Being off balance........

I took my son Joey for his daily toddle up the lane this afternoon. He loves it, and has really begun to look forward to this part of his routine. Being in a colder climate I plan this little outing for him otherwise we would be housebound all day long.

Joey is 17 months old and being the youngest of 5 is head strong to say the least. He knows what he wants, when he wants it and how it is going to happen. I suppose it comes from being the youngest in the pecking order.

For me the daily toddle is a frustrating experience. I want Joey to walk to the end of the lane and home again, getting a nice bit of exercise and breathing in some fresh country air along the way. I don't mind if he stops to admire the flowers, the horses, to jump through the puddles if he so desires, chat to me (and our fellow toddlers) along the way or any other thing that takes his fancy on the way up the lane. But I would certainly prefer a walk where both of us walk forward one way and then forward the same way home.

Joey is more creative (read stubborn) in his style.

He likes to walk a couple of steps forward. Shake his head at me, turn and go the opposite direction. I pick him up, walk forward, put him down, watch him toddle forward a few more paces, then prepare myself for the dash in the opposite direction.

It was during our habitual walk this afternoon that I noticed a very interesting thing about Joey.

Whenever he shook his head at me, he became unbalanced. His steps forward became more stumbley than usual and he lost his sense of direction. More often than not he would end up on his bottom in the gravely lane.

As I watched him do that, I wondered if that is how we look to God.

God has a plan for our lives, a focus for us to keep our eyes fixed upon- His son Jesus.

Sometimes we don't like the direction being a follower of Christ leads us. Life often throws us curve balls that we neither expect nor want, and certainly don't deserve. It is part of living in a world where sin and hurt are still a regular part of our earthly existence.

These are the times we have choices to make.

We can stand or even run from God shaking our head. But this may leave us off balanced. Then being unbalanced we stumble and fall, landing on our proverbial backside often physically as well as spiritually.

Or we can run towards the arms of our savior. Our Father, who loves us and tenderly wants to carry us through those times of hurt and uncertainty.

As frustrating as it is taking Joey for these walks, we will continue. He needs the exercise and the fresh air. He needs the training these little walks provide as a bi product. He needs the time to hold my hand and have my undivided attention for that small portion of time in my day. He needs me to smile and tell him I love him, praise His successes and guide him along the way with a firm but gentle hand.

He needs me to model for him the love and grace of God.

And I need to watch him as he learns these things, to remind me of my own short comings.

Clothes....

I know we Christians have a frustrating knack of spiritualizing everything. I know that it gets up the rest of the populations nose, and most likely many of our own noses as well. This one has certainly been up mine all week.

I found myself thinking very deeply about what my clothes say about me.

Do they represent any deeper side of my character, both good and bad?

Can you tell things about me by my clothing?

Can I tell things about my clothing?

This goes deeper than the 'modesty' debate that Christians normally get stuck on. This is, why do I make the choices I make about the clothes I wear, where I shop, how much I spend and even the fabrics I wear?

Jesus said in Matthew 15

16"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. 17"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "


It is what comes out of us that 'indicates' our heart conditions. Surely something as simple as clothing choices can also be governed by the condition of our heart? And if this is indeed the case then surely our clothing on a conscious or unconscious level represents something of the inner man both good and bad?

Things like the amount of money we spend on clothes, a desire for particular brands, or not for brands but a particular style, or fitting a mold, representing a cause, a team, people pleasing, fitting a group, a political part, the debt we may go into to afford our clothing or have we even developed a scrooge mentality that has come from something deeper within us that may not be God?

I am NOT talking here about rules, regulations or legalism in the sense of trying to tie anybody to any one particular choice or train of thought. I am trying to dig a little deeper into why we do the things we do!

I like comfortable clothes for instance. I go out of my way to find soft fabrics at an affordable price. I KNOW this is a reflection on the part of my character that likes comfort. This is a negative thing about me. I dislike it when I am uncomfortable in my clothes, in life, in a social situation, even in the weather. I lack particular traits that enable me to grin and bear it with style and grace and trust in God.

BUT over the last year the Lord has been showing me little niggly things like this in my character through the things that 'come out of me'. The every day things like preferences in clothing have shown me deep inconsistent, failings in my character that need to come under the power of the cross.

Please don't get me wrong. I am not at all suggesting a life of introspective naval gazing where we constantly examine everything we do, becoming so caught up with it that we are no good to anyone. What I am challenging is from time to time, examining some of the more robotic choices we make to see if there are hypocrisies that can be picked up in these choices that do not measure up with the character of God and the 'renewal of mind' we are supposed to be coming under.

I like this quote about being a hypocrite.

Hypocrite: 'one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity'- Andre' Gide (in When Bad Christians happen to Good People by Dave Burchett)

Something as simple as the clothes we wear, may very well reveal a flaw (or good trait) in our character that may be silently speaking volumes in the 'spiritual' realm as well as the physical.

We may be under a deception and blissfully lying beautifully to the world around us.

