May-30-Naked Love

Key Word:- LOVE

Title:- Naked Love

Luke 21:2-4
He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.

Sir Edward Dyer, Elizabethan Poet, in his poem ‘Love is Love’ finishes the first of just two stanzas with these words:-

‘Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs;
And love is love, in beggars and in kings.’

How sweet. However, do tell me friends: who would you rather be loved by? A beggar or a King? It’s an important question for Dyer says there is no difference in the quality and quantity of love from either personage. Surely, this is a truth of biblical proportion and comfort? However, there are a number of problems with this acceptance of no differentiation between the love of a beggar and the love of a king.

Consider first, two families living in the same street and both have a dearly loved child. Over the years, the father of one family has the skill and opportunity to excel in the workplace and increase his financial base substantially. The other has skill and commitment but lacking opportunity due to the mismanagement of others, means that he has struggled just to keep a roof over their heads! When the kid's of these two families reach leaving age, one loving parent gives a car and a college fund to his children, the other one gives an apology. ‘Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs; And love is love, in beggars and in kings.’ Maybe, but in this case, who would the child have better been loved by? A beggar or a king?

Or how about this: imagine two married couples, both deeply in love. One couple holidays annually, eats out regularly and buys one another thoughtful and expensive gifts. The other couple occasionally orders Pizza, rarely goes anywhere and make their own cards to send to one another on their birthdays. They get by. However, tell me friends, would you rather be loved by a beggar or a king? Does it matter??

Though I do believe Dyer to be correct, nevertheless, a king can afford a whole together more material and practical expression of that same quality and quantity of love found in beggars. In this material world, such king like material expression of love, can also be seen and felt and yes, it does make life that much easier and living that much nicer. That’s just a fact.

Never the less, money’s not everything, though it can get you most things and it can buy you a good amount of happiness and provide you with a substantial amount of freedom. Yes indeed, money is a great key to freedom of every kind but money is not everything and thank God for that, for most people are ot Kings in their own financial world.

It seems to me then, that if indeed, Dyer is correct, then love has to run deeper, farther and longer than anything money can buy. I mean anything! For true love possesses an eternal quality and in its truest form has to be communicated in faith. Have you got that? True love has to be communicated in faith. In this respect maybe, beggars have the opportunity to express a purer and truer love, more than kings could ever do. For true love driven by faith, prayerfully and continually commits the beloved to God the good and God the great, while watching for and prayerfully pushing for, the goodness, grace and mercy of God, to be mightily manifest in the lives of those they truly love. Yes, I wonder if beggars have the opportunity to love deeper and purer whilst by faith, always beaming sunlight shafts of prayer into the lives of those they wish to bless but at the moment, cannot bless themselves. Do you see that possibility?

Naked love, disrobed of wealth, has to find eternal conduits of expression rather than the easy and earthly material ones, that money can so easily buy. I tell you now friends, you cannot buy love, neither can you sell love, for love does not need a Porsche to carry itself to someones heart. Think about that for yes indeed,

‘Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs;
And love is love, in beggars and in kings.’

Listen:-For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9

Pray:- Loving God, give my love, both eternal roots and eternal consequences, in Jesus name I ask it, Amen!

May-15-Fighting the Flow!

Key Word:- PERSEVERANCE

Title:- Fighting the Flow!

John 10:20
And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?

Peer pressure is a most powerful force. When a community has an ethos, a world view, an approach, a belief that is widely accepted espoused and adhered to by the vast majority within it and you choose to go against it, disagree with it and even confront it; then friends, you can guarantee that a problem will arise and of course that problem will be YOU!

Jesus, even in His miracles and teachings had Psalm 69:8 fulfilled amongst His nearest and dearest, when his own flesh and blood did not believe in Him. Christ’s feelings at this point in His ministry are quite sad and profound; “I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother's children;” and again in John 7:5, “For even His brothers did not believe in Him.”

