Missionary news
It has been a busy week for missionary news: a letter from Steve & Katuska has arrived and a photo book from the January 2016 tailoring graduation from Reeba and Fredrick.
Steve & Katuska
Steve & Katuska have taken the decision to remain in the UK and not return to Mozambique for the foreseeable future, largely because of the needs of their three sons regarding education. They write ‘This isn’t a decision that we take lightly, and it comes after much thought and prayer as well as discussion with both OMS and our own church. Among the mixture of factors involved in the equation, probably what weights the most is the need to get the boys settled into school. They have coped with more than enough changes in the last few years!.. What they need most, right now, is stability.’
The needs of our children must always be weighed when we consider our calling and it can be difficult to know how best to balance the two things. Please pray for Steve & Katuska as they seek God’s guidance for their future ministry, for the right schools for the boys and for the ongoing work of the Bible seminary in Mozambique. At the moment, they are in Ecuador, visiting Katuska’s family, and hope to be able to provide help and relief to friends in Pedernoles, just 25 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake which struck in April this year while they are in the country.
Fredrick & Reeba
As a church, we were blessed to be able to support the tailoring programme run by Reeba and Fredrick in three locations in India and have just received a beautiful photo album marking the graduation ceremony in January 2016:
Please continue to pray for this vital ministry which helps women to find the skills needed to earn their own living and pray as we continue to prepare for our missions’ trip to India to see this work for ourselves next year.
Crazy Love
In the 1978 romantic film ‘Grease’, Sandy (a young prim and proper teenager in the throes of first love) sings of ‘bad boy’ Danny, ‘I’m hopelessly devoted to you.’ The film charts the ups and downs of young love, capturing something of the awkwardness and passion of love and ends, in true Hollywood style, with the couple driving off to their ‘happily ever after.’
God’s love for us is far more devoted than the most devoted human love and He is looking for an equally passionate response from us. Francis Chan, in his book ‘Crazy Love’, says ‘it’s probably the most insane statement that you could make to say that the eternal Creator of this universe is in love with me. There is a response that ought to take place in believers, a crazy reaction to that love. Do you really understand what God has done for you? If so, why is your response so lukewarm?’
God’s love for us is fervent, passionate, unrelenting and unfailing. As we meditate on that love, it evokes within us an equally fervent, passionate, unrelenting and unfailing love in us: ‘we love, because He first loved us.’ (1 Jn 4:19) David spoke of this love: ‘I loveYou more than I can say… I’m madly in love with You.’ (Ps 69:9, The Message)
Phil Wickham’s song ‘Wide Awake’ captures something of this love:
‘Through the veil, we have come
You’ve paid the price, a sacrifice, of flesh and blood.
Hearts ablaze, drawing close
The holy place now invades the human soul.’
As we meditate on the fact that we can approach a holy God through the sacrifice of His beloved Son and now the presence of God can live within us, our hearts are ablaze.
‘Hope is here, love has won
With burning hearts, into Your arms
Oh God, we run
All my life and all my days
Holding nothing back, giving all I am
For Your great name.’
God’s love sets a burning love within our heart (the word ‘zeal’ could be translated as ‘burning love’, ‘crazy love’, to quote Francis Chan) and we long to run to God and to hold nothing back from Him, just as a lover longs to give himself or herself utterly to the beloved.
‘Wide awake, unashamed, in Your light
By Your grace, boldly running to Your side
Captivated, oh I am taken by everything You are
I want to be closer and closer and closer to Your heart
I want to be closer and closer and closer to Your heart.‘
One of the most precious things about God’s love is how it banishes shame, casts our unworthiness to one side as we clothe ourselves in Christ’s righteousness. We are captivated by God, held to Him as iron filings cling to a magnet, drawn by His love.
The Psalms frequently talk of this desire to be close to God (see Ps 91:1-2, Ps 73:28, Ps 42:1-2, Ps 63:1-2), describing the ache and longing of love and the satisfaction found only in the presence of God (see also Song of Songs 5:8). May we all be drawn closer and closer to God’s heart, allowing His heart of love to fill us, allowing His presence to invade our souls and lead us to the place of satisfaction in Him, for truly, nothing else can satisfy. Francis Chan says ‘God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself, because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of dos and don’ts; it’s falling in love with God.’ Only God can satisfy.
Talking Point: Safeguarding Against Pornography
It’s important for us to understand that sex in itself is not sinful, but is in fact a gift of God. In its proper context, between a married man and woman, sex is something beautiful, a picture of the close relationship God longs to have with His people. But the Bible is clear that sex outside of marriage is a perversion of God’s original intention (outlined in Gen 2:21-25). Both sexual immorality (sex outside of marriage) and adultery are wrong (see Heb 13:4, 1 Cor 7:1-3), and Jesus made it clear that sexual immorality includes our thought lives (Matt 5:28).The matter of sexual purity obviously means that we must safeguard ourselves and our children against pornography, asking for God’s help in this battle for the mind and soul.
There is hope and forgiveness for all who have sinned in this way; no sin is outside the forgiveness of God. We do need to recognise the problem of pornography and seek to guard against it. Children and young people should not be left alone with unlimited access to the Internet; parents need to educate children about sex and this will include teaching about the dangers of pornography (however embarrassing this may be!) as well as setting boundaries (e.g. limiting Internet usage, using appropriate filters and so on.) Each Christian needs to seek to live holy lives before God; there has to be accountability and help given to those who struggle with this particular sin. Websites which offer further advice and help are:
The good news, however, is that the light of Jesus Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn 1:5) He provides the way to be set free from all addictions and to be liberated from all bondage. We long for God to build His kingdom here, in us, setting us free from all chains and allowing His light to shine on us and through us so that all may know His glory and grace.
