I'm sitting in my bedroom, enjoying the exquisite Cape Town summer weather coming through my window. Everything seems to have slowed down today, even the southeasterly wind which is my nemesis every time I set out on a bicycle. It's December 16, the Day of Reconciliation.
Now I realize I'm getting a little predictable in marking these high days and holidays, but 'tis the season to do that, and we often let these days go by without thinking of their beautiful meanings. Among other things, today is my parents' wedding anniversary. Back when they were married, it was the Day of the Vow, and they joked that theirs was the Vow of the Day. The fact that it's the Day of Reconciliation doesn't mean that there is too much reconciliation needed between them, thank the Lord.
But a much bigger reconciliation is needed, I've been realizing recently: a reconciliation between the people of South Africa and God. Anyone with a head for the news can see the many ways we've rebelled against him. God gave us a peaceful transition to democracy which was nothing short of miraculous (anyone doubting that should pick up A Witness For Ever by Michael Cassidy for a good read of the incredible things that happened behind the scenes in the negotiations leading up to 1994). Yet since then we've turned our backs on him in just about every way possible. I was watching a documentary yesterday called Behind the Rainbow, tracing the history of the ANC from the 1950s up to the divisive Polokwane conference last year, and the overwhelming sense one got was of a nation that, in the words of the narrator, had "lost its innocence".
One thing that shows this incredibly starkly is our collective attitude towards our neighbour, Zimbabwe. Last week I was reading the obscure minor prophet Obadiah, who prophesied doom over Edom because of their actions towards their neighbours Israel, and I was mortified to see how many of God's judgments against them could be levelled at us:
"You deserted your relatives in Israel [Zimbabwe] during their time of greatest need. You stood aloof, refusing to lift a finger to help when foreign invaders [or a tyrannical government] carried off their wealth and cast lots to divide up Jerusalem [or their farmland]... You shouldn't have done this! You shouldn't have gloated when they exiled your relatives [from Zimbabwe] to distant lands... You shouldn't have stood at the crossroads, killing those who tried to escape. You shouldn't have captured the survivors, handing them over to their enemies [the Zimbabwean authorities] in that terrible time of trouble." (Obadiah 11-14)
It's scandalous. South Africans have done all these things. I can only conclude that we're under God's judgment in a terrible way unless we repent and reconcile with God.
But there's hope. In Ezekiel 22:30, God speaks about looking for someone who would rebuild a symbolic wall of righteousness guarding Israel, someone who would stand in the gap in the wall so he would not have to destroy the land. I know that God has many people in this country who are willing to stand in the gaps of our wall of righteousness.
I'm glad to report that many South Africans are doing that, working against all that's been done to Zim. We've heard the calls from various important people for the government to step up pressure on the Zanu-PF rulers of Zim, and the even more strident calls for Mugabe to be removed entirely. And on the ground, I've just personally collected over R3 200 in donations to take up to a needy orphanage and clinic in the country when I go up there this week for the wedding of Jono and Kath, two of my friends. Add that to the over R6 000 and 51kg of goods my friend Ros has collected, and we're going to be bringing some significant help to those who need it. People have been amazingly generous. And this tide of Christmas goodwill is catching on across the country, as the body of Christ finds ways to channel supplies to people in Zim.
According to 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are Christ's ambassadors in this country. We need to be urging people to be reconciled to him after all the sins we've done, against God, our neighbours and our compatriots. May God please show us how to do this.
Please pray for my friends and me as we make our way over to Zimbabwe, for favour with the border officials and safety. But even more importantly, pray for our country, that the hope of "God and sinners reconciled" would prove true for all of us this Christmas.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Beating the Holiday Burden
It's been a chilled, but challenging past two weeks. You see, every time I'm on holiday, God seems to turn the screws on me a little tighter when it comes to reminding me of the people out there who I could be sharing his love with. Or maybe it's just that when I'm on holiday, I'm not spending my time working to the same extent and so have one less excuse not to spend my time loving others. Either way, it all adds up to a syndrome I'd like to label the Holiday Burden: I get the feeling I should be using my time for God's Kingdom, then out of fear I make a few excuses, try to put it on hold for a while, with the result that nothing gets done and I just feel more guilty and out of touch with God, disqualifying me from reaching out. Anyone else ever feel like that?
This holiday, I've managed to get myself into the first stages of this dangerous slide, but I might just have found the way to pull out of it too. Here's what God's been teaching me lately:
Step 1: Get rid of the guilt
If this sounds like a strange place to start, I thought so too. God's got a good reason to be angry with me, so why should I stop feeling guilty? Because, of course, God isn't angry with me. It's one of the most basic truths of Christianity, but I still needed to be reminded of it the other day.
On Saturday, my Mom held a Quiet Garden at her house, a time when people from various churches get together just to spend some alone-time with God in the peace and quiet of a garden. I was keen to listen to God and realised I needed the discipline of just sitting and being quiet for a morning to do that, so I joined in. In the garden, I read one of the set passages in my daily quiet time notes, Hebrews 9:11-28. Here the Holy Spirit stresses again and again the once-and-for-all-ness of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. This means that the dreadful act of rebellion I've just committed has already been forgiven and paid for! The only right response is to turn around, repent, get rid of the guilt and begin living like I'm supposed to.
Step 2: Follow your heart
This one sounds completely counter-intuitive as well. Some of the most heinous sins have been committed by people 'following their hearts', and the world tries to brainwash us into doing this all the time: if you want to do something, do it now, because nothing can be wrong if it feels right to you. And now I'm repeating these fiendish lies? Well, not exactly. You see, I'm talking about a different heart. The one God planted in us when we accepted Jesus as our Saviour.
A few weeks ago I led a Bible study on God's promise in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Here God says that he will make a new covenant with Israel, with this as one of God's obligations under it: "I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts." (Jeremiah 31:33). God would put his laws, the commands he wanted the people to obey, in their hearts so that they would want to do what he wanted them to do. Hebrews 8 quotes this passage and explains that it is part of the better covenant that Jesus has now extended to us. So we have been given God's commands on our hearts! This makes sense of what Paul is saying in Philippians 2:13: "For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him." It's all there for us!
Why then do I still chafe against what God is asking me to do so many times? In theory I want to do good, but in practice I shy away from it. It's like the inner war that Paul describes in Romans 7 between our sinful nature and the new nature God has given us. Even though we've got this new nature, we've got to decide to follow it.
On Sunday my Dad preached on Romans 13:8-14. The last verse says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." In other words, we've got to put away our 'flesh', our sinful nature, like an old set of clothes, and put on our new nature so that we can be Jesus to others. And when we are Jesus to others, we glorify him! And what's more, we have the greatest joy in the world, that of turning people to the love of Jesus. I was struck the other day reading Luke 24:44-53, at how after Jesus had given the disciples the huge task of the Great Commission and ascended to heaven, leaving them to finish the job with the Holy Spirit, they weren't long-faced, contemplating the enormity of what they'd just been told to do (as I am often!) but "filled with great joy" (Luke 24:51).
So I'm still praying that God will help me put on Christ and beat the Holiday Burden. Let's revel in the huge joy of taking God's love to people we know. Let's do it!
This holiday, I've managed to get myself into the first stages of this dangerous slide, but I might just have found the way to pull out of it too. Here's what God's been teaching me lately:
Step 1: Get rid of the guilt
If this sounds like a strange place to start, I thought so too. God's got a good reason to be angry with me, so why should I stop feeling guilty? Because, of course, God isn't angry with me. It's one of the most basic truths of Christianity, but I still needed to be reminded of it the other day.
On Saturday, my Mom held a Quiet Garden at her house, a time when people from various churches get together just to spend some alone-time with God in the peace and quiet of a garden. I was keen to listen to God and realised I needed the discipline of just sitting and being quiet for a morning to do that, so I joined in. In the garden, I read one of the set passages in my daily quiet time notes, Hebrews 9:11-28. Here the Holy Spirit stresses again and again the once-and-for-all-ness of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. This means that the dreadful act of rebellion I've just committed has already been forgiven and paid for! The only right response is to turn around, repent, get rid of the guilt and begin living like I'm supposed to.
Step 2: Follow your heart
This one sounds completely counter-intuitive as well. Some of the most heinous sins have been committed by people 'following their hearts', and the world tries to brainwash us into doing this all the time: if you want to do something, do it now, because nothing can be wrong if it feels right to you. And now I'm repeating these fiendish lies? Well, not exactly. You see, I'm talking about a different heart. The one God planted in us when we accepted Jesus as our Saviour.
A few weeks ago I led a Bible study on God's promise in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Here God says that he will make a new covenant with Israel, with this as one of God's obligations under it: "I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts." (Jeremiah 31:33). God would put his laws, the commands he wanted the people to obey, in their hearts so that they would want to do what he wanted them to do. Hebrews 8 quotes this passage and explains that it is part of the better covenant that Jesus has now extended to us. So we have been given God's commands on our hearts! This makes sense of what Paul is saying in Philippians 2:13: "For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him." It's all there for us!
Why then do I still chafe against what God is asking me to do so many times? In theory I want to do good, but in practice I shy away from it. It's like the inner war that Paul describes in Romans 7 between our sinful nature and the new nature God has given us. Even though we've got this new nature, we've got to decide to follow it.
