Thursday, 21 April 2022

The Inhabiting

 "He made darkness His pavilions round about Him - dark waters and thick clouds". Psalm 18:11.

Ever get one of those days when lots of what has been chuntering around in your thoughts over several days, perhaps weeks, suddenly begins to take form and lead to something quite profound?

It all started for me a while back - a few weeks ago, when I started reading a book entitled "Your God is too Glorious". It was a work which demanded all of my attention, but it also requires a slow read - not because it's prose was particularly difficult or dense, but because it was opening and scenting the musty antechambers of my heart and mind with an alluring, refreshing invitation to Gods fathomless beneficence in a fashion that I had certainly only glimpsed on some of the rarest moments in my life (hopefully, that will arouse your curiosity!).

I'm not going to say anymore here about the treasures of this gem beyond a reference to the start of the third chapter - Godforsaken hangouts, where the author speaks about a particular spot in nature where he would often be alone with God and where, occasionally in the glints of morning light, he would sense the 'veil' between here and eternity was incredibly thin, like a mist you could walk though into the land beyond.

It's spring here at the moment


This time of year always makes me vividly aware of God's great deeds in creation, and as a result, I'm usually drawn as well back to those opening chapters of scripture commonly known as the creation account.

For the last few (around a decade!) years, I've been fascinated about the nature in which this work is addressed, especially the 'six days' process, which is marked by the 'there was an evening, and a morning' framework. Yes, I know this becomes a cornerstone of God's people understanding the gift of the rest -seventh- day (the sabbath beginning at sunset), but why is the special moments ("bara") of the creation process marked in this particular fashion in respect to the work of creation itself? Why, in other words, did God choose to act creatively in those periods from sunset to sunrise?

An unexpected answer came knocking this week in the form of a video from a relatively new ministry. I'm not going to unpack the brilliant insight here this brother shares from his own studies ( - the video does it really well, so sit back and enjoy), but once I watched it, several things quickly fell into place.

After giving it a view, just stop for a moment and think about these important matters:

The hours of darkness at the Cross.

Solomon informing us that the Lord dwells in a 'thick darkness' (1 Kings 8:12).

The opening verses of Genesis 1 - especially meditate on the latter part of verse two - the earth being empty, enveloped in darkness, and God "hovering" over these depths.

There is something remarkably curbing here, in respect to ourselves. It 'fixes' us to the gravity, the phenomenal "stillness" of what its seeking to express - there, amidst a "weight' of impenetrable stuff, God is calmly at work, poised to speak, to touch, to gently inform with His ordaining that light 'be', and with that moment, impress upon the wax of what had been faceless the indelible mark of His majestic handiwork. From that single moment, all that is encompassed in the spheres of time and space would be so lovingly illustrated with a Word spanning and sustaining all.

This, I suspect, is why God chose to place the 'days' of creation in these six frames of the evening leading to a new dawn. With each 'dividing' comes a new springing of greater revelation of His grandeur and majesty within His handiwork, furnishing a particular realm - the earth - to the point where it is a fitting habitation for the persons who will speak regally of His own nature.

It's quite a drama, and it may help you look at what you read in that opening, and many other scriptures, in a manner that aids in future days.

May the Lord who caused that light to shine through the darkness, equally light our minds and hearts, giving us a knowledge of Himself in the radiance of the face of Jesus Christ.



Sunday, 17 April 2022

The Raising




"Why do you seek the living among the dead?".

Today is indeed the 'first day' of the new creation. The true Son of Righteousness is risen, with 'healing in His wings' - the healing of our world by His reconciling death.

The beauty of this is woven into the very fabric of creation on the third day (Genesis 1:11) and throughout the narrative of the story of God's people, as Chad Bird shows in this helpful examination of Luke's account of the resurrection.

Let us rejoice and delight in the goodness and mercy of the Lord.





Friday, 15 April 2022

G o l g o t h a


 "To minimise the vicarious sacrificial nature of the death of Christ, the high noon on Calvary when Christ faced God's irreducible law, is to miss the unifying drama of the bible... the pinnacle of the scripture's story of the law involves a personal substitute by which the extreme accusation of that law against the human race is absorbed in its absolute and total character into an innocent man.

Why did Christ die? He died to atone for the sins of the whole world".

Paul Zahl - Grace in Theology.

Lasting grace is an act so rich and deep, so enduring, it will forever change the one who bathes in its beauty. We are so bathed in the waters of baptism when, naked of all but our desperate need, God buries into the atoning death of His beloved, and raises us with Him, dressed in the glory of His righteousness and everlasting life.

