Who is hungry?
Stephen’s sermon this morning looked at ‘an exploration of our diet’ – not so much focussing on the food we eat but on the life-changing and lifelong diet which God provides for us! This diet is free (Is 55:1) and, unlike many of the faddy food diets on offer, allows us to partake freely of all that God has to offer! (Rom 14:14 reminds us that no food is unclean in itself, reminding us that God only wants to give us good things.)
Col 3:16-17 reminds us that everything which is done and said needs to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and 2 Tim 3:16 reminds us that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful to us. We need to understand, however, that love must be the motivator in all we do, for Rom 14:15 reminds us that our actions can cause distress to others if we are not acting out of love. All our behaviour and activities must be filtered through love. Jesus was tender and gentle with those who were weak and in need but opposed the legalistic hypocrisy of the Pharisees with force. We have to understand that the freedom Christ brings is not to be abused, and we must live our lives conscious that our diet will not only affect our own spiritual growth but will affect others who can either be strengthened or weakened by our actions. A personal application of this diet – what Christ means to us in our own personal lives and how we live before others – is important for us.
Identifying the truth
Last night’s Bible study looked at 1 John 2:7-11, where John continues developing the idea that love is the ultimate identifying mark of the Christian. This commandment to love God and to love each other (Matt 22:36-40) is hardly new, since it is found in Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18, and has always been God’s intention for mankind. However, in other respects, it is new (a fact recognised by Jesus in John 13:34-35 and reiterated in James 2:8), simply because Jesus is the embodiment of love and demonstrated for us what this love actually looks like. It is new, because, in the unfolding of Christian experience, it has developed new power, meaning, and obligation, and closer correspondence “with the facts of Christ’s life, with the crowning mystery of His passion, and with the facts of the Christian life.”
When following a recipe or understanding a technical engineering drawing, the facts are laid out for us to follow and there should, in theory, be no variation in the end product! But, of course, following a recipe or understanding a drawing depends on personal interpretation and there will sometimes be great variation in the end product. The command ‘love God and others’ can be interpreted in so many different ways by people of different upbringings and personalities that we needed some more objective way to assess this; we also needed to see the utter selflessness of God’s love demonstrated for us (see John 15:9-13).
John continues to reflect on light and darkness, going on to say that if we claim to be in the light but hate our brother or sister, we are actually still in darkness. The ‘true light’ is already shining (see John 1:1-5, John 8:12) – Jesus is the ‘real thing’, not simply a shadow! By His Holy Spirit, He seeks to convict us of our sin and lead us into light. ‘Hate’ here means more than simply ‘not getting along with’ or ‘not liking’: it denotes a deadly intent to harm. (Acts 8:1-3) We should always remember, also, that ‘love’ is a choice, a verb, not a feeling. Love is the identifying mark of the Christian and will be how others will know that we belong to Christ. (John 13:35)
Never Too Late
The song ‘Never Too Late’ on the new album by Kutless is a powerful reminder that ‘as long as there’s a breath left to take, it’s never too late.’ So often, our lives are filled with regret which holds us back and keeps us ashamed. Our Bible studies (next one scheduled for this evening at 7.30 p.m.) on 1 John are reminding us, though, that there is a difference between remorse and repentance and that the answer to shame is to confess our sins to One who is faithful and just not only to forgive us but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
The enemy would have us believe that we are ‘too far gone’, that we have sinned beyond forgiveness, that we are wretched and miserable and undeserving of grace. We may well be wretched and miserable and are all definitely undeserving of grace, but the amazing, wonderful, liberating and soul-freeing fact remains that all our mistakes are covered by grace and it is not too late. Jean Valjean, the hero of Hugo’s ‘Les Misérables’, discovers this when the bishop refuses to press charges against him for stealing and allows him to go free, giving him the silver he has stolen (‘use this precious silver to become an honest man’.) We too can discover it is never too late if we simply come to the Cross, for peace, freedom and forgiveness are indeed waiting for us there.
