‘God has a university. It’s a small school. Few enroll, even fewer graduate. Very few indeed.God has this school because he does not have broken men. Instead He has several types of men. He has men who claim to be God’s authority…and aren’t; men who claim to be broken…and aren’t. And men who are God’s authority, but who are mad and unbroken. And he has regretfully, a spectroscopic mixture of everything in between. All of these He has in abundance; but broken men, hardly at all.
In God’s sacred school of submission and brokenness, why are there so few students? Because all who are in this school must suffer pain. And as you might guess, it is often the unbroken ruler (whom God sovereignly picks) who metes out the pain. David was once a student in this school, and Saul was God’s chosen way to crush David.
GENE EDWARDS, ‘A Tale of Three Kings.’
I followed a link from somewhere (maybe I heard Andy Stanley reference it?) and ended up downloading this amazing little book to my Kindle. It seems to be well known in the USA but perhaps less so here? It’s a gem. I read a lot of books this year but this one and Andrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender seem to have been the ones God really picked out for me.
If you’re a leader, or a follower – it’s a must read. If you’ve ever been hurt by people in church, especially by leaders, (people like me), read this – and pray for us, and do it better than us.
Written as a cautionary tale, the narrative style keeps on fooling one into recognising a bad guy- then seeing that it’s not him, or her, maybe it’s you!
The character studies of the ‘Three Kings’ are…
1) King David – the anointed and broken. He learned as the forgotten shepherd boy that he didn’t have to be top dog. God ‘went door to door in Israel’ looking for someone like that, who He could use, because he could trust him. But there was more breaking that needed to be done to him. He had to learn true submission. This took place through…
2) King Saul – the anointed unbroken. Gifted, charismatic, a ‘born leader.’ But he threw spears at people. As I read this I naturally thought of this leader and that I’d worked with. Then the Holy Spirit reminded me of how many times I’ve tried to pin people to the wall! ‘Kings claim the right to throw spears…‘ We do so to protect ourselves/ our position/ the truth as we see it etc. Problem? It turns you into a mad king. One can be simultaneously anointed and a mad king!
David had the opportunity to learn humility and brokenness in the school of pain under that mad king. How? By not throwing the spears back.
If you throw spears back, you’ll prove…”You are courageous. You stand for the right…You will not stand for injustice or unfair treatment. You are tough and can’t be pushed around. You are defender of the faith, keeper of the flame, detector of all heresy…all these attributes combine to prove that you are also a candidate for kingship… the Lord’s anointed. After the order of King Saul.”
But if you choose to be like David you’ll learn to dodge the spears instead. He stuck it out as long as he could; not moving on till God moved him on. If he’d not done this, he would have ended up as King Saul II! But in doing so ‘God cut king Saul out of HIS heart.’
And notice when David did leave, he didn’t try to take anyone with him. He didn’t split the kingdom. He left alone.
I think of two good friends who have confided in me similar stories of taking a ministry he took on, only to find the predecessor who invited them to the post, then refused to leave – until he had lined his own nest and badmouthed the new ‘incumbent.’ What do you do? They didn’t pick up spears, they didn’t defend themselves, and as a result they did not become Sauls but Davids, men I’m privileged to call friends. They will look back at those painful times and see that they were in ‘God’s small school’ – and did not fail the test. Now they’re prepared for greater things in the Kingdom.
The difficulty is you can’t judge whether anyone else is a Saul or a David. You can just decide for yourself, “I shall not practice the ways that cause kings to grow mad. I will not throw spears, nor will I allow hatred to grow in my heart.I will not avenge. I will not destroy the Lord’s anointed.”
Making that choice makes you a vessel God can use.
3) King Absalom.
So much to chew over in this particular character deserves a post all of its own – I’ll get back to you!
Anthony Delaney at Ivy Manchester
Knowing, Growing, Going
Filed under justice …
The problem of evil
Preparing for a short talk tonight as part of our course for people with questions about God, tonight’s the big question. Theodicy. A posh way of saying, “Justifying the existence of God in the face of evil and suffering in the world.”
