Posted in March 2008 …

Mar 27 2008
Bible, Books, Church, Explorers, Faith, Heaven, Jesus, poverty, Prayer, Religion, Uncategorized

Out of the jungle

I’m reading General William Booth’s classic ‘In Darkest England and the Way Out.’ (You can download it free if you follow the link). Well worth reading on its own merit – a book years ahead of its time, very influential in social policy and politics.

Booth starts by reminding his readers of Mr Stanley’s (‘Dr Livingstone I presume?’- actually he probably never said it) exploration through the Congo, the descriptions of which were being read voraciously all across Britain at the time.

Henry Morton Stanley

I just returned from speaking at a funeral and my mind went off at a tangent as it does, I was struck by certain parallels.

Stanley was describing to his readers in Victorian England what they could not perceive. ‘The Lost Continent.’ Darkest Africa. Pygmy tribes and cannibals. How could they imagine ‘forests’ (he uses the word because the word jungle hadn’t yet been coined) larger than France, where it poured rain every day and the sun rarely pierced the canopy?

Then there are the tribes Stanley encountered. They had never seen a white person before. He describes how they steadfastly refused to believe that there was, or could be, anything beyond the ‘forest’ in which they and their ancestors had roamed. How do you convince people that there is more to life than what they have seen so far? That’s the preacher’s task! As I preached at the funeral, I was pointing beyond the grave to the promise of glory. I read from Revelation 21, John the beloved’s attempts to describe his visions of that awesome reality we call heaven.

We’re living in this concrete jungle. Surrounded by what we taste, see, touch and smell. It’s easy to think this life is all there is. But our battle is not against flesh and blood, and our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we await a Saviour. He has promised that he has gone ahead of us, prepared a place for us – a real place where there will be work, rewards, relationship, perfection, glory everlasting and joy unspeakable. This world is not our home. May the Lord help us not get too attached, and as we explore through its darkness, may we point many to the only way out.

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Mar 24 2008
Uncategorized

Fix Your Eyes

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Standing waiting for buses as a kid, I always could read which one it was before everyone else.

At the age of 16 I went to get my eyes tested, as part of the preliminaries for joining the Police Cadets, I whizzed through the usual chart on the wall, and just to be smart read out the tiny writing at the bottom saying where the chart was made and who by. They put me on some other machines, testing for colour blindness and then depth perception – I recall looking down a tunnel and having to say what position various dots were on targets.

At the end of the session, the Doctor said, “Well Mr Delaney, you have sniper vision.”

I was devastated! I had wanted to be in the police so much, but I had some awful condition that he’d just diagnosed?

Er, no.

He just meant I had really good eyesight. I was in – though he probably wanted to send me back for a resit on the intelligence test.

Now at 43, I had my first ever moment of uncertainty about my eyes a few weeks ago. A long and busy day, a change of light, and trying to read instructions for the music system in a hotel room and all I could see was a blur! It was awful! Being married to an ophthalmic nurse helped reassure me that I’m not necessarily going to be wearing glasses any time soon, but that little incident did make me realise how often I take my eyesight for granted. I heard that Wesley’s

A woman got on a train and entered a compartment where a man was sitting staring out of the window. He’d see a cow, a horse, even a tree and exclaim, “How wonderful!”

The woman rode the train every day on this journey and after a while she had to ask, “What’s so wonderful?”

“I just had my cataracts removed,” came the reply, “Everything is wonderful!”

For years I’ve supported a charity called Sightsavers, helping the poor in over thirty countries to have access to treatment and eye care. They do amazing work, and whether you have perfect vision or have had help to be able to see more clearly, man-in-blue-with-eye-exam.jpgI encourage you to look at how you might help others to see.

Mar 23 2008
1 Comment
Bible, Books, Church, Faith, Heaven, history, Jesus, Prayer, TV, Uncategorized

BUT

Personally I really loved the film, Zoë didn’t like it at all – said it was one of the worst things she’d ever seen. It was called No Country for Old Men, and it swept the board at the Oscars this year. And I am not going to give the end away except to say that when it ended – all around the cinema, there was a collective “What?” People didn’t ‘get’ the ending.

A Vicar friend told me years that if I wanted to imagine a world without God, I should see a film called Seven. It is a horrible film. The thing is, the ending of it is so shocking- because you’ve been preconditioned to expect a good ending, and you don’t get a good ending. Evil triumphs. It’s awful! I was kind of in shock for days after that film. 

It’s a bit like when we watched a film called Jude - based on Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, it’s just so depressing, and that’s the happy bits!

