Safe Home Coming
Christianity
To Give All
Categories: Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry
Tags: Christianity, Devotion, Faith, Poem, poems, poetry
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Discipline – Discipling
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Hebrews 12: 5b-6
This passage from Hebrews (a paraphrase of Proverbs 3: 11&12) is not one that resonates
Detail of the Altar in a Church. Eidfjord Norway
with people today. We avoid pain, correction and discipline. We are more likely to find someone to blame than ask, “What is this teaching me? How can I change?”
In Philip Yancey’s book “Where is God When it Hurts” he explores the importance of physical pain. He reminds us that pain is an alarm for action on health issues facing our body. Discipline and correction can have the same impact for our spiritual health. They can alert us to spiritual issues in our lives – areas where we need to take notice.
Discipline and correction come in two main ways. It can occur through those things that are out of our control, such as illness, accidents or events. They are circumstances which shape us. Then we can have the consequences of our own, often foolish, actions that come back to haunt us.
The great thing is that God uses both of these sets of events to mould, shape and direct His children. God doesn’t waste any circumstances to develop the image of His son in His adopted children. Daily, His aim is to recreate the perfection of His son in us.
The other word that needs to be highlighted is “discipline”. The Greek word is ‘paidiea’ – which means to train and educate, but also to correct errors. In English the word is translated as discipline, which comes from the word to tutor and disciple: in other words, to make a follower of. On the surface these definitions sound a bit a cold. Put in Christian terms, however, it means to be formed into a loved son or daughter of God.
To be disciplined is a sign of God’s love. Tough love that prepares us for an eternity with the Maker.
P.S. This devotion was the catalyst for yesterday’s poem “But You Did”
Categories: Bible, christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Devotion, Faith
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But You Did
The Stocks at Aldbury UK
Discipline
Disciplining
Disciple – ing
Disciple
I don’t like the pain
Of choices I’ve made;
The scars of mistakes past.
I don’t like to be reminded
Of poor judgements, wilfulness
and closed eyed running
away,
crying, “You can’t catch me!”
like a naughty child.
But You did.
At times your love hurt,
Your unasked for care
Tasted vinegar bitter.
But you loved
Loved enough to hurt me
Loved enough to open my heart’s eyes
Loved enough
To take all the pain forever
And to make me whole.
Loved enough
To call me your child.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Devotion, Faith, Poem, poetry
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Patterns versus Transformation
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1&2
St Martin-in-the-Fields
There are passages in Scripture that mesmerise me. Romans 12: 1&2 is such a passage. It speaks of the radical (from the root up) difference of the genuinely Christian worldview in contrast to the patterns and habits formed in and by the world. A while back I wrote about God’s Audit. This time I want consider just one phrase.
The phrase that stands out more than the others for me is “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The reason this challenges me is that too often I see the “patterns” rather than the “transformation” in my own life. I see values and attitudes that are not that much different from the world around me, rather than the traits of Jesus.
How does this renewing of the mind take place? What is this renewal?
Sanctification describes the work of the Holy Spirit as God slowly shapes and moulds us into the people He already sees us as, in Christ. Through His Word, Spirit, life experiences, the church and a myriad of other ways God teaches and leads us in His ways. This shaping is a life long process; this shaping is the “transformation” being written about by Paul. It is a heart and mind that seeks more of God and less of themselves. It makes sense that if that is the way we are growing in God, His will then becomes more obvious as we mature and and develop in Him.
There is a responsibility we have and that is to be open and available to that work of God. It nearly sounds cliched but we do need to explore His Word, we ought to be passionate about prayer, our hearts should be open to the leading and nudges of the Holy Spirit and we should be humble enough to accept correction, advice and teaching from those who are mature and firm in their faith. This is all part of the transformative process.
The exciting promise in this verse is the last phrase. The more we are transformed, then the more we are drawn into, and led by, the will of God. The strong implication being, the more we will see Christlikeness in our lives and less of our old selves.
