of wine. Abundant provision.

God’s nature is to give freely to His family. And by accepting Christ we are His children. His Family,

yet we settle for less than the best because we don’t recognise the immense significance of small examples in the Scripture.

Abraham believed God and received wealth so great he was asked to leave nations because his household was bigger than the nation. Solomon asked for wisdom and received not only that, but wealth unsurpassed in the history of mankind.

And we think that the God who would do that in the Old Testament will withhold in the New.

We fail to grasp the simplicity of God’s nature. Yes, He is complex on some levels, but His generosity is demonstrated over and over again in the Bible. Why do we not see it?

Read the wedding story in John 2 again, and look at God’s nature to give.

And if that’s not enough to convince you He only gives the Best, read chapter 3 as well.

He gave Himself for our salvation. Why would He refuse our daily needs?

His character shown in the Bible demonstrates clearly that He won’t.

Don’t believe anyone who says otherwise.

Often, too often, when we pray we give God an ultimatum. Lord is it choice X or choice Y?

We forget to leave space for God to offer a different option – His Will for our life.

There are paths we can take that seem safe and religious and even right, but they may well be a disguised trap to lure us away from His simple Truth.

Come, give me your burdens and let me carry you is the invitation we are offered. We generally try to hold on to the troubles and be carried, but Jesus wants us to lay those fears down and rest in His arms.

What is your weight today? What is your burden?

Perhaps it’s financial. Maybe it’s a career choice. Should we have another baby?

So many choices we all wrestle with and all seem like a “yes” or “no” answer is what we need. Perhaps we need something different.

In the movie Brewster’s Millions from years ago, the protagonist, Monty Brewster, is given a task: spend $30m in 30 days and he will inherit $500m. But at the end of the 30 days he must stand with nothing but the clothes on his back. He must get value for his money, nothing frivolous.

As part of his attempt to chew through the money for the prize he runs for mayor under the slogan “None of The Above”. As the job would carry a substantial salary he would lose the inheritance if he takes it. So he withdraws for the greater prize that is to come.

I’m sure the allegory was unintentional, but it rings true in me tonight as I write. My prayers recently have included the phrase “or whatever You have in mind for me, Lord.”

Things change. I’ve had offers come in I’d never have dreamed of and the doors are opening faster that I could have imagined. Granted some will close again, but the important thing is that I couldn’t even see the doors before. Now they are opening to me and a myriad of potential futures awaits me.

So I’ll keep this short.

Remember when we pray that it’s not always “either or”.

Stay open to option 3.

This world isn’t perfect. I think we can all agree on that.

There is hurt and suffering all around us. Living in South Africa it is apparent to me on a daily basis. Every day I am approached by children with torn clothes and no shoes asking for food – not even money. The sad reality is that the suffering is all around us.

Sadder still is the nonchalance of the elite in society. The South African President, Jacob Zuma, had improvements on his personal home done at the taxpayers expense, something that caused short term outrage. But it hasn’t been mentioned for several months in a major story by the state-run news media. Nobody wants to rock the boat.

If the money, several hundred million Rands (tens of millions of dollars) had been used to help the truly needy it could have provided shelter for thousands of child-headed homes, or education for the poorest children, food for the homeless. The list is endless.

Now I’m not writing a political blog, and whilst I despise the corruption in the power circles and cronies that goes on here it’s not my point.

We have an opportunity as Christians to let God help when we hurt or see another person hurt.

Our pain we feel when we see injustice, avarice, greed, nepotism and apathy from the “leaders” whether they be in South Africa, England, Canada, USA or wherever gives us a glimpse of God’s heart for the broken. If we let Him, He can turn our hurt into an opportunity for His goodnss to be shown.

