Speak No Evil

West Way

2010-07-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wood on wood

2010-07-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

From a photograph by Ben Hodson featuring Jake Dunn skating at Harrow

Nigel says 'doing paintings of skate rat kids with graffitti is as hackneyed as it gets, what were you thinking!?'

Well here goes.....there exists a paradox in photographs of this kind which magnetises my attention:

The paradox is the sometimes awkward, sometimes graceful physical pose of the rider which appears so unnatural but is actually completely natural. The natural forces of gravity and momentum are displayed in the natural body so as to make them seem unnatural. Add to that a strong shadow and the paradox is visible on two planes at the same time, from the perspective of the observer and of the sun. Then add the skill of a photographer like Ben and hey-presto I'm transfixed and feel I must react in some way to express myself - in this case with paint and a nail brush - flicky flicky.

Up yours Nigel.

Scrubs 1

2010-07-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

"Time To Wash My River Feet" - a poem

2010-07-08T07:21:00.001-07:00

A day for remembrance of holidays past

For memories made precious by time and sadness

Cottage and caravan, sea puddles in sand

Out of reach of pocket

A day for remembrance of holidays past

For memories made precious by love and sadness

That footsteps splashed along streams replace with gladness

Fragments of coloured glass picked out by hand

Chewy Mosaic

2010-06-24T04:53:00.001-07:00

A good idea in theory.......

...but in practice?

A total disaster!

When kids won't eat something made entirely from sweets you know you've gone SERIOUSLY wrong somewhere :)

Metal Rose

2010-06-24T04:46:00.001-07:00

Best Mate

2010-05-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

Letter to a Friend

2010-05-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Looking Up - by Jez Green

2010-05-10T00:58:00.000-07:00

Foundation - Original Photo by Steve Woodcock

2010-05-10T00:56:00.000-07:00

Rose 3

2010-05-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

Thought/Life 7

2010-05-10T00:35:00.000-07:00

What Is Fun?

2010-02-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

So there I am sitting in my front room with Dick Scoggins somewhere back in 2005, feeling broken and 1000 miles lost. Didn’t know where I was, how I got there or how to get back and I’m misfiring in ways that are a serious cause for concern. I’m beginning to shut down emotionally.

You know there are those times in the day when you just need five minutes to yourself. Maybe you’re travelling home and you see someone you know and you just don’t have it in you to speak because you’ve got nothing. This is normal for folk and no sign of anything wrong, we all run out and have to go to the store from time to time. Trouble is that for me those five minutes had grown to cover the whole day.

I remember sitting down with my wife on the door step one time and trying to explain that, although I didn’t know what, something was really wrong and I didn’t know what was going to happen.

Anyway, back to the front room and Dick Scoggins, at this point I’ve finished trying to describe the landscape of my life and how scared I am. First thing he says is ‘I was on my way out and Cath (Dick’s wife) mentions I should try asking what you do for fun?’

I couldn’t speak. The dusty words that shot out from some dark corner of my brain and got stuck behind my teeth were ‘I drink heavily and I take a lot of drugs’. Plenty of people do that these days but I hadn’t done either of those things for roughly a decade.

What follows may sound dumb to you and at first glance is no advert for following Jesus, but stick with me. Since the day God rescued my life out of the toilet in 1995 when the causes were more easily detectable (i.e. drink and drugs) I don’t think I’d had any fun at all. In fact I didn’t even know what fun was.

The mistake I’d made was understandable I think but the consequences were potentially devastating. I’d pissed my entire young life away like a fool so when God redeemed me at the climax of the resulting distress I wanted to make up for lost time and I simply asked the wrong question: what will make me grow? The reply I got was work, wife, children, ministry; all these things make a man grow. So I went after them like a rat out of a trap. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t just see these things as a ticket to some high goal, work has been good for me and I’m crazy about my wife and my kids. If real life is a card game I felt like I wouldn’t even be sitting at the green baize table let alone holding a full hand of cards if I didn’t have these three things.

So that’s what I did for ten years. I worked, I got married, I had kids, I developed a ministry amongst other believers and became a leader in a church. And you know what? I grew, I grew like Ivy. I rooted like mad and I got my tendrils into everything. If you’d tried to destroy me by fire I would’ve come back in half the time and twice the size.

All that stuff was really good for me but I was missing half of the picture. All of those things cost and if you’re not earning at the same time the bank account will run dry sooner or later. And that’s what happened to me, I reckon I came within about a month of total burn out.

You can say hello to 100 different shades of the same unless you learn to have fun but more importantly you need to find out what fun is in the Lord, because boy oh boy, it’s nothing like what the world thinks it is.

Simply put - Fun in the worlds perspective is stuff I can do that will make me feel good or feel I have value. They’re all temporary, they all cost and they all leave a bigger, blacker hole than the one they were supposed to fill. Even living for your kids can ultimately leave you with nothing.

Fun in Heaven’s perspective cannot be so easily described. Fun in Heaven’s perspective all starts with the powerful revelation by the Holy Spirit of who you are in the eyes of God. The incredible love letter we call the Bible tells the family of Jesus who we are in general (precious, blameless, accepted, wanted, important…..really hard not to get side tracked here!!!). But when God dreamed awake of making each of us back before he made space to fling the stars into he also dreamed of telling us who we are individually and specifically.

When you find the ears to listen and He starts to tell you and you choose the courage to start to believe it, that’s when you’ll really start to come alive. When you have your first close encounter with his outrageous affection for you, when you first experience the consuming gravity of His scandalous jealousy for you, that’s when you’ll begin to discover what real fun is. That’s when you’ll stop trying to figure out which buzz from your old life you’re allowed to have to keep you going. That’s when you’ll stop trying to find things to do that will make you feel like you might have some modest worth. That’s when who you really are will start scrabbling unbidden to find ways out into the world past every obstacle, disappointment, discouragement and grief.

A better question might have been ‘what will make me live?’

One of the first things He said to me after that conversation in 2005 was ‘You’re an artist’. My first reaction was to reply ‘Shhh! Don’t tell anyone that! They’ll all laugh!’. You see all my young life I’d been very creative in all sorts of ways. Not only had I forsaken that aspect of my personality for many years but even when I was active I was enslaved to a fear of producing my own work (I mostly copied other people’s ).

I realised that God had said the very same thing to me all those many years back ‘You’re an artist’ and I hadn’t has the courage to listen. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. It took some time to walk out of the dismal place I’d wound up in but it was hardly a surprise that when I started producing my own paintings it broke the depression over me. Smashed it to dust in fact.

Looking for other guys who are under the same siege and seeing them freed from it…..now that fills me with excitement, that makes me live. That’s just one of things I now call fun and nothing I ever did matches it. Nothing I ever did before even comes close.

"As for the saints who are in the earth,They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight."
Psalm 16:3

Block Prints for TL7

2010-01-20T06:10:00.000-08:00

Rose mk 2

2009-12-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

Green 2

2009-12-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

Old Wood

2009-12-11T05:33:00.000-08:00

2009-06-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

From an original photograph by Jez Green

IRAQ – Forgotten Stories

2009-04-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ben Hodson and Ian Rowlands approached me to design some shirts for a series of up-coming exhibitions. The shows will highlight the plight of many hundreds of Kurdish children in Northern Iraq who need heart surgery as a direct result of the chemical attacks perpetrated in the late eighties by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

I have intentionally borrowed the uncompromising visual style of anarcho punk art to present some very strong images here. I have tried very hard not to be crass (pun not intended) or to deliver the tabloid shock value that the detachment our western society soaks in can so often lead to.

I have two daughters roughly the same age as the sculpted pair appearing in one of the shots. Consequently this is the image I find especially distressing.

The reason I picked this style of presentation is because whatever you think about anarcho punk their imagery refuses to let people forget that our world is often full of black deeds. Here is an opportunity for you to make a difference.

The art work you will see at these exhibitions is often full of life, colour and hope. Quite a contrast to what is on show here.

If you want to know more please visit the web sites:
http://www.benhodson.co.uk/

http://www.athinplace.org/

http://preemptivelove.org/

Gallery Event Support - In Brief

2009-04-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Gallery Events - What We Do

2009-04-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

Personal and Corporate Vision

2009-04-16T06:33:00.001-07:00

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) Where there is no vision, the people perish

A brief note about the words ‘vision’ and ‘calling’

The foundation of this open letter is that belief in Jesus is not about going it alone. Rather than spending a lot of time on what can happen if you ignore this warning I’m going to talk about personal vision, corporate vision and something of what it means to have them.