It’s hard to fight against the flow isn’t it? It’s difficult to navigate and cross the consensus of opinion that may be against you. Misunderstandings of motives and intent will be rife at times like this. My goodness, even David the sweet singer of Israel, in all his littleness when talking openly about the greatness of God’s almightiness, when having the audacity to suggest fighting Goliath of Gath by faith, had to suffer his first battle at the hands of his family; “Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 1 Samuel 17:28. Ha! It all could have ended there don’t you think? It could all have ended there!

It seems to me that trials of tremendous proportions come upon those that follow God against the flow. What differentiates those that turn back from the call of God on their lives, from those that pursue it, despite suffering the lonely isolation of such enormous pressure? Surely it has to do with that possession of the knowledge of the certainty of the joy that is set before us. We know God has told us to do this! We know God has told us to go there! We know God has told us to be this way! We know this fighting against the flow pleases Him and that makes us happy! Let me ask you today, do you have any measure of that certainty of joy that comes with knowing He shall say to you “well done my good and faithful servant!” If so, then keep swimming against the flow! Don’t listen to those who with misunderstanding, lack of faith, and deep envy, are challenged and maybe even condemned in the highlighting of their own disobedience by your splashing and a wiggling, jumping and a striding against the fearsome flow of a quiet conformity, a cultural conservatism, or a frolicking and rollicking, rocking revival, rooted in inauthenticity. Don't listen to them.

Listen:- ....He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Luke 4:16-19

Pray:- Unless You go with me, and I know it, I dare not go, I cannot stand. Anoint me then with the true power of Your presence today. Amen and amen

Mar-12-The Borsalino Back Step

Dream Word – RETREAT

Numbers 16:1-3
Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" NKJV

The Borsalino Back Step

The Bible is the scariest book I have ever read. The aspects it presents us with regarding our Holy and loving God, are both punishingly perplexing and terribly troubling!

In Numbers chapter 16, to say that the Lord got a little annoyed at His people is so much an understatement that it verges on reefer madness! Let’s face it, let’s man up about this friends, for in the plain reading of the Bible text, God lost it here! God’s wrath was so kindled by these conniving and ungrateful, power hungry and arrogant bunch of bananas. that His righteous anger knew no bounds. Twice he says to Moses here, whilst rolling up His sleeves mind you, ‘Get out the way mate, cause once and for all I’m gonna wak the lot of ‘em!’ Numbers 16 (my translation) The Hebrew Wa’akaleh, translated here as ‘that I may consume them’ means very simply that ‘He’s going to take away the garbage and throw the trash in the impacter and good riddance to the lot of it!’ God is very, very angry here.

On the first occasion of ‘God losing it’ in this chapter, (Yes I do hope that little phrase troubles you. It should.) It was the intervention of Moses that saved the congregation as a whole. Yet still God burns alive in Holy pan fire, frying consummation, the 250 incense swinging usurpers and then turns on Dathan and Abiram, their goods, their animals and their whole family, including the lickly, little ones, and swallows them alive into the mouth of a burning hell! It was only the intervention of Moses on this occasion that saved the congregation as a whole. God held back His wrath.

On the second occasion of ‘God losing it’ in this chapter, (Yes I do hope that little phrase troubles you a little more now. It should.) It was the intervention of Moses again that saved the congregation as a whole. Yet still, God sent a quickly consuming plague, killing 14,700 of his people before Moses and Aaron could do their work of supplication and propitiation, standing between the dead and the living, until the wrathful plague was halted.

These two men saved Israel over those few days and maybe one other woman saved one other man and their whole family as well. Let me explain:

If you closely look at our text for tonight, you will see not only the names of Korah, Dathan and Abiram but also of On, the son of Peleth. Yet On and his family do not appear as names of the dead in any of the related Scriptural texts. It would appear that on the part of On, some wise and speedy repentance had come upon him and after his little foray into the land of ‘Usurption’ he had speedily detached himself from his partners in crime. Rabbinical oral history, tells us that it was On’s wife who mightily advised him to get his act together, put his Borsalino on his head and back out of the business deal, post haste! It is not unreasonable to believe that she did and that On hearkened unto the wisdom of his “What the heck do you think you’re doing” wife. I’m pretty sure the conversation that went on in the tent of On would have made a Hollywood producer blush! Yes sir, these were deceitful times and desperate times for sure and we all know what animated language the heat of desperation produces in us. Blood and fire were at stake here and On’s wife was by no means cooking, no sir, she had no intention whatsoever of ‘Frying tonight.’

