Too good to be true? No!

When he had received the drink Jesus said, "It is finished". With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30.

We had a new carpet fitted some time ago. The shop asked us for a deposit at the time we made the order, and then the rest of the payment when they came to do the work. On that second payment the bill was stamped "Paid". This was the official confirmation that we had settled the bill fully. It was a nice feeling to know that everything was in order: the work was satisfactorily done and - most of all - we didn't owe any money.

In the world of the New Testament, the word "Paid" would have been the Greek tetelestai, which literally means "finished", "completed", "done", "over". And this is the word John uses in telling us about Jesus' dying word on the cross: "It is finished". Jesus was declaring in the most public way possible that he had at last accomplished the work his Father had sent him to do, the work of making atonement for the sins of the human race.

Of course, because we weren't there we can never know exactly how Jesus uttered that word - very likely it was with "the loud voice" mentioned in the other gospels. But I think we can be absolutely certain that it was a cry of triumph rather than a whimper of defeat. Jesus wasn't weakly saying "It's all over, I've had enough, I can't take any more." No: he was celebrating a victory.

This is massively important. The human mind seems to be hard-wired to think that, if we are to be right with God, then we must try very hard indeed to put ourselves right. The work belongs to us. We must be "religious". We must go to church. We must do good deeds. We must give money to charity. If we manage to do all these things, we might just be lucky enough to squeeze into God's favour - the credit side of the balance sheet will outweigh the debit side. Have you ever found yourself thinking this way? Is this perhaps the way you think now?

If it is, can I offer you that great word tetelestai ! It reminds us that when Jesus died for us on the cross he left us absolutely nothing else to do. He did it all. All we need to do is receive that forgiveness and salvation as a perfectly free gift. This is the meaning of that other great Bible word "grace" - which has been defined as "God's undeserved favour", or more simply as God's mercy, generosity and love.

"But isn't that just too good to be true!" somebody might say. Certainly it seems like it, I agree. But that's the way it is, thank God. Why else is the heart of the Christian message called the "gospel", which means "good news"? After all, it's hardly good news to be told that you must work with all your might and main to achieve salvation - and even then you still might not make it. But to be offered salvation as a free gift from God because of what Jesus did on the cross - well, that really is good news.

Of course, all this doesn't mean that we needn't bother with living good lives, being involved in worship, showing love and generosity and all the rest. The point is that we do these things as a grateful response to God's amazing grace. We do these things not in order to be saved, but because we are saved.

We sometimes sing, "The price is paid,/ Come let us enter in/ To all that Jesus died/ To make our own". Yes! It is finished. Is this the greatest word that has ever been spoken?

Father, thank you that the work of salvation is a finished, completed work. Thank you that this takes away my insecurity about where I stand with you. Help me daily to enjoy my status as a forgiven child of God - and to live worthy of that status! Amen.

Get, get, get!

You shall not covet...  Exodus 20:17

Do you ever covet things?

I reckon that in the materialistic world we live in you’d be very unusual indeed if you didn't. To covet is to wish for things which we have no right to, especially things belonging to other people. It means refusing to be content with what we have.

You may covet somebody's money, or their health, or their looks, or their marriage, or their talents, or their possessions, or their success ... I could go on for ever. I sometimes think that the whole advertising industry is designed to stir up covetousness within us. That sleek new car... that exotic holiday... that latest gadget... "You deserve it..." the adverts coo at us, “Because you’re worth it”. And, fools that we are, we believe them.

But why exactly is it wrong to covet?

First, it’s essentially selfish - it elevates what I want  to the top of the list of priorities. It puts me and my needs before God-like qualities such as generosity, kindness and compassion. It's all about getting rather than giving - and didn't Jesus say that there is more joy in giving than receiving (Acts 20:35)?

Second, it suggests a failure to trust in God for his provision. God promises to look after those who entrust themselves to him, so if we covet it means, in effect, that we are saying to God, "Your provision isn't good enough for me - I'm not really sure you will look after me".