This is why the cross is our focal-point.

Here, we become sustained by His precious body and redeeming blood.

Here, we witness the 'grain and grape' of this present creation changed and transformed, as we participate in a life from His transforming wounds which marries us to the new creation - the coming dawn of eternal joy.

A Happy Easter.

Wednesday, 13 April 2022

"Poison"

Then the Lord sent fiery serpents amongst them, and they bit the people, so many of them died”. Numbers 21: 6.


Do you recall the moment when it suddenly become possible to consider the Wuhan lab-leak as the source of the virus?
Suddenly, it was OK to say it was reasonable to think of this as a viable source of the current problem, and this appears to have been verified in this month’s Vanity Fair article, but even if this is the case, the raw data has been "missing" in respect to the actual source of the virus itself… until now.

Please have a look at this:

(part 1)


(part 2)

What’s interesting here is how much of the information presented (after the initial setting-up of how this investigation began, stated in the first ten minutes of the video) was known from the start of 2020 - right at the start of the outbreak. Just like the Wuhan connection, this data has been buried ever since, and has only just begun to be examined afresh.

The ramifications of this material are huge.
It means, clearly, we have been mislead concerning the nature of both the virus and the remedy to this.

From the fields of Gemorrah, come grapes, filled with poison, so bitter, for their ‘wine’ is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps”.
Deuteronomy 32:32-33.

Sunday, 10 April 2022

S C A N D A L O U S Part Six.

 "Deification" (Boldness, failure, and other amazing features).

Waking the dead, or just disturbing the neighbours?

What is it 'we're about' in respect to our message and our living?

Hero's might prove helpful when they're in books or shows, but when we venerate ourselves or others in a fashion that actually blocks out the radiance of what is singularly bestowed through the Gospel, we end up in the 'how to' section of the bookstore, which may be good for fixing a dripping tap, but not so much when it comes to living 'within the means' of what we actually have.

There's a good reason why living hero's are usually bad news - they, like us, will prove to be shot-through with sin, so unless you're dealing with someone being ruthlessly honest about that, the chances are they will seek to delude and beguile you about themselves. Scripture isn't going to leave us in any doubt that even the best men will fail, often constantly, hence the underlying reason for the Incarnation.

We were made to thrive through the employment of inherent gifts expressed in the free use of these, and the appearance of Christ as man states God's total commitment to seeing that status renewed for us. We really miss helping each other when that vital reality is not informing what we're about - the rules have been broken, but the crucial drama is still in effect, and is going to fully unfold.

It's because of this that we have to be careful - considerate - about our worship.

We currently have a propensity to venerate people and objects in a manner that can prove to be absolute, and thereby, fatal. A good example in Christendom would be how people and principles can be deemed unquestionable even when it becomes clear that individuals are using such to actually violate and abuse others. These acts are often terrible enough, but what is equally as shocking to witness is how some will continue to esteem those responsible for such evils, even after there is clear evidence that they are guilty of such deeds. This manner of manipulation can happen at a group as well as an individual level, and it often takes a great deal to renounce such corruption due to the loyalty invested in particular people or schemes.

Husbands, Wives, Ministers and others in key roles can lead to enormous destruction when they employ their authority to do harm. One of the clearest places we witness the poignancy of cruelty is when such manipulation is made public.

When we are placed into a situation where we are being expected to give all or part of ourselves to another in a fashion which is highly invasive and requires an unprecedented level of obedience via excessive access and control, which is taking place purely because of the stated 'doctrine' (order) that this is a unquestionable requirement, we must ask why we should relent to the overbearing command of someone as fallen as ourselves!

Irresponsibility of this fashion doesn't happen by accident. David fell into his own pit of extraordinary immorality at the very moment he relented his proper role and responsibility to become caught by the evil of his own nature. What had been gifted to him then becomes a vehicle of terrible wickedness. Such steps are tragically common to the manner in which manipulative abuse takes over from a genuine implementation of profitable use of our gifts and callings.

Abuses of this kind often create another trouble. We encounter a realm where abuse is employed, and we are thereby placed in a condition that makes us, quite rightly, highly suspicious of anyone then seeking to impress any manner of authority with respect to us.

Learning to appreciate, even respect godly authority can be an extremely difficult journey. Submission in the faith is principally about, as Paul counsels, yeilding to that which genuinely refreshes us in soul and spirit (1 Corinthians 16:18) - teaching and ministry which genuinely edifies us in our faith. If we are to be 'Christ-like' to one another, that manner of care and graciousness must be foundational to our times together (Galatians 6:1-3). To determine our fellowship and communion by any other criteria is totally foolish.

