Stuff happens!

Well I feel like I really going through it at the moment. But something I try and do is see these trials as a means to learn and develop my character in line with scripture. That doesn't me I develop my character but that I trust what the Bible says that trials are a means for God to develop a Godly character in us. We just have to keep on trusting Him and if we simply cling onto Him in the midst of the trials He will, through His grace, develop character in us.

There is a lot of talk about breakthrough, blessings and rewards. It is easy to flick the switch and not expect rewards in this lifetime because Jesus once said that we should store up treasure in heaven. But there are two things to say about that, 1, we are made for heaven. When we get there we will only be waiting for the millennium and the new Earth. 2, Jesus also mentioned the idea of reward in this lifetime. Again just because we are storing treasure in heaven doesn't tell us about when it will be released for us. In the same way a bank may say, "Don't stick your money under the mattress where there is no interest, stick it in a bank account!" Does that mean you can't have your money? Of course not.

This is something I have noticed that people do. I probably do it too, I haven't noticed a specific example yet. We do something that someone tells us, but when they tell us to do something different we don't. A recent example I saw was I had a team meeting with the family before a meeting with someone to make sure we were all on the same page. I explained what I wanted our approach to be. They all agreed. During the meeting with the other person I realised I had made the wrong assumption so decided to change strategy, thinking my wife would come with me, but she stuck to her guns on the preprogrammed course! It wasn't that critical, but she found it hard to understand that if I had preprogrammed her as to what we would say that the same person who had given the original instruction was now giving a different instruction.

That is just an example of how we stick rigidly to an original thought and don't like change. Jesus is constantly changing us. We are living sacrifices, that means that we are continually being put to death. Our assumptions are usually arrived at by our world view before we are changed. So, after we are changed we should have a new perspective. But there are a lot of Christians in the world who hold onto their worldview. Does that mean they haven't been changed?

Anyway, I am digressing. The past couple of days God has rescued my attitude with some wonderful reminders. One day I heard the words, "It may not be being done to you but for you." The next day was, "It isn't your fault, it's for your good."

James 1:2-4 says, "2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Romans 5:3-5 says, "we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Jesus said, in Matthew 5:11-12, "11"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Sometimes it is those who are closest to us who the devil uses to persecute us. Sometimes they are restored and sometimes they aren't. Jesus had Judas, Samson had Delilah, Isaac had Rebekah. By persecute I mean the broader sense of working against us. David had Michel. In fact David had lots of people, his brothers, Saul and his own son. Joseph had his brothers.

So, we have our instruction, "Count it all joy!" "Exult in it!" and "Be blessed!" I was listening to something last night about depression. It said that our conscious mind, which in general terms he referred to as containing logic and emotions, drives the subconscious. We are told to make decisions by our will. Not by logic or by emotions. And he was saying the same thing. We have the power to choose and the conscious mind will lead the subconscious. Therefore if we choose to be depressed and negative then the subconscious will look at our decision and obey it, and cause all the necessary reactions in us. Whereas, if we choose joy, then the subconscious will obey that and cause all the necessary reactions.

1 Corinthians 10:13, says, "13No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it"

That is possibly the hardest passage to comprehend at times. If God thinks we are not tempted beyond what we are able, He has a far bigger belief in me than I do! I would almost say that God really doesn't know me if He thinks I am not tested beyond what I am able! But the word says we are not. So, therefore we aren't! We give in far sooner than we give ourselves credit for. The people in this world think that this life is about living a happy life until we die. God tells us that it is about endurance, trials, perseverance, hardships and having our eyes beyond this world and on the heavenly perspective. We are to praise God and give Him thanks in all situations. We are to make good righteous decisions when everyone around us is making wrong decisions. Jesus made the decision to go to the cross, even though it wasn't logical for Him, it wasn't what He "felt" like doing. It was a matter of the will. I have to choose the good path. God has not bought me this far to perish.

Get your own wisdom

I have shared on this several times. There are two main areas where church leaders fall down on the one subject.

1, seeking advice!
2, giving advice!

