nobrokenreed

His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.

So Saul demanded, bring me the burnt offering and the peace offering. And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself…how foolish, Samuel explained. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, He would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. – 1 Samuel, 14

In our last few days in England, we spent the time with our nephew’s little children, playing in the park, buying ice creams and going to the swings. Have you ever been aware how reliant on us little children are? They need to be fed, taught, paid attention to, clothed; even crossing the road is an exercise in their reliance on adults. It is lovely, because they are so simply unaware, they naturally take your hand to be led.

We spent much of the time away, in a more relaxed state listening to what the Lord might say to us, and this issue came up time and again. As a church, a society and most certainly as believers, we have become self-reliant. He addressed us specifically in what we were trying to do for Him, and I feel challenged.

This reliance on ourselves spreads into every aspect of our Christian lives. In our church, we come with our pre-packaged service, we will sing these songs, which will last for this long, and then this will happen, followed by that. One person – the same person, will tell us each week what the Lord is trying to say to us. Heaven forbid if the Lord decided that week to speak instead through the divorcee Mrs Jones, sitting in seat 13D, and told her a message He wanted everyone to hear, through her. When would the opportunity ever come for that message to be heard? Nope, we will run the show, and the show must be run how we determine.

Think I’m just church bashing? Not at all, the Lord really spoke to me about what we were doing in our corner of the world. We were chastised. How often did I decide that someone wasn’t worth approaching to speak to, even though the Spirit prompted me clearly to talk to them? Was our success decided by Him, or us? If Him, then was that same success dependent on Him or us? Were there really Saul times in my life, when what I had done in sin, just by simply ignoring God, meant that the opportunity the Lord had planned for me or others, had passed by forever? What a travesty if that is the case, which I am sure it is.

For those of who know us and our circumstance, you know how miraculous it is that he has started to restore our fortunes through our business. Many times he has spoken to both of us, and confirmed that he will bless us through this, and that he can be relied upon to be faithful to his word? Why then, did I wake up at 2:30am, stressed because I thought everything would fall apart if I wasn’t there. In fact, our business continues to go from strength to strength in spite of myself, and we are acutely aware of who is behind it. Self-reliance.

The amazing story of Jesus Christ, is that he lived absolutely inside of the will of God, never deviating. He trusted his Father moment by moment, and never wavered from that; he trusted that when he thrust his hands onto someone to be healed, the power required would be there. That when a response to the overzealous Pharisees was necessary, the Holy Spirit would provide the suitable answer. Even when faced with death, when the world felt finally that evil had won, he moved with intent onto the cross to fulfil the will of the Father, confident of the outcome. In Christ there was absolutely, not a shred of self-reliance.

So why are we so opposite to that? Why do we do ministry in our own strength, when the resources of heaven are at our disposal; why do we ignore the moment by moment leading of the Spirit, to instead decide how we will run things; why do we not trust that His ways, however seemingly absurd at times, are the best and sometimes only way this will work?

We must repent, every one of us. Let us not just pay lip service to this, but really turn away from running the show, all of the time. Amongst all, I am perhaps most guilty. But I believe that my self-reliance is perhaps the greatest blockage to success in what we try to do for the Lord. If I would just get out of the way, and follow his leading, then God – this extraordinary God, who can do so much more than I can ever imagine, might just be allowed to work.

Will I, will you, trust him enough to allow this to happen? Imagine what the result might be if we did.

 

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had; And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. – The Book of Acts

The sound of small feet pat-patting up our drive, often marks the beginning of a Sunday morning gathering. Young children, parents, singles, multi-nationals, grandparents – there is a wide spread that comes together on a Sunday morning.

Last week, we congregated in the kitchen, standing or sitting while catching up one with another. Stories were shared. On the kitchen table a loaf and a glass of wine; we take the command to share communion seriously, but it is done perhaps, a little differently. Several of us might read a passage that we have been reading during the week, or share what the Lord is doing in our lives or the lives of others. In this instance, one or two of our group needed some real prayer, and so we laid hands on them, praying as we went. Throughout all this, the loaf was broken and distributed, and a single cup was shared.

The Communion of Christ in Community.

In amongst all this, the children wandered in and out to check up on the grown-ups, scavenge for food, or just see what we’re up to. There was no “shhhshing” and they could stay and listen or wander back to their toys.

An old Chorus book was pulled out, and led by the Spirit we sang a chorus (or two) that seemed meaningful to what we were talking about or praying about at the time. As we sit around our table, we serve coffee and various food that each had brought along, all the while talking and sharing. Each week there is a period of accountability, who did we share with this week, who did we meet where we had an opportunity to share the Gospel with? Those who are meeting with others throughout the week, shared of how things were progressing, and the conversations that were coming up with new or non-believers. We pray in turn for those we are ministering to outside.

Next is a Discovery Bible Study; we’re currently in the Gospel of Luke and each week we read a small passage. Everyone is encouraged to discuss and share their thoughts with those who normally say too much (I’m one of those) careful to say less, and others who are less comfortable in public encouraged to speak up. The Lord through his Spirit may share something valuable to the quietest among us, and it is crucial that we listen. The discussion this week was robust, and in spite of some mild disagreements, there were no put downs or arguments about doctrine. The passage raised the issue of healing, always a thorny one, but we see our DBS not only as a teaching time, but also a time to learn obedience. The singular most important question we ask is, “what do I need to obey from this passage?” which in turns moves us away from the need to be right.

