Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

“With” – A good read for the new year

Posted: January 19, 2014 in Uncategorized
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… Many come into Christian faith with great expectations. They have heard stories of jubilation and salvation, of the power to overcome this world and experience the divine in expressible ways. But once inside the ancient halls of Christianity many are disappointed. Where is the light, where is the illumination? Our hearts seek God and the goodness, beauty, justice and peace we’ve been told he provides, but he often remains hidden behind the shadow cast by an evil world …”

With these words, Skye Jethani launches a brilliant discussion about what has hindered real communion with God, making use of the prepositions, under, over, from, for and with. My holiday reading has included “With – Reimagining the Way You Relate to God”.

ImageJethani talks about four forms of religion that he describes as variations of fear and control, life under God, life over God, life from God and life for God, then introduces a different vision: Life with God. In each of the first four areas, we seek to use God to achieve some other goal.

Life over God uses God as the source of rational principles or laws and ultimately breeds atheism, but Jethani says many Christians practice a faith that has little room or need for God. Life over God seeks control by discovering how the world works and then directly implementing the right principles.

Life under God views God as a capricious deity who must be appeased to gain blessings and avoid punishment. Life Under God tries to manipulate God through obedience to secure blessings and avoid calamity. This requires a list of rules and rituals which, if we follow, will result in God’s approval. Jethani describes this as potent mix of pagan superstition and biblical morality.

Life from God allows us to have our desires granted and is evidenced in the way we try to make God like us, assigning him our personalities, our values, and our biases. Those who follow the Life from God approach are primarily focussed on achieving their own happiness. This is evident in our current consumer thinking and the way consumerism has entered the church environment.  Jethani talks about this type of God as a divine butler, a comic therapist, a holy vending machine.

Life for God uses him and his mission to gain a sense of direction and purpose. For many people the mission of the church has become the most important thing in life, so their whole purpose in life is working for God and doing things for him. This often leads to spiritual burn-out as people come to a place where they find all their work is not achieving any deep sense of satisfaction.

So Jethani comes to his proposal that we should be looking towards a Life With God. For many people, Life With God is difficult to find because people who have tried to live over, under, from and for God, have no reference point from which to start. They cannot imagine what Life With God looks like.  Life With God is so far beyond our imagination that it must be revealed to us.

Jethani goes on to say that Jesus Christ came to shine a light onto a truth about the cosmos previously hidden from our sight. The Life With God posture is predicated on the view that relationship is at the core of the cosmos: God the Father with God the Son with God the Holy Spirit. And so we should not be surprised to discover that when God desired to restore his broken relationship with people, he sent his Son to dwell with us.

This was an excellent read for the start of the new year. I heartily recommend it.

What’s in a Name?

Posted: December 16, 2013 in Uncategorized
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ImageSometimes people choose their baby’s names because it keeps up a family tradition, sometimes because they know someone else of that name, or perhaps it’s just because it’s a name that sounds good.

It’s not too often in the 21st century that people choose names because of their meaning.  I looked up the meaning of my name. Robert apparently means “bright fame”, but those two words don’t seem to go together, after all, it’s not a sentence and the words don’t describe anything, so I think naming me Robert had more to do with family history than the meaning of the name.

Prior to the birth of Jesus another baby was born, and his parents called him John.  Now that’s a name that has some meaning. At the time of his birth, John meant the Lord is Merciful, or Gracious Gift of God.

There was a bit of a dispute at the time because everyone thought that the baby should be named after his father – don’t you love the way everyone’s got an opinion!  But John’s father, Zechariah, had been told by an angel that his baby was to be called John, and Zechariah had the insight to know that John was going to be the person who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

It’s interesting to me that Jesus didn’t just appear on the scene unannounced, but that his cousin, John, was born before him, with the role of preparing the way. As we prepare for Christmas; buying presents, decorating the Christmas tree, and buying the ham, it’s worth remembering that Jesus didn’t come without preparation, and his arrival was not unexpected.

Stressing Out in Paradise

Posted: November 10, 2013 in Uncategorized
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How’s this for a confusing set of statistics?  Earlier this week The West Australian reported that Australia may be the best place in the world to live since it had topped “the good life index”.

A comparison by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of the richest and fastest growing countries ranked Australia the No.1 nation on a range of indicators.

The How’s Life? study went beyond economics to areas such as life expectancy, hours worked and pollution. Australia was among the best in every one. Australians have a high level of disposable income and increasing household wealth.

They enjoy one of the longest life expectancies at above 83. With the Americans, New Zealanders and Canadians, Australians had the highest proportion of people reporting good or very good health.

Australia has low homicide and assault rates and Australians are likely to say they are satisfied with their life.

But today’s West reported that we’ve got some big problems with stress. According to a state-of-the-nation survey commissioned by the Australian Psychological Society (APS), Australians overall report declining wellbeing and increasing stress. The article goes on to say:

They also have more depression and anxiety symptoms than those revealed in the 2011 and 2012 surveys.

Younger people are the most stressed and people older than 66 are coping the best, according to the online survey of 1548 people, 999 of whom are employed.

Workplace issues include a lack of feedback, unclear expectations and not feeling valued.

Employees report significantly lower levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of interest in their job compared with previous years.

