Sundays and a heart for Jesus

OK. so you're a Christian and you get up on a Sunday morning and decide to go to church. Or you get up and decide to lead a Church service. What should you expect? What should you be doing? What is the function of getting together? What is the point of the one hour, two hours or whatever we give for a Sunday morning.

Well the problem with humanity is undoubtedly the heart. Our hearts do not love God or other people as they should. The Bible calls this sin and says that it is our nature. So on a Sunday morning surely it stands to reason that our goal is to warm our hearts for Jesus? Surely a Sunday morning is there to help us love Jesus more? So on a Sunday morning we help people to recognise the true state of their hearts and then we point them to Jesus and enable his work and his character to win their hearts.

I need to say that I think that this is an invaluable way of thinking about things and much better than numerous other things which people focus on during a Sunday morning. However, there are a couple of dangers with this which I think are worth thinking about.

If it's all about our heart and our love for Jesus then we are undoubtedly going to have failed in the week leading up to church. Our heart is not going to be what it should have been and because of this our behaviour, thoughts, words, relationships are not going to have been what they should have been either. So if what happens at church is that we are brought face to face with the state of our hearts and then reminded of Jesus work there is as very real danger that it becomes expected that a Sunday morning service provides 2 functions.

1. Absolution - At church we expect to be brought face to face with the state of our heart. Then we expect to be reminded of the fact that despite the state of our heart Jesus died for us and so forgiveness is available for us. The danger is that through this Sunday focus we end up living a life without ongoing repentance and sanctification, instead relying on a meeting to provide the absolution we need.

2. Reheating - Then at church we expect to find our hearts reheated with love for Jesus. So the way we expect our Christian life to work is that we go to church and have our hearts warmed for Jesus and then during the week they cool down until we return to church next Sunday morning to have out hearts reheated.

All of a sudden our Sunday meetings have become precisely the ritual which we were hoping to avoid by focusing on the heart instead of externals. Sunday mornings become events we go to for absolution and refocussing and fail to impact the rest of our lives. Sundays become the very religious exercise which we so wanted to avoid.

So what should Sunday morning's be about? Maybe I'll return to that in my next post.

Love that will not betray you

Over the last couple of months I have done a couple of things which have caused me to think about things again. The first thing I did was change jobs and the second was to read 'Counterfeit Gods'. What's interesting in any job is to see what motivates people. Every workplace and every manager is trying to work out what it is which will motivate their employees. What is it which will make people want to come and work for them, what will make them remain loyal and what will help them to work to their maximum? The answer which most people come up with here is obvious for all to see - 'Money'. Sure there are other things which can motivate people and there are other things which workplaces try like status (change the job title), time off (increase holiday allowance), work environment (team building, nice environment etc). However, when it comes down to it if you want better staff the answer is normally to offer more money, if you want to keep certain employees then the answer is normally to give them a pay rise and if you want to encourage people to work better you offer them performance based pay. Why is it that money is the ultimate motivator? Well surely it is because we are best motivated by the things we love most. Everything seems to point to the fact that the thing we love best is money.

This may well be true but just because we love something doesn't make it good. You see the love of money is dangerous. People often end up pursuing money at the expense of their families, their health, their relationships and a whole host of things. Often our love of money actually fails to make us happy but rather so dominates us that we ruin our lives pursuing it. Money also traps us. We have a certain amount of money or are promised a certain amount of money and so we buy a certain house and pursue a certain lifestyle and then we have to keep earning like that or else our whole life would fall apart. So we love money but maybe we shouldn't.

The song 'Sigh no more' has the following line 'Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free'. Here they recognise what I have been saying here and what Tim Keller says in Counterfeit Gods. Love tends to betray us. We believe that it will bring us all we are looking for but then we get it and find that it betrays us. Love tends to dismay and enslave us. Rather than bringing us the freedom and joy we thought it would we end up trapped by it as we continue to pursue things which cannot ever deliver.

So what do we do? Well love is not a bad thing. the problem is that everything we love in this world is corrupted and damaged by sin and therefore disappoints. The problem is that we are corrupted and damaged by sin and therefore we love things more than we should. The gospel is the message of a perfect God's love for us and of the way we can love God and find that it is in fact that love and that love alone that will not betray us, dismay or enslave us but will instead set us free.

Filling Diaries

Having moved to a new area then it is just incredible to look through your week and realise that you have free evenings. Free evenings are something which as time goes on seem to become few and far between but when you've just moved you start with a blank canvas and you have a short window to start thinking about how you fill it.

This proves to be surprisingly difficult to do and perhaps the chief battle is that to get the balance between the right between careful planning of your time and making time for the unexpected. The danger is that without careful planning of your time you end up not doing some of those things which you view as important. Meeting with people, playing sport, enjoying corporate times of studying the Bible and worshipping God together requires planning. Basically everything which involves other people is going to involve some organisation and the use of some calendars.

