I wish more young believers would so artistically present their faith in, and love for, Christ. Jeff Bethke is to be commended for his wonderful example to other young believers. He has so many catch-phrases cleverly woven through his poem that Christians have used to share with others why we think Christianity is so uniquely beautiful. "Religion says DO - Jesus says DONE." Amen.
Religion is merely the 'ordered' expression of devotion to God. 'Ordered' means that there are 'rules' about how this is done. It also involves guidelines for ceremonies, service, occasions (births, deaths, marriages memorials). Read through the New Testament and you'll notice these guidelines. Thus, Christianity is a religion in this sense that James commends in James 1. But it is not another of the merely man-made religions.
In his video, it seems that Jeff Bethke criticises churches that are concerned about how they are ordered when there are so many people outside of these churches that are suffering and hungry. This commits the all-too-often-made "either / or" reduction. It assumes that if a church is ordered well (including how it is led, where it worships, how it worships) it can not concerned for the unchurched needy. To be sure, it is all too easy for churches to be too concerned about leadership structures and titles, buildings and mortgages, and what takes place in its meetings. When these things become the sole focus, churches die. But this is a false dichotomy. It's not a matter of a church being either well ordered OR concerned for the poor. In fact, most churches I'm aware of are concerned about being well ordered AND showing concern for the poor. Most.
Father, help us to be better representatives of Who You are. May we display our love for You with greater passion - greater devotion - greater sincerity. Give us a soft, tender, sensitive heart that responds quickly to Your Spirit's leading, correcting, and whispers. May we become who we are not yet but realise we need to be. We pray that You would enlarge our hearts to care and show that care to those who need it most. Let our hearts be inclined to serve away from the craved spotlight of others' approving looks, and serve well the one You've put before us. In Jesus' Name, Amen.Andrew Corbett, 27th January 2012
The old King James Version translation of this verse uses the word "strait" for the modern word "narrow". For us Tasmanians, we are very familiar with what a strait is (as distinct from something that is "straight"). It carries the idea that there is a narrow way through bounded by barriers. Jesus said that eternal life was like this. As we walk with God the path is bounded by two great barriers: 1. Love for God, and 2. Love for others. Upon closer investigation we discover that both barriers bear both barrier markings. God has bounded the path of those who follow Him with these two great safety barricades. Step over either one and the follower of Christ is no longer loving God or people. Keep as close to the middle of the strait and you can only love God and others. So who would want to live on the edge of the strait knowing that the closer to the edge you get the further away from fellowship with God you get at the same time? But is it wrong to go up to the edge? I actually think this is perfectly the wrong question. The one who wants to love God, live for Him, walk closely with Him, does not ask how close to the edge they are allowed to get before it's "wrong".
Money? Health? Happiness? Certainly these were the respective wishes of Japanese, European and American parents for their childrenaccording to a recent survey. But I have an advantage over my Japanese, European and American survey respondents. They only gotone wish. I've got three! I could trump them all and wish for all three of their wishes! But should I?
Who would make irrelevant wishes? When it comes to all things beneficial, and therefore helpful, relevance should certainly be presumed. This is especially true when it comes to wishes. But it's also true when it comes to any claim of helpfulness such as churches which claim to help make life better. Any church daring to make such a bold and public claim would first have to be relevant to its claimants. 
A young man wondered though. He was 'forced' to accompany his parents to church. "Irrelevant!" his body muttered. But then he witnessed his parents marriage very nearly disintegrate. Confused, despairing, fearful, he did not know what he could do to help his parents. What happened next changed his life. It was something the boring and irrelevant preacher said during one his boring and irrelevant sermons in his boring and irrelevant church that totally rescued his parents' marriage. The young man was forced to reconsider how he understood "relevant" and "irrelevant." That same young man grew up to become a preacher!
Each week I have people contact me who want help making their lives better. Some of these people turn up on a Sunday and discover that what they previously thought was irrelevant is now very relevant. From the acceptance shown by those who greet them to the love they experience from those worshiping around them to the strange sense of the transcendent as the music begins to the inner whisper of the Spirit of God they hear as the preacher speaks. Relevant and helpful.
When God called Abram to leave where he was, God wasn't speaking to Abram at Ur of the Chaldeans (he'd already left there) but rather at - Haran! Initially God called Terah, Abram's father, to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, along with his family - which included Abram, Sarai and Terah's Grandson, Lot. He was on a divine mission to reach Canaan. But instead, Terah compromised his mission and camped at a place he named "Haran".
