What if...

I went for a walk recently with a group of friends, and one of them asked me "what if we have got it all wrong? what if there is no God and when we dies that is it?"

One answer to that is from CS Lewis book the Silver Chair. You might not know the story but at this point two children and a Marshwiggle have just rescued the Prince from the Witches underground castle, and then she turns up and tried to bewitch them into believing there is no other world to go back to. This is Puddleglum's response:

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..Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things- trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it,. We're just babies making up a game, is you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play world that licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if the two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long I should think, but that's small loss if the world's as a dull a place as you say.”

My answer to the question is that I would live this life even if there is no eternal life to look forward to. Looking at it from a totally non-spiritual basis, if the only thing that raises mankind above animals is morality, and the only moral purpose for life is to do good to others, then I still do not know a better way to "do good" than the way I am living.

As an individual I might not make any great contrubutions, but as a group of people working together as the church I see the "lost ones" of our society restored and finding value as a person, worth in society and healing in their souls.

I could be an ecological martyr- recycle all my rubbish, eat only organic fair-traded food, refuse to shop in supermarkets etc but I think I would jsut get side-tracked in doing so. It is possible to champion such causes and still be essentially a selfish/hurt/unloving/unhealed person.

I totally believe that it is only in God, through Jesus Christ, that people are able to become who they are really meant to be. When God sent Jesus to die on the cross he was not just on a rescue mission- sending out a lifeboat to populate heaven. God intends us to start our relationship with Him now, here on earth, to give us what He always intended us to have in Eden, to make us fully who He wanted us to be.

I don't celebrate Christmas

The most simple reason why I do not is that Jesus asked us to remember us in the bread and wine (communion). We take bread and wine on a Sunday, and on a Tuesday when we have a meal together a bit like the last supper (we call this agape). I don't find the need to "specially remember" at Christmas or Easter because I remember all through the year.

Other reasons are to do with the commercialism of the modern Xmas and the pagan roots of the festival. I can't find trees and tinsel and Santa in the bible, so why use them to celebrate Jesus birth? I don't think Jesus would be honoured by the drunkeness and partying that goes on in this season. Or the selfishness that sees some people in excess and others left out.

But... I am not slamming people who celebrate from a sincere heart. I think the thing is to know why you do or do not do it, and honour God in that from your own conscience.

Young Free and single!

Young, Free and Single!
sounds good doesn't it?
To be young and unattached, plenty of time on your hands and enough friends and money to really enjoy yourself. To be able to go off on holiday, date whoever you please with no strings attached and do (almost) whatever you please without any restricting responsibility or commitment...

Well, I am going to use my singleness for something even better than that!
I have vowed to stay celibate and I am going to give my life to Jesus, to building the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth and showing people life as God intended it to be.

Jesus talked about it, he said if you can live this way then go for it (full quote)

Jesus also prayed for life on earth to be as it is in heaven and he also said there is no marriage in heaven

Paul was celibate and talked about being undivided in your devotion to God. He acknowleged that marriage (rightly) brings worries with it, and he reccommended people stayed single to commit themselves to Jesus

The life I am living is "wierd" in the eyes of the average person, but that's because this lifestlye does not belong on earth- it belongs to the Kingdom of God- it belongs in heaven!

I am a celibate because I have met THE most amazing person, and He has all my love, and I want to do things with Him and for Him. I am not going to waste my life going after things that do not last. Maybe it looks like I am missing out on what the world has to offer, but you know what? I'm not interested. Heaven is going to be full of loving Jesus- and I am going to start doing that now!

Thy Mighty Love O God Constraineth Me

Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me,
Like some strong tide it presseth on its way,
Seeking a channel in my earth bound soul,
Seeking to sweep all barriers away.


Shall I not yield to that constraining power?
Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in?
Thy love O God at last hath conquered me,
Life cannot be as it hath hither been.


Break through my nature, mighty, heavenly love,
Clear every avenue of thought and brain,
Flood my affections, purify my will,
Let nothing but Thine own pure life remain.