First of all the words ‘vision’ and ‘calling’ differ in their meaning but have a close relationship so I’ll be using both almost interchangeably.

Vision in a modern context is often a passive word and we should not make the mistake of thinking it means entertainment. That might sound like an obvious thing to point out but many of us have unconscious default attitudes of heart which render us passive from a prevailing desire to be entertained. The popularity of TV and film in our society is a testament to this truth.

This makes use of the word ‘calling’ valuable because we can’t avoid associating it with action on our part. Action in response to vision revealed to us by God. The bottom line is if we don’t learn to kick ourselves and say ‘vision means doing things with God’ we may easily couch potato through what needs to be understood here.

Vision and calling are both Bible words and by using them I’m confident I’ll be able to capture here aspects of God’s purpose for our lives.

What is vision?

So how do we define what it means to have a vision from God? When contemplating a spiritual concept it often helps our understanding if we identify an earthly parallel just as Jesus often did.

In the physical realm vision is made possible with three ingredients: An eye to perceive, a subject to be perceived and light which is the medium that conveys or reveals the subject to the eye.

In the heavenly realm vision works in much the same way. In John’s gospel Jesus is called the ‘light of the world’ and it is through His actions and His words that spiritual truth was conveyed to many of those He came into contact with. Some of Jesus’ actions were miraculous and although Jesus is not the only person in history to perform miracles His acts were distinguished by their purpose: to declare the power of (reveal) heavenly or spiritual realities. Even now studying the acts of Jesus can enable us to see spiritual things with spiritual eyes.

To further illustrate how spiritual vision is available to us today I’ll use another earthly parallel, namely Java code. For those who don’t already know Java code is one of a few computer languages often used for building internet websites because it makes dynamic content possible. Dynamic content is information tailored specifically to an individual whereas it’s opposite (static content) never changes regardless of who is looking at it. By the use of Java code a website can identify particular things about you and then present on screen whatever the website designer wants you to see.

The Holy Spirit which is the helper given to us by God since Jesus ascended to heaven (John 14:26) is the medium we have access to in Jesus’ Place. The Bible tells us that one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to take what belongs to Jesus and make it known to us (John 16:15). It’s clear from this verse that since Jesus ascended to heaven the Holy Spirit is the spiritual equivalent of light to us. He knows who we are and He knows exactly what we need to hear Jesus say at any given moment. The Holy Spirit is also the power by which we may perform miracles to declare heavenly or spiritual realities to others, to enable spiritual vision where there is none.

Vision from God is also both static and dynamic. There are aspects of God’s call on our lives which always apply to all of us, for example "do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good". This command is to all of us all the time.

However there are also aspects of God’s call which will be individual and in the moment or for a season. One example of this in scripture is the prophet Isaiah who describes his experience in chapter 6 verse 8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Clearly the life of the believer is meant to be guided by vision that is both static and dynamic. A living relationship with God means having both but consider this also: if vision can apply to all of us all of the time vision must be corporate. But if vision can also apply to just one of us vision must also be individual.

So is it possible to have both corporate vision and individual vision at the same time and should our individual calling be linked to a corporate calling? I think the following verse is just one example which tells us the answer:

‘But God……even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ…….For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.’ Ephesians 2:5&10

In this passage we can see the static, dynamic, personal and corporate elements of calling associated closely. The vision of who we are is addressed to every generation of believers and is therefore static. The works we do are directed by the Holy Spirit at their appointed times and are therefore dynamic.

Use of words like ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘together’ indicate a people operating as individuals but not independently. Each having a different role but all working together just as a body is composed of many parts with different functions (1Cor12:12-26).

Even when I am on my own and I walk in one of these works I know I am empowered to do it not only through my relationship with God but also through my relationship with other believers, the body of Christ on earth. God often uses other believers to train and encourage me so I know how to walk in these works. To pray for me so I have the heavenly backing to perform them.

The more we come to accept this idea the more we see it plainly in scripture. Try these verses on for size:

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, Ephesians 1:18

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:4-5

The Importance Of Vision

Vision is of paramount importance because of the influence it has on the heart. The heart is the core of our being and what it contains makes up our identity – who we think we are. It is often said that actions are the measure of a person, that it’s not what we say but what we do that defines us outwardly. The truth is that the root of all our actions is in the heart, they come out of the affections and fears that live there. The truth is that who we think we are determines our actions.

If I have no vision from God I will struggle to find purpose and self worth. Fear and selfishness will rule my heart and control my actions. Having vision from God is the very opposite. If I truly have vision from God I have purpose and I have self worth because I know something of His deep affection for me. I know I have been called by name and that I have a unique place in His heart that can never be taken from me. I know I will grow.

Vision is important because it influences who we think we are and therefore how we live. Vision empowers us to defeat fear and increase our capacity to be loved and to love.

However God has not called us into relationship with Him alone but also with other people (for an excellent and concise example of this go to Acts 2: 41-47, the book of Ephesians is good for a more in depth study). This must mean that both the static and dynamic calling God places on our lives will have an individual and a corporate application. If who I think I am determines how I live then who we think we are corporately will impact directly how we live as a family, or a people.

Sober Thought

When I first presented these thoughts to a group I handed out paperclips with the instruction ‘do with them whatever comes naturally’. After talking for a time I asked people to show what they’d done with the paper clip, most were mangled beyond use.

I did this to help people think about the nature of value. As the saying goes ‘a thing is worth whatever people are prepared to pay for it’. A paperclip in the minds of most is valueless and so it is treated accordingly.

The value we attribute to something in the heart is borne out by our actions. If you don’t treat something as if it’s important, it isn’t important to you. If you don’t treat something as if it’s special, it isn’t special to you.

A paper clip has little real value, attributed or otherwise but how we treat our personal and corporate vision is of immense value to God. Why? Because it evidences the importance we place on what He thinks of us and how we respond to understanding His perspective. Who we think we are changes and matures by the word of life spoken directly into the heart, God’s personal voice speaking to us personally. This is how the way we live also changes and matures.

At this point we need to be honest and think soberly. If we neglect to make space in our lives to receive and steward a personal and corporate vision from God we must resist the temptation to dial down the significance of that neglect.

If we allot the activities of everyday life a higher importance so they get in the way or make us forget, if we say we are too busy or we just didn’t have the time we need to be aware of how God sees this.

We must not allow momentary things to trump issues of eternity in our lives. When we do that God does not look on this simply as neglect, He calls that despising.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright." "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. Genesis 25:29-34

If this describes you to any degree I encourage you to make a good repentance. That doesn’t mean spend time feeling bad. Repentance is as much about simply choosing to think differently and moving on as it is about asking forgiveness. If we have despised our calling it simply means we have denied God the quality of interaction (relationship) he desires with us. Repentance is about receiving that interaction born of Fatherly affection and not remaining centered on the self through a lingering sense of guilt. God’s grace is always enacted to us the moment we choose to receive it.

Some Thoughts On Stewarding A Living Vision

Vision and its continual refreshment comes from a variety of sources, God speaks to us through his Word, through our circumstances, in times of worship and prayer, in prophecy from other believers. Be mindful that God will always confirm His word through more than one source so do look for this and expect it.

We don’t always know what a vision means in depth and to ensure we do not draw false or partial conclusions we must pursue God if we are to find out. Like a painting by a master all visions must be studied and we must ask the painter to tell us about it.

Also vision contains dynamic elements and these elements will always be subject to change. It’s true that God often gives overarching visions intended as a theme in a season of life but if you’re operating out of a vision God gave you last year it means you haven’t talked to Him about your vision since last year! Last year means out of date!

Final Exhortations

Vision is your anchor when everyone is deserting you. It is your rock when every circumstance seems to contradict what you have received faith for. It is your armour when the Devil tries to move you off your ground so you will not be there to receive the blessing when it arrives.

The world has no vision. We are called to be ambassadors of heaven and to call others to the abundant life that is in Christ by the way we live.

Vision is first and foremost about relationship. Whatever you are relationally that is your primary calling be it child, parent, employee, spouse, sibling, disciple or mentor.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:15-16

Why Baptism?

2009-04-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

Five minutes on what it’s about.

