The good, the bad and the boring

As I mentioned last time we've just started a series at church looking at the first half of Daniel. One of the things that Daniel wants us to see is that God is working behind the scenes - all the way through Daniel he writes that things happen because of God. So even if Nebuchadnezzar thinks it is his power and might and military strength that has led to the successful invasion of Judah - it actually only happened because 'God delivered...'

When we experience bad days do we have the eyes of faith to see God working out his plans? To recognise the presence of God - even when it looks like he's no where around.

Daniel and his three friends were the best of the best. If anyone was going to be able to make a go of it in Babylon it was going to be them. They looked good. They were charming. They were intelligent. They had everything going for them. But at no point in the story do they allow this to go to their heads. They remain humble. They remember that everything that they have, and everything that they are able to do is down to God. God has given Daniel the supernatural ability to interpret dreams, but their other gifts and abilities and talents also come from God - and they never forget this. When things go well and they are praised - they reflect that praise to God.

On the good days do we give thanks to God - or do we sometimes fall into the trap of patting ourselves on the back and thinking that it is all about us. Do we start to rely on our own abilities and strengths, rather than continuing to look to God?

But most of us, most of the time will not have good days or bad days - they will just be typical, normal, mundane, boring, routine days. We do the same things we do everyday. We get up at the same time, we eat the same thing for breakfast, we take the same journey to work. And after a day in the office we return home, and watch the same TV and then we go to bed - in order to start it all over again the next day!

And I suppose one question for us is: do we have the eyes of faith to see God at work in the ordinary, in the mundane, in the routine? Are we looking for God? Are we waiting for him to show up? Do we see his handiwork in the spider's web on our walk to work?

God is there - on the good days, on the bad days and on the boring days. Another question might be - if God is there, can you have a boring day...

Behind the scenes

This week I've been reading through the book of Daniel, getting ready for a new preaching series that will start this week looking at Daniel 1-6. 

Yes - I do know that there are another 6 chapters at the end of Daniel. But - I only have 6 weeks, and our Holiday Bible Club, is based on Daniel 1-6 (Scripture Union's Space Academy) so I thought it would be good to study these chapters ahead of sharing it with the children in a few weeks time.

One of the themes that comes through is how God is always working just behind the scenes. This is true even when things don't look like it. When Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel was carried into exile it was because of what God did - not because of who Nebuchadnezzar was or what he had done. 

Similar themes to those we saw last week with Revelation.

Although Daniel was a captive rather than a refugee watch the following video and then try to imagine some of the things that Daniel was feeling and thinking. Yet his faith remained strong as he saw (with the eyes of faith) the hand of God behind even this disaster in Israel's history.

Dear John...

I imagine that out of all the various authors who contributed to the Bible, when it comes to the length of the queue of people waiting in line with their questions, Paul and John are going to have some of the longest queues. Even other New Testament authors admit that Paul is sometimes difficult to understand, and when it comes to Revelation... I wonder whether John might have two queues: one for 'questions on the gospel and the epistles' and a much longer queue for Revelation.

A couple of days ago I asked what questions you would ask if you could meet John face to face. Yesterday we tried to imagine that situation in church with the arrival of a time travelling John - who may have looked a bit like Father Christmas.

When I tell people that Revelation is one of my favourite books in the Bible they sometimes imagine that I therefore have an idea in my head about all the symbolism and images and can provide them with a time line of events that start now and end with judgement day. But when it comes to a lot of the detail of Revelation I don't have a clue.

But how much of the detail are we supposed to be able to work out - or is it ok to see the big picture and not worry too much about the detail? The big picture of Revelation is surely that Jesus is King (even now) and in the end God wins. Therefore there is an encouragement to persevere through hardship and a challenge not to be on the loosing side.

I also think that the way that Revelation is written means that wherever we live and in whatever age the truths about the world remain relevant. Revelation provides a peep behind the scenes into what is really going on - and what is really going on is that we live in a world that is opposed to God and his people. And this is true in countries where this is obvious (such as N Korea), but also in places where it is less obvious. Places where there is freedom of speech or freedom of religion but where the way things work favour the rich and the powerful rather than those on the margins, those without a voice, the poor...The challenge is then - how do I live as a follower of Jesus, how do I not get sucked into systems and ways of thinking that are opposed to God's values...