I love the story of Joseph in the Bible. Reading and re-reading it I have yet to find any point where he is “disciplined” by God in some way. God gives him a dream so he shares it and his brothers throw him into a pit and sell him as a slave. Once a slave, God Blesses him incredibly and he faithfully serves God first, then Potiphar. To avoid dishonouring God he refuses to commit adultery with Potiphar’s wife. She accuses him of attempted rape and he is thrown into prison. Again, God Blesses him in prison and he virtually ends up running the place. He interprets two dreams of two other prisoners, one of whom is subsequently restored and the other executed just as Joseph had interpreted. The restored man forgets about him for some time until Pharaoh has a dream his wizards can’t explain. Then the former prisoner remembers. In a single day Joseph is then catapulted from imprisoned slave to second in power only to Pharaoh himself in Egypt – the modern equivalent would be a death row inmate made vice-President after talking to the President once.

Joseph must have hurt when his family betrayed him, but he saw God could turn it around – it was an opportunity.

When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him and falsely accused him it would be easy to despair, but not Joseph. He kept hold of God’s promise in a dream so many years before and waited for its fullness to come.

He could have let hurt overwhelm him when he was forgotten by his cell-mate. He didn’t.

He held fast to his vision. It gave him hope. His hurt allowed God to use it as an opportunity to ultimately save many lives.

His hurt became God’s opportunity.

Look at your own life. Consider the pain you’ve been through, but remember the promises God has given you.

Part of my testimony is that when I was sixteen I felt God inspire me to pray for my children. I’m now in my forties and married, but no kids yet. Over 25 years later I hold onto the promise. It doesn’t remove the hurt of being childless at this point, but I trust it will change. (Soon I hope!)

Another part was that I would preach and teach in many nations. To date this blog has reached over 20 separate countries. Many of those I hope to visit one day.

I’ve had much hurt in my life. My brother was killed in a terrible road accident 30 years ago. But from the hurt of that loss God was able to break into my life in a new way and I was Born Again. My dad died of Glioblastoma – brain cancer. It affected his daily functioning and he died by inches over four months. I had just moved church at the time and God used my hurt to surround me with more love and care than I’d ever have believed possible.

There’s more, but another time.

Every hurt I’ve experienced has allowed me to find an opportunity to either draw closer to God or reject Him. Rejecting has never been an option for me. I looked briefly at other religions before I was found by Jesus. I found only dead gods demanding sacrifices and rituals. Wash before you pray and don’t touch a member of the opposite sex or you have to wash again before you’re “clean” enough to come to their “god”. I prefer Jesus’s concept of “come as you are – I’ll fix you” He demonstrates in the Gospels and Paul and the other writers extol in the remainder of the New Testament.

Hurt becomes opportunity for God to do something wonderful. He even gives it to us in nature as an example. A couple of months ago a terrible fire destroyed much of the mountain near my home, but from the ashes of the fire the Protea plants shoot new growth. Their beauty is only released after a fire burns off the dross and allows the new to come forth.

We are no different.

Just as the fire gave God an opportunity to demonstrate His beauty in nature’s rejuvenation, so our hurts, physical and emotional, give Him a chance to demonstrate His power in our lives.

Hurt drives my family at the moment to seek answers. We have a business that is growing in Cape Town, but we have offers from overseas as well. There is the potential to follow both courses, run the business from overseas and have a manager take the day-to-day running of things. Or we could reject either of the two, stay or leave. We’re praying to see which is God’s opportunity for us. Whatever it is, we’ll grasp it with both hands.

Our hurts are deeply personal and right now I don’t want to go into details. Suffice to say the decision is quite literally a life-or-death one and we need to hear His voice clearly.

Hurts become opportunities, but we must take them.

They may not come again.

A good friend of mine for over 15 years wrote to me recently. I knew him through church. He comforted me and guided me spiritually through the death of my dad in 1999, a very l0ng-distance courtship with my then fiancee (now my wife) when we were apart with me in England and her in South Africa and dozens more things, all guided by the wisdom of Faith and relationship with Christ.

He’s lost his faith. His situation changed and much of what had kept him close to Jesus was stripped away. His family moved to a new town where their new church ostracized them for no reason other than his health. The very people who should have been supporting him and his family pushed them away. His marriage ended in divorce and his health continued to fail.

Society offered him solutions. Grants, medical assistance, psychologists and most of all, unconditional, non-judgemental support for his situation. He was allowed to begin to recover in his own time as he was able to face the issues haunting him supported not by Christians, but by the World.

