Category Archives: Ponderings

Robbed by tradition

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I’m going to say at the outset that not all traditions are bad – some traditions are enriching, valuable parts of what it is to be human and live in fellowship with other humans. As a fairly new Father, one of the things I can’t wait to do is establish family traditions that will give my family a sense of unity and history as we go through life together. So this is by no means an anti-Tradition rant for the sake of it.

However, there are other traditions that aren’t so good. For example, there’s an old story about a newly married couple and their first roast dinner.

Watching his wife prepare the joint of meat, the husband bemusedly watched her cut two inches from either end of the meat and threw it in the bin. Thinking it an awful waste, he asked her “Why have you just cut those ends off?”

“That’s just how my Mum taught me to prepare a roast. She’s done it all her life, and I never thought to ask her why,” she replied as she carried on seasoning the meat.

“Fair enough,” the husband said. “I don’t want to cut across family traditions. After all, Mum knows best!”
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A Valentine’s Gone Wrong

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I know it’s the middle of May, but I’d like to share a bit about a Valentine’s Day with my wife where I got it completely wrong. We had talked a bit about what we wanted to do to celebrate the day together, and my wife made it clear that what she really wanted was to have a night out. In the end, we didn’t manage to  find a baby sitter, so she then said that she’d be happy with a posh ready meal from a supermarket so that we’d be free to spend the time after dinner not cleaning up the kitchen. She left me responsible for working out what we’d eat, which is where things started to go wrong… Continue reading →

The importance of not knowing

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God has challenged me on my intellectual pride recently. I have a constant temptation to think that I have to understand everything, and that the route to spiritual growth is the ability to remember and regurgitate Scripture and doctrine. Maybe it’s because I’m someone who reads a fair bit of theology and Christian literature. Maybe it’s because I’ve been known to preach and teach in various contexts. Maybe I’m just a bit of a know-it-all! I don’t really know the root of it.

What I do know is that this tendency has held me back. I will often sense God reminding me of a scripture, or a particular aspect of doctrine or faith, and my knee-jerk reaction is “I know that!” While it can sound like I’m acknowledging what God is saying, I’ve started to realise that this is my pride saying “I already know this. I don’t need to hear that again, so tell me something new!” I’ve been unwittingly rejecting the day-by-day bread God has wanted to give me from His word.

Being a bit thick-headed, it took God pushing back for me to finally see what I was doing. The last time I told Him “I know that!”, He lovingly responded “No you don’t, Jon. If you knew it, I wouldn’t need to tell you. You need to stop telling me you know things just because you’ve heard it before, or even because you’ve preached it before. Trust me when I tell you something, and please listen to me!” If ever there was a word to cut through the fog of pride, it’s that one!

It’s so important to realise what you do and don’t know. There’s a reason Jesus said we must become like children when describing how we enter the Kingdom. Children aren’t in the place of being experts or teachers. On the contrary, children are learning everything new for the first time. It takes time for them to pick things up, and a father knows both what his child needs to learn and when they have learned it. I know that with my daughter, I don’t have to teach her how to sit up or walk any more – she’s already mastered them! Likewise, God, the perfect Father, knows exactly what we need to learn at each point and, as His children, we need to be ready to receive exactly what He wants to give us at each moment.

So here’s my new posture. There’s all kinds of things I think I know. I’ve studied and read a lot, but one of the things I’m finally learning is that there is so much I don’t know. There is so much about grace, faith and who I am in Christ that I still need to receive and meditate on. If God speaks to me about something, I’m going to take it on faith that I need to hear it and take time to meditate on it and get my mind renewed. Yes, I want to grow in wisdom and understanding, but wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord and knowing that there’s so much still to learn. So instead of feeling like I need to master truth, I want to focus on knowing Jesus who is the truth, and then let truth master me.

Ready? 1… 2… 3!

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A month or two ago, me and my daughter discovered a fun game. She’s still a baby, just starting to recognise certain words, and one of the phrases she’s already picked up is “1, 2, 3!” I’ve said this to her since she was a couple of months old to let her know that something was about to happen – you know, random tickles, attempts to help her to sit up, being thrown into the air, that sort of thing :)

One day, my wife showed me what happens when we hold her in our arms and count to three. She pushes herself back for us to catch her and rock her in our arms! I was sure that she wouldn’t do it if I was holding her out of fear that I wouldn’t manage to catch her like Mummy did, but I decided to give it a go. Lo and behold, as soon as I said “Three!”, she pushed herself back, in full confidence that I would catch her and make sure she was safe.

