Go God's way!

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it". Isaiah 30:21

One Sunday morning in church someone was blindfolded and asked to walk round the building. It meant negotiating plenty of chairs, turns, legs, not to mention a step, an umbrella or two, and perhaps a baby buggy. But he did it, and with very little difficulty (and he even seemed to know when he had reached the place where he could aim a friendly kick at his wife).

How did he manage it? Simple: someone else was walking behind him and whispering instructions into his ear - "Left turn here, two steps forward, right foot up here...”.

The prophet Isaiah foresaw a day when the people of Zion - that is, Jerusalem - would hear the voice of God in their ear: "This is the way, walk in it".

I love the simplicity of those words. Originally they applied to God’s people as a whole, the nation of Israel. But they also  apply, I believe, to every individual child of God, to you and to me. God has a way for each of us to go, if only we will hear and obey. The secret of fulfilment in life is to walk trustingly in the way of God.

Of course, it isn't always as easy in practice as it sounds. There are times when we genuinely don't know which way is God's way. We get puzzled and even confused. At times like that we need to rely on four key things.

First, scripture. If our minds are soaked in God's word then we are more likely to sense his leading at vital times, even if there is no specific Bible text that relates precisely to our concern.

Second, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit lives within us, and we can ponder and reflect on his will for us through prayer.

Third, common sense. Christians shouldn't be afraid of applying this. Certainly, there are times when God asks his child to do something that seems pretty strange - not common sense at all! - but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Fourth, the wisdom of others. If we bounce our uncertainty off a trusted and mature Christian friend, their advice is likely to help us. A book or some other written material may set us off down the right track.

Whatever, the fact is that if we are humble and genuine in our search for God's way, he will make it clear to us in time. Why wouldn't he? If he loves us, why would he want us to go wrong?

Jesus spoke of the wide gate and the broad road that "lead to destruction", and of the narrow gate and the narrow way that "lead to life" (Matthew 7). As if to say, "Don't just go with the crowd! Don't opt for the easy way, don't take the line of least resistance!" The narrow gate may be harder to find, and the narrow way more difficult to tread - but it really is the difference between life and death. How many lives have been ruined because someone decided to step outside God's chosen way! How sad that is.

Someone might say, "But this is too late for me. It's years ago now that I took a wrong turning and lost my way. There's no possibility of retracing my steps. My life is ruined!"

But no. God has this wonderful knack of giving us a new start at any point in our lives, even right towards the very end, in our old age. He can even weave the follies and mistakes of the past into a new pattern which will turn out beautiful.

So don't despair! God is the God of new beginnings. True, the past can never be undone, but it can be reshaped into a new purpose and meaning.

So let's be careful how we walk. To step out of God's way is to step into trouble, danger and sorrow - to step, in fact, into deep darkness. Has anyone reading this done that? Is anyone actually doing it at the moment...? Yes? Well, it’s time to stop and take a long, hard look at where we’re going.

To walk with God is to walk in the light. Are you always straining to hear that quiet voice: "This is the way; walk in it"?

Lord Jesus Christ, you said "I am the way". Help me to take that simple word seriously, and so help me to walk with you every minute of every day, until that day comes when I will see you face to face. Amen.

Heading for the garbage-pile?

Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.  Matthew 5:13
 
For some years now I have been careful about the amount of salt I eat - after all, the medical people tell us that too much salt can cause serious disease, even things like strokes. But we all need some salt, both for health and for the sheer enjoyment of food.

In the ancient world salt was especially important, not something to be taken for granted. Roman soldiers received a certain amount of their income, their salary, in the form of salt, or in money to buy salt with. (Have you ever wondered where the word "salary" comes from? - the Latin word for salt is "sal".)

Well, Jesus tells his followers that we are "the salt of the earth". That means that we impart to this often dreary, grey, hard world flavour, zest and taste. And like salt before the days of refrigeration, we also help to stop the rot in society by living Christlike lives.

So it's especially sad when Christian people "lose their saltiness", as Jesus puts it here. That can mean a lot of things, with all sorts of application. 

But in essence Jesus is talking about times when we act just like everybody else, following the habits and practices of the world around us. Not that we are called to be different just for the sake of being different, but our lives should demonstrate that in matters both large and small there is a better way, a heavenly way.

Some years ago there was a top cricketer who was known as a Christian. In one innings he touched the ball to the wicket-keeper - which means (in case cricket isn’t your thing) that he was out, "caught behind". But he stayed where he was, not actually saying anything but, in effect, lying to the umpire: "I didn't touch the ball". One of the opposing players looked at him and said, "I thought you were supposed to be a Christian." A case of the salt losing its saltiness?