On Sunday my Dad preached on Romans 13:8-14. The last verse says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." In other words, we've got to put away our 'flesh', our sinful nature, like an old set of clothes, and put on our new nature so that we can be Jesus to others. And when we are Jesus to others, we glorify him! And what's more, we have the greatest joy in the world, that of turning people to the love of Jesus. I was struck the other day reading Luke 24:44-53, at how after Jesus had given the disciples the huge task of the Great Commission and ascended to heaven, leaving them to finish the job with the Holy Spirit, they weren't long-faced, contemplating the enormity of what they'd just been told to do (as I am often!) but "filled with great joy" (Luke 24:51).
So I'm still praying that God will help me put on Christ and beat the Holiday Burden. Let's revel in the huge joy of taking God's love to people we know. Let's do it!
Monday, December 01, 2008
Happy World AIDS Day!
I hope that doesn't sound like too much of a contradiction in terms. Who can be happy about a day in which we're supposed to remember that millions of people are dying from an incurable disease way before their time? Is there some way in which I can grasp at joy in a situation like this? Or do I even care?
To me, AIDS is such an invisible disease, even in South Africa, which is one of the countries worst affected by the disease. AIDS is a disease for 'other people', the poor and black. And even when you speak to them, few are open about being HIV-positive. The virus hides behind the countless symptoms and infections that are the surface causes of people's suffering. I had a jolt the other day when a well-off white friend told me she had been for a battery of blood tests and was afraid that the results would come back saying she was HIV-positive. Praise God, when they came back it turned out she was negative!
But what does God have to say to us about AIDS? We Christians often trumpet the fact that we have the ultimate way to prevent AIDS: sexual abstinence before marriage. And that's wonderful! It truly is something to celebrate, proving once again the wisdom of God's laws against sexual immorality. The NIRSA Declaration of Intent reads:
"We resolve to hold faithfulness in marriage and sexual abstinence before marriage as the only effective way to stop the HIV and AIDS genocide of the human race and to terminate sexual violence. We note further that the Bible holds men primarily responsible for upholding these virtues."
The Church has put together some great abstinence-based and abstinence-plus AIDS awareness campaigns teaching these truths and bringing clarity, while the teachings of secular organisations such as LoveLife seem to have confused people about how to prevent HIV from spreading. But so many people do not seem to be sticking to their pledges of abstinence, and far more are stuck with the virus through no fault of their own, due to mother-to-child transmission, rape and unfaithful marriage partners. And even where people have contracted HIV as a consequence of their own sin, God calls us to love them as we've been loved. So what should we be doing for these people?
I'm reminded of Jesus' words about the final judgment: "I was sick and you cared for me... I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!" (Matthew 26:36;40, NLT). Whether or not we cared for sick people will be one of the things that separates us from unbelievers on Judgment Day! They're that important to God.
Obviously, the first thing these people need to know is that they can know the forgiveness and love of Jesus, and that even though their mortal lives may be cut short, they can have eternal life if they believe in him. It's vital that they come to know this before they die. The second thing we should do (even if it scares us and stretches our faith) is pray for their healing. God is powerful, and he may be looking for people like us to do great miracles in his name. But whether or not he chooses to heal people, he wants them to be loved. So what is the Church doing?
It may not look like we are doing a lot. When World AIDS Day rolls around, secular advocacy groups seem to dominate the scene entirely. But if you take a closer look, you'll probably find the Body of Christ quietly at work both within those organisations (in the form of dedicated staff members and volunteers) and in smaller, lower-profile faith-based organisations. I decided to test this out on Google.co.za and found 107 000 pages from South Africa turned up when I searched for '(church OR Christ*) (HIV OR AIDS)'. Many of them are statements from various churches about HIV/AIDS or church ministries dealing with the disease. Try it for yourself! And then let's not forget all the faithful and faith-filled health professionals working in trying conditions every day to fight the disease.
The NIRSA Declaration of Intent says "We resolve to support current and new initiatives out of the church in tackling and eliminating the HIV/Aids pandemic." Let's do that! I must admit that I have done very little to show love to HIV/AIDS-sufferers. But I want to be willing to improve. And the best way I know to start doing this is by praying.
So will you join me in spending a while in prayer about the HIV/AIDS situation in our country and offering yourself to be used by God in some small way to love those caught in it? Maybe if we do, he'll awaken us to his compassion for the sick that can make even this World AIDS Day a happy day.
To me, AIDS is such an invisible disease, even in South Africa, which is one of the countries worst affected by the disease. AIDS is a disease for 'other people', the poor and black. And even when you speak to them, few are open about being HIV-positive. The virus hides behind the countless symptoms and infections that are the surface causes of people's suffering. I had a jolt the other day when a well-off white friend told me she had been for a battery of blood tests and was afraid that the results would come back saying she was HIV-positive. Praise God, when they came back it turned out she was negative!
But what does God have to say to us about AIDS? We Christians often trumpet the fact that we have the ultimate way to prevent AIDS: sexual abstinence before marriage. And that's wonderful! It truly is something to celebrate, proving once again the wisdom of God's laws against sexual immorality. The NIRSA Declaration of Intent reads:
"We resolve to hold faithfulness in marriage and sexual abstinence before marriage as the only effective way to stop the HIV and AIDS genocide of the human race and to terminate sexual violence. We note further that the Bible holds men primarily responsible for upholding these virtues."
The Church has put together some great abstinence-based and abstinence-plus AIDS awareness campaigns teaching these truths and bringing clarity, while the teachings of secular organisations such as LoveLife seem to have confused people about how to prevent HIV from spreading. But so many people do not seem to be sticking to their pledges of abstinence, and far more are stuck with the virus through no fault of their own, due to mother-to-child transmission, rape and unfaithful marriage partners. And even where people have contracted HIV as a consequence of their own sin, God calls us to love them as we've been loved. So what should we be doing for these people?
I'm reminded of Jesus' words about the final judgment: "I was sick and you cared for me... I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!" (Matthew 26:36;40, NLT). Whether or not we cared for sick people will be one of the things that separates us from unbelievers on Judgment Day! They're that important to God.
Obviously, the first thing these people need to know is that they can know the forgiveness and love of Jesus, and that even though their mortal lives may be cut short, they can have eternal life if they believe in him. It's vital that they come to know this before they die. The second thing we should do (even if it scares us and stretches our faith) is pray for their healing. God is powerful, and he may be looking for people like us to do great miracles in his name. But whether or not he chooses to heal people, he wants them to be loved. So what is the Church doing?
It may not look like we are doing a lot. When World AIDS Day rolls around, secular advocacy groups seem to dominate the scene entirely. But if you take a closer look, you'll probably find the Body of Christ quietly at work both within those organisations (in the form of dedicated staff members and volunteers) and in smaller, lower-profile faith-based organisations. I decided to test this out on Google.co.za and found 107 000 pages from South Africa turned up when I searched for '(church OR Christ*) (HIV OR AIDS)'. Many of them are statements from various churches about HIV/AIDS or church ministries dealing with the disease. Try it for yourself! And then let's not forget all the faithful and faith-filled health professionals working in trying conditions every day to fight the disease.
The NIRSA Declaration of Intent says "We resolve to support current and new initiatives out of the church in tackling and eliminating the HIV/Aids pandemic." Let's do that! I must admit that I have done very little to show love to HIV/AIDS-sufferers. But I want to be willing to improve. And the best way I know to start doing this is by praying.
So will you join me in spending a while in prayer about the HIV/AIDS situation in our country and offering yourself to be used by God in some small way to love those caught in it? Maybe if we do, he'll awaken us to his compassion for the sick that can make even this World AIDS Day a happy day.
Monday, November 24, 2008
My second-last night in College House
Quiet. Except for the rhythmically croaking frogs and the busy twittering of birds, the raps on my keyboard and sporadic voices downstairs. Unusually sporadic. It's an unusual night. It's my second-last night in College House.
For four years I have lived in this fine Herbert Baker-designed edifice, a U-shaped building around a courtyard. For four years I have shared this place with more than 50 other young men, many lost, few found. And what difference has it made? Too little, it seems.
Oh, I've done something, I guess. Started a prayer meeting every week in my room for a few committed souls. And God has been faithful because of that. Four years ago, this place was pretty notorious. People got so drunk they broke the courtyard furniture, burnt off the electric wires on the gate.
Four years down the line, this place is at least respectable. Oh, the guys still get smashed on the weekend and play their music loud and bring girls home in the evenings, but not to the same extent as they used to. But I feel ashamed at trying to describe it that way, because externals aren't what matter; people's hearts do.
So what about their hearts? I've witnessed to only about three people here with my words, and I'd like to say I witnessed to more with my actions, but has that made a difference? Has it made people want to know what I've got that they don't have? No. I haven't shone brightly enough, have been ashamed to talk about my best friend, Jesus. I'm sorry, Father.
And now, it's almost too late. I feel sad at what I've been, and am still, too afraid to do. But I believe there's hope. I believe that prayer will go on in this house; that Jesus will continue to be present in it. He's got his men here, and I'm not leaving the scene entirely; just moving a couple of blocks away. I've already been given the role 'the sober old boy' by my warden, and I intend to play it well. But ja, I'm not the Messiah; just his friend. And God's grace is as faithful as ever.
By the way, read Gondayi's enlightening comment on my last post. He's right, of course. It's crude to cast salvation as something you can 'sell', and maybe I fell into the trap of using the commercialised language of this age. It's not our job to 'sell' the Good News; only tell others what God has done for us. Thank God! Only he can convince people of their need for him. So let's follow him and do what he's told us to do. Now if only it were as easily said as done...
