How Church Can Change Your life by Josh Moody

 

 

How Church Can Change your Life

By Josh Moody

‘Why should I go to church at all?’ This question is addressed in this book and the book is divided into 10 questions.

John Stott said in his book Basic Christianity “people love Jesus but are not sure about the church.”

Why go to church?  Or rather what does this thing called the local chuch have to do with Christianity (or spirituality)?  Can’t I just be spiritual but not be religious? (which seems at least in part to mean not wanting to have an affiliation with a religious institution)  More and more people are asking this question today and not just ‘How do you do church?’

It would be easy to oversimplify or shove down people’s throats an answer - simply make the church more contemporary.  The writer is not opposed to ‘bringing the church up-to-date’ (though what that means depends on who is proposing it) as long as that does not also mean abandoning what Jesus said, in his word, the church should be.  His instinct (and experience) is that people are not asking the qustion ‘why do I need to go to church?’ because they are looking for more rock drums.  Smoke machines, dry ice, skinny jeans and laser shows are not wrong.  But they are not the answer either!

Josh attended many events when he was exposed to all sorts of ideas from consultants and denominational leaders about how to draw people (back) to church.  He realised that there was no point putting in place a really cool rock band (much as he was in favour of that sort of thing) or building a better car park (again, as much as that can be a good thing to do).  But there was no point doing that when people were not coming to chuch because they thought church in itself as pointless.  The prior questions with relation to church are simply ‘is it necessary?’ ‘do I have to go?’ So we need then to cast a vision for what the church is, so that the questions ‘do I have to go to church?’ is replaced with ‘what can I do to serve the church?’  The trouble of course is that people’s ideas of church are so miscued that if church – biblical church – were really like they think it is, then I don’t much blame them staying away.

Christ came to die for the church – and it needs saving.

There is another point though – pride.  It is very hard for us to believe that the secret of the universe, the centre of the infinite majesty of all reality, the revelation of God in Christ, the word eternal, is all being discussed in one rather small building on the corner of our street – or even in one very large building in the centre of our town.

To help us we start off with humility.  Going to church gets us out of our self-oriented prison.  We are forced to put up with music that is not our taste.  We are made to listen to truths that we wish were rather not true.  All this is good for us.  It is more than that – it is essential if we are to find joy. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5 verse 3)

QUESTION 1 – Is church only for Christians

There are quite a lot of people who think that going to church is something that you should only do if you are a Christian.  Some people who are not Christians believe that if they turned up one Sunday morning at a church service they would be intruding.  Really many people who are regular church-goers are absolutely thrilled when new people decide to show up and check out church for the first time.  They want new people to have the freedom to find things out and wish to see if they encounter the God that they believe is real.  Why this feeling then that someone who is not yet a Christian perhaps should not be allowed to come to a church? Of if they do turn up, why do they sometimes feel uncomfortable?  Some of this comes down to the sheer awkwardness of many church services.

William Temple “Church is the one society that exists for the benefit of its non-members.” 

The whole point of the church to be a living testimony to who God is for those who are looking to discover him.  The church is a “means of grace”.  It is a zone which God has designed where, if you come with an open heart and if the Spirit is at work in your life, you will encounter God himself.  It’s not our place; it’s his place.  It’s not a sanctuary in the sense of a special religious area which is separate from normal human reality.  This ‘temple’ is really Jesus himself and church is simply a means to that encounter with Jesus.

QUESTION 2 – Do I need to go to church if I am a Christian?

Augustine “There is no salvation outside the church.”  Certain groups of Christians might instead say today “There’s not much of any salvation in the church.”  Today the mantra is “Love Jesus ... not quite so sure about the church.”  Strange historically but even stranger biblically.

Biblically the church is the body of Christ – 1 Corinthians 12 verse 27.  That means that a Christian is a part of that body.  Paul was talking about the ‘universal church’ (that is church everywhere and at all times).  He meant that actual church in Corinth.  “You” he said, writing to the Corinthians, “you are the body of Christ.”

To be a member of Christ – that is, to be real, true Christian – is to be a member of the church.  There is no distinction because the church is the body of Christ; therefore, you cannot be a member of Christ without being a member of a church.

Paul is talking about the organic church, but he also does mean an actual church – an actual local church.  To be a Christian is to be a member of one of these churches.  The New Testament has no example, not a single one of a Christian who is not a member of a church.

The early chapters of Acts also provide evidence for this.  There, when many people became Christians, not only did they put their faith in Jesus, but they were joined to the church.  The two go together – Acts 2 verse 41 and 47.

Going to church does not save you all on its own.  Mere institutional allegiance, mere actual physical presence in a church building at a church service, however regular, however devoted in being there every time the church meets, is not what will save anyone.  We are saved by faith in Jesus, not by church attendance.

What does it mean?  It means that if you say you follow Jesus but you are not a member of a local church that is biblically founded and gospel-preaching, there is no reason to know for sure whether you are actually following Jesus.  Church is the natural expression of someone who follows Jesus in the same way that the natural expression of a hand is to be attached to its body.  Going to church means going to a local church that calls itself a church.

QUESTION 3 – Which church is the true church?

Jesus only talks about the church, using that specific term, twice.  That’s it, no more than this.  That’s not to say that the people of God more generally are not at the background to just about everything he is doing (of course they are).  In fact Jesus’ disciples are the church in miniature; 12 disciples for the 12 tribes of Israel (as has been pointed out many times).  But Jesus only uses the actual word ‘church’ 2 times.

The first occasion is related to Jesus’ famous declaration to Peter.  Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16 verses 15 and 16).  Then Jesus calls him ‘Peter’ (a kind of nickname; previously he had been Simon, now he was Peter, that is, Rock).  Then after that name-calling (in a positive sense), Jesus says that ‘on this rock I will build my church’ (Matthew 16 verse 18).

Jesus means what Peter has said (Jesus is the Christ), not who said it (Peter).  The reason I think this is because, right after this moment, Peter then goofs up big time.  After having confessed Jesus as the Messiah, he then goes on to tell Jesus not to die on a cross.  Jesus then looks at Peter and says, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ (Matthew 16 verses 22 and 23).

Jesus means the same as he means in the first instance – in both instances Jesus is talking about what Peter said.  When Peter said Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus is saying that that confession of Jesus is the rock on which he will build his church.  And when Peter says to Jesus not to die on a cross, what Peter said then is devilish.  This means that the foundation, the rock of the church is the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The apostle Paul said exactly the same thing a little later. He resolved to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified – 1 Corinthians 2 verse 2 - the power of the gospel – and that is the foundation of the church.

The true church is the one that has at its foundation the proclamation from the bible of Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Jesus mentions the word ‘church’ one other time.  In this instance it is when Jesus is asking how on earth his followers are going to get along and live together in community.  The answer is that they have to forgive each other.  How are they going to do that if someone sins against them?  Jesus gives a 3 step plan.