Third, it destroys peace of mind. The more focussed you are on other people and what they’ve got, the more chewed up inside you will be because you don't have them. Covetous people are rarely happy people. They’re angry inside.

Fourth, it can lead to disastrous consequences. Some of the Old Testament's most powerful stories are about covetousness - and in each case havoc results. Eve coveted the fruit God said she and Adam shouldn't touch (Genesis 3). Achan coveted the treasures of the Canaanites (Joshua 7). King David coveted another man's wife (2 Samuel 11). King Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21). Why not read these dramatic stories again - and see the carnage and misery that resulted in each case?

Covetousness is, in the end, a form of idolatry - putting something or someone in the place that only God should occupy. By the same token, the person who has learned not to covet (and the learning process can be painful - let's be honest about that) experiences real liberation. 

If we have reached a point where we can say, with Paul, that we will be content  with the basic necessities of life, whatever God may see fit to give us (1 Timothy 6:8), then we can cheerfully shrug our shoulders at the world around us and just get on with the business of trying to live a Christlike life. We're free! And if somebody else has something that we would like - well, good for them! I'm pleased for them! And may God bless them!

“I have learned the secret of being content,” says Paul (Philippians 4:12). Content... isn’t it a great word? It doesn't mean we can't be ambitious in a good sense. But it does mean that we're happy to leave our lot in this life in the hands of a God who is our heavenly Father, and who loves us more than we can know.

And never forget, there are “treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20) for those who truly love God. The child of God is actually a billionaire!

Dear Father, I am sorry that I allow the poison of discontent to corrode my soul. I promise now that, with your help, I will entrust myself wholeheartedly to you and let you lead me wherever you want me to go, and give me whatever you want me to have. Amen.

A Lesson Learned

When I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

If you had happened to be in Bangalore Airport one Thursday morning a few weeks ago you might have seen a grey-haired man being ferried around in a wheel-chair, accompanied by some extremely efficient medical people and some extremely anxious-looking friends. You might have given him a brief thought: “Poor old bloke, I wonder what’s wrong with him. Not much fun being taken ill in a place like this...” And then, very naturally, got on with your own business.

Well, that poor old bloke was me. I had had a case of Bangalore Belly for a couple of days and had brought the experience to a dramatic climax by keeling over in the duty-free shop. As it turned out the medical people gave me a quick once-over, decided there was nothing much wrong with me and told me to board the plane. Here British Airways took over and ensured for me the most comfortable journey they could manage.

But oh the humiliation, the embarrassment! For that short period I was triply dependent: on my friends, who were as loyal as friends could be, on the medical team, who were magnificent, and on the BA staff, the very model of professionalism.

I didn’t like it, don’t worry about that. And that wasn’t only because I was so unwell. No, it was that sense of total dependence. I could do nothing for myself. I had, so to speak, to take orders (not that anybody gave me any, but you know what I mean). I was helpless, quite literally, in the hands of those looking after me. 

After all, all my life I have been the strong one! Isn’t that what men in general and minsters in particular are?  Mine has been the shoulder other people cry on. I have been Mr Reliability when others have lost heart. (Well, something like all that, anyway...) And now this! Oh dear.

But looking back, I have decided to treat it as a positive experience, however unpleasant. I learned a lesson we instinctively forget - that in reality we are all dependent on others (not to mention God) twenty-four hours a day. What happened that morning was just an extreme case that threw that reality into sharp relief.

The fact is that none of us can live without relying on others in a million and one ways. And the fact is also that for each of us a day will come when that reliance will be right there for all the world to see. So it’s just as well to recognise it now and silence any pride that whispers, “Oh, but I’m different...”

I’m just old enough to remember the declining years of Winston Churchill. Here was this powerful man, a man who had led Britain through terrible years of war, a man who changed the course of history. And I remember him hunched up in his wheel-chair surrounded by a cluster of doctors.