IF

Revelation - the answers to all your questions

If you've ever read Revelation - the last book in the Bible - you might have wondered what John was thinking/had taken as he sat down to write. On Sunday we're going to be looking at Revelation as this is the final week in the Community Bible Experience. I have read John, 1-3 John and Revelation quite a few times over the last couple of weeks as I've tried to get inside John's head a little.

Imagine you were to meet John face to face, what one question would you want to ask him about Revelation?

Imagine John was to meet you face to face, what one answer do you think he would want to give you? Would he want to answer your question - or would there be something more important he had to say?

Let me know what you think.

Actions speak louder than words

Last Sunday, as we continued our reading through the New Testament as part of the Community Bible Experience, we looked at 1 & 2 Peter and John. 

One of the ways I have been using this book is to colour in different words that keep on coming up - either within a single book, or a series of books written by the same person. It has been really interesting to see what comes up. John makes regular reference to know/knowing etc as well as believe/believing etc. Peter talks about reminding/remember and know/knowledge - and tells his readers in his second letter '...this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.'

Clearly the way that we think and what we believe is very important as we seek to follow Jesus. The way that we think determines how we act - in fact the way that we act betrays what we really think - actions do speak louder than words.

For the writers of the New Testament it was what they knew about Jesus that made all the difference. John and Peter had both known Jesus personally. John is constantly talking about what he had seen and what he had heard (we'll see this again next week with Revelation). If we want to be his disciples we need to know Jesus - not just know about him. And what we think about Jesus is vitally important.

What we think about Jesus should shape everything else - what we think about Jesus is our starting point. Often what we think about Jesus is shaped by what we already think about other things - like what we think church is all about, or what we believe about mission. We read the gospels and we try to fit Jesus into a box that is consistent with our church and its programmes. 

We've now completed seven of the eight weeks of the CBE - so in the last seven weeks we've read all four of the gospels. How has our thinking about Jesus been challenged? How has this thinking challenged the way we think about all the other stuff?

Marriage Preparation Course

Just came across this video clip - a whole marriage preparation session all by itself.

Instructions in my teaching notes would be something like this:

1) Press play
2) Ask the couple to discuss the video
3) Sit back and enjoy

Doing anything this Saturday?

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Faith without deeds is dead

As I mentioned on Sunday we were looking at James as a part of the Community Bible Experience. One of the things that you cannot avoid in James is his insistence that it is simply not good enough to say and think the right things - it has to make a practical difference - it has to lead to us actually doing something. Faith without deeds is no faith at all.

Following the service on Sunday a link to the following song was posted on my Facebook wall, so I thought I'd share it here. This is a song called Albertine by Brooke Fraser.




In 2005 Brooke Fraser took a trip to Africa to immerse herself in Rwanda before visiting her sponsor children in Tanzania, as she is an advocate for child sponsorship. In this trip, she was so moved that she wrote the song Albertine about a young child (named Albertine), whom she met while in Rwanda.
I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
there in her eyes what I don't see with my own
Rwanda

[CHORUS]
Now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms, 
I cannot let go till you are

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Rwanda

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE]
I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine

[CHORUS]

I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine
I will tell them, Albertine.

To shake or not shake...

Today we celebrated our International Sunday at church - which included joining together for lunch afterwards with food from many of the twenty or so countries that were represented - should have got some pictures! 

This past week in our Community Bible Experience we have been reading Hebrews, James and Mark - and today we looked at a few verses from James 1 that have something to say to us on our International Sunday.

When you live and work and go to church with a range of people from all over the world it can be very easy to misunderstand each other. Even the simplest of hand gestures can mean very different things depending on where you come from. Raising a hand to acknowledge a considerate driver who stops to allow you to cross the road says 'thank you' in this culture. But in other countries the same gesture can be very offensive. 

Even the way we greet each other can be a cause for confusion and offence if we allow it. Some people are quite happy with a nod of acknowledgement, others prefer a firm hand shake, others don't feel happy with anything less than a hug. Today we wore stickers with either head, hand or hug - indicating our preference (a nod of the head, a hand shake, or a hug) - and then we greeted one another based on the other person's preference. It was almost impossible to get people to sit down again.

James tells us to be slow to speak and quick to listen and slow to become angry. Good advice - especially in a multicultural context. It is always good not to jump to conclusions, and to give people the benefit of the doubt - think the best of them, rather than the worst.