You may remember a credit card ad that ran on TV a few years back. It centred on a man who had borrowed huge sums of money from loan sharks. His debt was so large that he had no hope of being able to repay it and so the gangsters were after his blood. Unaware of the credit card company’s offer he had opted to solve his problem by faking his own death, donning a disguise and moving to a far away country. To avoid a real physical death his solution was to trick the loan sharks into believing he had already died.

Strange as it may seem Baptism is a similar solution to a similar but far more serious problem. So what are the similarities and what are the differences? Let’s assume for the sake of this illustration that you are the one being baptised.

First - someone does have to die but it’s not you.
Second - the person paying the debt has experienced not only a torturous physical death but also a spiritual death far worse that the physical one.
Third - the new identity you get from this unique transaction comes with the power to live differently. Basically you need never worry about running up the same debt again.

Why are these differences so important? Well you might be able to trick an earthly creditor but God cannot be tricked:

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. Galatians 6:7

The fact is we can’t escape this creditor by faking it. The debt has to be transferred to someone who can pay it and survive. The only one who can pay the death penalty and live: Jesus.

For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 1Cor15:21-22

But let’s say you’ve been doing ‘Christian’ type things for a while; Going to church, reading the Bible, praying, etc. Isn’t it enough to simply say ‘I believe’? If Jesus really matters to you then no, I’ll explain why.

A relationship with God is of such importance (really, there just isn’t anything more important in the universe) that it needs a covenant to define and therefore protect it. A covenant lays out the terms of the relationship, so everyone signing up to it knows what they’re agreeing to – like in a marriage.

The terms of a marriage are actually very similar to the terms of a relationship with God (hardly a mistake as God thought up marriage). Here are some of those terms:

Love – when you marry someone you promise to love them in with both your word and your actions, not just when you feel like it. John Stott said ‘love is not a victim of the heart but a servant of the will’..

Exclusivity – I don’t share my wife with anyone else and she doesn’t share me. If I slept with someone else this would be very hurtful to my wife and several other people besides.

Permanence – let’s forget the divorce statistics for a minute, marriage is meant to be permanent and with God’shelp it still can be.

Public – a marriage is two people making promises to each other in the sight of God and witnesses. Why? Because you only hide something when you’re ashamed of it.

So back to the original question; isn’t enough to simply say ‘I believe’? Look at it this way. If you were to simply say to someone ‘I want to marry you!’ and then go around telling everyone you’re married what would happen? At the very least people would get a bit confused. So what’s missing? A public declaration of commitment to the terms of the relationship through which the person we are committing to is properly honoured.

In the case of marriage there are vows, the exchange of rings and signing of the register. In the case of baptism there are vows, water and your name being written in the book of life! What’s the water all about? The Bible says it best so I’ll let it do the job:

May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, Romans 6:2-5

If you need any further convincing here’s the clincher, Jesus did it.

That Man Jesus

2009-04-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

In our second session on the book “Wild At Heart” by John Eldredge Dave Aston asked us to consider two questions to help us focus in on what we think Jesus is really like:

1. Who would you choose to play Jesus in a film and why?

2. Of all the people you have ever met who had the most impact on you at the first meeting and why?

From the varied answers people gave I have tried to paint a picture of what we have to say about this Jesus as we know Him by our experiences and in our hearts:

He is a king, a teacher, a widow, a soldier, a missionary, a housekeeper, an orator, a cast away, a gun fighter, and a priest.

On the outside He looks like a wiry and rough handed outdoorsman, you can see he’s got some physical toughness but this is no gym toned beefcake. He’s lived a tough life yet somehow you can see constant quiet joy and absolute trust in God in His face. The moment you meet Him you feel like you know who he is and that you can tell Him anything, that you can tell Him everything.

Although we know he has such great knowledge and insight he’s never once talked down to any of us. You wouldn’t even know He’s royalty unless someone told you.He stands out from the world because He’s always genuinely interested in us as people. There’s nothing arbitrary about his questions and they always engage us. In fact the way He asks them keeps us on our toes and even makes it easier to put across what we want to say. He just seems to know how to steer a conversation to get stuff out of us. Funny thing is we can’t always remember what we’ve talked about with Him but it always feels like it was a significant conversation.
So He’s personable but man, can He deliver ‘the stuff’ too! There is this undeniable intensity in his character and you should hear Him articulate an argument! It’s true that physically he doesn’t stand out when he’s quiet but He doesn’t lack boldness when he speaks either. Even though he carries such authority in His eloquent voice kids just love him.

He’s not deliberately out to bring people down but he’s not afraid to expose the proud when they pose a danger to others either. The people He picks fights with sometimes even benefit from the confrontation. He’s as quick to denounce injustice as He is to defend those who have no one to stand up for them and this is when you truly see His strength of will because He doesn’t hesitate to do right when others would flinch.

He always seems so sure of his purpose which must be where he gets his determination to endure and survive from……….and He’s always got a good thing to say about each of us.

Real Men

2009-04-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

Some of us guys are getting together to study the book “Wild At Heart” by John Eldredge. As part of the session on chapter one we talked about the men we admire (fictional and non-fictional) and why we admire them. Here are just a few of the qualities we described.

They stick to what they know is right even when they know it will cost them their lives.

They stride through chaos and remain moral.

They are controversial and have pioneer natures.They show respect and have drama in their voices when they speak.

They don’t get everything right and they’re not afraid of making mistakes.

They know how to say sorry and how be real.They are risk takers who never give up.

They take on the most challenging places in the world and survive without being macho about it.

They seem socially awkward except when talking about the love of God which reveals who they really are.

They are modest in command of great skill.

Their attitudes are bold whilst being quiet geniuses.

They are unworldly and unbothered by fashion.

They know how to repel an insult.

They show audacious courage when giving honour to the Lord like David’s mighty men.

They stir the hearts of other men when their exploits are re-told.

They are publicly devoted to the poor and disadvantaged without hiding their faith.

Their work challenges both believers and non believers alike.

They are attentive to detail and adhere to a high standard of conduct.

They humiliate bad guys and defeat them with amazing inventiveness.

They have a keen nose for injustice and they hammer away at it even when it’s not the fashionable thing to do.

They are open about spirituality and their need of God.

They are faithful in the face of great opposition and discouragement.

They are neither swayed nor angered by the attitudes of others.

They succeed against all the odds.

I pray that as we search for an authentic expression of masculinity in our lives and seek to truly live from the heart that Jesus will transform us. After all, these qualities ultimately describe Him, whose likeness we ultimately seek.

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.2 Chronicles 16:9 (New American Standard Bible)

God’s Plan For My Life

2009-04-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

JER 29:11 “..For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (NIV)

It’s my experience that many people take this verse to mean that a great many secret books are hidden away in heaven, one for each of us. Each book is a fantastically detailed chronology of unique times, places and events which God has written down for us to live out. Like a sealed set of orders only far more lengthy.

Life’s dilemmas and trials provoke us to crave a peek in the book so we can find out what we’re supposed to do. Many of us have sought the Lord saying things like ‘You say you have a plan but what is it?’. We hope He will have mercy and show us a page but the prayer is never answered. What often follows is an emotional ping-pong match between feelings of failure (for not knowing what to do) and frustration (at being so cruelly denied). We have no idea how to reconcile this predicament with the truth that God is love so we try to ignore the gnawing feeling that the answer is up there in a book but God just won’t let us have it.

If this has been your experience (and if it hasn’t I guarantee you’ll know someone who has so stay tuned for their sake) I have news for you, there is no secret book in heaven with your name on it containing God’s plan for your life.

God’s plan for your life is simply this: to prosper you and not to harm you. To give you hope and a future. That’s it. That is the plan and He’s not hidden it from you.

But consider for a moment if God did write an individual plan for each of us in fine detail and drop it in our laps. What would we do with it? To know the answer to this question all we have to do is look at how we see the book he’s already given us.

Is it a list of instructions from a distant God or is it the greatest love letter you ever had?

Do you hide in it’s pages for safety (not forgetting how the Pharisees constantly tried to trap Jesus with its contents to preserve that safety) or do you long for the one who wrote it to you?

Do you read it because you think it makes you ‘a good Christian’ or do you use it as a springboard into the presence of the lover of your very soul.