However, the danger with this is you so carefully plan everything and you manage your time so closely that you don't actually leave time for people. You actually find it impossible to make time for a friend who's going through a difficult time. You can't make the time to get the rest, or the time alone, or the relaxed time with close friends you need or the extra investment your children or family or friends find themselves in need of. You see the problem with life is how do you plan for the unexpected?

I have no real answers for this. I guess I will constantly be battling this and be getting it wrong however, I write this to force myself and maybe to encourage a few other people to at least think about these issues.

God has given you a certain number of hours. No more and no less and often these are wasted and not enjoyed to their full simply because we haven't thought about how we are going to use the life God has given us. Perhaps thinking about these issues is a helpful starting point when it comes to thinking about these things. However, all too often we fail to make it even to the starting point.

Tracing Rainbows

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

These words are found in a hymn written by George Mattheson (the story behind why he wrote this is quite incredible but not the point of this blog).

The phrase 'I trace the rainbow through the rain' was one which had never really registered with me before but which I haven' been able to stop thinking about this week. He is referring back to the story of Noah's Ark when the world experienced God's judgment for it's wickedness. In the account of Noah's ark God saw the wickedness of the world and sent rain in judgment. However, following the flood God gave Noah the sign of the rainbow. A promise that he would never again judge the world like this and that the world would continue to enjoy God's blessing.

So this image of tracing the rainbow through the rain is the image of seeking out God's grace, seeking out God's promises even in the midst of difficulties and disasters. These are the words of a man saying that when he is going through hardship rather than concentrating on the 'rain' which is all around him he is going to work hard to find the comfort offered by the rainbow (God's promises).

From our point of view this would look like in the midst of the incredible grief caused by the death of a loved one we would work hard to fix our eyes on God's promise that he will never leave us or forsake us.

This would look like in the midst of illness and suffering we would not become consumed by our pain but rather work hard to instead focus on God's promise of resurrection bodies without pain.

This would look like in the midst of stress at work we don't become obsessed with thinking about or worrying about things at work but instead set our minds on God's promise of perfect rest and rewarding work.

And the symbol of all these promises of God is found at the cross. So if we are to trace the rainbow through the rain we actually are to trace the cross. We are to work hard to see the cross and remember that it acts as God's guarantee of those promises which we need during those difficult times. Tracing rainbows in the midst of rain is a hard thing to do but that is the way which Christians must deal with the difficulties and pain they inevitably go through.

Hungry but tired

Augustine writes in his confessions of a time when he hungered after God. He longed to experience more of God, to enjoy more of God. Those around him presented him with ways of experiencing Gods. They presented him with a language of spirituality. They spoke to him of truths. They presented him with the elements of this world and they encouraged him to feed on these and find God. He concludes his time pursuing God in this way using these words,

'Because I thought them to be Thee, I fed thereon; not eagerly, for Thou did not taste to me as Thou art; for Thou wast not these emptiness, nor was I nourished by them but exhausted rather.'

So he fed on these things but because these things did not taste like God should he didn't do it eagerly. Because God was not to be found in these things he didn't find himself feeling well fed and refreshed but instead tired out.

I wonder how much of this has gone in our churches. It seems to me that many people were told that they would find God in church attendance. So they merely committed themselves to attending church. They turned up but they didn't experience God because they were just attending a meeting and so they found it to be tiring rather than nourishing.

It seems to me that many people have been led to believe that they will experience God in a variety of religious experiences. They were led to believe that experiencing and enjoying God was about wearing certain clothes, acting a certain way, obeying a set of rules, reading a certain version of the bible, reading the Bible a certain amount of the time and a whole host of things.

But here is the problem. They experienced exactly what Augustine did. They didn't find any joy or satisfaction in these things but because they hungered for God and had been told this was where God was to be found they pursued them. But over time they found their hunger unquenched and them tired with all their work and so they gave up. The thing is they didn't just give up on those things but they gave up on pursuing God. They had been told that God was to be found in those things. They had done those things and those things had disappointed so they give up on pursuing God as a bad idea.

I think our churches are full of people who were told that God was to be found in certain activities. They did those activities but because those things were not really how you experience God then they ended up tired and so gave up. They ended up thinking of pursuing God as a tiring demanding and unrewarding thing. So then when someone like me stands up and says that they should be pursuing God they think I tried that and it didn't work and so ignore me. When I stand up and say that pursuing God is not a heavy burden. When I say that he promises to be bread and water which truly satisfies they think well I pursued him and didn't find myself nourished and fulfilled but rather still hungry just more tired and more stressed.

What we are reaping now is the harvest of people who like Augustine hungered for God but were pointed to the wrong places for feeding. This harvest is people who think the best way to follow God is just to drift along with him rather than to passionately pursue him with their lives.