Thus wholly mastered and possessed by God,
Forth from my life, spontaneous and free,
Shall flow a stream of tenderness and grace,
Loving, because God loved, eternally.


This hymn is by Emily May Grimes.
It inspires me because it talks about being completely taken over by God, and surely that is the way it should be? I always feel uncomfortable with the "God in my pocket" type of God who fits in with my lifestyle and does not change me. God, to me is totally overwhelming and awesome. God is also one who loves us completely and our experience of His love should be as overpowering as He is Almighty, it should not be warm and cosy.


Loving God and being loved by God causes us to change, he draws us into more and more of His nature so we become pure as He is pure.


The other thing about the love of God is that he does overwhelm and posess us. Some people are scared of the idea of this kind of thing, they want to stay in control, but by being out of our control and into His we find an amazing freedom we can never know any other way. It is like we suddenly become everything we were meant to be. Like a caged animal let out of its controlled environment into the wild.


Last February I went for a walk along a river in the countryside, (that is I wore wellingtons and walked along the river itself- not on the bank). The force of the water and the sense of power yet peace made me think of this hymn. It made me consider how much of my life is motivated and controlled by the force of God (the river) and how much is controlled by my own self-will (walking against the flow). It makes me think how as a fishes home environment is the river, our "home environment" can be the presence of God 'cos the Holy Spirit is with us and in us and brings God to us- even in the everyday stuff.


Most of my life I am probably a million miles from this kind of ideal love. But it is still my ideal and my aim. I am probably happiest when I get away from people and into the open with God- but I don't do it enough!

Why bother to be righteous?

Why bother to be righteous? Why bother to do the right thing if no-one else does, if they all get away with it, if no-one notices wether you do or not?

At work I am pretty much my own boss, and so long as the orders go out and the invoices get written and paid no-one really checks up on what I am doing. Sometimes I find it hard to be righteous in things like time keeping or making sure I do the jobs I would rather shove to one side. But I do believe righteousness is important.

We often sing "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness" and that is straight out of the Bible. It also says (Matt 5 v 6) "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness..." , and (v10) "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness..." If Jesus strarted off His ministry talking about righteousness then it must be important.

When Mary annointed the feet of Jesus with perfume Judas got angry and said it was a waste of money. In brackets we are told he was used to stealing money from the common purse, and it was because he was so greedy that her extravagant generosity annoyed him. Some people say it was this unrighteousness that led to greater greed for money until he was prepared to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. I don't know how far I want to push that theory, but I think it is definately the case that a "little thing" so often leads to a bigger thing and then our consciences get dull and we end up in all sorts of predicaments we would never have dreamed of.

But more than that, I want to try to live righteous because I love Jesus, and I do not want to upset Him.

Psalm 73 is one of my favourites 'cos it talks about keeping pure when everyone else seems to be getting away with it. It is a Psalm I read at a time when I was struggling with keeping my promises in the face of others who had gone back on theirs and didn't seem any worse off as a result.
Psalm 73

Demanding

Ever felt that life is too demanding?

Have a look at this lot from Matthew 14:

• Herod has John (Jesus cousin) killed. When Jesus hears about it he goes off in a boat to a quiet place.
• When the boat arrives there is a crowd of people waiting for Jesus, so he spends the day healing them
• As it gets late they realise no-one has any food and it is too late to get any, so Jesus does the miracle of feed 5thousand people with 2 loves and 5 fish
• After they have cleared up 12 baskets of leftovers Jesus sends the disciples off in the boat and goes up the hill to be by himself
• In the middle of the night Jesus walks across the water to catch up with the disciples who are having a hard time in a storm
• When the disciples see Jesus they freak out. Then Peter decides he wants to try walking on the water too and Jesus has to catch him.
• Once Peter is safe back in the boat Jesus sorts out the storm
• When they get to the shore, there is a crowd of people waiting again, and again Jesus spends time with them healing them
• Then the Pharisees turn up wanting a religious discussion about handwashing.....
  