The look on her face as I caught her was absolutely precious, and was a large part of the fun of the game, but do you know what really touched me? It was that she had complete trust that I, her Daddy, was there and would make sure that nothing bad would happen to her. As this flooded my heart, I sensed the Lord telling me that this is what thrills His heart too. Nothing thrills God more than when we are in the middle of circumstances and trials that seem difficult, and instead of clinging on for dear life, we just lean back into His arms in total faith the He is willing, able and ready to catch and bear us up.

Since then, in the last couple of weeks or so, there’s now one of two things my daughter will do when we count to three. One time she may throw herself back as she has been for the last couple of months, but the new thing she has learned is to throw herself forward, going in for a big hug! If the trust and faith of throwing herself back filled my heart with joy, just imagine what the freely given hug of my daughter did! Trust is good, but loving affection is even better!!

As I’m writing this, I get the sense that there are people who will read this who need to hear God counting to three. It might be that you need to lean back and let Him bear you up, going against every instinct you have telling you you’ll fall and hurt yourself. Fight this instinct and just let yourself go in complete dependence on Him. Or it might be that you really need to lean in to Him, expressing a heart of love and devotion to Him, finding a new intimacy again as you embrace Him and He embraces you.

Whichever one you need to do today, get alone with Him, hear Him calling you and show Him you love and trust Him.

Ready? 1… 2… 3!

Missing out on God’s grace

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The preacher at my church this week referred to Hebrews 12:15 as part of his message. The author to the Hebrews says: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God…”

There is a very real danger that this life is spent failing to obtain the grace of God. It’s frighteningly easy when you think about it. There’s two basic ways it can happen, though most people only really give attention to one of them.

The most widely noticed way of missing the grace of God is to live in licence. This is where you crack on with living your life without worrying for a moment about whether you’re doing the right things or the wrong things. As long as you’re enjoying things, forging ahead with what you want, it’s all A-OK! In this way of living, you are the centre of your own universe, your very own God around which everything else orbits, and for whom all things exist. With only yourself as your vision, you miss the grace of God because you’re not even aware of needing it! Or else, if you are aware of God’s grace, you treat it as your own personal Dimplomatic Immunity card – carrying on with living to please yourself, flashing the “Under Grace” card if your own conscience or anyone else ever challenges you on it.

That seems fairly straight forward and obvious as a way of missing out on grace, but there’s another way that isn’t often called out for the evil that it is. It’s the polar opposite of living in licence, and it’s all too common in Christianity. It’s the way of legalism – living as if your standing before God all depends on you.

Where licence is often ignorant of God’s grace, legalism is also ignorant of God’s grace. People stuck in legalism spend their lives trying to live according to ideas of right and wrong. They passionately avoid the bad and seek to do the good, always keeping one eye on themselves to check how they’re doing. If they’re doing well, they feel like God is shining down on them and getting ready to pour out abundant blessings. If they’re doing badly, they’ll be in a deep slough of despond, certain that God is ticked off and just waiting for a chance to whack them for what they did wrong most recently. This leads to a manic-depressive, bi-polar faith where you can be up one minute and down the next.

Legalistic people miss out on the grace of God because they’re so wrapped up in themselves that they variously think they don’t need it (when they’re doing well) or don’t deserve it (when they’re doing badly). Either way, they’re not looking to God as the very source of their life, but rather to what they do or don’t do. This is such a subtle way of missing out on God’s grace and it can take years to de-program yourself from dead, works-based religion.

I have read Hebrews many times with a legalistic mindset, reading warnings to not miss the grace of God and renewing my efforts to not sin in my own strength, seeking to avoid licence at all costs. If you’re like I used to be, it’s important to remember that the author of Hebrews wasn’t writing to people who were in danger of licence. They were in danger of returning to the synagogues and temple worship of 1st century Judaism, a system devoid of God’s grace in the New Covenant as the author has been expounding it up to this point.

So what does it mean to obtain the grace of God? Pure and simple, it means seeking, finding and walking with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Obtaining grace sets those stuck in licence free from a slavery to sin that they’re not aware of or willfully ignoring. It sets the legalist free from their slavery and drudgery that sees sin and danger everywhere it looks. Both the legalist and the libertine are trapped in self-centred ways of looking at the world. If there’s a space for Jesus in their universe, it’s placing Him in their orbit as a crutch to make them feel better when needed. When we obtain grace, we’re set free from placing ourselves at the centre and Jesus becomes the centre around which we gravitate.

We live seeking Him, talking with Him, worshipping Him and looking to please Him. We make Him our pursuit, no matter what life brings our way. When things are going well, we remember that our every breath comes from Him and that He is our life. When things aren’t going so well, we don’t lick our wounds, sulk, wonder if we did something wrong and start begging for God’s forgiveness just in case. We remember who we are in Him, that we are already forgiven in Him, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Him and that He is our righteousness. We are picked up by His grace and moved forward by the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing His love and grace toward us, we are progressively liberated from the sin that dominates us when we live under licence or legalism.

