LIVING LIFE WITH FOCUS

 

I had come in earlier than usual to my church office this week with a mission to turn the heaters on in our Education Centre where our MOPs (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) ladies would shortly be arriving for their fortnightly meeting. (Despite Tasmania’s global reputation as having all-year-round balmy weather, sometimes – on the very odd occasion – we have sub-zero centigrade mornings in our slightly cooler months.) After doing so, I knew that in about an hour, our church building would be buzzing with people and I knew that I needed to move quickly to film tomorrow’s daily YouTube video – before the sound of all the activity around our building might be picked up by the cameras doing the filming. But then the phone rang. With a this shouldn’t take long attitude I thought I would take this “quick” phone call and get straight back to setting up the lights, microphones and cameras to get my video filmed and edited ready for the next day. Please don’t jump ahead in this story that I haven’t told you yet, but this was not a quick call. It was an international call. Arizona in fact. It was my IT friend, Nam, who helps us with our websites. He told me that in just a few minutes all of our websites would be shut down and that unfortunately everything we had posted or uploaded over the past ten days would have to be deleted. I asked whether there was something we could do to avoid this? Nam told me there was but it would involve all of our websites being off-line for 48-72 hours. I then asked for a delay of 5 minutes so I could quickly copy what I could (including my apology post from last week). He consented to this request and we were only offline for about two and half hours instead of several days. When we came back online, Vanessa began to re-upload all the work that she had done earlier in the week, and I reloaded last week’s Pastor’s desk post (minus all of the comments which couldn’t be recovered). Then, I was now ready to continue setting up to record tomorrow’s daily Digging Deeper Youtube video. Except for what happened next.   

 

LIFE’S INTERRUPTIONS – GOD’S APPOINTMENTS

As part of my initial doctoral program, I was required to write an assignment about pastoral time-management. This involved accounting for every 15-minute block of my work days over a period of a few weeks. I then had to examine the life of Christ to both observe how Jesus managed His time and what I could learn from this. This assignment was an important moment not just in my pastoral ministry but also in my life more generally as I discovered that Jesus prioritised His time around His Father’s mission for Him and how this incorporated “interruptions”. Jesus would often be on His way somewhere and someone would interrupt Him but rather than regarding this interruption as annoying set-back to His mission, He often turned it into a miraculous moment as He took time to minister to someone. And despite how interrupted Jesus was, He also prioritised time alone with His Father away from the crowds and even His disciples. These insights into our Saviour’s ability to stay focused on His mission while always treating interruptions as divine appointments for ministry transformed my attitude considerably. And this little explanation about how I now regard interruptions sets up how I handled what happened next on the day that I came in early to turn the heaters on for the MOPs ladies.

   

LIFE DOES NOT ALWAYS GO THE WAY YOU PLAN

As I returned to my office to continue setting up for recording tomorrow’s video, the phone rang again. Vanessa came and told me that it was for me and it was another call from Arizona. I had no sooner finished with that call when my mobile phone rang. I deal with that call and then realised that it was time for a coffee. I returned to my office with my coffee and then a few urgent and important emails that had to responded to immediately. It was now just after lunchtime (which I had skipped in an attempt to make up some time) and the phone rang again. This time it was an interstate caller who wanted to talk to me and share with me a part of his journey with Christ. I then had several people who were frustrated that they couldn’t get through to me because my phones were engaged, who each decided to message and text me instead. I won’t bore you with how the rest of my day went, but there were several other important things that happened that day that I know my Heavenly Father had planned for me. There were a few times throughout this day when I reflected that I had started my day with the a relatively clear plan how it was going to transpire – but had to accept that it actually bore no resemblance to those plans! But this reflection also resembles aspects of my life as well.

I am greatly appreciative of the many many people who have written cards to me, sent emails, texted, messaged, and even strangers who have stopped me in town when I was doing some shopping, who have expressed that they have been praying for me to be healed from what doctors have told me is untreatable. I obviously did not plan to be dealing with the situation that I am now confronted with. But, just as I entrusted myself to God throughout my interrupted Thursday, I have also entrusted myself to God in the midst of what has now become an interrupted life. Life does not always go the way you plan – but this does not mean that your life has no plan – it’s just not necessarily your plan that is being carried out!

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21

Learning what I did from my study of how Christ managed His time taught that it is important to stay focused on the mission that God has for us. I see in the life of the apostle Paul the same principle of not allowing life’s circumstances to hinder us from continuing to seek God’s kingdom first and to strive to make Him known to as many as we can. (This is why it was important to me that during my convalescence that our church continued to stay focused on reaching out to the lost and discipling the found.)