His rational and well thought through decision has been to turn his back on Christ. He tells me – with great sadness for me to hear – that he no longer believes in Jesus, that Christianity was merely a crutch, one he no longer needs.

How has the church allowed this to happen? This dear friend, at one point closer to me than even my own family, was chased away from Christ by people claiming to be Christian.

I knew another man. He was a boy then, but has matured. Thankfully. He told everyone he could about Jesus. He was a real “you’re all going to hell, directly to hell, do not pass ‘go’ do not collect $200” kind of evangelist in the way he talked to people. In parts of Africa where I now live, there is a real concept of Hell as a literal place. Many people live in a physical and spiritual wilderness and that kind of wake-up call works very effectively. Not so much in the South of England. His growing has made him an effective speaker of the Truth and he reaches people effectively and compassionately. He demonstrates Christ instead of ramming Him down people’s throats. And people are drawn to this.

I met a minister from America a few years ago named Dave Duell. He is the most wonderful, down-to-earth man it’s been my pleasure to meet. It was a privilege to sit with him and chat not just about Jesus directly, but life and living, the reality of hardship and the way God can turn situations around. When we met I didn’t know who he was or what his life had been like to that point. I didn’t find out until the following day that he was the Keynote speaker at the conference! He simply saw a clumsy young man trip over a guide rope for the meeting tent and went to help him up. This same man preached the Gospel to Yasser Arafat. He speaks to world leaders fearlessly about Jesus and he speaks to little children exactly the same.

The best teachers I have ever heard have all said the same thing. The Cross is a crutch. We are broken and need to lean on it. My friend I first mentioned used to remind me of this when I was so broken over losing my dad, my first fiancee and a very good job within the space of five months in 1999. He was failed by the Church.

No.

He was failed by those leaders in the church who should have offered support and guidance the way he had to me. The way we are called by Christ to do. The way he did to me. His help, among others, rebuilt a shattered Christian back into a fierce and passionate Warrior for Christ, and I grieve for a fallen soldier and pray he find his path again.

We are all cripples. The issues I battled with in 1999 are still in my life. I battle them every day and more. My life in 2014 included cancer of not one but two family members, financial struggle and continuing to try to help my wife through a life-threatening illness, currently in remission, but one we know will ultimately claim her physical life. Every day is a battle. Every hour a struggle. Every moment I am reminded I do not have the strength to do this alone.

So I lean on the cross.

We are invited by Jesus to do so. He became like us so we could become like Him.

John Eldridge’s amazing book “Waking the Dead” puts it like this:

“The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.”

My life has been a battlefield since I became a Christian at the age of 13. There has been death, illness, persecution on a physical and mental level – as much as you get in the developed world, anyway. I have suffered rejection and had many, many chances to walk away from Christ. Each of these causes me to cling to Him tighter now, although at first I was tempted to let go as it would be “easier”.

Walk with a crutch. The Crutch of the Cross of Jesus Christ. It will never fail you, never break under the load, and support you in ways you never dreamed possible.

I’m a cripple, and I’m proud of it.

It gives me a chance to show what God can do with a weak and flawed human life.

I’ll keep my crutch, thanks World. It’s all I need.

I recently have read several arguments regarding the importance of orthopraxy – living a behaviourally “right” life – over orthodoxy – living a doctrinally correct life.

Don’t misunderstand me here. Our behaviour is vitally important in our walk with Christ. Faith, James tells us, requires works to demonstrate it. Even Satan believes in God – he has faith God exists.

A morally “good” existence is not enough. To be enough we need to look at the reason for the orthopraxy. What underscores the behaviour? Ghandi lived a morally “good” life. But his actions alone are insufficient. We are all fallen beings, and no matter how much good we try to do in this world we can never overcome the fact we were born into an inheritance of death. Adam’s bloodline was stained with Adam’s sin against God. We were separated from God because of that. Sin is in us all and no amount of good deeds, saving the whales or only eating vegetables will overcome that. Even ensuring an end to conflict and eradicating poverty would be insufficient.

That was the point of Jesus.

