First things first

Have you noticed that as people we often live in patterns? Everyone has routines that they go through, usually depending on the needs of the moment and starting with those needs most urgent and central. Take for example my routine of getting home from work. Without fail I do the same thing each time. I open the door with my keys, check for post, then go and turn my laptop on and put my keys by the side before heading upstairs. Off comes my IKEA record bag (very important, it’s not any old bag) and coat, then my shoes because by this point they have been waging war with my feet all day and have nearly won. Then it’s trip to the bathroom before heading downstairs to log on my laptop and checking BBC Sport and emails. Every day it’s always identical. If someone gets in my way I’m likely to ignore them. My routine highlights those things I look for first of all; first comfort, second hygiene and third social/intellectual (if you can call BBC Sport intellectual anyway). I reckon everyone has little need-driven-patterns like this somewhere.

And not only that but I think we live out lives in need-driven-patterns. I know people whose lives are dedicated to finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. They profess to going to University to find a husband, or they only go to youth group to find a hot girl. Others relentlessly pursue fun and enjoyment; if something gets dull, be it work or school or even people, they leave them behind and find something new. There are a wide variety of things that people can set their lives to gain, although those two things may be seen as maybe not so positive, there are many pursuits that people pattern their lives to gain. Provision for example. I know many people who give up everything to provide for themselves, to have food and clothes and a house. Or how about money? Who knows someone who has given up everything to get the kind of money they really want, to get where they want to go. Surely these things aren’t bad though? Absolutely not. There is nothing wrong with working hard for provision, wanting to be financially secure, or for that matter having a boyfriend or girlfriend, or seeking enjoyment and fun. Each of these things is fantastic things, important and to be enjoyed. But when we become ‘dedicated’ to these things, ‘committed’ even, I would suggest we are likely to run into problems. Why? Well let’s look at those two words.

‘Dedicated’ literally means ‘to devote wholly and earnestly’, and ‘committed’ means ‘to pledge or engage oneself’. Now whilst the words are not always used in these contexts, those who give their lives to one of the pursuits mentioned above, or any other, are often dedicating or committing themselves in the fullest sense. They dedicate their thoughts, their energies, their monies, their choices, their dreams and often their worries and fears. As much as these things can give liberty to endless joy and happiness, they can also, and maybe more often when these needs are imposing and insatiable, lead to much striving and worry when things don’t go well. In many cases these things can then become a burden to our lives and the thing that makes or breaks our emotions and happiness. They become the purpose of life. I know many people whose lives are at best made much more anxious, and at worst, ruined by these worries and life patterns that are primarily based on seeking these needs. Worse still this isn’t how Jesus wants us to live.

‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you’ Matthew 6.33, KJV

It’s one of the closing teachings from the Sermon on the Mount and it’s one of those verses that everyone who was brought up in Sunday school probably knows. Heck I can barely say the line in my head without singing the tune to it! But this often means that it’s among the least understood. Kind of like a ‘oh that verse, yeh I know that one’ sort of thing. So close to your face that you can’t really see it properly. So familiar that you can’t be bothered to look at it closely. This is a massive shame and also a huge let off because this is an incredibly challenging teaching. Essentially it says that your life pattern should be aligned to two thing, God’s kingdom and righteousness. The CEV translation spells it out much more simply:

‘But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.’

Two things. Very simple. God’s work first and God’s standards in your life. Does this mean that we can’t desire and work for provision, fun, a partner or a lifestyle? Nope. That’s what the ‘other things’ include. But it means that our focus and lives should not be primarily on these things and we should not build life patterns around them. This teaching actually comes as a conclusion to Jesus’ teaching on worry:

‘Don't worry and ask yourselves, "Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?" Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.’ Matthew 6.31-32

But how can we be sure God knows what we need? This is how: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life’. He saw the ultimate need and came to fill it by no work, no worry and absolutely no planning of our own. If he loves us that much why doubt his wise providence in other matters? Focus first on his kingdom and living right, He says He will provide.

