Posted in June 2008 …

Jun 30 2008
1 Comment
Bible, Church, Creation, Environment, Faith, Prayer, Religion, wisdom

Wise enough to know our limitations

Proverbs 30 is ‘the sayings of Agur son of Jakeh.’

That’s all we know for sure about him, except that :

1) He was wise. A keen observer of nature – he philosophised from and about it. He drew sharp analogies about life from observation of (for example) ants, fire – even locusts, lizards and leeches! (three great Ls for a preacher there… ). The name ‘Agur’ means collector – he compiled knowledge wherever available. I bet he’d have loved the internet!

2) He was willing to admit what he didn’t know: There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand…

Only three or four? Wow – good going! I’m sure there was more, he was perhaps saying, “Today, I’m struggling to get my head around these particular things…”

I read a great book, “How to think like Leonardo da Vinci.”

The author notes how that great polymath was continually curious, asking questions and learning to applying knowledge in practical situations and learning from mistakes. He honed all his senses to observe in a way that combined science and art and formed connections between different observations and problems. The book has fantastic suggestions throughout to help us grow in such wisdom utilising Da Vinci’s techniques – for example, carrying a little notebook everywhere to record your thoughts, questions and ideas.

Leonardo was of course famously centuries ahead of his time – but the unknown Agur was ahead of him!

The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It starts when we know what we don’t know. Agur had the humility to know that however clever he was, he still had a lot to learn about the God who made the lion and the lizard: He starts:“I am the most ignorant of men; I do not have a man’s understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.”

He finishes by warning of the danger of self exaltation.

“If you have played the fool and exalted yourself….clap your hand over your mouth!”

Wisdom indeed. But I think I’ll keep quiet.

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Jun 28 2008
3 Comments
Bible, crime, justice, Mugabe, Zimbabwe

Mr Mugabe – May GOD remove you as you have said!

Last night we had a meal with a dear friend who is from Zimbabwe and has family still out there. Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the ‘violent sham’ of a presidential election saying he could not let other people keep on risking their lives for him. The press have shown us hopeless people queuing at the polls to choose between Mugabe or Mugabe.

Meanwhile the tyrant thundered on Friday that only God will be able to remove him from power. With the continued weaknesses of his neighbours in the SADC and the United Nations etc. unwilling to do much more than tut tut at widespread torture and killings, he may well be right. Amnesty reports that, “…murderers, torturers, and other perpetrators of human rights violations are left at large and given free rein to commit further human rights violations with impunity.”

But as we’re going through this ‘read a chapter or Proverbs each day’ pattern, Zoë read through Proverbs 28 today at breakfast time and said, “I can’t help thinking this really relates to Mugabe.”

As I look through it now, there are descriptions, warnings and a promise that Mr Mugabe – and anyone who seeks to govern – should heed. We must pray and claim the power of God’s word – in the face of a man who defies His authority.

Descriptions

A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.

Evil men do not understand justice

…when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding.

Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked man ruling over a helpless people.

A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment

Warnings

When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.

The wicked man flees though no one pursues

Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse.

If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law,even his prayers are detestable.

He who leads the upright along an evil path will fall into his own trap,

He who conceals his sins does not prosper

Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

A man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death;

He who trusts in himself is a fool

He who closes his eyes to the poor receives many curses.

Promises

He whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but he whose ways are perverse will suddenly fall.

He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.

The blameless will receive a good inheritance.

When the righteous triumph, there is great elation!

May the Lord who Mugabe acknowledges CAN depose him, do it swiftly for the sake of that nation!

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Jun 27 2008
1 Comment
Bible, Church, Faith, Family, Friends, Jesus, politics, Religion

Iron sharpens Iron

So much great stuff in Proverbs 27!

Isn’t it great that the Bible is not just about getting us ready for heaven, but living better now? Just had our Friday morning men’s meeting here and waved the guys off. One of them, is off on holiday for a month in Bermuda (nice!) so this will be his last one.

We carried on our study from Carl Beech’s Spadework – what a fantastic book for this kind of thing!

At the end we reflected and prayed with gratitude for seven and a half years of 6am meetings – lots of laughs and tears. Nobody teaching – but everyone learning. Some of us are going to keep on going a few more weeks yet, but as they left I read verse 17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

You could of course modernise that and talk about ‘one person sharpening another…’ In fact, yesterday the news was full of legislation presented by the lady one paper called ‘Harriet Harperson,’ – the new Equality Bill. However wrongheaded some feel parts of this may be in my opinion, nobody should argue that men and women should be treated equally. But that doesn’t mean they have to be treated the same. And I think that’s the case in church. We can accept, value and celebrate our distinctiveness as males and females – the differentiation is part of the glory of God’s creation.