On February 15 1947 Glenn Chambers boarded a plane bound for Quito, Ecuador to begin his ministry in missionary broadcasting. He never arrived. In a horrible moment, the plane carrying Chambers crashed into a mountain peak and spiralled downward. Later it was learned that before leaving the Miami airport, Chambers wanted to write his mother a letter. All he could find for stationery was a page of advertising on which was written the single word “WHY?” Around that word he hastily scribbled a final note. After Chambers’s mother learned of her son’s death, his letter arrived. She opened the envelope, took out the paper, and unfolded it. Staring her in the face was the question- “WHY?”
That is the big question: people are asking it all the time. Today my city mourns the senseless death of another 16 year old boy in some awful pub shooting.
Some of the people who are asking why are Christians who puzzle over the question of the existence of a good God side by side with evil and suffering as a consequence of it. They’re standing by a hospital bed somewhere right now praying, ‘Why God? Why did this happen?’
Other people are genuinely asking the question because tragedy and pain, but they don’t have such a clear faith but tend to articulate it in less reverent tones, ‘God- if you’re there at all- why don’t you do something to help?’
And there are those groups of people who use the question as an atheist bombshell against belief in God. A man called Pierre Bayle coined the phrase ‘the argument from evil,’ as a philosophical stumper; that if there really were an all-loving, all powerful God, surely he would destroy evil. Since evil is not destroyed, God must not exist.’
For some people, the creation of a world where even one child dries in pain can never be justified in the light of a loving God’s existence. The equation “God = good + omnipotent [yet] evil exists” just can’t add up. They see it as inconsistent and positively irrational, so they justify unbelief.
Dr. Billy Graham once famously declared, “I know my own heart and its deceitful power. I know that outside of the restraining grace of God, there is no evil act I could not commit within thirty minutes of leaving the platform.”
We bewail the evils of world terrorism, global greed, environmental destruction- rightly so. But what about the evil resident in our own hearts?
The film Nuremberg, is about the infamous trials of former Nazi leaders by the International Military Tribunal. In one powerful scene, Nazi defendant Hans Frank is attempting to explain his actions to an Army psychologist.
Frank explains, “I tried to resign as Governor General of Poland. I did not approve of the persecution of the Jews. Anyone reading my diaries, they will know what was in my heart. They will understand that such things I wrote about Jews, the orders I signed, they were not sincere.”
“I believe you, Frank…. yet, you did do those things. How do you explain it? I don’t mean legally; I’m not a lawyer or a judge. I mean how do you explain it to yourself?”
“I don’t know,” replies Frank. “It’s as though I am two people: the Hans Frank you see here, and Hans Frank the Nazi leader. I wonder how the other Frank could do such things. This Frank looks at that Frank and says, ‘You’re a terrible man.’”
“And what does that Frank say back?”
Frank, appearing to plead for understanding, replies, “He says, ‘I just wanted to keep my job.‘”
Nobody would justify such atrocity, while recalling the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
It’s a strong word isn’t it? Evil. Some will read it and say, “Speak for yourself, I’m a good person.” If I were the standard of goodness then you’re probably entitled to say that, but what if the standard is the holiness of God? A God who commands our love and obedience, and self-sacrificial love for our neighbour? A God who has put himself on record as declaring that if you or I break just one commandment once, it’s as though we’ve broken them all!
People are now rightly angry at the debacle of MPs troughing at expenses and ripping off the tax payer. The revelations continue each day. Outraged letters bemoan their lack of example.
For a prank, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote to several of his friends the note, “All is discovered! Flee while you can!” All but one left the country.
Despite all this, we can know a God who passionately loves us, forgives and restores us. Do you know him? A God who went to a cross himself to pay the price for every wrong or shameful thing we’ve ever done, thought or said. Do you know him? A God who knows us at our worst loves us better than any human being ever loved us. The only God who can give us strength to resist temptation, deception, fear and guilt. Do you know him?
Someone said, “Jesus didn’t come to rub sin in, he came to rub it out!”
He doesn’t wait to condemn you. He wants to love you. Just like so many ordinary people in our city of Manchester who are discovering these truths, I invite you. Come and know him.
Good and ready?
In Titus 3:1, the apostle Paul says to remind people to be ready to do what ever is good.
Are you ready yet?
Be ready every day, throughout all your day to do good. We’re about to start our ’40 Days of Community’ and all the small groups in the church are going to do some really good things – together – in our community. Exciting times!
This was John Wesley’s rule of life, his motto.
“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can!”
