God, The Creator of All

There’s a big difference between the God of the Bible, and all the other gods. All the other ‘gods’ are human inventions, created by the human mind; the God of the Bible, the one and only true God, is the God that rather than being created by humans, is actually the Creator of human beings. This is the only difference we need to know. Yes, the Greek gods are interesting, and the Norse gods are interesting, but after all’s said and done, they are only products of the human imagination. There’s about as much point as praying to one of these guys as there is to praying to a block of carved wood or stone or praying to the sun or the moon. There is only one God, one Supreme Being, that is above all and the Creator of all. Do you really want to put your faith or future in something that just isn’t real or that is in actual fact false? Likewise, there have been many supposed holy men (and even a few holy women too!) knocking around here and there at various times, and many people have put their faith in them. For a Christian, there’s only one man, one cool dude, that makes the grade; He leaves the rest behind in the starting blocks. Who is He? It’s Jesus! What did He say about Himself? ‘…I am the way, the truth, and the life…’ (John 14:6 KJV) No other person has ever claimed that, holy or not, and indeed no other person could because Jesus is the only way to God, He is the intercessor for us, the divine bridge between God and man. Jesus is the way to God, He is the truth of the world and the agent of creation, and He is true life, life that lasts and life that is abundant and overflowing.

Challenging the Status Quo

A yearning for things to stay the same, whilst living in societies where things keep changing, creates a dichotomy for many people. We yearn for good things to last, for all that is good to stay and all that is bad to stay away, but things are never static. We become nostalgia freaks, locked in the past and afraid of the future. The curious reality is that as things change they stay the same. What I mean is that society survives by changing; imagine a world without the Internet or mobile phones or supermarkets. We all change, get older, get more mature, get a little wiser (hopefully!) and we are not the same ten years down the line. In middle age, whenever that really is now, we take stock of our lives, we reflect on it all, the good and the bad, and we might feel that we could have done things, some things anyway, differently. Only a faith in God makes me feel that even the worst bits have something to teach me, that my life hasn’t been in vain and that the best is yet to come.

In many societies, even wealthy, progressive and democratic ones, there is a subtle notion, often heavily inferred, that those at the bottom should know their place, that only those who are already affluent or connected or powerful in some way should aspire to better things, should aspire to have better lives and money and nice things, the rest of us being merely grateful for the crumbs off the rich man’s table. In fact, the only way modern societies have genuinely progressed is when such notions are challenged by the mass of ‘ordinary’ people, whatever ordinary really means. Society progresses when we as groups of disenfranchised people challenge injustice, and when we as individuals don’t accept the limitations that greater society, and even other people, try to impose on us. In the past, only the wealthy Middle classes and Upper classes were supposed to prosper and have a future, and that is they key word: future. We all have the right to a future and we all have the right to better lives, better life chances and even to prosper. I don’t say we should plot revolutions or overthrow the government, but where we find injustice we should challenge it. ‘Yahweh says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who has been wronged, do not exploit or ill-treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in this place.’ (Jeremiah 22:3 NJB) If we act uprightly, and refuse to prosper at someone else’s expense, God will guide our steps and He will see that no real harm comes to us. It seems to me that in many countries in the world, including many Western countries, people do indeed prosper at the expense of other people, even when such profiteering makes misery and creates rampant injustice. In this case, we should hope to be neither exploiter or exploited. ‘To absolve the guilty and condemn the upright, both alike are abhorrent to Yahweh.’ (Proverbs 17:15 NJB) We have to remember as Christians that though often societies, even the best of societies, can be skewed, corrupt, often unfair and partial to the rich and powerful, we must remain free of such things. I believe that we are all going to be judged one day; some of the people now prospering unjustly may very well find themselves on the wrong side of God, not a place anyone wants to be. Whatever we do, we should act justly and with a sense of fair play. ‘He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’ (Micah 6:8 ESV)
 

The Waste of it All

In a report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers recently, it was said that almost half, yes almost half, of all the world’s food, about 2 billion tons worth, is binned before it reaches the dinner table. What an insane world we live in! Whilst it seems half the world is eating itself to death, the other half is slowly starving to death. What we now see on a global scale, real inequality and skewed redistribution of wealth and resources, is what many European countries were like in the 19th century; the rich had an overabundance of wealth, land, power and resources, the Middle class had some wealth and resources, and the Working class and poor often didn’t have enough even for basic needs to be met, whilst often living in wretched rural and urban poverty in awful unsanitary housing. What is the answer to such overwhelming waste and unequal redistribution? The first answer is for those who have enough to stop carping on about what they haven’t got and learn to be grateful for what they have! We have all done it, we have all coveted what we haven’t got, we all seem never to be satisfied with what we have; perhaps we need to learn simply to be content with what we have. Saint Paul said this about contentment: ‘I know how to live modestly, and I know how to live luxuriously too: in every way now I have mastered the secret of all conditions: full stomach and empty stomach, plenty and poverty. There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me.’ (Philippians 4:12-13 NJB) It may be that you are wealthy; then be grateful. It may be that you are poor; then be content with what good things you have and then pray earnestly about your needs being met. I’m not suggesting that someone poor shouldn’t aspire to a better life, of course not, don’t we all want to get on after all? I am suggesting that whilst we plan for better things, we should simply be grateful for any good thing we already have, whether we are rich or poor.
 

Why Did God Create Life?

All is competition; we compete with others in everything without even being aware of doing it half the time, competing in every way and often for no good reason. Competition seems to create nothing but aggressive people, and some win and many others lose. This creates societies that can be filled either way with aggressive people that are not really happy unless they are competing with other people in some way and winning in whatever way they can. In my eyes, this often results in societies that are not working to their full potential. What’s more, I firmly believe that God wants us to win, but at the same time He wants us to be the best we can be, not minding anyone else’s business but being concerned with our own business.

