Wed, 22 May 2013 23:26:13 -0800WeeblyWed, 06 Mar 2013 18:28:56 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/03/chapter-9-cast-all-your-anxiety-on-him-because-he-cares-for-you.htmlIn focus

The focus of this chapter is how anxiety can take control of our lives unless we turn our fears and worries over to God and trust him to do what is best for us.

We will explore:

-         God’s promises to help us with our problems
-         the dangers of worry and fear
-         the Christian alternative to worry - prayer

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

What are the basic characteristics of a person with whom you can form a positive and mutually rewarding relationship? I think if you asked this question to people from all walks of life a number of important issues would stand out. One of these is that such a person genuinely cares about you or even loves you. Another would be that they are there to support you with problems and through difficult times.

God is the ultimate expression of these qualities. We are able to go to God with literally anything – because he already knows everything about us!

Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you - Jim Rohn

He knows our innermost fears and needs; nothing we could say can shock Him. What’s more, he is already acting as a shock absorber between us and the world in more ways than we can possibly know.

The bible says

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” (Psalm 68:19 NIV)

And Jesus said

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

It’s true - we can bring anything to God and he will help us deal with it. 

There’s some good news and some bad news!

The language used is interesting; we are told that we can “cast” our anxieties on God. This conjures up a picture of us throwing these problems away. If you cast something, you cast it away or you cast it off; in other words you get rid of it. However, the second part of this sentence says “because He cares for you”, and therefore we should not mistakenly think that this means God is necessarily going to take our problems away. As a parent I do not want to take all my children’s problems away (attractive though the idea may seem). I would much rather enable them and strengthen them to deal with the challenges they face, maybe overcome them, but certainly to learn from them and learn how to face adversity. As our heavenly father, God does not want to merely take our problems away and do everything for us either. He could - but he won’t, because, like a human parent, he wants us to develop and to reach our potential. He wants us to be bigger, and stronger, and wiser, and more compassionate, and more insightful, and more prepared, and more empathetic, and more able.

Why worry?

 

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem – Theodore Rubin

Casting our anxieties on God does not mean that we will get rid of our problems. What it does mean is that we find a better way to deal these problems, and with the anxiety, stress and worry that accompanies them. There are many commands in the bible to avoid worry. Jesus tells us to hand our worries over to Him, and he made a very practical point when he said “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27) The fact is that worrying accomplishes absolutely nothing – planning for the future Yes, reflecting on the past Yes – but worrying just makes things worse. I have been told that if we prayed as much as we worried we would have less to worry about.

The New Living Translation of Philippians 4:6 tells us

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace.

By turning our worries over to God we can experience the peace that comes from trusting Him to provide the things we need. This is a huge challenge – in the face of incredible pressure from the uncertainties of the world. But this is a test of our faith. When Noah was building the ark did he worry about the financial expense or what other people thought about him? When Daniel was in the lions den did he worry about being torn apart by hungry animals? When David walked out to face Goliath did he worry about what odds the bookmakers were giving him?

Whilst worry is bad, anxiety is even worse. Worry can amplify the mistake of the past and prevent us from enjoying the present; but anxiety can neutralize our present and rob us of the future by allowing fear to dominate our lives. Anxiety is a natural human response to stressful or dangerous situations that we have carried with us from ancient days when we had to make snap decisions about whether to stand and fight or escape. Our body responds to these situations by releasing hormones that enable us to perform at a higher physical and mental level than we do under normal circumstances, and we can become temporarily stronger and more alert. So far, so good? The problem with anxiety is that in our modern world we face situations on a daily basis that we perceive as dangerous but to which we cannot respond by fighting or running away. This gives rise to the third F to the well known Fight or Flight scenario – Freeze. Anxiety in this form is pure fear. For many years I have suffered from completely irrational panic attacks in certain situations and I can sum up the feelings in one word – terror. Anyone who has experienced an anxiety attack will tell you about the awful physical and psychological trauma that accompanies these attacks and the complete exhaustion after they have past. As if the fear in the present is not enough, the knock on effect on how a person subsequently views their future is much more destructive. A person who suffers from severe anxiety will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid situations that they believe will trigger another attack, and this can slowly contract the opportunities that life has to offer. Even in a less severe form anxiety becomes a thief of our future in the form of fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of embarrassment, fear of inadequacy.

The major problem is that we cannot remove fear from our lives. As a martial artist I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to train alongside some of the most terrifying and physically intimidating men you are ever likely to come across. But most of them will accept that fear is still a part of their lives and I honestly believe that anyone who says that they are not afraid of anything is in denial, because in the millisecond that our nervous system picks up on a threat the response is a physical, not an emotional one. We simply cannot avoid fear, but what we can do is condition ourselves to have a different response to it by putting our trust in God.

King David prayed these words whilst fleeing from the bad decisions in his past, pursued by his own son Absalom who was intent on his destruction.

But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side…. From the Lord comes deliverance.

(Psalm 3:3-8 NIV 1984)

Worrying about what happened in the past is worthless and worrying about the future is pointless. Allowing fear to dominate us in the present and to control our aspirations for the future is paralyzing. But if we genuinely believe that God is in absolute control, and that he wants what is best for us then we really can cast our anxieties on him. It doesn’t mean we will loose anxiety or fear, but it does mean that we view them in a different light.

I have often read in self development books that we should ask ourselves “What would I do if I knew I could not fail?” But it is not failing that is the barrier to our development – as we have seen in chapter 7, giving up after a failure is the ultimate defeat. One of the main barriers is the fear of failure that stops us in our tracks. Anxiety is incapacitating, but through prayer and trust in God we can face the situations that scare us. The bible says,

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
(Isaiah 12:2 NIV 1984)

The NLT translation of the above verse from Isaiah concludes with “he has given me victory”. Living in the knowledge that God can give us victory over the issues that cause anxiety in our lives means that we can face these issues with a totally different mindset.

Caring God, you have given us the powerful alternative to anxiety – the gift of prayer. We thank you that there is no problem, big or small, that we cannot bring before you. Help us to turn to you as our automatic response when we face situations that worry us, or when we agonise about event from our past. Amen.
]]>Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:01:50 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/02/chapter-8-in-due-time.htmlIn focus

The focus of this chapter is God’s perfect timing for all things, and the difficulties we have in embracing this when times are difficult.

We will explore:

-         the presence of adversity in our lives
-         what God wants us to learn from times of adversity
-         trusting in God to have our best interests at heart

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  

To go back to the example of Joseph, it is worth remembering that Joseph was ’down’ for an awfully long time before God brought him back up. He was in prison for two years, punished for a crime he did not commit. Through the ups and downs of his life, God took over 40 years to bring his plan to fruition. This brings us to the next section of this passage - God’s timing. 

God’s timing is an incredibly difficult concept to fully embrace, not least because we are often drawn to think about this when experiencing times of adversity. Like most people, I have experienced such times and have sometimes used them to reflect upon God’s timing for our lives. I am also very aware that my times of adversity pale into insignificance when compared to the trials of other people, some of which do not end in this life. And so it is that when were are cast low by circumstances and events we can come to question whether God has got it right or whether he is really paying attention to our prayers. At times such as these we can become consumed by our own problems and these can block out the eternal perspective from which God sees all things.

But this phrase says ‘in due time’, that is to say when it is due. God knows when the right time is, despite the fact that we may think we know better. Many are the times when I have thought it obvious what needs to happen to resolve a given situation and have fallen into the “if only God would …… “scenario. We reason that we are there on the ground and have the ideal perspective to make an accurate judgment about what needs to be done, when in actual fact this is often the very worst position from which to accurately assess the situation. Only God really knows – and when the time is due, that’s when it will happen.