Let me encourage all people to do what Augustine does and realise the problem was not that God does not satisfy. It was not that God wants to weigh you down with heavy burdens it was that you were trying to experience him in deeply flawed ways. Experiencing God is truly satisfying but it is not found in religious observance it is found in relationship building.

It is found in spending time with God. In understanding his word and letting it speak to you and change you. In talking to God in prayer not through religious formula but with honesty and transparency. It is through experiencing the joy of being part of his kingdom through enjoying real, genuine, loving relationships with other Christians.

To all those who've given up pursuing God as a bad job let me suggest you give it another go with a focus on building relationships not following codes.

Pharisees need the gospel too

Churches are full of Pharisees. Churches are full of people who subscribe to a certain morality, to a certain set of values and to a certain view of religion without any real knowledge of, love of or relationship with Jesus. Churches are so full of Pharisees that when people hear that I go to church people assume that I am a Pharisee. They assume that I believe that if I do certain things God will like me as long as I also avoid doing things God does not like. Pharisees preach an anti-gospel. They are about morality, appearances and judgmentalism when the gospel is about forgiveness, the heart and graciousness. Pharisees discredit Christianity, damage my witness and poison the church.

But the problem is that I dislike Pharisees so much that sometimes I forget that they need the gospel too. You see Pharisees are just like everyone else who hasn't been reconciled to God through Jesus' death - they are just people looking for something with which to make sense of, and bring some meaning to, life. As such they need to hear the good news of a relationship with God which makes sense of why we're here and brings meaning into life. They need to hear the good news of forgiveness which frees us from moral superiority and constantly trying to appear good. They need to be rescued and changed by Jesus' death. They need to repent of their Pharisaism.

As a minister I need to work hard to make sure I don't give up on the Pharisees. I don't write them off but I keep trying to preach the gospel to them and demonstrate their need of it. I have just listened to a fantastic evangelistic service which effectively preached the gospel in a powerful way to Pharisees and I was forced to ask myself am I lovingly but forcefully preaching the gospel to Pharisees or have I given up on them. Pharisees are hard - the Bible clearly shows that and warns us about it. But God can change anyone's heart so I need to think about how I do evangelism for Pharisees.

Obedience

The idea of obedience is horribly unfashionable. So unpopular is the idea of obedience that I even thought about renaming this post in an attempt to get more clicks. However, when it comes to Christianity obedience is incredibly important. Jesus calls on his followers to obey him and Peter in his first letter refers to his recipients as 'Obedient Children'.

However, we struggle with obedience. Many of us know that it is important, we would even say that we want to obey and yet time and time again we fail. We long to pray like God says we should but we lack discipline, get distracted and find it repeatedly pushed out. We long to love like God calls us to but when such a person (insert name here) comes along we find ourselves again and again giving into impatience or malice or selfishness. How can we obey better? Is it even possible?

Well let me suggest that much of this will depend on our attitude towards obedience. Let me articulate two attitudes towards obedience and explain the difference the attitudes will have.

The first attitude goes something like this...

'God created me. he gave me life and breath and many good gifts. He then came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ and went to the cross to suffer humiliation, death and hell on my behalf. He now offers me free forgiveness (not earned by obedience) and an eternity with him. It therefore goes without saying that I should obey him.'

The second attitude goes something like this...

'God is absolutely and completely holy. He is perfect in his morality, in his judgment, in his decision making and in his actions. He loves perfectly. He is completely satisfied. He is completely joyful. He doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't fail to see the consequences of his actions and his is completely in control as demonstrated perfectly in Jesus' work on earth and I get to obey him. I get to be like him.'

You see the first one seems fine. It seems like it is grounded in the gospel but the problem with it is that it still sees obedience as the thing we should do as a result of the gospel. Now whilst it is true that we should obey all too often that fails to motivate us. The second way, however, offers something completely different. Still routed in the gospel rather that concentrating on what God has done it concentrates on what God is like. Rather than being motivated by God's actions it is motivated by God's character. When Peter talks about us as 'Obedient Children' he is conjuring up the picture of a child who longs to be like their dad. He goes onto say 'As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct' Do you see the difference? Rather than obeying as a response to what God has done we obey because we see God in all his wonder and long to be like him. Obedience is the act of us becoming like God.

Too often we see obedience as the unfortunate side effect of eternal life. In order to be saved from hell and get heaven we need to put up with the earthly side effect of obedience. This all too often fails to motivate us to obey. But when we realise that obedience is not something a Christian has to do but rather something the Christian's birth enables him to do well then we're excited to be like God and so rather than thinking we have to obey we consider it a great joy and a privilege that we get to obey. Maybe now we will find greater motivation to obey as we seek to become more like God during our time on earth.