Posts Tagged With: Christian

Holy Sonnet 14: Batter My Heart

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Pieter Stok
Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee,’and bend
Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to’another due,
Labour to’admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearley’I love you,’and would be loved faine,
But am betroth’d unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,’untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you’enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

John Donne 1572 – 1631

A statue of Donne dressed in his funeral shroud in St Paul’s London. Courtesy: Google Images

Once again I would like to return to this poem by John Donne. In this most honest of poems he reminds us of the struggle to be sanctified – made holy. In terms of a medieval blacksmith beating his iron, or city under attack he calls on God to take him captive because otherwise he would be the “enemie’s” captive. In an almost shocking and ironic line he asks God to “ravish” him to make him “chast”.

Time and again when I read this poem I am struck by Donne’s use of human love as a metaphor for God’s love. Even his relationship with Satan is described in terms of betrothal. But is it really that strange? The relationship between man and wife, at its best, is a wonderful image of love. Christ, himself, speaks in terms of a bride and bridegroom when he refers to himself and the church.

Donne’s poem is also a reminder in the current debate about marriage that Christians are called to demonstrate with their lives and voices what a Biblical view of marriage is. It is the greatest weapon we have in promoting marriage as God intended. After all, Jesus uses it to give us an insight into our relationship with him. This is something John Donne understood.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

What Can You Take To the Grave?

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Pieter Stok

What can you take to the grave? Anything you like, it seems. I asked a friend who has worked in the funeral industry if people take their mobile phones with them when they are buried? I was thinking of the discredited rumour that Mary Baker Eddy had a phone installed in her mausoleum. The truth, it seems, is far stranger.

Extra clothes, food, gardening tools, X rated films and a whole host of other paraphernalia are placed in coffins. Some more elaborate coffins and caskets have photos and paintings on the inside of the lid. One wonders why? These arrangements make even the Pharoahs’ preparations seem quite reasonable.

It is apparent that many people have some vague concept of an afterlife. But what sort of afterlife is it if you need to take these things with you? Is it just another version of planet earth as we know it? If it is, why bother?

Scripture gives us a far more glorious picture than hare-brained human fantasies. The resurrection of the dead is most clearly witnessed in the life of Christ. He is our chief evidence for its truth. However there are other passages too. 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 are just two that remind us that there will be a resurrection. The dead will rise. However it is fascinating that we are given no instructions as to how people should be buried.

I believe the Bible consistently points to both the mystical and miraculous. The resurrection is not about a rebirth into a broken human condition, but an overcoming of all that was sinful and broken. Christ will take us into the presence of God for eternity. Scripture gives us many tantalising but incomplete glimpses which point to a certain hope. What we see, though, is exciting and amazing. It also strongly suggests that we can leave the mobile phone, gardening tools and videos behind. What we are called to do to make this resurrection a glorious reality is to trust completely in the one who showed the way – Jesus!

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Stars and Sand

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Seeing that nobody corrected me I thought I had better do it myself.

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We Did Not Follow Cleverly Invented Stories

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Pieter Stok

“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.“ 2 Peter 1:16

Lord’s Prayer at the Sagrada Familia

When Peter starts his second letter which is aimed at false teachers, he clearly makes Christ the anchor of his authority. Peter speaks from the foundation of knowing Christ and and the Old Testament. This is his measuring stick for truth and sound knowledge.

It amazes me how often Christians are distracted and misled by “invented stories”. In the last generation we have had the “prosperity gospel”, gold dust descending on believers, the virgin Mary appearing in toast, trees and a whole host of other places, as well as many many more unsound and unhealthy ideas.

But there are more subtle “invented stories”, such as, the middle class materialistic lifestyle is a Christian life style, right wing politics is Christian politics, it is ok to pilage the environment and, once again, there are many many more perversions. We have been conned by celebrities, populist preachers and glib advertisers, as well as our own desires.

Peter’s solution is still the best: Measure all thing we hear and see against Christ and Scripture. The question is, “what is God’s intention?” and not “what is my desire”? Our desires will, time and again, lead us astray.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but chapter 2 alerts us to the destruction that false and misleading teaching produces. Our aim, in contrast, is to seek God’s will and promote His purposes. In our “Me Centred” generation the calling of the Christian and the Church is to point to Christ. That simple focus will prevent most of the “cleverly invented stories” arising.