The purpose of adversity

All our experiences have a purpose, and the fact that we have lived through them gives them value and significance for our personal and spiritual development. God could easily transform us in to the person He wants us to be in an instant, but that would devalue the change process. In the film “The Matrix” the characters live in a time in the future when it has become possible to download knowledge and skills instantly into the human brain, and one of the characters is instantly given amazing martial arts skills. Compare this to the experience of real martial arts in today’s world and through history. I am a karate black belt, but it took me ten years of relentless training to achieve this goal. On the day I was awarded my black belt I was training, sparring and under assessment from 8.00am until 8.00pm. At times this was painful, unrewarding exhausting and stressful, and there were many occasions over those ten years when I almost gave up. But now whenever I tie a black belt around my waist I can reflect upon the journey that got me there and the journey that I still continue on to this day. Would I rather have instantly been given these skills, and skills greater than the ones I already possess – definitely No!

In his book “Warrior”, the acclaimed martial artist and writer Geoff Thompson dedicates a whole chapter to actually seeking a difficult life. He says,

“Fear, pain and discomfort are not supposed to be cured like a virus or shed like an old skin – they are there to be embraced”.

By taking a short cut we miss out on the development that comes from tackling and even embracing adversity. Similarly, asking God to relieve us from a difficult or painful situation is asking him to deny us the opportunity for growth that he knows we need at that particular time in our lives.

The importance of Question 5

God allows - no, more than allows, he sends - trials and suffering, as well as time of abundance and fulfillment in order to give us the opportunities we need to become the person He wants us to be. We need to seize these opportunities and trust in God’s judgment. Of course this is easier said than done, but trusting God’s timing is faith in action and it comes from answering some important questions – answering emotionally from the heart, but also answering intellectually from the mind.

Q1: “Is God in charge?”
Q2: “Is He in charge of everything, not just some things?”
Q3: “Does God have a pan for my life?”
Q4: “Is it a good plan – better in fact than any plan that I might cook up by myself?”

If the answers to Q1-Q4 are Yes,

Q5: “What does God want me to learn from this?”

The fifth question is the one that that occupies pages after page of my personal journal. If the answers to the previous four questions affirm my faith that God knows perfectly what he is doing and that everything that happens has a purpose, then the answer to the fifth question requires intense reflection, prayer, and hyper sensitivity to the presence of God. If we genuinely answer Yes to questions 1 to 4 (and I pray that we all do) then it follows that we must believe that whatever we are going through has significance and meaning.

Question 5 has often kept me awake at night, reflecting upon the idea that God sends circumstances and events to develop our character. He knows what he wants us to become and knows what is needed to bring about this development. Therefore we must seek to learn the lessons from every event and every phase of our lives. God doesn’t waste time and therefore everything has relevance. Something might appear irrelevant, but it is not. Something might appear negative, but it is not. All things are by God’s design, and therefore they are all meaningful and contain the potential for good. Obviously, I am not saying that everything is good; the loss of a loved one is not good, but there is potential for growth through loss.

The bible says “when times are good be happy: but when times are bad consider this: God made one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes 7.14 NIV). God doesn’t make mistakes, nothing escapes his notice, and he doesn’t have accidents. If we genuinely digest this, then it follows that we must see every event, every person, second of every day as relevant and of eternal importance.

What a different perspective that is.

Trusting when it is difficult

The bible says to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5 NIV).

When I am struggling to make sense of life’s events I have often reflected that the root of my difficulty is my inability to truly understand two key words; Infinity and Eternity. I know what is meant by these words, but if I actually take some time to digest what these words actually mean then my poor brain starts to crumble under the strain. Even the most intelligent, insightful and enlightened people in the world only have temporal and worldly understanding. God has infinite understanding and eternal perspective. This means that there are answers to some issues that we will not be given in this life; but can you imagine for one second turning to God when we finally arrive in His presence and saying “What on earth was that all about in June 2010 (for example)?” No we are far more likely to turn to Him and say “Ah, now I understand what all that was about in June 2010”. I have heard it said that life only makes sense in retrospect, and I think that this is often true. Ask yourself how many of the things that are currently at the very top of you daily agenda will really matter even a year from now, never mind 5 years or twenty years from now. Be honest and reflect on some of the values and issues from years ago about which you nailed your colours to the mast, but now would rather forget about.

Imagine this. Pick up a pencil and hold it a few inches from your eye; it looks massive doesn’t it? Now move it to arms length and it doesn’t seem so big. Place it at the other side of the room and it seems tiny. Put it at the end of a field and you cannot even see it. What is massive to us now may have little eternal significance, but we cannot appreciate that because it is right in front of our eyes. However, God can see the whole picture – because he created the whole picture. His timing is faultless and we can be assured that we will be lifted up in due time; maybe not the in timescale we would have chosen, but the right time.

I started this chapter by observing that we often think about God’s timing when we are in the middle of wishing it was different. Abraham Lincoln is recorded to have said,

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day."

Many people are in that very situation at this exact moment; if you are not, you certainly will have been in the past and doubtless will be in the future. But God is there for us at that very moment and is waiting for our prayers.

Infallible God, sometimes we find it so difficult to understand you timing, especially when our lives feel dominated by situations or events in which we can see no positive. Forgive us for the times when we think we know better than you, and grant us the ability to trust in you for the perfectly timed unfolding of all creation. Amen.

]]>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:44:59 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/02/chapter-7-that-he-may-lift-you-up.htmlThe focus of this chapter is the ways that God guides our lives in order to protect us from the consequences of taking the wrong path, and His support when things go wrong. 

We will explore:

-         the protection of God
-         the enabling power of God
-         being willing to be helped

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

In chapters 5 and 6 we explored some of the roots of our Christian humility. But in this chapter I would like to concentrate on a phrase that offers us another reference point. We should also be humbled by the protection and enabling power that comes from God.

Many are the times in my life when doors have opened for me; these openings have taken the form of unexpected opportunities or support and encouragement from a surprising source. On other occasions, doors have being closed (and sometimes slammed) in my face. When I had only been teaching for a few years a great opportunity came up at another school that was a considerable step up for someone with my limited experience. I wasn’t looking for another job at the time, but a colleague found out about it and came excitedly to see me saying “You simply must go for this job”. I put in an application and was the only person they wanted to interview. As a result I was given an opportunity to make a big contribution to the development of that school. On another occasion I was proactively looking for another post and applied for a job that appeared to be tailor made for me. I didn’t even get shortlisted. With hindsight this post would have involved much more travel time and longer working hours, factors that would have undoubtedly hindered my studies to train as a local preacher. In the first example I was lifted up to a new role that I wasn’t looking for; in the second example I was seemingly held back, only to be lifted up in another sphere of my life.

On both of these occasions (and many more besides) I have been empowered to do things that I otherwise would not have been able to do. In circumstances like these God has protected me and guided me and given me strength to do things that had previously been beyond me. To some people this might appear to be luck, fate or just plain coincidence – but I know different.

We associate being lifted up as being preceded by being knocked to the ground, and it is often said that the true sign of a successful person is one who doesn’t stay down.

“a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16 NIV 1984)

A great biblical example of being lifted by God is the Old Testament story of Joseph’s rollercoaster life. Joseph was knocked down and then lifted back up by God, only to be knocked down again. But in the end it is God’s will that prevails, and eventually all the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place. It is interesting that there were many times in Joseph’s life when failure could have finished him off and this makes the account of his life one of the first great overcoming stories. There have been many more since and many have been recorded in books and films. In our modern world there are countless examples of people who have suffered repeated business, emotional relationship or health ‘failures’ but have not allowed this to be the defining aspect of their lives. One of the things we learn from these stories is that there is often a very fine line between failure and success; but there is a chasm between failure and defeat, because defeat only happens we lose the desire to get back up.

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.  - Henry Ford

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the LORD upholds him with His hand" (Psalm 37:23, 24 KJB).

It’s all in the ‘may’

No matter how many times we fall God can lift us back up again, but the phrase that forms the subject of this chapter contains an interesting word – the word may. Putting our faith in God unlocks the lifting power of his hand and enables His will to take the driving seat in our lives. But it is essential that we do our part and that we are receptive to the guidance and the prompts that God gives to us. We rely on God to do the lifting, but we have to want to get up.