First go and tell the person his fault, just between the 2 of you.  Keep it private, don’t let egos enter in, have a nice friendly chat and most likely the other person will apologise and you will then say ‘I forgive you’ and all will be ok again.  However, sometimes the person who hurt you won’t listen.  Well then, the second you go with one or two others to the person.  The 2 witnesses are there to help discern whether the person making the accusation is really the bad apple.

But if it is not (here comes the word ‘church’) then, third, Jesus says ‘tell it to the church’ (Matthew 18 verse 17).  So the other mark of a real church is that it takes seriously its responsibility to act in a way that represents what it means to follow Jesus.  The church as a community is intended to be able to showcase what it means to follow Jesus authentically.

So the other sign of a true church is that it is a church that is serious about discipleship (and discipline).

There’s one other sign of the true church and that is the way it deals with baptism and communion.

If you want to find a true church you are looking for 3 things – for the true preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified.  You are looking for healthy discipleship and discipline.  Also you are looking for the way that the church does baptism and communion to be biblical.

QUESTION 4 – Why are there so many different kinds of churches?

Behind this question is usually the thought that it shows that the church is disunited, and therefore somehow witnesses against the truth of the church as an expression of God today.

But really, this is all a fairly massive misunderstanding: both of the value of having lots of different kinds of churches and of Jesus’ prayer.  Jesus prays that his disciples would be one as he and the father are one.  He does not pray that they would all be able to fit into the same box, like having the same music or architecture, wearing the same clothes and being part of the same institution.  He never prays any of that, which is probably a good thing, because to achieve that would take a miracle almost as big as walking on water every day.

No the point of Jesus’ prayer is relational, not institutional.  To be one as Jesus and the Father are one is a relational oneness. Jesus is part of the trinity – he is fully God and fully man in one person.  Christians believe that God is one in 3 person: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, what Jesus means is that we are to be ne like that.  It is a relational oneness, a oneness like the way really good friends are one even though they are different people, or like the way husband and wife are one even though sometimes they annoy each other.

Why are there so many different kinds of churches? Probably because there are quite a number of different kinds of people.

QUESTION 5 – What is the point of baptism and communion?

A – these are church things.  They are designed to be the entrance to the church (baptism) and the expression of ongoing involvement within the church (communion). 

B – these things have a particular meaning.  Baptism is an expression of being born into the Christian family by the Spirit of God.  When you are born of the Spirit you die to your old way of life and you rise to a new life in Jesus.  Baptism is an outward expression of this inward reality.  Communion is a sign of what Jesus has done on the cross.  It was designed by Jesus to help us remember that what he did on the cross was enough to take away all our sins.  Communion is intended to say that Jesus’ death was enough.

C – a lot of the other distinctions – and there are many – about these 2 matters are fine and worth considering and getting straight in your own head, but are not to be divisive between Christians.

The challenge with both of these things – baptism and communion – is actually a more basic level still.  They are both ‘signs’ that is, they are designed to point somewhere, but signs if they are not interpreted can easily become misunderstood.

People love signs. The signs feel significant (sort of mystical and mysterious) but because signs by themselves don’t say much of anything, if they are not interpreted when you actually ask people what is going on, or what they mean, they usually do not have a clue.  No idea at all.  They could not explain it – but ‘wow, it is like deep, man, oh yeah, so deeeep.’

This is why the best way to think of baptism and communion is as ‘visible words’.  That helps explain how they function in relation to the bible and to the preaching and teaching of the bible.  They are designed to be visible signs pointing to the same reality that has just been explained.  Without that they become signs pointing all over the place rather than pointing in one particular direction.  Baptism says: the way to be saved is to humble yourself, put your trust in Jesus, and then you will come to experience new life now and forever.  But it needs to be explained first.  Then, when you see the sign it becomes doubly meaningful.  You get the ‘visible word’ as well as the word.  Communion says: Jesus has died for your sins, once for all; don’t forget it, don’t ever forget that his death was sufficient and has covered everything.  But it also needs to be explained first.  Then, when you see the sign of communion, it too becomes doubly meaningful.  You get the ‘visible word’ as well as the word taught.

QUESTiON 6 – Why is preaching important?

Preaching is important because it is how God speaks today to his people through the bible.  “Preaching is the God-ordained means by which he meets with his people through his word and by his Spirit in such a way that his people’s eyes are opened to see Jesus and be captivated by him.”

·       Preaching is not a bunch of funny jokes stuck together for maximum humorous impact

·       Preaching is not a whole mass of theological content downloaded to educate everyone, willing or not.

·       Preaching is God’s way of meeting with people to show them Jesus, so that they are thrilled by him.

The reason why preaching is important is that Jesus is important.  Jesus has set up preaching to show us himself and help us see how great he is.  The more you love Jesus, the more you will love preaching.

Preaching therefore is not only an information download.  Preaching is teaching but it is more than teaching.  Preaching is motivation, but it is more than motivation, it is, when genuine, God addressing us through his word, the bible, to show us the beauty of Jesus.

Biblical preaching is important because it is Jesus’ way to meet with his people and show us his glory, his beauty, his love and to help us be captivated by who he is.

1.     We should come to hear preaching not merely with a desire to learn more stuff, but with a desire to encounter Jesus.  You are listening as if you were discerning what it is that Jesus wants to say to you.  This will forever change your attitude to preaching.

2.    We should leave from having heard biblical preaching with a desire to do something about what we have just heard.  Jesus makes this point at the end of the most famous sermon ever given, the Sermon on the Mount “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7 verse 24  There’s no point being shown Jesus in all his beauty and being moved to embrace him anew as the Lord of your life, and then doing absolutely zilch about it.  You might as well have not listened at all. 

3.    We should pray for and support our preacher.  Do it before he preaches as he preaches and after he preaches.  You want to gather around the preacher, not to idolize him but to keep the channel of preaching as clean and as open to the work of the Spirit as possible.

4.    We should advocate for and ensure that there is enough time, space and resources for the continued development of excellence in preaching.

QUESTION 7 – Why is there so much politics in church life?

If you read the New Testament, you will find that most of the letters in the New Testament are written in response to some problem in the church to which it is written.  This should not surprise us but at the same time it should also not satisfy us.  We should be aiming for our churches to grow in godliness, in Christlikeness, in love for each other, in simple humble appreciation of each other, in the ability to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, for that is love.  Love for God.  Love for his Word.  Love for each other.  Love for the people around us.  In the same way that we should not be satisfied that we are not (yet) who we are meant to be as Christians individually, so we should not be satisfied that churches are not (yet) who they are meant to be as Christian communities.  We should aim to be presented without spot or blemish, holy and pure, without stain or wrinkle, that is, full of Christ and full of his love.

If it should not satisfy us, how should we go about improving? 

First, we all need to chill a little.  A lot of stress and strain in church life results from people being too intense. 