Why did he refuse the Myrrh?

This Easter I was struck with the question of why did Jesus refuse the Myrrh laced wine they offered him in Mark chapter 15:

22They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 23Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

The analgesic effects of Myrrh have been known throughout history and Myrrh has been used to help deal with pain and infection.
So why did Jesus refuse it?

Was it so that the could feel the true effects of what was about to take place, not numb in anyway to the pain that he would suffer for us?

Was it so He could truly identify with our pain as it talks about in Hebrews 4?

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,[e] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

One commentator draws attention to the fact that Jesus tasted the wine laced with Myrrh which would have been a bitter taste to His mouth, and while He tasted the bitterness of the he would not partake in the benefit of the drink.

Is it to set the example that God is exceedingly able to comfort us through any pain we face even unto death and we do not need to 'numb' our pain through other means, for us to draw comfort from sources other than Christ?

I am still not sure on why it was He refused that drink in the place of the skull, but I do know He did it for me.

A Bossy Attitude

WORD FOR THE WEEK 2 March 2008
Christian Fellowship Church, Bangalore, India.
http://www.cfcindia.com
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A Bossy Attitude

Zac Poonen

Our Lord was a servant, but alas, Christian leaders and
missionaries today are often masters-bosses and Sahibs.
We may not be able to prevent others from calling us "Sahibs"
perhaps, but the question is whether we desire to be Sahibs
in our hearts.

We need to re-learn the lesson that Jesus sought so
patiently to teach His disciples. To them He said, after
washing their feet, "In this world the kings and great men
order their slaves around...but among you the one who serves
you best will be your leader. Out in the world the master
sits at the table and is served by his servants. But not
here! For I am your servant" (Lk. 22:25-27-Living N.T.).
Oh, how these words should convict us of our bossy attitude to
those under us. How we should be humbled by the example of
our Lord. May the Lord remove from us all false, worldly
ideas of self-respect and dignity and race-superiority that
we may yet be having. May He teach us afresh that the real
mark of greatness in the kingdom of God is to be a servant,
a pourer of water, as Jesus was.

May God help us to take the low place not only now but right
through till the end of our lives. Let us never seek for
honour and respect and obedience from our fellow-brethren at
any time, not even when we feel we are senior workers in the
Lord's vineyard. In our attitude to others, may we always
recognise that they are the masters and we are the servants-
even if our official position in the administrative set-up
of our church is higher than theirs and even if we are
senior in age and in experience. The higher we go, the more
it becomes our responsibility to serve others.

2 Corinthians 4:5 is a very challenging verse in this
connection. Paul says there (paraphrasing his words).
"We preach two things: By our lips we proclaim Christ Jesus as
Lord. By our life we proclaim ourselves as your servants for
Jesus' sake."

Brothers and sisters, this is our twofold message;
and what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
This is the full gospel. May we never be guilty of proclaiming
only half of it, for only when this message is proclaimed in
its entirety will the heathen begin to see Christ sanctified in us.
It is the lack of this that hinders so much of the Lord's
work in our land today.

If we are to be servants, we have to be genuinely humble.
We shouldn't mistake condescension for humility. It is easy to
have condescension. Even selfish politicians have that.
We can have a conceited opinion of ourselves in our hearts that
we are big people and then condescend to fellowship with
lesser folk and mistake that for humility. No, that's not
humility at all.

Genuine humility involves my recognising that in God's eyes
there is no difference whatever between me and anyone else.
All the natural distinctions that exist between me and others
are caused by circumstances and environmental factors etc.,
and have all been eradicated at the cross. The cross of
Jesus reduces us all to zero. If that has not happened in my life,
it only indicates that I have not yet begun to esteem others
as more important than myself, as Philippians 2:3 commands us to.
Once we have been reduced to zero, it becomes easy to
take the low place, willingly and joyfully. And it becomes easy
then for God to accomplish His full purpose through us as well.

As long as Moses (at the age of 40) felt that he was to be
the leader of God's people, God couldn't use him
(Acts 7:25). God had to take him out into the wilderness for
another 40 years and break him. Finally, Moses came to the
place where he said, "Lord, I'm not the man for this job.
I'm unfit. I can't even speak" (and he really meant it;
it wasn't just false humility as it often is with some folk who
say similar things!). It was only then that God could use him,
for Moses had now come to an end of himself. At the age
of 40, in his own strength, all Moses could do was bury one
Egyptian under the sand. After God had broken him, he buried
the whole Egyptian army under the Red Sea. Such is the
result of brokenness.

It is not enough that the Lord take the five loaves and
bless them. They must be broken before the multitude can be fed.
This is a process that has to be repeated in our lives
constantly. God takes us, blesses us, breaks us and uses us.
Then we tend to get exalted because we have been used to
feed so many. So He has to take us and break us again. And
this process goes on all through life.

How we need to covet this brokenness. When a small atom is
broken, what power is released! Then what power could be
released if only the leaders in our churches and then the
congregations were broken by God.
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