So, why did God create life? Just what purpose were human beings created for? ‘I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm-what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him?’ (Psalm 8:3-4 NJB) We know that God created everything, and He created us or I wouldn’t be typing this blog and you wouldn’t be reading it, but can we understand God’s motives? When we look at the mess the world is in, and human society in general, we might genuinely wonder what the purpose of life is when life for many is often nasty, short and brutal. I believe that God created mankind to share in His glory, to share in His love, to love and so be loved, by God and by other people. There is a purpose to life, and sometimes when we go to the supermarket or are doing a hundred other mundane things, we forget that we are extraordinary and magnificent, the crown of creation, the reason for all creation. Try and remember that on a cold, wet, rainy Monday afternoon.
 

Finally, do we have to hate each other? No, I’ll never be a Muslim, I’ll never be an Orthodox Jew, I’m a Christian after all, but why can’t we live in peace? We all have so much to learn from each other.

Wishing the Years Away

When I was a kid, life seemed to pass by slowly, years seemed to roll by slowly, and the summer holidays we had each year seemed to go on forever.  Now, as an adult, life seems to pass by faster at some times and very fast at others.  I seem often to be wishing my life away, instead of enjoying the abundant living that Jesus has promised me.  What I mean basically is that, for one reason and several, I am often hoping for some day in the future to come; sometimes a specific day because that’s when I have spare time, or a day, a non-specific date sometime vaguely in the future, when everything, yes everything, is going to be just fine.  In the first case, the wishing away of a day or a week doesn’t necessarily make me happier, and in the latter case, wishing away life in general is possibly making me more miserable.  When we buy a lottery ticket, we hope upon hope that this time we will win, ending all financial worries and troubles, meaning we can escape to the cottage in the country or the beach-house in the sun and live the life we have always dreamed of.  Does God want us to live forever in some unrealised future?  Perhaps part of Christian living is just that: looking forward to a time when all problems are resolved and we have a perfect, unsullied and intimate relationship with our Creator.  But the fact is that many of us who are Christians do not have perfect lives, we struggle financially, we struggle with emotional issues, we struggle in our personal lives and with other people, we struggle to make sense of everything, we might struggle with illness or depression; in fact we are almost defined by the fact that we seem to be continually struggling against so many things; life just seems to be one annoying thing after another.  Life is not perfect; the American or Brit, the Western European, even the poorer ones, have a standard of living that is the real envy of many other parts of the world.  We complain because we haven’t got the latest plasma TV or the latest must-have gadget; we complain because we are earning thousands and want millions; we complain because we haven’t got three houses and two cars.  In some parts of the world, you are lucky just to have a meal in your belly and a place in a tin shack to call your own.  Yet, often, the very poorer person has a level of personal happiness and satisfaction that the Westerner, however rich or poor they may appear to be, just does not have.  Isn’t it time we all learned to count our blessings?  

 

We know that God chose Israel, although it’s often not clear at all why He did.  Did He pick Israel because they were the best of people?  Were they the most religious people?  Were they the most socially, politically and societally advanced people?  Did they have a sophisticated culture like the Egyptians?  It seems not.  I have believed that God’s choices are often foolish to the world, but to those who understand God’s mercy, God’s compassion and His social justice, these choices are ways of balancing out the often deep divisions that have always existed since tribe was pitted against tribe and latterly nation against nation.  There is a deep dichotomy in God choosing any particular nation or any particular person; it says plainly in scripture: ‘There is no favouritism with God.’  (Romans 2:11 NJB)  If there is no favouritism, then why did He pick a specific people to be His people?  How does this work out?  Well, I can answer this by saying that though God did indeed pick a particular people, and though He chooses people like me, and many others, to be Christians today, that never means we can just do what we like and get all pompous about our supposed superiority!  I believe that God believes in equality, and so if we adhere to His laws and ways, He is pleased with us.  But, though we might be called, if we choose to disobey or think that being religious somehow means we can do what we like, God’s displeasure will be visited on us.  The whole of the Old Testament is a litany of God’s love for a people whose love for Him is often half-hearted and partial at best.  But let’s not get too smug about this; the OT story can be a metaphor for the way many modern Christians also treat God.  We all seem too busy to engage with Him at the best of the times, or we pay lip-service to being ‘good Christians’ and we fill our lives with ‘false gods’ like the worship of money or high social status or the bigger house, or we might think that being a ‘Sunday Christian’ is all there is to worship or indeed all there is to God or all there is to being a Christian.  Come to think of it, at least when the ancient Israelites were chastised they usually turned wholeheartedly to God; for a time anyway.  How many Christians never seem to learn?  God knew that all the time He chose Israel they would largely reject Jesus, yet He never made a different choice.  He also knows that even though He chooses Christians, many of those Christians are far less than they could be even when the truth stares us in the face.  God’s mercy is always bigger than His wrath. 