For four years I have lived in this fine Herbert Baker-designed edifice, a U-shaped building around a courtyard. For four years I have shared this place with more than 50 other young men, many lost, few found. And what difference has it made? Too little, it seems.
Oh, I've done something, I guess. Started a prayer meeting every week in my room for a few committed souls. And God has been faithful because of that. Four years ago, this place was pretty notorious. People got so drunk they broke the courtyard furniture, burnt off the electric wires on the gate.
Four years down the line, this place is at least respectable. Oh, the guys still get smashed on the weekend and play their music loud and bring girls home in the evenings, but not to the same extent as they used to. But I feel ashamed at trying to describe it that way, because externals aren't what matter; people's hearts do.
So what about their hearts? I've witnessed to only about three people here with my words, and I'd like to say I witnessed to more with my actions, but has that made a difference? Has it made people want to know what I've got that they don't have? No. I haven't shone brightly enough, have been ashamed to talk about my best friend, Jesus. I'm sorry, Father.
And now, it's almost too late. I feel sad at what I've been, and am still, too afraid to do. But I believe there's hope. I believe that prayer will go on in this house; that Jesus will continue to be present in it. He's got his men here, and I'm not leaving the scene entirely; just moving a couple of blocks away. I've already been given the role 'the sober old boy' by my warden, and I intend to play it well. But ja, I'm not the Messiah; just his friend. And God's grace is as faithful as ever.
By the way, read Gondayi's enlightening comment on my last post. He's right, of course. It's crude to cast salvation as something you can 'sell', and maybe I fell into the trap of using the commercialised language of this age. It's not our job to 'sell' the Good News; only tell others what God has done for us. Thank God! Only he can convince people of their need for him. So let's follow him and do what he's told us to do. Now if only it were as easily said as done...
Monday, November 17, 2008
Some Questions about Unity and Evangelism
I've been reading through Ephesians in my quiet times this past week. It's an incredible book for anyone who loves the Church (with a capital 'C': not just the building down the road, but the incredibly huge family of God's people all over the world). And if you don't love the Church, it'll tell you why you should! What makes it even better is that one of the big themes is Christian unity, and if you know me, you'll know that unity is something I've got a huge soft spot for.
Back in the day when the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write the book, one of the big fault lines in the Church was between Jews and Gentiles. Read Ephesians 2:14-18 to show what Jesus did to bring these two groups together:
"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death." (NLT)
Jesus smashed the walls that separated these two types of believers, so that we could be one people from the two groups. But as I was reading this, question number one popped into my head:
If Jesus broke down walls between his people, why are we constantly rebuilding them? Why do we separate ourselves from other believers based on race, class, denomination, doctrinal position, worship style, you name it?
Then this morning I read Ephesians 4:1-16. This is one of the most incredible passages on unity there is, and I have to study it a whole lot more. For instance, many of us know this part:
"For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." (Ephesians 4:4-6, NLT)
It's heady stuff. We share the same body, the same Holy Spirit is in us, we have the same hope, the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism, the same God and Father, yet we manage to split off from each other at every opportunity. And it gets better. God helped me see these verses in a whole new light today:
"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13, NLT)
I'm no expert on the gifts of the Spirit, but what I do know is that we usually talk about them in the context of one particular congregation. We have apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers who can work together as a radical team to build up what? Our local congregation, right? Wrong! They're there for the complete body of Christ, the whole body that Paul was talking about just a few verses earlier! This leads me to question number two:
Why do so many of our gifted Church leaders often think of themselves as 'church leaders', with their role stopping at only one congregation or denomination? And why do so few seem to be leading us to greater unity, as the Scriptures say will be one of the major consequences of our maturing in the faith?
Then to change tack quite dramatically, some things I've observed have left me with a couple of questions about evangelism. I've been trying hard to talk about Christ to a dear friend of mine, and praying for the Spirit to give me words every step of the way (although, admittedly, many times I fail to listen).
Now over the years, I've noticed two schools of thought about what to tell people about Christ: one is the "Do you know what's going to happen when you die?" approach, and the other is the "Your life will be better with Jesus" approach.
The "Do you know what's going to happen when you die?" approach has much to recommend it: after all, isn't the biggest benefit of our salvation the assurance that we will go to heaven one day when we die? Or is it? Whatever the case may be, this approach is completely lost on my friend. He usually doesn't even think about what will happen tomorrow. Trying to think about what happens after death is just way out for him. And even if it did work, would I just be selling him 'fire insurance', leading him to Christ out of fear, rather than showing him to respond to Christ's love?
On the other hand, the "Your life will be better with Jesus" approach isn't always true. In fact, in many parts of the world where persecution happens, your life is guaranteed to become materially worse once you make Christ your Lord. Last night I read a tragic example of how this approach can go wrong.
An article called The Power of Speech tells the story of Daniel Everett, who came to a missionary to the tiny Pirahã tribe in the Amazon basin in the 1970s. Everett learned the tribe's language and wrote a paper about it in which he challenged Noam Chomsky's theories about linguistic universals. As a linguist, I know that's an incredible achievement. However, in spending time with the tribe, Everett also lost his faith. This was the reasoning he gave:
"What should the empirical evidence for religion be? It should produce peaceful, strong, secure people who are right with God and right with the world. I don't see that evidence very often. So then I find myself with the Pirahã. They have all these qualities that I am trying to tell them they could have. They are the ones who are living life the way I'm saying it ought to be lived, they just don't fear heaven and hell."
Obviously I don't know enough about the man to make anything like an accurate diagnosis of what went wrong with his faith, but to me, it sounds like he is suggesting that the proof for Christianity should be well-adjusted Christians here in this world. Now of course, when we walk with God we start to show the fruits of the Spirit, which include peace and build our strength. But if I think of Christ, if I think of the apostles and other heroes of the faith, I don't think of people who were "right with the world". In fact, the very opposite. These were people who had thrown the world away, who battled with it and with their own human inclinations day and night. Without heaven to set their eyes on, they'd be the most miserable people on earth (1 Corinthians 15:19). Maybe being a Christian is not about living a good life, however one may define it; it's about knowing and loving a good God.
So where does that leave us as witnesses? Which approach do we take: the "Do you know what's going to happen when you die?" approach, or the "Your life will be better with Jesus" approach? Or neither? I think the answer might just lie in what I said in the last sentence above. Maybe Christianity's best selling point is not having a great time here on earth or anywhere else. Maybe it's a relationship with the One who loves us most.
That leaves me with one more question:
How do we, as witnesses, sell a relationship with God?
Back in the day when the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write the book, one of the big fault lines in the Church was between Jews and Gentiles. Read Ephesians 2:14-18 to show what Jesus did to bring these two groups together:
"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death." (NLT)
Jesus smashed the walls that separated these two types of believers, so that we could be one people from the two groups. But as I was reading this, question number one popped into my head:
If Jesus broke down walls between his people, why are we constantly rebuilding them? Why do we separate ourselves from other believers based on race, class, denomination, doctrinal position, worship style, you name it?
Then this morning I read Ephesians 4:1-16. This is one of the most incredible passages on unity there is, and I have to study it a whole lot more. For instance, many of us know this part:
"For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." (Ephesians 4:4-6, NLT)
It's heady stuff. We share the same body, the same Holy Spirit is in us, we have the same hope, the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism, the same God and Father, yet we manage to split off from each other at every opportunity. And it gets better. God helped me see these verses in a whole new light today:
"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13, NLT)
I'm no expert on the gifts of the Spirit, but what I do know is that we usually talk about them in the context of one particular congregation. We have apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers who can work together as a radical team to build up what? Our local congregation, right? Wrong! They're there for the complete body of Christ, the whole body that Paul was talking about just a few verses earlier! This leads me to question number two:
Why do so many of our gifted Church leaders often think of themselves as 'church leaders', with their role stopping at only one congregation or denomination? And why do so few seem to be leading us to greater unity, as the Scriptures say will be one of the major consequences of our maturing in the faith?
Then to change tack quite dramatically, some things I've observed have left me with a couple of questions about evangelism. I've been trying hard to talk about Christ to a dear friend of mine, and praying for the Spirit to give me words every step of the way (although, admittedly, many times I fail to listen).
Now over the years, I've noticed two schools of thought about what to tell people about Christ: one is the "Do you know what's going to happen when you die?" approach, and the other is the "Your life will be better with Jesus" approach.
The "Do you know what's going to happen when you die?" approach has much to recommend it: after all, isn't the biggest benefit of our salvation the assurance that we will go to heaven one day when we die? Or is it? Whatever the case may be, this approach is completely lost on my friend. He usually doesn't even think about what will happen tomorrow. Trying to think about what happens after death is just way out for him. And even if it did work, would I just be selling him 'fire insurance', leading him to Christ out of fear, rather than showing him to respond to Christ's love?
On the other hand, the "Your life will be better with Jesus" approach isn't always true. In fact, in many parts of the world where persecution happens, your life is guaranteed to become materially worse once you make Christ your Lord. Last night I read a tragic example of how this approach can go wrong.