One of the most telling hallmarks of such troubles is what issues can be freely raised and questioned in the church - that is, in respect to the Christian community in the whole. If a "problem" arises in respect to the church's relationship to a teaching or practice in the faith or the wider society, just how easy is it to examine this together, and adjust, if necessary, accordingly?

We can maintain truth and rest easy concerning authority when said authority allows itself to be tested and proven by being able to face the actual challenges raised by an issue. If the truth concerning the ramifications of particular events becomes avoided, or even suppressed, then we should be genuinely concerned to the point of action, whatever that may entail. Paul himself applies this essential approach when dealing with the circumcision issue - an abusing attempt to force the imposition of law which abolished the essential role and expression of God's sovereign grace.

When the church believes it can project itself as 'more spiritual' by seeking to avoid particular troubles, you can be certain that the consequences will come home to roost. When we avoid proper examination and understanding of what is before us, there will be dire consequences.

Christian ministry is at its best when done by those who usually, through experience, know their limitations and do not seek to set themselves above these. It's only when we so know ourselves that we can considerately behave and advise to benefit one another - taking that responsibility seriously can be vital in respects to seeing actual health amongst us. We "dei-ify" others to our very real cost. It also damns them, because if they choose to believe such an exaltation, they will almost certainly become impervious to correction.

Maturity in faith can only begin to be nurtured when these lessons are truly taken on board. What makes us well and a blessing is what we receive - aside from that, we often prove ourselves to be too easily tripped by our own confidence in what we assume to be so... Only the genuinely repentant, noted one missionary, has something to actually teach us. Deception opens the freeway of pride, and blinds us to the wreck that our arrogant folly is accelerating us towards.

If we invest ourselves into the unrealistic virtues deemed to be those of a leader, we can suddenly land hard amidst the debris of finding such a person was not fit for such a deep investment. Service to each other is often highly costly, because we have to deal with the 'real' person, both in regards to what is demanded in respect to giving and in how we often want to 'naturally' respond. This is why the character of God is often defined as being evident by patience and kindness, so often entirely undeserved!

We should never, ever assume what we see in a person for an hour on a Sunday is the actual picture of who and what they are. The truth remains that each and every one of us is a company marked by sin and deserving of judgement, but God remarkably loves us. You wouldn't have to drill very deep in most of us to find evidence of the first truth - church exists to call us to the wonder of the second.

One of the most common statements often made about church attendance is that someone won't or wouldn't attend because they "didn't feel themselves to be good enough". If Christianity becomes something that merely conveys an unobtainable standard to others, rather than mercy to all, we may as well close the doors. We are, in truth, entirely unqualified to participate in the wonder - all we bring, as Luther noted, is our hostility and unbelief.

People can be exceptionally good at isolating other people, either by setting themselves far too high, or looking upon others as undesirable. The real answer to both these errors is to have leaders who truly lower themselves to live alongside the weakest and the least and, from there, seek to raise these troubled souls into the beauty of the character of saving work of Jesus Christ.

Not one of us can carry the magnitude of status God placed upon our race unless Christ is before, behind, around, in, below and above us and our fellow workers along side and assisting us in knowing and sharing this, especially when we fail. Command requires accountability - two will always be better than one, notes Solomon, and our service is stronger when it resembles a 'three fold chord' that cannot easily become untied.

The first problem in so many troubles is us - we, in effect, have to begin by getting out of the way, so others may be made free to grow and thrive with us, not in spite of us.

This requires certain forms of encouragement are always in use amongst us -

Teaching and preaching must always be open to full examination and questioning.

Arrogance and the like should never hold sway in any guise.

Always by open to genuine and necessary correction.

"Moral" and "Ethical" matters should be examined properly and well in respects to our genuine understanding of each other.

Don't be afraid to prove everything and to hold to what is truly good.

Thursday, 7 April 2022

"Church"

 Andrew Klavan is an astute observer of many of the things that have been troubling us of late, but it's when he "majors in majors" that he really hits a home run.

This candid statement says so much about what's right (Gospel, Liturgy, Sacraments) and what is clearly missing much of the time at present.

Refreshing stuff.

Wednesday, 6 April 2022

Critical...

 The analysis of the hour - take a look, and listen well.

Digging In

 What happens when Mark Zuckerberg's recent radio question on the meaning of life is examined and unpacked by Christian Apologist, David Wood?

Watch here to find out... and wait for the punch line.

It's so worth it :)

Monday, 4 April 2022

S C A N D A L O U S Part Five.