 

We are meant to be servants of His and preachers of God’s Kingdom, yet we listen to Rock and Roll, we play games all night, we have favourite alcoholic drinks, we cultivate non-Christian friendships; we’re often only half the people we really should be.  But we can’t live in a vacuum, and being a Christian doesn’t mean we have to lock ourselves away in some monastery in some remote place and then singing chants at four o’clock every morning.  So; where do we draw the line?  The 60’s means a lot to me, even though I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Christian.  I love Hendrix, I love the Doors and I love the whole atmosphere and excitement of that decade.  I suspect that many genuine Christians also enjoy many things that are not particularly Christian either.  A job for instance isn’t particularly Christian or non-Christian, it’s just your job.  A snack you buy on the street is similar.  So is a pair of shoes or a pair of pyjamas you might wear.  There has to be a line, a line of common-sense, between being a Christian and separate from the world and having ordinary interests that are part of the world.  We have to eat after all.  We have to laugh after all.  We have to be entertained after all, providing hopefully that what we like in no way affects our relationship with God or puts Christians in a bad light.  There is, I contend, a slight hypocrisy amongst some Christians about this issue; if they do something that might appear wrong, then it’s OK.  If some other Christian does something that appears wrong, then they condemn.  Perhaps we all need to lighten up a little.

 

When Rock and Roll first exploded on the scene in America in the 50’s, it opened the doors for many young men and women, often those marginalised and poor Black and White men and women, who otherwise might be doing some crummy dead end job in a factory or being a waitress or short-order cook in some diner in small town America somewhere.  Rock and Roll fundamentally changed American, British and Western culture; nothing would ever be the same again.  Before Rock and Roll in Britain, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones might have at best ended up in dead end jobs somewhere or middle-management in some business, doing some boring and routine job that paid ok but wasn’t very exciting.  In a way, Rock and Roll in the mid-twentieth century had the same impact on Western culture as Christianity eventually did many centuries before.  They both liberated people and opened up opportunities that weren’t really present before.  Rock and Roll changed the social fabric of both America and Britain almost overnight, and instead of poor people deferring to their so-called elders and betters, they could stick a record on and be blown away; there was no turning back.  Early Rock and Roll could be said to be simplistic, perhaps pop music at its best, but by the end of the 60’s this music was beginning to be seen as a viable and credible part of Western culture, and some of the ‘pop music’ that was eventually being created was akin to the best of any Classical or avant-garde Jazz that was around.  All things then that humans create,  whether ‘secular’ or not (whatever that means) shows the Hand of a Creator that blesses us with the ability to enjoy many things and even in some cases to create wonderful things for others to enjoy.  By the end of the 60’s some people even thought Eric Clapton was God!  Then along came Jimi…

 

If You Don’t Stand For Something

The recent ‘end of the world’ scenario, the supposed end of the old Mayan calendar has proved yet again that even the best of us can be taken in, or as W. C. Fields once said (I think) ‘there’s one born every minute.’  Or was it ‘never give a sucker an even break!’?  Maybe he said both, and as the gentleman in question has since long gone to the big saloon in the sky, he’s unlikely to be getting in touch anytime soon to let me know either way.  But it seems to be true that ‘if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything’!  People seem to have been saying the world is going to end since the world began.  And probably every society has had some doom-monger prophesying that the world would end, and he or she just knew when it was; sound familiar?  I guess it does.  What does the Bible say about people supposedly having such foreknowledge?  ‘'But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.  'Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come.’  (Mark 13:32-33 NJB)  If God Himself won’t even let His only begotten Son Jesus know the specific time and hour, it’s highly unlikely that some self-appointed prophet from the Ozarks, or anywhere else for that matter, is going to know.  As for Nostradamus, maybe he’d just had too much of the sauce hey?!  

 

You are Who You Pretend to Be

It’s certain that for most of us, we all play a part, we all play a role, we all act the way we want others to see us and we all want to be accepted in that role.  It could be true to say for many people that you are who you pretend to be.  In one sense, when we start to live a Christian life, we are pretending somewhat; we might normally have a bitter temper, or a quitting side to our nature, we might just be a right moaning old bugger in fact, but being a Christian means we have to put aside our old nature and put on the new.  Yes, we are then pretending to some degree until the new nature becomes second nature to us.  At the same time, and I hope I don’t confuse anyone here, I have found that as I have got closer to God, I have become the person I have always wanted to be.  It’s taken me a long time, and although I am at the moment going through some trials, I am becoming the person I and God have always wanted me to be.  Only God can answer our deepest needs like no other, and one of the deepest needs for human beings is to be loved and accepted for who we are.  ‘Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.  Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.  But when Christ is revealed -- and he is your life-you, too, will be revealed with him in glory.  That is why you must kill everything in you that is earthly: sexual vice, impurity, uncontrolled passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; it is precisely these things which draw God's retribution upon those who resist.  And these things made up your way of life when you were living among such people, but now you also must give up all these things: human anger, hot temper, malice, abusive language and dirty talk; and do not lie to each other. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised and uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.’  (Colossians 3:1-11 NJB)

 

In the Wee Small Hours

When I can’t sleep sometimes, in the wee small hours, I’m given to imagining whether my life could be any different; if I suddenly became wealthy would my life change?  If my relationship with Jesus became more intimate, would I be a better person?  If I met someone I fell in love with, would it fundamentally change my life, and hopefully for the better?  Who can say after all?  Part of the human experience it seems is to ruminate on such things, to imagine what our life would be like if this happened or what it would be like if that happened.  I’m a Brit, but what if one of my ancestors had emigrated, like so many millions and millions of British people have before today, to America or Canada, to Australia or New Zealand and many other places besides; would I be a New Yorker eating at some downtown deli somewhere, or an Aussie living out in the Outback somewhere; who can say?  What makes me me, and what makes you you after all?  We’re all often very different people, we’re all unique, and yet we are all the same, we are all after all’s said and done only too human.

