Jonah; what an idiot. God tells him to do something, he decides that he knows better and heads in the opposite direction, literally. So God opens up a can on him and Jonah finds himself swimming with the little fishies. But as any salty sea dog knows little fishes mean bigger fish, a fish so big that it can swallow Jonah, big head and inflated pride included. In his hour of need he makes a spiritual u-turn. God listens, fish gets a belly ache and out comes prophet, bile and all. The fish episode must have given Jonah the fear because off he heads having made a geographical u-turn to Nineveh. While there he drops a few prophetic bombs, the people listen and repent. Job done. Well not quite.
Jonah the Ninevite hater cant quite handle the grace and mercy from God that follows their repentance. If it involves a storm,him a big fish and vomit Jonah is cool but as for the Ninevites, well they can all go to hell. Outside the city Jonah sits and God in his grace, yes grace, let me repeat that, grace to Jonah, can see that the rebel prophet is hot so provides some shade. He was glad, his needs had been met, grace had been shown to him, again. Enter the worm and goodbye shade, hello scorching wind. Its grace again only in a different way, Its God trying to get monkey brains to get it. Plant or people? Grace on Jonah’s terms or grace on Gods terms?
I was chatting to someone the other day who is going away, abroad in fact, to do mission. ’Mission’ I said ‘how interesting’ I exclaimed ‘what are you going to do when you get back?’ I enquired. ’Oh probably just get a job and save for my next mission trip’ replied the unfortunate subject of this blog post. I wanted to reply adopting a sarcastic tone ‘how exciting to be able to go and do mission you must be really lucky!’ but the bit of my brain that is undergoing grace surgery stepped in, which in fairness under heightened jet lagged conditions was no mean feat. Nonetheless I am still annoyed.
We are all on mission the sooner we get used to it the more effective our mission will be. School playground or war torn African country? No difference. Full time Christian Pastor or full time mum? no difference. Alpha coordinator or friendly neighbour? no difference. The great commission was not an exclusive charge to the few but is a way of life for the many. And yes you can do it from your armchair with a nice cup of tea, a friendly face and a few of your friends or neighbours who are yet to encounter Jesus.
http://www.newfrontiers.xtn.org/uk/news/e-news-latest-issue/love-belfast/
One of the biggest pound-for-pound fighters in the opposite corner from you in the boxing ring of christian faith is consumerism. Its a heavyweight and should not be considered simply as an inevitable product of modern capitalism but rather exposed as a centuries year old problem. Lets head back to gardeners world, no not with Titchmarsh and Dimock but Adam and Eve. They had everything (well almost everything) that they could ever want. There was no Tescos, Wal-Mart, Malls, Amazon or e-bay, just an abundant supply of the best food from the biggest grocery section in supermarket world. They make a choice to consume, its a piece of fruit labeled ‘do not touch’, a must have number one soon to be bestselling item. The first act of consumerism takes place the echos of which still continue to bounce along the walls of human history today.
Is it a bad thing? No not really. We must consume to enjoy, to enjoy is part of Gods common grace that we might enjoy his creation. But there is a tipping point, that moment when the balance tips from enjoyment to idolatry. What tips the balance? Us, made in His image wanting to create Him in our image. Our very own extra special, hand made counterfeit Jesus. He feels good. I mean you can touch, move and reposition him all according to your own will and when you have finished throw him away with the empty baked bean tins, half eaten KFC family feast and yesterdays left overs. After all when you are done with this one you can just go and make another, get a better model.
The thing about the effect of consumerism on the church is that it creates inertia. Like that post sunday roast feeling where you can do nothing but fall back into an armchair and remain motionless for a very long time. Can we deal with this? Yes. The antidote? Mission. Ugh? Yes, the antidote to consumerism is mission. When we understand that we dont live in our cities to consume them but to bless them there is a huge perspective shift. We are not in our cities primarily to take but to give. When mission becomes the priority and changing people becomes more important that changing your plasma flat screen TV overt consumerism is countered. Am I saying we all shave our heads, use hemp only products, join the socialistpeaceworkersunioncommunist party and sign up to a commune? Of course not. If you want have your plasma, sky plus, i-phone or BMW. The question is; Hows the balance?
So we are back. Well, almost back. My insides, minus parts of my brain still thinks it is in Florida, it being 6:00am in the morning there as I write. The other bit of my brain (the part attached to my eyes) is confused because 11:00am+19 degrees+no swimming pool=not Florida. So anyway, physically I am here. Mentally? I am not so sure. The kids have also been all over the place.