When we obtain grace, Christ Jesus is our all in all. Our very identity is built on Him and Him alone, leaving us free to know Him in intimate, loving fellowship. There is no better way to live!

Disciplines aren’t the point

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So often we make spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting, worship and attending church meetings ends in themselves. We do them because they’re good things to do. Or else we make them means to our own ends be they obtaining God’s favour, being a better Christian or whatever other locks in life we make them the skeleton key of pastoral advice for.

This is to completely miss the point!

Bible study isn’t the point; the point of bible study is knowing Christ.

Prayer isn’t the point; the point of prayer is knowing Christ.

Fasting isn’t the point; the point of fasting is hungering after Christ.

Church attendance isn’t the point; the point of meeting other believers is knowing Christ better through His revelation and working in one another, and because we can know Him more faithfully this way than we can possibly on our own.

Yes, Bible study is good – it’s good to know good doctrine and know the bible better. Yes, prayer is good – it’s good to pour our fears, requests and thanks out to God. Yes, fasting is good – it can even lead to a bit of weight loss ;) . Yes, it is good to live a disciplined life – certainly better than a lazy slovenly one.

Yet all these things become meaningless if it is these benefits we have in mind and are chasing after.

In all these things, if we focus on the activities and temporal benefits as ends in themselves, we will miss out on their true blessing and benefit. Ultimately they’ll be of no profit to us at all.

Instead, if we count these pragmatic and temporal reasons as dung (Phil 3:8-11) and focus on making knowing and relating to Christ our true aim, we will not only find we get all the other benefits thrown in. We will also find that we have the greatest reward of all, which will never be taken from us – nothing less than Christ Himself!

We’re in a time of amnesty

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I was looking at Derby’s City Library website today when I saw that they’re currently holding a “Fines Amnesty” between 1st July and 11th July. This is what they have to say:

Visit a Derby City Library and we will waive any fines that you owe us.

Reading is very important – everything begins with reading – and we want as many people in Derby as possible to use their library service.

Look at the reasoning – they want as many people as possible in Derby to use their library service. So they are removing one of the obstacles that may have kept people away, the late fees that were still on their account and would need paying the next time they wanted to use the libraries’ facilities.

Let’s have a look at 2 Corinthians 5:19-21:

…in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Right now, at this very moment in history, we are in a time of God’s amnesty. Just like Derby’s libraries, God is not currently holding the sins of the world against it. Just like Derby’s libraries, He is instead wanting everyone who will come to come to Him, be reconnected to Him, and become the righteousness of God in Christ.

Just like Derby’s libraries attitude to those who stay away for fear of having to pay late fees, God is not angry with the world, poised on the edge of His seat, waiting for the time He can vent His rage and have His vengance. He is sending us out as His ministers of reconciliation, calling people to the hope that we can come to God, free of the fear of judgement, and be reconciled to Him.

The only thing keeping the people of Derby from having their late fees cancelled is not going to the library to take advantage of the offer. Some may not even know about it, since I’ve only found out about it randomly. Likewise, the only thing keeping people from receiving forgiveness and becoming the righteousness of God in Christ is coming to Him and saying “I’m laying down my arms, and claiming the benefits of the amnesty you’re offering!” This kindness and grace of God will then lead people to repentance and a renewed lifestyle as they marvel in the wonder of what He has done (Romans 2:4; Titus 2:11).

Just like Derby’s libraries, this amnesty has a sell-by date attached to it. If someone goes into the library on 12th July and says “I’m here to have my fees cancelled”, they’ll be told that they are sadly too late and must pay what was outstanding on their account after all.

There is coming a day when Jesus will return, and this will end the period of God’s amnesty. Anyone who comes to God now can experience the free grace of God, but once Jesus has returned, anyone who stands before God without having claimed this amnesty for themselves will have to pay what was outstanding on their account before the amnesty opened.

But God isn’t eager for this day to come. His attitude is still that of Exekiel 18:23 – “I take no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. I would rather that they repent and live!” He isn’t being held back from judging now by some external force that is frustrating His desire for vengance. No, His love, His compassion and His grace is leading Him to put that day off, so that people have more time to repent and find forgiveness and life in Him (2 Peter 3:9).

So, minister of reconciliation – go out and reconcile! Don’t hold people’s sins against them, because God isn’t currently doing that. Go out, befriend, show God’s love and grace, show the fruits of the freedom He was won for you by loving Jesus so much that He comes out of every pore. And let His Spirit lead you in reconciling others to Him, so that they too can benefit from the grace of God and come into the same glorious fellowship with God that is now ours by grace through faith!