I follow a group on Facebook called “Kissing Fish”. It is a page advocating “Progressive” Christian concepts. I disagree philosophically with many of the arguments put forward there, but there is wisdom included in the writing that cannot be ignored. While recently the page featured an article about a question fundamentalists cannot answer – that being “Why would God care more about what we believe about God than how we live for God?” I felt compelled as – for want of a better term to describe myself, and I am open to suggestions – a “fundamentalist” Christian offer an answer.
I won’t repeat everything I wrote here – the page is open to view on facebook – but basically it boils down to this: the argument offered was that right actions are more important than right beliefs. I have to disagree.

Right actions in God’s work through us are born from right beliefs. Every change in the Bible from Old Testament including David’s repentance over murder through the salvation of Zaccheus and Paul’s experience on the Damascus Road involved a fundamental change in the belief – the orthodoxy – of the individual which then led to repentance in it’s fullest form and a total change of behaviour.

Our actions, like our speech, comes from the fullness of our heart. If we ask in the Holy Spirit and allow Him to fill our heart then our actions will be the resulting Godly action – although admittedly it’s a lot harder than it sounds. I ask God in but still harbour ill feeling towards my next-door neighbour for his intolerance of aspects of my situation, namely my dogs barking. It seems small, and it is petty, but it gets in the way of being full of God and being able to reach out to him in a Christ-like manner. On a bigger scale the abuser of a friend’s child goes on trial in a few weeks and my anger toward the individual for their actions burns fiercely. So fiercely I don’t know if it’s anger with the man – ungodly anger – or over the action. God’s anger against the abuse of an innocent child cannot be denied – His anger at the action that is. Yet He will still offer forgiveness and acceptance if this perpetrator truly repents and accepts Jesus. The question is whether we are able to. It’s a very personal question for me, and one I struggle to answer. Right now I find I cannot forgive the action and I am unable to separate the sin from the sinner in my heart. That action, although internal, separates me from God in that area and allows a foothold for our enemy in my life.

My belief that I need to extend forgiveness to those who have wronged me and the people I love comes from the Christ Paradigm that entered my heart when I accepted Jesus nearly 30 years ago. My ability to live this paradigm fluctuates. And it fluctuates in huge waves.

Oddly, I find it easier (usually) to forgive those who have wronged me directly than those who have betrayed and hurt the people I love. My paradigm is still one that seeks to exact revenge on the wrongdoer rather than forgive and let God handle it. It’s a stronghold in my heart that needs to change.

As a writer who is not afraid to speak out against false religion like Islam I sympathise with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo killings in France. I will not be silenced, but neither will I declare “Je Suis Charlie” because I am not. I don’t seek to make fun of another person’s religion, simply to try to demonstrate through my words and actions that they are mistaken in their beliefs. To this end I will use satire, humour, sarcasm and even self-deprecation to get the message of the Gospel across. There is no more important role that Jesus has given us than to be ambassadors of His Name.

How we go about changing the world begins with a change in ourselves. I’ve talked a bit about me in this article, my struggles, my beliefs and my paradigms. Some of them match the orthodoxy beliefs I want to live by. Some are a work in progress. But in any area, before we can demonstrate orthorpraxy, our orthodoxy, the core of what we believe that fuels our actions, needs to be correct.

Faith without works is dead.

Works without Faith is pointless.

Check your paradigm – and do it regularly.

 Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. [Mark 15:38 NKJV]

At the moment of Christ’s death, God Himself entered the Temple and ripped the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the people. It was torn as recorded in all the gospels from top to bottom, indicating this was not the work of conspiracy which would tear from bottom to top because of the nature of the curtain.

God rent the curtain and at that moment declared a New Covenant.

So why are we so determined to repair the curtain? Many ministers I’ve heard declare God to be a Holy God – which He is. They declare Him to be omnipotent – which He is.

They declare Him to be unapproachable. They missed something in that declaration.

“ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” [John 15:15 NKJV]

All things made known to us. Initially in person of Jesus Himself, then through the Holy Spirit. Christ came to us in a form where we could relate to Him as a human being and develop the kind of relationship with Him we were supposed, no designed to have with Him through Adam.

God, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, speaks to us. He enters our hearts as far as we will let Him in and He meets us where we are. The Holy of Holies is now the human heart. Anyone prepared to open themselves to Him becomes the Temple itself and God moves in with as much luggage as we allow Him to. The big difference is His luggage consists entirely of gifts for us.

Think about God’s primary motivation. Everyone knows John 3:16, but how many of us look beyond into the next few verses?

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” [John 3:17-21 NKJV]

We spend so much time on the sixteenth verse we miss the power of the context. Not to condemn us – something too many churches do. An invitation to leave darkness and enter into His Light. It is clear that the condemnation we feel is not from God. God convicts us of righteousness. Satan is the accuser who will make us condemn ourselves.

We believe the lie that we can’t return home. We’re not deserving of forgiveness. Every agreement in that vein begins to stitch up the curtain and separate us from Jesus and His Love.

It’s a common theme in other religions. My wife’s best friend is a muslim and in order for him to be able to pray he has to use a special cloth to wash himself in a specific order to be able to present himself before Allah to worship and pray so he is worthy.

I pray in the bath because it’s comfortable and nobody disturbs me. I don’t have to bow to the east to pray. Whilst I’d love to visit Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth and the Holy Land in general I won’t get a better spot in Heaven if I do.

The major denominations in general – there are individual churches within them who don’t do this – tend to be curtain repair men. I grew up in an Anglican church where I served first as a chorister then when my voice broke I became a “server”, the equivalent of an altar-boy I guess. I remember being drilled repeatedly week after week for lighting the altar candles in the wrong order. I didn’t get it. Under my alb I was usually in shorts in the summer, jeans in the winter. I got corrected if the knot on my belt was wrong. It had to sit in a certain position. When I became Crucifer, the individual who carried the heavy brass cross in the ritual I would have to be certain the cross was perfectly straight and at the right height relative to my size. The rules and regulations I realise now some 30 years later were busy repairing the curtain. I was permitted to cross into the area behind the altar-rail, something nobody who wasn’t the “right” person was allowed to do.

Curtain repairs.

Those examples seem negative, but my spiritual foundation was laid there, and much of what I write is a direct result of what I learned about God from the years I spent at that church as my faith grew. I didn’t agree with some of it, and wasn’t afraid at the age of 14 to challenge the minister over matters of theology. I respected John very much and I learned a great deal from him about what Jesus was about. It was an intellectual foundation that has allowed me to build a heart-based faith with a rock solid foundation under it that has helped me through more crises in the last 30 years than I can begin to express.

But I was still a curtain repair man.

Moving away from home and joining charismatic churches gave me a very different experience. The notion of intimate relationship became important. The orthodox teaching I had sat under allowed me to recognise the essential nature of the outward focus while my personal time focussed – and still does – of developing a relationship both emotional and intellectual with my Friend, Jesus. It allows me to sit alone and have a conversational style prayer with Him. Aloud if I’m completely alone. My work has isolated me from many of my friends, and my personal life outside work involves a lot of time consuming work to help my family with assorted illnesses recently so church on a Sunday has fallen away. I get fellowship where I can find it, and God always brings exactly the right person at precisely the moment I need across my path to keep me accountable.

It stops me repairing the curtain.

Don’t get me wrong. God is a Holy God. We need to respect that, but He’s our Daddy too. Watching children play and just hurl themselves into their daddy’s arms knowing he’ll catch them is beautiful God wants that for us. An intimacy of trust.

So quit repairing your curtain. Let the light in and wash the shadows away.

What’s to lose? Let Him in so you can receive healing in every area.

Your heart is now the Holy of Holies. Guard it with His Spirit.

Back to basics for this, the 200th post on this blog.

Faith. Trusting in God to give us what we need.

The Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) puts Hebrews 11:1-2 as follows:

“Trusting<sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-CJB-30187a" data-link="[a]”> is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old.”