Jesus did not die to purchase a long distance relationship with us. Jesus did not die on the cross so He could remain distant while we carry out instructions. So just in case you didn’t catch it the first time round here’s that plan for your life again:

Psalm37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Discipleship – The Hard Sell

2009-04-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

Why am I writing this? Isn’t there enough material on discipleship in the world already? Well yeah and I use a whole bunch of it but I find the one thing I reckon a lot of it lacks is a strong pitch. The momentous joys and extraordinary pride I have felt as a result of the victories I’ve witnessed in guys over the years, victories I know I have personally contributed to, is missing from all the material I’ve ever come across on this subject.

Now I would say that I’m a highly skilled and effective discipler which may sound like an arrogant claim. In reality I make this boast in God and God alone. I know it is God who has both anointed me and trained me in this essential ministry. By anointed I mean He has personally created in me aspects of character necessary to disciple well that were not previously there. Before he changed me by the miraculous working of his Holy Spirit I could not do it. By trained I mean I myself have been discipled by Godly men also highly skilled in this ministry.

In truth I believe that once God has equipped us to perform a task he expects a return on his investment. He means for us to do it. This may sound like an obvious statement but how many of us can honestly say that we order our lives so we may highly prioritise co-labouring with God in the employment of our spiritual gifting?

I feel that if more people knew of the humbling and awesome outcomes of truly effective discipleship more people would make it a priority to do it and thus fulfil the very command of Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;” (Matt 28 19-20)

And by the way, baptising someone is one of the coolest things it’s ever been my privilege to do.

Any teaching on discipleship is based on the premis that the Christian Life is not about going it alone. It’s also not about simply having plenty of casual mates that all happen to believe in Jesus either. It’s far deeper than that. Sadly many believers fail to grasp the importance of discipleship and wonder why divorce and abortion rates among Christians is scarcely different to that of the un-churched world.

We do not need to go to church on a Sunday. What we need is brothers and sisters who would take a bullet for us and if we hang out with them on a Sunday to worship in God’s presence then that’s gravy not dinner. Discipleship is about recognising that life is a war zone and we need to watch each others backs. It’s about living close enough so that problems which threaten the survival of our relationships can’t be hidden. It’s about having the courage to love and be loved.

The truth is that much of the skills you need to disciple you can use in the most temporary relationships but if you really want to know the reality of the richness on offer you have to look for guys to tie yourself to. When you hold the responsibility for them that love gives you and call them ‘the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight’ (Psalm 16:3) then you will live a life marked by the joy that comes with their successes.

To disciple in the most effective way means a significant emotional investment on your part. And what is the result? You get to see them win victory after victory and know God has used you personally to help bring each one about.

Hearing The Voice Of God The Father....

2009-04-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

.... Through The Psalms

A little while ago I was invited to speak at a church on this theme which was a little perplexing at first. If you are familiar with the book of Psalms you’ll know they all have one thing in common; they are all addressed to God by man. Rejecting the idea that they were having a joke at my expense I started to prayerfully think things through. As time went by a number of divergent themes which God has been speaking to me about in recent months started to tie up.

So rather than choose a couple of Psalms to unpack for you and demonstrate how it’s possible to hear God’s voice when it’s man talking I’m going to break off a piece of my life and share it with you. In doing so we may understand together a couple of principles that God has been tutoring me about through my children and my time of life. I hope also that God will inspire you in the same way he is inspiring me to apply these principles and be blessed by Him through their practice.

My usual way of going about these things is to first live the principle, teach it from very brief notes and then expand it in written form. This time someone was kind enough to give me a recording of my presentation so I have transcribed the talk almost verbatim (so it doesn't read that great in places).

Studley Green Christian Fellowship – July 2008.

My hope today is that I can bring a word to you which is not only eternal but also of the moment. One which is faithful and reflects God’s affection for you. Amen.

What I want to start with is a man called Bill Johnson who you guys may have heard of. In one of the first addresses I ever heard him give he was teaching about what to do when you face very, very tough times. Those of you who know anything about Bethel Church in Reading California will know that they’ve seen remarkable healings. This is something they’ve really pursued God for, they’ve gone after the preaching of the gospel through people being healed. He was talking about one of the hardest things he’s had to face, the people that don’t get healed and finding the courage to continue.

He talked about a lady there who was a member of the staff, very dear to the church, who was diagnosed with cancer. They prayed what he described as their ‘best prayer’ , they fasted, they did everything they knew to do but to no avail and the woman did eventually go to God. In those circumstances he found himself in a very dark time and as a consequence he is able to counsel people who face similarly dark times.

One of his counsels is to go to the Psalms and read and read and read until you find your voice. When you face tough times, when you face discouragement, when you’re not sure you’ve got it in you to go on, go to the psalms and read and read until you find your voice.

I’ve been facing some difficult times myself, I’m 36 years old, married with kids, I’m what the newspaper calls a S.I.T.C.O.M. which stand for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. My wife and I have chosen a set of problems in our life together, we chose that Hayley would be a stay at home mum. Now this is just a value thing, it’s not a case of right or wrong but we felt it was important that the most visible person in our children’s lives would need to be one of us. And so we’ve chosen a certain set of problems. We don’t have two incomes and so we’ve been facing some significant problems. So I did what Bill recommended, I went to the Psalms and I read until I found my voice and It worked but I wasn’t really sure why.

Then my best friend Jez published two articles on the internet last Easter for people to come and read. I didn’t know until I read these articles that this is what Jesus did. I’m going to read two excerpts from the articles now.

Meditations for Holy Week - part 1- By Jez Green

Did you know Jesus sang a hymn before going to pray prior to his betrayal? It is a short verse, easily missed:

"When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." – Mark 14:26.

This was straight after the last supper (Passover meal) and immediately before the agony of Gethsemane. It is very likely, given the usual order that the Jews sang the Psalms during Passover, that what Jesus and his friends would have sung at this point included the words of Psalm 118.

The Egyptian Hallel Psalms (113-18) are traditionally associated with the feast of Passover and deliverance from Egypt. Hallel means "praise." The first half of the Hallel (Psalms 113-14) was sung earlier in the Passover. The "hymn" that Jesus and his disciples sang after the Last Supper was, no doubt, the second half of the Hallel (115-18), sung at the end of the Passover meal. Thus the last song Jesus is likely to have sung on his way to the garden of his betrayal is Psalm 118.

It is worth reading the whole of this Psalm in that context to get an idea of the incredible courage with which Jesus faced his betrayal, arrest and execution.

Here are some portions of Psalm 118 to meditate upon.

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever…
6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
18 The LORD has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it…

Meditations for Holy Week – part 2 - By Jez Green

We read in Matthew 27:46

‘About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

He is quoting from Psalm 22:1.

A few verses later we read:

"When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit".

Luke embellishes this for us:

’Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.’ – Luke 23:46.

Again, this is a direct quotation from Psalms, this time 31:5.

It occurs to me that we know this much:

- Jesus shouted Psalm 22:1 as he hung on the cross near death
- Jesus shouted out Psalm 31:5 a little while later, with his dying breath
- We don’t know how much time passed between the two shouts
- We know that the Psalter in the time of Jesus was pretty much as we have it now

Given these facts, it follows as a possibility that, in the final minutes before his death, Christ may have been meditating on and praying through the Psalms, particularly those between 22 and 31.

At the start of Psalm 22, we can feel the tone shift from despair to trust in the matter of a few lines. God is, and always has been, faithful to his people. Jesus would not have been unaware of the rest of this Psalm when he shouted out the first verse.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.
4 In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

So it was a revelation to me that when Jesus faced his trial (a trial that, praise God, we will never have to endure because we know that it was not just a physical torture we know it was a cross of desolation. Utter separation from the presence of the Father, something He had never experienced) he went to the Psalms for strength.

Instituted in the life of the nation were the Hallel Psalms. Every year at the Passover it was part of their personal identity to proclaim that their God is a God who saves people out of their distress. It’s what He does, it’s who He is and this is what Jesus was centred on before he was betrayed. Also while he endured the crucifixion and its utter loneliness the Psalms is where he was.

The Psalms, what are they?

They contain God’s character, who He is and therefore what He does, described by those who have the deepest relationship with Him. If you study the life of David you will know that he wrote two thirds of them. This man was credited with having the deepest insight into the emotions of God and what moved His heart second only to Jesus Himself.

The Psalms is the place you go to if this is who you are or this is what you want. It’s the instinct to run to run to daddy when you’re terrified.

What was he writing when he wrote the Psalms? He was writing a response just as the Hallel Psalms are also a response.