This is a major challenge to me. I am a worrier. I like to have everything sorted and every eventuality understood and planned for. If I go away I like to have things packed for snow, wind, rain, mud, sun, global warming and ice age. I hate the idea of being caught short. This manifests itself in many ways in my life and goes so far as to make faith itself a daily challenge. For me therefore, his teaching tells me to trust. Trust when I make decisions. Trust when I follow what I feel God has made me passionate about. Trust in following each the hardest commandments in scripture. It doesn’t mean be irresponsible, absolutely not. Trust is not the same thing as irresponsibility. But I believe often times trust compliments responsible planning to allow God to work most effectively.

I don’t know what this teaching therefore means for you. Maybe it means changing the way you go about seeking a boyfriend, maybe it’s about what job you choose, maybe it’s about how you act around your friends. I don’t know. But I would challenge you to think next time you make a big decision, or even a little decision, ‘what does this say about what I’m seeking first in my life? Is it God’s glory and living as He wants, or pursuing my own needs and desires?’

To close I felt it helpful to illustrate a few testimonies of people who have been forced into seeming make or break situations but have chosen to trust and seek God’s glory first.

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Job was living a blessed life. He had food, family and wealth. All of a sudden it all went. His family were killed, his cattle lost and his health shot to pieces. Now he had the choice; reject God and his righteousness or put his earthly needs to one side and persevere with God. He chose to persevere and after a period of intense suffering, God reinstated him with more wealth and family than before.

Ruth was a Moabite girl who married an Israelite only to see both him and her father-in-law die. She was left only with her mother Naomi and her sister-in-law Orpah. Both daughters had a choice, remain with Naomi and her God and go to a foreign land trusting in His providence, or to remain in Moab and work to regain her needs. Orpah chose to stay in Moab. Ruth chose to put her new God first and trust. Some time later Ruth was married to an upstanding, Godly, rich and courageous man.

Daniel was a well off high profile man in Babylon. He had all he required in earthly needs. However one day he was tricked into a choice between his God and presumed certain death. Although he could’ve sought his own life first and turned away from righteous living, he stayed loyal to his God and was thrown into the Lion’s den. God responded by saving him from death.

A God-tracked mind

I have already introduced you to two of my favourite guys in the Bible; Joshua and Solomon, and today you can meet number three. He’s young, gifted, and when we get to meet him he’s just been captured and taken to be a foreign royal aide. For those of you up on your Old Testament bibliographies, you’ll know I’m talking about Daniel (and you guys should get out more too). I look up to Daniel for a variety of reasons, many of which I plan to write about in the next 12 months, but most of all I look up to him because of what I want to encourage us in tonight; having a God-tracked mind.

In Daniel 6 we find my pal in a position of some responsibility and honour. Daniel was one of a three person team that ran the empire’s governance for King Darius. That sounds pretty cool to me. Sounds like he’s gonna be having some big decisions to make. Where do they store the grain? How many chariots to make for the army? How many small indefensible countries should they invade today? I mean this is important stuff. Babylon was a big big kingdom with a lot of people and many many things to sort out. So for Daniel to be on a three man leadership team, that’s pretty good going. I imagine he had quite a nice salary with that. Nice car (or chariot), nice pad, probably a large plasma TV (or cultural equivalent). Not only that, but he was in line for a promotion. We are told that Daniel had so impressed his boss that he was in line to become the top dog. That’s blatantly a pay bump and a new office, with a PA, and an automatic putting machine. All was going well for my hero.

However, like all good stories, in came the bad guys. Evidently Daniel didn’t have the best working relationships with his colleagues because once they got a sniff of Daniel’s promotion they screwed up their faces and set about plotting (by the way, if you ever get to see the Veggie Tales version of this story, at this point there is an AMAZING song. I highly recommend it). Now I think it’s pretty easy for us to think that these people are really out of line people who can’t applaud a genuine deserved promotion. However I work in promotion and I can tell you that when it comes to getting a promotion (or rather not getting one) people will fight tooth and nail to appeal, or check assessor decisions, or review their answers, or just whine. When it comes to moving up the career ladder, people will do whatever they can do get ahead. So in truth, these guys plotting against Daniel weren’t that unusual. Having said that, the plan they came up with was both simple and genius. They tricked king Darius into signing a decree to make it illegal to pray to anyone but King Darius himself. This wasn’t so much a trap for Daniel as a shot straight to the head. It wasn’t going to fail. Why? Because they knew Daniel, they knew he had a God-tracked mind.