Tonight, there are no doubt some, ‘not so wholesome deals’ that some of you have gotten yourselves into. Maybe even some of you have been fortunate to have some loving people close to you, expressing their deep concern for the transactional outcome but you’ve thus far ignored them. Well, if the ground is beginning to shake before your feet, if people are dropping like flies around you, if your good wife is still bleeding your ears and God is feeling like an enemy rather than a friend, then maybe it’s time to start listening, put your own Borsalino on and back on out there right quickly now, doing the dance of the ‘Borsalino Back Step’ as you go!

Listen: - And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into battle; but you put on your robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of the chariots who were with him, saying, "Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel." So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, "It is the king of Israel!" Therefore they surrounded him to attack; but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God diverted them from him. NKJV

Pray:- Lord, it is so scary to have our eyes opened to the terrible predicament we, our family or our friends, have gotten ourselves into. As we put on our Borsolino hat on our banana shaped heads and back out of the dreadful predicament we have put ourselves into, we long with Jehoshaphat and the wife on On, cry out to You for help. Aaaaaaaaaaargghghghghghghgh....HELP!!!!! Amen Lord and amen!

May-09-Faithful Failures?

Key Word:- FAITHFULNESS

Title:- Faithful Failures?

1 Corinthians 4:4,5
…..but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, ….KJV

Reputed by many to be one of the best theological thinkers of his time; referred to as the 'Bloom of Puritanism' by Dr. M. L. Jones ; hero of the faith, ignition point for the 'Great Awakening', missionary to Housatonic Indians and president of Princeton University, Jonathan Edwards was never the less voted out of his church after 23 years of service, and 1200 sermons! The vote was 200 to 23 against him. Astonishing.

On a similar note, I am always encouraged when I read about those Old Testament scallywags, which we sometimes pompously refer to as ‘Heroes of the faith!’ For you see today, we would throw most of them out of our churches and that's the truth. So, you can see how it makes me giggle when I hear them so lovingly referenced! Honestly, I truly believe if God hadn’t mentioned many of them in Hebrews 11, as being heroes in His eyes, then by today’s standards, of measuring accepatable Christian giants we would have written off the vast majority of them as fantastic failures, each one of them possessing tremendous individual shortcomings and seemingly gigantic impediments that no respectable Christian should ever posses in today’s church. Undoubtedly, at some point these ‘Heroes of Faith,’ like Jonathan Edwards, would be voted out of their churches and regarded as failed as leaders.

However, understanding seeming failure is really not so simple. I wonder if at the great assizes what we see now as failure may indeed be judged otherwise? Paul seemed to think so when he says, “It is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court” (1 Cor 4:3). You see, 'leadership' is in fact a triple mix of leader, followers and circumstance and failure in any of these variables, can make or break the person up front, the person at the point, the sharp end, occupying the main leadership position. In this triple mix, some circumstances and some followers may be outside of your control yousee. Edwards found that out and I tell you, Edwards was no failure!

Friends I speak to us all today then, for we all lead in some capacity, when I tell you that I am increasingly convinced of three things:

First, that we all are imperfect human beings. So lighten up on leaders.

Second, repentance, growth and change are continual processes for us all, especially leaders. With your prayers and your encouragement, with your grace and with your favour, and especially with your support, your leaders will improve!

Thirdly and most importantly, that we followers can help leaders lead, can make leaders great, can invest and ensure the success of leadership. Yes, followers can make or break leaders. Think about that.

Listen: - Obey your leaders and follow their orders. They watch over your souls without resting, since they must give to God an account of their service. If you obey them, they will do their work gladly; if not, they will do it with sadness, and that would be of no help to you. Hebrews 13:17 TEV

Pray: - Lord help us followers to make great our loving leaders, in Jesus name I pray, amen!