just like jesus

I have posted twice before about what Jesus looks like. If you asked me about that I would probably say it is not important to me, but I've kind of had some of my prejudices about it shown up recently.

I was looking at this clip on YouTube, which is an amazing drama which some young folk from our church did at a main event at the start of the year depicting the struggle over a soul. I was actually quite disappointed to discover it was not original. I then decided to look at some of the other versions, but did not very far 'cos I found myself getting offended at some of the men playing the role of Jesus: Some were fat, or too old, or not handsome, or too handsome, or too amateur, or... just not like I imagined.

This got me thinking: Do I reject Jesus because I do not like the person who is representing Him to me?

Do I get offended if the person bringing a message or a word is too young? or too old? or fat? or needy? or professional? or nervous?

I know it is very easy to be swayed by cultural differences. We might esteem the liberated worship of African churches, but then write off American churches for what we see as their slick performances. Even within the UK we can disregard the established Anglican and Catholic churches and not consider that there may be very sincere believers who do touch with God through liturgy and ceremony.

When I have been to church with a friend of mine (still charismatic, but a different stream) I have found some of their “niceness” very difficult. When she came to our meeting, her husband struggled with leaders wearing hoodies. But we sang the same songs!

Even the apostles in the early church struggled to cope with believers from different backgrounds. Although Jesus had no issues about who he spoke to or ate with, God had to send Peter a vision to prepare him to listen to and go with Cornelius to preach to his household. It was a real dilemma for the Jewish believers to know what to do with the Gentiles who started to believe in Jesus.

Mother Teresa used to seek for the image of Christ in every person she dealt with. On days when she had to deal with really difficult people she would tell the sisters “I met Christ in the most distressing disguise today”.

I don't know if she ever failed to love someone as the image of Christ. I know I do.

purity #4

How do we find purity?

I listened to a song recently that seemed to me to sound like purity was a kind of golden rain that comes down from heaven and makes everything beautiful again.
I do agree that purity is a gift from God, but it is a gift that cost Him a lot and it does also take effort on our part to work it out.

Jesus blood makes us clean.
Right at the beginning God said that someone had to die to pay the price for sin. For centuaries people made animal scarifices again and again to try to keep right with God.
Then God became man as Jesus and did what we could not do by paying the price for us. We can pray for the cleansing power of Jesus blood to be over us to wash away our sins.

Baptism makes us clean.
When we are baptised we share in Jesus death and resurrection. Going under the water is a symbol of how Jesus died and rose again. It signifies that our old life and all it's sin has died and we rise as a new creation in Jesus.
Of course we have to keep choosing to live in the new life. But the truth is we can live a new life, all the old stuff is dead, and we can claim the power of our baptism to put to death the things that keep bugging us from the past.

The Holy Spirit makes us clean.
The Holy Spirit is God the Spirit living in us. God is pure and holy, so if we have the Holy Spirit in us then we have the power to live pure and holy lives. The Holy Spirit is sensitive and so brings a sensitivity to our conscience. We find we do not want to do the things that offend Him, and when we feel that absence of his presence it nudges us to put things right.

purity #3

On Sunday someone said that mixing the world with the church is like mixing ice-cream with horse pooh: The pooh is not much affected, but the icecream certainly is.

So what has that to say about purity?

Well, the church is supposed to be pure and separate from the world, but we let stuff from the world creep in (music, media, attitudes to money, fashion........). A lot of this stuff seems quite subtle or harmless, but thinking about putting pooh into ice-cream I would say that standard should be zero contamination.

When I was studying Food Hygiene I learnt that a lot of the food poisoning organisms are gut bacteria found on food instead of in the guts of the animals they came from. Our EHO explained this “faecal-oral contamination” as “shit on your food”.

Maybe if the church is feeling a bit sick or weak there is some cross-contamination with the world that needs sorting out???

The other way around.... the church is told to affect the world around us like a salty flavour, or like light in the darkness.

Many Christians are busy trying to find subtle ways to affect the world without being too outspoken about their faith incase it offends someone.

But Jesus did not do subtle.We are not meant to be subtle or acceptable. We are meant to be the clear beacon into the darkness.

How are people going to find the church if we have blended ourselves into the world?

