A SPIRITUAL DIVE
Kim has just done the first part of a scuba diving course. The other week we heard someone during our service draw an analogy between spitting into your mask before going for dive, and obeying the Lord without question. In that instance, although there is a practical reason for doing it, most divers do it because they were taught to do it and may have never considered that there was a good reason for it (it stops your mask fogging up). In a similar way, many believers are taught the Word of God and obey it without question - without ever considering that there may be a practical reason for it. Kim came home the other day very excited about learning to dive and shared some further spiritual lessons from her diving experience.Eph. 5:15 ¶ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise
Firstly, she had to pass a test on the theory of diving. Many people start out in the Christian Walk being taught the tenents (the beliefs) of Christianity. For some, learning these beliefs about God, Christ, salvation, man's state, Satan, the age to come, the Resurrection and eternal judgment, may all seem merely theoretical - and like spitting in your mask - may not immediately appear to have a practical implication. But as Kim discovered, reading the compulsory 250page Diving Manual before diving is not just literary torture, but may actually save your life!But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
2Timothy 3:14
Secondly, Kim learned that you should never dive alone. Safe diving is not diving alone. In the same way, the Christian walk is not ordained to be lived alone. Christianity is a common faith. We live with a common mission, a common vision, a common set of beliefs, and a common care for each other. When we become a Christian, we are commanded to not merely look out for our own interests, but to take an interest in our brothers and sisters in Christ.Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4
Thirdly, Kim learned that you must not take risks with your resources. If you think that something's not quite right with your dive equipment, don't use it - until you've fixed it. In a similar way, if something is not quite right with your walk with the Lord (or His people) - don't ignore it - apply some repentance and fix it. The dive instructor stressed to Kim that you might think your mask is cracked moments before a dive but you feel that you would hold things up if your said something about it. But to dive a mask you suspected was cracked could not only injure you but those diving with you. Sometimes we fail to take care to examine our spiritual resources. Neglecting your spiritual resources such as Bible reading, journaling, prayer, church attendance, ministry service, personal witnessing, family-time, or giving, may need attention before you proceed into some spiritual peril.
Father, help us to follow Christ well. May we understand in clearer terms the eternal consequences at stake in getting our foundations, fellowships and faith in good order. Cause us to be able to forgive others quickly and readily. Let no root of bitterness invade our souls. Fill our hearts with Your love for You, Your Word, and Your people. May we take as much diligence in following You as a diver takes in diving. In Jesus Name', Amen.
Eph. 3:21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
When Steven Bradbury won the gold medal for ice-skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics, many people thought that is was just "luck". But he didn't. He had spent years training and months planning for this one race. He knew that he wasn't the fastest or the most talented, but he also knew that winning was more about finishing than racing. Many people who have found success in life have learned the same principle. The great life-battle-hardened apostle wrote to his beloved Ephesians, who were under intense pressure, to just hang in there. The way he said it was- "having done everything, stand."
There will be times when all you want to do it quit. There are times when you should quit (if you're causing harm, incurring loss, preventing someone from their rights, and so on). But most of the times when we quit, we shouldn't. Why do people quit before their finished? Discouragement. Disillusionment. Demonic. These are some of the possible contributers to quitting. When we desperately wanting to quit, and we go on the Bible describes this as "enduring".
Perhaps you're going through a tough time? Perhaps you want to quit? Providing that what you are doing is wise, you almost certainly shouldn't quit. You should hang in there. Jesus knew all about this. In Hebrews 12 it says that He "endured" the Cross. In other words, before getting to the Cross, He had to deal with the temptation to quit. This is when He called out to His Father for strength and yielded to Him afresh. We should do the same. This was Steven Bradbury's secret to success. He knew that the first thing he had to do in order to have any chance of winning was: to finish!
Dr F.W. Boreham tells of the day he called upon an 80 year old man. "My friend, will you not trust the Saviour?" Pastor Boreham enquired. "No, no, I'm too old!" replied the aged man. The next day he met a teenage youth. "My friend, will you not trust the Saviour?" Dr Boreham asked. "No, no, I'm too young!" the youth replied. "Too young to accept Christ? Too old to accept Christ?" asks FWB in his early book, The Whisper of God. He wrote-
FWB was troubled. He was troubled about people's apathy to spiritual things. He noted how urgently ambassadors of Christ must be to transmit the Gospel to young people. He cites a major research project conducted by Dr Starbuck who investigated at what age a person converts to Christ. A good number of the 1200 people interviewed said they came to trust Christ as Saviour between the ages of 7 to 9. A few more came to Christ between 9 to 12. Most came to Christ between the ages of 12 to 16. FWB reports, "...fewer still between twenty to thirty; and after thirty they are very rare." (pg. 92). "If these figures do not startle us to our duty, nothing will."
