Daybreak

 "He (the Lord) has sent me to bind up the broken hearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives - deliverance from the prison for those enslaved".

Isaiah 61: 1.

"Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead".

Dionysius.

Those of us who think we currently have a problem at present need to seriously consider the following...

Europe in the mid 14th century was not a healthy place to be. Between 1347 and 1351, it is estimated that the Black Death was responsible for killing around two thirds of Europe's entire population - around 200 million souls as it spread across from Africa and the East.

This wasn't the first horror of its kind.  From 165-180 AD, an outbreak of what may well have been smallpox or ebola caused a swathe of deaths (around 5,000 a day) in what is now termed the Plague of Cyprian and another outbreak came in the 7th century - the Justinian Plague, wiping out around 40% of the population.

In the year of 1527, the awful scourge of the Black Death spread horribly once more through Europe, and in August of that year, it arrived within the gates of the University town of Wittenburg in Germany.

It had only been a handful of years since this place had found itself at the centre of momentus events that would change the nature of Europe as deeply as any plague.

At the centre of what shifted the world was a man named after Saint Martin of Tours - a Roman soldier of the 4th century. Named so because he was baptised in Eisleben on the saint's day (November 10th, 1483), he, like his name-sake, would renounce his allegiance to higher authority to fulfil his work as a soldier of Christ.

As the deadly disease reached the doors of his own home, Martin Luther and his pregnant wife Kathrine proceeded to turn their residence into a ward for the sick and the dying, to care for their bodies but also to provide them with the eternal comfort of Jesus Christ, through God's word, and to those that believed, through the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood.

Death was no stranger to the beloved theologian. A year before the plague, He and Katherine lost their second child, Elizabeth, just months after her birth - something that was to be evidenced again in 1529 with the loss of their third child, Magdalene.

In his own family, Luther had been one of eight children, but only one of his brothers and three of his sisters survived into adulthood.

It would have been easy for the good doctor and his family, then, to leave the university in the face of such tragedy - to distance themselves from death. They were valued members of the community, after all, and no doubt could have simply expected the hospital and perhaps others to aid the sick, but Martin understood that when such tragedy strikes, the role of the Christian is to place his love for God first by seeking to do what is genuinely good for neighbour, and that meant bringing the only freedom which matters to the lost and the dying - the freedom that Christ gives us in His dying and rising for our sins.

This manner of bold affirmation of the Gospel is why Wittenburg became the centre of change in first Germany, and then across the rest of Europe.

In the years prior to 1521, the Roman Church's response to the general troubles of the people under its authority had been to fleece them of their wealth through either selling them 'rights' to numerous reductions of years in purgatory through a papal indulgence, or by their attending, for a fee, to the various collections of 'holy' relics across the empire. The church, in other words, sought to prey upon the fears taught in to people's religious affections concerning death by highlighting these to take their wealth. Religion became a way to dispel such anxieties, but only for the right price.

Luther knew, as the Apostles taught, that the only way to find true peace and freedom before God was through what had been freely made ours in the coming of Jesus Christ, and that life was the only means of salvation for each of us. This is what he diligently shared to the sick brought to his home.

It was amongst these very troubles that he also began to pen his famous hymn -

A safe stronghold our God is still, a trusty shield and weapon.

All fascinating stuff, someone might say, but what has it to do with today? Times have moved on, and there really isn't a need for the church to take such actions now... we can leave the matter in the hands of scientists, politicians and our health service.

And there, indeed, is the problem. If the church is now generally perceived as having no key role, what is it meant to be doing?

In a recent expose of the development of underground or micro churches, Brian Sanders has identified a key problem that is leading to the irrelevance and ossification of more mainline denominations. Taking  the example of what is termed a 'sunk cost bias' in the commercial world (projects which keep eating vast amounts of money and time, but will never become profitable or genuinely worthwhile), he speaks of how so much of what is currently occurring, especially in times of crisis, is unmasking the church as naked when it comes to providing an effective and sustainable responses to basic spiritual needs.

"We continue doing what we've always done because it would be too painful to shutter the operation, admit we are failing, and abandon the effort put into our endeavours... Some of this can most certainly be attributed to pride, because in such conditions, it becomes increasingly difficult to admit we made a mistake. Change becomes hard. Courage is needed to face what must be done" (Underground church).

What drove Luther and his beloved wife to total service wasn't a whim to try a church growth program or a method of displaying religious piety, but a burning desire to share the essential life, death and resurrection of the Son of God to those in desperate need. Through water, paper and ink, bread and wine, notes Mike Horton, God seeks to come to us, and Martin understood his role was to share such truth through the vital good news of the justification of the unjust purely by God's unearned grace through trust in the righteousness of Christ alone.

Reformation today, as then, is all about returning back to the this same vital life and message of Christ, and allowing this to nourish and prompt us towards doing not what is safe, but what is essential for the day in which we find ourselves.

The church shows itself to truly be church when it steps out in this fashion, because it comes to understand that seeking to work or construct on any other foundation, however popular in the moment, will fail.

The day came when Luther faced his own demise, his last words being as vital as all that the Gospel reveals.

"All men are beggars".

Let us lead others, like this man, to the living waters of Christ saving us.

Impaired?

"Yes I think I'm OK... I walked into the door again

If you ask that's what I'll say, 

And it's not your business anyway.

I guess I'd like to be alone, with nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don't ask me how I am..."

Luca by Susan Vega.

"For if someone were to come to you with another Jesus, or if you received a different spirit, or a different message from the one we brought, you would put up with it readily enough".

2 Corinthians 11:4.

"For God has not given us over to a spirit of fear, but to one of power and love and self control" 

2 Timothy 1:7.

Imagine the scene. 

Someone visits your church and in a special event meeting, proceeds to inform you that they have been visited by the Lord Himself, who has gifted them with a 'new' and astonishing translation of the scriptures, which will 'bypass your mind' and speak directly 'to your spirit', unlocking truths that have been hidden or neglected by Christians for centuries. 

What would you think? 

Would you rush to the back at the end of the meeting to eagerly buy your copy, or would you want to be more cautious, going home to learn more about this 'anointed' person and to seek a wider analysis of his 'revelation' from others who were qualified in the field of biblical scholarship?

Another consideration... what would it say about the church that allowed such behaviour freely and openly to occur among its congregation? Would this be something just to winsomely accept, or would it justifiably raise alarm bells about the nature of what was being accepted as good for your spiritual well-being?

This isn't a hypothetical situation for many. 2020 saw the release of something entitled the 'passion' translation (apparently, that was the name of the 'angel' that dictated it) by one Brian Simmons.

