Devotional

In this fast food, fast service, impatient generation, it is easy to simply skim over Scripture to get a quick “fix” for the day: a pep talk to keep us going. When we take time to sit, ponder, reflect and digest God’s Word, it can transfix us and in a very positive sense, overwhelm us. Revelation 4:6-11 is just such a passage.

The imagery is immense. We get the strong impression that the apostle John struggled to grasp the enormity of his vision as he put quill to papyrus.

However, it is the second half of verse 11 on which I want to concentrate. It tells us that all created things have their existence through the will of God.

Think about it! We exist because of God’s creative imagination. In contrast, how puny and pitiful is our rebellion and defiance! Even our most amazing scientific discoveries, our peering into the universe, our understanding of the brain, nano technology and so on, are simply examples of us being able to enter into a minuscule part of God’s imagination.

All the things we discover, should in fact remind us of God’s incomprehensibility rather than our self imagined magnificence.

In contrast, our response should be the same as John’s and that of the 24 elders. That is, we should bring worship, adoration and praise. Not, as we modern people so often tend to do, and treat God with arrogance, ridicule and rejection. Really, our modern attitude is a picture of how small our minds and imagination are in comparison to the majesty and magnificence of God.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

The phrase “No Fear” was made popular in the late 1980’s by a lifestyle clothing company. However, Scripture had already claimed the rights to this 1900 years earlier. The apostle John  wrote about  “no fear” in his first epistle.

He explains that the perfect love of God is the complete and perfect antidote to fear. Fear of :

• the wrath of God ((Hebrews 10:31)
• death
• eternal separation from God
• the insidious power and influence of Satan

To fear, to be frozen in horror at the prospect of death or judgement, means that the sacrifice of Christ  has not been personally appropriated. It means one is living outside the complete covering of Jesus that removes all cause for the need to be fearful.

To be made perfect in love is the gracious, eternal life giving act of our Saviour, Jesus.

A Reflection on 1 Chronicles 16: 23-36

Declare his glory among the nations, 
   his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

The curse of evangelicalism is that most of us are satisfied with a privatised faith: personal, inoffensive and above all, politically correct. It is a position that many of us, including myself, gravitate towards because it is safe and non- confrontational. The problem is that it is deadly, both for us, as we fail to be the people God wants us to be, and the world, who don’t get to meet God’s representatives. A private faith has minimal consequences.

In 1 Chromicles 16, as the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem, King David describes a far more striking reality. David, on behalf of his community, God’s people, writes a psalm that is public and communal, but more than that, it reveals the task of the people of God. It reminds the people of Israel what they are there for; and that is not to be a people who cower in in an insular world of private faith.

Their calling, job, vocation (insert whatever word your theology recommends) is to:

1. Declare God’s name to the surrounding (unbelieving) nations. David reminds them that they were set apart to represent God.
2. Praise and honour God for who He is and and His faithfulness to them.
3. Remember what He has done for them. In other words, without Him they were nothing and would have gone nowhere.
4. Reveal who God is to the surrounding neighbours, but this goes further than point 1 , they were to urge their neighbours to bow in worship before Him.

My wife and I went loom hunting recently and we found ourselves in a former Sunday School hall in an old Victorian town which pre-dates the gold-rush of the 1850s.  The hall was magnificent; a celebration of Sunday School education. There were stained glass windows, as well as beautifully carved texts and Christian sayings over the windows and doors. Walking through these old rooms was an exhilarating excursion into the past.

The reason we were there, however, was to pick up a weaving loom. This wonderful hall was now a place for arts and crafts. I have nothing against arts and crafts but it is sad that the voices of children learning the gospel no longer rang through these rooms.

We’ve all seen churches turned into pizza shops, discos, theatres and so on. The church where I was baptised as a baby later became a car workshop. But I digress. My distress at the Sunday school hall is that it reflects how low as a society we have sunk. There was a time when teaching our children gospel truths was a cause for investment of time, money and creativity. It was a communal task of the utmost priority. Annual Sunday School celebrations saw hundreds of well dressed and enthusiastic children fill churches in every town and suburb.