Boreham's mortification at the spiritual apathy around him led to take drastic action during his pastorate in Hobart Tasmania. Upon arrival in Tasmania in 1906 he was appalled that in his first Winter month there he could only get 300 attenders to Church on Sunday nights! He summoned his elders and presented this most urgent spiritual challenge. He proposed that after their 7PM Sunday service ended at around 8:30PM they should proceed to the Hobart Town Hall for a special series of evangelistic meetings. They agreed. FWB would then preach in the usual fashion at the Hobart Baptist Tabernacle in Elizabeth Street North Hobart then catch a horse-drawn cab down to the Hobart Town Hall where crowds of up to 1000 gathered to hear him preach the Gospel. They soon saw their Winter Sunday night attendances swell to 500!
I've just returned from Hobart where I gave a short public lecture at the University of Tasmania's Stanley Burbury Theatre about why Marriage can only be between a man and woman. I was, and a couple of hundred of other people were, "greeted" by 'Gay-Rights' protestors jeering us as we entered the forum. Perhaps not surprisingly, what was supposed to be the issue seemed to soon be forgotten and the real (unstated) issue quickly came to the fore. This might simply be boiled down to this challenge- "Who are you to impose your religious beliefs upon a secular society!"
Secularists (those who promote viewing life without any reference to God) have claimed ownership over society and therefore its moral standards with a few simple maxims: (i) What's right or true for you may not be what's right or true for me; and, (ii) As long as you don't hurt anyone, do whatever you want. Both of these maxims are grounded and based in an idea called "Moral Relativism" (the idea that we individually determine what's right and wrong for us without any outside authority for determining what's right or wrong behaviour). Several protestors asked questions after my lecture which were grounded in this way of thinking.
As Christians I think we face two challenges when it comes to defending the Bible in the public square: firstly, we need to be faithful and loyal to what the Creator has clearly commanded for all people (not just Christians), and secondly, we need to be on guard against the 'peer' pressure of the world to 'privatise' our convictions about God and life. Thus, when a Christian says that something is wrong because the Bible says that it is wrong, this is a sufficient argument, but due to the derision in which the Bible is held by the world, this truth is scorned. But if the world is allowed to remove God and His Word from how His world is governed what kind of world would we end up with? What I have just done is used an arguing technique which exposes an opposing argument for what it really is. Immanuel Kant called this taking an argument to its extreme end. Greg Koukl calls it, Lifting the Roof. What kind of society would we have if we extremely applied what Jesus Christ taught about how we should interact with each other? Conversely, what kind of society would we have if we took the do whatever you want maxim to an extreme? History tells us that when God and His Word are removed from society, godlessness results with all of its horrors.
Historically, when the Church, the Christian community, ceased to prophetically challenge people about their idolatry, the Church waned and society became less civil. Eighteenth century Europe is a case in point. Both England and France in particular had political and royal leaders who scorned God and His Word. They treated people poorly. They acted on their sexual whims and proclivities. The result in France was a bloody revolution followed by years of war and bloodshed. The result would have surely been the same in England. Charles Dickens described this era as, "It was the worst of times. It was the best of times." (The Tale of Two Cities). But England avoided moral collapse because God did something in His Church there which resulted in all facets of society being affected. God dramatically converted John Wesley and George Whitefield in particular who thundered the Gospel across England the American colonies. These evangelists were greatly used by God to convert thousands of nominal Christians to true faith. But by the end of Wesley's life he realised that he had largely failed to make a spiritual dent in his nation. He called for a young, recently converted politician, William Wilberforce to his deathbed. "Where I have failed, you must not!" he told and later wrote to Wilberforce. He charged Wilberforce to take the Gospel into the legislature of England. And he did.
Wilberforce was maligned by the irreligious throughout his political career as he sought to implement a foundational truth of the Gospel - that all people are created in the image of God - this includes women, children, and enslaved black Africans. His campaign lasted over 30 years of arguing that England's Parliament should amend its laws to honour God and therefore ensure the greatest welfare of its people. Toward the end of his campaign he was accused of wanting to pass laws to make everyone a Christian. Wilberforce responded by saying that he wished he could pass a law which made everyone a Christian so that their eternal bliss would be secured, but alas, one cannot be converted by compulsion, that is, everyone must accept or reject God's offer of Christ as Saviour.