Simmons has spent much of the year visiting churches to speak on his revelation and to encourage Christians to use this book as the 'best' translation of scripture. The problem is that when it is placed alongside accurate and painstakingly produced translations provided by the formal equivalence process over decades of careful preparation, it fails miserably and provides numerous very dubious and dangerous statements which argue with the straightforward translation of the original Hebrew and Greek texts (see here for a few examples on the issue).

I touch on this because it's a good example of how we should be incredibly weary of someone seeking to bring something 'new' into the church that will detach us from Christ and the Gospel and lead us woefully astray... just like the impositions we have found ourselves placed under by our government this year. I know that many who read that last statement will no doubt want to argue or dispute it - it's for our safety, they'll cry, but before you settle on that, have a listen to this sermon from a minister in Ireland on the current situation - five brief points that need to be addressed by all of us. If you're happy that everything's fine in respect to what's happening in our churches after listening to this, then perhaps you need to consider afresh the verse from Paul in 2 Corinthians I've quoted above.

The sad truth, of course, is that everything is far from good as a consequence of the capitulation by church to state. Both Douglas Murray and Giles Fraser have written again this week of the continuing, nay escalating closures of churches across the country, a number of them permanently, as ministers continue to bow to the 'safety' demands not to fellowship in person and most certainly not to worship if you do. It is a blight upon us and the nation that we have so demeaned the life in which God wishes and requires us all to share. As Giles Fraser notes, God Himself has placed 'skin in this game' - even to the death on a cross, so can we really afford as His disciples to do less?

2021 is already shaping up to be an even more restrictive and miserable state of affairs than these past 9 months, whatever the 'virus' does, so we need to seriously ask ourselves are we merely going to continue to go with what's required (and then demanded), or are we going to begin to seek new and fresh ways of allowing church life to breathe again? Let's hope we can indeed become renewed in a spirit of power and love, and boldness (Acts 4:29) to do something effective for God's kingdom in the days to come.

I beg to differ...

 "We're busily going nowhere, Isn't it just a crime".

One of the outstanding court-room dramas of modern times is A Few Good Men, which involves two American marines being tried for the death of a third because they followed an illegal order, known as a code red, to discipline the soldier, and their efforts go badly wrong.

The main action involves the build-up to the final conflict when the defence requires the C O of the men to take the stand, but there's a great scene in the movie where the whole nature of this manner of order is examined by both councils in this beautifully crafted moment.

Note the arguments given here - is it in the manual? Is it essential to the nature of the operations of the unit. Clearly, as shown in the film, those in command believed it was, but the conclusion of their convictions is the death of a man at the hands of his comrades through procedures which were, in effect, illegal and far from good for those who were living under such a regime.

Sometimes, of course, as the scene shows, there are things that are part of life that may not be written down in the general rules, but it's when the actions we're required to fulfil effectively break or silence the vitality of the rules themselves that we're placing ourselves in trouble.

The UK has found itself operating under a huge "Code Red" in 2020 - executive orders implemented by a small group - an inner circle - in Government for the supposed good of us all. We're all too familiar with the general consequences of this in respects to the restrictions we continue to live under as the year ends, but amongst those requirements, Christians are especially aware of those that have been addressed towards them.

In his work, A Better Way, Dr Michael Horton seeks to open up the very form and purpose of our gathering together as church in respects to what this does and why this matters. In the section on Devine worship in a service he notes: "submitting to particular forms (in respect to liturgy and content) disciplines (structures) us not only as the congregation, but also reins in pastors or worship leaders at whose mercy we often find ourselves... If worship is truly to be Christ-centred, then we will not move beyond the types and forms God commands, whilst allowing liberty on the peripherals (i.e. the time and duration of our gathering)".

Worship, as Jesus shows us in the opening of the Lord's Prayer, is the manner whereby we come before the Father to see the connection between heaven and earth opened so that His will may become evident amongst us.

It is, then, a deep cause for concern when those in power require us to abstain from such actions (praise in singing, for example), because of the 'harm' this may cause to others.

This should certainly raise a critical question in us - is this right?

The reasoning here is that health standards require such a negation of particular expressions of worship - just as they also have negated having public bibles in pews, handshakes at doors or full communion in most services - but can this be something that should be sustained for continuing weeks, months... or even longer?

The book of Job tells us that as God formed, spread and furnished the cosmos, the 'stars' of heaven - the living creatures, angels and countless other 'sons of God', sang in sheer wonder at the Lord's great handiwork (Job 38:7). As the Apostle John observes the panoramic unfolding of tumultuous events amongst the nations of men upon the earth in the revelation the Lord gives to conclude scripture, his visions of this are paired to seeing into the throne room of the Almighty, where countless numbers of beings provide a throng of constant worship (Revelation 4,5,7,19). When the 'teachers' of Jesus' day sought to silence those who worshipped Him, He rebuked them by saying that if they did so, the very stones would cry out in praise (Luke 19:40).

Genuine and proper worship by the saints is therefore essential to the very fibre of our being those defined as church, and yet, this is the very foundational matter that has been extracted from our gathering together.

The consequences are clear.

Like the Israelites in captivity, we are muted in what we must be and do (Psalm 137).

Because of this, we are not seeking to uphold what we're commanded to do (1 Corinthians 14:26) and this clearly impresses upon our nature, practice and identity as church (Ephesians 5:19).

Some ten months ago, we were told such restrictions would be short lived, but as time has passed, we have succumbed to our Government's version of a code red for Christianity, and it has silenced much of what we have to say.

It is clearly time to repent (turn away) from where we now find ourselves and begin once again to rejoice in the Lord.

Let's see this as one of the key goals for the weeks and months ahead.

Ho, Ho, Ho....

 There, amongst the darkness, there's a cry, and an answer.

Take a listen.

As deep as it is wide...

If you haven't yet listened to this, then you really should.

Joy to the world! 

Pre-Christmas goodies...

 A gem from Mr Chad Bird.

And another from 1517.

Enjoy!

Vital...

 The Guys over at the White Horse Inn posted this on Facebook this week:

If only churches got the message!

Inside Out

This old house once knew my children, This old house once knew my wife, This old house was home and comfort, as we fought the storms of life, This old house once rang with laughter, This old house heard many shouts, Now it trembles in the darkness, When the lightning walks about.

I work in a modernist 'box' of a building, made of glass and steel - everything that is expected of modern utilitarian architecture. On the outside, it surely looks solid and built for purpose. It's only when you 'live' inside, that a different picture comes to the fore.

