The poem ‘Children Learn What They Live’ by Dorothy Law Nolte does not only apply to children!

‘If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.’

By encouraging and affirming people and giving them the freedom to be themselves, we allow them the freedom to grow into the people God wants them to be. All relationships take time and effort and are rather like bank accounts! We need to make sure we invest positive words and caring actions into people, for there will always be times, sadly, when we end up making withdrawals from their lives through our unkindness and lack of love. We need to admit to our faults and ask for forgiveness when this happens, so that we build people up rather than becoming stumbling-blocks on their way to spiritual maturity.

Although we cannot actually be responsible for other people’s spiritual growth and need God to effect growth in us, we are not meant to grow spiritually in isolation, for ‘the life into which we grow to maturity in Christ is a life formed in community.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Practise Resurrection’, P 35) 1 Cor 12 reminds us that we are a body, with each part individual but necessary: ‘God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.’ (1 Cor 12:18) We need to understand that we can be instrumental in helping others to grow, for – difficult though it is to learn to live with others, in that process of learning how to live with others, our selfishness and demandingness are re-shaped into selflessness and sacrifice.

Maturity is all about becoming the person God has designed us to be and in so doing we fit into Christ’s body and find out what our part is there. Eph 4:16 talks about the whole body being joined and held together by every supporting ligament and how the body grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. We do our part, our work, effectively only really when we understand who we are in God and what He has designed us to be and do. Becoming the person God designed us to be is a spiritual process which God works in us.

We help other people to grow by:

1. accepting them as they are (Rom 15:7), being secure in who we are so that we enable others to be the people God has designed them to be, appreciating diversity without demanding uniformity. We accept that God puts people into the church (it’s not a social club!) and has the right to choose whom He wants (see 1 Cor 1:26-29) and we accept people unconditionally (see Rom 14:13). Accepting people offers them the space and freedom to grow. It’s like giving them good soil in which they can ‘breathe’.
2. listening to people (James 1:19) and in so doing, reinforcing the fact that they matter and have value and worth simply for who they are, rather than merely for what they do. Listening to people takes time and enables us to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. (Rom 12:15)
3. loving people (John 13:34-35, 1 John 5:2), demonstrated through positive words and caring actions. Encouragement and affirmation are significant ways to help people flourish. We live in environments that are hostile to faith and need the encouragement of other believers who remind us ‘you can do it!’ and ‘God can do it!’ Loving people creates an environment for growth, including giving people the freedom to fail without that affecting our relationship with them. Paul urges us to ‘encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing’ (1 Thess 5:11) and in so doing, we can help other people to grow.

Stephen continued preaching on the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-15), looking at verse 11: ‘Give us today our daily bread.’ This verse talks about provision and reminds us how God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness (see Ex 16:14-15), but Jesus’s words previously (Matt 4:3-4) remind us that God not only provides for our physical needs; He also provides for our spiritual needs. All God’s riches are available to us; we are like living capacitors, having the potential to receive great things from God.

Matt 5:6 reminds us that we are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Our longing and craving should be to receive the bread of life from God – not just provision for our physical needs, but spiritual satisfaction from the One who freely gives to all. This bread is without cost (Is 55:1), for we are able to partake in the Bread of Life (John 6:35) and will never go hungry. Jesus is the answer to all that we require in life; we need Him more than anything else and are asking for great things when we pray this prayer.

A metaphor is ‘a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.’ Last week, we looked at the way Ezekiel saw the river of God and how this is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. Metaphors abound when we are trying to understand the Godhead, because God is so far above us that they are a helpful way for us to truly begin to grasp who God is. The Holy Spirit is described in various places as a dove (Matt 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32), as a pledge or seal (Eph 1:14, 2 Cor 1:21-22), as wind (John 3:8) and as fire (Acts 2:3). These metaphors help us to see different characteristics of the Holy Spirit: the dove symbolises the beginning of a new creation through the work of the promised, Spirit-empowered Messiah, reminding us also of the new beginning after the flood when the dove brought back the olive branch to Noah (Genesis 8); the pledge or seal reminds us of the law and God’s legal claim on us; wind ‘seems to underline the inscrutable nature of his moving in the hearts of people to give them life and bring them to faith’ (www.bible.org) and fire represents the holy, all-consuming presence of God. (see Ex 3:2-5, Ex 13:21-22, Ex 40:36-38).

