I AM NOT ALONE

 

As Jesus prepared to approach the Cross, He gathered His disciples in Jerusalem and addressed them over a sacred meal in a private, secluded, upstairs room. As He began to address them an enemy entered that room which only Jesus could see. This enemy whispered into the invisible ear of the one he had already lured into a love for money. Jesus recognised this dark voice. He had previously heard it in a wilderness exchange that He refused to succumb to. In a matter of minutes Jesus would dismiss His traitor and betrayer and talk only to His remaining terrified disciples. “You will all leave Me” He told them. Peter, who was always quick to speak, spoke up in response, “I will lay down my life for You.” Eventually he would. But not this night. This night, all but one would indeed flee from Jesus and leave Him friendless. Alone? No. Jesus said, “Yet I am not alone!” And even though you might feel alone, you too, are not. Here’s why.

I have been finding great solace from my study of John’s Gospel over these past two years or so. In this last Gospel I am discovering fresh insights into the magnificence of Christ Jesus.The outstanding thing for me has been the fresh realisation of His closeness to His Father. Over and over again throughout John’s retelling of the redemptive work of Christ the Gospel-writer tells us that Jesus was on a mission from His Father, that He was in constant communication with the Father, that He often spent time alone (often at night) with His Father, and that He longed to introduce His disciples (followers) into the same kind of intimacy with His Father.

¶ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen His glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

In fact, in John’s introductory chapter he tells his readers that what Jesus achieved in His mission was to make the Father known.

No one has ever seen God;
the only God, who is at the Father’s side,
He has made Him known.
John 1:18

While the other Gospel writers only chose to refer to the second time that Jesus cleansed the Temple by driving out the money-changers, and those merchants who sold pigeons (Jn. 2:16), John describes the first time Jesus did this as one of His foundational acts of His public ministry – because of His zeal for His Father and the house that was supposed to be in honour of Him.

And He told those who sold the pigeons,
“Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
John 2:16

His disciples remembered that it was written,
“Zeal for your house will consume Me.”
John 2:17

The intimacy that Jesus had with His Father was an offence to the religious leaders of Israel who knew nothing of the Father (Jn. 16:3). This intimacy with God was more than the religious leaders could fathom especially when Jesus declare that He was equal to the Father. 

¶ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him,
because not only was He breaking the Sabbath,
but He was even calling God His own Father,
making Himself equal with God.
John 5:18

Hours before Jesus was taken by force on the mountain-top garden of Gethsemane, where He would go to confront the evil one (a scene reminiscent of the serpent’s original temptation of the first man and woman), Jesus gave his last instructions to His disciples. John tells us that Jesus was already greatly troubled (Jn. 13:21) and that this deep anguish was compounded by His knowledge that all but one of His disciples would soon abandon Him and leave Him utterly friendless (Jn 16:31). “The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me alone” Jesus sullenly declared.

But, what He was about to go through, He announced again to His disciples, was that His death on the cross would make a way for each of them to have the same kind of relationship that He enjoyed with His Father – because the Father loved them!

In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;
for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
John 16:26-28

Jesus concluded His Farewell Discourse with His disciples with the greatest prayer recorded in the Bible. In this prayer we hear Christ’s heart for His Church and how He longed for each His followers to relate to the Father — include His followers who were yet to be born!

¶ “I do not ask for these only,
but also for those who will believe in Me through their word,
that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You,
that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
John 17:20-21

Thus, even though Jesus felt the deep pain of rejection and the grief that comes from being abandoned, He was confident that because of His relationship with the Father, He was not alone!