Second, it is important that the Word is not only theoretically central to church life but functionally central.  We have to leave time for the explanation of the bible and to have that at the heart of what happens when we meet in big gatherings, as well as in small ones.

Third, love, love, love.  The bible says that love covers a multitude of sins.  It means to love somehow: to seek what is his or her best.  Love does not mean avoiding tough conversations or not doing any life-on-life accountability, but it does mean that all those sorts of things are not from an arrogant position, but from a loving, humble, gracious, self-giving position.  That changes everything; it changes ow we speak and it changes how we listen.  Jesus said you could tell his disciples by how they love one another – John 13 verse 35 – and so we who are loved by him love each other in turn.

Fourth, true Christians join the membership of the church.

Fifth, leadership, it really matters who churches have in leadership as elders and pastors.

QUESTION 8 – Should I go back if I have been hurt by church?

The wounds that this creates are not susceptible to glib answers or easy solutions.  ‘There is an authority structure that churches represent – and to some extent still today possess – that gives them unique opportunities to bless people, and unique opportunities to not be a blessing as well.’

Unlike other relationships, you can’t just avoid church forever.  If church is the local representation of the body of Christ, and if you are a member of Christ, you will be longing to be actually and practically reunited with that body of which you are truly and spiritually a part. You will not want to stay away forever.  If at some point you are going to want to re-enter church life, the next question is when and how? Here are some suggestions:

1.     Don’t just join any church.  Some churches hurt people because they are not healthy churches.  You want to join a church that not only says they follow Jesus but actually does follow him.  That means the bible should be taught from the pulpit.  That means that the gospel of Jesus Christ should be central to the church’s life.  That means that the church should not only be well ordered and structured, with a healthy eldership or leadership but a place of committed love, authentic discipleship and disciplined Christian living.

2.    Guard your heart against cynicism.  No-one in church claims to be perfect.  In fact, the whole structure of a biblical church is proclaiming the message that only in Christ can we be saved.  We know full well we are not perfect.  There are plenty of sinners around here.

3.    Practice a biblical authenticity.  Being authentic does not mean being who you are without processing what you should be or trying to be who you should be. We need to aim to live up to our authentic self, not downgrade ourselves to an inauthentic, unfocused, lowest-common-denominator self.  The author of the authentic self is you as God has designed you to be.  To be truly and genuinely authentic is to be who you are as designed by God.

4.    Understand the difference between friendship and fellowship.  To be in a church with other Christians means that you are called to love them.  That does not mean that you are called to like them.  A lot of people get hurt in church life because they misunderstand this distinction. They think that being in church means you have to like everyone around you and everyone has to like you.  Not at all.  There may well be some people in the church who you like, who can actually be your friends but there is no reason to think that includes everyone.  Church is family: you love your family, but sometimes you’d rather watch a baseball game with your friends.  Some of your family are also your best friends.  The two don’t always go together.  That’s okay.

5.    Don’t import into your next church the baggage from your last church.  That means not projecting onto people around you the stuff you have from the people at the last church.  There may well be someone you need to say sorry to from your last church.  You want a fresh start.  You want a sense of starting over.

6.    Take commitment slowly but steadily.  When you’ve been hurt, you’re a little gun-shy of commitment.  This is understandable and completely normal.  Perhaps you’re someone who in the past tended to jump right in with both feet with hardly a second thought.  Now you are not so sure.  Don’t run to extremes.  Don’t get into the habit of never committing.  Take it slowly.  Keep progressing steadily.  Start with attending.  Then find a small group.  Then get involved with serving.  Give of your time, your talents, and your treasure.  Bit by bit, slow but steady wins the race.

7.    Guard your ultimate centre of loyalty for no-one else but Jesus.  John said of Jesus that he did not entrust himself to people for he knew what was in them – John 2 verse 24.  You are called to love and serve people and to be in fellowship with Christians.  All this requires a degree of trust, commitment, loyalty and involvement.  But it does not require the ultimate degree of trust.  Only God is worthy of that sort of worship.  Some people get hurt because they are really exposing the inner person to another human person, when the only person who can handle that level of vulnerability and tenderness is Jesus.

 

QUESTION 9 – What should I look for in a healthy church?

By God’s grace and mercy, there is in our church culture a commitment to core convictions that tend historically to maintain gospel health in a church, here are 5 that matter:

First, a thorough commitment to the prevalence and prominence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second, a thorough commitment to the actual teaching of the bible and its functional and genuine authority over all matters.

Third, a biblical involvement in each other’s lives through life and fellowship and community.

Fourth, a thorough commitment to reach out with that gospel to those around us, locally and globally, to be part of God’s mission for the whole world.

Fifth, a biblical commitment to authentic, Word-driven, Spirit-filled worship around the biblical trajectory of the gospel.

Gospel FLOW = the gospel driving forward Fellowship (F), Learning (L), Outreach (O) and Worship (W).  It’s all about the gospel.  The gospel is not just the ABC of the Christian life; it is the A-Z, as Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end – Revelation 22 verse 13.  Each of the 4 core values is driven forward by that gospel and expresses that gospel in various ways. 

There is another side to this question, which is not so much “What am I looking for in a healthy church?” But more “How can I contribute to make this church more healthy?” To do that:

1.     Support your leaders

2.    Be committed in your attendance at worship services

3.    Give regularly, consistently and joyfully with generosity of your money, your time, and your commitment to the work of the gospel in the church

4.    Find ways to serve in the church

5.    Find ways to tell others about the church and live a life whereby you are inviting people to Jesus and to church

6.    Forgive others quickly, do not bear grudges, love and have mercy

7.    Live a life of gospel holiness, that is pursuing Christ with all you have, loving him above all else and loving your neighbour as yourself.  Be devoted to regular bible reading and prayer, take care of your family spiritually if you have one and turn your household into a place of godliness and Christlikeness so that church is not just one day in 7, but a 7-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year living experience.

      With a healthy church and increasingly healthy people involved – the church, under God’s grace and only by his favour, as it remains committed to Christ and his word, will organically, gradually become more like Christ and more effective at his mission to the world.  That’s not just health, it’s life, vitality and dynamism.

      QUESTION 10 – How can I serve in a church?

       It is much better to actually speak the truth in love and tell each other what we perceive are each other’s gifts.  There needs to be a level of community discernment that rubs against the grain of our individualism.  The ‘niceness’ culture of some churches can prevent striving for excellence in all things.