Masks... and other mistakes.

2022 has already become a year when one defining quality is so clearly required above all others, especially if you are someone in a role of responsible leadership. It's what marked those old stories as being those who rightly stood as representatives of the most high, because even when they failed - which several of them did on various occasions - they were not afraid to openly show and repent of their errors.

Pretence is burned up by the refining presence of authenticity - a dispensing of any and all attempts to 'act' as something we're not - to put away any sham and face God and each other with 'unveiled face' so we know what we are.

Our disguises don't just hide our sinful nature, they often also project a 'virtue' that we polish so others will buy the act as the real us. This often develops to the heights of religious professionalism, where we juggle to keep all our various pretences in play on multiple fronts, thinking that we can maintain our performance all the time, hiding what is actually going on behind the curtains.

The first person we must properly 'see' and soberly evaluate is ourselves. That manner of honesty usually eludes us, and we buy into an 'expression' we think is healthy and certainly with a propensity to be liked.

The first person we beguile, in other worlds, is ourselves. We project what we're about in a popular fashion, but like Dorian Grey, make sure people are oblivious to the darker, more objectionable side of our natures.
The skills employed here by the 'old' self within are the ones we have cultivated since the early days; when we learned how to gain certain things in a manner that was good for the ego.
Christ examines our natures in a fashion that is far beyond skin deep, calling us to something far more genuine than our projections and manipulations.

Truth is about an actual escape - a genuine liberation - from seeing what we are as 'accomplished' when we commence with our hidden poverty.
'Church' which wants us to nurture a 'positive' self image, perhaps in respect to our giving (and thereby, receiving), or our individual prosperity has zero to say when we look at the lessons God wants to teach us through a wise man like Job, or through Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. God isn't going to seek to make us 'feel good' about what needs to be purified. He will pursue a course that cuts through our lies.

The mistakes so often perpetrated in relation to self definition are either that we view ourselves as too polished or too demeaned to either need or be significant enough to warrant genuine aid. When pride takes centre stage we place ourselves in such a fashion that we cannot see the magnitude of actual virtue above and beyond us. When it's loathing that reigns, we recoil from the abundance of God's unmerited purchase of us from poverty. The devastating error in both cases is an entirely miss-placed confidence in our ability to trust our own evaluation as exact and therefore beyond question. The consequences are dire.

When we think we know better than the most high regarding ourselves, we are swallowed in a morass of miss-applied piety that takes us beyond the scope of redemption unless we have our eyes opened to the folly that we are like Saul on the road of intent to prove ourselves in holy service, when in truth we are resisting exactly what God is seeking to tell us.

Pretence readily breeds an inner proclivity to an attitude whereby we view ourselves in regards to virtue as superior to others. This manner of living must be shattered if we are going to be any real use to anyone - especially ourselves!
God will often mercifully bring about situations and circumstances whereby such a process - painful as it may be - can occur.

So, are we seeing life in the manner which allows genuine stepping-out beyond our pre-conceptions, especially in respect to each other?

So many times in the Gospels, the most intimate and telling moments occur around a meal, where people are feeling more at home and relaxed. It is in these calmer moments that Jesus often chooses to ask the telling questions or raise the more disquieting issues, and I suspect this is deliberate, because He is seeking to say something to us regarding how God works - inside an environment of genuine warmth and concern. Here we see just how wide of the mark we are, but that aid and understanding are much closer than we often recognise. Beyond the roles we so often play, God is surely waiting to come and dine with us.

Fear often keeps as petrified from such palpable intimacy. In such cases, we have to get behind the narrative and ascertain who is so imprisoning us and why, so we can expose the lie of such a narrative.

The Apostle John tells us that our faith is all about us "walking in the light" in a manner that reflects the light evidenced in Jesus Christ - that's the basis of all true fellowship. Paul speaks of how that manner of transforming transparency illumines and adorns our lives as God's children. These things can only become manifest as and when we leave behind these conventions which impede us from living in the Spirit, knowing that 'oil and wine' which genuinely gladdens the heart and removes the burrs that so readily tarnish us.

Honesty and control are never compatible - honesty costs, often deeply, but it is far better than an alternative, which merely leaves us abused. Bad church, as one person scarred by this said to me recently, is like a machine continually tearing and shredding people's souls behind a mask of smiles and mock sincerity.

Freedom in this respect is when we chose the 'dangerous ground' of seeking real intimacy - openness and vulnerability - with God and others who are prepared to do so. It's a sharing of some of each others burdens so we can all carry our own burdens in life a little more lightly. It is learning how to show such truth to brothers and sisters so we become encouraged enough to show similar genuine-ness to those outside of the faith.