Why should we as Christians today be concerned about issues like "Same-Sex" Marriage? Because it is grounded in an entirely false view of how the world actually is. If we are indifferent on this issue and come under the spell of Moral Relativists and chant the mantra that truth is only true if it's true for me then we are failing in our Great Commission to "teach all nations everything I have commanded" and doing a tremendous injury to our trying to bring people to The Saviour for forgiveness for their idolatry. In the movie, The Patriot (originally starring Jimmy Stewart, then later remade with Mel Gibson), the father of three boys refuses to be entangled in the fight of the Colonists with the oppressive Red Coats. "It's not my war" he tells one recruiter. But then the Red Coats murder one of his sons. He fell into depression as he realised that his apathy brought this on. He then realised that sometimes you have to fight in order to protect and preserve. As the story unfolds, we see him very deliberately and intentionally changing his clothes and kitting himself with various familiar weapons. While we are wondering how this gentle farmer is so familiar with the ways of war, we are allowed to listen to a conversation that two of the American military leaders have as they recount how this 'farmer' was a decorated war hero prior to settling down for a more quiet life. It is then that we realise that the original appeal to him was really an appeal to be who he really was.
In a similar way, much of the Church has retreated to a more quiet life. While the war for men's souls rages and the Devil deceptively tells the world that God has no right to tell them how to live, and many us put our fingers in our spiritual ears and dismissively tell the Recruiting Spirit, "It's not my war." And then it shockingly becomes apparent to us that one of our own children is now spiritually dead. We take a look at our tear-stained appearance in the mirror and see that our clothes are all dusty. Standing in front of the full-length mirror we dust ourselves off and slightly amazed see that we are dressed as soldiers. Having never noticed it, we see a weapon strapped to our side. We take it in our hands and it feels strangely familiar. And like the enchanted sleeping King Theoden in the Lord of the Rings, we awake from a supernatural slumber and take up our Christ-won, rightful position of being a light on a hill. To this end, it is love for (not 'of') the world that drives us. It is our deep compassion for the eternal destiny of all people and our even deeper conviction that Jesus is Lord of all that we proclaim Him as such.
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There is a scheme and a plot to destroy the Church. There a devilish minions at work to wear down God's people and to take the wind out of their sails. This conspiracy of ecclesiastical destruction has their cohorts. They have conscripted media personalities, academics, and politicians. But completely unknown to these very powerful people and spirits there is a God more powerful who is completely frustrating their plans! While they seek to ridicule, reject, and relegate the Church, the One who who birthed it continues to promote it, power it, presence it, provide for it, preserve it, and prophesy through it! In fact, the Church is perhaps one of the greatest living miracles and testimonies to the proof of God there is! The God who loves it has declared that it should be "magnificent"!
The Old Covenant is a necessary "shadow" of the New Covenant (Heb. 10:1). Its Temple speaks of the Body of Christ (Jn 2:21). In a sense, we are like young Solomon - young and inexperienced. We need God's help to build His Church. Like Solomon, we are engaged in an enterprise of infinite importance - to build a Church that is "magnificent, of fame and glory through all the lands". The Church is not called to rule the world, but neither are we called to be insignificent. Rather, we are called to be magnificent for God! For those of us who are getting on in years, like David, we are helping the next generation by leaving a legacy for them to build on. And like David, we who are able to provide physically and materially for the House of God, do the best we can in order to build a
Can we, together, build a magnificent house for God, here in our community? To do so, we must-
We are all motivated to do something. My motivation "problem" is that I'm not always motivated enough to do things that I don't want to do - even though they have to be done. I have to confess that I not only procrastinate difficult things, but I more frequently procrastinate the things that I don't enjoy doing. This of course also has an immediate spiritual implication for my walk with Christ.
Paul the Apostle was obviously motivated. What he achieved was outstanding. He wrote nearly two thirds of the New Testament. He introduced Christianity into Asia Minor and Europe. He planted churches, trained leaders, prayed ceaselessly, wrote prolifically, and looked accusing Emperors in the eye as he challenged them over the eternal condition of their soul. Did he ever lack motivation? Apart from his ministerial duties, I doubt though that Paul had to mow grass, take a dog for a walk, pick kids up from school, get the rubbish bins out every second Thursday, tidy up his garage after the kids have used his tools, maintain his churches' websites, produce teaching videos, upload a weekly audio podcast, do radio interviews, lobby politicians over issues of public concern, and maintain his apostolic duties. But I digress needlessly because I am sure that while he didn't have to do these mundane things that I all too frequently lack sufficient motivation for, he had far weightier responsibilities to bear that would have been n less arduous. Somehow, the seasoned apostle found the necessary motivation to keep going.