‘I see you staring at the sky,
All of your regrets just running down your face,
You think you finally crossed the line,
Feel you sealed your fate…
It’s never too late to call on Him
Whatever you’ve done, wherever you’ve been,
All your mistakes are covered by grace,
And as long as there’s a breath left to take
It’s never too late…
It’s hard to hide the pain of life,
It’s a losing game that you have played too long,
You’ve listened to the voice of pride,
It says you’re too far gone, but believe me you’re wrong…
It’s never too late, to cry out to Him,
Whatever you’ve done, wherever you’ve been,
All your mistakes are covered by grace,
And as long as there’s a breath left to take
It’s never too late…
To all who may be listening, it’s never too late,
To all who may be lost, there is peace, there is freedom and forgiveness,
Waiting at the cross, waiting at the cross.’ (‘Never Too Late’, Kutless)
Standing Tall
I am not tall. For a very brief period in my history, I was tall: when I left primary school, I was one of the tallest in my class, being about five feet tall. My father (whose side of the family were all tall) had high hopes that I would follow in their footsteps. It was not to be. I grew very little in the remaining years (perhaps just under two inches!) and clearly took after my mother’s side of the family, after all.
For a brief period of time in my life, my son thought I was tall. And I was… in comparison to him! But that’s not saying much when you are a toddler or small child. He was barely fourteen when he grew taller than me and then took great delight in calling me ‘shrimp.’ Being small can be frustrating at times: reaching things out of the kitchen cupboards is a major task for me, requiring steps, whereas he can simply stretch up and bring down the requisite item. On the other hand, being small can have its advantages: I never bang my head on the cupboard doors when they are open, for example, because my head doesn’t reach the bottom of the doors!
So it was with some relief that I read the following quotation in Eugene Peterson’s ‘Practise Resurrection’: ‘growing up in Christ means growing up to a stature adequate to respond heart and soul to the largeness of God.’ (P 130) I may never be tall in the natural sense of the word, but I can stand tall in Christ and can be part of the amazing largeness of God!
Speak what is true
For me, coming to terms with the fact that the worldview all around me is false and opposed to what God says is true has not been an easy journey. It is often so much easier to ‘go with the flow’ and listen to the majority view. Simply because it is the predominant view makes it hard to ignore. Anyone who has swum in the sea against the tide know how much more tiring this is than ordinary swimming. The image of the fish swimming in the opposite direction to all the other ones is a symbol of what everyday life can feel like:
If we are successfully to do this, being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2), we need to meditate on what is true. The David Crowder song ‘Here’s My Heart’ says ‘Speak what is true.’ It is absolutely vital for our spiritual health that we learn to hear what God says is true and that we build our lives on this solid foundation. Some of the truths in the song are:
“‘Cause I am found, I am Yours
I am loved, I’m made pure
I have life, I can breathe,
I am healed, I am free.
‘Cause You are strong, You are sure
You are life, You endure.
You are good, always true.
You are light breaking through.
You are more than enough
You are here, You are love
You are hope, You are grace
You’re all I have, You’re everything.” (‘Here’s My Heart’, David Crowder)
Only as we learn to receive God’s word as truth and build upon this, rather than on the lies of the world, will be able to build an edifice which is strong and able to withstand the storms of life. (Matt 7:24-27) In the UK recently, we have been experiencing storms, floods and gales which have caused havoc in some parts of the country, sweeping away railway lines and forcing people to leave their homes. Life throws up many situations like this, when it feels like we have nothing solid beneath our feet. Only when we stand on the firm foundation of Christ the solid Rock can we hope to survive the floodwaters and the fiery trials which come.
Heaven
I have had the privilege of spending time with people who are dying or who have recently been bereaved in the past few weeks, and this inevitably focuses thoughts on the reality of heaven and what awaits those who have surrendered their lives to Christ (and what awaits those who have not). It can be difficult for us to hold on to the invisible in the face of pain and suffering, but the gospel of Christ offers reassurance that what we see with our natural eyes is not the whole story. Paul reminds us ‘For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (1 Cor 15:53-57)
We may not yet see, with our natural eyes, the victory that Paul proclaims here. Death inevitably brings sorrow, grief and loneliness to those who are left behind – and often a whole host of practical problems which are not easily solved. But as we meditate on the transitory nature of life and the certainty of death in this natural world, we are both encouraged to see beyond the temporary (2 Cor 4:18) and to realise the importance of preaching the gospel to all.
The songs below remind us of these truths far more eloquently than I can. Click on the link to listen to the songs.
‘Endless Hallelujah’, Matt Redman