SERVE

S – Start small –

E - Every Endeavour

R – Real Relationships

V – Virtual Virtue

E – Exceptionally Excellent

 

The 7 Day Prayer Warrior Experience by Stormie Omartian

 

The 7 Day Prayer Warrior Experience by Stormie Omartian

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Ephesians 6 verses 14 – 18

 

In Ephesians 6 verses 10 and 11 Paul said “be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  This is not suggested – it is a command!  To “stand against” literally means to stand in front of and in opposition to the forces and plans of evil.  It means to be the one standing after the battle.  It also means to stand in preparation for the next battle.  Standing against the wiles of the devil certainly doesn’t mean do nothing.  If we are to do nothing until He comes, why do we need to wrestle against the enemy?  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”  Why does Jesus give us spiritual weapons to withstand evil forces if he doesn’t want us to use them?  We war not against people but against a spiritual hierarchy of invisible power.  The forces of evil are invisible powers with a structure and specific levels of authority.  We are not only to use our armour to protect and defend ourselves from them but also to go on the offensive against them as well.  When we do that, we close doors to the enemy and open doors to the will of God to be done on earth.  We advance God’s kingdom.  Every soldier knows exactly when the time is right to put on his protective battle gear.  Prayer warriors need to put on the armour of God every day because the war is always going on.  New battles continually need to be fought so that evil will be driven back, the kingdom of God advanced and the will of God be done.  Our spiritual armour not only protects us from the enemy, it also gives us what we need in order to push against him.

We must first identify what the armour is.  Paul talked about how to identify and battle the forces of evil using the Roman soldiers as his model.  They were by far the most powerful army of that time, and he relates the pieces of armour they had with what God has given us in the spirit realm.

-          Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth

-          Having put on the breastplate of righteousness

-          Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace

-          Above all, taking the shield of faith with which, you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one

-          And take the helmet of salvation

-          And the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God

-          Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit

-          Being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints

The enemy is still there – he is a defeated enemy but he is still waging the war.  We must have the whole armour of God protecting us at all times so we can stand successfully against the enemy’s plans for not only our life, but also the lives of others.

GIRD YOUR WAIST WITH TRUTH – verse 14

Roman soldiers girded their waist with something similar to what a weight lifter wears to give him strength and support so he won’t hurt the core of his body.  It enabled the soldiers to stand stronger against their enemy.  We too must tightly surround ourselves with truth and not allow for anything other than the truth to enter into our thinking or situation.  It means asking God to keep us undeceived so that we never allow deception to take root.  Knowing the truth liberates us from all possibility of deception and illuminates any darkness in our lives.  This doesn’t mean just know about the truth.  It means know it so that it becomes part of you and you live it.  And it is not just any truth that sets you free.  It is God’s truth.  When we wrap God’s truth around us, it protects us by strengthening our core being.  The enemy uses lies to confuse people and fill them with anxiety and fear.  The enemy’s lies completely mess up our thinking and weaken us if we believe them.  Every day we must combat his lies with God’s truth.

PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS – verse 14

A Roman soldier’s metal breastplate covered his chest and kept him from being fatally wounded in the heart.  Jesus’ perfect righteousness is what covers our heart and that is what God sees when he looks at us.  But we still have to put on righteousness like a soldier puts on a bulletproof vest.  That means we must choose to live God’s way.  We cannot be protected if we deliberately walk outside the ways and will of God.  Our decision every day must be to live a righteous life – not in our own strength, but by the enablement of the Holy Spirit in us.  We must acknowledge that we depend on God and choose to live our life for Him.  Even though we are a new creation, we still must decide to live like we are.  When we make that choice every day to live in a righteous manner, our life is covered and our heart is protected.  Our breastplate of righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus in us.  It protects our heart from any mortal wounds and assures us that the enemy can never destroy us because of sin.  Every day say, “Lord show me anything in me that is not right in your eyes so I can confess it before you, because I choose to live your way.”

SHOE YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE – verse 15

The Roman soldier has special shoes or boots for protecting their feet.  They were strong military shoes studded on the bottom of the soles in a way similar to cleats.  Properly shod feet can stand strong against the enemy and keep from slipping.  As a prayer warrior we need to have the foundation we walk in to be solid and protective. Having peace with God and peace in God is an unshakable foundation from which we can defend ourselves and stay standing strong.  The word “preparation” means that the gospel of peace has already been accomplished.  It is already prepared for you!  You just have to walk in it.  God has peace for us that is beyond our comprehension.  It is not that we can’t imagine having peace; it’s just that we can’t imagine having that kind of peace in the midst of the things we experience here on earth.  The enemy wants to steal our peace and keep us stirred up, anxious, fearful, upset and always in a stance of waiting for something terrible to happen at any minute.  The enemy wants us unable to forget he terrible things that occurred in the past and instead remember them as though they happened yesterday.  God has healing for upsetting memories.  It’s not that he gives us amnesia.  We still remember that it happened, but not incessantly and not with the same pain and torture.  Jesus made it possible for us to have the peace that passes all understanding – the kind that carries us, stabilizes us, grounds us, and keeps us from slipping.

TAKE THE SHIELD OF FAITH – verse 16

In Roman times, the weapons used were arrows and swords.  The soldiers sometimes shot flaming arrows and darts over protective walls to set people and their dwelling places on fire.  In the same way, the enemy shoots spiritual arrows and darts at us designed to piece our heart with discouragement and make us fearful, anxious, uncertain or incapacitated.  The shield we have against these arrows of the enemy is our faith and it is a powerful protection from all that.  We all have faith in something or someone.  When we put our faith in God and his son we start out having small faith, but our faith grows stronger as we read the word and spend time with God in prayer.  God’s word says that it is our faith in God and his faithfulness to us that becomes a shield for us.  When we put our faith in God and his word, he is our shield and defense.  We can still depend on the faithfulness of God to cover us and increase our faith as we hide ourselves in him.  When the enemy comes to test your allegiance to the Lord, focus on God, his word and his faithfulness to do what he says.  Faith dissolves fear and makes us courageous.  Faith opens up unlimited possibilities.  Our faith must grow strong enough to believe for the impossible because we believe in the God of the impossible, and with him all things are possible.

TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION – verse 17

The helmet protects a soldier’s head.  Our spiritual helmet protects our head too.  What do we need protection from? The lies of the enemy of course.  The enemy wants to keep you from understanding – and living in – all that salvation means for you.  He wants you blinded to everything Jesus died for you to have.  He wants you convinced that you are worthless, rejected, weak, bad, unimportant, hopeless and unlovable.  Or if he can’t get you to think that way, he tempts you to go in the opposite direction and be full of pride.  Either way you fall.  The devil wants to fill our minds with feelings of guilt, helplessness and misery.  He doesn’t want us to understand all that Jesus did for us on the cross because he knows when we put on that helmet of salvation and are transformed through the renewing of our mind, we will be able to see ourselves as God sees us – someone worth dying for.  You are the adopted son or daughter of God, who is the Creator of all and King of the universe.  This means you are royalty.  Jesus sacrificed his life for you to wear the helmet of salvation which is like a crown on your head distinguishing you as regal.  We put on the helmet of salvation the moment we receive the Lord, but we must constantly remember what Jesus saved us for and from and who we are in him.