At the pool of Bethesda Jesus healed a man who had been an invalid for thirty eight years, but not before asking the intriguing question, “Do you want to get well?” Before healing the blind beggar at the roadside on the way to Jericho Jesus asked him what seems to be an obvious question “"What do you want me to do for you?" These two events shed some light on a potential for failure that exists in many people. It is interesting that there are some people who do not want to be well; who allow their personal tragedies, their emotional or physical barriers to define them and become their identity. When I was working with young offenders I was given some valuable advice about the process of behavior change. An experienced youth worker explained that many young criminals only have their criminality to define themselves and before working to take that away, the professional must first establish the potential for an alternative lifestyle. Unless they see that there is this possibility, the young person will cling to their old identity and fail to change their behaviour

Some of us have been knocked down so many times, or have been down for so long that we have lost sight of what is like to be stood up, some may even think that it is no longer possible. Some of us may fear the unknown far more than we dislike our current situation, and this acts as a barrier to making the changes that would open up a different life. To others Jesus can legitimately ask us “do you want to be well?” Many do not; continuing to prefer the darkness to the light, and allowing that to define them.

But through faith in God we have the offer of an alternative personality and an alternative way of life, the ones that He actually created us to have. And so if the answer to Jesus’ question is “Yes, I do want to be well”, then we can trust that He will be there to lift us up, because he gave this very assurance himself,

“be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28.20 NLT)

Supporting God, thank you for being there for us through the ups and downs of life. Give us the tenacity to never give up when we are faithfully doing your work, and make us ever willing to grasp your helping hand which will pull us back to our feet when we have stumbled or been knocked down. Amen.

 


]]>Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:51:17 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/01/chapter-6-under-gods-mighty-hand.htmlThe focus of this chapter is the all-powerfulness of God, and how that should influence our thinking and how it can impact on our lives.

We will explore:

-         God’ “big picture” thinking
-         our part in this picture
-         the power of God
-         how that power comes into our lives

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

We are not merely told to humble ourselves. No, we are told to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand – and that is the crucial difference. Here are some great truths to keep in mind throughout this chapter.

-         Everything is under God’s power and his control,
-         He has designed and created the entire universe from nothing,
-         He has a plan for all of eternity,
-         We are who we are so that we can fulfil our destinies within that plan.

This is not to be confused with determinism, or some kind of mindset that says “Well God will sort all this out for me”. God wants to work in partnership with us and has given (and will continue to give) us everything we need to play our part in this. He wants to have an intensely close working relationship with us so that his plan for us and the world we live in can unfold. But in the final analysis – God’s will will be done.

It all ties together

As a new Christian I struggled to come to terms with the inter-connectedness of God’s plans for individuals’ lives, but he made it clear to me through an example from the life of my wife. In her late thirties, my wife established a children’s nursery in the area where we lived. She worked incredibly hard and built this nursery up to a busy and highly respected provider of early years care with several staff. But the strain of self employment had a very negative effect on her work/life balance and she decided to sell the nursery. At the time this was a very difficult decision and it left us with some serious financial problems that took a great many years to work out. My wife was very upset by the whole matter and for a long time it was difficult for me to reflect on this period in our lives with anything but negative thoughts. However, several of the staff made huge personal and professional leaps forward under my wife’s management and guidance and went on to be successful early years workers not only in our area, but also in London and in Spain. Helped by the assurance of my wife’s supportive care numerous parents were able to resume employment and make positive changes in their lives. Finally, countless children got a great start in life due to the secure and stimulating environments that this nursery provided. So whilst the end result for us was almost entirely negative, the result for many, many other people was overwhelmingly positive. God used this example to point out to me that you might be part of someone else’s plan and they might be part of yours, and sometimes things don’t work out how you thought they should but it was necessary for the completion of this stage of the plan.

I once heard a sermon[1] when the preacher described God creating a cosmic tapestry in which we all have a clearly defined part. Now I have never made a tapestry my self, the nearest thing I have come to this craft is to watch someone doing a type of embroidery called cross stitch. What I remember from this is that the project only makes sense when you look at the finished article from the correct side, i.e. from the front. If you look at it from the back it is a mass of knots and loose ends. God is indeed creating a tapestry and from his vantage point he can see what the finished piece of art will look like; not a single stitch is misplaced or left out. Unfortunately for us, we only see the underside – the mass of knots and loose ends.

The biblical story of Esther is a great example of how God works with us to bring about his will here on earth. Esther, although a Jewish exile in Persia, found herself selected as Queen due to her outstanding beauty. Then her uncle Mordecai informed her about a plan to annihilate her people and she was placed in a situation where she could intervene with the King to stop the massacre. However, such an intervention carried great personal risk because anyone who approached the King without being summoned could be put to death. Esther made her reservations known to Mordecai, and his response tells us a great deal about the mighty hand of God.

"Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:12-14 NIV)

Mordecai knew that God's grand purposes are always fulfilled with or without our cooperation. But he challenged Esther to be the agent of God's plan, "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" God was giving her the opportunity to get on board, in the face of considerable danger, to be the one who brings about his will. And so it can be with each of us, which is a basis for our humility under Gods mighty hand; because (contrary to what we may sometimes think) we are not the centre of the universe, and there are more important stories being played out in the world than our lives. Our humility stems from the realisation that we are created by God for a purpose greater than ourselves, not merely for our own enjoyment. And this is important because who knows but that we have come to our current position for a time such as this?
The might of God

Once we allow this idea to permeate our hearts and minds then we align our lives with the might of God. The bible uses many different metaphors to illustrate the might of God, and one of my personal favourites is from the psalmist,

But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore - the LORD above is mightier than these! (Psalm 93:4 NLT)

That’s pretty powerful stuff isn’t it? I am a great lover of the ocean and one of my favourite pastimes is surfing (I am absolutely rubbish; but cannot help being fascinated by the sport and the lifestyle). Now anyone who has ever been surfing will tell you just how powerful the “breakers” of the sea can be. When you are up on your board you get an amazing feeling of being in harmony with nature; a partnership between you and the wave. But when you fall off you are left in no doubt who is the dominant partner in this relationship. Even a two or three foot wave will batter you black and blue and leave you totally disorientated. Surfers have a leash which attaches them to their board, and for big wave surfers being attached to your board can be quite a risk when you are being battered around like a rag doll. However, most of them still use the leash because sometimes the wave will smash you around so much and throw you so deep under the water that the only way you know which way is up is to follow the more buoyant board as it heads towards the surface. Such is the power of the “breakers of the sea”, but the Psalmist affirms that the Lord is mightier than this.

The power within us

It is an amazing thing to think that we have this kind of power behind us every day, but we must be humble enough to know that this power only comes into our lives through submission to God’s will. For non-believers that might sound like a contradiction, because our word today perceives submission as weakness. But this submission – the joyful acceptance of God’s plan for our lives and an enthusiasm to be part of that plan – opens the door to strength that we could not acquire on our own. The bible tells us to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power (Ephesians 6:10 NLT). We become strong through God's strength. His strength enters our lives, delivered by the Holy Spirit and the more dependent we are on God, the more powerful we become.

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul prayed

I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you …. and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death (Ephesians 1:18-20 GNT).

The lyrics to the Hillsong worship song “You are here” echoes this assurance:

The same power that conquered the grave
Lives in me, lives in me
Your love that rescued the earth
Lives in me, lives in me

(George & Vater Pankratz)

This is indeed a ‘blessed assurance’[2]; if we humble ourselves then the mighty hand of God will guide and sustain us throughout our lives. This is a power that we cannot even begin to understand and a love that we cannot even begin to comprehend.

Mighty God, for whom all things are possible, we thank you for giving our earthy lives significance by weaving them into your plan for all eternity. Make us receptive to your divine purpose for us and allow your awesome power to flood into our lives so that we can be agents of your will. Amen.



[1] I would love to be able to give credit here to the preacher, but my terrible memory has let me down again. If it was you – thanks for the inspiration.