Talking Point: The Problem of Pornography
Pornography (printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement) is a growing problem these days, exacerbated by the easy availability of porn videos via the Internet. Josh McDowell, a Christian author, says ‘The magnitude of porn in the world is beyond comprehension…The devastating impact of Internet pornography is a global phenomenon, and not one country or culture, or church in the world is isolated from its reach.’ (see here for more details.) The statistics regarding this industry (for the secular motivation behind pornography is often closely linked to its monetary value) are shocking: 6,311,390,400,000 porn videos watched per year, with 17,291,480,548 videos watched per day; one porn site reports 100 million pages viewed every day and the Huffington Post reports ‘porn sites get more visitors each month than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.’ 24% of smartphone owners admit to having pornographic material on their mobile handsets and shockingly 9 out of 10 boys (and 6 0ut of 10 girls) are exposed to pornography before the age of 18, with 15% of boys and 9% of girls also having seen child pornography. It’s not surprising that young people consider it more ‘normal’ to send sexually explicit texts or photos via phones or that posting compromising photos and videos online is becoming an increasing problem.
Bishop Paul Laverde says ‘what was once the shameful and occasional vice of a few… has become the mainstream entertainment for the many.’ This is especially troublesome when we consider age, for whilst 88% of 18-24 year olds believe stealing is wrong and 71% think lying is wrong, only 32% believe pornography is wrong, with many believing recycling is ‘more immoral’ than pornography. Even more shocking is the fact that 22% of young adults believe porn is ‘good for society’.
Pornography is a perversion of the devil which rips sexuality from its relational context and presents human beings not as creatures made in God’s image but as sexual commodities – something to be bought and sold. Luke Gilkerson in ‘Your Brain on Porn’ says there are 5 main effects in individuals who habitually view pornography:
- Watching porn decreases sexual satisfaction because it trains us to desire the variety and ‘designer sex’ of porn more than the familiar sexuality of marriage
- Watching porn disconnects us from real relationships, training us to detach emotional involvement from sexual experience
- Watching porn lowers our view of women, training us to see women as sexual commodities
- Watching porn desensitises us to cruelty
- Watching porn is addictive, tapping into the neurocircuitry of our brains, maming us desire the rush of sexual energy from porn again and again
Clearly, pornography has harmful effects not only on individuals but also on families and on society. In 56% of divorce cases, one party having an obsessive interest in pornography websites was cited as contributing to the divorce; those who have committed adultery are 218% more likely to look at porn. The scale of the problem simply cannot be ignored.
Is that all you can say?!
Trusting God is at the heart of the gospel, but it often seems an irritatingly simplistic solution to complex problems. Ps 131 concludes with the words ‘Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.’ (Ps 131:3) Prov 3:5-6 tells us we must trust in the Lord with all our heart and learn not to put our weight on our own understanding. So often, however, we chafe at the passivity implied in trusting God.
The human tendency is to want to take things into our own hands and sort things out through our own ingenuity and skill. The Bible constantly warns us against this, showing us many examples of what happens when we do just that: Sarah and Abraham thinking God needed help in producing this promised son, coming up with the solution of Abraham sleeping with Hagar to hurry things along (Gen 16); Jacob plotting and scheming to get his birthright (Genesis 25); David plotting with Joab to cover up his adultery and thereby stooping to murder (2 Sam 11). What God requires is a child-like trust in Him all the time; trust is not something we start with and then discard as we progress. Jesus said, ‘unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt 18:3) Don’t despise the simple things: trusting and hoping in God truly are the way to satisfaction and contentment.
Being Weaned
There comes a time in a baby’s life (usually around six months old) when milk is not enough to sustain growth and solid foods have to be gradually introduced. Food still has to be pureed, but this is the time when new tastes and textures can be introduced into a baby’s diet.
Not all babies respond well to this initially, often spitting out the new food at first because it’s unfamiliar. Gradually, however, all babies will move on from milk to solid food.
In the same way, Peter urges new Christians ‘like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation’ (1 Pet 2:2), but this milk is not enough to sustain us throughout life. The writer to the Hebrews says ‘anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.’ (Heb 5:13-14)
The process of weaning us spiritually from milk to solids is often not pleasant. When we’re first saved, it feels as though we live in a haze of wellbeing and a glow of grace. God seems to answer our every prayer and provide evidence upon evidence of His blessing and benevolence. But there comes a period, often known as the ‘dark night of the soul’, when we no longer feel God’s presence and can even doubt His love. Well-meaning people may tell us that if we’re no longer feeling close to God, it’s not God who has moved and we can become extremely worried, anxious and even despairing. Perhaps, though, all that is happening is that God is weaning us. He does not want neurotic dependency on Him; He is looking for child-like trust which will follow Him even when we cannot see where He is going. Is 45:15 talks of the God who hides Himself, and sometimes in those dark times, it’s not that we’ve moved away from God or that God has actually moved away, but that there is a weaning, a denial, a waiting period which we find tremendously difficult to understand but which is designed to help us to trust. God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5), but there will come a time in every Christian’s life when we have to believe that promise by faith, rather than because of our feelings or because of the visible things we can see. Just as the baby may have to wait longer than it wants for its meal and then be given food it would really rather not have to digest, so too God may make us wait longer than we want for His answers or bring circumstances into our lives that don’t seem at all good, but He is looking to shape us into the image of His Son and bring us to maturity.
Maturity means we turn to God, having nowhere else to go (see Jn 6:67-68); we nestle into His arms; we rest in contentment in Him even when we have no idea what to do about the storms that rage all around, even when we are as confused and as worn out as that screaming baby.