What impresses me most about this story is that shows that Daniel was committed to the Lord both internally and externally. Firstly, externally. Think about the processes his colleagues went through to think up a plan…‘what is the easiest thing we can trip Daniel up on?’ They searched high and low for a legitimate way to slander his name. They found none. They were left with deception. So they looked at the biggest thing in Daniel’s life. They picked his faith in God. Wow. This means Daniel was living a life that made it explicitly obvious where his true loyalties lay. They knew he prayed. They knew he trusted in his Lord. If my colleagues were ever trying to trip me up I don’t think they’d pick my faith. Sure they know I’m a Christian, but has my life around them so far indicated that it is so important to me that they could manipulate it? I very much doubt it. Daniel on the other hand had, somehow, had this abundantly clear. They realised he had a God-tracked mind.

Secondly, internally Daniel had nothing he valued more than his God. How do we know this? Simple, just look at what he had to lose. He was in the top three most important people in kingdom, he had found favour with the king and no doubt many other people, his reputation was sky high, he had wealth and comfort in the royal palace, and he had an amazing position of influence; a good influence, he lived out Godly values in a high profile position. Of all the things Daniel could’ve valued, I think the last one must have been the most tempting to relax his prayer life for. All he had to do with stop praying openly. He didn’t even have to stop praying. He could’ve just stopped following the Jewish tradition of praying three times a day in his room. Surely that wasn’t a big loss? Especially to keep hold of all the things he had. But not Daniel, his only focus was his God. It was the only thing that mattered to him and he knew that he wanted to pray to God like he had yesterday, the day before and the whole of his life. So on the day that the new decree was passed Daniel went to his room and kneeled as he prayed. He was so God-tracked that not only did he pray but he took his true position before his Lord. He humbled himself, in the process making it even more clear he was praying, the laid his requests. He risked everything. He made it clear that nothing mattered as much to him as his God. Not fame, not reputation, not influence, not wealth. He had a God-tracked mind.

I find it easy to both stand in awe at Daniel whilst removing myself from challenge but saying ‘Gee I’m glad I’m not ask to make decisions like that in my life!’ I think it’s pretty easy for us to do that with a lot of the historical aspects of the Old Testament. But the more I’ve thought about these stories and expanding them in words, I’ve realised that they really aren’t a world away from ours. On a daily basis I am asked the question, through a situation or even a direct probe, ‘what do I value most in this world?’ When I’m asked what I did at the weekend, or when I see or hear someone say something offensive and decide whether to challenge it, or when I choose how to focus my time, I’m continuously answering the question ‘what is my mind tracked on?’

In this western culture most of us have a lot. We have wealth, comfort and luxury. Daniel had been given these things too, but throughout it all he maintained a God-tracked mind and when it was all threatened to be taken away, he made his decision with his hands and his knees. I think Daniel lays down a challenge to us all. Each and everyday we are asked and show where our minds are focused on. Daniel was willing to give everything. Are we?

A stoned life

Forgetting. It’s very mysterious thing when you think about it (holding a degree in Psychology means I have been coerced through the use of course credit into doing so). Why do we forget? How do we forget? It is in fact impossible to prove that anything is ever forgotten which has led some psychologists to say that there is no such thing as forgetting (somewhat ironically I have forgotten their names). They rightly point out that until you can prove that no prompting or time spent trying will result in recall (something that is not possible to do) then you can’t say something has been forgotten for sure, it may just be languishing somewhere in the grey matter, along with the date of your wedding anniversary and the day the dustbins are supposed to be put out. But outside of the world of theoretical applied cognitive psychology, human experience says we fail to remember things and it changes our lives consequently.