TAKE THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD – verse 17

Satan tried to destroy Jesus when he was born by inspiring wicked King Herod to kill all the babies in Bethlehem.  30 years later when Jesus was baptized and led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, Satan attacked him again.  Jesus’ weapon against him was God’s word – which is the “sword of the Spirit.”  No spiritual battle can be fought and won without our greatest weapon – the Word of God.  God’s word was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  It is God breathed.  Each writer of the bible was moved by the Spirit as his gifts and intellect were used by God to speak to them and through them.  The word of God is so powerful that is a double-edged sword in our hands.  That means it is a defensive as well as offensive weapon.  As prayer warriors we need both.  Once you receive the Lord, the Holy Spirit in you brings the word alive to your mind, soul and spirit every time you read it.  The Bible is alive.  It is living and it has power for today.  Every time you read God’s word it will become more firmly planted in your mind and heart.  From there it will protect you from attacks of the enemy.  Put on the word like a protective garment every morning.  Speak the word, pray the word, live the word, and let it live in you so it becomes part of your armour.

God wants us to be persistent in our praying.  That’s what it means to pray without ceasing.  It is not intermittent start-and-stop-whenever-I-am-desperate kind of praying.  It is deliberate.  It is with knowledge of what we are doing and why.  It is not random throw-it-up-and-see-if-sticks kind of praying.  It’s praying always, with every kind of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, which means it is Holy Spirit ignited.

It is important to pray according to the will of God.  The way to do that is to pray with the Word of God woven into our heart and our prayers.  And it is to pray with the leading of the Spirit.  Jesus said keep asking and keep praying.

When a soldier is on active duty, he sleeps in his battle gear.  He stays dressed in case of a surprise attack.  We do the same.  We don’t take our armour off when we go to bed at night.  It is protecting us while we sleep.  But in the morning we need to put it on fresh and new – polished, so to speak – so that we have maximum protection for the day.

Part of our protective armour is our own praying.  There is a blessing for us when we are praying.  Great rewards are given to us when we pray in response to the call of God on our lives.  The now-and-then praying doesn’t do that.  It is the everyday, consistent praying that seems to build up rewards for us in a holy bank in heaven.  We keep making deposits and when we need to make a big withdrawal on earth, we have enough to cover it.  Our prayers are not answered as a way of rewarding us for good behaviour.  Our obedience to God is evidence that we are in alignment with his will.  The most important thing is not to get wheat we want in prayer, but to accomplish what God wants.  We delight ourselves in him first.  We make him our priority and our greatest desire is to please him.

Elijah by F B Meyer

There is a wonderful prayer in 1 Kings 18 that I have never really thought about before. "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me O Lord hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their heart back again." Elijah stood before King Ahab and told him to bring all the people who opposed the Lord to Mount Carmel. There were 450 prophets of Baal and another 400 who ate at Jezebel's table, ie they were her own private prophets. In the prayer Elijah prayed we can see he had a real passion for God. He didn't care what would happen to himself. All he wanted was for the people to realise who God was. So often when we are playing our part in God's kingdom we are only interested in our own little part, our own little church, our own outreach to people that we become blinkered to everything else that is going on around us. It is no wonder that we have such a small measure of success. We need to learn to trust God no matter what. Elijah was convinced that he was just a tool in God's hands. He was totally yielded, surrendered and emptied. So often it is all about what we want to do with our lives. We plan things without thinking too much of whether it is what God wants us to do. We miss out on God's blessing and working in our lives because we are too busy doing what we want, what brings us happiness for the here and now. Elijah wanted to know what God's plan was. God knows the end from the beginning. Remember when the Children of Israel were in Egypt under Pharaoh - 400 years living there and they were slaves for another nation. Yet God had a plan in mind, a man in mind in fact to bring about that plan. Then when they were in the wilderness and God supplied the manna to feed them every day, the people had to listen and obey exactly. The manna would only fall when they followed the instructions to the letter. Too often we drift through life not thinking about anything but our own happiness for the here and now - but what about tomorrow? Will we have a tomorrow? What then? To know God's plan is the secret and that can be revealed in various ways - circumstances for instance or when we do things because we feel it is right to do them. In each of these situations, when we pray and ask God for help the way ahead will be revealed just as it was for Elijah, but only one piece of the puzzle at a time. Elijah knew what would happen when the prophets of Baal turned up. It was a test for both he and them. Elijah knew that God would light his altar but not theirs. He knew that the people would come to their senses when they saw this real life act of God's power before them. Do we have the faith of Elijah? Do we pray specifically or generally? Elijah waited for the people to arrive but he just didn't sit about. He prayed and pleaded for the people to see who God was. As a result of all that preparation in prayer when it came to the crunch God answered Elijah's prayer and the evidence was seen in the fire that consumed the altar. For Elijah God was a reality in his life - wouldn't it be wonderful to know that same reality today. To have hope beyond today. To not just live for the moment and hope things will be OK tomorrow. Wouldn't it be awful if one person believed in God and the other didn't, for them to both to get to the end of their lives and realise what awaits them - for the one who believed there is hope and heaven for eternity but for the other there is nothing but hell fire and they believed all along that at the end of it all that is life and it is finished. To realise too late that all their living for the moment in this life was wasted. Think of the story of Lazarus in the New Testament. He was poor and lay in the gate of the rich man. Both died but it was the rich man who regretted his life. He begged for someone to go back and warn his own brothers not to live the way they were at present because after that they would end up where he was and it was definitely not the place to be. That rich man remembered his previous life, he knew and experienced the reality of the fires of hell, he knew he had people in his previous life to warn but you know what is the most saddest thing of all - he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't go back and tell his brothers, he couldn't even get a glass of water to cool his tongue. What an awful existence to experience.