It could have been difficulty that halted Terah from completing the mission God had given him. But God would have known the mission was going to be difficult. Surely God wouldn't ask someone to do something that would be difficult for them to do? If you're hoping the answer is, "Of course God wouldn't ask someone to do something difficult!" - don't ask William Carey for his opinion! When he arrived in India in 1793 as the first British Baptist Missionary to India, he faced opposition from the British Government, the death of his young son, the nervous breakdown of his wife, and no converts for the seven years of his ministry! Carey's mission was difficult but he knew that it was also divine.
History has become tired of proving to the world that comfort and comfortableness are the obstacles to greatness and achievement. Becoming seduced by Comfort's mistress-call will always mean that its victims become unwilling to achieve their potential. Could it have been comfort that led to Terah abandoning his divine mission? Do a study of Christ's "Beware" statements and notice how most of these fall under the category of comfort. Terah had reached a point in his journey where he didn't want to go on any further.
Terah's late son's name was Haran. In Hebrew, this name means mountaineer. The place where Terah camped was coincidentally named Haran but in the Hebrew it is a slightly different word meaning parched.
However, even though Terah failed, God redeemed His mission. All the while He was preparing Abram. God will always see to His mission. As F.W. Boreham has written, the impossibilities of God's mission are remedied by a baby. That is, we tend to look for full-blown solutions while God nearly always provides potential solutions in the form of seeds, babies, or children.
Somehow, Terah's dream of reaching Canaan had died. The camp at Haran (later referred to as Padan Aram) as "parched" as it was, seemed more appealing to Terah than the Promise of Canaan. Sometimes our mediocre spiritual state (either individually or as a church) seems more appealing than the mountainous path yet-to-be trod to our fuller potential. Maybe it wasn't difficulty, weariness, or comfort that enticed Terah to stop? Could it have been fear? Was he afraid to proceed into theunknown when the known at least gave him some sense of security?
Jesus Christ has time.
As we prepare to celebrate this Christmas, we remember the Christmas Child who 'divided' time. We describe time as either being "B.C." (Before Christ) or "A.D." (Anno Domini). No other person in history has ever been similarly honoured. When Christ came, everything changed - including the way we refer to history. When Christ comes into a life today, everything changes still. It's not just History that has a B.C. and an A.D. point - it's every life who has turned to the only One who can divide the history of their lives into B.C. ("before I came to Christ") and A.D. ("After my Decision to follow Christ").
This Christmas is a celebration of the One who entered history and erases pasts. He did this for me. Before Christ found me I had done shameful things. When I came to Christ He erased my past, my "B.C.", and for that I will be eternally grateful! Since I have placed my life under the Lordship of Christ my future, my "A.D.", is now secured. There are times when my previous life of sin haunts me relentlessly. How could a Saviour who atoned for sins nearly two thousand years ago possibly forgive my sin which, at the time, I hadn't committed yet? But this Saviour is not just Anno Domini (Lord of the Year) He is Aetas Domini (Lord of Time). Jesus Christ literally has time.
There are some people who say that Jesus can only guess what the future holds - but that He may guess wrong. The technical term for this isOpen Theology. There are others who say that Jesus knows exactly what choices every personcould make and has chosen the pathway of collective choices that produces the best outcome. The technical term for this is Middle Knowledge. But the mystery saturating the pages of Scripture is that the Once-Christmas-Child is not merely a Guesser of the Future, but the Lord of the Future. But not just the Future, time. He is Aetas Domini!
The first Christmas was what all the past looked forward to. The first Christmas is what all today, and in the future will, look back to. It changed everything. It still does. When I shared this message last Sunday, a lady who had had many years living under Narcis Domini came to Christ and wanted the Aetas Domini to be her Domini. She wanted her life to move from B.C. to A.D.!
"I want my past to be B.C." she said. Her eyes said it all.Before Christ. Before Christ we were "dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked" wrote the seasoned Apostle. But then Christmas! And "all things have become new" (2Cor. 5:17). Does you life have a time-dividing point? Can you identify that era of your life which might be referred to as "B.C."? Everyone who lives in the Anno Domini (Year of the Lord) has a B.C.
The Christmas Child became the Christ, Aetas Domini, the Lord of Time. The One who could enter time and deal with the past in His present and atone for all in the future. On the night He was to be betrayed, He took bread, broke it, and uttered only what the Aetas Domini could decree-
The next time you are dogged by your past failures, mistakes, sins and trespasses, you have a Saviour who has erased these from your past. The next time you are anxious, you have a Saviour who is with you now! The next time your future looks uncertain you can walk into it with the One who is Lord of it!