Paul continues in Romans 12 to show what this life looks like. It is a life of grace, sacrifice, blessing, service and forgiveness. Now when the world sees me, if I am to be effective for God, they need to see Christ, not just someone else who looks like them.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Romans
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Devotion, Faith, St Paul
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John Bunyan – A Messenger for Our Time
There is a great little museum in the Bedford, UK celebrating
and commemorating the life of John Bunyan, the C17th writer of Pilgrim’s Progress and numerous other books. Bunyan started his working life as a tinker repairing pots and pans but was later gaoled for many years for the heinous crime of preaching without permission. He was a non-conformist and only official Anglican clerics were allowed to conduct services. John Bunyan thought that being obedient to God was more important than obeying the State’s rules. He was prepared to pay the price. Which he did. He used his time in gaol to do much of his writing. In the Bedford museum there are many aspects of Bunyan’s life recreated and presented. It is well worth a visit. Also the story of his life and his writings are well worth reading.
Bunyan’s life confronts us with a question: What price are we prepared to pay for being obedient? Those of us who are Christians in western countries, we are not used to paying the physical, financial, social and emotional price for being a Christian. We prefer a theology of financial blessing rather than a theology of sacrifice and commitment. But as we descend into a post Christian era in the West, we may find that to be genuine in our faith we will need to find the inner “John Bunyan” who is prepared to stand up and be counted – no matter what the cost.
If there was ever a time, in recent history, when our neighbours needed to know that there is an alternative lifestyle and worldview to the current obsessions – it is now. People need to see lives of hope,direction and purpose. That is what Bunyan was doing. In the conformity of his age he was showing that there was a greater King and a greater Kingdom than that of Charles 2nd. Our challenge is to do the same for our era, our leaders and our neighbours.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Devotion, Faith, John Bunyan, John Bunyan Museum
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Family Disfunction and Teach-ability.
I have been reflecting lately on the task of the teacher and how it has changed in the last 40 years. The most dramatic change in that time has been the growing instability of the family. I recognise that the family has always been a volatile place but its volatility has increased markedly.
Let me put my reflection succinctly: unless the child is remarkable, children’s education is radically affected, in a negative manner, the greater the instability at home. If the home is a place of tension, anger, argument and uncertainty, the child’s ability to concentrate at school is adversely affected. There are some children who make a conscious decision to put home strife behind them and work hard at school. However, the vast majority of children do not have the maturity or emotional stamina to achieve that aim.
My challenge is simple ( some may say simplistic) yet profound. Adults in charge of children must seriously consider the atmosphere of the home if they wish their children to succeed at school. Adults are the adults. They have the responsibility, beyond their own desires and grievances, to ensure a harmonious well ordered house for the emotional, and I would add, spiritual, well being of the household.
In one place I was teaching, the staff spoke of “second generation disaffection with school”. To put it simply, disfuctional undereducated people were raising the next generation of disfunctional even more uneducated and unprepared children.
My plea: Those of us in charge of children have a huge responsibility for these young minds and souls. The way we structure and order our homes is important. Life has enough trauma with the unexpected events that life throws at us. The home should be a secure oasis: a place of refuge and comfort – not a battlefield.
With hindsight parents often remark how few years their children were at home and at school. These years seem to go so quickly. Parents and guardians do not have the luxury for petulant self obsession. Their responsibility is to the young minds and hearts in their care. The child’s future and future welfare depends on it.
Categories: Christianity, Education, Family, Teaching, Uncategorized
Tags: Christianity, Education, Faith, family
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Running With Youth’s Naivety – a Poem on Sunday
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Acts 2: 17
Oh to run with the naivety of youth,
To jump, dive
and explore
with abandon.
Oh to embrace and experience
Life!
To touch and feel its pleasures and joys.
Oh to try, fail and try again.
Oh to be blind to the cliffs and canyons
of indelible experiences.
Oh to run …
The old head says,
“Wait,
Be careful,
Listen,
Stop!”
The old head remembers the pain
of jumping, running and diving.
The sorrow of embracing.
