ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

¶ Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1

When one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, I wonder if he had been feeling (as many of us have often felt) that our prayers never seem to be answered? This disciple had watched and noticed that everything Jesus prayed for was answered by His heavenly Father. Who wouldn’t want to know how to pray prayers that always get a “Yes!” from God? And what Jesus taught him and his brother disciples was just that: A model prayer for how to always have God say “Yes!” to our prayers. If you want to prayers that are guaranteed to be answered, read on.

BAD THEOLOGY DISTORTS HOW WE PRAY

¶ “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Matthew 6:7-8

Many of Christ’s public prayers were incredibly short. This stood in stark contrast to the religious leaders of His day whom Jesus said of them, “for a pretense [they] make long prayers” (Mark 12:40). The effectiveness of our prayers is therefore not dependent on how long they are or whether or not we use ‘the right words.’ But the effectiveness of our prayers is dependent upon us praying according to the will of God. The model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples explicitly includes the phrase “Your will be done” (Matt. 6:10). If you want your prayers answered, pray that! Ask God for His will to be accomplished in your life. But what Jesus taught about praying this way was much bigger than just about what God wants to do in our lives because that phrase continues, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). This presents two equal and opposite potential dangers. Firstly, there is the danger of understanding Christ’s prayerful words to mean that we should think of earth as our ultimate home. It’s not. God Himself is (for a home is not so much a dwelling, but where we are loved and secure). Secondly, there is the danger of understanding Christ to mean that earth is not our home and therefore we shouldn’t care too much about what happens here (since the focus sounds like it’s on heaven not earth).

From my experience, the reason that many believers become disappointed with God and His seeming lack of answers to their prayers, stems from bad theology. Sometimes this bad theology is based on a misunderstanding for how Christ taught His followers the model prayer. For example, I have heard preachers teach that when Christ taught His disciples to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it in heaven, He was teaching that since there is no sickness or pain in heaven, that living in the will of God on earth meant that we could live without sickness or pain if we only had enough faith. But this is not only a misunderstanding of what Jesus taught us to pray it is also puts the focus of God’s will entirely into this life on earth. It is too easy for us to get so wrapped up in this life that we think this life is the main deal. This bad theology creates an unreal perception of our life on earth and also unreasonable expectations of how God treats our prayers. Bad theology becomes a curtain that distorts our view of both the world we live in, and of God Himself.

GOD’S WORD PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN

The Bible pulls back the curtain on this unreal perception of this world and tells us the truth. A distorted view of this world and of God may lead some believers to believe the wrong things such as “It is never God’s will that people die.” Yet the Bible reveals that we will all die (Hebrews 9:27). It is wrong to think that every disappointment and the setbacks you experience is the Devil attacking you. The Bible reveals that all of creation is subject to disappointment and frustration (Romans 8:20). In fact, the Bible reveals that in this world, you will subject to occasions where you experience distress, disease and the death of loved ones (Romans 8:22). While some believers might assume that these things are necessarily the judgment of God and will ask “What have I done to deserve this?” the Bible reveals that even the most godly and holy of believers experienced this. Consider the brief life of John the Baptist and then take a course in Church History from ICI College and note the lives (and the life-spans) of Savonarola, Latimer and Ridley, and Robert M. M’Cheyne. If we can align our understanding of God and our expectations for our lives on earth with what the Bible reveals, we will have a clearer picture of reality rather than the distorted picture that the world and bad theology affords!

This earth is meant to be a shadow of the ultimate reality that awaits us in heaven. Where this shadow of God’s rule is obscured because of the darkness of evil, we need to earnestly pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it in heaven. The Church is also a shadow of this reality that awaits us all. And in an incredibly powerful way (and something I point out to every couple I prepare for marriage) marriage is meant to be one of the clearest foreshadows of heaven. This is why I always tell a couple that I prepare for marriage, or counsel when they are, that marriage can be one of the closest things to heaven on earth that you will ever experience. But this should not cause singles to feel as if they have no potential to appreciate the heaven that awaits each child of God, because the sweetness of heaven is often glimpsed in those acts of pure friendship, love, kindness, and generosity by a brother or sister in Christ.