Take letters for example. I am shocking with letters. I forget letters a lot. My dad oft puts a letter on the radiator by the front door and asks me to post it on my way out. ‘I’ve put by the door’, ‘don’t forget it’ ‘don’t walk out without it’ he calls from the nether regions of his office. Who can guess what happens next? Somewhere in between my focus on checking I’ve got my phone, keys and wallet (the ‘Trinity of Materialism’ as I like to call them) I walk straight out the door without the letter, or if I’m lucky I pop in my pocket and then focus on finding the latest Mark Driscoll rant…I mean sermon on my ipod, only to come home hours later with the letter snugly tucked into my pocket, untouched by natural sunlight. Point is I forget things a lot. And it impacts my life be it by being shouted at for missing a meeting or having a extra reading because I forgot a lecture or walking back down the road to post the letter. God knows I forget things all the time! No really, God knows I forget things. God knows we all do. Just read Joshua 4.

Ah Joshua. One of my favourite guys in Israel’s history. In Joshua 4 my hero has just witnessed God glorifying himself in front of the whole Israelite nation by stopping the river Jordan flowing so that the ark of the covenant and the people could cross it into the promised land. I would imagine that Josh and his crew were about to break out into song and praise, a biblical version of High School Musical with superb choreography and music no doubt. But God wasn’t done yet. He hadn’t finished his intervention. His communications weren’t complete. Just as Josh was getting out his jazz hands (note: this is a dramatisation, it is possible that Josh didn’t do jazz hands) God spoke up:

‘Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight’ – Joshua 4.2-3

‘Ok…’ thinks Joshua, ‘seems a wee bit odd but God has just split the Jordan in two so maybe I’ll do what he says’…God continues…

‘Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.’ – Joshua 4.5-7

Seems an odd thing for God to do, no? Why make them do this? Same reason as my Dad tells me eighteen times where the letter is. He knows I will forget. I will focus on other things and fail to remember what the letter I’m supposed to post. ‘But surely the Israelites wouldn’t forget this. This is no minor letter. This is big. This is magnificent. This is God moving. Surely they are sure to tell their children and their children’s children?’ Think again. Turns out Israel was about as good at remembering stuff as me.

‘You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth’ – Deuteronomy 32.18

‘You have forgotten God your Saviour; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines’ – Isaiah 14.10

‘Does a maiden forget her jewellery, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number’ - Jeremiah 2.32

‘A cry is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel, because they have perverted their ways and have forgotten the Lord their God’ - Jeremiah 3.21

Ah. They had forgotten God many a time in the past and had indeed gone on to forget God time and time again. God was onto something with this ‘memorial’ for Joshua. He knew they would forget because people forget. But he didn’t want them to forget this. So he got them to take a souvenir from the bottom of the Jordan to take home.

In my room I have this rain-maker. It’s a hollow wooden cylinder with rice inside. It makes the noise of rain, hence the inspired name. I was given it when I went to Argentina. It sits in my room and reminds me I went to Argentina. If people ask what is it I am reminded and I tell them. The same is true of these stones from the Jordan. A good choice of a memorial. God wanted the Israelites to remember what he’d done for them and for his glory. He wants to be remembered and our lives changed accordingly.

I wonder what God wants us to remember. What has God done in my life that He knows I will forget one day when the pressures of life kick in and when my focus drifts and further on, when new generations come? Will moves of God, big and little, be forgotten? What stones could be taken out of my life and put somewhere on display?

What about the ultimate move of God? What about Jesus? How will He be remembered in our lives? What He did for us on the cross? Do we have a permanent sign of His work and transformation in us? Or are we relying on memories of experience?

If this passage teaches us anything then it’s this: God knows we forget. But God doesn’t want us to forget. He wants His glory and love to us to be remembered, to be cherished, and ultimately to be passed onto those around us and new generations. Generations will ask me ‘why do you have that rain-maker in your room?’ and I shall recall all the transformations and miracles that God brought through Argentina. I don’t have a physical Jesus memorial at the moment and I think I should. Whether we can say we’ve seen God move in a big way or small way or not really at all, I think we all have a use for a Jesus stone in our lives that both makes people ask ‘why do you have that?’ and ask ourselves ‘why is it that I still do that?’