The old head wishes
that once again,
he could run with the naivety
of youth.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Poem
Tags: Christianity, Faith, Poem, Poem on Sunday, poetry
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Saying Good Bye to the Class of 2011
I didn’t think it would be so hard. I have been a teacher for a long time and I’ve seen many students leave over the years. But this time it has been more difficult. I have been their home room teacher for over two and half years. When we first met we didn’t like each other but a year later I was asked/volunteered to be their Homeroom teacher and so the journey together started.
Now they are leaving. Secondary school has finished and the rest of life is beckoning. They are keen and yet nervous about exploring more of life. But there is still so much to learn, there are still so many warnings to give, issues to alert them about and skills to learn. Nevertheless they are going.
My wish for them is fulfilled lives. Happiness is transient and fleeting but fulfillment is an on going objective – something to strive for – a means of making life more than just mediocre.
The class has the personality and the ability to leave mediocrity in its wake. There are so many skills, abilities, qualities and traits that none of them need to be ordinary.
Most of all, and best of all, there is a strong understanding of the reality of a relationship with Christ and a place and purpose in the Kingdom of God. My most ardent prayer is that this won’t be squashed by the cynicism of the world. It is my prayer that this relationship and this sense of place and purpose that will sustain them in all the hopes, aspirations, trials and traumas of the years to come.
Lord bless them and keep them. Amen.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Education, Faith, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian Education, Christianity, Devotion, Faith
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Learning to Ride a Bike
Do you remember the first time you successfully rode a two wheeled bike? The exhilaration
and sense of achievement was amazing. There was also a sense of mystery. How was this possible? What stopped you from falling over? I can still remember the first time I rode a bike. The time and place is etched in my mind. After falling one way and then the other and scratching knees and shins, I finally succeeded in navigating myself around the tree rather than going into it. From then on bike riding was a breeze.
Faith is like that. Not understanding who God is and wondering what it means to depend on Him seems so hard. The idea of trusting in the unseen and overcoming the doubts seems almost impossible. And yet, once you trust in Him and open yourself up to His love and guidance, you realise that He carries you and that no spiritual gymnastics are required.
Too often we treat “faith” like a mountain to climb rather than a lifestyle and relationship to trust in. We make it more difficult than it needs to be. Like many new bike riders trying to balance – we try too hard.
Paul says to the Ephesians: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God… Eph 2:8. A gift is to be received. Take it and pull it close to yourself – and don’t try too hard because God does all the work. It is His gift. If you do take hold of it, it is like riding a bike. You’ll wonder why you ever thought it was so difficult.
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Separated From the Love of God
Early Medieval Stone Cross in Norway
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Romans 8:35
Have you ever contemplated the concept of being separated from the love of God? Now I know the true child of God cannot be separated from that love, but just think if it were possible. What would go though your mind? Horror? Fear? Despair? Probably all three and much more. Well, that would be true for me. The idea of being separated from God’s love defies my imagination. It horrifies me. It is too terrible to contemplate.
Why do I ask this awful question? Because when I look at the members of the body of Christ, including, sadly, my own heart at times, I don’t see the thankfulness, relief, joy and gratitude of people who truly understand what the love of God means. Maybe as an antidote we should reflect on what it means to be outside it; to imagine what being outside that sphere really means.
I believe such a genuine reflection would have at least two (possibly more) results. One result would be, our sometimes casual, complacent and neglectful relationship with God would be dealt a severe blow. Greater thankfulness, obedience, joy and probably, relief would be visible in our lives. We would live the Spirit filled life that redeemed people should be living – can be living. The second consequence would be a greater passion to see others saved. Understanding what it means to live outside God’s love, I believe, is a great motivator for our lifestyle, words and attitudes towards those who haven’t grasped the love of God through faith.
I know we can’t force people to believe, but living like people who know what they have been saved from should be obvious from every atom of our being. May our prayer be to live lives that comprehend the amazing and eternal love of God.
Categories: Bible, christian, Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Jesus, Uncategorized
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Devotion, Faith, forgiveness
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Travels from Ur 