I remember Muhammad Ali, thought by many to be the greatest boxer in history, the man who “floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee”. And I see him now barely able to walk or lift up his hand.

I could easily go on... Stephen Hawking, the man with the brain that encompasses the universe... Nelson Mandela, dead now but still so fresh in everyone’s memory... Even the strongest, whether physically or mentally, are weak. Do you feel strong today? Good! Enjoy your strength and make the most of it! But do remember that in the context of life as a whole it is only an illusion.

Paul, in the New Testament, wrote some wonderful words: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” What did he mean? That it is when we are obviously weak that we are forced to rely on God and his supernatural strength. He also wrote: “My strength is made perfect... in weakness”. Strange! But true: it’s when we face up to our essential weakness that we find real strength.

Jesus knew utter weakness. They seized him, beat him up, flogged him and nailed him to a cross in full public view. Could you get more helpless, more humiliated than that? 

I can’t pretend I saw it this way while riding around Bangalore Airport, but I do now: in my lowliness I was in the care not only of wonderful friends, skilful doctors and efficient flight staff, but also of one who knows more about plumbing the depths than anybody else ever has or ever will.

Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of all creation, thank you that you were willing to experience the lowest depths of pain and dependence for my sake. Amen.

Is anyone listening?

Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' " Matthew 4:4

I know someone who doesn't speak. I don't know why this is, and it's no business of mine to ask. Perhaps it's a physical problem with his mouth, or some kind of psychological blockage. But if you say Hello to him he will smile and shake your hand, but he doesn't say anything. As you can imagine, this makes communication enormously difficult, indeed, pretty well impossible. Whereas most of us (let's be honest) talk far too much, so everyone knows only too well what's in our minds, with him you just never know. Strange, and rather disturbing. 

  

But now here is something of massive importance... Our God is a God who speaks.

The third verse of the whole Bible tells us that "God said...". And constantly, throughout both the Old Testament and the New, God is speaking. It's a theme you just can't get away from.

Suppose God never spoke? How would that be? Suppose we simply had no way of ever knowing what was going on in his mind? We would be completely helpless as to what life is all about, and how we are supposed to live it.

The big question then is: How does God speak? Well, in various ways. 

First, through the created world around us. The Psalmist tells us that "the heavens declare the glory of God... Day after day they pour forth speech" (Psalm 19). Look at creation and reflect on the power and beauty of God!

Second, through our consciences. Don't we all sometimes hear that inner voice warning us about something we are tempted to do? Conscience isn't a perfect guide - like human nature as a whole it is corrupted by all sorts of bad influences. But if we bring it before God it won't lead us far astray. 

Above all, of course, God speaks through his son Jesus. This is why the Bible refers to Jesus as "the Word made flesh" (John 1). Every time you focus on Jesus you are in effect hearing God speak. He is the living Word of God.

But God also speaks through scripture - the Bible, as we usually call it. This is why Jesus, when he was tempted by the devil, sent him packing by quoting the words of scripture, "it is written...", three times. The devil has tempted Jesus to turn the stones around him into bread - a pretty serious temptation, given that he had gone without food for forty days! But Jesus refuses to give in: the greatest need of human beings, he says, is not physical food, however vital that may be, but God's word. This is a direct quotation from Deuteronomy 8. Jesus knew his Bible! - and he knew how to use it.

Could that be said of you and me? God speaks, that's for sure. But are we listening? Do Bible texts and passages spring naturally to our minds to help us in the normal circumstances of our lives? Or is our knowledge of the Bible hazy, patchy, hit-or-miss?

I hope all of us are good listeners. I imagine that most of us listen specially carefully if the person speaking is someone we regard as particularly important - someone we love, someone who is in an important position. Well, people don't come more important than God, do they! So close your ears to him at your peril.