Sometimes, we think it is wrong to express what is really unfolding with us - that this will be viewed as thwarting an interest in truth, but so often it is as people related to each other in such troubles that the good news has the deepest impact.

When we accept the lie that it's wrong to be honest about ourselves, we quickly drop through the trap-door of pretence, and once that is established as our 'de-fault' position, we place ourselves out of range of genuine repentance and vital change. Think of the manner in which the elder son in the prodigal parable views his relationship to his own father - he believes he has been overlooked in spite of all of his virtue and obedience, but the reality is that he is the one with the issue - he has neglected to be more than a subservient in a relationship that was meant to be so much more, and his wayward returning brother understands this more than he ever will.

Seek to promote yourself to someone in respect to how virtuous you are, and they will almost certainly view you as someone who needs to be kept at arms length. Show yourself as a person dealing with real life, and being genuine about it, and they'll be interested in what you are about.

Life hurts.
Life will often leave us in pieces.
Life will prove that we are creatures with feet of clay - it's then that people are looking for some glint of uncharacteristic wisdom in how we follow through in such troubles.
We shock the world when, in the midst of very real trials, we show real distress but also confidence in a strength from beyond ourselves.
The world lies continually. Christ calls us to living beyond such pretence.


 

Sunday, 3 April 2022

Getting There

"The route they had taken was a dead end. Finding their water rations were limited to one day, and the return to the fork was a three day journey, they set out for the fork and there, fell almost lifeless on the third day. After sleep, their guide, Hans, heard the sound of water thundering behind a granite wall. He attacked the wall with a pick-axe, allowing a steam of boiling water to flow and cool in their tunnel. Not only had they found life in the water, but a flowing guide to lead them on their journey".

Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Rick Wakeman's musical rendition).

"Until we all attain the unity of the faith through the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature manhood - to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, thrown hither and yon by the conditions and thereby scarred by every onslaught of erroneous teaching and their accompanying deceitful schemes, but, by speaking the truth in love, may truly grow into Christ, from whom all the genuine virtue and truth which truly sustains and nurtures the body actually comes, held together purely by this, so that we are developed and enriched by such truth and love".

The Apostle Paul - Ephesians 4:13-16.

Take a look at this telling analysis of the work of a modern film-maker.

Like Andrew Klavan, I have thoroughly enjoyed many of the movies of directors such as Speilberg and Lucas in respects to pure entertainment, but I find the analysis here to be spot on - they lack emotional maturity because they continually fail to deeply address the larger, grubbier issues of the human condition in a manner that reality actually demands, and that can leave us stifled if we do not grow past that point.

It can also leave us totally lacking in respect to our necessary understanding of the world around us.

This is so evidently true of the church.

In one piece published this week, one commentator noted: "(These Archbishops) are at one with the frequently repeated assertion that the 'church has a lot of catching up to do with secular morality' (in respect to sexual identity, etc)... once again, claiming to know better than St Paul who wrote 'be not conformed to this world'". 

The fact of the matter is that we've known for decades that all these present troubles were coming. Anyone who could read in the 70's knew that the final objective of the entire 'new sexuality' movement was to conclude with the sexualisation and wholesale abuse of childhood. Anyone who attended history classes in school that covered Mao's revolution in China would know that the goal was the destabilisation of the democratic world. Anyone who saw Sci-Fi movies like 'Colossus', 'Soylent Green' and 'Demon Seed' would have picked up the message that the forthcoming 'Brave New World' nightmare would orbit around trans-humanism.

So, here we are, with all these "seeds" having come to fruition, and yet the church wants to continue in the same movie house, watching the same "Lucasfilm" re-runs of infantile stories, because it cannot bear to look beyond the cave-like realms of its own naivety and take on the unvarnished but necessary reality that surrounds it.

I discover this continually. Christians want their lives to be 'spiritual' (distant) from the dirt and graft of the actual, because that is simply too real - too painful or distressing or direct to continually relate to - they want "community" to be 'lovely' (without trial) and harmonious because it moves around a track of shared feelings and emotional encounters derived from these, rather than something as awkward and troublesome as actual theology.

The Apostle Paul urges the church to escape such nonsense. It can only "speak" to the troubles of the hour when it is deeply rooted in all that Christ reveals and all that this conveys to our times. This is essential for growth, depth and stability, and it needs to become the stable diet of our faith today if we truly mean to be people of worth and vision amongst the church and the world.

What we need is much more of this.