It follows a pattern doesn't it? I have noticed that a lot of trendy would be mega church pastors become mega church tourists. They seek out someone who has done what they want to do and buy their books and even visit their church. Years ago, Bill Hybels was the guy, Willow Creek was the place. Everyone wanted to be like him, he had such a successful church.

I heard about Bill that his secretary always buys him 4 new books every time he goes on a plane. I wonder how many of his wannabes copy that as well! The point is Bill is Bill, people want to copy what he did but they often fail because they aren't Bill. They can't make every decision the way he would, no matter how many of his books they read, because they are not him.

The other side of this is in giving advice. When a person from the congregation of a pastor comes to him with a problem, many pastors have the answer right there for them. I have been guilty of this too. Is is a crime and it is theft. I need to change my policy.

In a church meeting once I read out the verse in James 1:5, "If anyone lacks wisdom let him ask the pastor." And the people nodded, I then laughed, it doesn't say that. It says, "If anyone lacks wisdom let them ask God!"

I am glad that this has come to a head in my life and that I have realised early enough. Pastors make people pastor dependant. They have them hanging on their every word. People like Joyce Meyer, make people Joyce dependent in the same way.

So let's re examine this. A pastor looks at a church and thinks in his own mind "That's what I want to do for God." So, he sets about doing it. Two things, 1 does God want that? Did Bill go to God for the blue print or was it his understanding he was leaning on? (Watch the bible church videos below under "Wahoo" to see what God's word says about church blueprint). 2, if it was what God wanted and Bill got it from God then wouldn't it be better to build a relationship with God and get it from the same source, or at least get exactly what God wants for you from him?

When a congregation member comes to the pastor, wouldn't it be better for the pastor to teach the people to be "God dependant" rather than "pastor dependant?" No matter what the problem, tell them to first ask God.

Not only did James not tell us to ask the pastor, he also didn't say to read the bible, get the concordance out or google it! The solution is very simple, ask God.

Faith to me is living according to the word. Many Christians today believe they have great faith because they tithe and have a daily quiet time, yet they get anxious, Jesus said don't so how much do they trust him? We are not condemned yet people fell condemned so how much do we trust him. We are told that when we lack wisdom we should ask God, yet we read books, ask people and go to anyone we can find rather than simply ask God. So how much do we trust him? It is easy to build up that relationship and trust, basically ask Him when you lack wisdom!

The next part of what James says is that God gives to everyone that asks. So it isn't a case of a quick "What should I do Lord?" Followed by, "I think God wants me to ask the pastor!"

And clearly we need to test everything against scripture, so if you hear God saying, "Get a divorce" "Kill him" or whatever, then your wires are crossed somewhere. It is about learning to build the relationship by pushing through. We need to get past our own wishful thinking and imagination to the place where we hear from God.

Wahoo!!

Hands up update

Well guess what, since writing about the idea of worshipping with our hands up, I haven't managed to get to church. However, something has grown in me since writing the piece. Sometimes things hit me very gently that I don't do anything about it at the time, but it grows!!

Right, let's say that the "It says "pray"" people are right. As in, "I want men everywhere to raise up holy hands in prayer!" Let's say they are right. So do they? Do they when they are even in their private quiet time of prayer raise up their hands?

Show me a verse in the bible that instructs us to have a quiet time. Yet these very people who make this a law, also want to go against scriptural instruction to say we don't need to raise our hands when we pray!

Who do you believe the legelists or scripture?

What are you wearing today!

The more I look at Christian stuff the more I find just how people are divided over the issues of our one faith. For example, "our salvation is secure and there is nothing we can do to lose it" against "Our salvation isn't secure and there is something we can do to lose it!" Or, "The will be a rapture and then a tribulation" against "there will not be a rapture or a tribulation" (And every variation you can think of!)

Yesterday I heard a guy preaching that I had heard people raving about before. This was a guy who, while we were going to conferences and buying tapes that others weren't interested in, he was invited over to join with several church missions. We missed it some how! This guy now lives in California but was famous for coming from Argentina. When I heard him last night I was surprised that he was preaching division. Within his own thinking he was preaching against wrong doctrine, but the result was that he was stirring up the people who agreed with him to be anti those who didn't! Where in the bible does it say we should cause division based solely on teaching!