A prominent politician found himself in court a few years ago and ended up in prison for fiddling his expenses. He too was known as a Christian. Another case of the salt losing its saltiness?

A well-known church leader is found guilty of sexually abusing children... Sadly, I could go on.

Of course it's easy to point the finger at other people, especially the sort of people who are prominent enough to get into the papers. But, as has often been pointed out, every time you point a finger at someone else you are also pointing three at yourself (try it! - it's a fact).

And this raises the challenging question, "How 'salty' is my life?"

Jesus says that tasteless salt is fit only to be be "thrown out and trampled underfoot". The Message version of the Bible puts it in pretty down-to-earth language: "Let me tell you why you're here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage." Mmm!

What Jesus doesn’t mention here is two bits of good news. 

First, if we realise how far we have fallen, and how tainted we have become, and if we are truly sorry, and are determined to change, then our saltiness can in fact be restored. But we do need to mean business - and we need to accept that change can be painful. Are we prepared for that? 

But let’s be clear, none of us needs to “end up in the garbage”!

Second, the process does of course work the other way round too. How often have you heard someone talk in this sort of way about how they became a Christian: “Well, there was this man in my office, and I didn’t really know what it was about him, but somehow he made a real impression on me. I suppose I found myself wanting whatever it was he had...” 

And what was it he had? Well, what else but the “salt and light factor” Jesus is talking about here?
 

Lord, you don't ask us to be different just for the sake of being different, but to show the world that there is a better, more satisfying, and more fulfilling way of being human than people realise. Please show me by your Holy Spirit if there is any area of my life where I have lost my saltiness. Amen.

Open your eyes!

I urge, then... that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority... 1 Timothy 2:1-2

It’s that part about “kings and those in authority” that I want to focus on. 

How good are you at obeying Paul’s “urging” to pray for such people? Or do your prayers tend to be very centred on yourself and your own immediate circle?

The problem, in my experience at least, is that praying for such big, vague categories of people often seems unsatisfying. Even if we try to make it a little more personal - actually naming a prime minister or a president, say - it’s much more difficult than praying for someone we actually know, and whose circumstances we are familiar with.

This applies not only to prominent leaders but also to other wider concerns. 

My wife and I attended a service a few days after the terrible 2004 tsunami - and to judge by that service the tsunami might very well have never happened. I suspect we may have prayed about Jack’s ingrown toe-nails, and possibly Mrs Brown’s missing cat. But the thousands who died, or were missing, or were left bereft, stranded, homeless and despairing - no, not so much as a mention.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s perfectly good to pray for Jack’s toe-nails and Mrs Brown’s cat: we Christians are, after all, a family - God’s family - and in families even relatively trivial things can matter very much. But our eyes should be taking in the bigger picture too, for we are also part of the world - God’s world - and that too should be reflected in our praying.

Perhaps we subconsciously think, “But with prayers like that you can never know if your prayers are doing any good - you never see any clear-cut answers.” 

Well, no, you don’t. But isn’t that where faith comes in? We pray for these things simply because God has called us to - and as to the “results”, well, we leave them, in faith, with God.

I don’t remember much now of what the college principal said when I was training for the ministry. But one thing sticks vividly in my mind. He must have been speaking on just this theme, because at one point he became quite animated and said something along these lines: “I don’t claim to know how prayer works, but I truly believe that when I pray about some situation in China, something happens in China.” That, surely, was absolutely right.

So a question for all of us, certainly me included: Is it time we broadened our prayers and widened our vision to take account of the big issues in our world?

Here’s a practical suggestion. If you don’t do this already, why not make a point each day, after praying for needs close to home, of praying for other categories of need? To do this effectively you will need to use some of the printed or on-line material which is available in such quantity.

I would suggest three possible categories.

First, a missionary concern. For me, as a Baptist minister, this tends to be the Baptist Missionary Society. But there is no shortage of missionary organisations, denominational or not, that we can take a prayerful interest in.

Second, a relief or development agency. Again, for me this tends to be Tear Fund, but here too the options are many and varied.

Third, an advocacy organisation, focusing on the needs of people (not only Christians) who are persecuted for conscience’ sake. I personally rely on Christian Solidarity Worldwide, for whom I have worked as a volunteer, but there are plenty of others to choose from.

This kind of praying calls for discipline - it’s no good starting up for a week or two, and then gradually letting it fizzle out. No: we need to keep plugging away, trusting that God has each and every prayer safely filed away (so to speak) waiting for the moment when an answer is appropriate - even though we may never ourselves see that answer.

