Garry continued the Bible study on culture wars which initially started with looking at Paul’s revolutionary request to Philemon that he should welcome former slave Onesimus back into his household as a fellow brother in Christ rather than as a slave treated as a possession or commodity. We live in our cultures for so long that we often do not perceive what is unbiblical in our everyday surroundings. We need to spend time seeking God so that we can see Him afresh, slowing down and having a ‘rooted attentiveness’ to Him so that we can be effective in our culture. Daniel, a prophet in exile living in a culture that clashed violently with his religious origins, “prepared himself for inner revelation through a lifestyle that was courageous and counter-cultural.” (Charlie Cleverly, ‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’) We need spiritual disciplines (including prayer and fasting) if we are to find out what God wants and what is wrong with our cultures.

All around us, we see the consequences of wrong teaching and wrong thinking (often made visible in extreme violence, such as the Columbine High School massacre, which was the ‘logical’ consequence of the nihilistic teachings embraced by the killer.) We need Biblical revelation to show us the truths of God’s kingdom. John Stonestreet has said “Too often… we treat our faith as just one more item on our to-do list. But if Christianity is true, it’s the central framework for everything, the grid that overlays all of life… Christianity gives us a map to reality, an outline of the world the way it really is: God’s moral and physical order.”

Christians have exchanged citizenship of earth for citizenship of heaven and as such we live in an awareness of the clash between these two cultures or kingdoms every day. We have been ‘saved from death to live presently in a new society under the rule and reign of Jesus’ (Michael Craven). We now live following the way of the Cross, living according to the principles of a kingdom where the first shall be last and the way to life is through sacrifice and death.

Micah 6:8 offers us insight into how God wants His people to live: ‘He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly (prudently) with your God.”

God loves justice and urges us to follow this, even if it means being at odds with our culture (Ex 23:2). Justice should not be affected either by showing partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great (Lev 19:15). We need to show justice even to the foreigner or fatherless (Deut 24:17). Combining justice (doing the right thing) with showing mercy (a combination Jesus reflected in His everyday interaction with people, but which we often find difficult to balance!) is our goal. We need to know the truth (which sets us free) and act accordingly, doing what is right because that is the way God works, even if that means personal loss or persecution.

Brenda’s family organised a barbecue to celebrate her special birthday and, with characteristic selflessness, she turned that into a fund-raising event for Marie Curie Cancer Care. Here is the church contingency enjoying the food!

‘Morning Rises’ is the name of the new Aaron Shust album, due out on 16th July and eagerly anticipated in our household! Today, I read an interview in ‘CCM Magazine’ about the album, in which Aaron Shust said, ‘My primary litmus test for choosing a song is theological accuracy accompanied by the power to mature the listener or singer. The songs need to elevate our view of God.’

You can read the interview here.

No wonder I’m looking forward to the new album!

What makes someone buy a book? (or a DVD or a CD or anything else, for that matter…) What is the ‘key factor’ in motivating someone to move from looking to purchasing? The marketing and advertising industries work hard at identifying that elusive ‘je ne sais quoi’ and luring consumers to buy the wares of clients who pay them a fortune to translate curiosity into hard cash. With regards to a book, is it the cover which catches the eye? The name of an established author? The genre? The format? The price? All these things probably matter. But I can think of two books I bought for the same reason alone: the title.

The first book I bought for this reason is called ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, a novel by Mark Haddon written from the viewpoint of fifteen-year-old Christian, a teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome. I don’t normally even look at books in that genre and had never heard of Mark Haddon as an author. It was the title alone, with its literary allusion to Sherlock Holmes, which made me pick up the book in a shop. I actually don’t like the cover much and was not even that impressed by the announcement ‘Winnner Whitbread Book of the Year’, since many ‘classics’ leave me cold. But the title drew me in and I was curious enough to buy the book. I loved it. I won’t spoil it for you if you’ve not read it, but suffice to say, if you have ever worked with a young person with Asperger’s or needed insight into how differently other people can think, this is the book for you.

The second book I bought because of its title was from Ampleforth Abbey a few weeks ago, entitled ‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’ by Charlie Cleverly.

Apparently that phrase was first used by James Joyce, a hundred years ago, but I was not drawn in by any literary allusion this time, not even by the ‘fireworks’ style of the cover, though I did quite like the idea of revelation being like luminescent fireworks. It was the juxtaposition of the two nouns which drew me. ‘Epiphanies’ – ‘a manifestation of a divine being, or any sudden and important manifestation or realisation’, from the Greek epiphanainein, ‘commonly used in the singular to mean the Christian festival observed on 6 January commemorating (in the Western church) the manifestration of Jesus to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi.’ (adapted from the Shorter English Dictionary, 2002) The whole idea of such revelation, such ‘unveiling’, being found in the ordinary made me pick up the book and want to read it.

I don’t know if I am a ‘typical reader’ or if any advertising guru is interested in those reasons for choosing books. But I am certainly enjoying this new book as it explores ‘powerful encounters with God’ and had to smile at the opening chapter, which began (exactly as I had done before opening it!) with a dictionary definition and then went on to talk about the need to ‘stop, look and listen’. Now where have I heard that before?!

A number of people have birthdays this coming week, so we had fun celebrating these last night.

Two people share the same birthday. Eileen brought her own tiara to wear instead of the ‘birthday hat’, as she is lovingly referred to as ‘The Queen’ by our pastor! The first photo shows a regal wave:

The second is a more normal pose!

Next on the box was Brenda:

(Don’t forget the barbecue at her house on Wednesday from 6.30 p.m. onwards as a fund-raiser for Marie Curie Cancer Care & birthday celebration.)

There was birthday cake to celebrate, with exquisite icing:

We also celebrated the return of our youngest member, back from major surgery in Oxford. We are very grateful for the skill of surgeons and for God’s grace and help at these difficult times; it was great to see him looking so well and alert!

It’s good to celebrate as a family, rejoicing with members of all ages and looking to God at all times, whatever the circumstances.

Although Isaiah 7:14 is a Scripture traditionally the focus of Christmas services, it’s always good to reflect on the fact that Jesus is ‘Immanuel, God with us’. Mark spoke on this topic last night, starting by commenting that we perhaps would not really want any person to be with us every second of every day! In the Old Testament, God’s presence was with people at certain times (eg with the ark of the covenant or God’s Spirit resting on prophets at times), but His presence was not always visible or permanent. In the New Testament, Jesus came to dwell with manking and remains with us through His Spirit.

Isaiah 7:14 is Isaiah’s prophecy predicting the arrival of Jesus, ‘a human baby bearing undiminished deity’ (in the words of Michael Card, in his song ‘Immanuel’). Matthew 1:21-23 records the fulfilment of that prophecy. The meaning of the word ‘Immanuel’ is rich:

* ‘God’ = the awesome creator, the Alpha and the Omega, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, dwelling ‘with’; – accompanying, by the side of; ‘us’, available to all people everywhere. God is with us in every situation: in times of trouble and of need, in times of happiness and joy; even when we perhaps do not want Him to be with us, such as in times of our disobedience and sin. He knows our thoughts as well as our words and is with us at all times (see Psalm 139:1-14).

Isaiah 8:5-10 again refers to God as ‘Immanuel’. Even when the people of Israel felt shattered by captivity and sin, God was still working on their behalf. They had to bear the consequences of their sin, but they were not forsaken by God. We are never abandoned by Him.

God’s presence with us brings responsibility to us. We need to live our lives with an awareness of His presence.

‘Immanuel’, Michael Card