An article called The Power of Speech tells the story of Daniel Everett, who came to a missionary to the tiny Pirahã tribe in the Amazon basin in the 1970s. Everett learned the tribe's language and wrote a paper about it in which he challenged Noam Chomsky's theories about linguistic universals. As a linguist, I know that's an incredible achievement. However, in spending time with the tribe, Everett also lost his faith. This was the reasoning he gave:
"What should the empirical evidence for religion be? It should produce peaceful, strong, secure people who are right with God and right with the world. I don't see that evidence very often. So then I find myself with the Pirahã. They have all these qualities that I am trying to tell them they could have. They are the ones who are living life the way I'm saying it ought to be lived, they just don't fear heaven and hell."
Obviously I don't know enough about the man to make anything like an accurate diagnosis of what went wrong with his faith, but to me, it sounds like he is suggesting that the proof for Christianity should be well-adjusted Christians here in this world. Now of course, when we walk with God we start to show the fruits of the Spirit, which include peace and build our strength. But if I think of Christ, if I think of the apostles and other heroes of the faith, I don't think of people who were "right with the world". In fact, the very opposite. These were people who had thrown the world away, who battled with it and with their own human inclinations day and night. Without heaven to set their eyes on, they'd be the most miserable people on earth (1 Corinthians 15:19). Maybe being a Christian is not about living a good life, however one may define it; it's about knowing and loving a good God.
So where does that leave us as witnesses? Which approach do we take: the "Do you know what's going to happen when you die?" approach, or the "Your life will be better with Jesus" approach? Or neither? I think the answer might just lie in what I said in the last sentence above. Maybe Christianity's best selling point is not having a great time here on earth or anywhere else. Maybe it's a relationship with the One who loves us most.
That leaves me with one more question:
How do we, as witnesses, sell a relationship with God?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Oh, everything will change!
So by now those of you au fait with the 268 canon of music will know that I've got "The Glory of it All" by David Crowder*Band in my mind. One of my favourite parts of the song is this:
After night comes a light;
Dawn is here, dawn is here.
It's a new day, a new day!
Oh everything will change;
Things will never be the same.
We will never be the same! (Repeat line as desired)
Not the deepest of words, I must agree, but what I love is the sheer delight with which you can sing them. The old is past and we're never going back there! We're changing into something far better, reflecting God's glory more.
I mention all this because we've just been through been a huge week (or so) of changes that excite me. Wednesday we woke up to hear that Barack Obama had been elected as the USA's first black president. Friday we found out that Shikota's new political party had been named "Congress of the People". And (on a more personal note) Thursday I signed a lease for my digs for next year.
The political stuff first: I'm unashamedly delighted about President-Elect Obama. The things I've been reading out of America have been wonderful, comparing this week to our own heady days of 1994 with people partying in the streets for joy. He's done the inconceivable in breaking racial barriers and inspiring new hope in a USA that many of us had written off as incurably self-interested and narrow-minded when Bush won his second term four years ago, effectively sentencing the world to four more years of war in Iraq and threats of war in other places, not to mention lack of will to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. I'm reminded that "All governments have been placed in power by God" (Romans 13:2 NLT) and I'm grateful for this new USA government.
Then closer to home, I've really started to think that the ANC really did South Africa a favour when it elected Jacob Zuma president and later sacked Thabo Mbeki. No, I'm no Zuma fan, and I'm still rather worried at the thought of a president who already has a less-than-savoury reputation for his sexual exploits and ignorance about AIDS, not to mention the charges of corruption which he tries to evade at every turn. But without these events, we may never have been witness to the birth of a party which shows the potential to become a real challenger to the ANC at election time. That would be brilliant for our democracy, as long as our people do not choose the 'low road' of political violence as they have in the past.
And what's more, the Congress of the People (or COP, as they're calling themselves) are trying so hard to be everything that Zuma is not, that most of their rhetoric so far has stressed the need for clean government, the independence of the judiciary, and the need to build a society upholding the values of respect, integrity and ubuntu. Beautiful stuff!
Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that Obama and the COP are political saviours who will ensure a bright future for us all. As is often the case with politics, good policies are bundled with bad, and people don't keep to their promises. We can't be sure of what lies ahead, but we can pray to the God of what lies ahead about these political developments, asking him to do with them what he wills. Our Christian brother Barack Obama needs our prayers now, as do our president and all our political leaders in this confusing time.
And that brings me to the third change of the week: my digs lease. For me, it's also a leap into the unknown. I don't know how well I'll adapt to life in digs, whether I'll like my new digsmates as much after a few months of living with them (no offence, guys!), if my new room is going to be big enough for me... But I'm excited about the change that God is bringing about in my life, and trusting that he'll glorify his name through it. In the end, that's what life on Earth is all about. Oh, the glory of it all!
After night comes a light;
Dawn is here, dawn is here.
It's a new day, a new day!
Oh everything will change;
Things will never be the same.
We will never be the same! (Repeat line as desired)
Not the deepest of words, I must agree, but what I love is the sheer delight with which you can sing them. The old is past and we're never going back there! We're changing into something far better, reflecting God's glory more.
I mention all this because we've just been through been a huge week (or so) of changes that excite me. Wednesday we woke up to hear that Barack Obama had been elected as the USA's first black president. Friday we found out that Shikota's new political party had been named "Congress of the People". And (on a more personal note) Thursday I signed a lease for my digs for next year.
The political stuff first: I'm unashamedly delighted about President-Elect Obama. The things I've been reading out of America have been wonderful, comparing this week to our own heady days of 1994 with people partying in the streets for joy. He's done the inconceivable in breaking racial barriers and inspiring new hope in a USA that many of us had written off as incurably self-interested and narrow-minded when Bush won his second term four years ago, effectively sentencing the world to four more years of war in Iraq and threats of war in other places, not to mention lack of will to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. I'm reminded that "All governments have been placed in power by God" (Romans 13:2 NLT) and I'm grateful for this new USA government.
Then closer to home, I've really started to think that the ANC really did South Africa a favour when it elected Jacob Zuma president and later sacked Thabo Mbeki. No, I'm no Zuma fan, and I'm still rather worried at the thought of a president who already has a less-than-savoury reputation for his sexual exploits and ignorance about AIDS, not to mention the charges of corruption which he tries to evade at every turn. But without these events, we may never have been witness to the birth of a party which shows the potential to become a real challenger to the ANC at election time. That would be brilliant for our democracy, as long as our people do not choose the 'low road' of political violence as they have in the past.
And what's more, the Congress of the People (or COP, as they're calling themselves) are trying so hard to be everything that Zuma is not, that most of their rhetoric so far has stressed the need for clean government, the independence of the judiciary, and the need to build a society upholding the values of respect, integrity and ubuntu. Beautiful stuff!
Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that Obama and the COP are political saviours who will ensure a bright future for us all. As is often the case with politics, good policies are bundled with bad, and people don't keep to their promises. We can't be sure of what lies ahead, but we can pray to the God of what lies ahead about these political developments, asking him to do with them what he wills. Our Christian brother Barack Obama needs our prayers now, as do our president and all our political leaders in this confusing time.
And that brings me to the third change of the week: my digs lease. For me, it's also a leap into the unknown. I don't know how well I'll adapt to life in digs, whether I'll like my new digsmates as much after a few months of living with them (no offence, guys!), if my new room is going to be big enough for me... But I'm excited about the change that God is bringing about in my life, and trusting that he'll glorify his name through it. In the end, that's what life on Earth is all about. Oh, the glory of it all!
Monday, November 03, 2008
A holy huddle or a radical family?
So I was planning to follow up last week's post with one on how we need an alternative Christian public sphere, a place where we can share and discuss our views with each other. But then some really exciting things happened and got me thinking that we don't just need to swop opinions with each other; we need to be a different kind of community.
You see, I had the privilege of taking two friends down to Jeffreys Bay for Swot Week. Now you don't want to get me started on how awesome J-Bay is and how I always meet with God while I'm there, and this time was no exception.
It started with a chat I had with one of these friends, Leanne du Preez, at a coffee shop opposite the beach. We talked about how there are certain people who always get us going, spiritually. Each of us know the people we can go to just to chat, bounce some ideas off, pray with. The people who stimulate us in our faith so much that we feel like we could do anything with God after speaking with them. I'll call them encouragers.
Well, as God would have it, one of my encouragers lives in Jeffreys Bay: a family friend who is about my Mom's age. Her name is Avril. Avril truly tries to live in intimate communion with God and obey him at every step, and every time I come to Jeffreys Bay regales me with stories of the incredible things God has been doing with her. I really wanted Leanne and my other friend, Shellique Carby, to meet her and be encouraged by her too. So I invited her round for supper one evening. And yes, true to form, that evening was hugely blessed.
Things were a little awkward when we sat down and began chatting. After all, why would she want to meet my student friends? But as soon as we got down to telling her all about the great things God did through Christians @ Rhodes Week of Worship, and she told us about some of the miraculous things that had happened to her just recently, the vibe changed. This wasn't me introducing my friends to some random, middle-aged lady any more. This was church; this was family breaking bread together.
We got into some deep discussions about problems in each other's lives over coffee and koeksusters after the meal. It got a little intense at times, and after a short while we found we were talking around in circles. It was clear that none of us had the answers, but our Father did. So we got down and prayed about them. Avril began praying in short, simple sentences, letting her words be few as the Scriptures tell us we should. What followed was an intense time of praying into each other's lives. Both Avril and Leanne received some answers they'd been waiting a long time to hear. The room was so filled with God's presence that Leanne's hands were trembling. At the end we hugged each other and I was just laughing for joy in the Lord's presence. God had used each of us to minister to each other!