The Psalms bear witness to the fact that Jesus was assailed by every emotion that we could ever have to deal with in life but they didn’t shake Him. Psalm 30:9 "What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit?" Is that a doubt? I don’t think so. I think that’s an example of how Jesus was confronted with every question we may ever have to face. The answers he came up with and held fast to came from the Psalms.

The Spirit Of Sonship

But I believe there is a pre-requisite we need before you go to the Psalms in order to get out of it what God wants us to receive. I’m going to call this pre-requisite the spirit of sonship (from a verse in Romans which I will quote later). Now I don’t mean to alienate any of my audience by saying that, when I say sonship all I mean is that we each of us have the place in God of a first born son (to balance things us guys have to get our head around being the bride of Christ!). So I’m using the word sonship for simplicity’s sake as we have equal status in God, but it also means we have to consider the opposite which is the orphan spirit.

First of all let’s think a bit about where the spirit of sonship comes from, where does the notion of being a child come from? It comes from our parents of course but what are our parents? Parents are meant to reflect and inform a child of the nature of God as it grows but there is also supposed to be a time of transition when that child’s dependency transfers from earthly parents to God. Now if that never happen we have what I would describe as the orphan spirit.

I mentioned before that my wife and I have done what countless people have done before us, we’ve bought a house so we’re in tough times financially. It’s what everybody goes through but it’s a bit scary, especially if you think there’s no-one there to bail you out. I started thinking about my folks, what am I going to do when they’re gone? Will there be any one there to bail me out? The orphan spirit is that place of vulnerability where I think that there isn’t anybody there to help me. It doesn’t matter if I screwed up, doesn’t matter if it’s my fault, doesn’t matter if it’s bad things happening to good people. It doesn’t matter what happens, it’s the feeling that no-one is there to bail me out and no-ones going to help me.

This is what you wind up with if you don’t have this spirit of sonship.

Why is it crucial to have it, this spirit of sonship? A lot of people think in the modern world that a man or woman is defined by his or her actions. I think this is a slight but significant misconception. What I believe personally is who we think we are determines what we do. If I think in my heart that I am a son that will affect how I live. If I think I am an orphan and there is no-one to bail me out that will affect how I live, it will affect that things I do.

I’ve checked out the word anxiety in the Greek lexicon because someone told me that the root of the word means to pull away from.

Sure enough ‘merimnah’ is the Greek for care or anxiety but the root of this word is ‘meridzo’ which mans to separate or divide. So where it says "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6) it’s saying don’t separate yourself from God, that’s the orphan spirit. Don’t give in to worry, don’t think there’s no one out there to bail me out, that there’s no-one there who loves me or I am on my own because it’s not true.

If we have this spirit of sonship, if we see ourselves firstborne sons of God it changes how we see trials. When we know we are being assaulted, when we are being challenged by circumstances it changes how we see those trials, it changes what we do when they come. Not only that, it unlocks the power to defeat them.

This is why Bill Johnson goes to the Psalms, this is why Jesus was in the Psalms, this is why Jez goes to the Psalms, this is why I go to the Psalms. There’s something about going there and finding your heart response, because when you find the voice of your heart you instinctively know what your Father has said to you, what has caused you to respond in this way. You instinctively know.

We sometimes forget that in combination with the Holy Spirit the Bible is a mystical book, it’s not just words. It’s meant to be a launch pad to the presence of God. There have been times in my life when I’ve struggled to know how to prioritise things and my mind has just been a mess but after just reading it (any of it) my mind has been clear and I’ve been able to think clearly. Going to the Psalms unlocks the power to defeat whatever it is that you are facing and I believe it is rooted in what I am calling the spirit of sonship.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" Romans 8:15 (NASB). Running to daddy when we’re terrified.

So what’s the end game?

Firstly if you know you don’t have this spirit of sonship you need to become a son. John 1:12-13 says of Jesus "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."

I’m very proud to say that I was an accident, my parents didn’t plan me. I was never planned by my parents, they love me all the same and they never made a joke about it but God planned me. When I became His son that was His will.

Secondly if you believe in Jesus, if you know all this stuff but you struggle with things in life, you get terrified, you get afraid of circumstances, you need to recognise that you are a first born son of the living God.

At this point it’s right to say that repentance is not always just saying sorry because you did something wrong, the full meaning of repentance is that it’s choosing to think something else. David wrote in Psalm 57:8

"Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.."

One of the things we have authority over as a son of God is the soul and we should use it. Just as David says "Awake my soul!" we can choose to say to our disobedient thoughts "no! I am not going to be intimidated by my circumstances. No! I am not separated from God, I am a first born son!

If you already know all of that what’s the end game for you? Read the Psalms until you find your voice. You don’t have to wait until you are facing tough times because there’s other stuff in there too. Spend time connecting with the affection God has for you and let it continue to transform you.

I have two children both girls, Maisie Ann who is four and Scarlet Grace who is two. Jez just said to me recently that kids are a wonderful tutor about God’s affection for us. Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing all I have to do is just think of them and my heart is flooded with affection for them. This is how God regards his children.

Regarding the word to bless in the Bible, (I mention this in connection with where the word anxiety comes from) no body in the Bible ever blesses at a distance. There is always a drawing close to touch or the laying on of hands. There’s something about physical proximity to the person when a blessing is given that seems to be integral when doing it. This is how God wants our relationship to be with Him, always close enough to touch.

What is Holiness? Part 2 - By Jez Green

2009-04-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

i) Holiness is what we do: daily choosing to pursue Jesus

Thus far, it has been clearly outlined how holiness is a gift from God, something bestowed on us by grace, something we could never achieve by any amount of effort. So, what about the scriptures that urge us to “be holy,” or to “pursue holiness”? Can we afford to ignore such passages, or to squeeze them into a way of thinking that suggests that, once we turn to Christ, we can give up on this pursuit? Even when it is in a letter written to believers? One of the things I increasingly love about the Bible is the fact that it is chock-full of such tensions.

Holiness, like just about every other part of our Christian walk, is about properly maintaining this tension between two polar opposites. In this instance, the fact that on one hand, holiness is entirely God’s work in us. And, on the other, becoming holy is entirely our own responsibility and work; something we do out of love for Jesus and as a result of his Spirit’s work in us. As with all things of value, we are co-labourers with God in becoming holy.

Let’s have a look at one of the passages of scripture alluded to in the first paragraph. “Work at living in peace with everyone and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14, NLT) Just a few verses earlier, the writer has asserted that God must work in our lives in order to make it possible for us to “share in his holiness” (verse 10). But here he insists that we also have a part to play: we are to “pursue holiness” (the literal meaning here). If not, we cannot see God or experience his life. Having chosen to follow Jesus (and all that this implies) we must then make that choice again and again, day after day, in all that we do.

C. S. Lewis described the process neatly in his wonderful book “Mere Christianity”:“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God and with its fellow creatures and with itself… Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.”

Can our holiness here and now simply be a matter of “believing we have been made holy?” Tom Wright maintains that, “What is to be true in the future must begin to be true in the present, or it will be called into question whether you are really on track in the first place.” (Surprised by Hope, p296) We may, with one decision, give our lives over to Jesus and allow him to make us holy. However, a decision you made once but did nothing about since is no decision at all. Anyone who has been promised that the dishes will be washed and has come home at the end of the day to find a sink full of dirty plates can tell you that. Jesus made it abundantly clear, numerous times, that paying lip service to God and doing his will are entirely different things. (See his brief parable in Matthew 21:28-31 for one such example.) Other Biblical writers attest the same thing: James for instance claims, “Faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” And “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” (James 2:17 & 26)

Our lives, the eternal ones, are made daily through the decisions we make and the life we live.

ii) Holiness is what we do: not what we don’t do!

So then, to say that holiness is a gift - free to us and immensely costly to God - is true. But that is not the whole story; it is simply the first sentence in the narrative of our renewed lives. There is a tale to be told through us, and without the rest of the story the first sentence doesn’t make a great deal of sense. And it isn’t very satisfying to read. (If you don’t believe me, try it with your favourite book and prepare for a disappointment when you have to put it down before page 2!)
However, our pursuit of holiness seems to almost habitually go awry after the first couple of chapters of new life. For most of us, for a short while near the beginning of our story, holiness took on a mostly negative tone. “Stop doing this.” “Get rid of that.” “Give up the other.” This is OK to a point. There are usually several things we ought to get rid of - and quickly - to make more space in our lives for Jesus. And I am not suggesting that there ever comes a time when we no longer need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal our sin to us or to ask for forgiveness for our self-centredness. But that, I believe, is not the heart of holy living.