Is it not better to be clean and cool icecream rather than a murky half melted mess? Then when people are in need they will find a church that is refreshing and life-giving.

Purity is not "intense" or "super-holy". Purity is how the church is mean to be.

Purity #2

My second pondering on purity comes from a discussion we had at home about holiness/purity/morality.

An illustration was given...
If you are wearing a white t-shirt you are careful to keep clean and you are aware of the smallest spot of dinner you drop down your front.
If you are wearing a dark top you can drop all sorts down your front and will not notice.

Infact, that day I was wearing a black top with a red cross, but I did have food spilled down it. Wearing the cross did not make me clean, the dark top meant the dirt did not show.

What does this mean in practice?
It shows how, if you are setting a high standard you will be aware of every spot and moral weakness and that will send you back to God for His cleansings.
If your standard is not set so high, all sorts of stuff can creep in step by step, and then you end up in a dilema or a big mess and you think “How did I get here???”

I have good friends who have made BIG mistakes. (I do not judge them, I pray to God he will be able to keep working in their lives so it comes good in the end).
I am sure none of these people would have dreamed of doing what they ended up doing, but somehow what they stood for gradually got erroded until they gave up or gave in or made a rash and previously out of character choice.

Someone else said (years ago) that it is easier to stop the car a mile from the cliff than an inch from the edge.
Our attitude should be how high we can set the standard, how much we can show our love for God. Not how much we can get away with.

Talking about standards can sound a bit negative, like you have to make the grade.
I prefer to think about the positives
... to be clean and free to express love to God.
... to be able to relate to others in purity without issues and agendas
... to be able to truly want the best for another person (not to want my own way)
... to be free from fear that untruths we have told will catch up with us
... to be able to worship without vanity, or pride, or self consciousness
... to be clear in your motives
... to be the person people can come to for help in God
... to not be the person they come to when they have a borderline joke to tell
... and so on!

Purity #1

The subject of purity has come up a few times recently in different ways.
Obviously God is holy and pure and he calls us to be like Him. But purity is an over-used word.

Volvic mineral water used to tell us “Purity, not just for the innocent”
We sell “pure” margarine at work which is gluten and dairy free.
“Pure indulgence” has been described as a box of luxury chocolates.
Will these products really bring us purity?

As Christians, when we talk about being purity we tend to think about sex. As if it is our sexual behaviour that makes us impure (or not). Is that all it is about?

The dictionary says:
purity noun 1 the state of being pure or unmixed. 2 freedom from contamination, pollution or unwholesome or intrusive elements. 3 chasteness or innocence.
ETYMOLOGY: 13c: from Latin puritas, from purus pure.

So what does it mean to be pure? Psalm 119 v 9 (RSV) says:
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to thy word.
So is that purity? Following what we read in the Bible down to the last letter?

In Matthew 5 v 8 (RSV) it says:
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
So is that the motive for purity? To experience God?

Philippians 4 v 8 (RSV) says:
Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
So... this is the first of a series of ponderings on purity.

AND

When I was reading Colossians recently I noticed one bit where Paul uses “and” several times. It’s like, you have just got the hang of something when there is a bit more, and when you think you have got that sorted, there is more again. I guess all the “ands” stop us from thinking we have got God sussed, there is always more to do, more to understand, more to reach into.
Here is the passage I was reading, it is from the RSV, but I have changed the spacing a bit .Paul has just been talking about thinking on the “higher things” of heaven and therefore putting to death worldly attitudes and opinions and behaviour…

Colossians 3 v 12-17
Put on THEN, as God’s chosen ones,
holy AND beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness,
AND patience, forbearing one another
AND, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.
AND above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
AND let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, to which indeed you were called in the one body.
AND be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach
AND admonish each other in all wisdom
AND as you sing psalms
AND hymns
AND spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
AND whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

This is my translation:
Because of what I’ve just explained, you can see how you are God’s chosen ones and how you are loved by him.
Because of this you are of course compassionate and kind and lowly and meek and patient with each other.
You are forgiving to each other because you remember how God has forgiven you.
There is love between you, joining you all together.
The peace of God is in you and flows from you.
The word’s of Jesus are always in your heart and on your lips, whether you are teaching or correcting or singing or praising God spontaneously whatever you say or do is always God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
This is not a problem, is it?