Garry continued preaching about the topic of growth as he continued his study on 2 Peter 1:8-9 TNIV. Peter urges us to add various qualities to our faith and reminds us that if we possess these qualities in increasing measure, we will not be ineffective. Growth may seem painfully slow to us and is at times difficult to measure. We have been growing a chilli, far more slowly than the instructions indicated, but there are definite signs of growth here!

As we walk with God, growth will come, even if this is not as fast as we would like it to be! We often feel anaesthetised by the ordinary, but God wants us to have an effect on all around us; He wants us to be ‘out of the ordinary’, for we are called to be salt and light in our communities (Matt 5:13-16 TNIV). The Message version reminds us that we are here ‘to be the salt seasoning that brings out the God-flavours in the world’ and the light that shows the ‘God-colours in the world.’ There will always be avenues of service within the church, but God also wants us to realise that we have an area of effectiveness outside the building as well, for the salt needs to be shaken out of the salt-cellar to be effective and He wants our light to shine in the darkness.

Most of us view our working lives as ‘jobs’, but we need to understand that for Christians, every job is a vocation, for God has called us (see Matt 9:13 TNIV, Acts 2:39 TNIV.) God wants us to be headlights, not indicators. Indicators are intermittent, but a headlight shines brightly and consistently into the darkness. We are called to reflect His light in our ordinary, everyday lives, understanding that we are called to be different, not obnoxious! (More like salt than pepper, which can get ‘up your nose’!) Christians are called to be different, since we are marching to a different beat, but we are not contrary or obnoxious for the sake of it. Instead, we should be winsome (attractive or charming in a delightful way, showing a childlike joy which is pleasing to all in its freshness and honesty.) We need to remember that we are representatives of God, His ambassadors (2 Cor 5:18-20 TNIV), called to be His ‘movers and shakers’ (since God is the God who will shake all that can be shaken – see Hebrews 12:26-27 TNIV).

When Phil Wickham first announced that his new album would be called ‘The Ascension’, I assumed he was talking about the ascension of Christ to heaven after His resurrection. However, as he talked more about the album, it became obvious that what he was actually referring to was the journeys pilgrims made to Jerusalem each year, captured for us in the ‘Songs of Ascent’ (Ps 120 to Ps 134). These fifteen psalms were sung by Hebrew pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem three times a year for the great worship festivals. Jerusalem was the highest city geographically, and so they were called the ‘songs of ascent’ because the people literally had to go up to get there! Eugene Peterson comments ‘The ascent was not only literal, it was also a metaphor: the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upward toward God, an existence that advanced from one level to another in developing maturity. What Paul described as the “upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:14)’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey’ P 6)

These ideas are captured in the title song on the album, as we reflect on the ‘start of something amazing’ when heaven touches earth, when we realise that there is so much more of God to be seen and experienced.

‘This is the start of something amazing
A moment when heaven touches earth
Here in our hearts, Lord, we are waiting
For something that’s far beyond what we have seen or heard

Let us start the ascension
Let’s begin the climb
Up this holy mountain
Where Your glory shines
Further up, further in
Just to be with You again
Let us start the ascension,’ (‘The Ascension’, Phil Wickham)
‘The Ascension’, Phil Wickham

I have vague memories of physics lessons (over thirty-five years ago) talking about potential and kinetic energy. Apparently, energy can be in two states: either potential or kinetic. It can be transferred between objects and from one state to the other. Potential energy is ‘stored energy’, energy that is ‘ready to go’ (a ball at the top of a hill that is about to roll, for example.) Kinetic energy is the energy of movement, as when the ball actually rolls down the hill.

The diagram below shows further examples, this time with a cyclist:

The reason I have been thinking about potential and kinetic energy is because of two quotes I have read recently. The first, by James Houston, says ‘True Christianity is turning the possible into the actual’ and the second, by Nelson Mandela, says ‘Everything seems impossible until it’s done.’

Both these maxims reflect a truth about faith. There is a sense in which when we believe something God has said, it seems impossible that this can ever actually happen – certainly, impossible without God (see Luke 18:27 TNIV, Matt 19:26 TNIV). Abraham’s story shows us how he received God’s promise of a son in faith and had to work through the many years when this promise that life would come from the barrenness of his and Sarah’s bodies seemed impossible to fulfil. Once they held Isaac in their arms, it did not seem quite so impossible! Similarly, receiving God’s promises is a little like holding potential energy in our hands. We believe God can do great and mighty things through our lives. but at that stage, it is only ‘possible’ and not ‘actual.’ As we mix faith with obedience and patiently wait for God to fulfil the ‘impossible’ part of the equation, we have the joy of seeing the possible become actual.