And I’m going to remember to post letters.

Love's Anger

So this topic is the biggest challenge yet to my young writing career. I have been received some positive feedback on my reflections (those of you who I am talking about I thank you honestly, it means a lot) but if I’m honest I’ve been sticking to maybe challenging but generally palatable topics. God’s protection, God’s calling to us and our commitment to building out lives for God. However for the last two weeks I’ve had something very ‘unpalatable’ in my mind, something I’ve never really thought about before and something that many Christians, myself included, tend to avoid thinking or talking about for fear of…well if I’m honest, fear. I believe this topic is not talked about for fear of fear. What is my topic? God’s wrath.

Now the reason for this autobiographical slant to the opening is not because I want to take my blog into a new direction of telling you all about my life and how I went to the post box and posted a letter and came home and am now writing to you about how I went to a the post box and posted a letter and came home (I wish people would stop writing those blogs, I feel they are the written equivalent of Big Brother). No, I am writing more personally because I wish to make something clear. I am no expert in the theology of God’s wrath. I am no trained expositor of scripture. I am not about to try to answer all your questions on God’s wrath. I may run the risk of saying something you don’t agree with. I am not saying I am right.

I was telling my friend Greg yesterday about how I have been enjoying thinking about God’s wrath recently and he said (while trying to find not to run over a cat) ‘I’ve never been able to balance the wrath of the Old Testament with the New Testament’. Unfortunately Greg this isn’t a neat answer to that theological equation but hopefully my thoughts will help you and me get a bit closer to it. I am seeking to provoke thought and encourage, by giving airtime to a subject often deemed, at best, dark, and worst, unmentionable.

So my interest, if that is the right word, began like I said a few weeks ago. I have been power-reading through the Old Testament in the free time I had over the summer and had come up to Isaiah. Isaiah is probably one of the best known prophets in the Bible, quite a big name, yet his writings are probably the least known. This is the boat I was in, ‘Oh Isaiah, yeh he was a great prophet…what did he say you ask? Um…well…I think he mentioned Jesus a few times…err’. That’s me. So I had no idea what to expect from his guy if I’m honest. What I found was quite, well shocking really. I wrote four words in my journal that night ‘God really hates sin!’

Before I go on I want to clear something up quickly. A barrier I feel that maybe forming in your mind. Why am I talking about God’s wrath when God’s love is far more worth talking about? A simple answer is this. God’s scripture talks more about His wrath than His love. I know, I was surprised to when I found that out. Further, it’s not just by a little bit more; it’s a whole lot more. And most of that comes in books like Isaiah. I love talking about God’s love, God is love (1 John 4.16, my italics). In fact I hope that by the end of this I will have explained how God’s wrath and love are inextricably linked through Christ Jesus. So why am I talking about God’s wrath? Because a) God talks about it and b) it necessary to understand Jesus fully!

So back to Isaiah. The opening chapter weaves a majestic speech or vision that came to Isaiah concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ‘Listen, O Earth. For the Lord has spoken’ (v2). When the Lord speaks you listen, when he says you should listen, you listen doubly hard. ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me’. Oops. The next 20-odd verses detail how they have rebelled and then the Lord sets his response in verse 25, ‘I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities’. Oops again. To say God isn’t best pleased would be an understatement of, well biblical proportions. Isaiah continues in this vain, bringing prophecies of disaster and judgement on Jerusalem and Judah, as well as their enemies including the mighty Babylon. I challenge you to read through Isaiah and see the passion, determination and finality with which God condemns and judges unrighteousness and rebellion. I’m tempted to say ‘it’s not pretty’ but in fact it was actually the opposite for me. It was incredibly beautiful. Why? Two reasons.