While most employees feel physical injuries are taken seriously, only 50 per cent feel supported with mental health issues, according to the survey, released to coincide with national psychology week.

They also have more depression and anxiety symptoms than those revealed in the 2011 and 2012 surveys.

Younger people are the most stressed and people older than 66 are coping the best, according to the online survey of 1548 people, 999 of whom are employed.

Workplace issues include a lack of feedback, unclear expectations and not feeling valued.

Employees report significantly lower levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of interest in their job compared with previous years.

While most employees feel physical injuries are taken seriously, only 50 per cent feel supported with mental health issues, according to the survey, released to coincide with national psychology week.

OK, how do we work that out? We live in the best country in the world, but our stress levels are increasing.

I talked at church yesterday about the time that Jesus asked his disciples for a quick trip across the lake and took the opportunity for a quick nap. While he was asleep a sudden squall hit the lake and the disciples, who were fishermen and no doubt, highly competent sailors, got themselves into a lather, and woke Jesus up, claiming that they were all going to be drowned.

Jesus queried their faith, but in my opinion, it wasn’t to do with how much faith they had. Rather, it was about where their faith was directed. Everything fell apart when Jesus was asleep, which suggests their faith was directed towards their own skills and to a Jesus who was awake and standing up. They fell apart because they thought he wasn’t “on the job”.

But Jesus wanted them to know that he was trustworthy and could be trusted, even when he was asleep. In the best country in the world, it’s time we directed our faith, no matter how weak it may be, towards the One who can be trusted in every situation. I’m sure that no matter what experiences we may have and how stressed we may become about those experiences, Jesus can be trusted to help us through that situation.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Being a Follower

Posted: October 21, 2013 in Uncategorized
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There are a few people who are “followers” of my blog which means that you get advice that I’ve made a new post and if you’ve got time you will read it.

Thanks for your support. I appreciate that people read what I have to say, and that they can benefit from my ramblings.

But I’ve been thinking about the Facebook type of following and the sort of following that Jesus talks about.

Yesterday in church I spoke about an incident that was recorded in Luke’s Gospel about a time when Jesus was walking along the road surrounded by a big group of people.

There were those people who we refer to as the “disciples” but there were others who joined Jesus and took part in a conversation about what it meant to be a “follower” of Jesus.

One man promised to be a follower of Jesus, but Jesus had to remind him that he didn’t  have a home of his own so following him would cause him to risk the usual comforts of life.

Jesus invited a second person to follow him, and he agreed to the idea, but put it off until some of his plans were sorted out. He made the comment that he needed to bury his father first.  I suspect that his father wasn’t even dead yet and following Jesus was something that would happen at a later, and more convenient, date.

A third person was really keen to follow Jesus but needed to go home and say goodbye to the family first. You still get the idea that it was a delaying tactic.

It seems there was a clear distinction between the disciples, that group of men who had given up their fishing, tax collecting, and other businesses, to follow Jesus, and some of the other people who were walking along the road with Jesus at that time, talking about the issue of following.

It seems that we can be fellow travellers with Jesus, but not followers in the way in which Jesus was inviting people to follow. That we can be like “blog followers” who can pick and choose what that following will look like.

When Jesus invited people to follow him, he didn’t just ask them to tick a box and read his blogs when we had time. He was asking for a level of commitment to him that involved putting him first in every aspect of our life.

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I’ve added a couple of posts during the week that you may have missed. The Science of Happiness is a great video about the power of gratitude. And for a bit of light relief, look at The View from an Aeroplane Lavatory and follow the link to see some more great pics.

The Art of Discipleship

Posted: October 7, 2013 in Uncategorized
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During October and November I will be doing a series of talks at Maida Vale Baptist Church on the subject of discipleship. What is discipleship? Well, the word comes from the group of 12 people who followed Jesus during his time on earth – disciples, followers, or learners.

Another word may be apprentice. An apprentice is someone who learns on the job. That’s the whole idea behind discipleship.  Not just following Jesus, but learning from him, and putting his teaching into practice … on the job.

The interesting thing is that not only did Jesus call 12 people to follow him, and learn from him, but he also told them to go and make disciples. It seems that part of learning on the job is passing on what you’ve learnt to another apprentice who passes on what they’ve learnt to ….

Here’s a video I have put together about the series, The Art of Discipleship.  Hope you like it.

One Body

Posted: September 15, 2013 in Uncategorized
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open handsThis afternoon we visited a vacant shop in the main street of Kalamunda with about 50 other Christians of all denominations across the Shire of Kalamunda to conclude a 40 hour prayer vigil.

The event commenced on Friday night with a combined churches prayer dinner which was addressed by Graham Power from South Africa.

Over the weekend, even into the wee small hours of the night, people have dropped into this temporary prayer retreat, a cold and rather drab venue on a very wet weekend, to spend time together or alone in prayer for our community. I have to admit I took the daylight option.

This afternoon, as we gathered together, people from a variety of churches and denominations prayed for each other as the local pastors laid hands on them and prayed for God’s Spirit to fall afresh on the people of our local community.

It was a significant event as we acknowledged the unity that can be achieved through Jesus. It was significant in that we came from churches where there are different forms of worship, different theological views, and different forms of church polity, yet the focus of that hour, and the 40 hours before, was on Jesus.

It’s moments like this that affirm the words of the Apostle Paul:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

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