¶ Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,
so that whether I come and see you or am absent,
I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit,
with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel
Philippians 1:27

For to this end we toil and strive,
because we have our hope set on the living God,
who is the Saviour of all people, especially of those who believe.
First Timothy 4:10

We are all on a mission from God to know Christ and to make Him known. But sometimes life’s circumstances bump our focus on that mission slightly out-of-focus. This is why my photography hobby has been so helpful in understanding the importance of focusing and re-focusing.

 

ABOUT MY DSLR CAMERAS

I have a passion for history which is why I love photography – particularly DSLR photography. I presently have only one DSLR camera which I have now had for 8 years. It has travelled the world with me. Like me, it now looks a bit worn-out and old. But it can still produce amazing photos and videos. DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. The right single lens reflect (SLR) lens allows the photographer to focus on one thing while everything else in the photo is out of focus. This helps the photographer to tell a story and to focus the viewer’s attention on the one thing that is in focus. I think of our spirituality like this. When we gather each Sunday, the SLR ‘lens’ of our soul is brought back into focus as we realign our attention on Christ and His Word. 

 

FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF APPROPRIATELY FOCUSED PEOPLE

After I was done with convalescing, emergency medicine nurse, Karen Dickson (who is the other voice on our Finding Truth Matters podcast and radio program), advised me to seek out someone who was dealing with chronic pain and learn the lessons that they had learned about how to best function with incurable, untreatable pain. After she left my office I turned to the fifty-five books on the shelf behind my desk and looked at those most treasured books written (and some owned) by Dr. F.W. Boreham. While I knew well that Dr. Boreham lived with pain, I now reconsidered how he lived with this chronic pain from losing his right leg just below the knee when he was just 15-years old. I saw afresh that he accepted and realised that life now had certain boundaries that is did not have prior to this accident. Even though he lived with prosthetic leg for the rest of his life, he never told anyone. He simply got on with his life doing what he could with a limp. Yet, by far, the most significant thing he did was not focus on himself and his chronic pain. Instead, he turned his life over to Christ in complete surrender to sacrificially help and serve others with the gifts and talents that God had given him. While he deliberately chose not to focus on his pain, he also chose to focus on his mission. His fifty-five books are testament to this! The three churches he pastored and his 18-years of being the Wednesday lunchtime preacher at Scots Church, Melbourne, also show that like Christ Dr. Boreham always made time for people and alone-time with God. I still have a lot to learn from Dr. Boreham about all this, as KD has advised me to do.

¶ Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.
Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7

LIvIng LIfe wIth foCUs

We usually think of highly focused people as being overly task-driven and not very people-orientated. But this opinion of highly focused people cannot be pressed onto Jesus. He loved people – even the Pharisees, Scribes and Levitical Priests. F.W. Boreham was a highly focused person, yet he too (despite his intense shyness) was a people-orientated servant of Christ. This is the balance that I am also striving for. I would covet your prayers to be able to achieve this as well. The banned that I created before writing this piece has the f, o, s, in focus out of focus while the c, and the u, are in focus. This was an artistic reminder to me before writing this that the goal of every follower of Christ is to be both focused, but at the same time to see other — to see you. Perhaps together we can become the kind of church that is genuinely focused yet not at the expense of not seeing each other. While I strive to focus on my mission of serving Christ with the gifts He has given me, I am also striving to see people so that I may serve them as well! And this includes you.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY

 

Do you remember the biggest problem you faced when you were 9 years-old? Unless you had a traumatic event take place at that time, chances are that you can’t. The problems that we had to deal with when we were children seemed enormous at the time and probably resulted in many frustrating tears. But years later, looking back, they more than likely now look either trivial or long-forgotten. Actually, you probably don’t even have to try and recollect back to your childhood to now see the problems you had just a few years or even months ago in a different light which now makes them look a lot smaller than they appeared at the time. The passage of time tends to give us a different perspective on life and our priorities.

¶ I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread.
Psalm 37:25

TAKING A LONG-TERM VIEW

It’s difficult when you’re young to think too much about the future. When we’re young we tend to focus on the now. On the other hand, when you’re old it’s too easy to look back over the years of your youth with a host of “If only” regrets. If only I’d…saved my money…listened to my parents…gone to university…said yes…said no…not eaten so much…learned the piano…made more time with those I care about… You can tell when a person has become wise by how they regard their future. A wise person will always take a long-term view of their life. It’s not that they don’t make mistakes now, or even seem to waste time or money occasionally. A wise person takes a long-term view of their life and adjusts their perspective on their present challenges accordingly.

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Proverbs 21:5

LIFE IS SHORT

The other week I saw a childhood schoolfriend of one of my children whom I hadn’t seen for quite a while. Four days or so after I had seen him I received a phone call from one of his other friends that on the weekend their mutual schoolfriend had been killed in an horrific accident. Today, someone came to see me to tell of a friend of theirs whose child had committed suicide this week. Both of these lives ended tragically and prematurely. When we say, “Life is short” –  it’s easy to think of such youthful tragedies. But the reality is, everyone’s life is short!