[2] Blessed Assurance – Fanny J Crosby


]]>Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:50:16 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/01/chapter-5-humble-yourselves.htmlThe focus of this chapter is different perspectives on humility; both contemporary and Christian.

We will explore:

-         the 21st century alternative to humility
-         six Christian roots of humility
-         our dependence on God

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

The cult of self-promotion

Millions and millions of people have been seduced by the quest for power. The world encourages us to be bold and confident, always willing to tell others about our virtues and achievements, and eager to climb the ladder of success (often climbing over other as we do). However, not all people are naturally comfortable with this high profile behavior, and others do not believe that they have achieved enough to merit such promotion. In response we have ‘put the cart before the horse’ and turned to self esteem development. The school of thought that sees self esteem improvement as a cure to many personal ills has reached such a level of acceptance that it goes almost unquestioned in fields such as education, youth work and social care. But as Charles J. Sykes advises students 

“The real world won't care as much as your school does about your self-esteem. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself”.

The cult of self-marketing often leads people to be over confident in their abilities or even deceitful about their competence in a given field. The world is now full of people who talk a fantastic job, but who are able to come up with the goods when required to do so; who have missed the point that true self esteem is earned through the way you live your life and not artificially manufactured through affirmations and techniques in order to trick yourself and the world about the quality of your character.  However, as long as this climate persists, the idea that we should be realistic about our own importance and actually think more about others than we do about ourselves will not be a popular philosophy. Humility in the 21st century is often misconstrued as feebleness and lacking self confidence or ability.  

But is that what being humble actually means? Let’s explore some of the different elements of humility from our Christian perspective. 

Christian humility

Firstly, it means recognising God’s total authority over all things – and that includes all of us! To humble ourselves means that we understand that God has a plan for the whole of creation and we are just a part of that plan. This doesn’t mean that we lack value – on the contrary. God has made us unique beings with an inimitable cocktail of individual skills and characteristics that enable us to fulfill our role in this plan. No one else – only God – can achieve what we have been created to do, and that should make us feel extraordinary. We should feel special, but we should also be careful not to get carried away with our own sense of importance; and we must always remember the price that was paid to enable us to continually mess things up and still be loved and forgiven by our creator.

Have you ever been “put in your place”? If so, you will know what a very humbling experience that is; not one that you would normally want to repeat. So keep in mind God’s comment from the book of Job

“Where were you when I created the earth?” (Job 38.4 MSG)

Contrary to what I may allow myself to think, I am not the cleverest person who ever lived and am not the centre of the universe. As Mark Twain observed,

“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first”

We are all important to God, but we must be humble enough to recognize that there is a bigger picture.

Secondly, our humility should be based upon the knowledge that all good gifts come from God. The hymn by Thomas Ken reminds us to “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”; and that means all blessings – the gifts of relationships, health, material possessions, security, talents and individual characteristics. It is tempting to take personal credit for these gifts; after all (we mistakenly tell ourselves) “I discipline myself to have a balanced diet and regular exercise and therefore I have earned a healthy body”, or “I have brought up my children to know right from wrong and to respect authority and therefore I deserve this happy family”, or “I have worked hard and pursued my education and therefore I have earned this good job”. But this is flawed thinking which fails to acknowledge God’s design of a plan for us, and the fact that we only contribute to – and do not make - these plans. It brushes under the carpet God’s will for us to have an impact in our own lives, the lives of those around us, and sometimes our community or the whole world. The bible tells us,

Every good and perfect gift is from above (James1:17 NIV)

Whilst there is no doubt that we have a part to play in what happens to us, it is vital that we keep in mind that the tools by which we achieve anything in our lives come straight from God. Our skills and abilities, our social support networks, our physical, intellectual and emotional strengths, our personal circumstances – all have been graciously given to us so that we can serve God.

Which brings us to the third perspective; humility means a willingness to serve, and service requires surrender to the will of God. The bible tells us,

"Humbly accept the word of God planted in you ..." (James 1:21 NIV)

It seems that today almost everyone wants to be a star. Our television screens are dominated by talent shows, celebrity worship and ‘real life’ reality programmes, all of which focus on attaining fame or attention. Only occasionally are we able to learn about people who have dedicated their lives to the service of others, and even then, these examples are usually not high profile stories. But real service means giving of yourself in the knowledge the person you are helping will probably never be able to do anything in return.

Service also implies surrender; it means that we are prepared to do whatever God requires of us. Mother Teresa said

"I belong to Jesus. He must have the right to use me without consulting me." 

If we genuinely believe that God’s plan for the whole of creation is a perfect one then we cannot complain when God’s plan for us interferes with our daily schedule. His plan does not take into account our own sense of self importance because it is about more than just us. In his ‘Angel Stadium Declaration’ Rick Warren affirmed,

“To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I say: However, whenever, wherever, and whatever you ask me to do, my answer in advance is yes! Wherever you lead and whatever the cost, I'm ready. Anytime. Anywhere. Anyway”.

As a Christian I need to come to the foot of the cross with an attitude of absolute humility and say Yes to God before he asks.

Fourthly, humility means an ability to forgive. If I allow myself to bear a grudge (and regrettably I have to confess that this is one of my many failings) I am in essence being self centred. I am saying that I am more important than a particular problem or person, that my judgement about a situation is accurate and just, and that I had no role to play in the evolution of the situation. Clearly, some people suffer incredible pain and injustice and for these people it takes unbelievable courage to forgive the perpetrator. However, many of us hold on to unforgiveness as a badge that keeps the original event at the centre. Many writers refer to this self destructive process with words like acid or poison to refer to the deadliness of holding onto the pain caused by others in your past. I can think of incidents from my past when others have hurt me which years later still cause my anger to well up. But if I am completely honest, some of the people responsible almost certainly do not remember the incident and some probably don’t even remember me! Anyone who has done you wrong in the past has the opportunity to seek God and ask for his or her forgiveness. If they have already done this then you cannot over-ride this forgiveness; if they have not then that is their problem and not yours. I don’t know about you, but I have got enough of my own thoughts and actions for which I need to seek God’s forgiveness before I start to worry about the ways other people have treated me.

Fifthly, humility means accepting the fact that we cannot get through this thing called life on our own – we need other people and we also need God. More than possibly any other time in recorded history the people of the world are inter-dependent. Communication skills, networking skills and team working/team leading skills are highly valued in the business market place. Why is this? It is because we now recognize that most of the challenges we face in the 21st century are too complex to be resolved by any one individual. Any good leader will tell you that one of the keys to their success is to surround themselves by people who are experts at what they do – often more knowledgeable in their particular field of expertise than the leader themselves. Being aware of this and recognising the strengths of others is important for ‘keeping your feet on the ground’. But this is no more than the bible has been telling us for so many years.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. (Romans 12:4-6 NIV)

But the crucial area in which we need to accept our interdependence is with God. We cannot get through life on earth without God’s support. I believe that this is true for all people, because God’s plan for eternity involves every person – even those who do not accept His sovereignty. God wants us to push our boundaries and strive to become more that we presently are, to take responsibility and make (and implement) plans; but there sometimes comes a point when we simply need to rely on God for the next step, when we are at the limit of our capability and capacity and we say “All I have accomplished so far is with your help and guidance. I cannot go any further without you”. If we find ourselves at that point - the point when if God doesn’t help us, nobody else will – then that is the point when we should be prepared for something exceptional. Some might see this as personal weakness, but I see it as tremendously exciting.

In the incredible business that is everyday life, it is worthwhile to regularly have a ‘base touching’ session when we re-acknowledge that God created us and also created everything that we know and do not yet know. It may be true that we are important people in our job, our family, our community and our church – which could be a good thing; alternatively we may not be a very important person in any of those fields – and perhaps that could be a good thing too. But in either event we should be careful not to confuse earthly perspectives with eternal ones. God has indeed created us as unique and incredible as a snowflake, but we are only a tiny part of his great plans for eternity. Therefore we must always pay heed to Paul’s advice to the church in Rome,

I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you. (Romans 12:3 GNT)

Infinite God, we stand amazed that you – the mighty creator of the universe – can be concerned with the intricacies of our individual lives. Help us to remember that we are totally dependent on you, and show us how we can develop our characters through forgiveness and services so that our lives will be pleasing to you. Amen.