It’s really important to have men’s ministries in church:

Cholesterol heavy breakfasts

Curry and chips

4 x4 driving

Golf days and so on

But such things are just gateways – not the end product. Sometimes I get to speak at such events and realise that many men go to them just to get their (Christian) wives off their backs for a while about God. They’ll have a meal and a pint occasionally and even put up with a ‘God-slot’ – as long as they don’t have to get too involved with Jesus! And they see churches as clubs for the ladies.

May God bless women in every church who are serving the Lord. We’d be in big trouble without them, but that has meant men can end up as passive spectators. Men now make up only 30 to 40% of churchgoers, and descending. In Why Men Hate Going to church David Murrow states – ‘…you cannot have a thriving church without a core of men who are true followers of Christ. If the men are dead, the church is dead.’

The 2007 Church Attitudes Survey revealed that 54% of Christian women thought that UK church services appeal more to women – and 67% of Christian men agreed.

A lot of attention has been given to the decline in the number of children in our churches, but if men become Christ followers that often has a very strong impact on the whole family. Click this link for a report detailing a fascinating study which states that it’s the religious practice of the father of the family that, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence from the Church of the children.

Let the iron sharpen the iron! We need to be able to repent of abuses of patriarchy and masculine excesses, without vilifying or condemning masculinity itself, and men need to hear God’s challenge to be a man of God – in the home, in the church and in the community.

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Jun 26 2008
2 Comments
Bible, Church, Faith, Holy Spirit, Prayer, Religion

Proverbially speaking

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” I said.
“A fool and his money are soon parted,” she replied.
“The best things in life are free!”
“Great minds think alike.”

I’m thinking of starting a little series of blog entries on Proverbs, that fantastic collection of wisdom literature in the middle of the Bible. Tony Price – a man who mentored me for over a year – had me read through Proverbs over and over with him. 31 Chapters, one for every day of the month, a short chapter to read and then all day to ponder it.

Today – it’s the 26th , so Proverbs 26. Let’s have a look together? Pray ; “‘Lord bless your word to me today and help me change as the entrance of it brings light.” Read through – then we’ll discuss it – Click here.

What grabs you?

What might God be wanting you to hear today?

A promise to receive? A rebuke to heed? A sin to turn completely away from (don’t be like the dog… yuk!).

Immediately I’m drawn by the 4 verses that contain references to sluggards- because if I ever got to his house a little late in the morning (it happened quite often unfortunately), I’d be greeted by, “Proverbs 6:6!” – look that one up – before I received my mug of tea.

But then I reflect again as I read through one more time, some things are said here about proverbs specifically that relate to God’s wisdom generally :

Verse 7 Like a lame man’s legs that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtonkin/2600763594/

I suppose that’s saying that, like the proverbial conversation I started with, one can have wise words galore but without the context of right actions, it’s useless. God’s not impressed.

And what about those tantalisingly seeming contradictions -

4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

(Seems pretty clear, avoid saying something if it’s going to make the matter worse – but then …)

5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

(hmmm… sometimes you do have to say something – for the benefit of the other person though, not to vindicate yourself.)

And then there’s a verse that once saved me a lot of trouble when I was in the cops… I was walking the beat past a notorious pub and saw two big guys punching holes out of each other. I was just about to intervene when somewhere inside a little voice spoke this warning:

17 Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

God was telling me that if I stepped in, I’d be the one who got beat up next! They’d both turn on me! I took a step back, asked for back up over the radio, waited a few minutes till the end of round 15 when they were both completely shattered – then went and arrested them easily!

In a fight like that – Two’s company; three’s a crowd.

Thank God for proverbs!

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Jun 21 2008
3 Comments
Uncategorized

Don’t read this one till later

I’m talking tomorrow about Jonathan, who got up and went after a victory, unlike his father King Saul who was content with a siesta under a pomegranate tree. Read all about it here.

Sometimes it can just be the abundance of available choices to do something good that stops us from doing what we could do. What may be done at any time will often be done at no time.

Most of us spend (waste) too many days on Someday Isle.

Ever been there?

Someday Isle write a book

Someday Isle help the poor

Someday Isle learn to dance

Someday Isle help the homeless

Someday Isle get help for my procrastination problem – but in the mean time…

“It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the master work. Now, I’m beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait twenty years.” – Paulo Coelho

Jun 13 2008
Bible, Books, Church, Community, crime, politics, Quotes, Religion

1984 + 25 = 42 Days

The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.”