Sadly, that has not been the fact for many many years. The Sunday School buildings that haunt our towns now, too often, stand in mute testament. Ironically, countries like France and post riot England are seeking ways to teach manners and values. The solution is far deeper than a cursory icing of manners and morals.  What is required is the radical, life changing gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not the empty Christianity of moral platitudes, as that is no different to “manners and values”. It is the reality of a new life under the headship of a new king, preparing for a new kingdom. The key is that the preparation starts here, now – in the present. It is a kingdom where the values are not about money and success but grace and forgiveness. It is a kingdom of stewardship in a broken world. It is a kingdom of healing the broken hearted and poor, and renewing community. In this kingdom the “other” is important, not as the ad agencies suggest, “me”. It is a kingdom where the rule of the king is honoured in all that we do.

On deeper reflection, I’m not hearkening back to an age of big Sunday Schools – they were the product and response of an era. Our era needs new, current and future looking responses that deal with the issues and ugly realities of this age. However, we can learn from the passion and purpose of the past. Also, the message at its core is the same – it is Christ, and Christ alone. The transmitters of the message are the citizens of that kingdom: the church, the representatives of the king.

When you walk past an ex church building or Sunday school building, ask yourself, where is that investment in the spiritual future of our children today? Where is the kingdom being proclaimed?

You have searched me, LORD, 
   and you know me. Psalm 139:1

As a father has compassion on his children, 
   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, 
   he remembers that we are dust.  Psalm 103:13,14

I have an app on my iPad that tracks me when I ride my bike. It knows the route, speed and height above sea level. If I turn the volume up, a voice even tells me how well, or usually, how poorly, I am doing. If I think about it, this can feel a little creepy: an invisible satellite stalking me. The good thing is that I can switch the app off.  However, this oversight pales into insignificance when we consider God’s oversight of us.

Psalms 103 and 139 give us some sense of the absolute comprehensiveness of God’s

Old Stone Church Eidfjord Norway

knowledge of us. His intimate understanding of our weaknesses, needs, aspirations – our very being is completely known to Him. He knows our composition, the dust, the atoms and neurons. Even deeper down, He knows our heart and soul.

Humanly, I have two choices: obedience or disobedience. I can either heed God or disobey. The alternatives are stark and simple.

The outcomes however, are eternal. Either I live before my God as one who acknowledges that His intimate knowledge of me is for my own good and His Kingdom purposes or not. The alternative, that  Psalm 103 implies,   is that if I live in rebellion and rejection, He doesn’t forgive and He doesn’t bless.

As the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard suggested, objections to God are not essentially about doubt, but disobedience (Total Church by Chester and Timmis page 171).  What is your response, one of faith, trust and reliance, or rebellion?

The choice is clear.

God is our refuge and strength, 
   an ever-present help in trouble.  Psalm 46:1

The Walls of Avila

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Eph 2:10

If God is the Craftsman then I am His creation. But wait, if He is the Master Craftsman then …

I am God’s masterpiece!

A masterpiece is an expression of the heart of the artist.

A masterpiece is created to ‘reveal’ the artist’s message.

A masterpiece lasts.

A masterpiece is not to be hidden but to be displayed as a reflection of the artist.

A masterpiece reveals the craftsmanship/artisan-ship of its creator.

A masterpiece is of great value.

Prayer: Thank you Creator God for recreating me to reflect your son, for the purpose of living for you. Amen

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor 5:17

I am a Flickr addict. I love the cross section of life that it reveals. There is one rather whimsical group that I am particularly fond of – “Stick Figures in Peril”. These are the ubiquitous warning signs that surround us everyday – around work sites and dangerous places, like cliff edges.

These signs reveal so much about us, and some of the revelations are contradictory. We want to be protected and warned so that we don’t harm ourselves, but on the other hand we can often be so foolish and mindless that obvious things still need to be said.

I haven’t come across a stick figure that warns us about the problem of missing out on a relationship with God. Maybe a clever graphic designer could make one. But many of us, even though we secretly know there is a supreme being, live and act as though there isn’t.

Jesus’ disciple, Thomas, asked a simple but profound question, “How do I know the way (into the presence of God)?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

The answer is like one of those stick figure signs that we need to heed for safety’s sake. It is a sign saying, that secret belief that sometimes crosses your mind that there is a supreme being, is true. More importantly, that supreme being says, come to me through the doorway that my son has prepared for you.

Jesus’ invitation to enter into the presence of God involves, forgiveness, renewal and eternal life. Isn’t that a “sign” worth heeding?