Lessons From Joseph's Brothers.
Joseph's brothers could not tolerate that their father Jacob would so overtly honour Joseph over them. As a pastor, I've seen this emotion stirred many times when I've publicly honoured someone. "You thanked them from the pulpit! But I deserve thanks to! Why didn't you thank me?!" After this sort of thing happened far too many times, I realised that honouring someone actually tests others. Honouring someone flushes out what is in another's heart. It reveals why they are doing what they are doing. Afterall, in serving Christ we should be serving to glorify Jesus and promote His Cause - regardless of who gets recognised for it. Right?
So it's probably time for a confession: The problem with someone else being honoured is that it feels like I'm notbeing honoured. It's as if I'm being deprived something. This is hardly an attitude that glorifies Christ, because Jesus calls me to "decrease" and to help others "increase". I request your patience as I try to adjust my attitude to be more Christlike - especially when someone else is being honoured. My attitude adjustment is being helped by some things that I am discovering -
I want to be a person of honour- that is, I want to be a perspn who honours others and celebrates those who are honoured. To "honour" is to regard as important. I want to help others feel important. From what I read in Scripture, it is important for me to make others feel important by showing them expressions of unconditionallove. To honour someone is to promote them as important. (For those who are married, you may recall that honouring was an integral aspect of your marriage vows.)
Wow! The God of the Universe is secure enough to honour, celebrate, recognise, thank, reward, His Servants! Man may not see, but God always does. The next time you're not being honoured, don't pout (like I do) insteadrejoice with those rejoice (Romans 12:15), and join in seeking to fulfil Romans 12:10 ("outdo one another in showing honour"). Then one day, in fact, the day, our Father in Heaven will become the source of your previously unimagined honour. I wonder how the account of Joseph and his brothers would have been different if they had honoured they colour-coated sibling instead of envying and despising him?
McCubbin's painting is in three sections. The first section has a young wife pining for her former life. Perhaps, and probably, this was England. In the background, her husband is seen near their covered wagon lighting a fire at the base of a blue-gum tree. This iconic young woman is emblematic of the sacrifice that thousands of such women made in pioneering Australia. Pioneering is tough, lonely, and taxing. Many of these early female pioneers experienced madness in this face of this. McCubbin captures this with this opening scene.
F.W. Boreham points out to his readers that this iconic Australian painting was actually a picture of the Gospel! In the same way that the Father's sacrifice was equal to, if not greater, than any sacrifice ever made.
During the upcoming movie release frenzy season, consider what Boreham did and look for the Gospel in these stories. You'll probably see it once you start looking for it. This is because, as Winkie Pratney points out, the Gospel is THE story from which all other stories take their cue. When you see feint traces of THE story in the books, movies, art or nature, help others to see it as well. That, don't just be a consumer of culture, be an interpreter of it. Of course Boreham was not the first to master this. The great cross-cultural missionary from Tarsus did the same thing when he entered Athens when he interpreted a monument and a 'pagan' poem for his culturally-aware audience. In a Biblically illiterate culture, we may find that we need to do this more and more.
The problem with following Jesus closely is that it gets uncomfortable! He wants me to respond to people in surprising ways. Just when I want to hit someone - He leads me to follow Him into blessingthem with a surprise gift! Just when I want to be alone and rest - He leads me to follow Him to a lonely, weary, faith-battler and surprise them with encouragement and time. Surprisingly I feel invigorated every time I follow this Surprising Saviour. It's when I follow from a distance that I experience distance with my Saviour (just like the Apostle Peter did).
Just when I thought following Jesus was a walk along a tropical beach (I learned this from the famous "Footprints In The Sands" photo) - I'm surprised to discover that I must follow Him at times over jagged rocks. I can tell I'm following Him because I have to place my feet in the blood-stained footprints of my Surprising Saviour as we walk along the path of trial. Then I'm surprised when He wanders up the slopes of self-discipline and I have to choose each step I make - even though I usually don't want to. It seems like every second step up the slopes of self-discipline is lands me on a temptation. These steps flood my mind with very appealing invitations. "You're tired, skip your devotional reading tonight...you can read it tomorrow." "You haven't got time to pray now, there's people waiting to see you...just pray when you get an uninterrupted minute." "Don't force your faith or beliefs on this non-Christian...you'll be offensive." And so on.
Have you been surprised by the Saviour? His original disciples were. Herod was. Pilate was. James was. He is a surprising Saviour who can lead us in surprising ways, bring surprising people into our lives, and call us to surprise people with acts of undeserved kindness.