As Avril left, Leanne commented that it felt like she had known her forever, when we had spent only six hours together. We had a spiritual connection: the same Spirit is in us!
I've been thinking about that time and delighting in my memories of it for a few days now. But it hasn't been the only time this week when I've been overjoyed to be part of God's family. I've been overjoyed at news of brothers and sisters getting together in partnerships in which they have the potential to do far more for the kingdom of God than both of them could do separately. I've been 'adopted' as an extra sibling by another friend of mine. Yet at times I've felt ashamed at these thoughts: Why should I be so happy at being in this holy huddle when there are so many out there who are out in the cold, far from God?
Then this morning, I read something that pulled it all together for me. In Acts 18:9-10, God encourages Paul in a vision. He says "Don't be afraid! Speak out! Don't be silent! For I am with you, and no one will harm you because many people here in this city belong to me." Paul had good reason to be very afraid. He was in an incredibly dark city, Corinth. The god Aphrodite was the centre of attraction, and she was worshipped through all manner of sexually immoral acts. Yet Paul could stand up and speak out because God had many people in that city!
If you read the whole passage, from verse 1 to verse 17, you see these 'many people' in action. Aquila and Priscilla (an example of a couple that functioned like a ministry partnership if ever there was one) took Paul in when he arrived in town, and allowed him to earn an income working in their business. Later, a guy called Titius Justus hosted him. Silas and Timothy came around, allowing Paul to focus his attentions on telling the Good News to the Jews. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, no doubt was a great help when he became a believer along with his family.
But notice the purpose of all this teamwork: it wasn't just to make each other feel nice and loved. It was to support each other so that Paul and others could carry on fearlessly telling the Good News! In the same way, we have to be a radical family for each other, helping each other to spread the Good News of the kingdom.
One of the things I told Leanne back in the coffee shop was something my father told me: Major church growth happens when you've got a small group of like-minded people feeding off each other's energy and vision. It's happened in churches like Willow Creek in the USA and Holy Trinity Brompton in Britain. It happened in Corinth. And it can happen here too, if we dare turn our fellowship outwards.
PS. After all that earnestness, here's some pure family lightheartedness to break the exam tension. Take a moment to visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTYr3JuueF4!
You see, I had the privilege of taking two friends down to Jeffreys Bay for Swot Week. Now you don't want to get me started on how awesome J-Bay is and how I always meet with God while I'm there, and this time was no exception.
It started with a chat I had with one of these friends, Leanne du Preez, at a coffee shop opposite the beach. We talked about how there are certain people who always get us going, spiritually. Each of us know the people we can go to just to chat, bounce some ideas off, pray with. The people who stimulate us in our faith so much that we feel like we could do anything with God after speaking with them. I'll call them encouragers.
Well, as God would have it, one of my encouragers lives in Jeffreys Bay: a family friend who is about my Mom's age. Her name is Avril. Avril truly tries to live in intimate communion with God and obey him at every step, and every time I come to Jeffreys Bay regales me with stories of the incredible things God has been doing with her. I really wanted Leanne and my other friend, Shellique Carby, to meet her and be encouraged by her too. So I invited her round for supper one evening. And yes, true to form, that evening was hugely blessed.
Things were a little awkward when we sat down and began chatting. After all, why would she want to meet my student friends? But as soon as we got down to telling her all about the great things God did through Christians @ Rhodes Week of Worship, and she told us about some of the miraculous things that had happened to her just recently, the vibe changed. This wasn't me introducing my friends to some random, middle-aged lady any more. This was church; this was family breaking bread together.
We got into some deep discussions about problems in each other's lives over coffee and koeksusters after the meal. It got a little intense at times, and after a short while we found we were talking around in circles. It was clear that none of us had the answers, but our Father did. So we got down and prayed about them. Avril began praying in short, simple sentences, letting her words be few as the Scriptures tell us we should. What followed was an intense time of praying into each other's lives. Both Avril and Leanne received some answers they'd been waiting a long time to hear. The room was so filled with God's presence that Leanne's hands were trembling. At the end we hugged each other and I was just laughing for joy in the Lord's presence. God had used each of us to minister to each other!
As Avril left, Leanne commented that it felt like she had known her forever, when we had spent only six hours together. We had a spiritual connection: the same Spirit is in us!
I've been thinking about that time and delighting in my memories of it for a few days now. But it hasn't been the only time this week when I've been overjoyed to be part of God's family. I've been overjoyed at news of brothers and sisters getting together in partnerships in which they have the potential to do far more for the kingdom of God than both of them could do separately. I've been 'adopted' as an extra sibling by another friend of mine. Yet at times I've felt ashamed at these thoughts: Why should I be so happy at being in this holy huddle when there are so many out there who are out in the cold, far from God?
Then this morning, I read something that pulled it all together for me. In Acts 18:9-10, God encourages Paul in a vision. He says "Don't be afraid! Speak out! Don't be silent! For I am with you, and no one will harm you because many people here in this city belong to me." Paul had good reason to be very afraid. He was in an incredibly dark city, Corinth. The god Aphrodite was the centre of attraction, and she was worshipped through all manner of sexually immoral acts. Yet Paul could stand up and speak out because God had many people in that city!
If you read the whole passage, from verse 1 to verse 17, you see these 'many people' in action. Aquila and Priscilla (an example of a couple that functioned like a ministry partnership if ever there was one) took Paul in when he arrived in town, and allowed him to earn an income working in their business. Later, a guy called Titius Justus hosted him. Silas and Timothy came around, allowing Paul to focus his attentions on telling the Good News to the Jews. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, no doubt was a great help when he became a believer along with his family.
But notice the purpose of all this teamwork: it wasn't just to make each other feel nice and loved. It was to support each other so that Paul and others could carry on fearlessly telling the Good News! In the same way, we have to be a radical family for each other, helping each other to spread the Good News of the kingdom.
One of the things I told Leanne back in the coffee shop was something my father told me: Major church growth happens when you've got a small group of like-minded people feeding off each other's energy and vision. It's happened in churches like Willow Creek in the USA and Holy Trinity Brompton in Britain. It happened in Corinth. And it can happen here too, if we dare turn our fellowship outwards.
PS. After all that earnestness, here's some pure family lightheartedness to break the exam tension. Take a moment to visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTYr3JuueF4!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
"The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship"
It's been way too long since I did some blogging, but seeing as the madness of my fourth term of Honours has passed and some big ideas have started rolling back to me, I thought this would be the perfect time to revive the habit.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been thinking about what kind of Master's thesis I'd like to do next year. Ideas have come and gone, but I'm firmly decided on one thing: I can only do a Master's thesis grounded on something I believe in. Enter some big ideas about Christian scholarship. After all, we have feminist scholarship, postmodern scholarship, Marxist scholarship. Why can't we actually study the world from a point of view that actually has real solutions, like God's?
Then on Saturday night, just before I went to bed, I idly decided to Google Scholar the string "Christian scholarship" and see what came up. And lo and behold, first on the list was a book with the most exciting title I've seen in a long time: "The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship". Unfortunately I've not been able to read more than the cover blurb so I don't know how good the book is, but I think the author (and I) may be on to something.
The scary thing is that in today's academic environment, the idea of Christian scholarship is completely outrageous. There are two possible reasons for this. Either it's acceptable to inject just about any ideology but Christianity into one's work. You can be a Christian in your own time, but heaven (or The Universe, or whatever folks believe in) forbid that you openly take a Christian viewpoint in your work. You can draw on any number of amorphous spiritualities, African or Eastern, but don't dare look at the cross. Or – and this is even more scary – very few of us have actually even tried to view their studies from a Christian perspective.
But the exciting thing is that the time may just be ripe for a revival of Christian scholarship. Western Christians are discovering that their faith has implications for broader society beyond the usual wedge issues of abortion and gay marriage, as Jim Wallis is fond of pointing out. Here in South Africa, the National Initiative for Reformation in South Africa is getting some Christians thinking about the power of the Good News to transform society. And that, for me, is a huge breath of fresh air when the only academics talking about societal transformation seem to be steeped in Marxist ideology.
And also, postmodernism might just provide the right climate for Christian scholarship to be revived in secular universities. These days we as Humanities students are encouraged,, to confess our ideological commitments and unashamedly consider their implications for our analyses, and rightly so. What better opportunity is there to confess Christ as Lord of our work? It's time that we called the postmodernists' bluff: if they're going to be open to everyone's ideologies, well, they're going to have to be open to ours as well.
But first, as Harry Blamires says in The Christian Mind, we're going to have to learn to think like Christians. The key verse for us must be Romans 12:1: "Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." We've got a lot of listening and learning to do, letting God's Word and Spirit be our lecturers. Fortunately, we've got the work of some brave thinkers to help us, legends of a previous generation like C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, and new visionaries like Landa Cope. But there's a lot more thinking that needs to be done.
I don't know about you, but I'm keen for the challenge. Let's ask our friend the Holy Spirit to teach us, and then give us strength to withstand the flak when it comes. Let's be outrageous!
For the last couple of weeks, I've been thinking about what kind of Master's thesis I'd like to do next year. Ideas have come and gone, but I'm firmly decided on one thing: I can only do a Master's thesis grounded on something I believe in. Enter some big ideas about Christian scholarship. After all, we have feminist scholarship, postmodern scholarship, Marxist scholarship. Why can't we actually study the world from a point of view that actually has real solutions, like God's?