Once we have cleared some space, we really must stop and re-evaluate just what holiness means. Otherwise religiosity quickly takes over and we begin to see how many things we can give up, stop associating ourselves with, throw out or possibly even burn; which rather misses the point. Our “being set apart” ends up setting us apart from the very people to whom we are supposed to be salt and light. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried putting the salt on one plate and your chips on another, but it really doesn’t work! Instead of becoming holy, we can easily become self-righteous - like the Pharisee, who prayed with thanks that he was not like the miserable tax collector in the corner, beating his chest and pleading for mercy. Remember, it was the tax collector in Jesus’ parable who went home justified before God.

As Tom Wright says, “Christian holiness is not (as people often imagine) a matter of denying something good. It is about growing up and grasping something even better.” (Simply Christian, p202) Let us focus on this “something better.” Let us try to re-imagine holiness with some passion and creativity.

iii) Holiness is what we do: dreaming with Jesus

“Holiness,” says St. Francis “Is not a personal achievement. It’s an emptiness you discover in yourself. Instead of resenting it, you accept it and it becomes the free space where the Lord can create anew.” – (From The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus by Brennan Manning, p.210)
This says so much. Holiness is the realisation that we are nothing… and yet that, from nothing, God can create the most incredible masterpieces. All he needs is a bit of blank canvas to get started.

This, for me, is where holiness gets really interesting. We don’t simply accept that we are holy and get on with life; settle for “business as usual”. Nor do we just do what we feel we ought to do, limiting our relationship with God to one of a self-righteous Pharisee or a zealous servant. Rather, out of our relationship with God, we do what makes us feel well and truly passionate and excited and alive! The late dean of Boston University Chapel, Howard Thurman, famously said: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Bill Johnson teaches both convincingly and authoritatively on this subject and it is not for me to try and replicate him here. The point he makes, however, is this: Once we have our identity thoroughly entrenched in the reality that we are the sons and daughters of a loving heavenly Father, we discover that this Father is well and truly interested in us: in what makes us tick, in what gets us excited, in what we dream of doing. More than just interested – he will literally move heaven and earth to answer our requests and desires. It is utterly normal for the follower of Jesus, argues Johnson, to experience the promises that Jesus made to his first disciples, such as: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted!” (John 15:7) A promise made in the context of Jesus calling us sons, not servants, Johnson reminds us.

This is where God’s work in us, which makes us holy, combines with our own pursuit of holiness. Our co-labouring for holiness comes to maturity when, full of the thrill of knowing God as our loving Dad, and full of passion about seeing His Kingdom come in all sorts of creative, exciting ways, we seek with all our heart to show our gratitude to God. And God shows his pleasure in us by enabling us to do the kind of deeds we know we could never perform in our own strength or ability. The tension between the opposite poles of holiness has reached its optimal tautness: holy momentum is the only possible outcome!

What is Holiness? Part 1 - By Rory Clark

2009-04-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

The origin of the word ‘holy’ is a Hebrew verb meaning to be set apart (consecrated). The Bible calls us to 'be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy’ (Leviticus 19:2) but what does it mean that God is holy or set apart and how do we become like Him in this respect?

To answer this we must first understand that there is but one source of Holiness in the universe. God sets Him self apart from all sin, therefore He is Holy by choice and His choice tells us what He is like. The Ten Commandments are not just Holy laws they are aspects of God’s character. The Commandment says you shall not lie because God is not a liar. The commandment says you shall not commit adultery because God is absolutely faithful. The Commandment says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind because God loves in this way. He sets himself apart by choice from lies, unfaithfulness, partiality and hatred. He is Holy. So to obey the commandments of God is to be Godly, to be like Him.

To obey the commandments of God is to set ourselves apart, to be like God, to be holy, but there’s a problem.

God is, always has been and always will be apart from all sin so Holiness does not come in part and cannot be gradually achieved, it is absolute. I have either obeyed all of God’s commands and always will or I am not holy. Either I always have and always will do good thus demonstrating that I have a character like that of my creator or I have done evil which shows that my character is not like God’s.

This is an problem first because holiness or being set apart from sin is the prerequisite for access to God and heaven and second because it’s simply impossible to achieve.

Jesus said that I don’t even need to commit a sinful act to fall short of God’s standard (Matt5:21-32), all I have to do is think it. This is because God is so utterly apart from sin that by conscious choice he never even thinks it. God’s standard for Holiness is himself and it is the highest standard possible. When Adam by choice violated the love of God by rejecting his maker and choosing to rule himself his character changed. This enacted desire of man to self rule is the Biblical definition of sin and not acts such as lying, lust and murder which are actually the fruits of sin.

This change of character meant that Adam lost for himself and his descendents not only the most vital aspect of God’s character created in him (Genesis 1: 27 ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’) but also the ability to regain it by his own power. We are all born‘…having no hope and without God in the world’ (Ephesians 2:12). The good news is that while we may be powerless to reverse this catastrophic event God is not! Because of his unfathomable love he has presented us with a choice of a different kind, the choice to accept Christ as saviour. If we wholeheartedly accept that Jesus has paid the great cost of our sin on the cross, God confers upon us the status of Holiness. We cannot set ourselves apart and thus repair the relationship, only God can and he has done it in Jesus.

Jesus life demonstrated that he had this same character of God. He is holy. So when He, innocent before God and man of all sin, died on the cross God accepted it as payment for the betrayal of Adam in all mankind. By an impenetrable act of mercy God allowed us by choice to receive the benefit of Jesus’ utter sinlessness, the status of holiness.

Truly, this is an awesome thing.

It is awesome because when I first entered this state of amazing grace a lot of my patterns of behaviour were anything but holy. I had deeply ingrained habits that were displeasing to God, harmful to me and harmful to others but God made a deliberate choice to see me and love me as a perfect son. I was clearly not holy but in His own words he is ‘the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were’ (Romans 4:17). From the moment I accepted Christ as my saviour God refused to judge me on the bad stuff I do because Jesus has already borne the judgment for me.

I often find myself asking how God can have such deep love for a person like me and this same love for all the people in the world through all time. The answer is that He is God; his love is as absolute as his holiness.

So what is holiness about? It is about an ever increasing encounter with the truth of God’s deep affection for me which in turn has the ability to change my character; who I am. It is his love which ignites in me the desire to bring my life in line with the status he has conferred on me; I want to be like Him. When I engage with what it cost for him to give me the title ‘holy’ then I find I want to live up to the name and slowly but surely I am.

Fasting - For Beginners

2009-04-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this ‘open letter’ is to encourage a lifestyle of regularfasting in those belonging to Christ. By regular I mean seasons in which we areled by the Holy Spirit to go without food (not drink) for 24 hour periods onceevery one to two weeks through which to seek a closer communion with God.Although some of the principles talked about below can apply generally myintention is not to deal with the call to fast in response to emergencies orthe need for ‘breakthrough’ in a matter.

Before we get into it let me prime you with a tough question: do you fast fromtime to time?

No one likes putting their life under a microscope for closer examination butdon’t try to sidestep the issue, fasting involves uncomfortable feelings andyou might as well get used to it. Ask God for courage to face your feelingshead on and be encouraged to do something about it. Why? Because God wants youto suffer!

Of course I’m joking with you to make a point. It’s easy to be confused aboutwhy God calls us to fast but we can avoid such confusion with a littleguidance. Fasting is a significant avenue through which we can receive blessingfrom the Lord, to receive the good things on offer we need to ensure ourperception of it is in line with God’s intention for it. Later on I will try toclear up some misconceptions and possibly head off some bad thoughts before youhave them. To do that we need to begin by thinking about food…

Let’s remember that food in its proper context is not bad. God has given usfood and God only gives good gifts. Ecclesiastes says:

2:24-25: A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and findsatisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for withouthim, who can eat or find enjoyment?

5:18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink,and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labour under the sun during the fewdays of life God has given him—for this is his lot).

These verses tell us that the true purpose of food is only fulfilled when eatenby those who are in relationship with God. This is because food is meant to domore than simply keep us alive. In God eating food is also designed to tell usthings about our heavenly dad and to have important effects on our life withHim.