 

Sometimes when I am in a certain mood, only music will make me feel better.  I have a long list of all types of music I like; a lot of 60’s stuff, quite a lot of Classical music, some jazz and some off-the-wall stuff that would take too long to write down.  Suffice to say, I like a lot of music.  I’m in good company it seems: ‘And whenever the spirit from God came over Saul, David would take a harp and play; Saul would then be soothed; it would do him good, and the evil spirit would leave him.’  (1 Samuel 16:23 NJB)  Before that famous bromance between David and Saul turned somewhat sour, David was Saul’s best mate, his best buddy and they loved each other like brothers.  They were like Yin and Yang, like fish and chips, like Laurel and Hardy; you didn’t see one without the other; for a time anyway.  Saul was deposed and David becomes king, the king all Israel seemed to want.

 

To Play Like Jimi

When Jimi Hendrix burst onto the British pop scene in the mid-1960’s, he blew everyone’s mind; where did this guy come from?  America?  Mars?  The outer rings of Saturn?  Well, he had his very humble beginnings in Seattle, a west coast city in America; he only returned there a few times in his life.  His playing was infused with the deepest Blues, the most amazing showmanship and a desire to keep improving and making his playing fresh and inspiring.  When I see Hendrix play, even though of course it’s all recorded and on DVD or CD or now on youtube, I can see the creativity that God gifts all kinds of people; maybe few will ever play with the sheer brio and excellence of Jimi, but every human being has gifts and skills, likes and wholesome desires that some other person just might not have.  Jimi flourished at the right time; the 60’s seemed, for a moment anyway, to be our modern renaissance, and Jimi was like a guitar Leonardo da Vinci, a man who could play the guitar like no one before him and even perhaps no one after him.  For a moment back there, it seemed that the excitement and vision born in the 60’s would change everything and we would all live happily ever after.  Of course, grim reality seeped in to the dream and we all got real and back to so-called reality again.  I’m a child of the 70’s, the decade they say that taste forgot, I don’t remember the 60’s I only experience it through CD’s, DVD’s and TV programs and books.  I may never play like Jimi, but I serve a God who can take this raw and unpromising material and make something even I never dreamed of.  God is telling us that we are the love of His life, we are the supreme creation of creation and that we matter to Him, no matter what we have done, whatever humble background we come from and however alike or different we are to other people. 

 

Born Again?

What does Jesus mean by saying we need to be born again?  ‘There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.'  Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.  Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born? Is it possible to go back into the womb again and be born?'’  (John 3:1-4 NJB)  What exactly does this mean, being ‘born again’?  Perhaps in one sense we are reborn when the Holy Spirit makes its home in us, and perhaps also when we begin to see the world through the eyes of a child again.  We all grow up too soon, far too soon, and we think that being grown-up and sophisticated is the way to be; remember what it was like to be a kid, no real worries, laughing all the time, crying some of the time and going where the mood took us.  As adults, we seem to have all the cares and worries of the world heaped on our shoulders, everything is wearisome, everything is waiting, and nothing much makes any real difference.  Did God bring us into this world just to suffer, just to struggle, with no real end in sight?  ‘For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.’  (John 3:17 NJB)

Happy Christmas & A Happy New Year!!!

So the world didn't end did it?  We're all still here, thank God!

This is just to wish everyone who visits my blog regularly or even now and again, a Very Happy Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!!!  I hope everyone has a lovely time during the festive season, and doesn't drink too much sherry!!!

Democracy? What Democracy?

Although like many people I am fortunate and live in a wealthy and industrialised, modern and technologically advanced society, I wonder whether for all that we take for granted, are modern societies all they are cracked up to be?  In other words, are we any better than some of the tyrannies and dictatorships dotted around the world?  Are the Western democracies really democracies, or democracies in name only?  I now tend to believe the latter.  Real democracy is compromise; it is not rule by the rich, of the rich, for the rich.  Real democracy is the majority of people living any way they choose and having a say in how the country is run.   Is getting a vote every four or five years really all we should expect from our system, or parliamentary democracy?  I don’t think it is to be honest.  And the extra question for Christians is, how far should we accept second-rate democracies and when, and how, do we begin to challenge and protest when governments are not really acting for the majority of people? 

 

Freedom

Freedom is a much misused word, and the reality is that one person’s idea of freedom could be someone else’s idea of tyranny.  Real freedom is self-evident; in other words, where people have political, and other, freedoms they want more of it and in societies where there are limited or even no real freedoms, they want it!  Nobody it seems wants dictatorships or military juntas or rule by self-serving wealthy elites.  We often pride ourselves in the West of having the societies that are envied by less prosperous and seemingly less free societies in other parts of the world.  It is true that for the most part in British society, we can live any way we want, say and write anything we want, do anything we want provided we don’t harm anyone else, dress any way we want and for the most part pursue any goals and ambitions we want, and nobody really cares either way because they are doing the same.  Yes, all the above are definitions of freedoms that many of us take for granted in the West.  But, and there had to be a ‘but’ didn’t there, for all this we have a political class that rules in our name, that is often far too narrow, far too privileged, perhaps far too wealthy and is far too little challenged when they make decisions that usually benefit wealthy corporations and wealthy and powerful people like themselves, where usually the ordinary citizen is the last consideration.  There is far too much of this in Britain, and it seems many such democracies around the world; often we have a vote in everything, but a say in nothing.  While gas and electric bills rise, and the cost of transport especially train travel rocket up year after year, and food and essentials go up far faster than inflation, politicians and governments of whatever political hue or persuasion seem hamstrung and unable or unwilling to do anything about it.  Why do we vote these people in if they are going to be next to useless and do nothing or very little that they promised fervently they would?

 

Freedom is more than a word, freedom is what we as individuals, families, communities and nations should be pursuing for all humanity, and of course for ourselves too.  Christian freedom paradoxically comes from being obedient and being good servants of God; there is no freedom, no real freedom, without the Law.  My answer then to those who rule us and those who make the laws is that they should also learn how to be good servants of those who voted them in, and not just opportunists clinging to any convenient gravy train.