Then on Saturday night, just before I went to bed, I idly decided to Google Scholar the string "Christian scholarship" and see what came up. And lo and behold, first on the list was a book with the most exciting title I've seen in a long time: "The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship". Unfortunately I've not been able to read more than the cover blurb so I don't know how good the book is, but I think the author (and I) may be on to something.
The scary thing is that in today's academic environment, the idea of Christian scholarship is completely outrageous. There are two possible reasons for this. Either it's acceptable to inject just about any ideology but Christianity into one's work. You can be a Christian in your own time, but heaven (or The Universe, or whatever folks believe in) forbid that you openly take a Christian viewpoint in your work. You can draw on any number of amorphous spiritualities, African or Eastern, but don't dare look at the cross. Or – and this is even more scary – very few of us have actually even tried to view their studies from a Christian perspective.
But the exciting thing is that the time may just be ripe for a revival of Christian scholarship. Western Christians are discovering that their faith has implications for broader society beyond the usual wedge issues of abortion and gay marriage, as Jim Wallis is fond of pointing out. Here in South Africa, the National Initiative for Reformation in South Africa is getting some Christians thinking about the power of the Good News to transform society. And that, for me, is a huge breath of fresh air when the only academics talking about societal transformation seem to be steeped in Marxist ideology.
And also, postmodernism might just provide the right climate for Christian scholarship to be revived in secular universities. These days we as Humanities students are encouraged,, to confess our ideological commitments and unashamedly consider their implications for our analyses, and rightly so. What better opportunity is there to confess Christ as Lord of our work? It's time that we called the postmodernists' bluff: if they're going to be open to everyone's ideologies, well, they're going to have to be open to ours as well.
But first, as Harry Blamires says in The Christian Mind, we're going to have to learn to think like Christians. The key verse for us must be Romans 12:1: "Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." We've got a lot of listening and learning to do, letting God's Word and Spirit be our lecturers. Fortunately, we've got the work of some brave thinkers to help us, legends of a previous generation like C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, and new visionaries like Landa Cope. But there's a lot more thinking that needs to be done.
I don't know about you, but I'm keen for the challenge. Let's ask our friend the Holy Spirit to teach us, and then give us strength to withstand the flak when it comes. Let's be outrageous!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Passion Johannesburg: Fruitcakes for the Lord!
It's a good thing that Christians are allowed to go a little crazy sometimes; how can we not when we try to comprehend the incredible things God has done for us? Recently I and eleven other Christians @ Rhodes who took a bus up to Johannesburg for the weekend to join in the Passion conference there experienced exactly how insane things can get when we live for God's name and renown.
Of course, we took full advantage of sitting in the sparsely populated white plastic chairs at the back of the hall. There was space for us to worship any way God led us: sitting down, standing, jumping, chair-surfing or kneeling. Chris Tomlin and Fee rocked the hall alive with songs like "How Great is our God", "Hosanna", "Let God Arise", "God of this City", "We Shine" and "Amazing Grace".
The first miracle of the trip was that we got there at all. Money and time were tight, so we decided to cut our schedule as close as possible by taking a bus leaving Kimberley Hall at 6:40pm on Friday night and arriving in Midrand, Johannesburg just 50 minutes before the conference was due to start on the morning of Saturday 9 August. The bus was only slightly late, so we got into the conference hall at Gallagher Estate just as it was about to start. And the bus trips there and back were the zaniest I've ever had. Just look at these photos if you think I'm kidding:
The conference was just one of seventeen stops on a world tour organised to give university students from Tokyo to Sao Paulo a chance to catch the vision of making their lives count for God's name and renown. It's an offshoot of the events held every year in the USA, which a few Rhodes students past and present have been blessed to attend. So you can imagine how excited we were, filing into the massive hall to take our seats behind 6 000 other students who'd come with hearts keyed up to meet with God. Later on, Louie Giglio, the conference's speaker, joked that the crowd stretched all the way to Pretoria, and that's how long the distance to the stage seemed to us.
Of course, we took full advantage of sitting in the sparsely populated white plastic chairs at the back of the hall. There was space for us to worship any way God led us: sitting down, standing, jumping, chair-surfing or kneeling. Chris Tomlin and Fee rocked the hall alive with songs like "How Great is our God", "Hosanna", "Let God Arise", "God of this City", "We Shine" and "Amazing Grace".
In the conference's first session, Louie quoted 2 Corinthians 5:13: "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you." He said that if we've experienced the wonder of what God did for us on the cross, it should overwhelm us to the point that we just want to go crazy about it at times. But at other times, we have to keep our cool and remain sane so that we can relate to the people we minister to, and help them to meet Jesus too, so they can go crazy for him! I loved the way he put that.
Later, Louie told the story of a student called Ashley who was a complete heathen, far from believing in Jesus. It so happened that she got a Christian digsmate for her last term at university, and she thought this girl was so crazy that she nicknamed her "Fruitcake". Anyway, Fruitcake helped her through a couple of crises just by being a friend and not judging her, and eventually got a chance to show her some DVDs of Louie's talks. Through the help of Fruitcake and Louie's talks, Ashley discovered grace and gave her life to Christ!
I won't spoil the end of the story for you, just in case you ever get a chance to hear it yourself (it's on Louie's DVD entitled "Hope", apparently), but the story reminded me just how simple it can be to make your life count for God's glory. All it takes is a heart that's totally in love with Jesus and is willing to pass on his love to others.
The story also reminded me how incredible our salvation is. Before Louie told Ashley's story, I was enjoying the times of worship through music, but still felt a stupid desire to be noticed, to get some more credit for having come all the way from Grahamstown for this thing. But after I heard the first part of the story in the afternoon, I was just so astonished at how God's grace can turn a life around (and has turned my life around) that all those proud thoughts faded into oblivion and no one could stop me from going absolutely ballistic in God's presence.
Passion Johannesburg gave me a total new perspective on my future. Before, it seemed cloudy and uncertain to me, because I'm not sure where I'll be next year or even if I'd enjoy doing Master's. Now, even though I have no more certainty about where to go, my heart is light and I'm full of excitement, because wherever I go, I can glorify the one who gave up everything for me. As one of the songs we sang goes, "Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory." That's the only thing that matters.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Some thoughts from the Mana Pools Men's Camp
Amazing places, amazing wildlife, amazing people and an amazing God: these are the things I'll think about when remembering our trip to the Mana Pools Men's Camp in Zimbabwe this July. And 'amazing' is a terrible understatement.
One of the most incredible things about the Mana Pools camp was the way in which you couldn't separate the spiritual side of the weekend from the other activities we did. Being out in the wild with no walls or fences to insulate us from the rest of God's creation made me realise exactly how closely physical realities out there can mirror spiritual realities in our everyday life.
The camp was designed as a time of physical and spiritual rest for all of us: our Zimbabwean brothers were separated from their daily troubles by the Zambezi Escarpment, a range of wooded hills setting Mana Pools apart from the oppressive atmosphere looming over most of the country. I was more than 2 000km away from home and took the opportunity to seek God's presence and ask him some questions about my future. He answered these by pointing to the wonderful complexity of his creation all around me, and refreshing my wonder at the small corner of it that I study: the way we humans use our God-given capacity for language to convey so many ideas and attitudes, to fight so many struggles in an infinite variety of ways.
I was also reminded powerfully of the reality of the struggles we fight, not "against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world..." (Ephesians 6:11). At Mana Pools we had to be constantly alert, watching for dangerous animals who could be lurking anywhere. A talk we had on avoiding sexual temptation was interrupted when a lioness walked through the campsite. A scripture came to my mind: "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). I have to keep on watching out for spiritual attacks, especially at home in Grahamstown where I least expect them.
God taught me a further great lesson through the lives of the people we met at Mana Pools and on the way there and back. We had gone to Mana Pools partly to encourage our brothers from Zimbabwe. We blessed them by bringing up groceries from South Africa for the camp and also simply by being willing to come there and show that they were not isolated from the rest of the body of Christ. But they encouraged us far more by their living testimonies of how their faith had grown through suffering. We saw how the troubles in Zimbabwe have caused some to grow bitter, but others have depended on God for all their needs, and he has met them in miraculous ways. Some have lost everything and forgiven those who took it from them. Others graciously shared food and fuel with us, even though both are in short supply. One of the Bible study sessions was on learning to be content in every situation, following the example of Paul in Philippians 4:12.
For me, the scripture that summed up the lessons of the camp was Job 38, where God answers Job's questions about his suffering with even more questions: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?... Who defined the boundaries of the sea?... Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?" and so on and so on. God's magnificent creation shows us that he is firmly in control of our circumstances, unlike us, and so we can trust him in every situation. While we may not be able to comprehend the reasons for our suffering, he does, and he can help us through it.
And, as James says, "when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything" (James 1:3–4). God is looking to develop that strength of character in all of us, so we'd do well to learn it from nature and from the example of Christians growing under pressure in places like Zimbabwe.
One of the most incredible things about the Mana Pools camp was the way in which you couldn't separate the spiritual side of the weekend from the other activities we did. Being out in the wild with no walls or fences to insulate us from the rest of God's creation made me realise exactly how closely physical realities out there can mirror spiritual realities in our everyday life.