The obvious physical purpose is sustenance, God created us with physical needswhich He wants to meet. In the gospel of Mark chapter 8 Jesus performs amiracle to feed a great crowd because he has compassion for their physicalneeds. Also when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray he instructed them(that means us) to ask God for bread daily. We don’t know a lot about thisbecause we don’t want for food in the west but clearly we are meant to rely onGod for food or at least recognise that he has made it for us.

When I asked ‘why did God give us food’ recently in church one of the kidsanswered ‘to make us healthy and strong and to make us grow’. Straight away afive year old child can understand that God wants us to be healthy and strong,and he also wants us to grow. He’ll find out as explores the Bible that this isa reflection of what God wants to do in our spirit and character also.

God could easily have made all food taste like fricassée of dead dog andtarantula so why did He choose to make it taste great and in such awesomevariety? It tells us that God wants us to enjoy the things he has provided forour good and when we enjoy food it helps us to worship God. Worship is thehighest activity of the human spirit (this means you can never do anything morevaluable than worship God!) and God has created food especially to prompt us tooffer thanks and worship to him. So when Psalm 34:8 says ‘Taste and see thatthe LORD is good’ we know it has a powerful literal meaning.

But food doesn’t just strengthen end encourage relationship between us and God.By the loving service of preparation and the sharing of it in His presence,food is a facilitator of fellowship with each other and our heavenly dad. Frommeals together in the home to the Lord's table and from the Passover to thebanquet we’re invited to in heaven ban, food plays a conspicuously importantpart in the life of God’s family. The book of Revelation tells that uponentering heaven we’re all going to sit down to a special meal with Jesus. Foodwas made by God to make coming together special. Even when offering hospitalityto strangers you may find you have nothing in common but you both gotta eat.

So here’s the kicker - Because eating food is so good we can tend to think thatdenying ourselves food is bad. Add this to the notion that God wants us to denyourselves food at times and we get a very skewed view of God. So guess what,that view is not from God. The idea that denying ourselves food is absolutelybad is a satanic LIE!

But Satan won’t stop there in his attempt to thwart our closeness with theLord. He can suggest some attractive but false reasons for fasting and achievethe same goal as if we never fasted at all.

Fasting as the Bible sees it - The ‘nots’.

It’s not punishment. God does not command us to fast because he likes it whenwe suffer! We cannot pay for sin with suffering! This is an offence to God andit does not please him. If I can pay for sin through suffering then why didJesus have to suffer on the cross? If we buy into this lie what we say by ouractions is that Jesus’ suffering was not enough for us and that we have tosuffer a little more to make up the tariff. That is a lie straight from Satanand we need to kick that out.

It’s not a way to earn God’s approval. If you have accepted Christ as yoursaviour which means acknowledging that he has paid the just penalty for yoursin through his death on the cross then you already have it. In fact I counselyou to search out what the Bible has to say on this matter and spend time meditatingon this.

It is not an opportunity for you to let others know how much holier you arethan them! Jesus taught against this emphatically so don’t go around shoutingabout it. Look it up in Matthew chapter 6.

It is not a means to control Gods actions. Fasting is not a hunger strike andwe’re operating under the influence of a lie if we think protest is what makesGod act. God loves us as a perfect father and He is enthusiastic aboutanswering our prayers (Matthew 7:7-11).

It’s not about being physically or psychologically tough. Not all the benefitsof fasting are the goals of Biblical fasting. Mastering the desire to eat maymake you feel better, look better and toughen you up but the Bible neverencourages fasting just for reasons of health, discipline or self-denial.

So what is Biblical fasting about and why should we do

Put simply if you want a deeper relationship with God try fasting. Sounds easybut when it comes down to doing it you’ll fund it’s a different story. Why?Your flesh doesn’t want to know God better and the devil certainly doesn’t wantyou to know God better.

The Bible always talks about fasting and humbling oneself before God as thesame thing. Psalm 35:13 says:

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled mysoul with fasting, And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.

This verse explains that to the Hebrews fasting is an activity of both soul andbody. Fasting puts the desires of both our body and soul second to seeking outand following God’s agenda. Fasting in the Bible is absolutely always coupledwith seeking God through prayer. The way the Bible tells it you can praywithout fasting, but you can’t fast without praying.

It has been said that Jesus is perfect theology so if we really need convincingwe should look to Him. Not only are there examples in the Gospels where it’sclear that Jesus fasted regularly but in verse 16 of Matthew chapter 6 Jesussays ‘Whenever you fast…’ indicating that he clearly expects it of us.

The bottom line is this, if it cost God the life of his son to provide us withchannels through which to receive great blessing he expects us to see them asgood and to use them:

Psalm 119:1-6
How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of theLORD.
How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all theirheart.
They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways.
You have ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently.
Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes!
Then I shall not be ashamed. When I look upon all Your commandments.

Setting aside food to spend time with God is seeking God 'with all yourheart.' It is a physical and spiritual way of saying, "Lord, thethings that go on in your world are more important to me than the things thatgo on in mine."

Some practical stuff.

Here are some things I recommend chewing over when considering fasting.

Rule number one - don’t switch your brain off, God expects you to use it notbypass it. For example if you’re in any doubt about your physical well beingseek medical advice. It’s no denial of faith to speak to a doctor. If yourdoctor says you’re in no shape to fast then DON’T FAST! Thinking that God maywithhold himself from you because you can’t fast is like saying only the fullyhealthy can experience the deepest intimacy with Him. It’s complete nonsense.

Ask other Christians how they approach fasting but don’t feel you have to copythem, find a way to make it work for you. Some people abstain from tea andcoffee when they fast, personally I don’t.

Don’t be afraid to start off modestly and experiment. Maybe fast from bedtimethrough to lunchtime the next day setting aside breakfast to pray. I don’texpect my four year old daughter to do anything perfectly but it blesses mysocks off when I know she’s trying her best. It’s a no brainer that God feelsthe same way about us when we have an honest stab at something that the Bibletells us pleases him.

24 hours is 24 hours. This might sound like a dumb thing to say but I’ve beendumber. I used to go to bed, fast the whole of the next day and not eat untilthe following morning. The bright spark reading this will already be saying‘like duh. That’s more like 36 hours you doofus’. People more like me will befeeling a little foolish and saying something like ‘I need help to switch mybrain on’!

Working out a routine helps enormously. For example I usually fast onWednesday’s because it’s a very neutral day for me mentally. I don’t snackafter my evening meal on a Tuesday and I break my fast when I get home fordinner the next day. I make a special effort to get in to the word on the trainin the morning and evening. At lunch I get out to a park and I listen to orsing worship songs on the way.

I tend to fast regularly for a month or two and then drop it until I feel God’sprompting to start up again. How do you tell when it’s time to fast? Easy, havea relationship with God :)

As a rule I only fast when I’m at the top of my game. If I’m operating waybelow par (ill, depressed or discouraged) I take this as an indication that Ishould be asking others to pray for me rather than trying to ‘fix’ things on myown (rarely an indication of anything good). There’s only been one exception Ican recall in my personal experience thus far. This was when I’d becomeconvinced that the enemy’s intention was to specifically deny me uniqueblessing from God by discouraging fasting. My discovery of the enemy’s intentproduced in me an indignant spirit which trumped the black cloud I was under.This in turn made me determined to fast and break through to God. This is whatI would classify as a call to fast for ‘breakthrough’. In either case I believeGod will always provide the resource to fulfil the call.

My Buddy and co-elder Ted wrote this next part – allcredit to him.

So what kind of things should you do when you fast? The same things you do withthe Lord when you don’t fast. Value where you are with the Lord and be inspiredto go deeper.

The relationship between (a) the following different components of communingwith God, and (b) fasting, is that while fasting is not necessary for any ofthese levels, fasting can certainly enhance any and all of them. There will belots of variation as regards which aspects of seeking God that different peopletend to focus on, at different points in their life. There are no right orwrong paths here, God simply loves to spend time with you.

Stuff that you can do in your times with the Lord:

Declarations of thanksgiving for what God does.
Praise for who He is, especially his character.
Rejoicing in the sonship that is ours with the Father, through his Son.
Laying hold by faith of the benefits of our covenant with God (healing,guidance, provision etc).
Declaring your desire to hear his voice/direction and the desire to beobedient.
Crying out for wisdom.
Standing on a particular promise of God.
Meditation on a verse, or part of a verse, of scripture.
Standing against any strategies of evil that you are aware of.
Proclaiming the plans and purposes of God over situations.
Accepting His grace.
Resting in His love.
Telling Him that you love him too.