1:00am – the other daynightday
Number 3 wide awake its night/morning/fathers day. Sat on my lap reading the Guardian with me insisting on pointing at a large picture of Gordon Brown shouting at the top of her voice ‘man! man! man!’ I put the paper away when she changes her yell of ‘man’, points at him and calls him ‘Daddy’. I am then woken up by a two year olds giggles and the thud of a heavy black picture frame hitting my face. I must have nodded off. I notice in the few seconds that I must have nodded off she has taken her nappy off (or for our transatlantic cousins diapers) and is wearing wellington boots holding her potty to her belly button trying to, in her words ‘do a poo’. Grasping the complexities of human biology is not my forte at the best of times, trying to explain internal body ‘movements’ to a two year old at 1:00am/8:00pm in the morning/night is not going to happen.
1:30am
I attempt the re-milk strategy. She has already had her usual bedtime milk which I could tell confused her by the look in her eyes when I gave it to her. Milk? Its only lunchtime! Lifting her up to give her the milk I forget that I am standing under a small bit of lowered ceiling in our kitchen which I proceed to bang her head off. This doesn’t go down well. For a split second I wonder if this is recompense for the picture frame incident. I then remember that she is only two, the idea of Karma is crap and that jet lag reaches places in your psyche paralleled only by certain non-medical drug related experiences that I may or may not have had in my backslid-en past.
1:45am
Finally I am in my own bed, with small child in her cot. Now comes the dawning realisation that my battle to get her to sleep has been futile and entirely pointless as I lay wide awake lagged to the max considering our two weeks away….. more posts to come on that.
I though America was great (terms and conditions apply)
From tomorrow me and my tribe will be away for 2 weeks on holiday in the USA – No work. No blogging. No laptop. No phone. No nothing. :)
In my household of late we have begun the implementation of the potty training strategy. I like the potty training strategy (PTS) for a number of reasons. Firstly on successful completion of potty training the obvious benefit in the reduction of nappy changes is very appealing. Secondly there are less ‘nappy overspill issues’ caused by simple miscalculation of the nappy volume to area factor (no No.2+already filled No.1 nappy+partially unbuttoned vest = immediate change of clothes). One of the most embarrassing nappy overspill moments happened in Bologna Italy while enjoying a meal at one of the cities most exclusive restaurants. The other was at my brother-in-laws wedding where the then empty nappy had somehow been removed during the wedding photographs. The day ended shortly after with a cuddle, a tickle, a rumble and a no-longer wearable suit.
There is however a downside to the PTS. No longer content with wearing a nappy my 2 year old has become pretty good at mid-change wrestling and has an extraordinary high grasp of some pretty complex moves. Her favorite is trying to perform what is known in the trade (not that I know anything about wrestling) as a reverse pin. This involves wriggling free from the normal nappy changing position (the pin) and turning herself over and then pushing up the legs into the opponents chest. I have developed 2 suitable defenses to this one being something called the Boston crab and the other is the Facebuster (Google it). None of which I must add cause any harm during the execution of the move and are simply used as precautionary restraint measures.
Yesterday the PTS faced a few setbacks. The first involved the kitchen floor which I passed off as a mistake common to the development and training process. Although the cheeky laugh and strange part-tribal dance that followed the incident almost made me think otherwise. The second set back was a little more disappointing as it only happened shortly after the previous incident and this time probably had something to do with me.
You see in a bid to start my daughter on the trajectory that will be her music education I decided to introduce her to the fine nuances and delicate tones of Israeli hard-electo-techno. The obvious starting point for such a lesson is of course the band Infected Mushroom, I mean why would you start anywhere else? There is then of course no better place to begin than the Infected remix of the track Deeply Disturbed taken from the Becoming Insane EP. The initial response to my lesson was more than any teacher could hope for. In an excited frenzy she went, as they say ‘completely mad for it’, she was literally bouncing off the walls. The track lasts for 9 minutes which is clearly far too long for any 2 year old to maintain such a high level of excited and highly technical dancing. At about 3 mins in she stops, relieves herself again on the kitchen floor, laughs and then tries to continue dancing in the self made puddle. There ended the lesson.
Training kids in any area is fun, I love it. God has been doing it to me again recently with regard to grace. I think I get it but then realise that my understanding is potty-training-toddler like. So God puts me in ‘the pin’ it hurts, and I dont like it because its not where I want to be so I try to wriggle and get out but his grip is too strong. I want to avoid those lessons on grace because they can hurt. You are forced into thinking about all of those ‘things’ that this amazing grace has covered over which is quickly followed by grace guilt. That sense that you could not possibly deserve grace such as this so instead of amazement and wonder there is introspection and guilt. Why do we find it so difficult to accept grace for what it is? Yes we dont deserve it. Yes we are not worthy to receive it. Yes it doesn’t make sense and Yes its got nothing to do with anything that you have done or could do and everything to do with what he has done. It really is amazingly unconditional and the sooner we realise that there really is no need to feel guilty about grace the less we will have to wriggle.
