nobrokenreed

Archives for May 2018

To Almost Follow Jesus

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Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. – Matthew 10

I’ve begun to use a simple tool, 3-Circles to explain the Gospel message to people on the streets. It’s not perfect, but it conveys a simple and visual message to listeners. It says, we are broken, that God originally had a perfect design but through our own bad choices we have become broken, and that Jesus can restore us. We just need to turn and follow.

When we go out on the streets today, I carry a little pad and pencil so I can draw the 3-Circles with people and explain things along the way. At the end, I ask, “which circle do you think you’re in?” which usually elicits a response, ‘brokenness.’ Which circle would you like to be in, and again we usually get the response, ‘God’s perfect design’. Then, to be frank, comes the stumbling block.

This weekend I met Toshi, a young Japanese student drawing on the streets – he will write your name in beautiful Japanese calligraphy, and chat at the same time, for a small donation. I asked him if he had heard the name ‘Jesus Christ’ which surprisingly he hadn’t until he looked it up in his translator. Then ensued the discussion, Buddha or Jesus, which seemed a natural point to introduce Jesus through the 3-Circles. As we walked through a simple Gospel message, we had a great discussion, and Toshi wrote Jesus beautifully in Japanese.

But it’s where people – many people, get stuck that intrigues me. I read it in their face, or they simply stumble or walk away.

You see, to get from ‘brokenness’ to ‘God’s perfect design’ we actually need to do something. We need to ‘turn and follow’ modern day parlance for repent and believe. Turning and following is where people stumble. In an instant, people seem to weigh up the demands that are ahead and consider the cost. Almost always, it is too much.

Think it ends there? Not at all.

Around the world, millions of believers sit in their churches, never having considered what it really means to ‘turn and follow.’ I have been one of them. The turning means to stop what we are doing, stop doing the things that offend Jesus profoundly. I think in the past 12 months, above everything I have come to realise the horror of the human situation. Not one of us will even remotely stand before a Holy God, we should all of us, be on our faces in the dust.

The follow occurs after the turn, it means simply that we do the things our Lord asks us to do. If he is our Lord, we will obey. If we recognise the horror of who we really are and what he has done, out of sheer gratitude, we will obey.

So few, so very few ever get to this, and so we end up almost following Jesus. To almost follow Jesus is what so many want; it means that we can carry on in the same vein, doing the same things that we did when Jesus first came to us. Little changes. Then, when he turns to us, raising his hand beckoning us to follow him to total obedience, we instead turn and go in a different direction.

How tragic for Jesus, how tragic for us. We see, we read about the freedom in the Gospels; we hear the stories even today, stories of those who are totally set free and then give their lives to him. But for us, for so many it seems so hard to give up. Is it because we have so much?

For those who do, what of them? Well, Jesus promises here that if we lose our lives for his sake – that is, if we truly turn and truly follow him, make him our Lord, we will gain our lives forever.

Surely it is time for us to take notice of that. If we will do it, consider too, others might notice.

The Dilemna for God

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Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool – Isaiah the Prophet

I had a Job moment last week. God so confronted me through a situation, that it left me reeling at the time, and has been turning over in the back of mind ever since. He has spoken out of the storm.

A man named Rob walked up our drive some months ago, he bought a surfboard. We talked to him, prayed with him and started Discovery Group. He was introduced to Jesus and we were thrilled. Then Rob fell off the wagon.

Initially, I thought it was alcohol, but as it turned out drugs were there too. A 3-day high consisted of a mix of heroine, cocaine and ice. The come down was not pretty. In between, the texts became abusive, insulting. What do you do, are we responsible for our actions or not? Our current no-fault society would say not. Still, we felt the Lord led him up our driveway, and so we tried to help.

After 3 months of cajoling on every side, we managed to get him in front of a someone who runs a rehab centre in Perth. This man oversees 200 addicts over 2 years, integrating them back into the workforce slowly, while breaking their dependence on hard drugs. He is a believer, and his success rate is unmatched anywhere. The only issue is, you do things his way, and his way is akin to a drill sergeant.

All this sounds easy of course, but it has been tumultuous for all concerned, a storm in our lives. Finally though, we had a 3 way conversation; me, Rob and Peter who runs the centre. Here’s how it went.

“Michael I want you to listen to this please. Rob, are you ready to turn your life around?” asks Peter

“I think so”

“Rob, I don’t deal in ‘think-so’s’ just answer yes or no. Are you ready to turn your life around?”

“Yes”

“So you will do whatever it takes to turn your life around then Rob?”

“Yes”

“Do you have the first 3 weeks rent you will need to stay at one of our homes? Do you have the money for the airfare to get here?”