 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come,
when you will be scattered, each to his own home,
and will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.
John 16:32

John tells his readers why Jesus chose to say this. This was said, Jesus revealed, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33). In other words, there will be times in your life that you will experience rejection, abandonment, being misunderstood, all because you follow Me—and in those times, even though it might feel like it—you are not alone! In forecasting this glorious New Covenant provided relationship with God, the Old Testament announced that Christ would be to the New Covenant believer a Friend who will stick by you closer than a brother (Prov. 18:24). As you follow Christ and continue to seek to know Him and to make Him known, you and I can enjoy an intimacy with the Father that is surely greatest promise that Jesus guaranteed for all who followed, and would one day follow, Him. Surely then, the essence of what it means to be saved and to embark on the Christian journey was summed up in Christ’s prayer-  

And this is eternal life, that they know You,
the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3

You are not alone! You have an audience of One!

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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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.

I WAS WRONG AND I AM SORRY

 

When was the last time someone said to you, “I was wrong and I am sorry”? For some people these words have never passed their lips. Some of these people may never have made a mistake, done anything wrong, or ever needlessly ever hurt someone so they may never had an occasion where they needed to say those words. But, if you have ever had someone tell you something that they knew was untrue as if it was true, or claimed that something was a fact that you later discovered was actually not a fact — and so did they — have they ever come back to you and said, “I was wrong and I am sorry”? If this has never been your experience, it’s about to be — because I’m going to say it to you. 

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,
that you may be healed.
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16

We have all been wrong. We sometimes make public claims we may have believed at the time were correct, only to discover later that they were not. Some of these mistakes we make are inconsequential – a recollection of a past event that wasn’t quite accurate, a guess about what the weather would be like tomorrow, a meal choice at a restaurant. On other occasions people get things wrong because they have not tested whether their idea is accurate, or whether a claim they are repeating can be verified. This is what scientists have to do as part of their project before they can publish their claim as true. The scientific method provides some tools that any of us can use to distinguish a true claim from a false claim. We would do well before accepting whether a claim was true or not if would just take the necessary steps to verify it – or disprove it.

The first to state his case seems right,
until his opponent begins to cross-examine him.
Proverbs 18:17

In a moment I am going to admit that I was wrong. Why do we find it so hard to admit that were wrong? I’d be interested in your ideas if you could leave them in the comments section. I think that most of us find it difficult to admit they were wrong due to:

1.  Pride (they are embarrassed.
2.  The  potential price (a loss of prestige, privileges, previous gains, or power).
3.  Ignorance (they are unaware, or refuse to become aware, of being wrong).  

Despite these reasons for reluctance to admit that they were wrong, I suspect that when someone does admit they were wrong – they actually win the respect of others. (This is something I will shortly test.) However, I also suspect that one of the big reasons that many find it difficult to admit they were wrong is that it usually leads to the uncomfortable need to not only say “I am sorry” but the far more profoundly difficult need to apologise. I intend to do both in just a moment.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
First John 1:9-10

Any of us might be wrong about something we have said or believed because we have been deceived. On other occasions we might be wrong because we misplaced our trust in someone whom we trusted or believed only to later find out that they were wrong. In some instances, as every high school maths-methods student can tell you, someone might make a miscalculation early in their attempt to work out the solution to a problem which eventually leads to an unrecognised wrong answer (this is a point that CS Lewis makes in Mere Christianity about how people can make mistakes about God’s existence if they start with the wrong calculations). Mistakes can be made through everyday-human-errors, or not accommodating all of the data/evidence before making a conclusion. Whether we will make a mistake or be wrong in something we say of believe is not really in question. What is in question is what do we do when we do make a mistake or say or believe something that is demonstrably wrong?

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another,
for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
First Peter 5:5

I am clearly no expert in doing what you should do if you know you were wrong. But, I do have a theoretical knowledge about what should be done after you find out you were in error. Here it is:

When you know you were wrong about something you said or believed,
you should admit it, say sorry, and appropriately apologise.
This will take humility.

This will require a commitment to character formation. Character formation is the process of becoming a better human being. This too is grounded in a willingness to learn humility, empathy, sympathy, consideration, true justice, wisdom, and a love of the truth. 