]]>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:32:23 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/01/god-opposes-the-proud-but-gives-grace-to-the-humble.htmlIn focus

The focus of this chapter is the choices that God allows us to make and the guidance he gives us about pridefulness.

We will explore:

-         the concept of action and consequence
-         the dangers of pride
-         boundaries and guidance

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

This is a direct quote from Proverbs 3:34. The practice of quoting from the Old Testament is in itself is not an uncommon feature of the Epistles in the bible, but it should cause us to ask why this sentence is being used in its direct form. The Oxford Bible Commentary suggests a number of purposes for this quote, one of which is that “it provides a scriptural warrant for the exhortation of mutual submission”. We are being deliberately drawn to the gravity and importance of this concept by a reference to the great Old Testament book of guidance.

Action and consequence

There is a distinction made clear in the use of this quote and it is an either/or – action/consequence distinction. If you are proud, you will be opposed by God; if you are humble, God will give you grace. That is extremely blunt and should be regarding as a straightforward warning.

There are many situations where we are faced with distinct action/consequence decisions, in fact every decision we make is actually of this type. Sometimes there are unforeseen consequences to an action, but often we can reasonably predict the likely effects that out actions will have. We can come to these conclusions either from our own experience or by referring to the experiences of other people, but the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of our actions every day bring a known consequence. So the question could be asked, why do so many people so regularly make so many bad decisions? The writer and speaker Jim Rohn suggests that the reason is that consequences rarely follow the action directly and therefore there is a period where we appear to get away with bad decisions. If after one piece of chocolate cake you immediately gained 20 pounds then you would probably think twice about balancing your diet. If after one impetuous extravagant purchase you immediately became bankrupt then you would no doubt manage your finances more wisely. The fact that this does not happen gives us the opportunity to make and re-make bad decisions sometimes for long periods of time before the associated problems come home to roost. God had given us the dignity of choice in how we live our lives and our responses to our circumstance are the defining factor in the development of our character, but he wants us to make the right decisions and therefore throughout the bible we are given plainly worded guidance on many important issues. Whether we chose to take the advice or not is up to us, but we cannot say that we were not warned. This is one such case: pride will lead to be being opposed by God; humility will bring God’s grace. He is making the situation crystal clear for us.

The cost of pride

Of course there is nothing wrong with pride in the correct context, pride of a job well done for example. However, the bible is not warning against this type of pride. Here we are warned against being arrogant, self obsessed, boastful, and self righteous. This type of pride means taking the credit for what God has done for you. It means rejecting the laws that are laid down by God because you think that you know better (different translations use the words scoffers, mockers or scorners to describe the proud). It means thinking oneself better than others.

These types of pride will be opposed by God and none of us can afford this as we all of us depend upon his grace. If we look again at the original chapter from Proverbs we would see further emphasis of the point; the final verse of Proverbs 3 tells us that the potential consequences of pride are shame (NIV), or dishonor (NASB). Yes, God loves us. But just like a human father this can involve firm discipline that is for our own good.

Earlier in that same chapter we are told,

Do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves (Proverbs 3:11-12 NIV).

Parents know the value of setting boundaries and holding children accountable for stepping over the line. Educators know the value of making expectations clear and consistently enforcing sanctions. This is precisely what God is doing here. God tells us right from wrong and gives us some definitive Dos and Don’ts, and it is a grave mistake to disregard this guidance. And so whilst we are correct to emphasize the grace of God and his forgiveness of our sins, it is a mistake to think that this is a get out of jail card. God is being blunt here and making it very plain what character trait we should adopt.

Not long after I accepted Jesus as my savior I was prompted to reflect upon the topic of pride through guidance found in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws and His decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (Deuteronomy 8:11-14 NIV).

I first read these words from Deuteronomy when I was in the initial throws of rebuilding my life. For the first time in years I was able to take a balanced view of where and who I was, and I was starting to make meaningful progress towards carefully considered goals rather than careering mindlessly and destructively through life in danger of loosing everything that was important to me. For the first time in a long time I felt as if I was building instead of tearing down. I committed these verses to my memory to remind me that God had just brought me out of my own personal land of slavery and was giving me the strength, the resources and the relationships that could sustain me. In a forthcoming chapter I will discuss the formulation of what I now call my ‘Character List’; but for now I will just say that one of the things on that list is to “Remember where your blessings come from”.  I memorsied these verses so that I would never forget the Lord my God, and even now I have a recurring reminder on the computer calendar that places this section of the bible in front of me each month to remind me about the road I have travelled and who has made that possible. This is a prompt to make sure that I do not allow my heart to become proud about what I have achieved since these dark times in my life, and it serves to keep God’s grace at the very front of my mind.

Throughout the bible God makes promises to us about what we can depend upon from him, and often in our search for the good things in life we can focus on the blessings that are so abundant through faith in Him but ‘conveniently’ omit to notice the warnings about the consequences of our actions. But this sentence is so important that it is repeated from Proverbs, so we cannot claim that we were not warned.

Righteous God, you have made it clear to us that we cannot conduct ourselves in any way we wish. We thank you for the boundaries and guidance that you provide and we acknowledge the fact that you alone know what is best for our lives. Keep us from becoming proud when things go well for us, and remind us that all our successes and achievements are blessings from you. Amen.

]]>Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:18:35 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/01/clothe-yourselves-with-humility-to-one-another.htmlIn focus

The focus of this chapter is the choices that we make about the character traits that we adopt.
We will explore:

-         the importance of consciously making choices
-         taking responsibility
-         our attitude towards others
-         the worldly influences that affect how we live

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

In this first verse, we are told to clothe ourselves with humility. I will examine the concept of humility in Chapter 5, but for now let us look at the phrase clothe yourselves. I believe this refers to the process of choice. Every day we can choose which clothes we wear; open the wardrobe and make the decision. The decision we make is influenced by the day we have ahead of us, the environmental conditions we will face when we leave the house, and a consideration of the impression that we wish to make to those we meet.

Making a choice

Behaviours are choices too, and every day we are all faced with choices about how we act and choices about our response to a given situation. The results of these choices mould our lives. Obviously I accept that for some people making good choices is more difficult that for others, and it would be very naive to not recognise the impact of damaging life events and circumstances on the ability of people to make positive changes in their lives. However, there are simply too many examples of people who have overcome devastating setbacks, or who succeeded despite starting from a seemingly impossible position to deny that we have the ability to make positive choices that have a direct impact on the direction of our lives. To say that a person cannot change their behaviour is the ultimate negative attitude; it consigns that person to the scrap heap and it denies them the dignity of taking responsibility for their life.

The influential writer Steven Covey talks about the gap between stimulus and response, and asserts that we have the power to choose our response to any given situation. I accept that these decisions can be difficult ones - without doubt there is often the need for support from others, and unquestionably there is the need for the guidance and strength that comes from the Holy Spirit – but the choice is still there. Accepting this means taking responsibility for your actions, your attitudes and your impact on those around you. It means that you cannot blame circumstances, but instead you choose your response and accept the accountability that comes with making that choice.

I believe that God wants us to take responsibility for ourselves, our actions and for others. This is demonstrated in the many uses of the phrase “see to it”. For example,

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. (Luke 11:35 NLT 1984)
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. (Matthew 24:6 NIV)
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy (Colossians 2:8 NIV)
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12 NIV)

Through this use of language God is saying to us “Take responsibility for this”. He is not offering to do it for us or pointing us in the direction of another person who can help us out. No, he is saying that this is up to us to get sorted out. And so by using the phrase “clothe yourselves with humility” God is giving us clear direction to the choice we need to make here. He does not say try to clothe yourself, or set a goal to clothe yourself; he simply gives us a direct instruction.