So the conversation went. Until it came to the point where Peter explained the rules to Rob, carefully explaining that those who join and leave, don’t ever get a second chance. They leave because it is strict. There are simply too many people in the queue to get in in the first place.

“So what do you think of all that Rob, are you committed?”

“I think you sound like a f***wit mate,” came the response back.

“Don’t ever call me again please.” Click, gone. Forever.

I sat holding the phone to my ear for a few minutes, stunned. How could someone do that, throw away an opportunity, choose death over life, through their own arrogance, pride, reject the very offer of a way out of the turmoil in their lives? 1 in 30 people who applied, got to speak to this man.

Over the week, God has shown me gently what he deals with every moment. The sacrifice of his Son came at an enormous personal cost, yet through it we have a turn at life. The great God of the second chance. All we must do is humble ourselves enough to accept the terms. The healing, the turnaround begins immediately, sometimes dramatically. It lasts into eternity. One thing is for sure, we absolutely do not deserve it, and we cannot get our heads around how God gives it to us.

Yet, for so many, we throw it back in his face. The church changes the terms of the agreement, which are simply to turn and follow the Son. Instead, we dream up some ticket to heaven and then carry on living such that we become more identified with the world than we ever do with the Son. The world waves 2 fingers in the face of God, crying out, ‘how dare you tell me you’re going to judge me, I haven’t done anything wrong.’ The world is blinded, in denial.

God is left to do the only thing he can do, judge us for our terrible corruption. In the end, God will destroy us if we don’t turn and follow. Our label, whatever it is, will not save us.

The silver lining? We withdrew from Rob entirely, and he has since confessed his pride. We will take him, next week, to a rehab centre outside of Sydney. Not what we wanted, but who knows. If you remember, please pray. Up until the end, God doesn’t give up.

 

Aleph-Tav

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‘In the beginning’ – Genesis 1, God

‘And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed. I have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You.’ – John 17, Jesus

We have been learning recently about Aleph-Tav, the first and last letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and their occurrence throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament alone, they occur over 7,000 times. They are easily quoted as ‘the first and last’ or ‘beginning and end’ but there is more to their meaning than that. The Hebrew understood these 2 symbols as ‘fullness, completeness’ in particular to God’s covenant reference with his people.

Anyone familiar with the New Testament will recognise of course, the reference there to Jesus as not only the beginning and end (Revelation) but perhaps more so, the fullness or fulfillment of all that is God. This for the doubters, and there are many, that Jesus is both God and man. We get in John 17, this beautiful passage where Jesus never seeks to replace the Great Jehovah, but underscores his fulfillment of all that God is. This great King wants to be our Lord and Saviour.

So what about us?

This has been playing on me for some time over the past few weeks, crystallising in recent conversations we’ve had on the street. Meet Ram and Anne-Marie.

Ram is a Nepalese student here in Sydney. Lonely, working 50 hrs each week above his studies just to live, he is depressed and quiet. We shared the Gospel through him by using the 3-Circles, an outline of the brokenness in our lives, and God’s answer to that through Jesus. I drew it on a small piece of paper, ideal for Ram whose English was just okay. “Which circle do you see yourself in?”

“Brokenness of course,” Ram replied without hesitation.

“Which circle would you like to be in?” we asked, to which Ram replied, “God’s perfect design.”

It all leads us naturally to an introduction to Jesus. God’s perfect design for us, is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, God’s Aleph-Tav for humanity. We shared and prayed with Ram, gave him our phone number and sent him on his way a brighter person with hope, than when we had met.

Next up, there was Anne-Marie.  Anne-Marie had spent a life teaching RE in Catholic education. Hard-bitten to the core, she rejects the notion that there is a God, that Jesus was anything other than a good man and (yawn) that all religions all lead to God. How dare we imply that Jesus will return and judge us.

No matter how hard we tried, Anne-Marie would not listen. Fuelled by a lifetime of anger and bitterness, God was blamed, and her students blinded.

As we walked away, and I thought about these 2 people over the next few days, I was reminded again of Aleph-Tav. God it seems, view just two types of people in this world. It has nothing to do with riches, or status, education or where we live – or even how bad we are. We are simply Christ’s or Christless.

If we are Christ’s, then he is indeed our beginning and our total fulfillment. Nothing else will complete that for us. However, if we reject Christ, then he will also become our end. At the point when we die, rather than there being a new beginning, there will be an eternal ending. Only then do we realise there is no fulfillment – nothing at all, outside of Jesus. You can read lots more on Aleph-Tav elsewhere and it makes for some beautiful reading.

God, the great Yahweh, intended for Jesus to be our total fulfillment, just as Jesus – Jeshua, is to God. We are, all of us, created that way. If we already live in that existence, then part of our work is to find others who don’t know, and tell them.

Aleph-Tav, a story that needs to be passed on, the story of completeness.

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