God has given us a book. We call it the Bible. Certainly, it can be a difficult book: there are parts we find hard to understand, parts that really don't seem relevant, parts, let's be honest, that even seem to us offensive. Yet through it as a whole he speaks to us. So not to listen to it is sheer folly. 

Are you serious about your Bible? Is it time to get to grips with it in a fresh way? Think about it. Reflect on it. Pray over it. And not just the nice bits, the easy bits - no, every chapter, every verse. If you are serious about God, how can you not be serious about his word?

Putting it another way, not wanting to bother with the Bible is tantamount to not wanting to bother with God. As Jesus put it, we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Father, forgive me that though you are constantly speaking, I am so rarely listening. Thank you for the gift of the Bible. Please help me to take it seriously, and to make it my daily food. May I hear your voice as I read today. Amen.

May the words of my mouth...

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life... Proverbs 10:11

I knew someone many years ago who had a wonderful singing voice. She reminded me of the American folk singer Joan Baez; like her, she accompanied herself on the guitar. Everyone who ever heard her, in church or wherever, agreed that she was really used by God. There was only one problem - persuading her to get up and sing was hard work! For some reason I was never quite able to fathom - perhaps she was just too humble - she seemed reluctant to make use of her gift. It was really frustrating.

Gifts are there to be used, not sat on. Jesus told us to "let our light shine" before the world, not to hide it away - as long, of course, as our motive is to give glory to God. 

"Well," you could say, "this is no doubt true, but it doesn't really apply to me - I don't have any particular gifts, and certainly my singing wouldn't be a blessing to anybody!" Well, maybe (though the Bible does in fact tell us that we all have various God-given gifts). But this verse from Proverbs alerts us to one potentially massive gift that we all have - the tongue. Virtually all of us can talk.

You could paraphrase Proverbs 10:11 much more matter-of-factly: The way a true Christian speaks does real good to everyone who hears. But that's pretty plodding, and the writer prefers to use the poetic image of the fountain. I'm glad he does. Of course we shouldn't think of some ornamental fountain such as you find in the gardens of a big country house. No, this is a natural spring, clear and cold, invigorating and refreshing, that bubbles up from the ground in a dry, parched country. It's not just nice to look at; it really could be the difference between life and death for some worn out traveller. 

Do you see your mouth, your tongue, in this way? Have you ever thought that when you go out to work, or wherever, you can make a big difference to people's lives just by the way you speak? Truly, you can bring light, love, hope and peace to someone in trouble. Or perhaps a word of warning to someone in moral danger. Even a word of rebuke to someone acting wrongly. You could - and I mean this absolutely literally - be used to change someone's life for ever.

Our world is awash with words. Many of them, sadly, are ugly and destructive. Angry. Harsh. Lying. Violent. Crude. Mocking. Critical. Vulgar. This is human nature, just one of the many forms sin takes in our fallen world. 

So what a difference it makes when someone comes along who guards his or her mouth, and aims that every word they ever speak should be under the lordship of God's Holy Spirit. Words of truth and kindness, forgiveness and care, sensitivity and love, cheerfulness and good humour. No lies. No lashing out. No inappropriate humour. No snidy sarcasm or smart-alec comments. And why shouldn't that "someone" be you or me?

Jesus' brother James expands on this at length in chapter 3 of his letter in the New Testament. His emphasis is more negative than positive: how hard it is to control the tongue, "a restless evil, full of deadly poison". It's well worth thinking about - why not have a look at it? 

But I think Proverbs 10:11 isn't too bad to be going on with. If it changes the way we open our mouths today it will have done some good.

Lord, forgive the often careless and sometimes sinful way I open my mouth. Please help me to grasp my tongue's potential for great good. Please make it a real "fountain of life" today. Amen.

Joy and tears in Bangalore

Shortly before Christmas I visited Bangalore in south India with a small party from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). 