¶ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation
without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Second Corinthians 7:10

Near the start of the recent pandemic I did something I now regret. At the time I did with the best of pastoral intentions. Part of my motive for doing it was my trust in what medical scientists had said. I trusted the science and health officials so much that I did what I had advised others publicly and privately to do and was triple vaccinated. I now regret advising people to be vaccinated. I had believed the claim that the vaccines were “safe and effective” and that by being vaccinated it would “prevent the transmission of covid” (a claim that Pfizer has recently admitted was never proven to be true, despite Senator Katy Gallagher recently insisting that it did). After researching these various claims, I have now come to the conclusion that these claims were not scientifically verified and that the data actually show them not be true.

But the thing that I most regret most was that I stated that:

by being vaccinated people people were “loving their neighbour” in obedience to the command of Christ.

I am deeply sorry for saying this. I apologise because this statement caused hurt to those I love and was inconsiderate of many I care for who already had reasonable doubts about the vaccines and legitimate concerns over its long-term ramifications. I am sorry for using my platform and position for urging people to be vaccinated. I should have left the issue alone and let people make their own healthcare decisions without applying any pastoral pressure upon them. I apologise for the hurt that I caused for my inconsiderate statements especially to those who had strong objections to being subjected to mandatory vaccinations who even lost their jobs as a result of their objections. I had failed to verify the claims I was publicly endorsing.

My views on the “safe and effective” claims about the MRNA vaccines began to be challenged after I got covid shortly after receiving my third jab. Around this time my 85-year-old father also had his third jab and then weeks later died. Prior to this, Kim had already experienced myocarditis after each of her jabs. In addition to this, some of the interviews that former Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, has done have persuaded me that I was wrong. The findings of medical researchers as reported by Dr. Moran and Dr. Aseem Malhotra have also led me to realise I was wrong.

You may have a different opinion to me about the efficacy of the MRNA vaccines and the effectiveness of masks and the mandated lockdowns. What I am going to try to do in the event that I live to see – and/or pastor through – another pandemic is to take a lot more care in evaluating the data before ever making an appeal to anyone to immediately subject themselves to experimental medicine. At this point I do not want to be misunderstood. I am clearly not an anti-vaxer per se. Neither do I lightly entertain or spread baseless speculations that sound like another unproven conspiracy. But when the United States Government Senate releases a 300-page report demonstrating the factualness of what many international government officials had previously claimed was “nonsense”, there are some theories that are no longer baseless. 

But why is a pastor even commenting on such public health policy – especially now that that pandemic is officially over? The answer is two-fold: I care about people, especially those in my pastoral charge; and, secondly, I care deeply about the truth (after all, I manage a website and radio program called Finding Truth Matters).

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same
kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
First Peter 5:8-9

As Christians we understand better than most that we are engaged in a spiritual war. The late Dr. Michael Heiser wrote several excellent books on understanding just what this involved. If I might summarise what he concluded it would sound like this:

The forces of darkness war against the cause of Christ by distorting truth. Those on the side of the cause of Christ wage war against the forces of darkness by upholding and declaring the truth. Truth is our greatest weapon!

Thus, our evangelism is principally a declaration of the truth. As we stand back in bewilderment at the bewitching of our culture as it whole-heartedly embraces lies about sex, marriage, gender and babies, we are called to uphold the truth with gentleness and respect (1Pet. 3:15) and dare I say it – courage. Perhaps we can say with the apostle Paul that our mission is to – 

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose,
to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen Me
and to those in which I will appear to you,  delivering you from your people
and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you  to open their eyes,
so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
Acts 26:16-18

A part of my motivation for admitting that I was wrong and saying sorry is that this is precisely what I am asking those who are not yet followers of Christ to do each time I preach. How can I be qualified to ask anyone to do what I myself am unwilling to do? Thus, the next time you hear me preach and appeal to people to admit that they have been wrong about: their indifference to God, the relevance of the Bible, the identity of Jesus, and their understand about the meaning of life, I will be asking them to do what I myself have done and will, with God’s help, continue to do as the need arises. Thank you to everyone for being patient with me.

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.