Do whatever good you can whenever you can. Just after that in Titus 3 v14 it says that Jesus’ followers must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they do not live unproductive lives.
What have you spent today doing? God is saying “Don’t waste your life! Don’t squander your one and only life by missing the opportunities God gives you to do good!”
I just spent the afternoon with Ian Hamilton, Director of Compassion UK. What a great guy! Tireless, energetic, uncomplaining in his work for the poor. That organisation is doing so much good around the world, that will echo in eternity.
These days if God wants to touch and bring love into somebody’s life, He will do it through your life or mine. Mother Teresa used to say “We are the hands and feet of Jesus”.
What can you do today? Are you ready to do good?
Albert Schweitzer once said “keep your eyes open for the little tasks – because it is the little kind tasks that are important to Jesus Christ.”
That’s what God wants to get done through you.The goal isn’t just that we avoid doing bad, but that we become people who are devoted to doing good, who live lives so full of doing good, so filled up with the kindness of Christ, so filled with the love of the Holy Spirit flowing through us – that we would one day reach the highest levels of kindness. Because our pattern isn’t even Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer, our bar’s set higher… it’s to be like Jesus Christ.
It’s God’s dream, desire and destiny for you and for me to be people that do good in the world. So that people see that and through that see Him. Ephesians2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Why do good? – because it is your destiny, it is God’s plan.
Where do you do good? – wherever He puts you.
How do you do good? – however the Holy Spirit tells you.
When? – why wait?
You can do what you can do
Jesus was having dinner when a woman came in and poured perfume all over his head; made from spikenard which was incredibly costly – it only grows in the foothills of the Himalayas. Some people complained this act of worship was a waste; what could have been done for the poor with all that money?!
Jesus’ reply is very interesting, not just for his unqualified commendation of the woman (She did a lovely thing!), but he says
“The poor you will always have with you…”
That could be seen as dismissive and uncaring, a justification for not getting involved with a world of need; where women today spend so much on perfume in our stores and others in poverty have to spend 40 million hours a year on the task of getting clean water. But let Jesus finish his sentence -
and you can help them any time you want.
Isn’t that a liberating truth? The poor are with us, in our cities nearby and in nations everywhere. You can help them any time you want. Sponsor a child, feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the prisoner - and you’re doing it to Jesus who takes on ‘the disguise of the poor’ as Mother Teresa said. There’s plenty of poor people with you. Follow any of the links there and it’ll take you to an idea! You can help them any time you want.
You can make a difference for people who are being trafficked, asylum seekers, victims of natural disaster or genocide or the debt-bound.
Do you want to today?
‘She did what she could’
Jesus said.
Don’t do what you can’t. Do what you can.
Jesus thinks that’s a beautiful thing.
A new kind of economic recovery
I’m not an unconditional fan of much of his theology (and yes I have read his books, listened to him speak live and his podcasts), but I’m very inspired and challenged by this article on the Sojourners site just posted by Brian McLaren follow link for fuller article).
For many people, economic recovery means “getting back to where we were a few months or years ago.” That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life.
I’d like to suggest another kind of recovery … drawing from the world of addiction. When an addict gets into recovery, he doesn’t want to go back and recover the “high” he had before, or even to recover the conditions he had before he began using drugs and alcohol. Instead, he wants to move forward to a new way of life — a wiser way of life that takes into account his experience of addiction. He realizes that his addiction to drugs was a symptom of other deeper issues and diseases in his life … unresolved pain or anger, the need to anesthetize painful emotions, lack of creativity in finding ways to feel happy and alive, unaddressed relational and spiritual deficits, lack of self-awareness, and so on.
So … maybe we can sabotage our addictive tendencies by letting the word “recovery” have a meaning that wakes us up rather than drugs us into the comfortable, dreamy, half-awareness in which we have lived for too long.
Great stuff! However the coverage of supposedly repentant bankers being quizzed about their performance, integrity and financial propriety (by – ahem – MPs) makes me seriously wonder how likely such a recovery of priorities in our culture actually is. Click here to see how much these guys earned for doing such a grand job for us all.
A Father’s Choice
Kids saved from the eye of a hurricane
I’m finally in a position (phew! a little time) to start to roll out some of my thoughts and feelings following the recent visit with friends to the Compassion projects in Haiti. It was a week that felt like a month. I’m doing something of a stream of consciousness rather than a day by day recap.
