Against Us?

‘Teacher,’ said John, ‘we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.’ ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. Mark 9:38-41 NIV

This is another of those passages that has confused me, and made me stop to think more than once I hasten to add.

In today’s language it looks like this. Someone who is not a Christian (by our thinking), does some good and in Jesus’ name. It could even be a miraculous sign as in this case, but it would certainly be a surprise, and a shock to some of today’s church ‘elite’ (Just like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day). Looking beyond the good that’s done, we focus right in on the thought that this is just not right. How can a ‘bad person’ do good? And even worse if they use the name of Jesus in the process? We don’t like that so we pull up verses that support our thinking, and they are not hard to find.

We seem to be able to accept that bad things can happen to good people, but not so good at accepting if any good work is done by one of our self confessed ‘false teachers/prophets’. Since we have already consigned them to the dustbin of hell, surely Jesus can’t be using them, so their good works can only come from one other source. Hell itself. Jesus knows our every thought, so what could He mean when He said, “whoever is not against us is for us”?

Is it possible that God will use who He wants to use for His good, no matter who he or she is, and no matter our own conviction and judgement that they are not in the right church camp?

Dilute to Taste

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8 NIV

One of my favourite drinks is a concentrated fruit squash, and stated clearly on the label are the words: “Dilute to Taste”. It’s not a caution, or a health warning, but advice that the consumer gets the best out of the product. Depending on your personal preference, you can add water to get the taste you enjoy best. And like millions of others, I dilute to enjoy.

Religion is a bit like that. Especially the way society sees it. The true flavour is often happily diluted to the taste of the user. Where this is a good thing in the example of my Orange Juice, it most certainly is not a good idea to water down, or dilute, the gospel of salvation in and through Jesus Christ.

Enter as many religious opinions as the world can dilute to taste. That way there is no conviction of our sin or need of a Saviour. No requirement to change our way of life or rethink some of the lifestyles being accepted as ‘christian’ when they are clearly not. The Word of God can be diluted and watered down to such a degree that we lose the ‘taste’ of the original. It is good for me, so it must be ok. Have you heard these words when talking about Christianity? You will then know that any sin or lifestyle can be excused when the original has been diluted to their particular taste.

Unfortunately, you may also find that the gospel of Jesus Christ can be diluted to taste both inside and outside the church.

Speak Up or Shut Up?

Speak up, or shut up? It’s not always clear what we should do. Something is weighing on your mind, but saying it out loud could be risky, so the better choice might be to stay quiet. At least for the time being, or maybe always. In one sense the issue justifies and warrants being said, but you know there will be collateral damage as a result. No one likes personal damage, especially if it affects other innocent bystanders who are your friends.

Taking the Bible at face value doesn’t always hold the answer. After all we are told to: Speak the truth in love, confront the false teachers, and yet speak gently, we have a warning in Proverbs 17:28 “Even fools are thought to be wise when they keep silent” and in Ecclesiastes 3:7b “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak”. So what to do?

I think God gave us a heart and a head to use in balance for each individual situation because every case is different, just as every person is different. The wisdom of Solomon is needed, and we get encouraged in James 1:5 with the promise: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. The crux of the matter lies in this verse. Asking means praying, so we pray for guidance each and every time we need to know whether to speak up or shut up.

Other than getting closer to our loving Father, guess what happens when you are praying about the thing that’s weighing on your mind? Nothing! Yes nothing, because when you are in prayer you are not shouting, or shooting from the hip. You are not even trying to make excuses or give reasons for your dilemma. As the old phrase says, “silence is golden”, so now you have some much needed time to think carefully about the ripple effect of your words if you still decide to speak up. Up until this point, there has been no speaking harshly, or awkward deliberate silence. Only then I believe we will be in the right position to finally decide whether to speak up, or shut up!

Open Wide

Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge.                 Proverbs 3:5 ERV

The stronger the prescribed medication, the greater the warning to follow the instructions carefully, not to exceed the dosage, or refrain from driving, and the list of cautions go on. However, when you buy something for the sniffles over the pharmacy counter, your relief might come with the words, “take as required”.

You feel unwell and you want to get better, so you make an appointment with your local doctor. You trust him or her to treat your symptoms correctly and prescribe the medication to make the sickness go away. The instructions clearly say, “Take after a meal”, so that’s what you do. Why? Because you trust the advice given and you want to get better.

Why then, do we get the idea that we know better than the Great Physician when it comes to the welfare of our souls? The necessary medication, tailored to our own need, might be: Read the Bible more, but we ease back. Find more time to pray, but we ignore the advice. Make sure you get to church each Sunday to worship, but we don’t always like the way they do it any more so we watch a service on TV instead. Get the picture?

The Bible as the Word of God is full of good advice about how best to be healthy believers. Our sin sick souls deserve no less, so it is important that we follow the Great Physician’s advice. After all, because God is fully qualified in this field, and we can trust Him fully! We probably heard the best advice in Sunday School when we sung the chorus, “Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow”. Somehow we think these children’s songs no longer apply. How wrong we are! As our earthly dad would say, “open wide and take your medicine, it’s good for you”. So too says our heavenly Father! Amen.

