Made to Worship

Here's a new song that we sang for the first time at church yesterday evening - I may use it next Sunday morning, so if you're planning to be there listen and learn! And if you're not - after listening I'm sure you'll want to learn it anyway.

Travelling in Style

This week we saw some of the most powerful people in the world descend on London for the G20 talks. President Obama arrived at Stanstead airport on his own personal Jumbo jet Air Force One. He was then flown on by Marine One - one of 28 state of the art helicopters dedicated to his personal use. When it came to getting around the city itself he used his personal armoured car/tank - affectionately known as The Beast. This is no ordinary car - it is designed to protect the President from almost any eventuality - one Internet site even said it was designed to survive a meteor strike (presumably that would depend on the size of the meteor). None of the other G20 leaders arrived with so much baggage, but they all arrived amid security and comfort.

If you've ever flown economy class, no doubt you have longed to be upgraded to business or first class - for nothing more than a bit of leg room and the ability to get a good night's rest. The next step is to hire a personal jet for those hops across the Atlantic to do a bit of seasonal shopping. Then the idea is to buy a personal jet.

When we think about power there are all kinds of trappings that automatically come to mind. Nice cars and private jets are just some of them.

Jesus was the most powerful man ever to walk the earth and although personal jets and limos weren't available to him other modes of transport were. Coming to Jerusalem on that first 'Palm Sunday' he was stating his position as king, and so could have come on a white horse, or in a chariot, or maybe carried in some kind of chair affair - instead he borrowed a donkey. Jesus was beginning his final week, a week in which his actions would bewilder almost everyone who knew him. Kings and powerful people behave in certain ways. They don't turn up in a borrowed everyday family car. They don't do the job of a servant and wash their disciples' feet. They certainly don't go to their death if they could have done anything to stop it.

Jesus was the most powerful man to walk the earth and yet he used his power in a different way to everyone else. He didn't look out for his own interests. He didn't put himself first. Instead he was obedient to all that God asked of him, and he loved others - all others - even his enemies.

If we claim to be followers of Jesus this Palm Sunday then we need to follow his example.

The Shack

There are some topics/themes/subjects that are best dealt with through stories - because we need to be involved at the level of our emotions and feelings. Looking at academic arguments carefully laid out in essays, or even picking verses from the Bible, doesn't help us find answers to our deepest questions, because somewhere along the line the theory has to meet the experience - and the answers begin to come out of the wreckage of that collision!

Questions such as 'why does God allow suffering?', 'how can I forgive ...?', 'where is God in my pain?' can be relatively easy to answer in the classroom of a Bible college (especially if you have a background in philosophy as well as theology), but how do those answers prepare us to come face to face with the reality in our own lives and in the lives of those we love?

This is a book that begins to tackle some of these questions - but it does so in a way that won't leave you with answers in your head that you could put in an essay, but in a way that could potentially change your life.

I am aware that I do not want to give too much away - as it will spoil your enjoyment when you come to read the book, as I hope you will. So as far as outline I will give you no more than is written on the back cover. This book is about a father, Mack, whose youngest daughter, Missy, is abducted during a family holiday and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, and still struggling to come to terms with what happened, Mack receives a note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack and walks back into his nightmare. What he finds there will change his world forever. And as you read about Mack's experience and what he found there in the Shack it may change your world forever too.

I found this a fascinating work of fiction, that raises questions, answers others, and has the potential to radically alter the way we think about God and ourselves. From a quick read on different Internet sites it is clearly a book that polarises opinion - from 'this book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good' to 'Heresy'.

I know there are some pastors who have told their congregations not to read this book and it won't take long to find online reviews that pull it to pieces, making the case that it undermines the Bible etc.

But I want to encourage you to read it, to enjoy it, to cry and be moved by it, to wrestle with the questions it raises, to disagree with some bits if you want, to skip over bits that blow your mind if you want, to read it again, to talk about it with your housegroup, to leave a comment below... and you never know - maybe you'll be a different person as a result.

Let me know what you think.

Why every church should have a wormery!

This week we're looking at a well known parable - the parable of the sower - the guy who goes out and throws the seed all over the place letting some land on the path, or the rocks, or with the weeds, as well as on the good soil. If you're a gardener, you'll know that the quality of the soil will affect how well your plants grow. That's why I keep worms - to make compost - to improve the soil...

But of course Jesus is not giving us agricultural advice here (Luke 8:1-21). He's reminding us of what we may have already experienced - that when we try and share God's love with people we get a whole variety of responses. Some reject the message outright, others seem interested for a while and then drift away, others become enthusiastic followers themselves. The point? Not to be discouraged when the message is rejected - but keep on sowing the seed, because some will land on good soil.

But what about me? How well do I listen to God's truth? Proper hearing in this passage involves retaining and persevering in doing - putting what we hear into practice. Jesus seems to be saying here that this kind of hearing isn't automatic, but it takes some effort on our part. It takes a conscious act of the will to choose to listen to God, to choose to try and work out how something applies to me, to choose not to allow other distractions to get in the way, to choose to do the right thing...

It takes effort to cultivate good soil but the result of that hard work is a fruitful harvest.