F.W. Boreham in 1908 in Hobart Baptist Church where he was the pastor

My hero, F.W. Boreham, was fond of writing in series. He wrote a five volume series on Texts That Changed The World that became a best-seller and still inspires millions of people even today. When he turned 40, he began to write a series in which the first instalment was entitled, On Turning Forty. He wrote the second instalment when he turned 50. He wrote the third when he turned 60. He wrote the fourth when he turned 70, and he wrote his last when he turned 80. As he got older he increased his reflections on some of his regrets. Even though he was one of the world’s most acclaimed preachers and Christian authors – whose books have possibly led thousands to Christ – he said that he had one big regret toward the end of his life and career as a preacher. “I did not preach enough about God!” he lamented. To be sure, he had preached about God’s deeds and acts, the attributes of God’s grace and love, and other peripheral topics associated with the doctrine of God, but he felt great sorrow that he had not preached more about God himself! If only, he said, if only I had presented God for who He truly is then surely more people would have come to see Him as the most beautiful being in the universe whose magnificence and wonderfulness would melt the hardest heart and soften the most resistant. His regret spurs me on to make sure that I know who God truly is and love Him for who He truly is and serve Him because He is who He is. And I daren’t waste a moment in this holy quest because life is short.

¶ A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
Isaiah 40:6-7

 

IN THE END

As F.W. Boreham approached the end of his life, he longed to know God more richly and deeply. This was also the quest of the apostle Paul as he approached his end. He wrote to the Philippians from a jail cell. Even though it appears that he held out hope for an early release from his imprisonment after he was to be brought before Caesar, this hope was not realised.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.
Philippians 3:8-10

“That I may know Him!” Fancy that! The apostle who was struck from his horse by the radiant glory of Christ while on the Persecutor’s Road to Damascus; the apostle whom the resurrected Christ appeared to in a vision and spoke directly to him (Acts 18:9-10); the apostle whom Christ used to raise people from the dead and to heal many people miraculously; and, the apostle who testifies that he was caught up to heaven and saw things too wonderful to reveal — this apostle gets toward the end of his life and states that he doesn’t yet know Christ the way he should! This apostle, the apostle Paul, toward the end of his life begins to see his life and his troubles in the light of eternity. And I am thus assured that in this light many of the problems that we face today will fade from our gaze and vanish as we fix our eyes on the Source of eternity’s Light.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Matthew 16:26

 

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

THE SECRET TO OVERCOMING OUR GREATEST FEAR

 THE SECRET TO OVERCOMING OUR GREATEST FEAR

Dale Carnegie was a self-confessed worry-wart who suffered horribly from anxiety. In one of his books he described himself as “one of the unhappiest lads in New York” (How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, 1948). He was fearful, anxious, and worried. Then something happened that changed him forever. F.W. Boreham was another person who battled with fear and anxiety. But unlike Dale Carnegie, he had good reasons for it. At the age of 15 he was nearly killed in a workplace rail accident which saw his life teeter in the balance for nine months. Doctors sent word to his mother telling her to prepare for the worst within the hour. Boreham’s severed right leg was amputated just below the knee in the best way they could in the 1880s, but the surgery was so crude that septicaemia soon riddled his body. Upon receiving the dire news, Boreham’s mother put her shawl on and went to her local church to pray and to plead for her boy’s life to be spared. Her prayers were miraculously answered but her son was understandably never the same again.

 

OUR GREATEST FEAR

You probably know what you’re afraid of. Some of us are fearful of heights. Others of us are fearful of spiders. Still some of us are fearful of speaking in public. I have a friend, who was in fact my tennis doubles partner for a couple of seasons, who confided in me that he was fearful of sharks. He also shared with me that he was going to do something about it so that he could overcome this fear (which he did). But our worst fears are not heights, spiders, the dark, or even confined spaces. At the root of our worst fears is our greatest fear – the fear of the unknown. (I suspect that the popular support for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill unfairly takes advantage of this crippling fear!) The aged Dr. F.W. Boreham would later go on to write in his autobiography –

Like the medieval saint, we can testify that we have had many and great troubles in our time, but most of them never happened!
Dr. F. W. Boreham, “My Pilgrimage”, p.221

In support of this discovery, we might paraphrase something that Mark Twain wrote as – 

“Our worst fears are the ones which never eventuate!”

People who see their life as something they have to live on their own, will often struggle with worry and fear – especially about the future. Kim was telling me that she saw a female performing artist on Youtube who shared that at the start of the 2020 year she established certain new year’s resolutions – earn more; travel more; socialise more; and take more control over her emotions (“stop crying so much”). Needless to say, she wasn’t able to achieve any of her goals! That’s the problem with making predictions – they often involve the future which can be quite surprising at times!