Investment

Imagine for a moment you are in the fortunate position of receiving a large windfall of unearned, unexpected cash in the order of a few million pounds or dollars. Who cares at the accuracy of that figure? I know it may not be likely, so I did say ‘imagine’!! Let your mind free wheel for a minute. What’s the first thing you would want to do? I don’t know about you, but I would want to be sure I didn’t waste it, or worse still, lose it.

You suddenly become very attached to your windfall, and instead of it being some theoretical exercise, it becomes so real that you want to protect your investment. But wait a minute, this only becomes an investment when you decide to make it one. You have never had anything like this in your life, and you know it will only happen this one time. So you are very protective, and rightly so. You and I would be very strange people if we didn’t care. We become excited and want to do some good with all this money. You can help disadvantaged children. You could help advance medical science and research. You could make sure your family never want for anything in their lives.

The truth is you and I have already been offered a gift of unimaginable wealth. We didn’t earn it or work for it, and we accepted it. Being a gift, it was free. All we have to do is reach out and take it. But there are many people who do not trust a free gift like this one because there might be a hidden catch. So the gift is not able to help you, or anyone else. Our great gift makes the biggest change in our life we could imagine. Except this time we don’t have to imagine. This gift of life from God is something we can own when we accept it. Salvation is not a pipe dream. Once we have accepted this free gift, we can help pass on our excitement and thankfulness to others. You wouldn’t stay quiet with a few million pounds in the investment fund, so why do we stay quiet when we have the guarantee of this amazing gift from the greatest and trusted source in reality?

Unforgiveness?

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 NIV

This verse is normally used to emphasise the forgiving nature of God, and I am so very thankful that we have a loving God who forgives when we don’t deserve it. That is grace personified in the Lord Jesus. Can I ask you to bear with me as I take a different angle on this verse?

Jesus was being abused by His accusers in a way that we would see as horrific, and yet they were forgiven even though they didn’t ask for it. Why? I suggest it is because they “did not know what they were doing”. That’s the part that caught my attention, making me feel better and yet worse about our sins. Jesus forgave BECAUSE they didn’t know the significance of what they were doing. I suggest it follows that we cannot and indeed will not be forgiven if we DO KNOW we are doing wrong, and sin anyway.

Susanna Wesley, the praying mother of John and Charles defined sin this way: “Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may seem in itself.”

You and I must be very careful in our actions and behaviour because once we KNOW what we are doing is wrong, we may NOT BE FORGIVEN because we have known the truth of the gospel and turned our back on it. That is good news for the many who have never heard the gospel, but it is not good news for those of us who have heard and rejected it. It’s one thing for the Wesleys to believe this, but Jesus says the same thing in His own words, so we must be very careful when we recognise the truth of the gospel…..

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62 ESV

Externals

Every few weeks I get to meet up with some friends for a coffee and a blether. We cover just about any subject and in the space of a couple of hours can set the world to rights, no matter the troubles. These are very light hearted times and not usually too serious, but get to know each other better every time even though we all go back many years. This past week was such a time.

Politics and the state of the world are fair game and are in our sights most times. I wonder how much attention we pay to the overall state of our nation? You can substitute your own country and I’m sure it will be pretty much the same, with all the same problems which need solutions. Our politicians do try, but don’t always get it right with our major issues like:

Drug use and addiction is increasing at an alarming rate, and although it is debated a lot, we don’t seem to be closer to a solution. We all know it’s not a good thing to be hooked on drugs, but since we can’t stop it happening, the answer seems to be to allow it, decriminalise hard drugs and not prosecute offenders. After all, they are victims too. If you can’t fix it, then make it legal!

Crime is at an all time high and linked to unemployment, poverty, and a bad childhood. We need to find someone or something to blame and we do a pretty good job at that. We find reasons to sympathise with the criminal while the victims are left behind.

Terrorism is rife, and without naming names or sections of society, we all agree it is a major problem but we don’t want to tackle it head on. So we go round in circles making suggestions that it’s not really their fault if someone has radicalised them to believe they are doing good in the long run, and if anything happens to them, their family will be provided for. We don’t want to upset any group unnecessarily, so we stay silent to the obvious truth.

After talking about this for a while, one of the men said something like this which brought a silence to our table. “The further we get from the commandments of the Bible, the worse society becomes, and that’s because we (the 'good' part of society) have also moved away from the importance of the Bible.” On this occasion, we could not disagree. The real problem wasn’t and isn’t what’s wrong with society. It’s what has happened to change us as a whole? Our community and therefore our nation has moved away from the laws of God, and we no longer live our lives in a Bible believing manner. We have changed on the inside, and that has affected our attitudes to wrong behaviour. Get the inside right, and the other problems will follow.