The word Faith used in the majority of translations is here translated “Trusting”. It draws a parralel with Habakkuk 2:4 “Look at the proud: he is inwardly not upright; but the righteous will attain life through trusting faithfulness.” (emphasis added)

We all recognise Faith is essential in our walk with God. We believe the right doctrine (orthodoxy) and try to live it out (orthopraxy) but too often in our own strength. The “progressive” movement places a high emphasis on orthopraxy as being more important, but the two are inextricably linked. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:3 “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,<sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-28669a" data-link="[a]”> but have not love, it profits me nothing.” Actions without the love that comes through orthodox beliefs and Love – agape love – are worthless.

Once a year while I was at secondary school our headmaster would drone on about agape love in assembly. And I mean drone on. And on. And on.

It was painful, largely because he didn’t really practice what he spoke of, it was merely lip-service to the word.

I’ve been in churches that emphasise doing good works as being the most important thing, and “working out” our salvation through them. Now in some cases this was a genuine set of suggestions, but in others it was a question of we had to do the works because God did his bit, now we have to make up the shortfall.

Look at the thief on the cross next to Jesus. He didn’t live long enough to become a missionary or convert anyone else. He had no time to act on his faith. All he had a chance to do was believe and accept what Jesus had done.

Trusting Faithfulness.

Faith and nothing else saw him rewarded with eternity in Paradise with Jesus.

Somewhere we missed the point. We’ve become obsessed with orthoprax behaviours at the expense of belief being the motivator. Orthodox beliefs will inevitably lead to right behaviour. The beliefs in the correct way of Jesus and His sacrifice, when allowed to seep into the soul, cannot cause anything other than the orthopraxy so beloved by some churches now.

And this behaviour has its limits in these churches. Any church practising the behaviour of the first and second century Christians is labelled a cult these days, yet observations by ancient historians and apologists such as that of Aristides of Athens in the second century, where he states “… if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food. They observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and every hour they give thanks and praise to God for His loving-kindnesses toward them…”, a demonstration of a true community as practiced by the Church led by Peter in Jerusalem that led to a mass of people selling all they had to ensure everyone in the church, slave and free, had enough for their families – not because it would “earn” their salvation, but because their salvation was so complete they could not do anything else and accept they were Christians.

Somewhere along the line we introduced the concept of the tithe – not a bad concept in itself, just not what Jesus talked of. Jesus said to the rich young ruler to sell all he had and follow Him. The young man left sadly because he loved his material possessions, not because the orthoprax behaviour was impossible, but because it required him to surrender his idol – money.

James writes:

“ I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.” [James 2:18 The Message]

The modern idiom is to do the works and the faith will follow. Tell that to a diabetic who stops his medication to cause his faith for healing to grow. The man will die by inches (I am a diagnosed diabetic but my faith for healing is not yet complete so I take my medication until it is). Or a heart disease patient. Or any sick person who is convinced by wrong teaching that actions produce faith.

Faith without works is dead, but similarly, works alone are pointless. The two are inseparable. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We cannot “earn” His Love as it is freely given to us. Our own children don’t have to earn the love of their parents, they are simply loved. Why do we ascribe a different standard to God?

Faith gives us vitality. It allows us to move into works. It brings life and a point to our existence. It allows our works to have meaning and for us to be more than an empty vessel making a noise.

The Pharisees had works. They “obeyed” their interpretation of the Law of Moses. Paul himself wrote he was blameless in the sight of the pharisaic interpretation of the Law. He had kept the Law, their interpretation of it, perfectly. But it was not enough. His actions were perfected by Faith. Trusting instead in the completion of the Law by Jesus and His actions, Paul was freed to move into real action, God’s works for his life. As a result he travelled the Roman Empire in the Middle East planting churches and teaching the risen Christ to anyone and everyone who would listen. He gave us over half the New Testament books in the form of the letters he wrote, and most of our modern understanding of orthodox belief is based on those letters.

Faith is the power-house that provides movement to the body of Christ, or it should be. If we truly Love God, that is if we truly have a complete trusting faithfulness in His goodness and faithfulness, then we will see the mountains around us thrown into the sea. It is not our beliefs or actions that cause the change, but our trust that produces God’s actions to manifest in our lives.

First the belief, the vitality of true unwavering faith. Orthodox beliefs.

Actions will follow naturally. Orthoprax actions – the right actions – flow from faith.

And that Faith revitalises us.