We often sing the song ‘Consuming Fire’ by Tim Hughes which touches on the metaphors of wind (breath) and fire, and there are numerous other songs which take the metaphor of fire as their subject. Rend Collective’s ‘Burn Like A Star’ takes this theme too and is a prayer for God to ‘burn like a star, light a fire in our hearts…awaken holy fire…light a flame in us.’ We need God’s fire to burn in our hearts if we are to know God’s resurrection power in our lives and witness.

‘We were born for greater things
We were born to chase Your dreams
Come, my Lord, awaken holy fire.

We are turning from our sin
We are praying once again
Come, my Lord, awaken holy fire

We are aching for the real thing,
Hearts are open wide.

Burn like a star,
Light a fire in our hearts.
[x4]

Send revival; start in us;
Set Your holy spark in us,
Send us out in resurrection power

History’s about to change
We are rising once again
Send us out in resurrection power.

We are aching for the real thing
Hearts are open wide

Burn like a star
Light a fire in our hearts
[x4]

For Your glory
For Your fame
In this darkness
Light a flame in us.’ (‘Burn Like A Star’, Rend Collective)

This comment by Rend Collective, commenting on the theme of their new album ‘The Art of Celebration’, made me smile. This month, we are praying especially that we will all be filled with the Holy Spirit and will know His fruit and His gifts more and more in our lives. Joy is indeed a fruit of the Spirit. So many things we deem important (seriousness, professionalism, competence and so on) are not. These things are not necessarily wrong, but we do need to keep coming back to what God values and considers important and what the character of God looks like. Only by dwelling in Him will we reflect His character.

‘We’re choosing celebration,
Breaking into freedom.
You’re the song,
You’re the song
Of our hearts.

We cast aside our shadows,
Trust You with our sorrows.
You’re the song,
You’re the song
Of our hearts.

We’re dancing to the rhythm of Your heart
We’re rising from the ashes to the stars

You’re the joy, joy, joy lighting my soul;
The joy, joy, joy making me whole;
Though I’m broken, I am running
Into Your arms of love.

The pain will not define us
Joy will reignite us.
You’re the song,
You’re the song
Of our hearts.

The dark is just a canvas
For Your grace and brightness.
You’re the song
You’re the song
Of our hearts

We’re dancing to the rhythm of Your heart
We’re rising from the ashes to the stars

You’re the joy, joy, joy lighting my soul;
The joy, joy, joy making me whole;
Though I’m broken, I am running
Into Your arms of love.

You’re the joy,
The song in my heart,
The hope of my soul.

In the shadows,
In the sorrows,
In the desert,
When the pain hits,
You are constant,
Ever-present
You’re the song of my heart.’ (‘Joy’, Rend Collective)

One of the joys of birthdays in my household is receiving new books and CDs, prized far above all other presents (though these are gratefully received as well, I hasten to add!) I am contentedly exploring a new Eugene Peterson book (‘Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work‘, looking at the Wisdom books in the Bible), enjoying a new mediaeval mystery (‘Treachery’, by S. J. Parris) and finally listening in uninterrupted peace to Kutless’s new album ‘Glory’. In addition, I have also received the new CD from Rend Collective Experiment entitled ‘The Art of Celebration’, the first album I have ever had from this Irish group.

One of the reasons I love listening to different expressions of worship in song is that my mind is focussed on truth in a form which lodges deep within. In our Bible studies, we have been looking at 1 John 2 and verse 14 really struck me: ‘the word of God lives in you.’ For us to flourish and grow in Christ, we have to know His word and allow that word to shape our thinking. These songs do that for me – listen to ‘More Than Conquerors’ whose lyrics remind us of 1 John 4:4:

‘We are more than conquerors, through Christ
You have overcome this world, this life
We will not bow to sin or to shame
We are defiant in Your name
You are the fire that cannot be tamed
You are the power in our veins.’ (‘More Than Conquerors’, Rend Collective Experiment)

or ‘In Jesus’ Name’, where the gospel truths of Acts 4:12 are powerfully captured:

‘In Jesus’ name our sins are washed away,
In Jesus’ name we are rescued, we are saved,
For love has come to make a way for us,
In Jesus’ name there is freedom for the broken,
In Jesus’ name there is healing for the hopeless,
For all our days, we rest in Jesus’ name.’ (‘In Jesus’ Name’, Kutless)

These Biblical truths transform our wrong thinking and enable us to see God afresh.