I am appalled that the government’s proposal to increase the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days – six weeks – scraped (thanks to the Ulster Unionists) through parliament by a majority of nine. As someone who used to serve people by law enforcement, this is a fast downward slope toward 1984, 25 years on.

The Bible says, “Remember those in prison as if you were in prison with them. Remember those who are mistreated as if you were being mistreated.”

So, put yourself in their shoes (plastic bags actually, and paper suits to wear). For 42 days.

I was once wrongly arrested (while in the police cadets – it’s a long story!), I was ‘in custody’ for about 15 minutes in total. The longest 15 minutes of my life – before the misunderstanding was cleared up and I was allowed to go free.

Today is 13th June.

42 Days from now is 24th of July.

You don’t see your family, friends, nobody. Guilty by association, prove yourself innocent.

Six weeks. On suspicion.

That’s a lot of scratches on the cell wall if you’ve done nothing wrong. An awful lot can happen in 42 days. Especially if you’re arrested on allegations of ‘national security issues.’ Apparently though, there’ll be ‘compensation,’ How do you compensate for suicides in custody I wonder? These proposals will do nothing to calm the fears of young Muslims who already feel targeted, alienated and labelled (Why? Surely there’s nothing to fear – unless you have something to hide).

Divide and rule?

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

Keep the ‘war on terror’ going, at home and on your street and wherever else we want it. No need for proof or actual evidence, when we have ‘sources’ confirm our suspicion, together with ‘credible information,’ ‘forensic tests..,’ ‘CCTV from the time…’

After all, don’t you trust the government?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uud2LeZF-7k&NR=1

Let’s pray the Lords about face this step toward totalitarianism. The right to petition for habeas corpus has been our society’s most efficient safeguard of the liberty of the individual. The government are tearing up fundamental principles of fairness and the protection of human rights. Benjamin Franklin said, “They who would give up an essential Liberty for temporary security, deserve neither Liberty or security.”

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Jun 10 2008
1 Comment
Books, climbing, Comedy, Jesus, leadership, Monty Python, sport

Don’t climb solo

I’m reading through John Maxwell’s fantastic book Leadership Gold.

Well, I say I’m reading it.

I usually steam right through everything I read, but this one’s different. It really does distil so much great stuff you have to take it slow. I’ve been reading one short chapter a week, then just pondering that for a week and applying it.

Well, I say I’m applying it….

At the end of the week I see how much I’ve let myself down again by not applying it often or well enough!

My biggest problem is that it keeps falling open at the first chapter, entitled “If it’s lonely at the top, you’re not doing something right.”

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not lonely. As long as I have God and my family around me, I’m 100% happy and secure. If anything – my difficulty is that actually I quite like being on my own, – unusual for someone everyone else perceives as such an extrovert. The danger with that is that I’ve tried to climb whatever mountain lies ahead of me alone too often – without trying to take as many with me as could have gone. I’ve been quite happy to climb solo, slip solo, even celebrate at the summit solo.

The chapter challenges me as a leader because I want to get better at helping others who are climbing their own mountains. I want to help more who are climbing alongside me, even to surpass me – so they get to extend a hand in turn perhaps. I know not everyone could go, not everyone should go and not everyone will go. But Maxwell (annoyingly) reminds me that as a leader I’m meant to be a guide, not a solo climber.

By way of illustration, he talks about meeting Jim Whittaker - the first American to climb Everest, who said the most fulfilling thing he’d ever accomplished was not climbing the mountain himself – but the knowledge that he had helped more people get to the top of Everest than any other person, “Taking people to the top who never would have made it without my assistance is the greatest accomplishment.”

The following clip illustrates another way of going climbing and not being alone, but I don’t recommend it. Any Surrey people reading the blog may want to note carefully where the proposed route takes the expedition!

Jun 06 2008
Bible, Church, Faith, Jesus, Prayer, Religion

Mystery Churchgoers?

Just been reading about the new service offered by Christian Research – ChurchCheck, a new mystery visitor service.

For £60 plus VAT they offer to send some people to “look around and assess everything that goes on, making comments on everything from the state of the exterior noticeboard to the length of the sermon…” These otherwise non committed visitors will just blend into the crowd, “rate the atmosphere, strengths and weaknesses, singing and even the after-service chat before giving the the church a score.”

Some more cynical ministers might retort, “We have those people anyway – without paying ‘em!”

Here’s a classic comedy moment from one ‘visitor…’

Christian research reminds us “The welcome someone receives at church is so important – and ChurchCheck puts it to the test. It gives a simple and accurate account of a church’s interaction with newcomers, and the results provide very precise “actionable” information to help churches improve.

Personally I think people are voting with their feet every week and we have so much to learn, it’s not such a bad idea. What do you think?

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