Read Acts Chapter 4 v 1 – 31
What an amazing chapter. Peter and John a chapter earlier have just locked eyes with a paralyzed nobody and spoken those incredible words “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”. Up he gets and starts laying down some moves in the temple courts. The crowd look on amazed, they have seen this guy every day. There is no question of him being a sick-note, this is for real. Peter knows he has got the attention of the crowd so he starts to preach. He lays down salvation history in about 200 words finishing up with a call to repent and the promise of refreshing in the presence of the Lord.
The attention received had not been missed by the Temple officials. With a boil-in-the-bag revival of 5000 Peter and John are arrested and put up to face the court. The court want to know how, so Peter filled with the holy spirit pulls another Christocentric sermon to rival any out of the bag. Except this time he goes straight for the bare knuckle punches “you rejected him, and you can try as hard as you like and use any means you have but you wont get salvation by any other means other than through Jesus Christ”.
Rocked by the response the court are astonished, they know that these guys didn’t go to bible college or get an MA in old testament history. Their response was testimony only to the fact that they had been with Jesus. What comes next is amazing – The courts eyes are drawn to the no-longer paralyzed somebody, even they knew he was for real. And then come those amazing words “they had nothing to say in opposition”. These highly trained men were left completely speechless. I mean what else could they say? Sure they could argue with the words of Peter and John but what about the healing? There where no complex legal arguments, no carefully crafted defence case, no thesis, just a simple spirit filled sermon about Jesus and the reality of a healed beggar standing in their midst.
Is this not an amazing testimony of the profound power of simple Christ centered preaching and the workings of miracles. when the two come together there is a potency that can open the eyes of the many and silence the few.
Been listening to Bill Johnson recently, have also been listening to Jay Z although the two are not connected. Having said that though, imagine the two of them doing a track together. Would that not be just wonderfully bizarre? A guaranteed internet wonder viral hit. Although Bill Johnson’s genuine hip-hop authenticity as a ‘brother from the project’ would clearly be under question he could certainly offer some interesting theological input. And Jay Z would also offer Bill Johnson the obvious advantage of opening up a new audience demographic.
Now consider something else. The interest in what has been named Reformed Calvinism has exploded in the past few years. Its a title that I love firstly for sounding like the process used to make corn-beef and secondly because I am not entirely sure that John Calvin was a Calvinist (something I love to whip out of my bag when bible college students ask me what I am). The popularity of Mr Driscoll, Keller, Carson and others has reached almost celebrity status among the young residents of evangelicaldom. Now before I continue I must confess my complete sanctified-hetro-man-love for these guys (by man-love I mean I really appreciate their work). I own nearly every book that Carson has written and love listening to these guys preach and teach. And in a moment of star struck eschatological forethought have put in an application to live on the same street as Carson and Keller in the new Heavens and earth.
Anyway, what I want to say is this. While riding the wave of Reformed Calvinism am I catching the wind in my sails? Sorry if that sounds a bit like Yoda. My concern is that we look to these guys as sole ministry models (note the word sole) and ignore others because they are simply not ‘cool’. At the moment the whole refo-calvanistic thing is cool with the emphasis on hour long sermons and detailed exegesis, a much needed boot in the rear for many especially those living towards the charismatic or emergent end of the street. The challenge for me and I guess the danger for many is this; Am I, in riding the wave, just seeking to lay down the amazing driscokellerpiper exesermon (something I would do well to aspire to) or am I also catching the wind in my sails seeking to be in the mix with both word and spirit, truth and miracles?
I was recently struck by the closing words of a puritan prayer ‘Quarry me deep, and then fill me to overflowing with living water’.
Big fanfare! we have survived the first 100 days of church planting here in Belfast – Here are some things we have learnt.
- God is real and you are not him
- Drink deep from the well or die
- God first family second church third
- Beware – ere be spiritual gypsies
- The power of legalism is astounding the scandal of grace is amazing
- Be secure in your gifting. You are not gifted because you are secure
- In the economy of the kingdom God uses idiots like you and me, get used to it
- Sing your own song
- Value and honour the gifts in others – even if they are almost as crazy as you
- Dont make Jesus into the God that you think you always wished you could have – the prosperity gospel stinks
- Go in his power not yours
- Slay the dragon of leadership insecurity daily
- Never forget – its supposed to be fun
- Jesus wants to save ‘christians’ too
- Love your bride more than you love his
- Honor his bride – if someone doesn’t honour mine I want to punch them
- Humble is not something you become to meet the standard of a leader but something that God does in you – and yes it hurts
- Love your leaders and they will love you
- Guinness is good for you
- Your kids are not your ministry sideshow
- The holy spirit is God