A beautiful thing happened to me this morning - I received a Christmas card from some people in Pakistan. 

Now, I have never been to Pakistan, and I know virtually no Pakistani Christians, but for many months now I have been praying systematically for persecuted Christians around the world, and Pakistan comes round regularly in the material I use. 

For all I knew my prayers were disappearing into thin air. But occasionally I back up those prayers with a post-card, and write a short message on it. And sure enough...!

Only God knows the value of our prayers, so let’s get down to it, whether in our personal prayers or in church (a word here to those of us who lead worship!).

Jesus told his disciples to “open your eyes and look at the fields.” Might he not be saying to us today “Open your eyes and look at the world”?

Lord God, thank you that you care about even the smallest things that trouble and concern me. But please help me to remember that this hurting world also belongs to you, and to take its needs seriously.

Why do bad things happen?

“Let both grow together until the harvest...” Matthew 13:30.

Why does a good God allow bad things to happen? 

Why is it that, along with all the love, beauty and kindness in our world, there is also the evil, the darkness, the sheer wickedness? “Come on, God!” we feel like saying. “Do something!” But... he simply doesn’t, or so it seems.

For centuries great minds, both Christian and otherwise, have wrestled with “the problem of evil”, what theologians and philosophers call “theodicy”. 

Well, I certainly can’t claim to have much wisdom to offer on this tricky question, certainly nothing original. But the Bible suggests in a number of places that it fundamentally comes down to the question of God’s patience; if I can put it this way, in his dealings with his creation, God is playing a long game.

Jesus’ story of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30) bears this out... A man sows good seed in his field. An enemy comes and sows weeds. To their dismay, the man’s servants see the good and bad growing together. They go to their master and ask what they should do: “Do you want us to go and pull the weeds up?” They seem keen to get on with the job! 

But their master says no: “Let them both grow together until the harvest” - and then there will be a great separation, the wheat into barns, the weeds into the furnace.

Jesus provides his own explanation for the story in verses 36-43: the field is the world; the sower is God, more specifically “the Son of Man”; the good seed is the children of God’s kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one; the enemy is the devil; the harvest is the final judgment; the harvesters are the angels.

And the point is this: painful though it might be, good and bad in our world must live together until the time of God’s choosing. 

Various truths emerge from this.

First, God is a good God, and while he permits evil, he doesn’t want it or condone it. He has, it seems, seen fit to limit his own omnipotence, at least for a time. The story of Adam and Eve in the garden illustrates this.

Second, there is an “enemy”. The Bible calls him by various names: the devil, Satan, the evil one. Over the centuries the church has understood the reality of the evil one in various ways, but all that really matters is that he exists, he is malevolent, and he is powerful. We ignore him at our peril.

Third, a day of reckoning will come. One day all wrongs will be righted and all evil will be destroyed. This is where the image of fire comes in - it is essentially a metaphor for destruction, and so Gehenna, or hell, is in effect a cosmic incinerator. 

We need to take seriously the idea of the day of judgment, and Jesus’ warnings about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” for those who have left it too late. Yes, God may permit evil for a time, but ultimately he would simply not be God, and certainly not an all-good and all-powerful God, if he did not finally act in judgment.

Where the pain is most acute, of course, is when we think of the people who suffer most while God is exercising his patience. I am writing this in a pleasant house, in a study surrounded by books, with the liberty to come and go as I please, and with a full stomach and good health. It is, so to speak, all very well for me. 

But what about those who suffer persecution, cruelty, injustice, poverty, ill-health, broken relationships? 

Well, only God himself can answer that question - and if ever we feel inclined to take him to task over it I don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong in that. God’s shoulders are big enough to take it, as Job and many of the psalms suggest. God prefers an indignant, even an angry, disciple to an indifferent one. Don’t be afraid to get it off your chest.

But one other thing strikes me. We tend to speak of good and evil as things, and there is of course truth in that.

But that isn’t how Jesus sees it here. The weeds are not bad “things”, but “the children of the evil one”. People. And the wheat, likewise, is not the good and beautiful “things”, but “the children of God’s kingdom”. Again, people.

In other words, Jesus makes it personal. The reality of good and evil is about - you - and me. Whose side am I on? Where do I stand? 

Yes, lots of questions cause us to wrack our brains. But these are questions to which each of us needs to provide a clear, unambiguous answer. 

Lord God, help me to be only, ever, a force for love, truth and goodness in this troubled world. Amen.