The flat roof leaks continually, leaving several open 'holes' in the ceilings of all 7 floors. The heating system was 'finished' in a manner that left much to be desired, meaning the interior is often too hot in summer and too cold in winter. There have been numerous other 'problems' related to the nature of the property (wiring, plumbing, cladding) in the years I've been there, so when the top half of the building became vacated by my department some years ago, it proved impossible to see it rented to anyone else... because of the troubles. What keeps it functioning as a workplace is that every year, just enough money is made available to repair the most serious issues.

In recent times, I've begun to face similar troubles with my own property, but there's one key difference. This year, I decided the time had arrived to expend income to seek to fully repair the key troubles. It's hard going in the current crisis, but nearly half of what I'm aiming for has now been done, and it's already making a real difference to the look and feel of the place.

Notice the difference?

Wisdom, Jesus tells us, is all about building what counts on a sure foundation that isn't going to crack and crumble when the storms arrive. The foundation, in other words, is firm enough to give the wiring, the beams, the insulation, and everything else, an integrity that won't buckle and fold, because the quality of what's being installed amidst secure walls is made to last and supply the needs of those who dwell within.

The storms building this year aren't just to do with distant troubles or matters that have no bearing upon us - they are seeking to erode what's within our homes and lives so that, whilst externally, things may appear just as sound, internally, they are being deliberately changed to a point where pluralism and post modernism can define our faith of "no major importance" (official language for Christianity this year).

Luther penned it right when he noted the industry of our enemy in respects to his opposition, both from the world and in terms of 'teaching' amongst us that, in effect, leaves us bereft of the full counsel of wisdom that God requires us to be furnished with, so that we can discern between the spirit of truth and of error (1 John 4:1-6):

"The ancient prince of hell, has risen with purpose fell, strong mail of craft and power, he weareth in this hour, on earth is not his equal".

The point of attack is always the same - to uproot the vital truth that Christ's incarnation alone facilitates full redemption and freedom for us - that is the vital residence which shelters Adam's benighted children - and to seek to trust in any other mode of sanctuary, whatever the source, is to indeed place ourselves on shifting, sinking sand, where anything can be adjusted to allow the appearance and progress of holes in the faith.

It's very rare for us to see our enemy in his true colours. The poison he seeks to administer is always introduced in a fashion that seems harmless, even beneficial, for those who receive it, but just like the fascinating creature standing outside the gates of Mansoul (John Bunyan's The Holy War), behind Apollyon, invisible but eager to subdue, are arrayed all the malignant hosts of the powers of darkness. The war between the Kingdom of God and the corruption of Babylon (Revelation 17 & 18) is at the very heart of what is unfolding amongst us today.

When Christ spoke to the churches in the opening of the book of revelation, He shows how one of the key problems was that they had become too comfortable and complacent concerning the encroachment of what had crept in and become commonplace amongst many (the majority) of them (Revelation 2:4, 14&15, 20, 3:2, 15&16). We cannot expect to see a healthy, growing vibrancy in our churches until the real issues of our time are faced with truth as well as with love, leading us to return to the 'old paths, wherein lies the good way' (Jeremiah 6:16).

The key reason somewhere like my workplace can remain open and useable is the dedicated team of behind the scene workers who spend their days employed making sure that none of the many hazards become troublesome enough to prevent the building from being used. Sometimes that's a straightforward as placing a hazard sign, other times it means full-on maintenance on a system to keep it doing what it should. Because of the nature of these roles, these people are generally not noticed as present by the staff of the office... at least until they're needed, but the truth is they're there all the time, and the warnings and corrections they provide are vital to the general upkeep of the working environment.

There have been several voices raised this year in respect to giving warnings of the growing hazards facing the church at this time. The window is still open just far enough for these to be heeded, but that opportunity will close fast now that it's been proved that controls can be implemented to restrain and curtail Christianity across the globe. Such power, particularly when excercised, is tellingly unhealthy. We must pay attention to what has unfolded and make it a matter of priority to implement ways and means to safeguard the future of our assemblies should this indeed become a condition that extends long into the future.

The fact is the world isn't going to be the same after 2020, and whatever you think as to the reasons for that, the church has already suffered greatly in this new regime, so we have to deal with the issue head on if we want to see things improve in the New Year.

The winter is broken when the light of the world is made evident amongst us. May that indeed be true for our world during this Christmas season, and into the times ahead.

Submerged

"Out of these depths, I cry out to you, O Lord"

Psalm 130:1.

Have you ever experienced what it's like, even if only briefly, to be drowning,

or finding yourself unable to breathe, gasping for air,

or waking up in the middle of the night, experiencing something happening to you that makes you feel as though you are close to death?

Perhaps, like me, you've experienced all three of these physically, and the awful realisation that you are not in control when these moments befall you.

How small your life suddenly becomes, and how readily you find yourself crying out for help and remedy.

Desperation of course, doesn't have to be brought on by something quite so immediately extreme. There is many circumstances that befall us in the more common experiences of life that can open a void of desperation in our fragile nature's and leave us thinking and feeling that we're abandoned to the fierce rages of whatever will befall us next. As one friend noted on Facebook this week, 'It's not always the 'giants' - the overwhelming enemies, the major battlefields, that prove the most exhausting and dangerous. It's often the ongoing, subtle, seductive, soul-gnawing smaller things in life that wear us down'.

Tragedy of one kind or another rains down hard upon our world every day.

There's very few of us who can look back on this year without having known some of the full measure of that.

Cruel times.

The Psalmist could write of a thousand, even ten times that, falling at his side, because he clearly often lived in peril - some of which was clearly of his own making - and none of us can truly steer clear continually of all manner of such troubles.

The truth is that we often may narrowly avoid one agony only to find ourselves confronting another.

Being someone in communion with the most high does not usually mean that such issues are avoided. David knew the sweetness of God's fellowship, but he also knew that such a union could also bring particular and targeted trails through others, and through his own miss-directed desires. The Lord is most certainly not 'tamed' in such circumstances, but genuine cries for aid and mercy do not go unheard.

Steadfast love towards us and plentiful (boy, do I need that!) redemption (Psalm 130:7) are the firm pillars upon which David knows he can depend in any crisis, even when it involves facing our very real end.

There is a need for another abandonment when we're in these deep waters, because the truth is there are depths we cannot escape, and those moments must be given over entirely to the faithfulness of another.