I spent most of 2011 and some of 2012 teaching on the importance of what we believe. Over the years I have come to see that what we believe really matters, not only in terms of our eternal destiny but in terms of how we live life on this earth. Belief has to fuel action and inform our life choices.

It’s easy to think that there is no connection between church on a Sunday and life during the rest of the week; this is a lie of the enemy. The media has made much of the fact that Islam involves the whole person and is holistic, but the truth is that Christianity too demands our whole lives, everything we are and have and long to be. What we believe shapes us, determines how we act, how we love, how we react.

“And I believe what I believe
Is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no, it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not
The invention of any man” (‘Creed’, Rich Mullins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LR2hFP1yb4

Belief is not academic in the sense that it is irrelevant to everyday life. It is personal, real, and affects everyday issues; it has to be ‘applied’. One of the GCSE courses studied at the school where I work is called ‘Religion and Life based on a study of Christianity’ and it looks at topical issues such as euthanasia, abortion, the media, conflict, marriage, divorce, sexuality and the existence of God. All these things are touched by God. If God is indeed ‘is over all and through all and in all’ (Eph 4:6 TNIV), then nothing we do can remain untouched by Him. Eugene Peterson says, ‘We live in a world where Christ is King. If Christ is king, every thing, quite literally everything and every one, has to be re-imagined, re-configured, re-oriented to a way of life that consists in an obedient following of Jesus.’ There can be no divide between the ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’, for everything is sacred to God.

It’s easy to think that God is only interested in the ‘big issues’ in life, and I’m not really sure that we need to pray about which pair of socks we put on in a morning (though I don’t think there’s any harm in that either!) But I am convinced that what we believe really matters and that we need to work hard at ensuring there is congruence between what we say we believe and how we live. If there isn’t, we run the risk of being called hypocrites and there is nothing worse than dissonance between what we say and what we do for causing stress in our lives. God has made us to be wholly committed to Him and our beliefs need simply to be a reflection of who we really are, in the secret place.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to me as I’ve reflected on the church and the importance people have played in my spiritual growth is the sheer diversity of humankind. I’m not simply talking about ethnicity or personality, though I’ve enjoyed learning about different basic personality types and often find these quite accurate (the Myers-Brigg personality test or the Enneagram, for example, offer insight into people’s temperament and can help us not only to understand ourselves but other people.) People ultimately just fascinate me!

When I was younger, I would get very frustrated with people who were different to me. I couldn’t understand them and my reaction either tended to be to feel demeaned (they were different so I must be the one who was wrong) or to feel superior (they were different so I had to be the one who was right!) I thought that God must have made a mistake in making us all so different!

However, over the years I’ve come to appreciate diversity and difference far more and I’ve also come to see that there can be unity even through diversity.

Paul talks about this in Romans 12:3-8 TNIV and 1 Cor 12:12-31 TNIV. Ephesians 4:4-6 TNIV says ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’ It is a mystery to us how there can be unity and diversity; we tend to think that the two are mutually exclusive. However, in the Godhead we see that three persons co-exist in one God: Father, Son and Spirit – not three gods but one God – and this becomes a pattern for unity and diversity.

Learning to get on with people is probably one of the hardest lessons of life. But as we see the value God has placed on each individual, see that we are all made in the image of God, see that we are unique and yet we all belong to this amazing family of God, we begin to glimpse something of the awesome purposes of God: ‘Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.’ (Eph 4:14-18 TNIV)
God’s aim is that we will grow to be the mature body of Christ, ‘no prolonged infancies among us’, as the Message version puts it. Neil Hudson has commented that God has recruited us to His cause, rather than the other way around. His goal is our maturity and our conformity to the image of Christ. Let’s press on towards that goal, knowing that each one of us has a vital and unique role to play.

After a long wait (to us), the new Phil Wickham album (‘The Ascension’) finally arrived in our house today! I am always encouraged by songs which focus me on truth that looks beyond the now. I spend a lot of time meditating on 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 TNIV: ‘Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ This song helps to remind us of God’s sufficiency in sustaining us through the tragedies and difficulties of life and of the hope we have in Christ.

“When my heart is torn asunder
And my world just falls apart,
Lord, You put me back together
And lift me up to where You are.

When the age of death is over
And this world has been reborn
I’ll be there, beside my Saviour,
This is our great and rich reward.”(‘When My Heart is Torn Asunder’, Phil Wickham)
‘When My Heart is Torn Asunder’, Phil Wickham