 

Ambition

There must be a chance for people from ordinary backgrounds to get on in life and succeed and fulfil their ambitions, to share in the nation’s wealth and prosperity.  Why are the wages of those at the top so high and the wages of those at the bottom usually so low?  Isn’t there enough to go around?  It seems not.  The reality is that often people who are wealthy never seem to have enough, or are never satisfied, whilst the rest of us have no option but to live on a budget whether we like to or not.  There truly is more to life than having lots of money and acquiring lots of money.  There is a sadness in selfish and self-centred behaviour, when someone has millions or even billions of pounds, and the only thing that motivates them is to add more money to an already bulging bank account.  Just what is the purpose of being even richer when you have almost everything anyway?  ‘He entered Jericho and was going through the town and suddenly a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man.  He kept trying to see which Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.  When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I am to stay at your house today.'  And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully.  They all complained when they saw what was happening. 'He has gone to stay at a sinner's house,' they said.  But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, 'Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.'  And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek out and save what was lost.'’  (Luke 19:1-10 NJB)

 

Equal Chances

Instead of moving into the 21st century, the class system and its nonsense and prejudice has kept Britain back in the 19th century, run by rather posh, rather otherworldly privately educated men, who seem to always get top jobs with high salaries in every sphere of British life.  Isn’t it time we started demanding that our so-called democracy was actually run like a democracy, for all its people and not a pampered and privileged minority at the top?

How posh you are or how common you are seems to matter far more in British society than how talented you are, how intelligent you are, even how much drive and ambition you have.  The consequences of this for British society is incalculable; a skewed society where often posh people, regardless of how little achievement or talent or intelligence they might have, are given preference over someone deemed not posh, or not the ‘right sort’.  Yes it sounds, and indeed is, absurd, but this is still British society to some degree and the way it operates.  It might seem that in some way or somehow, this is an ‘inevitable’ outcome of British society, that all the unfairness and injustice, all the double-standards and hypocrisy even are natural outcome of the way British people live.  Nothing could be further from the truth; injustices come from skewed human systems, and systems, governments and corporations are made up of individual people.  Evil and injustice are not natural outcomes, they are often the result of particular thinking and unjust political regimes.  Sometimes it even seems that religion or organised Christianity is just another part of the social system, another natural outcome of human society; in short, sometimes it seems that British Christianity is just another appendage of the class system we all live under.  Again, nothing could be further from the truth; it is not God that promotes unfairness and division, it is human society and individuals within societies that promote unfairness and division, often for very selfish ends.  God truly is about fairness, justice and equality.  ‘There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there can be neither male nor female -- for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’  (Galatians 3:28 NJB)  All that is wrong about the world is part of the world system, and the world system is doomed to disappear and end in dissipation and disappointment.  God’s Kingdom, a kingdom of peace, justice, righteousness, fairness and equality amongst many other good things, is what is coming and is what will last.  The Christian should be in the world but not be a part of it.  In other words, though we might live under a class system in Britain, or any other skewed system anywhere else, we should not be partakers in its injustice and we should not accept or add to the divisions and unfairness it creates.  If God graciously and mercifully accepts all kinds of people, then so should we.  If someone is racist or prejudiced in some way, perhaps they need to understand that this is not God’s plan for human beings.  ‘He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be moulded to the pattern of his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers; it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory.  After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us?’  (Romans 8:29-31 NJB)

 

In the world at large, there is division, injustice and often barely concealed rampant unfairness; those who are already privileged and wealthy often go on to become more privileged and wealthy, and the rest of us not so wealthy and privileged are meant to grin and bear it, or accept that we will have second rate lives unless we win the lottery or become successful ourselves in some way.  And it is almost drummed into us that we should look up to those who are privileged in some way, even If the reality of such privilege and the truth behind it is often hidden from us.  The world rejects many people because they are the ‘wrong’ class, or the ‘wrong’ colour, or have the ‘wrong’ accent or in whatever way are not deemed the right sort of person.  We all know that this is unjust; what is Jesus’ answer?  ‘Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me; I will certainly not reject anyone who comes to me(.)‘  (John 6:37 NJB)  It might be hard for someone who is prejudiced towards other humans to understand this, but God created us all with love and as unique creations.  Those who practise and promote division might one day find they are the ones left out.

 

People throughout the ages and everywhere on earth have been looking for paradise, a place where there are no troubles, enough to eat and everyone can do what their heart desires and live in peace with all.  Is paradise a myth, a utopia never to be reached?  In the West, they think it’s in the East, and in the East they think it’s in the West.  Where shall we go to find paradise?

 

Our job as Christians who live in a deeply divided world is to live in peace with all people and to treat everyone else as we ourselves would wish to be treated, and to serve God with a whole heart.  ‘…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’  (Joshua 24:15 KJV)

A Confession

I have a confession to make, several confessions in fact.  I am a Christian, and have really tried to live as a Christian for about fifteen years even though God entered my life in my early teens.  We look around us and we think everyone else is doing better than us, has a better grip on life than us, are better Christians than us; and we feel less than perfect.