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4

Every now and then it is good to be reminded of how the believer’s heavenly home is described so that when we pray Christ’s model for us we can do so intelligibly. Heaven the dominion where God rules. There is perfect peace there (note the metaphor of the “glassy sea” around God’s throne, Rev. 4:6). There is absolute justice there because the Ultimate Judge has executed perfect justice (Rev. 20:11-12). The things that the King of Kings has declared good are the only things that are valued and sought after. Those things, such as injustice, wrong-doing, selfishness, falsehood, and immorality (which is the fruit of idolatry) are prohibited in God’s heavenly domain (Rev. 21:27). Except for the faithful heavenly creatures, every other citizen of heaven has been rescued and redeemed and personally adopted by the King Himself (Rev. 21:3). Therefore, when we pray as Jesus instructed for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we should consider these expressions of God’s revealed will.

We should pray that:

• When God’s people gather they do so to glorify God.
  .
• When God’s people gather they should experience a foretaste of the peace of God that comes from being in His presence.
  .
• God’s people should seek to promote the will of God in society that all people obey God and His Word.
  .
• God’s people do all they can to promote the most fundamental aspect of justice—especially for the most vulnerable in our society—the right to live.
  .
• God’s people exemplify to the world what is good, right, honourable, and virtuous especially when it comes to human sexuality and decency. This must mean that publicly object to such things as slavery, sex-trafficking, pornography, sexual promiscuity, and prostitution—all of which degrade human beings and especially demean women to the status of objects rather than persons who bear the imago dei.
  .
• All people turn to Christ to be accepted by God and that the lie that all religions lead to God be exposed by the light of the gospel as a Devilish ruse designed to ensnare and delude his victims to a lost eternity.
  .

This is what we are praying for when we pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And a final note on what happens in the heart and life of any believer when they pray these big prayers: God often uses the pray-er to help answer the prayers they pray. This is why we protest when certain politicians defy the Living God, who is LORD of Heaven AND EARTH, by their wicked schemes to see the vulnerable treated as objects or an expense on a hospital’s financial report. It is why we take a prophetic stand against the devilish evil that views a child in the womb as a mere clump of tissue cells, or why a frail and ill elderly hospital patient is nuisance in an over-crowded hospital ward. It’s why we object when well-meaning but uninformed believers announce that God does not expect the non-believer to obey Him or His Word. Because, we pray with our Lord that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

 

Pastor Andrew Corbett

MAN UP!

MAN UP!

When I was growing up there were a lot movies in cinemas and on TV about rugged cowboys—and even commercials being made that featured other rugged cowboys. Men were presented as manly. Then along came James Bond, who knew how to fly any plane, pilot a car that could be driven off a pier into the sea as his Lotus that turned doubled as a submarine, and ski down the blackest run in the world and parachute (with a Union Jack) off a 5,000 foot cliff back into civilisation in a tuxedo. And, of course, time prevents me from talking about the super-heroes like Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, who lived secretly with their true identities while saving the world each weekday afternoon in under 30 minutes (including commercials). But over time, I came to be a little disturbed with Hollywood’s presentation of what it meant to be a man because each of these men lacked the essential qualities for what it truly means to be a man.

“I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man!“
(The dying King David to his young son, and heir to his throne, Solomon) First Kings 2:2

ESSENTIAL MANHOOD

We are now on the verge of a theological tsunami. A generation is now growing up where the concepts of manhood, husband and father — each Biblical metaphors for God — have been distorted. This might well be the biggest challenge the Church has ever faced in its 2,000 years of existence! And I want us to be a part of the prevention and solution!

While my growing up years were characterised by these rather rugged, solitary, hero-type, men, I must confess that I found something quite charming and even endearing about The Brady Bunch. There was something quite appealing to me about three girls who had lost their dad, and three boys who had lost their mum, have their losses mutually covered by their surviving parents getting married. I found the solution that Mr Brady provided for these three girls and their mum to be a beautiful and very noble idea. It inspired me to also want to have six children of my own when I grew up! Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I took careful note of those parents who stood out to me as a great parents. Even though, at about the age of 6, I hadn’t factored in the necessity of this plan involving one day getting married, I overlooked this gap in my plan and watched how great parents went about fulfilling their roles. What I observed dramatically altered my concept of what it meant to be a man. My new revelation of what essential manhood involved caused me to feel quite inadequate. And this was a problem for me, because as a teenager I could not deny the growing sense of God’s call on my life to be a pastor. But how could ever become a pastor if I was so inadequate? I was so concerned about this, I spoke with my church’s youth group leader, David ( ) Outhred, about what my options were considering my inadequacies. He essentially told me to “Man up!“