Establishing a Case for Faith - 01/11/2008

2009-04-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Throughout the ten years we’ve been married my wife and I have been practicing a principle I call ‘establishing a case for faith’. This is something we do whenever we are seeking God for something we feel is so important that we are vulnerable.

Recently there have been several occasions where I’ve either been asked directly how we do this or been in a legitimate position to counsel someone on the principle. Those who have received it have found it helpful so I’ve decided to try and get it down in an open letter.

The principle itself is simple: whenever we desire something but we’re not sure if God would give it to us we ask ourselves why would he? Why would it please God to give us the thing we want to ask for?

We’ve found this process to be vital simply because we are products of the fast food generation. A generation that has been taught to believe that the quickest fix is always the best fix.

Consequently when I ask God for something and it doesn’t fall out of the sky into my lap the next minute, I am prone to the conclusion that God might not really love me.

I also tend to behave at times as if God is answerable to me and should respond to every question without delay. The question I find God never answers is ‘when?’ and it’s the one I always ask. When no answer comes I can easily feel that one of us is at fault and although I more frequently blame Him, neither is good.

The number of times my life has gradually turned into an emotional spaghetti junction because my expectations have not matched God’s timetable I don’t care to count. The application of this principle helps combat this kind of meltdown and keeps me in His love and that’s the challenge: to maintain a heart that is utterly convinced of God’s love for me in the face of powerful distractions and wait patiently for what He has promised to come into being.

Three reasons why establishing a case for faith is important:

Number One - It takes two to tango.

As I mentioned earlier, if God wants to give me something it’s rare indeed that it will fall out of the sky and into my lap. More commonly I am called to co-labour with God to obtain the thing I seek.

Matt 7:9-11 ….what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in Heaven give what is good to those who ask him!

We know we can rely on him to do his part. It’s staying the course my self that’s the problem.

Number Two - Timing

Whatever we have faith for; large or small we may never know when it will come. This will always be an in-road for doubt and we must learn to fortify ourselves against it. We may have to wait a long time and even struggle to keep a hold once we do receive.

Number Three - We Are Opposed

God loves us with such a deep and passionate affection that to do the most hurt to God Satan will try to use us as the knife. At times he will besiege us with lies that cripple us through fear and doubt. His aim is to steal our dreams and by deception cause us to say that God has failed us.

Some ingredients that help make a case for faith effective.

Tune in - Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD;And He will give you the desires of your heart..

The practice of this command is a powerful approach to faith. When God is your delight it’s just not going to cross you mind to ask him for something he wouldn’t want you to have.

If you’re already sold you can’t be bought

Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Faced with being thrown into a furnace for refusing to worship anyone but the Lord, these guys showed phenomenal courage. The issue at stake here is more than simply who is the master and who is the servant. When it came down to it they walked the talk because their integrity before God was more important to these guys than even their own lives. As it happens God did some awesome stuff in reponse to their heart attitude.

The New Testament has an even more compelling parallel: God gave Jesus over to death and hell in our place, how then can we require that he again prove his love for us?

Learn how to fight Fear

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.

It’s important to realise that the opposite of fear is not trust but love. In the Bible love is never passive.

Above all - Faith!

If you don’t have it, get it.

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

If you need more, get more.

Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief."

My First Dream - 19/11/2008

2009-04-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

On the 13th of November I went to a conference where there were some crazy guys ministering. Some guys you wish would crack the fifteen minute sermon but some guys you wish would never stop talking because all their words just have such life in them and they capture your heart for God. These guys were of the latter sort.

Anyways, there were three of these guys triple teaming us on the day I was there and somehow one of them ended up praying for me because I have this stupid problem with my nose. When I get a cold I can’t blow out of my left nostril (gross I know) and I wake up with a dry and cracked mouth everyday.

Well my nose didn’t get healed but the next night I had the first prophetic dream of my life. How’d I know it was prophetic? Well keep reading and make your own mind up yeah?

My wife and I were in a seaside town looking down streets toward the ocean but there was something real strange about the place. Actually not strange but mad familiar because all at once I knew it contained every piece of my life’s best holidays.

It even had the pub I went to in Weston with my mate Jon Russell back in my mid teens when my only ambition in life was to get pissed as often as possible. I saw this guy in that pub wearing an Extreme Noise Terror shirt and I felt I was well excited because I was wearing my bootleg Napalm Death ‘SCUM’ shirt. I knew we’d stumbled into the worst hole in Weston and I reckon I looked as underground as a coffin.

There were loads of other things too like Cyprus in the first year we were married; St Ives where we’ve spent precious time with my best mate and his Family; Hayling Island where we’ve passed so many free summers and rainy bank holidays thanks to Hayley’s Mum’s caravan (RIP).

But here’s the crowning glory. At heart I used to be quite the misery guts and I always longed to be away from the suffocation of crowds so I would gladly vacation out of season preferring rain and solitude with my family over sun and heaving masses. It never crossed my mind that my wife might not feel the same way until after a few years of marriage she said to me, calmly at first and then rising to an ear bleeding crescendo: “when we go on holiday next year can we go when THERE’S SOME SUN IN THE SKY!?”.

This place in my dream? You guessed it, it was raining. And not only was it nearly deserted but the train line connecting it with the rest of the world was out of action and the luxury hotel (we’re talking four figures for a basic room just for one night) in the bay was having trouble getting business. Suddenly I was in the hotel and it had every aspect my backfiring brain associates with the best hotels, especially one of those open cage elevators that look like a car crash of delicate wrought iron foliage and run up the middle of grand spiral stair cases.

Up until this point there had been a heavy sadness in my heart because we weren’t on holiday at all and we knew we’d have to leave before nightfall. This is also a reflection of my life because since my mother in law gave up her caravan on the South coast holidays are a few days at Grandmas and chilling out at home. Anything else is down to the generosity of others.

So I was looking at a clerk standing behind the check in desk when I heard a voice in my ear say ‘they’re not going to be making any money for a while so they’re probably open to offers’. Before I knew it I said ‘twenty quid?’ to the clerk who simply replied ‘sure’. I could scarcely believe my ears and my brain couldn’t move fast enough to figure out how many nights I could afford to pay for. The feeling was nothing short of Holy elation. It was awesome.

There was only one fly in the ointment, what my wife wanted to do next. (I should make it clear that my wife’s behaviour in the dream doesn’t match who she is in real life).

In the middle of this fantastic gift she wanted to go and find a weeks worth of paid work calling bingo. (I genuinely don’t know what the heck bingo has to do with anything. It’s the only bit of the dream I really can’t figure out. I’ve known her 14 years and as far as I’m aware she’s never had a desire to call bingo, unrequited or otherwise. Still, let’s wait and see shall we). Imagine how gutted I was, the most amazing holiday at my feet and the person I would most want to enjoy it with was there in body but not really in spirit.

Well I knew what I wanted the dream to mean when I woke up. I wanted it to mean God was going to offer us something mega expensive for next to nothing but I knew in my heart this is not what God wanted to say to me. Just think about the kind of things you do and why you do them when you’re on holiday and at work. Then compare them and see if you can figure out what this is all about.

When you’re at work there’s a harness on you and you have to be focussed and efficient but when you’re on holiday you do as you please from dawn ‘til dusk and beyond. You live from the heart.

John 10:10 - The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Matthew 13:22 - The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

One year from now I know I’m going to look back and marvel at what God has done with me like no year before it. I’m going to re-order my life more and more so I can catch what he’s doing. I want to learn to live from my heart everyday. I will never be able to comprehend just how much He really loves me, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

Precious Words

2009-04-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Attributed to a 17th century French monk this is quite possibly my most treasured quotation of all time:

…he had been foot man to Monsieur de Fuibert, treasurer of the Exchequer, and was a big heavy-handed fellow who broke everything. He had sought entry to a monastery thinking that there he would be made to smart for his acts of clumsiness and mistakes, and in this way offer up his life and happiness, but that God had disappointed him because he had found there nothing but contentment. That often made him say to God: ‘You have deceived me.’

The Practice Of The Presence Of God
'Brother Lawrence'.

Thought/Life 6

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Thought/Life 5

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Thought/Life 4

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Thought/Life 3

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Thought/Life 2

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Thought/Life 1

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