 

I am occasionally an angry person; I boil up with rage over the slightest and silliest things and I get stressed out because of it.  I don’t act on my anger but it still affects me; I expect many people are the same.  Yet at the same time, I am generally quite a happy-go-lucky hail-fellow-well-met kind of bloke.  In some ways I am what the Americans would call a ‘regular guy’, and in other ways I feel I am not particularly normal; I’m sort of unique; but then, aren’t we all?!  I find myself filled with all kinds of fears and all kinds of dread, and sometimes I don’t know why; at other times, it might be because of this or that, and usually, not always, it’s something trivial or not that important.  I often carry a sense of loss, a black cloud over me that makes my life less than it could be.  I have been told now and again that I’m not a bad looking sort of bloke and yet all I seem to recall is a long list of failures with women; I either didn’t speak up when I should have, or I said the wrong thing at the wrong time it seems.  I could write a hefty book on all my past failures with women.  If I’m honest, some of it was my fault and some of it was probably theirs.  I have been unemployed for large chunks of my life; I’m not proud of this and I often feel guilty because of it.  Much of it was to do with depression, serious depression that blighted my life for a long time.  For a long time, I have endured periods of inner emotional turmoil, a cheery face accompanied by emotional pain that would sometimes recede and then come back again.

 

I’m a Christian, a full-on believer, a dyed-in-the-wool Christian, and yet I’ve never been to church to worship, don’t really know other Christians in the flesh, as all of my friends are not really believers, and have no real desire to sing hymns on Sunday in some suburban church somewhere; it just doesn’t feel like me.  What’s the answer?  I wish I knew.  As for sharing the Gospel and talking about Jesus, well that happens occasionally, but average Working class blokes like me don’t seem or appear to be the sort of people to be Christians or to talk about Jesus to family, friends and strangers.  Inside, I am on fire with zeal for my faith, outside I look and dress just like most other blokes my age.  But no one said a Christian couldn’t dress smartly or dress ‘street style’ either did they?

 

All the Worries of the World

Often in my life, and certainly in the past, I seemed to carry all the worries of the world on my shoulders, broad as they are.  No one in this world needs to take on troubles as there’s enough trouble it seems to go round for everyone, whether they want to suffer or not.  It’s certain that all humans at some time will suffer for one reason or another.  And Christians I think will suffer in a world that is often hostile to them and a world that in virtually every way opposes Christian justice and mercy, fair play and a sense of equality.  The world is one thing, and living as a Christian is something else.  I don’t believe anyone should willingly take on all the worries of the world as a Christian, but that if we do find ourselves suffering in some way because we are simply living out our faith as best we can, we should pray to God for the strength to endure and persevere in our faith, whatever happens to us good or bad.

 

For some reason, I do find myself worrying, even when I don’t appear to have anything particular to worry about.  It’s a pain, it really is, and I sometimes find myself wishing for the moment when I can just relax and basically stop worrying.  Sometimes I do indeed stop worrying.  Now I pray for peace, inner peace as well as peace with other people around me and a general sense of well-being.  I notice that as I draw closer to God, God puts everything in perspective and shines a light on what can be darkness, or what can seem inexplicable.  Why do we suffer?  What is suffering all about?  Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world without any kind of suffering, any kind of pain?  It would be wonderful wouldn’t it!  Sadly, we live in a fallen world, and it seems the whole of creation groans under the weight of sin and simply because so many humans abandon the ways of God and choose to ‘do their own thing’ regardless of the impact on other people; we’re all hurting in effect.  ‘So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'’  (Matthew 6:34 NJB)

 

Carrying a Sense of Loss

I have carried a sense of loss with me for a long time; it is it seems just another part of me, a part of my personality that is like any other part of me.  I think it is true to say that many people carry a sense of loss, for whatever reason, or maybe a number of reasons, and they accept it.  It could be because a person has failed at a number of things or been unlucky with the opposite sex or been unemployed for a long time, and so on and on.  It is in many cases, and certainly in my life, an acceptance of a third-rate life and a life lived in the full knowledge that we are only existing rather than living a full and happy life.  When we have lived in sin for a long time, God will straighten us out eventually, and one of the ways God punishes us is by letting us understand what life is like without His blessing and guidance in our lives.  In short, He keeps us at arm’s length for a time, whilst filling us with a desire to serve Him again.  We are between Him and the deep blue sea.  I found that at these times, God spoke to my heart and taught me valuable lessons.  We desire a perfect relationship with God; and yet most of the time what we have is imperfect and full of holes, a half-cocked friendship that stops and starts, boils over occasionally and often seems to be going nowhere.  We are impatient, hoping for the next phase, and yet God seems in no particular hurry.  We live in a fast-paced want-it-yesterday sort of world, where we are bombarded everyday with all kinds of desires, desires for a bigger house, a new TV, the best holiday experiences, the newest most expensive gadgets, the wonderful life we all seem to be missing and we become dissatisfied or think we are unfulfilled if we don’t get what we think we want.  We are meant to be unsatisfied, it’s almost beaten into us, unless we get what we think is our heart’s desire; then we wonder why we feel unhappy.  Sometimes the best thing we can do is stand back from every situation and just be grateful for all the good things God has blessed us with, and stop worrying about what we haven’t got. 

 

Hope Springs Eternal

Hope is one of the messages of the Bible, it is one of the most important messages of the Gospel and hope is God’s gift to a world that often for many people seems lost and completely hopeless.  It isn’t just people living in shanty towns dressed in rags and lucky to eat one meal a day that seem without hope, even millions of people in wealthy countries seem to be without even a modicum of hope in their lives.  When we in the wealthier parts of the world begin to understand the great blessings God has already gifted us in so many ways, we might stop being so selfish and so ungrateful and might begin to thank God for the plenty we already have.  We might also begin to think about all those people in the world who aren’t so fortunate, who suffer malnutrition, who suffer great hardships as a normal part of their lives and who don’t have access to good food, healthcare and medicines and often can’t read or write so living with very limited chances to advance in life.  Even for these people, where there is life there is always hope.