In case you don’t know, CSW is a human rights charity which seeks to promote religious freedom for all (primarily but not only Christians) who suffer violations of that right. Our party consisted of five people - two CSW staff plus three volunteers (including me) as observers and support people. Our week was in essence a fact-finding mission in a part of India, Karnataka state, where Christians are having a particularly hard time at the hands of extremist Hindu nationalists. 

In due course the visit will be written up as part of a larger report which will go to, among others, the British Parliament, the European Union, the United Nations, and Capitol Hill in Washington. In all probability nothing will change very quickly, but the prayer is that the long slow battle against human rights abuses will receive a significant boost.

Our week was taken up largely with interviews with various key people. Broadly speaking these fell into two groups. 

First, there were people working in government, education or the law - in other words, influential people who are seeking to make a difference. Discrimination on the grounds of religion or caste is, strictly speaking, illegal in India, but communal and sectarian tensions have a long history in South Asia (they were in fact encouraged and manipulated by the colonial powers) so that what we are seeing now is the fruit of many years. 

Widespread corruption means that many people are suffering unjust and cruel treatment. The legal people we spoke to were aiming, among other things, to make vulnerable groups - Dalits, Christians, Muslims - more aware of the various options open to them when subjected to ill-treatment: sadly, people often feel there is nothing that can be done and simply accept injustice.

The second group we met were Christians who had actually been victims of persecution. The motto of CSW is to be “a voice for the voiceless”, and these were precisely the kind of people it is aiming to help. Several people had come to Bangalore on a six or eight hour round trip to meet us, and some of the stories they told us were simply pitiful. One couple had been hounded out of their village and forced to live in a make-shift shelter in some kind of camp. Just before they came to see us their shelter had been demolished by local authorities - in pouring rain - and they were left “with nothing under the sky”. 

Stories of beatings, disruption of Christian meetings, and denial of basic rights were common. One pastor we met does his pastoral visiting by motor-bike, and it is routinely tampered with while he is with someone. This may seem pretty low-key opposition, but pushing a motor-bike home - for perhaps five or so miles - is no joke. 

The extremists involved in this kind of activity have a deep-seated hatred of Christianity and Islam, seeing them as a threat to their culture and way of life. Sadly, it must be acknowledged that some Christian ministries (very possibly from abroad) have been involved in aggressive and insensitive forms of evangelism, rendering this attitude, if not justifiable, at least understandable. It is important to say that CSW is scrupulous in not engaging in evangelistic activity; its only concern is for human rights. 

Our news broadcasts here in Britain remind us daily that extremist mindsets are dangerous right across the world and right across the religious and political spectrum. In India extremist Hindu nationalism represents in essence a calculated political position, rather than a strictly religious one, which manipulates religious identities for the sake of its own self-propagation. These attitudes have infiltrated deeply into high-up political circles and also into the police. If Christians do complain of ill-treatment they are likely to be told by the police to “stop worshipping this Jesus, then”. If they bring charges against their attackers they are likely to be hit with counter-charges - all completely fabricated - suggesting that they are the ones acting outside the law. 

Some of the stories were indeed heart-rending. And yet the church is growing in India, especially among the Dalits (the so-called “Untouchables”). The love of Jesus for all men and women equally is truly good news for these people. Please pray for them: their plight is terrible, yet their faith is radiant. At the beginning of one meeting about a dozen of them nearly raised the roof with their singing of a hymn to Jesus. I personally am not easily moved to tears, but I found it hard for those few minutes. Our Sunday worship was at a church founded by Operation Mobilisation, and it was massively heartening to see these people worshipping God and displaying great joy. 

Pray for India. Pray for the political situation: important elections are due in the next few months, and extremist Hindu nationalists could come to power. But most of all pray for your brothers and sisters in Jesus who are suffering for him on a daily basis. 

And pray that the work of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and other agencies will be effective in bringing justice and hope. 

To find out more about CSW go to the blog archive and click on 2013, October (1). CSW is always happy to arrange a speaker for your church or group.