God is all-knowing

If I stop and think for a moment about the fact that God is all-knowing, it can be both scary and reassuring at the same time. All of us put on some sort of mask sometimes. We do not reveal our true selves to everyone we meet. God is all-knowing and he knows me better than I know myself. Do I find that just a little bit scary? Yes I do. It means that I cannot fool him or hide from him or keep something from him. I can't fake it. There is nothing that I can say or do that is going to be a surprise to him and on top of all that HE STILL LOVES ME!

Hebrews 4.13 "

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. "

I have to ask myself whether I really take what I have just shared with you seriously. Does it permeate the way I think about God? Does it show in the way I talk to him and about him? If not, why not! When I pray I can be totally honest because God knows me so well. As I walk with him I need to learn to trust him more and more because he knows me so well  and loves me so deeply. There is nothing that will happen today that he and I can't tackle together. However, it is aurprisingly easy to forget that and to get caught up in and focussed on all the wrong things.

"Father God, Dad, You know me and you love me as I am. Show me how to get really serious about loving you deeply with every part of my life. Amen.

Are you afraid to use the F word?

Are you looking for the perfect church? Well, I've got news for you. It doesn't exist, at least not this side of heaven. If you think you have found the "perfect" one then perhaps none of us, not even you, better join because it will then cease to be perfect.

The church is the body of Christ here on earth - Yes!
The church is the people of God together worshipping and serving Him - Yes!
The church is full of people trying and sometimes failing to be like Jesus - Yes!

Did you react to the F word? As Christians we don't like to admit that we fail and yet of all the places in this world, the church should be the place where we can fail, learn, move on and try again. The place where we can fall flat on our faces either literally or metaphorically and there will be others there to pick us up, dust us off and help us to get going again.

The church is not the building or what we do when we gather together; the church is the hands, feet, heart and love of Jesus in this world. There is a song that was very popular in one of my previous churches which I think sums up well what I am trying to say:

Brother, sister let me serve you,
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey
We are travellers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

Yet we do not walk alone. The church, which is made up of those who love Jesus and try to be his disciples, is given the Holy Spirit to amongst other things lead, guide, comfort and strengthen us. Living life as a disciple of Jesus is full of high points and low points but we are never alone. No, we are not perfect and yet we are! Listen to what Paul says to the Church in Corinth "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours" (1Cor 1:2) All who call on the name of Jesus are sanctified (made holy) through Jesus! Let's not forget that but instead give thanks for it!

God called loosers to be his people and through Christ he has made them holy! The F word should not be a "No, no!" in our churches, the F word should be a "love and go!" word because of the one we know.

"We've got to watch the river to check that it doesn't stop"

Do you remember the song from the film "Snow white and the seven dwarfs"? It goes something like this:  We're busy going nowhere, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do...we've got to watch the river, to check that it doesn't stop... and on the song goes. There is something very easy about being busy. If I am busy I do not have to meet myself, look at myself. I don't have to think because I am too busy. Not only am I too busy but I am so very busy going about God's work!

It is important to stop, to make space and find time to be still. In our busy world many people have discoverd the value of being still and being quiet. They have built meditation into their lives as a way of finding the quiet and stillness that every human needs to stay healthy. As people we need to just be quiet, be still. This is not news for Christians, God said thousands of years ago in the psalms "be still and know that I am God" (46.10). In being still Christians do not only meditate on ourselves in an inward looking self-centred way but we can find God there, as He always is, waiting for us to come to him, waiting.

When we take time to be quiet with God it is easier to hear what he is saying to us. We can meditate in silence or we can meditate on a verse or passage from the bible or we can meditate with worship music. Meditation with music is sometimes called soaking which is a great description really, we soak ourselves in the presence and worship of God.

To my mind, meditating in the presence of God, being open to Him and listening, has to be superior to meditating on ourselves or on emptyness. There are so many things that make us busy but are not really important and they crowd out the really important things like time to be still and soak in the presence of God. The bible tells us that when we come to Him we will find refreshment so why is it so difficult to come. There is so much in favour of it but it takes a real act of will to lay aside the things that demand our attention. Sometimes I need help to lay down the immediate in favour of the important and sometimes I just need a good "shove" to get on with it!

Being and doing!