Clothe yourselves also gives an indication of the extent to which this behaviour should become part of us. It offers a picture of complete coverage – we are not talking about a bikini here! We are also not talking about the fickleness of fashion; an item of clothing that we can put on and take off according to the latest trend. This is a commitment and a conscious decision to wear this particular garment – humility – and by doing so to take proactive action to adopt an attitude towards the world we will face and the people we will meet. We are making a statement about the person we are; we are saying “This is me and this is what you can expect from me”.

But this cannot be forced. We must also become comfortable with the clothes we wear, and it is very obvious when a person is ill at ease in their particular outfit. It is easy to spot the man at a wedding who does not regularly wear a shirt and tie; they are constantly adjusting their jacket and trying to ease the tightness of the buttoned shirt around their neck. They are wearing clothes that are unnatural to them and it shows. We are only comfortable with our outer garments when they are a reflection of our inner personality, otherwise it is just a costume and the mismatch is transparent to everyone. So this concept of clothing our selves with humility implies that we not only wrap ourselves up in this quality externally, but that we embrace it as a characteristic internally so that the outside and the inside are in genuine harmony.

In much the same way as the world offers us a wide variety of clothing styles for us to wear it offers us a myriad of philosophies about our approaches towards other people. Furthermore, in much the same way as trends in the fashion industry change at regular intervals the guidance we can take from worldly sources about our interactions with others also changes with the passing of time. But God’s guidance remains the same and does not suffer from the passing fancies of popular psychology schools of thought. God’s guidance says we should clothe ourselves with humility towards one another; not with cynicism or manipulation, not with domination or self centredness, not with neglect or aggression, not with inferiority or submissiveness.

Adam’s average day

I recently illustrated the incremental effect of the word’s impact in a church service I was giving by running through a hypothetical day using one of the children from the congregation (my nephew Adam) as my Mr. Average. The day went like this:

Adam starts off the day bright eyed and bushy tailed,

• But as soon as he turns on the TV he bombarded by adverts (buy this T shirt. Buy this computer)
  
• He leaves the house, but before he even gets to his car his next door neighbour’s negative attitudes hit him (“Oh the weathers is bad again today” etc. etc.)
  
• On his way to work there is a traffic jam and everyone is getting stressed – road rage is everywhere
  
• At work he is swamped by the pressures of meeting targets
  
• But Adam is driven by the need to have lots of money and lots of power – after all that’s what makes you successful isn’t it?
  
• At lunch time Adam spends half an hour reading a trashy tabloid newspaper and eating junk food
  
• On the way home – more road rage
  
• Adam decides to call in to the local shopping mega-centre to indulge his obsession with materialism.
  
• He gets home and turn on the TV to watch some celebrity-worshiping, mind-numbing drivel
  
• The he nips out to the pub, but his peer group are a group of undesirables who indulge in sexist and racist jokes, which Adam goes along with
  
• Before going to bed Adam spend an hour surfing the Internet, where he finds himself drawn to inappropriate websites
  

As the day progresses and a succession of factors imposed themselves on my willing volunteer I placed an additional item of clothing on the poor young “man” to represent each negative pressure. By the end of the day we were unable to see the real Adam – the Adam that God created and intended - because he was completely clothed with the weight of worldly influences.

The value of choosing our own clothes

We are able to choose how we behave towards other people just as we can choose what we wear. Therefore, it is important that we take note of the fact that this verse says clothe yourselves. This means that we do not allow the influence of other people to determine our chosen approach towards our fellow men and women. We would not dream of allowing someone to come into our bedroom in the morning and tell us what to wear, and yet we allow other people to influence our thoughts and actions every day. Why is that? Why do we find it so difficult to stick to our principles and not be swayed by the opinions of people around us?

One reason is the basic difficulty that most people have in ‘going against the flow’ and making a stand for what they believe to be true. This can affect all areas of our lives and we often rationalise it by using different phrases such as “win-win” or “not rocking the boat”, or “keeping the cart on the wheels”. But what this really means is that for some reason most of us find it uncomfortable to be assertive in the company of others. I spoke to a woman recently who told me how difficult she found it in her workplace to merely let others know that she was a Christian. Her workmates were apparently a pretty bawdy group and she expressed considerable guilt that she found it difficult to distance herself from their conversations, let alone challenge them by expressing her faith. Assertiveness is now a hot topic in personal development circles; just do an Internet search on this word if you don’t believe me – I found over a quarter of a million hits on the phrase ‘assertiveness training’! So it seems that this is a common human difficulty.

But lacking assertiveness is not the only reason that people find it difficult to stand up for their values. Often, our principles are not clearly defined enough to enable us to ‘nail our colours to the mast’. Most people go through their lives with a generic philosophy about life and their place in it without ever having clearly thought this through; therefore they find themselves susceptible to a variety of influences and consequently are easily blown of course. The process of clearly defining your principles and values (even within the framework of the Christian faith) is a time consuming and difficult process, but God is giving us a very good starting place with this particular character trait and clothing ourselves with humility gives a strong message to the world around us concerning what we stand for. 

By using the phrase ‘clothe yourselves’ God is giving us an indication of our personal responsibility for our attitudes and consequently our actions (and we will unpack this concept in greater detail later). He is also giving us an image of the extent of coverage that he wants from us in respect of this particular character trait and how we make this known to the world around us. But perhaps most importantly by using the phrase “to one another” he is emaphasising the value we should place upon our attitudes to and relationships with other people.

Guiding God, you have blessed us with the ability to reflect upon our character, and to identify the personal attributes that we can adopt and develop as we face the world around us. Help us to make choices about the way we act towards others based on your guidance, and grant us the fortitude to stand up for what is right in the face of worldly pressures. Amen.

 

]]>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:07:04 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2013/01/all-of-you.htmlAll of you

In focus

The focus of this chapter is the inclusive relevance of the message that is delivered through these verses from 1 Peter 5.

We will explore:

-         the importance of an honest appraisal of our own character

-         the dangers of a judgmental attitude

-         the need to accept responsibility

-         God’s offer of salvation to each and every one of us

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

God is speaking to all of us. One of the most truly amazing facts about Christian life is that we are all children of God. The grace of God is available to everyone. The promise of salvation is available to everyone. Jesus Christ died for everyone. But there is a responsibility attached to this too, and that is that God’s guidance and correction is there for everyone too. Through this initial phrase God is letting us know that everything He is about to say applies to us personally – there are no exemptions. He is setting the tone for the message in the verses that follow by pointedly asserting that we cannot read this as a spectator.

But the immediate challenge for us is that if we are reasonably “nice” people then it is tempting to look around us and condemn the many people we see who live immoral, unprincipled and even criminal lifestyles.  If you have fallen into this trap then stop and take a moment to think more closely about your own behaviour and thoughts.

Pharisee thinking

I heard of a conversation involving a vicar who was confronted by a man from his community who said “I will never come to your church because it is full of hypocrites”, to which the vicar replied, “Oh it’s not full – we still have room for another!” It is easy to hide behind the fallings of others, but the two great mistakes of this mindset are:

a)      it is judgmental. The problem we face here is that it is practically impossible to avoid making snap judgments about the people we meet; in fact out brain is hard wired to make exactly these types of judgments in a fraction of a second without us consciously thinking about it. However, the key issue is what we do with the initial thoughts. Jesus taught “Do not judge, and you will not be judged” (Matthew 7:1 NLT). The New Living Translation of the second part of this famous teaching reads “The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged”. (Matthew 7:1 NLT). I don’t know about you, but I know that I would not fair well under such scrutiny!

b)      it acts as a barrier to the desire for personal change and growth. By searching for personal character comparisons with people against whom we will look good, we are setting ourselves up a for a period of “laurel sitting” during which we have no drive to address the changes that really need to be made in our lives. If we ever find ourselves emotionally battered by the realisation of a personality of character shortfall  then the motivation to change becomes almost overwhelming, but if we find ourselves in the mediocre no mans land of ‘not that bad compared to ….’ then we can justify remaining in our current mode.

