Faith

Christian Friends

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Last night we had Christian friends come over for a meal. We talked about all sorts of things both great and small and finished the evening with a word of prayer.

I reflected to my wife later what a privilege it is to have friends like these. I added that it was as though God was speaking to us through our friends. In a real way He was. These friends have known us for a long time. They know us warts and all – the highs and lows. We know their struggles and hopes as well. So when the conversation develops and we look for the Christ in each other, a depth of communication occurs that is beyond the mundane. Despite our human brokenness Christ is a present in a tangible way. He is there in the words of encouragement, challenge, direction and hope.

In these moments we get a glimpse of heaven. We see the small lights of Christ in each other that will one day shine without hindrance. In the meantime, occasions like this are an encouragement to continue to grow and serve and anticipate with eager expectation.

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Loving Your Neighbour

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Pieter Stok

There are only two duties that our Lord requires of us,—the love of God, and the love of our neighbour.  And, in my opinion, the surest sign for discovering our love to God is our love to our neighbour.  And be assured that the further you advance in the love of your neighbour, the further you are advancing in the love of God likewise. 

Teresa of Avila

Santa Teresa an Appreciation: with some of the best passages of the Saint’s Writings. Kindle Edition.
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A Call to Mysticism

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Pieter Stok

In Larry Crabb’s book, Becoming a True Spiritual Community, he quotes A. W. Tozer.

“The word “mystic” refers to that personal spiritual experience common to the saints of Bible times and well known to multitudes of persons in the post-Biblical era. I refer to the evangelical mystic who has been brought by the gospel into intimate fellowship with the Godhead. His theology is no less and no more than is taught in the Christian Scriptures. He differs from the ordinary orthodox Christian only because he experiences his faith down in the depths of his sentient being while the other does not. He is quietly, deeply, and sometimes almost ecstatically aware of the Presence of God in his own nature and in the world around him. His religious experience is something elemental, as old as time and the creation. It is immediate acquaintance with God by union with the Eternal Son. It is to know that which passes knowledge.”

Crabb contrasts this mysticism with “managers”,

Managing Problems

“The road to spiritual community has now reached a fork. We must go one way or another, and we have come to see that we can no longer walk the management path. It doesn’t work. It quenches the Spirit and leaves us handling conflicted community with congeniality, cooperation, consolation, counseling, or conformity. Yet there is no greater determination in our fallen hearts than to manage things. We long to reduce mystery to manageable categories. To turn for help to experts who can figure out what’s wrong with us and apply the appropriate remedy. To come up with a system to follow that does not require profound spiritual depth.”

I have come to the conclusion that I, and I believe too many of my fellow believers, have sold ourselves short in our pursuit of faith. Tozer and Crabb are grappling with a depth of spiritual life that is beyond our imagination. I use the word “grappling’ because they are trying to describe a relationship with God and each other that words struggle to describe. I for one, am listening and reading intently because I yearn for a community like that, and also, I firmly believe that the malaise of faith in the West can only be countered by a Spirit filled people whose relationship with God and each other is a witness that cuts through the hardened hearts and minds of our age.

Reading: Crabb, Larry (2007-07-10). Becoming a True Spiritual Community: A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
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A Mighty Fortress …

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Pieter Stok

 

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Blessed to be …

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Pieter Stok

In Genesis 12:2 God says to Abram,

“I will make you into a great nation, 
    and I will bless you; 
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.”

In Romans we are reminded that he was the father of faith. Abram was a prototype of what would happen in the New Testament. He was one of the few OT people upon whom the Holy Spirit had come.

In the New Testament the Spirit of God is poured out on the church to empower us, like our forefather to be a blessing. If we read through Acts we find that after the coming of the Holy Spirit, persecution multiplied: stoning, beatings, gaolings, killings and the list goes on. And yet the church grew.

In the west our priorities are often the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure. Just imagine what would have happened to the gospel and our place in the story if that had been the priority of our early brothers and sisters. The likelihood is that we would all be pagans. The gospel would have been stifled.

The challenge is that we too, like Abram and the early Church have been blessed to be a blessing. I don’t know about you but that makes me very uncomfortable.

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Lessons from the Mother Hen

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Every creature is the product of a thought of God; hence all created things can serve as emblems of the Divine.

It is not of ourselves that in winged creatures we hail a figurative expression of the Divine life; but Scripture does it, and now, accustomed to it, every devout believer readily acknowledges that this imagery warms the heart and enriches the mind.

In what Jesus said of Jerusalem this comes within every one’s comprehension. The hen with her chickens is a figure of Divine compassion, which moves every one by its beauty and tenderness. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not” (Matt. 23:37).

Yet this word of Jesus has a far deeper meaning than he who merely admires it imagines. Truly it speaks of protection and compassion, for this is the purpose here of the gathering together. But there is more in it than this. It also implies that the chickens belong with the mother-hen; and that nothing else than return to her can render them safe against the dangers of cold, and prowling vermin. Yea, it also contains the striking figure that by nature the chickens are appointed a hiding place close by the mother-hen, and that they find shelter and protection of life only in the immediate nearness of the mother-life, under the outspread wings that will embrace and compass them.