¶ “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife”
First Timothy 3:1-2a

BEING A MAN

The parents that I observed who were doing a great job with their kids all had two things in common. Firstly, they parented as a team. Their relationship with each other was the strength of their parenting. They genuinely loved each other. Secondly, they parented intentionally which involved them willingly making certain sacrifices in order to be parents. They genuinely loved their children, but this never meant that their kids were the centre of their lives—God was! They taught their kids, by using a parent’s best friend ~ consistency ~ that when they said “No” they didn’t mean, “If you keep asking I’ll say yes just to shut you up.” Their love for their kids was unconditional, even though their saying “No” at times brought defiance and childish accusations of unfairness. This requires tireless courage on the part of mum and dad. Too often though, I noticed that some dads didn’t work as a team with their soul-mate. It was if they saw raising children as the woman’s job(?). Additionally, some men were easily broken down by their children’s defiance, and became very inconsistent with their parenting. Perhaps without realising it, these dads were undermining the efforts of their wives to teach their children some of life’s most essential and necessary lessons!

Solo-parenting presents a whole other set of difficulties. If you ever get to talk to a single parent and their challenges in parenting, and I’ve talked with many about this, they will tell you that they have twice the workload with half the resources to accomplish it. Single parenting is a tough gig. But so is parenting as a couple! Especially when the man is not playing his part. And too many women, not all of course, are left to become solo-parents because the father of their child/ren has abducted or fled his responsibilities.

Being a dad demands that a man becomes a different man in order to be a husband and a dad. All too often this is too big of a hill for many men to climb, and they run and hide (into their work, into their shed, or into their fishing gear) to avoid the climb. Little wonder then that Hollywood (largely comprised of male film producers!) depicts manly men as playboys with little responsibilities to “tie them down”, and married men—who are fathers—as buffoons! (An example below:)

THE ULTIMATE MAN

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
John 19:5

Consider Jesus (Heb. 3:1). Consider this man, who Pilate presented to Israel as the man (Jn. 19:5).

• He gladly spent time with children (Matt. 18:2-5; watch)
  .
• He protected vulnerable and at-risk women (John 8:10-11)
  .
• He endorsed and gave support to parents (Lk. 8:41-42)
  .
• He honoured marriage between a man and a woman (John 2:1-11; watch; Matt. 19:4-6)
  .

Consider also how Jesus presented a radical view of God. While Israel had had a concept of Yahweh (God) as their Father (Isaiah 63:16), it was not until Jesus that anyone thought of Yahweh as my Father. In what must have sounded like a shocking way to speak of Yahweh, Jesus used a very intimate Aramaic word for father when speaking of God – Abba (Mk 13:36). The epistle writers regarded this Aramaic word for God The Father as so precious, they often transliterated it directly into Greek rather than using the Greek word (‘pater’). 

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by Whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Galatians 4:6

This Aramaic word, Abba, is best translated into English as ‘Daddy‘ or ‘Daddy dear‘. It is an incredibly affectionate term of endearment. This is how the disciples heard Jesus pray to His Father.

THREE THINGS MEN CAN LEARN FROM THE ULTIMATE MAN

When it comes to saving the world, Jesus was greater than any made-up super-hero. When comes to fulfilling a mission, Jesus was greater than fictional British playboy spy. Jesus was also the greatest lover of women ever — and yet, He never had sex. Jesus was the strongest, smartest, wisest, most ethical, sinless, purest, courageous, virtuous, determined, man ever. He didn’t see children as nuisances. He didn’t treat women as objects. He didn’t use vicious humour to belittle. He protected the weak. He looked after the poor. He ate with the marginalised. He assisted foreigners. He blessed struggling small-business operators. He gave of Himself to soldiers who were oppressors and invaders of his nation. There is much for men to emulate from the example of Jesus The Christ. Here’s three things every man, who will one day be—or is—a husband and father:

1. Love your wife. Treat her with unfair kindness (grace). Christ does for His (Ephesians 5:25). Get to know her. Find out what her favourites are. Discover what all of her likes and dislikes are. Learn how to apologise to her. Date her regularly. Notice her (be particularly alert to new hairstyles!). Write her a love poem – at least once a year (see Mick Dadson for tips on how to do this). Listen to her point of view and prove to her that you understand it. Remember, the strength of relationship with her determines the strength of your parenting and the level of security that your children will enjoy.
   .
2. Play with your kids. Teach your children what true and real love is. Teach your children the stories of the Bible. Teach your children who God is and what He is like. And play with your children. Let them see and experience how man who is much bigger, much stronger, and much smarter than them, can restrain each of these attributes to help them to enjoy their time with dad and have happy memories of their children where they laughed a lot (Ephesians 6:4). Remember that your holidays together are going to be some of the fondest memories your children will ever have. Start saving now for your next family holiday.
   .
3. Don’t make your wife or your kids the centre of your life – it will ruin them. When someone lives with anyone other than God as the centre of their life, the calls this idolatry (1Cor. 10:14). The centre of Christ’s world was His Abba, not His disciples, and not even His Church. But because of His love for His Father, He could love His disciples, His followers, and those He interacted with even though some of them were considered His enemies. Your love for God as a husband and a father strengthens your number one mission in life for your wife and children: to help bring them closer to God. This is why things like family devotions, or dinner time prayers, or bedside Bible stories, are so important for fathers who love their children. It is also why attending church as a family is critically important because it helps to keep God as the Centre of our lives. 
   .

THE THEOLOGICAL TSUNAMI

The reason I state this this is potentially a theological tsunami that will make our mission even more difficult, is that our presentation of God is the one that Christ gave us to deliver to the world – that God is our Heavenly Father, our Abba. Because of the perception that many of this generation are getting of what a man and father is, there ability to know God as their Heavenly Father is impeded. For those of us who know God as our Abba, we know that there are times when He says “No” to our prayer requests. Good, loving, kind, fathers must, at times, say “No” to their children. But a generation that has been drawn into the devil’s sticky web of deception and beguiled into the lie that are entitled to have whatever they want — in fact, they have a right to whatever they want, are going to struggle with a God who says “No” but still unconditionally loves them. Unless, of course, we provide them of counter-examples of loving, kind, considerate, generous, manhood and fatherhood that reflects who God the Father really is. If we can do that, at least in our island state, we might just have a chance of staving off this looming theologically incorrect tsunami.

 Pastor Andrew.

HOW CHRIST MAKES THE BROKEN WHOLE

HOW CHRIST MAKES THE BROKEN WHOLE

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
Matthew 9:21

Hurt people hurt people. We’ve all probably encountered a hurting person who hurt us. Perhaps we’ve even been the one doing the hurting. Being hurt hurts. Even the process to becoming healed of this hurt can hurt. And, because it is an unfamiliar hurt, even this longed for healing can create anxiety in some. This can result in the hurt person blame-shifting, withdrawing, and becoming highly critical. Because they then tend to repel others, this makes helping them really difficult. But it can be done. As Jesus demonstrated time and time again. 

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Mark 5:25-26

Some people have only ever known hurt and pain. From the youngest age they were the victim. They felt that all they ever deserved was rejection, betrayal, and mocking from those who should have most shown them acceptance, loyalty and affirmation. For these people, wholeness doesn’t exist and is not possible—until they witness it in someone else. Then they see what it can look like. This is what happen to the woman who had been haemorrhaging for twelve years. She had lost all hope. But then she began to hear the almost unbelievable stories of Jesus had done for others, and hope was rekindled. The first step toward wholeness for a broken person is a vision of what the pathway to wholeness looks like. For this broken woman it was getting close to Christ and then reaching out to Him. What she didn’t know was that Christ came near to her and invited her to be made whole.

She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
Mark 5:27-29

All hurt people travel with a map. From this map they derive the directions for navigating through their life. They come to certain ‘forks’ in the road they are travelling on which would look like constructive criticism or even a helpful challenge to most people, but their map indicates that  these ‘forks in the roads’ are attacks, or rejection, or pain. Their map suggests taking (what they wrongly consider to be) the easy road which can be traversed with offence, anger, and slander. And thus, their hurt grows and becomes a life template for how they respond to people who actually try and help them. The day that Jesus came near was the day this pattern changed for this broken lady. Instead of taking the easy road, she took what she had always considered to be the hard road and went into the crowd (her greatest fear) and encountered Christ there. But Christ made this hard road easy for her. She had always thought that in a crowd she was unseen and unknown. The day she encountered Jesus was the day she realised she was wrong. He had seen all along. He had seen the original abuse that had happened to her as a little girl which had caused the terrible injuries and had led to the humiliating and painful bleeding for twelve years of her life. He had seen the doctors trying but failing with their quackery to heal her brokenness and in the process taking everything she had.