Happy new year!

A friend and church member sent me a message this morning with a link to Rick Warren's pastor blog. Rick raises 10 points that are good for church leaders to remember but I think they are good for all Christians to remember and so here is the link to his site:
http://blog.pastors.com/blogs/pcom/ten-key-points-to-remember-in-2012/

We are running a marathon and not a sprint. At new year we look back at what has been in 2011 as well as looking forward to what is to come in 2012 and beyond. That seems like a long time but by God's timescale it is nothing more than a moment, He has the perspective of eternity! It is easy to look at others and compare ourselves to them even though we are all unike and made for different things.

Have you made a new years resolution? I have and I want to share it with you, not to be pious but because I know I will struggle to make progress in it, I want to aim to be what God has called me to be that way I am sure I will accomplish what God has called me to do.

I wish you a blessed and God-centred new year being and doing for Him!

Christmas is coming

As sure as December brings Christmas it also brings our annual carol and activity service. It was last night and there were lots of people of all ages. After the service was over we had the opportunity to join hands and make rings then walk round the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols. After that there was a great spread of treats to eat and drink.

As three elderly ladies were preparing to leave after the refreshments they commented how nice it had been to be all together and to see so many children. I couldn't agree with her more!! One time when I was chatting to one of these ladies I asked how long she had been coming to this church. This caused her to think hard and you could amost hear her working it out in her head. I don't know how long I had expected her to say but her answer took me totally by surprise, in fact it left me momentarily speechless. (Leaving me speechless as many people know is quite a difficult thing to do!) The lady replied that she knows for certain she was attending weekly in 1936 and she probably started here the year before when she moved to the area for her first job! That is 75 years this year, amazing!

Being and doing

As I finished reading the parish magazine from my former church I sighed as I laid it to one side, somethings don't change I thought. It can be both a good thing and a bad thing that nothing changes. Change should not be something we bring about for it's own sake. When we make changes in a church, in business or in our lives it is a good thing to spend some time thinking about what the motives for that change are.

Some change is both necessary and desirable, it moves us forwards towards our goal. We do however need to be clear over as many of the consequences of change as possible. Bill Hybels has said for many years that the local church is the hope of the world and I agree with him. The church and the Christ  followers who belong to it are called to be different. We are called to be salt and light in the world. We are in the world but not of the world as Jesus says in John 15:19. We are en-route to eternity but we have a job to do as we journey. The English  Archbishop Temple said "the church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non- members."

Change in the church should be driven by the need for us who belong to it to be better followers of Jesus and therefore to be able to reach out as salt and light into the world with the intention of bringing new people into a relationship with the Lord Jesus. Change in the church is often a heated subject and I feel relatively safe as I write this as we are not planning any big changes in the near future.

I believe the church is about bringing people to Jesus and then helping them to know Him better and live closer to Him. It is good for us all occasionally to spend some time reflecting over what we do and why we do it, as well as how it enables or hinders us in living out what Jesus has called us to be and to do.

Coming ready or not!

Advent is a time of preparation, preparing for an event and the event is remembering that Jesus came into the world. The king of the universe became a tiny helpless human baby whilst at the same time still being God. It is hard to get our heads round the incarnation, fully God and fully human at the same time and on top of that a baby! We do not understand it, I am not sure we are supposed to fully understand it. God incarnate, God amongst us. Not only that it happened 2000 years ago but it is still happening now. Christians when they turn to Christ receive the Holy Spirit as a seal of belonging. Part of God, the third part of the Trinity lives within us. God is still in the world in us. This is heady stuff that we can spend time thinking about, meditating on it and as has occasionally happened through history arguing about.

Advent is a time of preparation. A time to prepare our hearts and minds to once again be ready. Jesus in his teaching also promised that he would come back, we do not know any of the facts around is return, not the date or time, Jesus himself says he does not know when but that it will happen. Only the Father knows when. The words of Isaiah, so often read in church during advent, are as relevant today as they ever have been:

Prepare the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

This text is quoted in the New Testament by Matthew in chapter 3 about John the Baptist but it is also relevant to us today. Are we ready for the glory of the Lord to be revealed both in our lives and in or world?

Christmas is coming whether we are ready or not. Christ has come and is coming again, are we ready...or not?