Therefore, it is a huge mistake to deflect God’s guidance away from ourselves and in the misguided belief that others are far worse sinners than us. This is Pharisee thinking.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18: 9-14 NIV)

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

 

God’s guidance is there for us all, which means it is there for me personally. I have found that it is during the times when I am preparing sermons that God reveals his will for me most clearly. I often find myself writing sermons with a challenging message and hear a clear voice reminding me that this challenge is for me too. As I write, Gods voice says “Are you listening to this?” The words flow effortlessly and I become conscious that I am in fact preaching to myself. We all need to be receptive to the times when God makes his will for us clear, and even when we appear to be holding onto the ‘straight and narrow’ his guidance is there as a constant reminder of how much work we still have to do.

All of you is a clear reminder to the self righteous that this message is not just for the adulterer, the thief, the alcoholic, the deceiver – we are all sinners and this message is for us. After all, "We all stumble in many ways" (James 3:2 NASB) It is a wake up statement that should make us get down from our pedestal, slap us around the face and make us sit down and listen.

Confront or Evade?

So this phrase is all about responsibility. Successful people from all walks of life share a key characteristic - they accept responsibility for themselves and their actions. The opening three words of these verses remind us that we must accept the responsibility for ourselves before God and admit our sinful nature before we can go any further. It is easy to remain in denial and think “Well I am basically a nice person – there are plenty of people who are worse than me”, but then we are missing the point of everything that follows.

In his book “Maximum Achievement” Brian Tracy discusses the difference between two personality types; Confronters and Evaders. He asserts that people who confront their problems and take responsibility for their situation are happier and healthier than those who duck and dive and try and keep out of the way of them. Tracy says “By continually facing your problems honestly and objectively you become a more confident and competent person”. This principle can be applied directly to our spiritual development as Christian men and women. It is only when we are honest with ourselves and honest before God that we are able to confront the issues that are facing us and start to address them.

This all sounds very daunting and very negative, but before we start to shy away from confronting our sins we need to remember the overwhelming good news. All of you is also God telling us that the door to salvation is open and waiting for us all to walk through. All of you is God with his arms outstretched welcoming us and challenging us to make the changes in our lives that will bring us closer to Him. And again it does not matter where we stand in relation to others. We may feel that we are in fact a great deal worse than others we know of. We may have a troubled past or even a troubled present, and we may ask whether God really can work with such a person. But look at the stories from the bible and see how God has repeatedly taken brokenness and used it for His glory. Read the testimonies of people who have been saved from terribly damaged and damaging lifestyles by the love of God. Then realize that God can work with whatever you bring to him.

The offer of salvation is indeed open to all of us and the bible makes this offer very clear. The situation of your life may make it feel as if there is no way out,

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. (John 1:12 NIV) Martin Luther King said “There is something within man that cannot be explained in terms of dollars and cents. There is something within man that cannot be reduced to chemical and biological terms, for man is more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons. He is more than a wisp of smoke from a limitless smoldering. Man is a child of God.” That means you and me; and this incredible truth binds us together with Christians all around the world. It gives us a common purpose and a common destiny. Because there are no exceptions and no double standards we all know exactly where we stand and we know the direction we need to take. This path is often difficult and requires courage and conviction, but it is clearly mapped out in front of us. It doesn’t matter where we are starting from because where ever we are in our lives when we accept Jesus as our saviour and believe in his name, God will come and meet us there. God’s grace and discipline and power and forgiveness and guidance and patience and caring and support and correction and above all his love is there for All of you.

God of all, thank you for providing us with guidance and instruction that we can turn to as a light to the path in our daily lives. Allow us the strength to be honest about our thoughts and behaviours, and set within us the determination to pursue lives that honour You. Above all, we thank you for the opportunity of a new life; an opportunity available to every man, woman and child on Your earth who accepts Jesus as their saviour. Amen.

]]>Mon, 31 Dec 2012 10:15:27 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2012/12/love-part-1.htmlThere is a brilliant chapter in Joyce Meyers book "The Power of Simple Prayer" about love that inspired me to write this message for you tonight. I believe that I am I the middle of being taught something very valuable about love. I stress the phrase ‘in the middle’ because this is very much a work in progress so I hope that you will (as you usually do) indulge me whilst I preach to myself on this most important of subjects.

Jesus said,

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13: 34-35 NIV)

Love demonstrates our discipleship

And as a result, Love is our primary tool of evangelism

If people know that you are a Christian – and they should know that you are a Christian – then you are under the microscope regarding your attitude towards other people. We are judged by other people according to a range of different criteria – both Christian and secular criteria, but we are held accountable to God on the basis of how we love him and how we love others.

This makes love something of enormous proportions.

Love is a hugely over-used word. And I wonder how many times we use the word love to refer to things that are far from the real meaning of the word. If the use of the word ‘love’ in the world was in any way a reliable measure of its presence, then I suspect that the world would be a very different place.

People walk past homeless people on the way to the restaurant that they ‘love’.

People watch TV programmes that they ‘love’ at the expense of spending quality time with family and friends.

People literally get into fights with other people over the football teams that they ‘love’.

Worldly thinking dilutes and corrupts the concept of love; and it promotes cold and hard hearts. The devil is quite happy about that situation. He is delighted when we take a “me first” approach to the people around us; or when we wait for someone to do something for us before we do something for them; or when circumstances and events reveal just how fickle our commitment to others actually is.

I have been surprised and saddened in my own life over the last year to find that what I thought was love for me in actual fact came with a set of conditions – and quite a big and inflexible set of conditions too! I have been even more surprised and saddened to discover that when push came to shove my own love for some other people also came with a whole bundle of strings attached.

“If we can only manage to do one thing in our lives, it should be to love other people” – Joyce Meyer

So if love is such a barometer of our spiritual maturity, then what does God want us to know about love? Perhaps the most well known list of love’s qualities is to be found in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Love is patient
Love is kind
Love does not envy
Love does not boast
Love is not proud
Love does not dishonour others
Love is not self-seeking
Love is not easily angered
Love keeps no record of wrongs
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
Love always protects
Love always trusts
Love always hopes
Love always perseveres
Love never fails.

When I read sections of the bible like this I often become frustrated about the theological arguments that take place in the church and between churches and even between religions and between believers and non believers. There is so much nuts and bolts Christianity ion the bible that commands our very best effort and strength and determination that we cannot afford to get hung up on the finer details.

Some of you have heard me speak before about my “character list” – a list of 30 personal attributes that I spent time distilling from a range of personal development books, Christian books, and the teachings of the bible. I did this in order to have an accessible daily focus for my own development as a person. Whether or not this has had any measurable impact is open to debate – but I still think that it was (and is) time well spent.

But just for a moment pause and think about how difficult it would be for us to consistently put these different qualities of love into our daily lives.

How long would it take you to be

·         Patient
·         Kind
·         Humble
·         Un-selfish
·         Calm
·         Forgiving
·         Protecting
·         Trustworthy
·         Optimistic
·         Dedicated
·         Dependable

If you are even remotely as much of a sinner as I am we are talking about a life-long project! And that’s not the end of it – in fact it’s barely scratching the surface. Jesus told people,

“Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6.31 NIV)

In his book Maximum Achievement, the author Brian Tracy refers to this philosophy as “The law of indirect effort” If you want to be happy, make someone else happy. If you want people to be interested in you, be interested in them. He says

“You can improve the health of your personality by taking every opportunity to improve the health of the personalities of others”

In a similar vein Zig Ziglar famously said,

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”.

Note the order in which all of these quote come. Jesus is basically saying, “if you want someone to treat you in a certain way, treat them that way first”. This too is counter-cultural. In our society we all too often wait until we receive before we are willing to give. But this is completely the opposite of how God wants us to live our lives. And to prove the point, this is exactly how he has behaved towards us.