One. My God is perfectly just and righteous. My God is perfectly just and righteous. My God is perfectly just and righteous. Say it one more and think about it for a second. My God is perfectly just and righteous.

Imagine the scene. A parents’ nightmare. Their daughter is walking home when she is stopped and attacked and sexually abused. She manages to scrape home and into the arms of her father. The dad sees her and says ‘shame really’ and turns away. Does that sit comfortably with you? If it does I suggest you check your pulse. If it doesn’t then why not? Did you want to father to make sure his daughter was safe before heading out the door with heart in one hand and baseball bat in the other? Did you want the fury, or wrath, of the father to be so great against this unrighteousness that he would leave no stone unturned before that evil was literally wiped from the floor? I did. However two things stop this from happening on earth. Firstly we rarely have the pure heart to take such action out of pure hatred for evil. We are contaminated by desire to save face, to retain personal dignity and glory. And second, we have no authority to rule over life and over good and evil. However there is one person who passes both those tests, the Lord Almighty. So would you rather he said ‘shame really’ or would you rather he wielded his baseball bat of righteous judgement when He saw evil in and to his children? Isaiah is all about him running after his people swinging and swishing and declaring judgement on all evil in his sight! He’s the father who does the right thing and with the authority to do it too! (Note that the bat finally fell with one tremendous force, slamming down on the body of his Son, allowing the real evil doers a second chance).

The second reason why I find it beautiful is that it, as I said earlier, is inextricably tied to God’s immense love for us through the gospel. The most famous verse in the whole Bible is most likely John 3.16, ‘for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life’. It’s a wonderful verse, you read it through and find a lot of comfort, ‘so loved the world…awww…gave his only son…wow…shall not perish…I’m sorry what? Perish? What do you mean I was due to perish? I thought the whole thing was about love? Who brought the tone down by talking about death!?’ As amusing as that monologue sounds, it’s easy to fall into. However ‘perish’ is the total premise of the statement. It’s the state of play before the sentence begun, before the Son was given, before we believed. It is the basis upon which the love has its power. We were in a bad place. The world perish in the Greek is ‘apollymi’. It has a few biblical uses and here are some of the things it means: to destroy, to put out of the way entirely, to abolish, to put an end to ruin, to render useless, to kill, to declare that one must be put to death, to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell and to be lost, ruined or destroyed. Oops.

Why on earth is this beautiful you might ask? Because it’s not the end. ‘Whoever believes in Him may not perish’. Talk about rising from the ashes (or from the dead, whichever phrase you feel is most suitable). God’s love worked alongside God’s wrath to provide a way out. Jesus took the wrath for us. I hope I’ve made clear how powerful that wrath is. We weren’t in line for just a slap on the wrists, and Jesus did not just get a slap on the wrists. If we can truly grasp the terrible magnitude of God’s wrath then we can truly grasp the beautiful magnitude of what God did for us through Jesus. Only then can we worship Jesus in all his glory.

And a final question, why is God’s wrath so firm against unrighteousness, so firm that He sent His only Son to pay the price? ‘I will restore your judges as in the days of old, your counsellors as the beginning. Afterwards you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City’ (Isaiah 1.26) He requires us to be pure so that once again we can be the people he desires, a righteous and faithful people under Him.

So is the wrath of God to be feared? Not since Jesus. I have come to believe that it is to be celebrated. It is part of the cleansing of the past, part of the fullness of the present glory of Jesus and part of the hope of the future in eternity.

44 000 minis

Today I’m skipping a creative introduction because ultimately I can’t find an anecdote or story fitting to the idea I want to write about. My question for us all is this: how far would you go to honour God? One of my favourite quotes is from a guy called Louie Giglio and it is simply this, ‘passion is how far you are willing to go to reach your goal’. So how passionate are you about loving the Lord with ‘all your heart, soul, strength and mind’?