Amidst our dangerous days, God is given primarily to us in the tangible embodiment of His Son, and it is in that giving that we most evidently see, in our living and our dying, that His great intention is to ravish our whole eternal existence, including our terror and demise, in the depths of that extraordinary love.

To quote from a recent article on the deep nature of judgement and love:

"To describe God's love, C S Lewis invokes many analogies - love of pets, love of a Father for a child - but the most accurate analogy, he warns, is also 'full of danger'; that is, the love 'between the sexes'. The insanity, the out-of-control-ness of erotic love. This type of love (and here he quotes Dante) is 'a lord of terrible aspect':

"When Christianity says that God loves humanity, it means that God loves us: not that He has some 'disinterested', but in truth indifferent concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The 'great spirit' you so lightly invoked, the Lord of terrible aspect is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of guests, but a consuming fire that is the Lord Himself - the love that made and sustains worlds".

This type of love is not convenient or pragmatic or even always kind.

It may actually be unhealthy. It is possessive and unruly, bringing bad weather as often as good".

The author then goes on to speak of how such deep love is often passionate and can therefore be judged as unruly - turbulent and often unreadable until its full, burning itent becomes evident. Our faith is not tame, regimented or predictable - it inhabits the storm as much as the still waters, and yet, like David, in the midst of all our troubles, it is the love we cry for... the love we need.

As I considered these truths on my trip to work today, I was reminded that

God, in the Incarnation, has married Himself to us, body, bone and blood,

hence the vibrant, wholesome intimacy of that somewhat overwhelming resurrection breakfast on the beach, when men learn they must eat and drink of that essential union amidst the most trying of promised requirements and trials.

That is where the depths of love become foremost, and takes us beyond any staid or inadequate entwining with the depths of our Lord and Saviour.

Life drives us into all manner of agonies and ecstasies, because we are creatures with yearnings that can only be met, only be righteously fulfilled, in the One who has furnished us for such ends.

Let us drive hard to press in to His ways and His communion with us.

It will clothe our short days here with a genuine value, rich, endearing and eternal.

Killing the Law

"I fought the law and... the law won".

I'm going to start a little differently today, principally because there's a great link you need to check out before we go any further, so come back after you've taken a look at Mr Walker's piece.

All done?

OK, so what I wanted you to glean was how what we deem to be 'spiritual' or just plain right can actually become Law to us, and law multiplied, and that really isn't going to do us any real good.

We have this inner propensity to bend away from unmerited mercy, because we (and by that, I mean that 'natural' (fallen) you and I) keep de-faulting to the notion that in the right time, in the right place, under the right conditions, we can actually achieve what's required in both our thinking and our deeds. At moments like that, we don't want to hear those statements which say that even our righteous (good) enterprises are equivalent to used rags when set against true goodness and eternal uprightness.

We're living at a time when most of us are being defined and often judged by how we match up to a set of social externals that measure just how 'good' we are in respect of not 'harming' others by what we don't or do perform publicly, and, perhaps, even what we think, expressed in our words or attitudes. It's a breeding ground for 'little things' morality, especially if it's accompanied by being on message about various other social issues that we're constantly being told need to be remedied, but it all amounts to little more than a security blanket to bolster our pride and self-righteousness instead of exposing us to the much deeper requirements of life primarily wrapped in mercy and expressed in forgiveness.

We can only be free when we are held by grace and thriving in the liberty and freedom that brings.

Let's hope that becomes evident as we approach this Christmas and the vital joy this exclusive gift and splendour brings to our troubled world.

Certainty

 Nice piece at Mockingbird this week on where we can gain something truly worth it's weight amidst our days that rattle and roll... Take a look here.

Into the Wind

A piece I wrote recently....

We're going in”...

Bill Harding – Twister.

It was a big thing in the seventies – the disaster movie.

People would pack cinemas to see films like The Towering Inferno and Jaws to be shocked and terrified by experiencing some man-made or natural disaster.

None of us, however, really enjoy living in a world of earthquakes or tsunamis... but we do.

It's also true to say we live in a world of enormous human evil.

The events of the 20^th century left a truly miserable trail of abominable carnage and extermination.

From the Gulag's of Stalin's 'glorious' Socialist state, through the gas chambers of Nazi Germany, to the Killing Fields of Mao and Pohl-Pot in the East, these awful decades of death grant us a horrifying insight into the seemingly inexhaustible misery and brutality we can impose upon others, particularly in the name of some form of political idealism.

As with the French revolution of the 1700's, this manner of evil is continually wrapped in the guise of something meaningful and 'progressive' for humanity. Hitler brought several years of genuine economic growth in Germany before his engagement in full scale war, but behind the scenes, work was already in hand to bring about the centre-piece of a national socialist regime – the 'final solution', which would begin with the extermination of the Jewish people, but would then continue within the new reich into the purging of all races to bring about the goal of a truly 'pure', eugenically guided master species.

The 'truth' we want to tell ourselves about our own times is that the great wars ended such troubles – that for our lifetimes we have moved away from such abominable aims and instruments of ideological control into an age of genuine enlightenment and calm, but this would fly in the face of reality, and recent events of global trial have shown us otherwise. Whilst the threat of a nightmare pandemic has left many realms gripped by fear into yielding their economic policies into wholesale damage control, the far deadlier take-over at work in our political and social structures has continued unabated, indeed aided by the present conditions. We are at greatest risk not from a virulent form of a seasonal strain of a particular grouping of a virus, but the very same ideological misery that has played out in prior times.

GAME OVER

Some of us will recall one of Disney's earliest ventures into digital technology in the early 1980s movie, Tron. It tells the story of how a mega corporation's attempts to corner the world of information technology is thwarted by a group of rebel programmers, but the 'real' story is the inter-action which takes place between a master game-creator named Flynn and the micro world within 'the machine', pictured as a malevolent Master Control Program. Flynn is taken into the system, where he is made to play gladiatorial-like games to remain alive, but escapes such through the help of a program his associate created called Tron. After a great deal of struggle, Flynn manages to defeat the MCP and its human counter-part, Dillinger and restore a form of freedom to the system.

The film says a great deal, as the 2019 documentary, The Great Hack, reveals.

In the modern world, “Users” (you and I) have indeed become 'stored' in the system as thousands of data points, which are constantly used in an analytical fashion to not only determine what we like and what we will purchase, but how we can be swayed to vote or think about various issues, and this has quite literally adjusted the entire course of the modern world.