Jesus was motivated. Was there ever a time when He was not motivated? I was reading Matthew 26 where Jesus went out to the Garden of Gethsemane to talk with His Father. He was in agony. He was motivated to do His Father's will but in this tender moment of Christ's incarnated humanity He asked the Father if there was another way - other than the Cross. How did Christ push through this episode of doing what had to be done even though He would have preferred another way? He yielded to the Father's will. I want to be motivated by the will of God too.
I'm trying to learn this lesson of remedying my lack of motivation for certain tasks. I have to remind myself that God's will is best for my life and that as I submit to it, I am the one who will be blessed. My lack of motivation is processed through a growing knowledge of God's will. That is, He not only knows what will happen, He ordains what will happen in my life and circumstances. He knows my busyness and the demands placed upon me. He knows all of the interruptions that will come my way and has even ordained them for my benefit! And despite all of this, He wants me to be somewhat motivated for what I am responsible for - such as mowing our grass, doing the family dishes, picking up kids and so on.
I'm learning that I need to keep up the appropriate fuel for each of my motivation tanks. When it comes to what God has gifted me to do, I am easily motivated. Not only that, I enjoy it and even feel energised from doing it. Mind you, I still have to regularly refuel this motivation tank. I've learned that reading the right material, listening to the right teachers and preachers, and meeting with similarly motivated people keeps me motivated in these easily motivated areas.
But have you identified those productive areas of your life where you are motivated? Can you identify in what ways you are spiritually motivated? Which of the spiritual Christian disciplines come easiest to you? Prayer? Witnessing? Bible study? Worship? Acts of service? Giving? Each of these disciplines can be expressed within the church and in the market-place. John Maxwell says that he would only need to see one day of a person's schedule to see where a person is both gifted and motivated. God has made you with some natural abilities that require minimal motivation, but He has also given you some responsibilities that will demand being done even though we are "too busy", "too tired", or "too interrupted". For those low-motivation areas, we need God's will to become our will.
David wrote this Pslam when he was a young shepherd boy. Alone at night. Isolated by day. In fear of robbers. Prowled by wolves and the occasional lion. When David considered God in his night-time moments of watching his father's sheep, he reminded himself that God was his Shepherd. He must have realised that for the person who knows God, they are never alone. He might have taken great comfort from the knowledge that even in the midst trouble, it wasn't troubled waters that God offered. Rather, it was still waters to still troubled times.
In David's darkest hour he sought for God. Beyond the scope of the words that he used to begin to describe it, David said that he experienced the Lord's presence as if it were a 'rod' and a 'staff'. Shepherds used these tools to guide or rescue sheep from danger. If you are experiencing God's disciplining - you are experiencing God's Shepherding presence! It is too easy to be confused by this experience as if God has left you - when in fact, He has drawn closer to you!
This skinny, "ruddy" (1Sam. 16:12) little shepherd boy found God to be the One who anoints His children in the presence of those who seek their harm! In fact, David found God to be the One who anointed him when it looked like his enemies were about to triumph. Initially David found this to be true with lions and bears (1Sam 16:26). He then found it to be true with giants. He then found it to be true with spiteful kings. He then found it to be true with enemy kingdoms. He then found it to be true when those who were closest to him betrayed him in the cruelest fashion. In these times, David found that God filled his victory cup. Not half full. Not two-thirds full. Not nearly full. Not even full. God filled David's victory celebration cup to overflowing!
What an amazing church we are each a part of. Over the past few weeks we have seen people repenting. We have seen people coming to know Christ for the first time. We have seen record attendances. We have seen God's amazing miracle provision for several people. We have seen people supernaturally recovering from sickness, illness and surgeries. We have seen people responding to the Holy Spirit in prayer an fasting. We have seen people turn up to Sunday worship when the Enemy has thrown all he can at them in a desperate attempt to keep them apart. We have seen people in our church called upon by other churches to share their story of how God has worked in their lives. All of this causes me to join in David's song and sing that God has been good to me, good to us. I have enjoyed an unbelievably blessed life. Like David, God's goodness and mercy has followed me all the days of my life. And like David, I am delighted to be committed to His House forever.
But there is something shocking about this beautiful Psalm. Do you see it? Do you see that in nearly every other Bibical statement about our relationship with God, it is just that: "our" relationship with God. Even Jesus taught us to pray, "OurFather...lead us...forgive us...our daily bread..." But Psalm 23 is an individual Psalm. When you feel alone, you are not. When you think there is no one, there is always Someone.