The camp was designed as a time of physical and spiritual rest for all of us: our Zimbabwean brothers were separated from their daily troubles by the Zambezi Escarpment, a range of wooded hills setting Mana Pools apart from the oppressive atmosphere looming over most of the country. I was more than 2 000km away from home and took the opportunity to seek God's presence and ask him some questions about my future. He answered these by pointing to the wonderful complexity of his creation all around me, and refreshing my wonder at the small corner of it that I study: the way we humans use our God-given capacity for language to convey so many ideas and attitudes, to fight so many struggles in an infinite variety of ways.
I was also reminded powerfully of the reality of the struggles we fight, not "against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world..." (Ephesians 6:11). At Mana Pools we had to be constantly alert, watching for dangerous animals who could be lurking anywhere. A talk we had on avoiding sexual temptation was interrupted when a lioness walked through the campsite. A scripture came to my mind: "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). I have to keep on watching out for spiritual attacks, especially at home in Grahamstown where I least expect them.
God taught me a further great lesson through the lives of the people we met at Mana Pools and on the way there and back. We had gone to Mana Pools partly to encourage our brothers from Zimbabwe. We blessed them by bringing up groceries from South Africa for the camp and also simply by being willing to come there and show that they were not isolated from the rest of the body of Christ. But they encouraged us far more by their living testimonies of how their faith had grown through suffering. We saw how the troubles in Zimbabwe have caused some to grow bitter, but others have depended on God for all their needs, and he has met them in miraculous ways. Some have lost everything and forgiven those who took it from them. Others graciously shared food and fuel with us, even though both are in short supply. One of the Bible study sessions was on learning to be content in every situation, following the example of Paul in Philippians 4:12.
For me, the scripture that summed up the lessons of the camp was Job 38, where God answers Job's questions about his suffering with even more questions: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?... Who defined the boundaries of the sea?... Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?" and so on and so on. God's magnificent creation shows us that he is firmly in control of our circumstances, unlike us, and so we can trust him in every situation. While we may not be able to comprehend the reasons for our suffering, he does, and he can help us through it.
And, as James says, "when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything" (James 1:3–4). God is looking to develop that strength of character in all of us, so we'd do well to learn it from nature and from the example of Christians growing under pressure in places like Zimbabwe.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Only God can rescue Zimbabwe!
On Sunday I arrived in Jeffreys Bay, very much ready for a holiday after probably the longest and busiest term I've ever had at Rhodes University. I am still hoping for a vacation filled with seeking God's face and hearing his voice, getting my mind and heart in order for the next semester and the plans I must make for next year.
When evening comes, I sat down and watch the news to find that Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn from Zimbabwe's runoff elections this week. My immediate reaction was, "I need to pray." I'm so saddened that a faint glimmer of hope for Zimbabwe has died. Nevertheless, I can only think that the MDC made the right decision: if Tsvangirai had won the run-off, Zanu-PF may well have unleashed civil war, as Mugabe has threatened many times over the past few weeks. Even after the withdrawal, the situation is still perilous. How long can this last?
So after the news and after I finished supper, I knelt down and flipped through my Bible for one of those nice psalms that rages at the injustice of it all and calls down thunder and lightning from heaven on evil people who just carry on prospering. I settled on Psalm 10, which expressed more or less what I was feeling at the time. The wonderful thing about psalms like these, though, is that they rarely end in anger. Through writing the psalm, the author works through his emotions to the point where he is able to give them all to God, and trust him to deal with the wicked. (Incidentally, this is also Exhibit A in my argument that emo rock can add a lot to our understanding of worship!) Psalm 10 ends this way:
"Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them.
You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
So people can no longer terrify them." (Psalm 10:17–18, NLT)
I love it! God will not let the helpless remain helpless. Justice will come, if not in this life then in the life to come. And the Lord is still in control.
All of this explains why I was so amused when Mugabe pronounced last week that only God could remove him from office. Funnily enough, a prayer point in my church's bulletin from Sunday 15 June (a few days before Mugabe said this) said "Pray for the land of ZIMBABWE...only God can restore this land and its people." When I was shopping with a Zimbabwean friend on Sunday before I left to Grahamstown, she took one look at the newspapers and said "I'm so glad [Mugabe's] said that. It challenges God to take him out."
I, for one, hope God rises to the provocation, but I know that his plans are not ours and his sense of timing is far better than our limited thinking. He doesn't need to pander to Robert Mugabe's threats, but I know he loves the people of Zim. So let's pray for them right now. Pray that the Lord will be glorified in that country, despite all human plans.
Please pray also for us: a group of seven of us from Grahamstown Baptist Church's 222 Men's Ministry are travelling up to Zimbabwe to join in Chisipite Baptist Church's men's camp at Mana Pools on the Zambezi. It promises to be an amazing time of teaching and relaxation, but pray that we'll be safe travelling through Zimbabwe on our way there and back, and that we can be a blessing and encouragement to those who are suffering there. When we come back, I'll let you know how it went.
When evening comes, I sat down and watch the news to find that Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn from Zimbabwe's runoff elections this week. My immediate reaction was, "I need to pray." I'm so saddened that a faint glimmer of hope for Zimbabwe has died. Nevertheless, I can only think that the MDC made the right decision: if Tsvangirai had won the run-off, Zanu-PF may well have unleashed civil war, as Mugabe has threatened many times over the past few weeks. Even after the withdrawal, the situation is still perilous. How long can this last?
So after the news and after I finished supper, I knelt down and flipped through my Bible for one of those nice psalms that rages at the injustice of it all and calls down thunder and lightning from heaven on evil people who just carry on prospering. I settled on Psalm 10, which expressed more or less what I was feeling at the time. The wonderful thing about psalms like these, though, is that they rarely end in anger. Through writing the psalm, the author works through his emotions to the point where he is able to give them all to God, and trust him to deal with the wicked. (Incidentally, this is also Exhibit A in my argument that emo rock can add a lot to our understanding of worship!) Psalm 10 ends this way:
"Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them.
You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
So people can no longer terrify them." (Psalm 10:17–18, NLT)
I love it! God will not let the helpless remain helpless. Justice will come, if not in this life then in the life to come. And the Lord is still in control.
All of this explains why I was so amused when Mugabe pronounced last week that only God could remove him from office. Funnily enough, a prayer point in my church's bulletin from Sunday 15 June (a few days before Mugabe said this) said "Pray for the land of ZIMBABWE...only God can restore this land and its people." When I was shopping with a Zimbabwean friend on Sunday before I left to Grahamstown, she took one look at the newspapers and said "I'm so glad [Mugabe's] said that. It challenges God to take him out."
I, for one, hope God rises to the provocation, but I know that his plans are not ours and his sense of timing is far better than our limited thinking. He doesn't need to pander to Robert Mugabe's threats, but I know he loves the people of Zim. So let's pray for them right now. Pray that the Lord will be glorified in that country, despite all human plans.
Please pray also for us: a group of seven of us from Grahamstown Baptist Church's 222 Men's Ministry are travelling up to Zimbabwe to join in Chisipite Baptist Church's men's camp at Mana Pools on the Zambezi. It promises to be an amazing time of teaching and relaxation, but pray that we'll be safe travelling through Zimbabwe on our way there and back, and that we can be a blessing and encouragement to those who are suffering there. When we come back, I'll let you know how it went.
Monday, June 09, 2008
A question of unity
Yesterday I was trawling the web and found some interesting articles reporting back on the National Initiative for Reformation of South Africa (NIRSA) consultation that I attended in April. For my whole take on the consultation, visit my post on the Christians @ Rhodes blog: http://christiansatrhodes.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/are-you-ready-to-start-reforming-south-africa/.
Dion Forster, a Methodist theologian from Somerset West, had some great insights on NIRSA in his blog, which you can dig out of the April archive at http://www.spirituality.org.za/www.spirituality.org.za/2008_04_01_archive.html.
Then Ebenezer Ntlali, an Anglican archdeacon from King William's Town, had some good things to say about the consultation, but was also worried that organisations like the SA Council of Churches weren't represented properly and there wasn't enough time for discussion. His report-back is here: http://www.diocesegrahamstown.co.za/articles/nirsarep.html.
But by far the most "interesting" of the accounts to me was this one by Dr Peter Hammond of Africa Christian Action: http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles/nirsa%20Reportback.htm.
Peter Hammond gives what basically looks like a typed-out version of his notes on the consultation, with a bit of his own personal opinion thrown in. He describes thoughts that the conference was completely sidetracked for an afternoon and a morning, including two of the talks I found most insightful. But what puzzled me the most about his critique of the consultation is that he was coming from such a different ideological position to mine that from time to time I had trouble believing that he was speaking about the same talks I heard. As a linguist, I was fascinated at how two people could have interpreted the same talks so incredibly differently.
What this all goes to show is that Christian unity is a hard thing. The Bible tells us plenty of times that revival and reformation won't happen unless his people are unified. And what God has said to us as a nation through many different movements since 1994 confirms this. But can we get there? We don't only have theological differences to worry about; when we speak about reforming the nation, very often political differences become involved and it gets terribly tangled... if we're all relying on our own strength.
It takes brave people of vision, conciliatory people, wise people to negotiate all these differences and decide what we must agree on, and what we can "agree to disagree" on. Or that's what I thought when I read some of these accounts yesterday. But wait, I have a feeling that there's someone better suited to the job. Someone who's in all of us and knows exactly how we all tick. His name is the Holy Spirit. Only in him can we really be unified.
So, I'll leave the last word to another online NIRSA commentator, Johan Boot from Housechurch SA. You can read his report-back on NIRSA at http://housechurch.co.za/2008/05/nirsa-consultat.html.