The brave new world we have inherited, laid down by the likes of IBM and Microsoft, but then accessorised by Google, Facebook and Twitter, is a domain where you generate value for corporations and businesses by our continual use of their systems, the validity of which has increased ten fold over the last six months. These data spheres have become as invaluable to us as groceries and hospitals, even taking the place of worship and other social activity during our now commonplace times of confinement. It is only when we begin to fully comprehend the extraordinary power these 'faceless' corporations now control in every major sphere of human activity that we begin to comprehend some measure of how evil is shielded within the 'cloud' of what most of us view as benign, even benevolent, in our daily sharing of images or messages. Behind that popular notion is a very dark and manipulative world of global influence and monumental change that costs us so much, just so we can work beneath the pretence that everything is good.

LEAVING THE RESERVATION?

If you watched any of this year's other 'must see' documentary, The Social Dilemma, then one thing that should have really struck home was the number of prior pioneers for 'big tech' companies that now stay away entirely from social media, purely because they understand how their inventions have been deployed to manipulate the user as often as possible for as long as possible. As noted in The Great Hack, social media has been comprehensively weaponised by the best means available to gather profiling data on its users to addict them to what is on offer – 'safe' engagement with every social sphere you need, for as long as you need, in a fashion you perceive as 'free' and, most importantly, self affirming.

Gone is the paranoia of earlier days seen in movies like 'The Net', and worries about the very real existence of AI systems that are growing exponentially smarter all the time are viewed as conspiratorial at worse, so when Elon Musk announced a new 'implant' chip that plugs straight into your cerebral cortex on Facebook in the autumn, no one gave it much thought – just another 'app' that makes it simpler for everyone.

We have become entirely comfortable with such tech being within reach 24/7, and if the next phase is an 'upgrade' that makes it part of our own skin and thereby simpler to use, we won't be concerned. In reality, it will mean that far more about you is being streamed into the systems of private corporations who entirely own what you provide... and you cannot get it back.

THE CYCLE

When the World Wide Web first opened for business, the vast majority of domains and sites you could access were free use. Slowly but surely, companies moved into the space and offered various 'services' for a fee to keep your data 'safe', but the clauses we all signed when we joined such agreements gave our vital information to them, and for the last thirty years, pretty much everything we do has been feeding that system, not only by facilitating the way we chose to spend via mega corporations like Amazon, but through 'encouraging' us to see the world in particular ways, once again to facilitate the expansion of other power interests and continue to provide ever increasing amounts of valuable (tradable) data, which is why such information is now the most valuable commodity on the planet.

The question which should be on our minds is what happens next?

In the first episode of the 1978 series Connections, James Burke imagined what it would be like if the power were to be switched off – permanently. After the initial violence and looting, a mere handful of people just might make it by returning to the land and having enough savvy to know what to plant and how to survive, but what he showed then was just how entirely the world had come to depend upon technology. Over the last 40 years, we have reached a point where the pressures we have placed upon the planet and society have exploded, but along side those troubles, new forms of social reform and modifying behaviour have come into play, reaching a pinnacle in the use of social media.

It's highly unlikely that the 70s collapse scenario will happen, but how far are we from the manner of synchronised dystopia envisaged in a film like The Circle? As facial recognition cameras become commonplace in our supermarkets, as health requirements move us to a point where face to face engagements and the use of physical currencies become unhygienic, as AI becomes more and more responsible (intrusive) for determining what benefits or offers or virtual opportunities are available or not to you, how long will it be before what defines us is not ourselves?

THE TYRELL SCENARIO

On the cusp of technology adjusting us, Science Fiction writer Phillip K Dick penned a story of where the nightmare of growing dependence on the artificial would lead us. His 1968 book would become a cult classic in the 1980s when it appeared as one of the most defining films of the era, Blade Runner, exploring the heady question of what indeed makes us human, but equally, what allows us to keep what is genuine in that equation.

The 2019 documentary The Great Hack showed that this question has become absolutely imperative to this moment. Just like the men and women 'shielded' by using androids in the film, Surrogates, we find ourselves required to spend more and more of our lives on-line, vicariously living by what is provided there, having our identities defined and used by the parasitical systems that intrusively channel what makes us a viable extension of devised wants and needs that provide others with power.

BREAKING THROUGH

Evil does not parade its true nature and ramifications in a fashion that will leave us appalled and angered. It will work softly, methodically, appealing to our sense that it is best to tolerate and co-exist with what is not deemed or perceived as an immediate threat to us, drawing along side, and then, requesting what is clearly good or sensible for us, thereby gradually encroaching upon what it should not have until it erodes away our actual freedom by luring us with something it defines as better than what we had, until we are entirely snared by its pervasive systems and choked by the poison of its ideals, defined as being 'for the best'..

In his series of documentaries for the BBC at the turn of the century, Adam Curtis showed how our society has spent over a century succumbing to the power of the elites (The Mayfair Set), and discarding personal and social liberty for the sake of comfort and seculosity (The Trap). This has lead us to a point where 'freedom' is only found for most in what is fed to them (Hypernormalisation), leaving us suspended and eerily detached from the very need to find genuine humanity beyond the scope of immediate wants and needs. This is indeed the Soma predicted by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World.

The awful cruelty of the last century explicitly shows us what is now implicit in our times – where millions are now murdered annually because our ideology condones abortion and gradually accommodates euthanasia – Eugenics becomes accepted as reasonable.

The final chapter of such enclosure, the final annihilation of the community significance of being ourselves, is about to open, where most are imprisoned within themselves, constantly 'assisted' by their never – sleeping 'guide', which feeds upon them in a fashion which, they believe, makes them valuable.

Passivity leaves us dependent upon this IV, but “better eyes” (The Abyss) can penetrate the nightmare.

The purpose here is to provoke, to pierce, you, that eyes that were blind may see,

that the truth, indeed, might set us free.

Will we escape the machine?

Only when the Son sets us free!

Made Secure

 She said 'we are all just prisoners here of our own device'.  Hotel California.

Who the Son sets free, is free indeed.  Jesus.

Jail time.

It isn't something that appeals, is it.

I'm sure Paul and Silas were none too happy about it, especially when it followed having taken a beating from a mob which had acted in full sight (and the backing) of the region's authorities (Acts 16:19-24). It was a far from ideal situation, and yet, these men  could be found, at midnight in the deepest cell, in prayer and worship in spite of their miserable conditions.

Most of us have never known such acute persecution, but we've probably been in circumstances that have tested us. There are times when it's been it's been characteristic of us to behave like Jonah... to have too much pride to want to serve others well or to be just plain sulky about the fact that we should be 'picked on' to be involved in such an arduous venture, but thankfully, mercifully, we sometimes respond by grace with faith, and it's then the unexpected can unfold.