The thing is with these stories, we don’t want the film to have a bad ending, we don’t want to have evil triumphing. We want good and right to win the day. James Bond blows up the baddie’s lair. Hansel and Gretel push the witch in the oven, that kind of ending. Have you ever watched a film or a play or book – and at the end of it you shook your head and said, “NO – it’s not supposed to end that way! The story shouldn’t end like that.”

It’s not just in stories and films is it? In this world, people end up standing at a hospital bed or a graveside – and they say something very like that, too often. “It wasn’t supposed to end this way.” The story of a life. That’s why I think at funerals it’s such a shock, even though we know people die, we don’t want life to come to an end, yet it does. It’s so final and it’s terrible and that’s why the Bible calls death an enemy. The last enemy.

The Easter story doesn’t end at Good Friday, thank God! It doesn’t end with the whole of humanity including you and me being responsible for the death of the Son of God, and that’s it. The story is not just that God comes to earth and is rejected and is spat on and killed. If that’s where the story ends; well – it’s just a horrible story! It’s got the worst possible ending!

But…

What a fantastic little word. A word spoken by the apostle Peter in the first sermon which kicked off the church of those who follow Jesus, he said the little word changes the whole course of history. The wonderful word that changes the story, the most important word. Have you noticed that it’s always this word that changes the story?

The detective twirls his moustache – looks around the parlour – he turns to all assembled in the room. We all thought the butler did it…but!

The woman thought no-one could love her now, the man she’d secretly longed for – already spoken for… but then, the sound of hoof beats – he’s coming up to the house…

The alien space ships are triumphant, the whole world is under their command but…..

I’m a Christ follower, and you should become one too (everyone should!) because of this word, in this verse in Acts 2:24. It says…..but…God raised him from the dead! But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him!

We Christians don’t just have the dying Saviour, and the dead saviour. Wonderful as that was. Even if he gives forgiveness. Even if he offers life to the thief on the next cross to him. If he couldn’t do it, he shouldn’t offer it. If he just lived and taught and died and stayed dead – what use is that?

BUT easter-empty-tomb.jpg

This was not just another teacher! Not just a good man or a prophet! God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, to prove His claims that He really was the Son of God. Thank God for Easter!

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Mar 22 2008
Church, Jesus, Prayer, Religion

What day is it?

Years ago I took a large cross out on the day before Easter and preached out in the street. Some people became Christians that day, including a young gypsy guy who’d been driving past in a van – he later admitted he was off to do something illegal – he saw a man with a cross, stopped to listen to the message, and when I approached him he said, “Yeah – you got me.” Within minutes he gave his life to the Lord of the cross. Oh happy day :)

That same day, I was approached by a furious woman, who told me in no uncertain terms that this was ‘the wrong day to do this.’ It would have been okay to carry a cross in some solemn religious procession on Good Friday, but didn’t I know this was Easter Saturday – the wrong day!

Well, today is in fact Holy Saturday so she was doubly wrong, because it is also the day of salvation!

A couple of years ago I received an irate letter from a local person here because one of our posters had the audacity to announce that Jesus was alive, in Lent. I replied that in fact Jesus is alive – all the time.

I wish I could say I have stopped being amazed at the ability of religious people to major on minors, pick up the wrong end of the stick, then beat you over the head with it. However, that’s not the case.

070406-d0282.jpg

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Mar 07 2008
4 Comments
Bible, Faith, Uncategorized

See the invisible

The invisible man married the invisible woman. They’re fine – but the kids aren’t much to look at.

‘Doctor! Doctor! I think I’m invisible.’

Sorry, I can’t see you right now.

If in doubt, start with a lame joke. Or two.

Then let me point you to something amazing you have to watch

Rowan Atkinson must have seen the unseen, to help others to see it there. I was just listening to a Bill Hybels talk where he admits that people might think he’s all about applying leadership principles and strategies, but he says a huge amount of what he does and has done is (to use his words) ‘very mystical.’ He talks about hearing God’s whisper and going with that.

We aren’t very good at focusing on the invisible. We like the seen, the known, the safe. I love the Billy Graham quote you can hear sampled on DC Talk’s Jesus Freak album, on the track – ‘In my mind’s eye.’

Can you see God? You haven’t seen him? I’ve never seen the wind. I see the effects of the wind, but I’ve never seen the wind. There’s a mystery to it!

Don’t just see what you can see, see what God sees. Look at the effects and become aware of what he’s doing.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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