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

We talked last time around about the grace of God that comes with no small print. About the fact that God has laid it all on the line for us without us doing anything in return – and even if we do do things in return, he did it first. Through the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, God did it all for us before we were even born, despite everything we have done and been, regardless of everything that we continue to be and do. The sacrifice of Jesus epitomises God’s love for us and gives us the example of how we should think and act towards other people.

Reflections

Is Love demonstrating your discipleship?

Are you using your approach towards others as a tool of evangelism?

Pick one of the characteristics of Love – and make a commitment to be more loving this week

]]>Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:39:36 GMThttp://thenarrowgate.co.uk/1/post/2012/07/humility.htmlIntroduction

The very first section of the bible that I memorized is a lengthy section from 1 Peter 5, and it contains these verses

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Part of this is a direct quote from Proverbs 3:34. The practice of quoting from the Old Testament is in itself is not an uncommon feature of the Epistles in the bible, but it should cause us to ask why this sentence is being used in its direct form. The Oxford bible commentary (ref) suggests a number of purposes for this quote, one of which is that “it provides a scriptural warrant for the exhortation of mutual submission”. We are being deliberately drawn to the gravity and importance of this concept by a reference to the great Old Testament book of guidance.  

The focus of this message is different perspectives on humility; both contemporary and Christian. We will explore:

·         the 21st century alternative to humility
·         some Christian roots of humility
·         our dependence on God

The cult of self-promotion

Millions and millions of people have been seduced by the quest for power. The world encourages us to be bold and confident, always willing to tell others about our virtues and achievements, and eager to climb the ladder of success (often climbing over other as we do). However, not all people are naturally comfortable with this high profile behavior, and others do not believe that they have achieved enough to merit such promotion.

In response we have ‘put the cart before the horse’ and turned to self esteem development. The school of thought that sees self esteem improvement as a cure to many personal ills has reached such a level of acceptance that it goes almost unquestioned in fields such as education, youth work and social care. But as Charles J. Sykes advises students (ref - "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn In School")  

The real world won't care as much as your school does about your self-esteem. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

The cult of self-marketing often leads people to be over confident in their abilities or even deceitful about their competence in a given field. The world is now full of people who talk a fantastic job, but who are able to come up with the goods when required to do so; who have missed the point that true self esteem is earned through the way you live your life and not artificially manufactured through affirmations and techniques in order to trick yourself and the world about the quality of your character.  However, as long as this climate persists, the idea that we should be realistic about our own importance and actually think more about others than we do about ourselves will not be a popular philosophy. Humility in the 21st century is often misconstrued as feebleness and lacking self confidence or ability. 

But is that what being humble actually means? Let’s explore some of the different elements of humility from our Christian perspective.

Firstly
It means recognising God’s total authority over all things – and that includes all of us! To humble ourselves means that we understand that God has a plan for the whole of creation and we are just a part of that plan. This doesn’t mean that we lack value – on the contrary. God has made us unique beings with an inimitable cocktail of individual skills and characteristics that enable us to fulfill our role in this plan. No one else – only God – can achieve what we have been created to do, and that should make us feel extraordinary. We should feel special, but we should also be careful not to get carried away with our own sense of importance; and we must always remember the price that was paid to enable us to continually mess things up and still be loved and forgiven by our creator.

Have you ever been “put in your place”? If so, you will know what a very humbling experience that is; not one that you would normally want to repeat. So keep in mind God’s comment from the book of Job

“Where were you when I created the earth?” (Job 38.4 MSG)

Contrary to what I may allow myself to think, I am not the cleverest person who ever lived and am not the centre of the universe. As Mark Twain observed,

“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first”

We are all important to God, but we must be humble enough to recognize that there is a bigger picture.

Secondly
Our humility should be based upon the knowledge that all good gifts come from God. The hymn by Thomas Ken reminds us to “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow”; and that means all blessings – the gifts of relationships, health, material possessions, security, talents and individual characteristics. It is tempting to take personal credit for these gifts; after all (we mistakenly tell ourselves) “I discipline myself to have a balanced diet and regular exercise and therefore I have earned a healthy body”, or “I have brought up my children to know right from wrong and to respect authority and therefore I deserve this happy family”, or “I have worked hard and pursued my education and therefore I have earned this good job”. But this is flawed thinking which fails to acknowledge God’s design of a plan for us, and the fact that we only contribute to – and do not make - these plans. It brushes under the carpet God’s will for us to have an impact in our own lives, the lives of those around us, and sometimes our community or the whole world. The bible tells us,

Every good and perfect gift is from above (James1:17 NIV)

Whilst there is no doubt that we have a part to play in what happens to us, it is vital that we keep in mind that the tools by which we achieve anything in our lives come straight from God. Our skills and abilities, our social support networks, our physical, intellectual and emotional strengths, our personal circumstances – all have been graciously given to us so that we can serve God.

Thirdly
Humility means an ability to forgive.

Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13 GOD’S WORD Translation)

If I allow myself to bear a grudge (and regrettably I have to confess that this is one of my many failings) I am in essence being self centred. I am saying that I am more important than a particular problem or person, that my judgement about a situation is accurate and just, and that I had no role to play in the evolution of the situation. Clearly, some people suffer incredible pain and injustice and for these people it takes unbelievable courage to forgive the perpetrator. However, many of us hold on to unforgiveness as a badge that keeps the original event at the centre.

Many writers refer to this self destructive process with words like acid or poison to refer to the deadliness of holding onto the pain caused by others in your past. I can think of incidents from my past when others have hurt me which years later still cause my anger to well up. But if I am completely honest, some of the people responsible almost certainly do not remember the incident and some probably don’t even remember me! Anyone who has done you wrong in the past has the opportunity to seek God and ask for his or her forgiveness. If they have already done this then you cannot over-ride this forgiveness; if they have not then that is their problem and not yours. I don’t know about you, but I have got enough of my own thoughts and actions for which I need to seek God’s forgiveness before I start to worry about the ways other people have treated me.

Fourthly
Humility means accepting the fact that we cannot get through this thing called life on our own – we need other people and we also need God. More than possibly any other time in recorded history the people of the world are inter-dependent. Communication skills, networking skills and team working/team leading skills are highly valued in the business market place. Why is this? It is because we now recognize that most of the challenges we face in the 21st century are too complex to be resolved by any one individual. Any good leader will tell you that one of the keys to their success is to surround themselves by people who are experts at what they do – often more knowledgeable in their particular field of expertise than the leader themselves. Being aware of this and recognising the strengths of others is important for ‘keeping your feet on the ground’. But this is no more than the bible has been telling us for so many years.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. (Romans 12:4-6)

Finally
But the crucial area in which we need to accept our interdependence is with God. We cannot get through life on earth without God’s support. I believe that this is true for all people, because God’s plan for eternity involves every person – even those who do not accept His sovereignty. God wants us to push our boundaries and strive to become more that we presently are, to take responsibility and make (and implement) plans; but there sometimes comes a point when we simply need to rely on God for the next step, when we are at the limit of our capability and capacity and we say “All I have accomplished so far is with your help and guidance. I cannot go any further without you”. If we find ourselves at that point - the point when if God doesn’t help us, nobody else will – then that is the point when we should be prepared for something exceptional. Some might see this as personal weakness, but I see it as tremendously exciting.

In the incredible business that is everyday life, it is worthwhile to regularly have a “base touching” session when we re-acknowledge that God created us and also created everything that we know and do not yet know. It may be true that we are important people in our job, our family, our community and our church – which could be a good thing; alternatively we may not be a very important person in any of those fields – and perhaps that could be a good thing too.

But in either event we should be careful not to confuse earthly perspectives with eternal ones. God has indeed created us as unique and incredible as a snowflake, but we are only a tiny part of his great plans for eternity. Therefore we must always pay heed to Paul’s advice to the church in Rome;

“I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” (Romans 12:3)

Reflections 

·         Don’t lose sight of the fact that EVERYTHING is a gift from God
·         Where do you stand on the issue of forgiveness?
·         What are you struggling with that someone could help (and vice versa)

·         Acknowledge your dependence on God

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