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Mark 5:25-26

From the moment that Christ made this woman whole, much more than just her bleeding stopped. Wholeness may begin with a physical healing, but most often it doesn’t — because it starts in a person’s soul where their mind and heart are. This woman would have left from her encounter with Jesus with whole new road map of life. Those things that once caused her to be afraid, no longer did. Those things that she had always interpreted as threats, now looked like open doors. When Jesus asked the question that He already knew the answer to (as He often did), the spotlight was about to shift onto this formally broken woman — which had always invoked this woman’s greatest fears. But now Christ showed her that this moment was an open door for her to testify and to walk into her wholeness for the first time.

And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from Him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”
Mark 5:30

WHAT WHOLENESS LOOKS LIKE

Whole people travel the same life journey but with a different map. They reach the same fork in the road but instead of their map marking these moments as attacks, rejection, pain, their map indicates growth, opportunity, and love. Their map suggests taking the low road (which always looks like the harder road). This road is traversed by humility, listening, and understanding. 

and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives Me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
Luke 9:48

Many whole people were once hurt people. But they were blessed to have a glimpse of what wholeness looked like. When they saw it, it exposed their unforgiveness, malice, withdrawal and pride. It somehow revealed to them that each of those things were crippling them. This vision of wholeness encouraged them to use a different life-map. The next fork in the road was the hardest road-fork they had ever faced because they were so used to their fight or flight map that when they read their new map that Christ gave them, its directions included: listening, blessing, teachableness, and even generosity! As a hurt person they had previously become defensive, spiteful and self-justifying, but now their choice to be whole removed these responses from their new map.

¶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you,
First Peter 5:6

A whole person still feels pain – although they respond quite differently to a hurt person. A whole person still faces disappointment, disrespect, and disloyalty, yet they take the low road of blessing those who spitefully mistreat them. They hold their tongue – not because they really want to yell at the one standing in their way – but because they have chosen to listen first. Rather than become defensive, they become inquisitive. Although the criticism from another person stings, they treat it as a gift that might help them improve – rather than to let that sting fester into a serious hurt. At other times when someone expresses their displeasure with them they can reasonably assess whether this person’s opinion is what they use to define their identity or worth. In many cases, it will not be and in these instances they may find themselves quietly, but resolutely, disagreeing with their protagonist. And this introduces my final thought on achieving wholeness as a hurt person.

Whole people are neither dependent or independent people. Hurt people need other people. We all hurt from time to time and in those times we need the help of others. But some hurt people react by withdrawing from others and become independent. “I’ll never let anyone close to me again!” they silently vow to themselves. Of course, connecting two hurt people together often results in co-dependency. Hurt people in a co-dependent relationship feel that they both need the other person, and that the other person needs them. A whole person doesn’t allow someone else to become unreasonably dependent upon them. Even a parent knows that their infant child’s dependency upon them is reasonable for a season. A whole child will replicate their parent’s wholeness and grow to  become a reliable, dependable, interdependent adult. 

The Apostle Paul once lived as a hurt man. He then encountered Christ and became a whole man. He wrote to a people who were once hurt, the Colossians, and described to them the behaviour of hurt people.

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:8-10

He then goes on to describe how whole people live-

¶ Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.Colossians 3:12-14

And that’s one of the clearest visions a hurt person can have for what wholeness looks like. The only truly whole Person is the only Person who can truly help a hurt person to become a whole person. Sometimes, because a hurt person is so down and low, all they can do is to reach up to just touch the hem of His presence (Matt. 9:21) which why Christ still heals brokenness in the midst of those already following and adoring Him. Wholeness begins with the simple act of praying to Christ. This then leads to the beginning of their journey to wholeness—a journey that Christ does not leave you to walk alone. This Sunday as we gather to follow and adore Christ, let’s pray that more broken people will experience the wholeness that only Jesus can give.

Pastor Andrew