King's Cross by Timothy Keller

KING'S CROSS by Timothy Keller I read this book in 2 days journaling as I read. I have to say that each chapter in this book is like a sermon in itself and sometimes you need to read it a couple of times to get the gist of what Timothy Keller is saying. I have decided in reviewing this book to quote whole chunks simply because it is the easiest way at times to understand what he is saying. Chapter 1 The Dance When Jesus came out of the waters of baptism the Father envelops him and covers him with words of love "You are my Son whom I love with you I am well pleased." Meanwhile the Spirit covers him with power. This is what has been happening in the interior life of the Trinity from all eternity. Mark is giving us a glimpse into the very heart of reality, the meaning of life, the essence of the universe. Instead of self centeredness, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are characterised in their very essence by mutually self-giving love. No person in the Trinity insists that the others revolve around him; rather each of them voluntarily circles and orbits around the others. Different views of God have different implications. If there's no God - if we are here by blind change, strictly as a result of natural selection - then what you and I call love is just a chemical condition of the brain. Evolutionary biologists say there's nothing in us that isn't there because it helped our ancestors pass on the genetic code more successfully. If you feel love, it's only because that combination of chemicals enables you to survive and gets your body parts in the places they need to be in order to pass on the genetic code. That's all love is - chemistry. On the other hand, if God exists but is unipersonal, there was a time when God was not love. Before God created the world, when there was only one divine person because love can exist only in a relationship. If a unipersonal God had created the world and its inhabitants, such a God would not in his essence be love. Power and greatness possibly, but no love. But if from all eternity, without end and without beginning, ultimate reality is a community of persons knowing and loving one another, then ultimate reality is about love relationships. Why would God create us? There's only one answer. He must have created us not to get joy, but to give, He must have created us to invite us into the dance, to say: If you glorify me, if you center your entire life on me, if you find me beautiful for who I am in myself, then you will step into the dance, which is what you are made for. You are made not just to believe in me or to be spiritual in some general way, not just to pray and get a bit of inspiration when things are tough. You are made to center everything in your life on me, to think of everything in terms of your relationship to me. To serve me unconditionally. That's where you'll find your joy. That's what the dance is about. Mark treats Satan as a reality, not a myth. To us, Satan is a personification of evil left over from a pre-scientific, superstitious society. He's just a symbol now, an ironic way to deflect personal responsibility for evil. But if you believe in God, in a good personal supernatural being, it is perfectly reasonable to believe that there are evil personal supernatural beings. Satan never stops testing us. We look at Adam and Eve and say "What fools - why did they listen to Satan?" Yet we know we still have Satan's lie in our own hearts, because we're afraid of trusting God - of trusting any body, in fact. We're stationary, because Satan tells us we should be - that's the way he fights the battle. But God didn't leave us defenseless. God said to Jesus "Obey me about the tree - only this time the tree was a cross - "and you will die." And Jesus did. He has gone before you from the heart of a very real battle, to draw you into the ultimate reality of the dance. What he has enjoyed from all eternity he has come to offer to you. And sometimes, when you're in the deepest part of the battle, when you're tempted and hurt and weak, you'll hear in the depths of our being the same words Jesus heard "This is my beloved child - you are my beloved child, whom I love; with you I'm well pleased." Chapter 2 The call The essence of other religions is advice. Christianity is essentially news. Other religions say "This is what you have to do in order to connect to God forever, this is how you have to live in order to earn your way to God." But the gospel says, "This is what has been done in history. This is how Jesus lived and died to earn the way to God for you." Christianity is completely different. It's joyful news. The gospel is that God connects to you not on the basis of what you've done (or haven't done) but on the basis of what Jesus has done, in history, for you. Mark is showing us that Jesus has a different type of authority than a regular rabbi. You can't have a relationship with Jesus unless he calls you. Jesus is saying, "Knowing me, loving me, resembling me, serving me must become the supreme passion of your life. Everything else comes second." In many of our minds, such words cast the shadow of fanaticism. People in our culture are afraid of fanaticism - and for good reason really. In this world considerable violence is being carried out by highly religious people. Even setting aside such extremism, almost everybody knows someone, personally or by reputation, who is very religious and who is also condeming, self-righteous or even abusive. Most people today see religion as a spectrum of belief. On one end are people who say they're religious but don't really believe or live the tenets of their religion. On the other end you've got the fanatics, people who are too religious, who overbelieve and overlive their faith. What's the solution to fanaticism? Many would say, "Well, why can't we be in the middle? Moderation in all things. Not too zealous and not too uncommitted. Being right in the middle would be just right." So is that the way Christianity works? Does Jesus say "Moderation in all things?" Jesus says "If anyone comes to me." He doesn't say to the crowd "Look, most of you can be moderate, but I do need a few good men and women who really want to go all the way with this discipleship." He says "anyone". There's no double standard. "If anyone wants to have anything to do with me, you have to hate your father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister, and even your own life, or you cannot be my disciple." That's what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus is not calling us to hate actively; he's calling us to hate comparatively. He says, "I want you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly that all other attachments in your life look like that by comparison." If you say, "I'll obey you, Jesus, if my career thrives, if my health is good, if my family is together," then the thing that's on the other side of that if is your real master, your real goal. But Jesus will not be a means to an end; he will not be used. If he calls you to follow him, he must be the goal. Understand the difference between religion and the gospel. Remember what religion is: advice on how you must live to earn your way to God. Your job is to follow that advice to the best of your ability. If you follow it but don't get carried away, then you have moderation. But if you feel like you're following it faithfully and completely, you'll believe you have a connection with God because of your right living and right belief, and you'll feel superior to people that have wrong living and wrong belief. That's a slippery slope: If you feel superior to them, you stay away from them. That makes it easier to exclude them, then to hate them and ultimately to oppress them. And there are some Christians like that - not because they've gone too far and been too committed to Jesus but because they haven't gone far enough. They aren't as fanatically humble and sensitive or as fanatically understanding and generous as Jesus was. Why not? They're still treating Christianity as advice instead of good news. The gospel isn't advice: It's the good news that you don't need to earn your way to God; Jesus has already done it for you. And it's a gift that you receive by sheer grace - through God's thoroughly unmerited favour. If you seize that gift and keep holding on to it, then Jesus' call won't draw you into fanaticism or moderation. You will be passionate to make Jesus your absolute goal and priority, to orbit around him yet when you meet somebody with a different set of priorities, a different faith, you won't assume that they're inferior to you. You'll actually seek to serve them rather than oppress them. Why? Because the gospel is not about choosing to follow advice, it's about being called to follow a King. Not just someone with the power and authority to tell you what needs to be done - but someone with the power and authority to do what needs to be done and then to offer it to you as good news. Come, follow me, Jesus is saying "Follow me because I'm the King you've been looking for. Follow me beause I have authority over everything, yet I have humbled myself for you. Because I died on the cross for you when you didn't have the right beliefs or the right behaviour. Because I have brought you news, not advice. Because I'm your true love, your true life - follow me. Chapter 3 The Healing When the Bible talks about sin it is not just referring to the bad things we do. It's not just lying or lust or whatever the case may be - it is ignoring God in the world he has made; it's rebelling against him by