We used to have a name for that internal intention to do wrong. Oh yes, we called it ‘sin’, but we’re better than that now, aren’t we? Talk of sin is old fashioned. Our communities and societies have moved on for the good of us all, and we are better for it, aren’t we? Let’s leave the Bible to have the last word, and see what it says…. Case closed I fear!

The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

Old Dog - New Tricks

You know how the old saying goes: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and it may be true for some, but I would suggest that ‘Old dogs’ (like me) would sometimes do well to go back and relearn some of those ‘old tricks’ we had once known and mastered many years before. Tradesmen use the term: “Measure twice, cut once” and the sense is obvious. You can’t undo the cut.

In general, older, more mature folks find it more difficult to adapt to change or learn new things. That could be why they are the hardest group to convince of new ideas in a church setting. But let’s be kind. Older folks have also been around the block a few times, and they have already seen some well meant changes that didn’t succeed. In fact the more appropriate phrase “crash and burn” comes to mind, and in the effort to avoid it happening again, along with the loss of some good friends and members, they are loathe to go down that road again until they are sure of success. A big part of this reluctance lies behind the definition of ‘success’. It is going to take a good argument, and a gentle push for that to happen a second time.

One of the best lessons I learned in life, was to wait a second or two before giving my first answer in response to a question. Especially one that pushes my buttons and gets my dander up. It happens. Right? And nowhere more so than on social media because each side is safely tucked behind their laptop or phone screen. Blind to the prospect of the return salvo which causes more harm than good. Sure, you got it out of your system, but the one who responds sees it as more than that. They may see it as a personal slight. Of the hundreds of people who would see the offending post, that one person will see it as deliberately aimed at them. Sadly, we were not one step ahead in our thinking when we pressed the ‘send’ button, and a few seconds of serious thought could have avoided the ‘atmosphere’ now descending on your relationship.

The lesson? Whether personally, or in a group, measure twice, and cut once!

TMI

It seems to be happening all the time. More and more often I am reading something, usually online on social media, like Facebook, and I get a sudden urge to shout at the screen ENOUGH, ALREADY! This doesn’t usually happen in a face to face conversation where people are accountable, but when hidden behind a keyboard or screen of some kind? Well folks are a bit crazy sometimes.

It’s almost as if the talker wants me/us to recognise that they are worth their words, and need to be listened to, because they struggle with not being taken seriously most of the time, and they don’t like living in the background. Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:37 ring true in more than the one obvious way when He says: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

We don’t need to add that extra ‘edgy’, or ‘juicy’, detail to the story we are telling to catch attention. Better to keep it brief, and to the point. That way we cannot be misunderstood, misquoted, but most of all I don’t have to scream at my computer, “Too Much Information”! (TMI). May God prevent me from doing the same thing to others!

God.Loves.You.

You have heard these words often, but to a young teenage girl, born into a dysfunctional family, living in the wrong side of town, they were the words which were the catalyst for decisions that affected her life, and those of many others. She heard the words from a respected and trusted Godly lady, but instead of hearing the word ‘you’, she recognised the words ‘God Loves me’. It wasn’t too long after that exchange that this little urchin fell into the grace of God, and the love that was hers to claim.

At the time, these words were spoken in general to a group of girls at a church club, not as a sermon or gospel message, but in open conversation. This older lady had a motley group of girls in her care just once a week, and she loved every one, and coveted them for the Lord. The others in the group also heard the same words, but this time, and for this teenager, these words were for her, and as though spoken to her alone.

She was one of a large family who had serious social problems, and as the oldest girl had many responsibilities placed on her young shoulders, to her siblings and for her parents, and yet she still loved them all. You could say that she was a modern day Cinderella, but she wasn’t looking for a golden carriage, or a handsome prince because she had found her Lord and Saviour, and that made everything she did worthwhile, and so she carried her duties with a generous smile. Oh what a smile!

Both of the ladies in this story are now in heaven, reaping their just rewards for lives lived for the glory of the God who loved them and accepted them as they were, but who went ahead and changed them from the inside out. I would like to think that eventually the younger girl did meet her prince, get married, live happily, and show her own family, and in turn their families, the loving Christ centred life she never experienced as a child. The legacy of both Godly women live on to this day in the hearts and minds of their families and friends to the first and second generations.

When you speak the words of God’s love, you do not know the impact they will have on a receptive heart, resulting in a Godly influence on others for the duration of their lives. The young teenager who heard those words which changed her life, cannot speak for herself, but those who were touched by her life can. She died as she lived, in the safety of the love of God. Her God. And all because she heard the words, “God.Loves.You”. She was more than happy to live and love the Words in 1 Peter 4:7,8: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” Can you call Him your God too? Has He covered your sins by His love? Her little Sunday School Bible was tear stained around some of her favourite verses in John 14:1-3 where we are all assured: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” That promise has now been claimed, and her reward is being reaped now and forever in Glory along with all those who have gone before, and yes, the ones who will join her and their Saviour for eternity. Amen and Amen to that promise.