Jesus had every right to take some time out to mourn for John. He did not have to heal the people in the crowd who were pestering him, but he had compassion on them. He was not obliged to feed them, but he cared about them. He did not have to spend time teaching Peter about faith by letting him try walking on water, but he was dedicated to training this chap and saw it was important in the long term. He could have avoided the crowd when they turned up again- he had done more than his duty the day before, but he did not keep a record like that. And so on....

Sometimes when I am busy I forget to smile or forget to talk to people. I get snappy when someone asks for something and I think I already have more than enough to do. Generally I don’t mind doing things for people, my problem is I am so much in my own world I don’t notice things that need doing, or people who could do with a friendly word, a txt or a visit.

Who am I that I am so important that my needs should always come before everyone else’s? Am I so selfish that all my time should always be all my own? Jesus did not think like that, he was loving and patient and generous to everyone.

At the cross, when Jesus was being crucified, he saw Mary his mother and John his closest disciple. Jesus cared deeply for them both and told John to take her home as his own mother, and reassured Mary that John would care for her. I would not have done that. I would have been like “excuse me! I’m getting crucified here, can’t you sort yourselves out? Who do you think I am? Social services?”

It was because Jesus cared so much and was so unselfish that he was even prepared to go through the cross and take the blame for us so we could get to know him, and through him get to know God who loves the stubborn and selfish people of this world who have been doing their own thing since the Garden of Eden.

It’s a challenge to me to think outside of my own little box, and to step out and do something for someone else that will cut across my own plans or comforts.

"Kingdom business"

I work in what we call a "Kingdom Business" ie everyone employed is a member of the church and the profit from the business goes to the church to pay for stuff the church does. So what's so cool about that?

The best thing is being able to express my faith at work, things that I believe in like equality and righteousness are the standards we all work to. My life is not divided into who I am in my private life and who I am at work- I can be who I am 24/7.
I think it's great 'cos we all get paid the same. The managers are not aloof and unavailable, we are on first name terms and we know that everyone on site is in it together and supports each other. There is not back-biting or fighting to get up the career ladder ahead of your colleagues.
We have people working here who have been out of work or in prison and they need a chance to prove they can work and to gain self respect- I am glad we can give them that chance. We have people here who have degrees and have given up high-powered jobs and careers to make the business work- that's a radcial example of laying down your life (your plans and ambitions) down for others, for the sake of the kingdom. There is not the superiority here that says a man at a desk is worth more than the man in the warehouse.
I appreciate knowing that the profit from what I do goes to help the church and support what I believe in. I really appreciate that I am not working for the sake of rich share holders or corrupt investments.
We pray every morning before we start work- that's radical. Sometimes we pray about well basic stuff, e.g. for an overdue delivery to arrive, or for an impatient customer to give us a more realistic deadline- and God answers those prayers! It is good to know you are not working in your own strength, but in His.


All this stuff is inspired by Jesus. He stood for equality. He stood for honesty. He stood for integrity. He stood up for the poor. He called the rich to account. We can dare to follow his ethics in business.

Favourite

This is one of my favourite bits in the Bible from 2 Philippians
It talks about how Jesus chose to be humble, and so God has been able to honour him. It shows us the way is to be humble like Jesus. It talks about how Jesus who was equal with God chose to become human like us, to go through what we go through, and to end up dying to take the blame for us.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father


That's the kind of person I can follow!

New Blog

This is my first post, so this is to let you know what I am on about.
Basically I think Jesus is inspiring. I don;t think "church" or "Christianity" are always inspiring, but Jesus was and is radical, challenging, relevant and well inspiring.
So... this blog will gradually fill up with things that have inspired me about Jesus.

I firmly believe that either Jesus is not real and therefore not relevant, or he is real and who he said he was, and so on that basis totally relevant and demands an honest response from us to try to live the way he did and the way he taught.
That is why I live in a Christian Community, and that is why I work in a Christian business, and that is why I am a celibate and have vowed to stay celibate. Anyway, you'll probably notice some of these themes come up later on...