It certainly does here.

I suspect if we were sitting somewhere and an earthquake struck, our first reaction would be to get up and go, but as the terrified jailer prepares to kill himself for his failing to keep his prisoners in jail, something startling happens - Paul yells out to him that everything's fine... they're still there, so no need to do himself any harm.

How is it that these men could remain so calm, so thankful, in such adverse conditions?

They clearly understood something in their very core.

Whatever befell them, they were under a much higher protective custody.

It held them when evil befell them.

It held them when the prison was tumbling in around them.

It assured them as they sought to help another in terrible anguish.

No prison can hold such people. Unjust accusations, adversity, suffering, even the very real threat of death does not stop them, because amidst such circumstances, they possess a freedom that no man or diabolical power can take from them - they have been truly made free by the excellence of liberty that God gives to His blood-bought children.

There is another prison... common amongst a people who feed on fast food meals and the latest fake drama on the 'in' show. We can see it so palpably right now in our 'safety' obsessed state - it's granting you everything you 'want' whilst what's removed is everything you actually need. Those who see it and speak up are marginalised and maligned, but the cry will still rise in the midnight hour, and woe betide the men pleasers when the earthquakes comes.

Liberty costs, and freedom had to be purchased with the most precious blood of all. We should expect the days we have entered to become harder, but let's pray that we, like Paul and Silas, are given the strength to sing in the cell until it brings the house down and saves those truly in peril.

"Making the best of it"

 "For by the same criteria you use to determine what's right and wrong, you will also be weighed and examined". Matthew 7:2.

Evil rarely comes at us in horns with a tail, and if does, there's usually been a long developmental process to get to that point. 

The powers which enable genuine evil to perpetuate, notes C S Lewis, are "given to it by goodness" (Mere Christianity) - by an inversion of what is meant to be there to enrich and enliven into something which demeans and taints.

In the days of Jesus, those deemed teachers in the region of Judea had refined their means of determining what could and could not be done to the point of literally dotting their I's and crossing their T's, because, in addition to Mosaic law, they had composed an additional rule-book called the Halakah, which told them what to do in all those niggling little moments when the Laws in the Torah weren't detailed enough. A practical solution, perhaps, but the trouble was, as time went on, these 'additions' came to be seen as just as important as God's given law, and this meant that judgements often derived from a reasoning that placed what certain "religious" folk determined as right, in fact imperative, rather than what was actually right.

We all have a propensity to 'judge' in ways that require demanding a great deal from others, (whilst usually requiring not so much from ourselves), and this had certainly become the case amongst many of those who made such requirements when Christ came amongst them.

Many of these rules were really hot button "musts" in respect to the Sabbath - it was imperative that pretty much everything that wasn't to do with treating the day differently (so, for example, work) was entirely concluded before sunset on Friday, and not resumed until after the special day was over, but there was a problem here. Did the rule not to work mean that you ceased from doing good for a whole day? Wouldn't that mean, in effect, that if there were an immediate need, and it wasn't addressed, that what was meant to be holy instead became a context for harm and evil?

After reading from Isaiah's striking words to define His ministry, Jesus often 'worked' (did good) on the sabbath to clarify the trouble we place ourselves in when we serve religion rather than God.

Keeping a day special is good (rest and refreshment are essential), but there are other requirements than just those provided for in such a break, so we should also take genuine notice of the "closing down" of religion in what Jesus is about here.

The Torah says nothing to forbid doing genuine good on the day of rest - and it is this truth that makes Jesus both angry and grieved at those who wished to manufacture their own morality above and beyond what was provided by God (Mark 3:4).

Soon, it would be the scribes and religious who were murderously angry with Jesus as He continually defied their rules and proceeded to teach that these were futile when it came to genuine righteousness.

The intention of those deemed 'spiritual' was to work amidst a framework of statutes which allowed them to continue to be viewed as 'good' and 'holy', whilst in truth, they continued to avoid the genuine requirements of God's commands in respect to the fullest compliance to these. 

Truth, of course, shatters the illusion, hence their violence towards Jesus.

So, what of us?

Are there rules or requirements we impose that are in effect contrary to the good that God is seeking to work amongst us?

Christianity isn't 'muddling along' beneath a set of moral, civil and ritual devices that we believe will convey some kind of acceptable piety whilst covering up our far deeper evils in respect to God and each other. Being naked bar the righteousness of Christ means we 'walk in the light' before Him and each other - that we genuinely understand each other to be sinners saved entirely by grace.

Law compliance, however pious it may appear, concludes beneath a curse (Galatians 3:10) - for all of us truly fail miserably to come close to complying with its comprehensive and relentless requirements - if we're honest, we'll admit we even fail in reaching the far lower standards we make for ourselves.

The community of faith has to be seen to be marked by something better, and that is where grace comes into the picture.

What are we about right now?

Are we throughly 'ruled up', seeing our assent with what's required as virtuous and even perhaps allowing us to see ourselves as "good".

We must be careful to understand how evil really leads us into ruin by such devices.

There are plenty of times God's people failed because of this blind spot, but, thankfully, because of God's mercy, there are also countless times when they were picked up again by Gods goodness and embrace so they could continue to walk in something that truly heals them, and us.

Let's not muddle through in our own folly, but rest assured on the surety of His astounding care.

(Happy Reformation Day from Dr Mike Reeves)

For Reformation Day...

 Two recommendations to set your weekend alight as you sip your German ales....

First up, this excellent article by Mike Reeves in Table Talk on why the Reformation is so vital to the present.

Then, 1517 held their annual conference recently on the Freedom of the Christian, and have generously placed the entire two days worth of material on You Tube. There is some excellent material here, and I'd highly recommend David Zahl's paper on Freedom.

Enjoy the day!

The "If" bomb

 "He brought me into a broad place; He rescued me; He delighted in me".                        Psalm 18:19.

I wonder how often you have entered a church and heard the minister or the opening hymn tell you in a clear, unambiguous fashion that "Grace Rules".

To put that in a perhaps more familiar phrasing from the Apostle Paul - 

"It is for freedom that Christ has made you free. Stand firm, then, in that freedom, and do not let anyone place you again under a weight of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

The freedom the Gospel brings is our liberation from the powers of sin and death - forces which wish to take from us the very life which God breathed into us, face to face, in giving Adam breath, but the 'bondage' that so concerned Paul here was what came after that deliverance - slavery that had arisen in the church by the forceful imposition of various rules and requirements, which, if you refused to honour and obey, would mean you were judged as unrighteous - socially and spiritually rebuke-able because you had, in effect, denied what was required in addition to Grace.