living without reference to him. It's saying, "I will decide exactly how I live my life." And Jesus says that is our main problem. The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus. Whether it's to suceed in our chosen field or to have a certain relationship - we're saying "if I have that, if I get my deepest wish, then everything will be okay." You're looking to that thing to save you from oblivion, from disillusionment, from mediocrity You've made that wish into your saviour. And if you never quite get it, you're angry, unhappy, empty. But if you do get it, you ultimately feel more empty, more unhappy. You've distorted your deepest wish by trying to make it into your saviour, and now that you finally have it, it's turned on you. Jesus says, "You see, if you have me, I will actually fulfill you and if you fail me, I will always forgive you. I'm the only saviour who can do that." But it is hard to figure that out. Many of us first start going to God, going to church, because we have problems, and we're asking God to give us a little boost over the hump so that we can get back to saving ouselves, back to pursuing our deepest wish. The problem is that we're looking to something besides Jesus as saviour. Almost always when we first go to Jesus saying, "This is my deepest wish," his response is that we need to go a lot deeper than that. Chapter 4 The Rest Jesus declares not that he has come to reform religion but that he's here to end religion and to replace it with himself. In Mark 3 the story of the man with the shriveled hand being healed on the Sabbath day, Jesus became angry with the religious leaders. Why? Because the Sabbath is about restoring the diminshed. It's about replenishing the drained. It's about repairing the broken. To heal the man's shriveled hand is to do exactly what the sabbath is all about. Yet because the leaders are so concerned that Sabbath regulations be observed, they don't want Jesus to heal this man - an incredible example of missing the forest for the trees. Their hearts are as shriveled as the man's hand. They're insecure and anxious about the regulations They're tribal, judgmental, and self-obsessed instead of caring about the man. Why? Religion. Most people in the world believe that if there is a God, you relate to God by being good. Most religions are based on that principle, though there are a million different variations on it. Some religions are what you might call nationalistic: You connect to God, they say, by coming into our people group and taking on the markers of society membership. Other religions are spiritualistic: You reach God by working your way through certain transformations of consciousness. Yet other religions are legalistic: There's a code of conduct, and if you follow it God will look upon you with favour. But they all have the same logic: If I perform, if I obey, I'm accepted. The gospel of Jesus is not only different from that but diametrically opposed to it: I'm fully accepted in Jesus Christ and therefore I obey. In religion the purpose of obeying the law is to assure you that you're all right with God. As a result, when you come to the law, what you're most concerned about is detail. You want to know exactly what you've got to do, because you have to push all the right buttons. You won't gravitate toward seeking out the intent of the law; rather, you'll tend to write into the law all sorts of details of observance so you can assure yourself that you're obeying it But in the life of Christians the law of God - though still binding on them - functions in a completely different way. It shows you the life of love you want to live before the God who has done so much for you. God's law takes you out of yourself; it shows you how to serve God and others instead of being absorbed with yourself. You study and obey the law of God in order to discover the kind of life you should live in order to please and resemble the one who created and redeemed you, delivering you from the consequences of sin. And you don't violate it or whittle it down to manageable proportions by adding man-made details to it. Most of us work and work trying to prove ourselves, to convince God, others, and ourselves that we're good people. That work is never over unless we rest in the gospel. At the end of his great act of creation the Lord said, "It is finished" and he could rest. On the cross at the end of his great act of redemption Jesus said, "It is finished" and we can rest. On the cross Jesus was saying of the work underneath your work - the thing that makes you truly weary, this need to prove yourself because who you are and what you do are never good enough - that it is finished. He has lived the life you should have lived, he has died the death you should have died. If you rely on Jesus' finished work, you know that God is satisfied with you. You can be satisfied with life. Jesus, however, understands that there is a God who is uncreated, beginningless, infinitely transcendent, who made this world, who keeps everything in the universe going, so that all the molecules, all the stars, all the solar systems are being held up by the power of this God, And Jesus says, That's who I am. The "traditional values" approach to life is moral conformity - the approach taken by the Pharisees. It is that you must lead a very, very good life. The progressive approach, embodied in the Herodians, is self-discovery - you have to decide what is right or wrong for you. And according to the Bible, both of these are ways of being your own saviour and lord. Both are hostile to the message of Jesus. And not only that, both lead to self-righteousness. The moralist says, "The good people are in and the bad people are out - and of course we're the good ones. The self-discovery person says, "Oh, no, the progressive, open-minded people are in and the judgmental bigots are out - and of course we're the openminded ones. In Western cosmopolitan culture there's an enormous amount of self-righteousness about self-righteousness. We progressive urbanites are so much better than people who think they're better than other people. We disdain those religious, moralistic types who look down on others. Do you see the irony, how the way of self-discovery leads to as much superiority and self-righteousness as religion does? The gospel does not say, "the good are in and the bad are out" nor "the open-minded are in and the judgmental are out." The gospel says the humble are in and the proud are out. The gospel says the people who know they're not better, not more open-minded, not more moral than anyone else, are in, and the people who think they're on the right side of the divide are most in danger. Jesus calls people "righteous" who are in the same position spiritually as those who won't go to a doctor. "Righteous" people believe they can "heal themselves", make themselves right with God by being good or moral. They don't feel the need for a soul-physician, someone who intervenes and does what they can't do themselves. Jesus is teaching that he has come to call sinners: those who know they are morally and spiritually unable to save themselves. Chapter 5 The Power Mark 4 records the calming of the wind and the waves. Jesus is demonstrating, "I am not just someone who has power; I am power itself Anyone and anything in the whole universe that has any power has it on loan from me." That is a mighty claim. And if it's true, who is this and what does this mean for us? There are 2 options. You could argue that this world is just the result of a monumental "storm" - you're here by accident, through blind, violent forces of nature, through the big bang and when you die, you'll turn to dust. And when the sun goes out, there won't be anyone around to remember anything that you've done, so in the end whether you're a cruel person or loving person makes no lasting difference at all. However, if Jesus is who he says he is, there's another way to look at life. If he's Lord of the storm, then no matter what shape the world is in - or your life is in - you will find Jesus provides all the healing, all the rest, all the power you could possibly want. If you have a God great enough and powerful enough to be mad at because he doesn't stop your suffering, you also have a God who's great enough and powerful enough to have reasons that you can't understand. You can't have it both ways. If you're at the mercy of the storm, its power is unmanageable and it doesn't love you. The only place you're safe is in the will of God. But because he's God and you're not the will of God is necessarily, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to. Is he safe? "Of course he's not safe. Who said anything about being safe? But he's good. He's the King." We have a resource that can enable us to stay calm inside no matter how the storms rage outside. Here's a clue: Mark has deliberately laid out this account using language of the famous Old Testament accounts of Jonah. Both Jesus and Jonah were in a boat, and both boats were overtaken by a storm - the descriptions of the storms are almost identical. Both Jesus and Jonah were asleep. In both stories the sailors woke up the sleeper and said, "We're going to die." And in both cases, there was a miraculous divine intervention and the sea was calmed. Further, in both stories the sailors then became even more terrified than they were before the storm was calmed. Two almost identical stories - with just one difference. In the midst of the storm, Jonah said to the sailors, in effect: "There's only one thing to do. If I perish, you survive. If die, you will live." And they threw him into