But there is a secret to overcoming our greatest fear – the fear of the unknown. This was what Dale Carnegie discovered, and what F.W. Boreham wrote so much about. It was King David discovered. 

¶ I sought the LORD, and He answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:4

 

FEARING THE LORD HELPS US TO OVERCOME OUR GREATEST FEAR

When the apostle Paul was in Corinth and things were turning ugly, we have reason to think that he became somewhat fearful.

 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are My people.”
Acts 18:9-10

This was not the first time the Lord assured Paul that he would be OK, and, we might be forgiven for thinking that the reason he was reassured was because, as in the example above, the Lord reassured him that no harm would come to him. But this would miss the real reassurance that Christ gave him. The real reassurance that Paul received was that Christ was with him. 

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Second Corinthians 12:8-9

To fear the Lord is to trust the Lord.

You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD!
He is their help and their shield.
Psalm 115:11

This is why when we pray we are expressing our trust in God. It is why making time to come together each Sunday is also a way of expressing our trust in God. Since we are all dealing with unknown futures (but not unknown to God) we are all subject to worry, fear and anxiety. But the more we can look to Jesus and cast our cares onto Him as an act of trust, the less subject we are to fears.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.
First Peter 5:7 NLT

This is the secret to overcoming our greatest fear.

¶ Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on his God.
Psalm 50:10

Your pastor,

Andrew

A HOUSE IS BUILT BY WISDOM, BUT A HOME IS BUILT BY

A HOUSE IS BUILT BY WISDOM, BUT A HOME IS BUILT BY

All but one of our four children have left home. One of my children owns their own home; another is paying theirs off, and the other describes herself as ‘homeless’ (albeit temporarily). However, whenever they come and stay with us, there is a tendency to refer to it as coming home. 

¶ By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 24:3-4

BELONGING

A ‘home’, of course, is distinguished from a house. A house is a building. A home is where you belong. And we all need to belong.

God settles the solitary in a home;He leads out the prisoners to prosperity,but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
Psalm 68:6

GATHERING TOGETHER

Belonging involves being together. This is why the common family space becomes sacred. This is the place where the family meets together, such as the dinner table. It is here that the family prays together, eats together, talks with each other, cooperates with each other, and serves each other. 

¶ “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
Deuteronomy 24:5

RELAXING

Pastor F.W. Boreham on the steps of the Hobart Baptist Manse in 1912, with Stella (his wife), and three of his children.

A home is where you can relax. FW Boreham was a pastor and a father of five children, who used to keep his shoes on at the dinner table if he was required to go straight out after dinner to attend to a pastoral duty. Each of his young children used to love finishing their dinner and then migrate into the lounge room with their father and climb up into his lap to enjoy one of his amazing stories. They knew, though, that if Daddy had his shoes on, there could be no lap-time story. But, whenever Pastor Boreham wore his slippers to the dinner table his children had reason to be excited for what would follow after dinner! Not only would their Daddy tell them a thrilling story (later, when they were older, he would read a classic book to them each night), he also gave them his undivided attention. Home is where you can relax.

Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29

RESTING

In one of his “Man Versus Wild” episodes, Bear Grylls stated that a good night’s sleep is more beneficial than a hearty meal. I cannot recall ever having a good night sleep whenever I have been camping, let alone the no-frills camping that Bear Grylls is talking about! If you’ve ever been travelling for an extended time, you’ll know what it feels like to come home and spend that first night in your own bed. Not only is home where you can relax, it is also where you can rest. 

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
Mark 6:31

MAKING CHRIST OUR HOME

There are some beautiful parallels about what makes a home and becoming a devoted follower of Christ. In John 10, Jesus uses very homely language to describe a relationship with Himself. Being in a relationship with Christ is described as coming through a gate (Jn. 10:3) and entering into the home of the sheep, the ‘sheepfold’ (John 10:1). This can only happen if one enters through the correct ‘door’ — which is Jesus (John 10:7). 

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
John 10:9

It is when the ‘sheep’ (the follower of Christ) is placed in the sheepfold, their home, that they are safe from thieves and robbers (Jn. 10:8) and protected from wolves (Jn. 10:12). By implication, the one who comes to Christ experiences Jesus as their wall of protection from enemy forces and their roof of shelter from the elements of spiritual adversity.   

¶ Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
Psalm 84:3

The local church is the body of Christ and therefore, we, too, are to be a home and a family for those lambs and sheep that Christ, the Great Shepherd, places in our sheepfold. As we meet together each Sunday —  like a family coming together for their mealtime — we come to the table to enjoy a feast of God’s Word. This is a home-moment where Christ’s people belong; can relax in God’s presence; find rest in God’s grace; and be strengthened by the love of God through their brothers and sisters. This Sunday, welcome home.

Pastor Andrew Corbett