In my years in the 'renewal' realm of the church, this was encountered in all sorts of ways - you had to speak in tongues to prove you were saved, you had to submit to the "rhema" word of those deemed 'Apostles' or elders on everything - from who should lead the church to whether you should or shouldn't marry someone - because if you didn't, you were outside of the 'covering' of God's anointing, and therefore under discipline until you repented. What fascinated me was when I later joined a Pentecostal church, they didn't require any of this - the key thing to them was enjoying their faith in Jesus and sharing that joy.

At the start of his letter to the Galatians, Paul is clear about what's gone wrong. Originally, these people had known the beauty and latitude that God's grace had given them in life to be people who could use their new faith well, but it wasn't long before those who had despised such freedom sought to restrain them with all manner of 'necessary' rules, taking them away from what was genuinely good.

Religion will always seek to feed upon "your" virtue, wholeness, sanctity and the like - to establish worth in what we, in and of ourselves say and do, rather than turn us away from such silly peripherals to the sweet and ever-abundant goodness of Gods grace (that He is for us - that is why Christ came). This is because it is something which feeds itself upon our compliance and thereby makes us believe we are "good" because of such behaviour, but true freedom, true righteousness have nothing to do with this. The real totality of righteousness is found solely in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (see Galatians 3:1).

Legalism cannot see the good in Christ making gallons of excellent wine for friends at a wedding. It cannot but agree with those chastising the disciples for indulgently picking heads of corn on the sabbath. It joins in chorus with Judas when the precious ointment, which could have fed the poor, is broken out and used to fragrance the head of Jesus, and it is horrified when a 'fallen' woman is found kissing and washing the Lord's feet.

All of these examples point us to EXACTLY the manner of sweetness and beauty that grace breaks open in the Christian - warmth, joy, genuine repentance and affection, delight in the good things of life - these are the bitter enemies of religious bondage.

So, what do we find in our churches?

Do we imbibe freedom as we step into a realm of fellow-believers, or are we met with a barrage of "if's"...

"If you want to be here with us, then you must"....

or

"If you want to belong to our fellowship, then you have to"....

Jesus says something somewhat different -

"Come to you me, all who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest".

He GIVES freedom and life. Grace reigns.

Christianity isn't, ever, about seeking to please or gain the approval of men.

It is about sharing the amazing love of God.

That's why we need this in our churches, every week, and why we need to be given the room, the freedom, that God Himself bestows - hence, Paul's crucial words in Galatians 5.

Church is essentially the house of grace, where the family of saved sinners can come and be included amidst, as one Puritan put it, 'their prayer and play'.

In the current circumstances, we need to examine carefully what signals we're sending in respect to what fills the religious vacuum of 2020. Are we expressing some manner of virtue justification - a self or moral rightness - in our manner of showing Christianity, or  are we evidenced as those, as Robert Capon noted, who are 'intoxicated on the rare vintage of God's exuberant mercy'?

We live in a moment defined principally by strict rules and requirements, even perhaps to the point in some cases of requiring a rendering to Caesar what is actually Gods.

The lost need to see that God is wholly about something gloriously good, and this, as Paul notes in Galatians, can be evidenced when those who are truly free can express this in the way they genuinely serve each other. Humility, patience and gentleness ( the fruits of grace - Ephesians 4:2) only spring from liberty bestowed through grace - that is why Paul can end his exhortation by speaking of how standing in Christ makes us those who bear another's troubles (6:2).

The days ahead are clearly going to be arduous, so let's stand where the Apostle teaches us we must to truly express the richness of God's astounding grace.

Straining gnats and eating camels?

 "When I saw their conduct was not in step with gospel, I opposed it".                 Galatians 2:11-14.

Around 8 months ago, we were told that for everyone's good, it was 'right' for Christians to close shop and construe some new manner of 'worship' via virtual means.

More recently, with very explicit restrictions concerning all manner of prohibitions, churches were allowed to 'open' once more.

The general response to this has been this is all 'good' and 'acceptable', as the general duty of the church has been defined as one which must conform to the social and ethical requirements of the day to be seen to be upstanding in our plagued society.

Back in March, some manner of action was certainly required in respect to the sensible responses for each person to take in the light of the problem - social distancing and personal hygiene were tried and tested methods in prior pandemics of curtailing infections, but more draconian methods (lockdowns and masks) have long been known to have no genuine restraint benefits beyond something practical (in the March scenario, the goal was to assist overwhelming hospitals, which was clearly successful by June... when, bizarrely, we suddenly found ourselves facing compulsory mask wearing).

The data now gathered makes one thing pretty clear - the worst is over. Yes, there's been a rise in "cases" of people carrying some trace of the virus, but deaths are low and whilst the media and a few 'experts' whip up a storm about a second wave, the fact is that what is actually unfolding is exactly the kind of influenza issue we face in the winter every year (hence, there being 7 years in living memory where far more people died from flu than have died this year in the country from the virus).

Mounting numbers of scientists working in the field have spoken out recently to convey this reality to governments, and the response in some places (Germany and Spain, for example) has been encouraging, and yet, our own authorities are seeking to drive us back into harsher lockdowns over the winter months, which may well, in effect, mean the closure or curtailment of Christian celebrations this Christmas.

As with the sudden introduction of masks in the height of summer, you have to ask why, and what are we as Christians meant to do in such circumstances?

There may indeed be a case for 'shielding' vulnerable people or allowing the NHS to not become overwhelmed, but at what point should these concerns prevent the requirements placed upon us as the church? If we're commanded to gather to worship and partake in the Lord's Supper, as we are, then for just how long are we at 'liberty' to cease and desist from what should be genuinely evident amongst us as common?

The argument so prevalent this season has been the 'authority' requirement, which no doubt clearly applies to a point (paying taxes and obeying laws which do not prevent what our being church requires). Christians in the 2nd century may have sought to appeal to Rome concerning their good citizenship, but they still found themselves victims of that state because they refused to compromise on what defined them as distinctly believers (caricatured as cannibalism and incest).

All this brings me back to Martin Luther.

As he stood before the council of worms and the Emperor, the 'advice' of fellow monks no doubt ringing in his ears that he should recant and conform, he felt his courage wain, and asked for a day to reflect on what he should do. He was granted the pause, and, in what was no doubt a very troubled night, he prayed the following:

 "O God, Almighty God everlasting, how dreadful is the world.

 See how its mouth opens to swallow me up, and how small is my faith in you.