the sea. Which doesn't happen in Mark's story. Or does it? I think Mark is showing that the stories aren't actually different when you stand back a bit and look at them with the rest of the story of Jesus in view. In Matthew' s Gospel Jesus says "One greater than Jonah is here" and he's referring to himself: I'm the true Jonah. He meant this: Someday I'm going to calm all storms, still all waves. I'm going to destroy destruction, break brokenness, kill death. How can he do that? He can do it only because when he was on the cross he was thrown - willingly, like Jonah - into the ultimate storm, under the ultimate waves, the wave of sin and death. Jesus was thrown into the only storm that can actually sink us - the storm of eternal justice, of what we owe for our wrongdoing. That storm wasn't calmed - not until it swept him away. Chapter 6 The Waiting What is patience? Patience is love for the long haul; it is bearing up under difficult cirumstances, without giving giving up or giving in to bitterness. Patience means working when gratification is delayed. It means taking what life offers - even if it means suffering - without lashing out. And when you're in a situation that you're troubled over or when there's a delay or pressure on you or something's not happening that you want to happen, there's always a temptation to come to the end of your patience. You may well have lost your patience before you're even aware of it. Jesus displayed patience not just in the way he faced his execution and his enemies. He also displayed remarkable patience with his disciples - think of his patience with them in the storm and with the people he met throughout his life. God's sense of timing will confound ours, no matter what culture we're from. His grace rarely operates acording to our schedule. When you go to Jesus for help, you get from him far more than you had in mind. But when you go to Jesus for help, you also end up giving to him far more than you expected to give. There's all the difference in the world between being a superstitious person who gets a bodily healing and a life-transformed follower of Jesus for all eternity. If you go to Jesus he may ask of you far more than you originally planned to give, but he can give to you infinitely more than you dared ask or think. If God seems to be unconscionably delaying his grace and committing malpractice in our life, it's because there is some crucial information that we don't yet have, some essential variable that's unavailable to us. If I could sit down with you and listen to the story of your life, it may well be that I would join you in saying "I can't understand why God isn't coming through. I don't know why he is delaying." Believe me, I know how you feel, so I want to be sensitive in the way I put this. But when I look at the delays of God in my own life, I realize that a great deal of my consternation has been rooted in arrogance. I complain to Jesus, "Okay you're the eternal Son of God you've lived for all eternity, you created the universe. But why would you know any better than I do how my life should be going?" Right now is God delaying something in your life? Are you ready to give up? Are you impatient with him? There may be a crucial factor that you just don't have access to. The answer is to trust Jesus. In the story of Jesus raising Jairus' daughter to life in Mark 5, Jesus understands the little girl is dead - not just mostly dead; she's all dead but why does he tell everyone she is just sleeping? When you were little, if your parent had you by the hand you felt everything was okay. You were wrong of course. There are bad parents, and even the best parents are imperfect. Even the best parents can slip up, even the best parents make wrong choices. But Jesus is the ultimate Parent who has you by the hand and will bring you through the darkest night. The Lord of the universe, the One who danced the stars into place, takes you by the hand and says "Honey it's time to get up." Why would we want to hurry somebody this powerful and this loving, who treats us this tenderly? Why would we be impatient with somebody like this? Jesus holds us by the hand and brings us through the greatest darkness. What enables him to do that? In his letter to the church in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 13 verse 4 the apostle Paul says Christ was crucified in weakness so that we can live in God's power. Christ became weak so that we can be strong. There's nothing more frightening for a little child than to lose the hand of the parent in a crowd or in the dark, but that is nothing compared with Jesus' own loss. He lost his Father's hand on the cross. He went into the tomb so we can be raised out of it. He lost hold of his Father's hand so we could know that once he has us by the hand, he will never, ever forsake us. Are you trying to hurry Jesus? Are you impatient with the waiting? Let him take you by the hand, let him do what he wants to do. He loves you completely. He knows what he's doing. Soon it will be time to wake up. Chapter 7 The Stain Mark 7 - the cleanliness laws. According to the cleanliness laws, if you touched a dead animal or human being, if you had an infectious skin disease like boils or rashes or sores, if you came into contact with mildew (on your clothes, articles in your home, or your house itself), if you had any kind of bodily discharge, or if you ate meat from an animal designated as unclean, you were considered ritually impure, defiled, stained, unclean. That meant you couldn't enter the temple and therefore you couldnt worship God with the community. Such strenuous boundaries seem harsh to us, but if you think about it, they are not as odd as they sound. Over the centuries, people have fasted from food during seasons of prayer. Why? It's an aid for developing spiritual hunger for God. Also people of various faiths kneel for prayer. Isn't that rather uncomfortable? It's an aid for developing spiritual humility. So the washings and efforts to stay clean and free from dirt and disease that were used by religious people in Jesus' day were a kind of visual aid that enabled them to recognise that thy were spiritually and morally unclean and couldn't enter the presence of God unless there was some kind of spiritual purification. Spiritually, morally, unless you're clean, you can't be in the presence of a perfect and holy God. According to Jesus, in our natural state, we're unfit for the presence of God. We often say today "if there is a God, we don't believe he is a transcendently holy deity before whom we stand guilty and condemned. " And yet, we still wrestle with profound feelings of guilt and shame. Where do they come from? We live in a world now where we don't believe in judgment, we don't believe in sin, and yet we still feel that there's something wrong with us. We still have a profound inescapable sense that if we were examined we'd be rejected. We have a deep sense that we've got to hide our true self or at least control what people know about us. Secretly we feel that we aren't acceptable, that we have to prove to ourselves and other people that we're worthy, lovable, valuable. Why do we work so very hard, always saying, "If I can just get to this level, then I can relax?" And we never do relax once we get there - we just work and work. What is driving us? Why is it that some of us can never allow ourselves to disappoint anybody? We have no boundaries, no matter what people ask of us, how much they exploit us, trample on us, because to disappoint somebody is a form of death. Why does that possibility bother us so much? Where are all the self-doubts coming from? Why are we so afraid of commitment? There's no escaping the fact that we all have a sense we're unclean. What's really wrong with the world? Why can the world be such a miserable place? Why is there so much strife between nations, races, tribes, classes? Why do relationsips tend to fray and fall apart? Jesus is saying We are what's wrong. it's what comes out from the inside. It's the self-centeredness of the human heart. It's sin. Sin never stays in its place. it always leads to separation from God, which results in intense suffering, first in this life and then in the next. The Bible calls that hell. That's why Jesus uses the drastic image of amputation. There can be no compromises. We must do anything we can to avoid it. If our foot causes us to sin, we should cut if off. If it's our eye we should cut it out. But Jesus has just pointed out that our biggest problem, the thing that makes us most unclean, is not our foot or our eye; it's our heart. If the problem were the foot or the eye, although the solution would be drastic, it would be possible to deal with it. But we can't cut out our heart. No matter what we do, or how hard we try, external solutions don't deal with the soul. Outside in will never work, because most of what causes our problems works from the inside out. We will never shake that sense that we are unclean. Time after time the Bible shows us that the world is not divided into the good guys and the bad guys. There may be "better guys" and "worse guys" but no clear division can be made between the good and the bad. Given our sin and self-centeredness, we all have a part in what makes the world a miserable, broken place. Yet we're all still trying to address that sense of uncleanness through external measures, trying to do something that Jesus says is basically impossible. Religion doesn't get rid of the self-justification, the self-centeredness, the self-absorption, at all It doesn't really strengthen and change the heart. It's outside in.