 

Hope springs eternal, and a gift of hope from God, injected into hopeless lives is a gift that will revive us and renew all of us to go on to do better things with our lives.  ‘I was completely surrounded, there was no one to help me; I looked for someone to help me, there was no one.  Then I remembered your mercy, Lord, and your deeds from earliest times, how you deliver those who wait for you patiently, and save them from the clutches of their enemies.  And I sent up my plea from the earth, I begged to be delivered from death.  I called on the Lord, the father of my Lord, 'Do not desert me in the days of ordeal, in the days of the proud, when we are helpless. I shall praise your name unceasingly and gratefully sing its praises.'  And my plea was heard, for you saved me from destruction, you delivered me from that time of evil.  And therefore I shall thank you and praise you, and bless the name of the Lord.’  (Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 51:7-12 NJB)

The Spiritual Man, The Carnal Man

It is almost that as we live as Christians, as we try to serve God each day with a whole heart, there is another story going on besides us.  We are very much aware that we are meant to be in the world but not a part of it.  There is then the spiritual man, the person who is fully aware of God and His laws and who wants to live in God’s ways, and there is the carnal man, the person who quite naturally leans towards vice and sin, the person who God is drawing out of the world to Him but who at the same time is enticed by one thing or other in the world.  Welcome to the Christian experience!

 

The Struggle

The struggle for Christian living could be explained in a number of ways.  I suppose a real crisis of faith happened in the mid-19^th century when Charles Darwin refuted biblical beliefs completely and gave us a new story for our origins.  We were nothing more than glorified and smart apes, apes that evolved from mammals, mammals that crawled out of the sea as fish with limbs, and fish that I suppose evolved from amoebas; or so the story goes.  So, on one side were the creationists and on the other side were the evolutionists, both arguing often eloquently for their side of the story, the story of mankind in effect.  We are still in the midst of this argument, and the battle still rages on in some quarters.  Then we have Karl Marx.  I sense that with both Darwin and Marx, there was antipathy towards religion partially because of the power wielded by the religious authorities, the religious hierarchies, who just like other worldly powers had wealth and privilege and authority, with no one seemingly able to challenge them.  Is this what God wants for Christians; a few people at the top of a hierarchy telling everyone what to believe, or does God want intimacy with everyone calling him or herself a Christian, a relationship rather than religion?

 

The struggle we have as Christians trying to make sense of the world and trying to make sense of the suffering we endure just simply living as Christians often reflects the struggles of vast numbers of people around the world.  How fortunate we are, those born into wealthy Western democracies; even the poor often live well in the West, and we can honestly say that the majority of us live any way we choose, dress any way we like, think and say anything we want and pursue any course of action we want to; we have freedoms that many other people scattered around the world simply do not have.  For us as Western Christians then, the struggle is more spiritual, more emotional even, a battle between our godly nature and our earthly nature, a battle between what we know is right and true and what we know is wrong and ultimately illusory.  Even though we know the world is full of vice, sin and disordered desires of every kind, we struggle with our sinful nature, our sinful feelings, and because of this we are far less than we know we could be.  At the same time, all humans err and make mistakes, even the best of us, and we are all drawn now and again to what is wrong and sinful.  Even Christians can have problems with each other sadly.  ‘Brothers, I urge you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, not to have factions among yourselves but all to be in agreement in what you profess; so that you are perfectly united in your beliefs and judgements.’  (1 Corinthians 1:10 NJB)

 

The carnal man, the worldly person, has enough excuses not to believe in God even though all around us there is marvellous evidence of a benign Creator at work.  It really does take more faith to believe that all life and all that we see is just a glorious accident, rather than a purposeful creation!  ’And this is the false argument they use, 'Our life is short and dreary, there is no remedy when our end comes, no one is known to have come back from Hades.  We came into being by chance and afterwards shall be as though we had never been. The breath in our nostrils is a puff of smoke, reason a spark from the beating of our hearts; extinguish this and the body turns to ashes, and the spirit melts away like the yielding air.’  (Wisdom 2:1-3 NJB)  Even way back when, there were people who didn’t really believe in anything, and in so doing sometimes used it as an excuse to do what they liked when they liked, to follow their own desires and whims wherever it took them, even regardless of the detriment to themselves and others.

 

Looking For Peace

When a Christian looks for peace, they should pray for it and also read the Bible too; we should also have an attitude of peace about us, an attitude that means that mostly whatever happens we look for a peaceful solution to all things.  It isn’t putting up the white flag and surrendering for an easy life, it is living each day with inner peace so that we can have peace with other people around us and peace in general.  Peace then isn’t just a word, it is a lifestyle that Christians should cultivate.  In peace, we might find what we have been looking for all our lives, and peace is a reward and a treasure in itself.  Of course, the problem with some human beings  is that in peace they become bored, and they start looking for things that will excite them or stimulate them in some way, often by doing something questionable or sinful.  ‘In time, our name will be forgotten, nobody will remember what we have done; our life will pass away like wisps of cloud, dissolving like the mist that the sun's rays drive away and that its heat dispels.  For our days are the passing of a shadow, our end is without return, the seal is affixed and nobody comes back.  'Come then, let us enjoy the good things of today, let us use created things with the zest of youth: take our fill of the dearest wines and perfumes, on no account forgo the flowers of spring but crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither, no meadow excluded from our orgy; let us leave the signs of our revelry everywhere, since this is our portion, this our lot!’  (Wisdom 2:4-9 NJB)  Sometimes those who don’t believe in God make their own desires sacred, and instead of living a purposeful life, choose to waste what latent talent they might have by riotous living and doing what they want when they want; we’ve all been there I suppose though!  The refusal to believe in a divine Creator can be an excuse for someone to be as selfish and as self-centred as they can be, with the belief that nothing really matters and nothing really means anything in the end.  I am not saying every atheist or unbeliever is like that, not at all as there are good, bad and indifferent in every group of people, just that if you don’t believe there is a God and laws created by God, the sky can be the limit.  I notice a tendency amongst some unbelievers that they want to eradicate Christian belief completely or marginalise it so that it has no bearing on society or culture anymore.  This seems a shame, as we all have so much to learn from each other.  ’'As for the upright man who is poor, let us oppress him; let us not spare the widow, nor respect old age, white-haired with many years.  Let our might be the yardstick of right, since weakness argues its own futility.  Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our sins against the Law, and accuses us of sins against our upbringing.  He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.’  (Wisdom 2:10-13 NJB)  Many ordinary atheists no doubt live quiet normal lives and leave people to themselves.  But when powerful people don’t believe in a loving God, nor in any rules or divine retribution, they can act cruelly towards other people.  Let us be honest here, the way capitalism often operates in the world is of powerful people oppressing those without power in some way and often for commercial gain of one kind or another.  People in high places often profess a belief in God, but the way they act in regard to other people and the way they behave in public and in private tells you another story.  The Pharisees proclaimed themselves godly men, but Jesus usually condemned them as hypocrites.  Where do we see this tendency today?