I ask this not so much as a challenge to you but as an extension of a question I am asking myself a lot at the moment. I’ve been asking it ever since I read the account in 1 Kings 6 of the temple that Solomon built for the Lord to dwell. If you haven’t read it then do. It’s an entire chapter devoted to describing, with architectural detail and artistic license, how Solomon used 4,000 tonnes of gold, 40,000 tonnes of silver and countless amounts of bronze iron and stone, over a period seven years and commissioning the land’s most skilled craftsmen and sculptors, on a new temple for the Lord (1 Chronicles 22). Just think about that for a moment. A mini weighs about a tonne. Now imagine 4,000 minis of gold, 40,000 minis of silver, and so many minis of bronze, iron and stone and you can’t count them. All smelted and used to build a single magnificent building. Wow. That’s a lot to give in one go. A lot to give to give on one building. A lot to give to honour God. Or is it?

Well, is it? My brain says it is. My brain that says nothing is really worth that outlay. But what does that say about my perception and value of God? Surely loving God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind means putting it all on the line? As I read Solomon’s immense action, an act showing tremendous staying power and commitment as it took so long, I began to ask what I really do give to honour my Lord? In the same way that Solomon was building an earthly temple worthy of the Lord’s presence, what am I doing to my temple where the Lord dwells, that is my body and my life (1 Corinthians 3.16-17; 6.19), to make in honourable to Him?

Am I spending my wealth on the temple? I might not have the same quantities as Solomon did but Jesus himself said giving was about the heart not the sound of the ‘clink’ in the offering (Mark 12.41-44). Do I just prefer to spend and build elsewhere?

And do I make a real commitment to building plans? Solomon set aside seven full years (or more likely as long as it took). Do I have such longevity or do I begin plans to pray more, or study more, or meet up with an accountability partner more, only to fail under the pressure of time and other burdens. Do I leave parts of my life unfinished, ‘half-honourable’ to the Lord?

And what about the tools and methods I use to build an honourable life? Am I hiring the cheapest labourers around; the quick route to my goal if you like, or am I looking for the best and most successful ways, often the hardest paths, to improve those things in my life that aren’t quite so honourable to He who in dwells?

When matched up to Solomon I fall pitifully short.

Naaman said ‘No’

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever asked for something from God?

Let me ask you a second question. Have you ever known God wanted you to do something but you haven’t done it?

Here’s a third question. Have you ever thought how they might be related?

There’s a guy who would’ve answered those questions yes, yes and no (well by the end of the story it was yes, yes and yes). His name was Naaman (2 Kings 5). Naaman was no regular guy like me and you. Naaman was THE man. Not only was he a great man, but he was also an honourable man and a mighty man. Sound like you? Nah me neither. So I’m in some awe of this guy. And not only was he was great, honourable and mighty, he was the military leader of the one of the most powerful nations in his land. The real-life Syrian equivalent of Russell Crowe’s General Maximum Decimus Meridius. So what did he need from God? Well lurking amongst the superlatives of his character and abilities was a health disaster. He had leprosy; the HIV of the Bible world. If you were a Leper, you were in trouble.

Now most Lepers in Bible times were treated as outcasts due to fear of contagiousness but Naaman was different. This guy wasn’t outcast-able, Syria would suffer big time without him so they looked for help. Thankfully a royal maid captured from Israel knew of a godly man in Samaria who could heal people. ‘Simple’ thought Naaman and his king, ‘we’ll just send Naaman to this chap via the local king along with a strongly worded letter, get healed, come back, invade some other small province that has no possible chance of defending itself, and everyone’s happy as Larry’.

So off Naaman goes with his royal entourage of chariots and horses and a large sum of money to pay for the services of this prophet. After some misunderstandings with the king of Israel he arrives at the house of the prophet intended, Elisha. He hops off his horse, gets out his credit card (or in this case bag of shekels) and knocks on the door. However Elisha, for whatever reason, doesn’t answer the door but rather sends a messenger to give Naaman his prescription, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed’. Simple. Nothing about ‘take the yellow pill every three hours, the blue pill every four, the white pill once a day with lunch, and if you forget the take the blue pill, take the orange pill just before bed with a large glass of water’. No, this is easy. Wash yourself.