Anyway, that isn't what I was saying, all of that is introduction (and getting it off of my chest!) Recently I heard a guy saying that we are not called to be the bride of Christ, (I didn't follow his understanding but go with me for a while!) He said we are not told to put on a bridal gown, we are told to put on armour. He said we are called to a battle and we are called to fight, that isn't the role or clothing of a bride! He was basically saying "what we are about" is warfare!

Today I heard a guy saying that he spent years in spiritual warfare and he has come to the conclusion that that isn't what we are about! He said we are about worship. He made the point that you can either look at the devil or look at God. He said if you can still hear the devil's voice then you are not in the close place with God because the devil isn't allowed there. He pointed out that David was not allowed to build a temple because he was a man of war. He pointed out that God has defeated the devil and we are never called to defeat him, because he is already defeated. Time and again we are told to stand and resist him. Which has to include resisting the temptation to be all about the devil and not all about worshipping God.

He gave testimonies that during his 20 years involved in spiritual warfare he would come home and find his house had been broken into. 5 times in one month one time, everything taken, even irreplaceable things. He said that standing to fight the devil is effectively saying, "Bring it on!"

We are called to be a people of praise and worship. Worship is the greatest weapon we have, but "weapon" is a side effect of our worship. We don't worship to defeat the devil we worship because we love God, a side effect of that is that the devil gets no joy out of it and goes elsewhere!

I like the idea of the "irreducible minimum!" and in many ways worship is the irreducible minimum of what we are about. Everything comes out of that. In our culture the word "love" is so meaningless we love our cars, we love TV programs and celebrities we've never met, if w then say we love God, what value has it? We are told to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength, that is worship. Our discipleship, ministry, givings, witness and good works all stem from a heart of worship. Under the law these things were a matter of duty. If we are doing things because we should then we are under "law" and therefore not under grace. If we start to worship and have a true love for God that we only want to worship (give worth to) Him then all of these things will follow.

I could tell you how wonderful someone is. I could go on and on about it. But I can't worship them unless I am actually with them. Think about it. Think about someone who's praises you would really love to sing to others. Someone you think of as worthy of telling people about how good they are. Now imagine trying to worship them while they aren't there! A bit of a pointless exercise.

We need to come into His presence and ironically we do that by worshipping.

Imagine saying, "I can't kill anyone because that is against God's will for me!" how noble we sound. Yet what is it worth if we are not willing to come into His presence and worship him? Even most unbelievers resist killing people!

So what are you wearing today? The clothes of warfare? The clothes of the unbeliever? Or the clothes of the bride ready to worship her husband?

Some new thoughts for me!

This is kind of revision of some ideas that have been going around my mind lately:

Love is the fulfilment of righteousness. We know this because the "Law" is summed up with love and the Law can be fulfilled by righteousness.

Righteousness covers two aspects: character and honour. (Again love is evident here).

Character is about how we conduct ourselves, how we think about ourselves and so on.

Honour has to do with how we relate to others.

Obviously a person of good character is gracious to others. Good character would not hold a grudge against a person, we know that because we are told, "Love has no memory of a suffered wrong" 1 Cor 13:5. However, honour goes beyond that. Jesus told us to love, pray for and bless our enemies! To honour someone is more than to just have good thoughts for a person.

We are told to "honour all people" 1 Pet 2:17

We are told to "Honour your mother and father"

We are told to honour those in authority (that is civil authorities as well as church authorities) because God is the one who gives authority. Now, our understanding will tel us that we should honour those who are good. But there is a lot against this:

1, we should bless our enemies.
2, we should honour all people.
3, at the time the letters were written saying that Christians should honour those in authority Nero was the authority! And he was one of the most evil rulers who has ever lived!

So how can we honour those in authority? Firstly, by understanding we are honouring the authority not the actions. When the Jewish authorities told the apostles to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, they asked how they could not preach in his name. They did not sneek around behind their backs in the hope of not getting caught! They faced up to "the authority." An authority will say "Do this or that will happen" usually stuff like keep the law of go to prison. It is honouring to the authority to keep the law, the law witch says "Go to prison" if that is what it comes to. It is not honouring to the authority to sneek around breaking the law and trying to get away with it.