Our collective takeout, was that the Holy Spirit wants to heal those we meet, but we must also be more prepared for it than we were; out of it has come a commitment among us to spend more time in prayer and fasting on a regular basis, and a group commitment to spend time prayer-walking in each other’s neighbourhood during the week. Most of us already meet throughout the week with others within our gathering anyway.

Lunch is often then served, again from whatever anyone has brought to share, and then a group of us will go out on the streets in the afternoon to share our faith, or to minister to those we are already sharing with. Many of us are meeting in other smaller groups with non-believers throughout the week as well, seeking to reproduce what we have as a gathering, in other’s lives. So, with the Lord’s grace, new gatherings are born, each with an outward focus and commitment to reach others for Christ, as well as have Communion in community.

And the Lord keeps adding to the number – let me leave you with this from a week or so back.

A new couple turned up, as people sometimes do, to investigate our simple church. It doesn’t take visitors long to work out what is going on, but on this day, the couple had to leave early. They drove into town, where the car broke down, and so they sat by the roadside waiting for assistance. While waiting, they decided to talk to passers-by about Jesus, until eventually a lady came out from a house and offered them a cup of tea. She asked what they were doing there; in the course of conversation, our names came up and it turned out we along with others, had already been praying for her to come to know Christ. The visitors shared with this lady their morning with us, which further intrigued her, and so some of us will meet with her again to discuss the things of Jesus some more. The lady is genuinely interested in exploring more about the person of Jesus Christ.

What we have is precious, a gift from God. Let us encourage others who are looking for the same, persevere. God will add the resource as we start doing the work.

Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.

Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. – Matthew 24

I’ve always been interested in modern Christendom’s approach to changing the world. It doesn’t seem to line up with what to me at least, seems the obvious ‘New Testament‘ way. Further, we seem unable to grapple with the rapid decline of church influence on our society, such that the outside world won’t listen to us or take us seriously anymore. “They” are even curtailing where we can speak and what we can believe. The indignity of it all. Our approach has been an Old Testament one of cudgels and cutlasses.

Neil Cole, one of the pre-eminent Disciple makers around today, said recently that a great part of what he does, involves warning churches about what is surely coming. The question is, will we listen? There it is, in black and white, if they hated me, they will hate you. Can it be any clearer?

Is it any surprise then, when a State government attempts to ban the name of Jesus across every playground in every primary school in the State (what about Allah, Mohammed or Buddha?). Should it surprise us when everything in our society tilts against Christendom, when Christmas is slowly dismantled, when proselytising is banned, when the Bible is removed. Why do we respond with shock? Perhaps a better question is, how should we respond?

I have become indifferent to the endless requests to join marches, gatherings, sign petitions and goodness knows what else, to change politician’s minds about the future of the country. Has it done the cause of Christ any good at all for us to wave placards and raise our voices in the face of those whom we expect to live up to our beliefs (I nearly said standard) while in the same breath, tell them of the love of Christ. What good does it do when we tear down and isolate ourselves from the very ones we should be winning to Christ?

Jesus asks us simply to read the signs, and the signs tell us he is on the way, maybe even quite soon. Have we forgotten his message to us, his believers? Let us recap and listen.

That salvation is found in nothing in this world, but only in him, that we are to put our entire faith in him bringing us through trial, judgement and on into eternity with him. Because of this, because he loved us first, so we are to live an obedient life to him, preferably one that radiates out into the world the pure beauty of his presence. Then, when we live a life that will not bring disgrace to his name, to go out into the world wherever he calls us, and tell others the same, even if ‘out into the world’ means across the street to your neighbour. If we just did that at presumably great cost, you wonder if our world would be very different.

Some while back, the leaders of the China church began the ‘Back to Jerusalem’ project, taking up a vision they felt the Lord gave them to evangelise the entire Silk Route, all the way back to Jerusalem. Every since Paul’s day, the Gospel has moved West and they wondered whether this might usher in the return of the Lord. Millions have signed up, at great cost. Evangelising the ‘Stans’ and Arabia might be one of the most challenging activities ever undertaken by a believer. Of the first 40 groups to go out, 37 were arrested inside a month – but don’t worry, millions more, literally, are queuing to take their place.

All of this tells me that Christ is indeed on the way, that the purposes of God never cease and nothing will hinder them. They will be fulfilled in the fullness of time and no government pettiness will stop it for a moment. Isn’t that great!

The only question is then, what will I do with my brief time? Will I accept that all this is going to come to pass, that as a believer my message will be unpopular, but needs to be heard anyway as it will be heeded by some. Further, will I live in the faith and knowledge that God has given me a simple task to do right where I am.

If I do that, then I can leave the running of the world, the fate of politicians and governments in the hands of one to whom ‘all authority has been given’ and focus on my much simpler task.

One it would seem Jesus was confident would change the world.