Or so you’d think. Naaman kicks up a fuss and storms off. He wanted fanfare and fireworks, a healing worthy of his great reputation. I don’t know about you but if I was asking God for something and he said ‘go shower seven times’, I’d be more than happy! It’s easy and straight forward and I know exactly what I had to do. Or would I? What has God asked me to do?

'What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God' (Micah 6.8)

'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him' (Jeremiah 17.17)

'Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all (‘the things you need’) will be given to you as well' (Matthew 6.33)

'Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial' (James 1.12)

Oh. Turns out He has. I just don’t always want to do them. I often decide that living humbly as opposed to arrogantly, trusting in God instead of myself, seeking someone else’s kingdom and not mine first, and working hard rather than giving up when it got hard, were all things not worthy of my great reputation. Hmm. Back to Naaman.

Thankfully for Naaman, someone in his entourage was wise enough to look beyond Naaman’s ego and stop him throwing his toys so far out of the pram that they would never be retrieved. He points out that if Naaman had been asked to fight a war, or climb a mountain, or wrestle a lion, or something more ‘fitting’ of his great name, he would’ve done it in an instant. Naaman’s little rush of blood to the head passes with this wisdom and he goes and does what Elisha instructed, and indeed receives his healing.

Does Naaman’s rush of blood ring any bells? Maybe it’s not so blatant, but have we disconnected obeying God from receiving the blessing he offers? Do we always pursue what God has asked us to do or on occasion to they feel like a waste of time? Maybe when we pray for financial support or new job or some other blessing we expect a fanfare and fireworks answer.

Perhaps we need to learn to lower our expectations of what we feel God should be instructing us to do and concentrate on what He has asked of us. Maybe then we’ll see those blessings we need come that much more. And for those times when we forget, make sure you have a friend who is wiser than you to set you straight. Bottom line, don’t do a Naaman.

Joshua 1.9

‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ Joshua 1:9

This is one of those verses that I’ve known for a long time yet never really looked up or really thought about. Frankly, it’s one of those Christian soundbytes that I have very little ability to perform in practice yet wield it happily to anyone else who seems like they need a little boost. The logic of encouraging someone with something that means nothing to me is beyond me yet one of those things I just seem to do, vaguely hoping that the new recipient will find something in it that I could not.

So I tried reading it again but in its full context and I realised something. The main reason I have been unable to take hold of it was that the ‘the Lord your God will be with you’ is a distressingly filtered down version. And by filtering it down it has quickly lost its power and impact.

When I first read the whole verse I was somewhat perturbed. ‘Have I not commanded you’ it says. I don’t know about you but when I try to help people I do my best not to ‘command’ that they do this or do that. I try to encourage and soothe their difficulties, showing understanding and care, before gently or sometimes courageously suggesting an advice and supposed wisdom. But this verse seemed to go against that. I was confused.

Thankfully I realised the error of my judgement and it was this: When I’m talking to my friends about her boyfriend troubles or his concerns for the future, I am ultimately talking as a peer, someone who might have been through those troubles or someone trying to understand them from the outside. I have no position to comfort really, my wishful ‘it’ll be ok’ or optimistic ‘I’m sure things will sort out soon’ have no power and no punch. Ultimately they have no authority, and this is where me and God differ in the most significant manner possible!

God is the maker of the universe! He made you and me! He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end! He’s not commanding us to be courageous like an insensitive autocratic manager. He’s saying ‘heck guys, This is ME! I’VE commanded you not to be afraid, not to be terrified. ME! The maker of all things! You don’t think I know what I’m talking about?!’ He’s simply stressing how insanely narrow minded we can be to be terrified and that if we open ourselves and focus on who is telling us to be courageous, then it’ll be so much easier!

Paul echoes this sentiment thousands of years later, saying ‘if God if for us, who can be against us!’ (Romans 8.31) Once we are able to get a handle on this truth, verses like Joshua 1.9 really live out their true and intended power. The same power that, at the time, led Joshua to take the Israelites into the promised land against all human sanity…

- Anon