Oh, the weakness of the flesh, and the power of Satan.

 If I am to depend upon any strength of this world – all is over . . . The knell is struck . . . Sentence is passed. . . O God! O Lord, my God! help me against the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech you; you should do this . . . by your own mighty power . . . The work is not mine, but yours. I have no business here . . . I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world. I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace. But the cause is yours . . . And it is righteous and everlasting. O Lord, help me! O faithful and unchangeable God. I lean not upon man. It is vain to do so. Whatever is of man is tottering, whatever proceeds from him must fail. My God, my God, will you not hear? My God, are you no longer living? You cannot die. You hide Yourself. You have chosen me for this work. I know it! . . . Therefore, O God, accomplish your own will! Do not forsake me, for the sake of your well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, my defence, my buckler, and my stronghold".

It's a prayer that brings to mind the one recorded when the church in Jerusalem began to suffer persecution (Acts 4:24-30). They felt God shake the place (vs 31) as a result, and, on the morning following his prayer, Martin Luther indeed felt the world shake as he finally addressed the council and refused to curtail the freedom that God had given in Jesus Christ.

What lay ahead wasn't easy. Labelled a heretic, he was exiled to keep him alive, but the shockwave his words and writings caused rippled out and changed the world.

So, here's the question.

What are we about to do? As the nation literally begins to be torn apart, are we, publicly, boldly going to stand up for what the church is - those made free by grace, meaning that we reject impositions upon that liberty which are unwarranted and unfounded (Galatians 5: 1-13), or are we going to fold in the manner Peter and others chose to do when the "law makers" appear amongst us? Remember what is at stake here - not merely "safety measures" or  being polite - THE GOSPEL (Galatians 1:10).

If indeed we fail to stand well at this moment, then we in effect, says Paul, detach ourselves from Christ Himself, and all our 'spirituality' is in vain (Galatians 1:6).

Perhaps, until now, we have believed that what we have done was for the best, but with courts now ruling across the world that the measures that have been imposed these past months (which are now being tightened further here) are entirely contrary to basic human rights (including those concerning freedom to worship), the circumstances are changing fast.

Are we "knowing the times" and meeting these as the church has always done, or will our voice remain muffled, if not silent, in what is ahead?

Can we pray the prayer of Luther, and step out to meet the hour?

"When enticed by error, we must return to what is good, understanding that those who foster lies will be condemned for their activity. Truth is the bread of life, so how dreadful will it be for those who taint this life with such death as lies".

Luther on Galatians 5.

Dazzled

"Two of far nobler shape erect and tall,
God like erect, with native honour clad,
In naked majestic seemed lords of all,
and worthy seemed, for in their looks divine,
The image of their glorious maker shon"."

John Milton

This week, a photographer friend of mine won acclaim for one of his fine art figure images he's taken this summer. It was well deserved, but what made me smile was his comment on what occurred when taking the image - "this was one those moments when you looked through the view finder, and the hairs on the back of your neck stood up".

It caused me to reflect on another incident. Back prior to the strange events of the present, a certain politician was making an inaugural address in February and when it came to the growing concerns about the storm approaching from China, he briskly shooed any worries aside, saying that, like Clark Kent, we would go on to don our best superhero kit and quickly see such a minor trouble quickly set aside as we got on with the far greater task of building an international network for growth. Some months on, and the picture looks very different to what was anticipated in such a statement.

Two very different incidents, but both derived from the same fundamental subject - one which in reality defines so much of what we're about.

Here's how the Psalmist frames it:

"What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hand and you have put all things under his feet".

(Psalm 8:4-6).

What a work we are!

This strikes down into the manner of our true dilemma - when we see humanity, we see something which clearly speaks not only of the greater at work through the lesser, but, far more troubling, the greater within the lesser.

Consider...

Having reached a point where we see that something as extraordinary as life requires something even far more astonishing to devise and produce such complexity (see below for more (1), we then see something divine amidst all the perils of our tumultuous natures. Fractured and constantly obscured, no doubt - but there. This shock is what unnerves us artists as we encounter beauty and what causes others (when power goes to their heads) to often believe, mistakenly, that we can of ourselves stem any threat. 

We were made to be so much - hence the horror of what our current smallness so states about our present disarray.

We of course see this magnificent truth writ large in all the world, but it is within ourselves that we confront this axiom in its untarnished force to leave us either soberly staggered or erroneously swaggering underneath the intoxication that we are still captain's of our souls.

The fool seeks to erase this realisation, or contort it to hell-bent ambitions, but its true shock remains, and provokes each of us to see further than our pretences - to consider how staggering is our existence and how profound its ramifications. Beauty and inclination prompt us to the fact that we are part of a far larger drama.

This is why Christianity has to be given a true hearing - it wants to bring these realisations home, and it does so in a manner that brings God Himself into the very centre of the the greater being evident amongst and within the lesser.

Jesus Christ enters flesh and lives amongst us fully human because the totality of what was intended for us will be realised in His work of redemptive rescue.

In Jesus Christ, Paul informs us, humanity is renewed in regeneration to prepare her for the fullest and richest expression of all that she was intended to be - regents over a renewed material creation that will eternally reflect the richness of The Trinity's supremely good will for us - to express something truly divine in respect to truth and beauty within the material.

It's a vision philosopher's have often sought to repudiate, and the modern world is dull to see, but it bristles with awe and wonder... humanity will be part of an eternal unveiling of something extraordinary.

This is how the New Testament touches on it as it picks up the theme of the Psalmist:

"Now in putting everything in subjection to us, he left nothing outside. At present, we do not yet see this, but we look to the one who for a season was made lower than the angels -Jesus - now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, because by the goodness of God He experienced this for each of us". Hebrews 2:8-10.

The intention here is clear. Jesus gave Himself to put us back on the way to what we were intended to be - "lesser" beings, because we are created, but clothed with destiny and eternal purpose.

That's our true riches.

(1) This has been expressed in many theological, philosophical and scientific assertions in the past century, but one of the most comprehensive was highlighted by David Berlinski in his recent work Human Nature where he notes in the sixth chapter how Alvin Plantinga has recently developed an "ontological argument" in which in the very existence of our world, it is by necessity key to also have the existence of that which can conceive of and thereby furnish that said world. Clearly, via physics and other 'hard' sciences, we have shown the world exists, and also had a beginning, and therefore the provider of that realm must therefore equally exist. Berlinski then proceeds to say how the power of what Plantinga is stating is such that he himself has had to begun to reflect much deeper on the possibility of there being an infinite being who created us.