Thus, this striking saying of Jesus is taken bodily from Old Testament imagery and in turn is explained by it.

When in Psalm 91 it is said. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall lodge under the shadow of the Almighty, ” we deal with the selfsame figurative representation.

It is the epitome of what the Psalmist elsewhere expresses (61: 4).. “I will make my refuge in the covert of thy wings.”

It is the same thought that was expressed by the wings of the cherubim over the mercy-seat of the ark of the Covenant.

“It is ever the one idea: God created a fowl that gathers her brood under her wings and with these wings covers and cuddles them; and now this richly suggestive picture is held before us in order that our soul might seek refuge under the shadow of the Almighty and hide in the covert of His wings.

Abraham Kuyper To Be Near Unto God (Courtesy CCEL.org)

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What’s Missing?

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Pieter Stok

A friend  alerted me to a book by the well know Christian author Larry Crabb: Becoming a True Spiritual Community- A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be.

In this book he raises a question that many people are asking, “What is missing in the church?”

Crabb speaks for many of us when he states:

And I’m disappointed, overwhelmingly so, when I take stock of the current state of Christian community. In my own life, there are several bright pockets of relational joy, for which I am extremely grateful, but none that quite measure up to Trinitarian standards.

And he continues by declaring.

I am willing to risk giving up my cultural definition of church and try to define it biblically.

When I read this I knew someone else understood my plight. My desire for something more profound wasn’t just an idle and foolish wish. More over it reminded me how profound our revisioning of the church needs to be. Larry Crabb’s offering adds to the other excellent work being done by people such as Michael Frost (Exiles) and Tim Chester and Steve Timmis (Everyday Church). Crabb’s book takes us deeper into the heart of the Christian community. He looks at what stifles spiritual community and suggests ways in which it can be/must be enhanced.

It is dangerous using a phrase like “Spiritual Community” because we all have our own understanding of it – usually shaped by our experiences. Larry Crabb speaks of “turning our souls towards one another”. He references people such as Henri Nouwen, Teresa of Avila and Dietrich Bonhoffer – who all take us beyond institution to a perspective that is far more intimate and relational with God and each other.

This book also challenges many of the attitudes and values of counselling and therapy and explores how our healing/restoration will be far more effective if, in community, we point each other towards God, and if we see suffering as a means of drawing closer to Him.

This is a book I haven’t finished yet, and I already know I will have to re-read. What it is calling for is a paradigm shift in the way we “do” church. I hope to say more about this book and its impact in future posts.

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A Christian World View

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Pieter Stok

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1:15-20

Today we had a Christian education refresher course/professional development day at our school. I teach at a Christian school, and many people, often Christians challenge me about the need for Christian schools.

The text above encapsulates the need. We are directed to recognise that “all things”, which includes what we often (mistakenly) call the sacred and secular, are under Christ’s authority. Mathematics, history, character development, art, music, sport, worship, prayer, Bible and etc. are all under the rulership of the King of creation. Paul reminds us that as the very Word of creation, Christ, is the upholder of every aspect of it.

In the words of the Dutch theologian and Prime Minister Abraham Kuyper:

“In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign,does not declare,’That is mine!

To suggest that education is neutral denies both Christ’s claims but also fails to see the humanistic foundations of public education; an education in which humanity is (an idolatrous) king.

We had a great day. All the staff – teachers, administration, bus drivers and gardeners, as well as board members – came together to be reminded of their part  in important Kingdom work.

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A God Who Sings

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Pieter Stok

As we start the working week, here is a verse that reminds us that God sings over his children like a loving mother over her baby:

The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

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The Day Bed

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Pieter Stok

A Daybed but not the one in question! Courtesy Google images.

Quite a number of years ago we were given a day bed; a small backless couch which we placed in our entry hall. But a time came when it surplus to requirements. I thought of chopping it up but finally we took it to the local, pre eBay, auction house. The auctioneer said he would try to sell it but didn’t hold out much hope. On the way home I suggested to my wife that whatever was raised, if anything, we would give to the church building fund as we were in the process of putting up a new building.

Two weeks passed and suddenly I remembered the couch. I rang the auction house and asked what it had raised. “5.45,” was the reply. Five dollars and 45 cents. Ok, it was probably better than chopping it up. When the cheque arrived it was for $545. For a brief moment I thought that maybe we should split it 50/50 with the church. We could have used $272.50. I remembered my promise and I also remembered the story Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. It is one of the scarier stories in Scripture because it is so close to our own everyday life: that mismatch between what we say and what we do; between our heart and how we wish to appear before others.

There are nearly as many explanations of this passage as there are commentators. Three points stand out for me.

1. Lying within the church to other brothers and sisters is as good as (or should I say “as bad as“) lying to God. That in turn has implications for the level of “truth in love” that needs to be developed within the Christian community.

2. Ananias and Sapphira had obviously colluded within their marriage. It is a contrast to a healthy marriage where the husband and wife hold each other accountable before the Lord and encourage Christian growth.

3. I ask myself how often I have tested God with my own lack of faith and arrogance? The answer is: far too often! I too deserve the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira. This is all more the more reason to trust in, and depend on, the grace of God and put aside any wilful desire to fool Him or disregard Him.

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