He says, "My strong conviction during and after the Consultation, was that the only way that this Declaration, would become lived out reality is, if we, as the followers of Jesus, were to put aside our power brokering that so often threatens to divide us from our fellow followers and which prevents us from being a powerful influence in the society of which we are a part. The way forward involves us putting aside our personal agendas to be the biggest and the best and submitting first to God and then to one another, so that the Kingdom of God becomes a reality."
Amen, brother! May we seek God's Kingdom first, and the Holy Spirit will deal with the rest (Matthew 6:33).
Dion Forster, a Methodist theologian from Somerset West, had some great insights on NIRSA in his blog, which you can dig out of the April archive at http://www.spirituality.org.za/www.spirituality.org.za/2008_04_01_archive.html.
Then Ebenezer Ntlali, an Anglican archdeacon from King William's Town, had some good things to say about the consultation, but was also worried that organisations like the SA Council of Churches weren't represented properly and there wasn't enough time for discussion. His report-back is here: http://www.diocesegrahamstown.co.za/articles/nirsarep.html.
But by far the most "interesting" of the accounts to me was this one by Dr Peter Hammond of Africa Christian Action: http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles/nirsa%20Reportback.htm.
Peter Hammond gives what basically looks like a typed-out version of his notes on the consultation, with a bit of his own personal opinion thrown in. He describes thoughts that the conference was completely sidetracked for an afternoon and a morning, including two of the talks I found most insightful. But what puzzled me the most about his critique of the consultation is that he was coming from such a different ideological position to mine that from time to time I had trouble believing that he was speaking about the same talks I heard. As a linguist, I was fascinated at how two people could have interpreted the same talks so incredibly differently.
What this all goes to show is that Christian unity is a hard thing. The Bible tells us plenty of times that revival and reformation won't happen unless his people are unified. And what God has said to us as a nation through many different movements since 1994 confirms this. But can we get there? We don't only have theological differences to worry about; when we speak about reforming the nation, very often political differences become involved and it gets terribly tangled... if we're all relying on our own strength.
It takes brave people of vision, conciliatory people, wise people to negotiate all these differences and decide what we must agree on, and what we can "agree to disagree" on. Or that's what I thought when I read some of these accounts yesterday. But wait, I have a feeling that there's someone better suited to the job. Someone who's in all of us and knows exactly how we all tick. His name is the Holy Spirit. Only in him can we really be unified.
So, I'll leave the last word to another online NIRSA commentator, Johan Boot from Housechurch SA. You can read his report-back on NIRSA at http://housechurch.co.za/2008/05/nirsa-consultat.html.
He says, "My strong conviction during and after the Consultation, was that the only way that this Declaration, would become lived out reality is, if we, as the followers of Jesus, were to put aside our power brokering that so often threatens to divide us from our fellow followers and which prevents us from being a powerful influence in the society of which we are a part. The way forward involves us putting aside our personal agendas to be the biggest and the best and submitting first to God and then to one another, so that the Kingdom of God becomes a reality."
Amen, brother! May we seek God's Kingdom first, and the Holy Spirit will deal with the rest (Matthew 6:33).
Monday, June 02, 2008
Let's look up!
This past week I've been reading through a bit of Numbers, which tells the story of how the Israelites wandered through the wilderness, continually growing and stumbling in their relationship with God. Every now and then they have big failures of faith, and God reacts by saying "You're not ready to enter the Promised Land. I guess I'll have to hold you back longer."
But what really got to me was that these failures of faith didn't often happen in the places where you'd expect them. When the Israelites were preparing to fight a battle against a nation that stood in their way (like the inhabitants of Arad in Numbers 21:1-3 or Sihon and Og in 21:21-35), you'd expect them to be shaking in their boots, but instead they pumped up their faith and they had no problems gaining the victory with God's strength.
Instead, it was in the dreary, routine, desert wandering times that their faith failed. Sometimes this even happened straight after the high of a battle won, when you'd expect them to be ready to believe God for anything. For instance, they started complaining in Numbers 21:4, just after having flattened Arad in Numbers 21:3! Why is that?
I believe the answer is that they stopped looking up to God for strength. When we go through unspectacular, low-level hardship as the Israelites did in the wilderness, it's easy to think we should be able to make it through on our own without God. But then, when we stop depending on God's help, we look around and see our bleak circumstances and complain, instead of looking up and seeing things from God's perspective.
Even Moses was guilty of this. In Numbers 20 :1-13, the Israelites complain that they have no water. Moses asks God what to do and God shows him a rock which he should command to pour out his water. Now I've heard that in the Sinai desert, there are certain rocks which hold in large aquifers filled with water, and if you just hit the rock hard enough, it'll give and the water will come rushing through. So Moses, instead of commanding the rock to pour out water, and trusting God for the rest, decides he can do this in his own strength and hits the rock. It was a terrible failure of faith. Because of that, God didn't let him enter the Promised Land.
I know I try to do things in my own strength that I should be doing with God, all the time. Or there are times when God asks me to pray for someone and I don't, because I don't have the faith that God will do what he's told me to ask him to do. How dumb is that! But when I look at God, everything is put into perspective. Some of my greatest "Aha!" moments come not when I'm sitting around, trying to puzzle an issue out, but when I'm talking with God about it. It's as the song says:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace."
But that also needs to be complemented with another verse my Mom came up with:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of the earth will grow crystal clear
In the light of his glory and grace."
When we look up to God, all of our circumstances grow both strangely dim and crystal clear at the same time. Strangely dim, because our circumstances matter less than God's power to change them. Crystal clear, because we can see exactly how they fit into his master plan.
In fact, this principle is at the heart of the Christian worldview: first, we look up to God, and then see the "things of the earth" from his perspective, through the eyes of faith. I hope that in future blog posts God will enable me to show how looking up changes the way we see specific things happening in his world.
I've been particularly encouraged by signs that the Church in South Africa is learning to look up. For instance, when some Christian leaders saw bleak circumstances in this land, corruption and weak leadership in government, poverty, violence, idolatry, they decided to look up and so the vision for the National Initiative for Reformation of South Africa (NIRSA) was born.
And it spills over into my daily life too: I can easily become discouraged by the amount of work I have to do for exams and research projects: work I can battle through in my own strength, but do so much better with God's. I need to learn to look up from my academic work and see God's perspective on it more and more often. He will give me the motivation to carry on.
So let's look up! Let's look to God today and see what he wants us to see, so we can live as he wants us to live.
But what really got to me was that these failures of faith didn't often happen in the places where you'd expect them. When the Israelites were preparing to fight a battle against a nation that stood in their way (like the inhabitants of Arad in Numbers 21:1-3 or Sihon and Og in 21:21-35), you'd expect them to be shaking in their boots, but instead they pumped up their faith and they had no problems gaining the victory with God's strength.
Instead, it was in the dreary, routine, desert wandering times that their faith failed. Sometimes this even happened straight after the high of a battle won, when you'd expect them to be ready to believe God for anything. For instance, they started complaining in Numbers 21:4, just after having flattened Arad in Numbers 21:3! Why is that?
I believe the answer is that they stopped looking up to God for strength. When we go through unspectacular, low-level hardship as the Israelites did in the wilderness, it's easy to think we should be able to make it through on our own without God. But then, when we stop depending on God's help, we look around and see our bleak circumstances and complain, instead of looking up and seeing things from God's perspective.
Even Moses was guilty of this. In Numbers 20 :1-13, the Israelites complain that they have no water. Moses asks God what to do and God shows him a rock which he should command to pour out his water. Now I've heard that in the Sinai desert, there are certain rocks which hold in large aquifers filled with water, and if you just hit the rock hard enough, it'll give and the water will come rushing through. So Moses, instead of commanding the rock to pour out water, and trusting God for the rest, decides he can do this in his own strength and hits the rock. It was a terrible failure of faith. Because of that, God didn't let him enter the Promised Land.
I know I try to do things in my own strength that I should be doing with God, all the time. Or there are times when God asks me to pray for someone and I don't, because I don't have the faith that God will do what he's told me to ask him to do. How dumb is that! But when I look at God, everything is put into perspective. Some of my greatest "Aha!" moments come not when I'm sitting around, trying to puzzle an issue out, but when I'm talking with God about it. It's as the song says:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace."
But that also needs to be complemented with another verse my Mom came up with:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of the earth will grow crystal clear
In the light of his glory and grace."
When we look up to God, all of our circumstances grow both strangely dim and crystal clear at the same time. Strangely dim, because our circumstances matter less than God's power to change them. Crystal clear, because we can see exactly how they fit into his master plan.
In fact, this principle is at the heart of the Christian worldview: first, we look up to God, and then see the "things of the earth" from his perspective, through the eyes of faith. I hope that in future blog posts God will enable me to show how looking up changes the way we see specific things happening in his world.
I've been particularly encouraged by signs that the Church in South Africa is learning to look up. For instance, when some Christian leaders saw bleak circumstances in this land, corruption and weak leadership in government, poverty, violence, idolatry, they decided to look up and so the vision for the National Initiative for Reformation of South Africa (NIRSA) was born.
And it spills over into my daily life too: I can easily become discouraged by the amount of work I have to do for exams and research projects: work I can battle through in my own strength, but do so much better with God's. I need to learn to look up from my academic work and see God's perspective on it more and more often. He will give me the motivation to carry on.
So let's look up! Let's look to God today and see what he wants us to see, so we can live as he wants us to live.
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