 

It could be said that some Christians condemn those who don’t believe; it could also be said that some unbelievers condemn Christians too.  ‘In his opinion we are counterfeit; he avoids our ways as he would filth; he proclaims the final end of the upright as blessed and boasts of having God for his father.  Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have.  For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.’  (Wisdom 2:16-18 NJB)  It seems that the carnal man is implacably opposed to the spiritual man, that our carnal nature is completely at odds with our growing spiritual nature.  At the same time, it appears that some atheists and unbelievers and some Christians and believers are more and more at each other’s throats and seem not able to live side by side and live and let live.

 

No-man’s land

‘My child, if you aspire to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal.  Be sincere of heart, be steadfast, and do not be alarmed when disaster comes.  Cling to him and do not leave him, so that you may be honoured at the end of your days.  Whatever happens to you, accept it, and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient, since gold is tested in the fire, and the chosen in the furnace of humiliation.’  (Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 2:1-5 NJB)  Serving God is an honour, but sometimes when we look at the small print, or the more obscure scripture, we might find that at times just serving Him isn’t so easy.  Or we might find that for some reason serving Him becomes difficult for one reason or another.  Whatever happens to us, we should be prepared to hold fast to God, to have complete faith in Him and to live in His ways and be law-abiding.  It is as if in these moments of trial and tribulation that we are between sinning and between God, we are in No-man’s land in effect.  We are neither here nor there.  We yearn to be with God, but God has other plans.  We are being drawn out of our sinful lives and towards a better relationship with God.  I found that when I decided to totally and wholeheartedly serve God with all my heart, soul, mind strength and being, God was in no hurry!  Why should this be?  Surely God wants all sinners to repent and come back to Him.  He is offering us a choice:  to worship God, or worship the world.  Many of us are disillusioned with the way the world is run and operates and we find refuge in God.  When we finally decide to come back to God, it is as if He puts us on trial, to test us, to search us out and to see what we are made of.  He is in no hurry and neither should we be; indeed, one of God’s ways of testing us is to see if we have patience, patience to endure, patience to persevere and patience to remain good people even when things do not go exactly as we would have hoped.  In this No-man’s land then, this furnace of humiliation, we should hold our heads up high, do the things we know are right and have complete faith in the Lord.  ‘Such by God's mercy is our ministry, and therefore we do not waver but have renounced all shameful secrecy. It is not our way to be devious, or to falsify the word of God; instead, in God's sight we commend ourselves to every human being with a conscience by showing the truth openly.’  (2 Corinthians 4:1-2 NJB)

 

Reconciliation

The prize of obedience is reconciliation with our Creator, peace restored perhaps after many years of suffering and struggling and living in sin, reconciliation with Him who has called us out of all the earth, and also reconciliation with family and friends and even enemies.  The word is reconciliation.  ‘As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability, be at peace with everyone.’  (Romans 12:18 NJB)  We are not meant to go out of our way to be at odds with other people, even though what we believe and have faith in is irrelevant or even abhorrent to some people.  We are meant to be in the business of serving the Lord; what other people do, or don’t do, is entirely up to them.  Even if we meet devout atheists or devout evolutionists, it doesn’t necessarily mean we should pick a fight with them!  Look at the scripture above, listen and learn something.

 

Some Christians are devout law-abiding citizens, which can be a good thing; but sometimes even those who devoutly uphold the letter of the law can become swollen with pride and a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude.  I expect we’ve all known people like that; perhaps we’ve even been like that ourselves.  The law in effect was really made for law-breakers and sinners, people who’d gone off the rails and lived in sin; it does nothing but show us where we’ve gone wrong and where we might go wrong.  Moses was a great man who was given the Law, to hand to a backsliding and sinful Israel.  Jesus however fulfils the Law; we are meant to live through the Spirit of Grace and not by a provisional set of commandments, however good they seem.  ‘He has given us the competence to be ministers of a new covenant, a covenant which is not of written letters, but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the Spirit gives life.’  (2 Corinthians 3:6 NJB)  We live under a new covenant, new terms and in the New Testament age then, not bound by all kinds of rules but to live under grace through a relationship with God.  It doesn’t mean of course we can then live in sin, Heaven forbid, but that what was Law becomes love, and what were written rules becomes relationship.

 

We’re all often waiting for something to change; for situations to get better, for more money, a new job, a new life and perhaps even a better relationship with God.  Maybe before we change everything and everyone else, we need to change ourselves first.