Categories: Bible, christian, Christianity, Faith, Second Peter, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

What the Future Holds

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Pieter Stok

A few days ago when I was writing about the joy of family life I included a photo of my grandparents, my mother, an aunt and two uncles, taken in the late 1920s. Later as I reflected on that picture I thought to myself that my grandparents had no idea of what lay before them at this time.

Soon after this photo was taken the world would be gripped by the Great Depression (The Global Financial Crisis on steroids) and then would come the second Great War. They had lived through the first as children. Two of the children in this photo would emigrate:  one to Australia, and later, one to Canada. The daughter (my mum) travelling to Australia would take the only grandchild (me) they would ever see.

One of the uncles in the photo would die of starvation in a home for people with special needs during the later years of WW2. This period was known as the “hunger winter”. My grandfather was incapacitated by heart problems and both grandparents would be dead before 60 years of age.

They did not know what the future would bring. One of my uncles, who was born just after this photo was taken,  often reminds me that it was a tough time. But for all the seeming bleakness of this story there is a bright shaft of hope. These amazing people left a legacy of faith in their family. Despite the hardships there was a trust in God and His promises for His people and His Kingdom. They were faithful in bringing their children up in the knowledge of God and were members of a church.

Even though they had no idea of what the future would bring, they prepared their family as best they could, for it. All the people in this photo are now dead. Earlier this year my mum was the last to pass on. But I am convinced that they live on in the presence of God right now and their faith lives on in many of their children and children’s children.

We do not know the future either, but like my grandparents we do have the opportunity to sow seeds of hope and eternity.

But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children —
with those who keep his covenant 
and remember to obey his precepts. Psalm 103: 17 & 18

Categories: christian, Christianity, Faith, Family, Future, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

All Creatures Great and Small

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Pieter Stok

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Confirm Your Calling

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,  and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1: 10-11

For those of us who are happily married, we confirm our marriage often by saying, “I love you,” to our spouse. We support this with acts and words of support and kindness. But do we confirm our calling in Christ and His Kingdom? Is our life a hymn of thanksgiving to Christ for the love He has shown us? Does our life confirm this with willing acts of devotional obedience – serving in, and promoting His Kingdom?

Peter reminds us that a life lived this way prevents us from stumbling (over sinful acts) and confirms our place in the kingdom/family of God. Now isn’t that a great reason for making “every effort”?

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Family – The Simple Joys

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Yesterday, to celebrate my birthday, we had a family day. Most of the family were able to get together and we did a host of simple things. The day started with an old family tradition in which the “birthday-ee” gets his or her presents in bed. After breakfast we went for a walk along the coast, then we had a picnic in the bracing air of a seaside town and in the afternoon I built Lego and some baked or read. In the evening we had a family meal, watched old super 8 family movies and finished off with a telephone call to an overseas family member and watching “Cool Runnings”.

It was a simple day. But the joy of having family together and enjoying each other’s presence was fantastic.

So I weep when I see families pulling each other apart or living in each other’s company with constant tension or anger. Families are intended to be places of refuge, comfort, support and encouragement. They are places where warm memories can be shared and enjoyed.

My constant plea with young couples is that they work together on the purpose of their family. Sure, there will be tensions and moments of anger, however, encourage each other with a picture of what the family can be and should be. If you are struggling, seek wise mentors – people whose marriage has blossomed in time and one you would like to emulate. Ask them for their secret for success.

Work at your family as a team. As I was reminded yesterday, it is such a precious treasure.

Categories: Christianity, Church, Devotional, Faith, Family | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

Pushing Through Curtains

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Pieter Stok
Pushing back through curtains
upon curtains
billowing in a foggy past
there have been
people whose sepia faces
bring back faint memories
of times and places
now hovering
between reality
and imagination.
There were
school yard boasts
and pranks
too energetic now
for the memory to understand
Friends gone
in distance and death.
Vocations
have come and gone
and come again.
My first students
now have faces
as worn as mine
but their fresh faces
live in their children.
Years hold blessings and pain
hopes and failures
joy and aches.
But when I turn
And stop pushing
At the curtains
There is a future
a timelessness
… and a perfection.
Categories: christian, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The 5th Gospel

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Pieter Stok

Friends and colleagues connected with Covenant College in Geelong are currently working on a project called “The 5th Gospel”.

A group of 4 went to Israel earlier this year to film and do research. Initially the intent was that this material could be used in the History and Bible courses at the College. However it is becoming obvious that this effort could have far wider uses in other schools, churches and homes. To this end the project is being introduced to the community on the 4th of August. If you are in the vicinity you are very welcome to come along and hear about this exciting venture.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Education, Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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