Short summary? (People generally don’t know about Haiti and ask if it was nice). I told a friend “Haiti is hell on earth, with heaven breaking in.”
The poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Home to 9 million people. 40% live in the cities, 80% below the poverty line. Read that again before it just washes over you, think of the implications for those fellow children of God. Mums and Dads who love their kids the same as I love mine.
54% of the people in Haiti live in what the UN describe as ‘Abject Poverty,’- less than $2 a day. There’s not even any credit to crunch there.
I think I have seen worse poverty on previous mission trip in India in the wake of the tsunami, but that’s because our hosts from Compassion were wise enough to shield us from the very worst places – slums where gangs rule with fear and machine guns. A UN peacekeeping force is now in charge of Haiti’s security, guns, sandbags and blue helmets galore in all urban areas. No planes are allowed to say overnight at the airport in Port Au Prince in case they’re hijacked.
Everywhere we travelled we had three armed guards. Overkill? No. One Compassion worker was kidnapped with his 8 year old daughter last year. They’d kill him to show they were serious and leave his wife to raise a ransom for the girl, so he made the decision to roll out of the moving car – leaving her with the captors, so he could raise the funds for her release. It worked, but the decision to leave her so haunted him that he had a breakdown and had to move out of the country.
How’s that for a father’s choice?
The photo above was taken as in Gonaives we filmed some short clips for You Tube (I’ll post the links when they’re up) to appeal for you to sponsor a child through Compassion. If you do already, you probably have no idea how important that is as I’ll detail in a future post. If you can’t wait to do it – click here, but please email me or comment so I know and can pray and thank God for your decision.
That day we’d travelled hours to this, the second largest city in Haiti, worst hit by the most recent hurricanes in September last year. 800,000 were affected across the country but 85% of this city was totally deluged by seven to eight metres of flooding. I heard at the time news reports of corpses from the morgue floating along next to fresh dead bodies so that the true number of fatalities was uncertain. It’s the kind of story I couldn’t get my head around at the time. But when you see the devastation still so apparent, and hear the stories of how the flood affected real people; how Compassion saved so many lives it’s heaven vs hell, again.
Ashley, a pastor at the church we visited who also works for Compassion, told how he’d received a call from his brother to warn him too late that the floods were coming. The family lived on the roof for three days and nights without food or water, watching neighbours floating past dead, until another deluge overwhelmed them. His wife couldn’t swim. Our interpreter began to cry as Ashley told of putting his five kids in an overturned fridge, with his wife who couldn’t swim hanging on too – they all floated along until they were, thankfully, rescued.
Another man in checked trousers stood up in the church (all Compassion’s work is done through the local church) to tell how grateful he was for us coming to visit him. He also had no time to prepare for the hurricane, living in a three room single storey tiny house. He was with his 13 year old daughter when the floods hit and had to survive a week without food. He only survived because Compassion relief had brought food and helped rehouse him after he lost everything. The house was swept away and he hung onto a tree branch with his wife.
Others danced and sang and gave us presents as they told how Compassion gave many people money for recapitalisation of businesses, or vouchers to repair 0r rebuild their houses. I thought it was just about child sponsorship, but they do so much more! They distributed seed, though the top soil has gone and the harvest looks to be very sparse this year. Hundreds had come to greet us, all had received food packages within 2 days. I felt a phony because they made us feel like VIPs. I was just there a day, Ashley had chosen to remain, though the hurricanes will probably be back next year.
Mister checked trousers had sat down, but we asked him, “How is your daughter now?”
“She’s dead.” It took him three days to find his other two girls. He’d come to say thanks, not for sympathy.
We heard of another man had two children, one under each arm. When the water came over his head he had to make a choice as to which to let go, so he could swim with one.
Such stories show how desperate this world can be for the poor. As a Pastor myself my heart moved, I couldn’t just sit there. The Holy Spirit was moving so strongly in this place of tears and pain and thanksgiving. I stood – but what to say?
“Some will say, ‘Where was God when the hurricane hit?’ They will shake a fist at heaven. Or we can open our hand to God. That’s the choice we make.”
I talked with them of God’s love, that he was present in every piece of help given through in Compassion’s work as so many of them had, praising through their grief. Many women wept as I prayed for those who had died and those were were left, and read from Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.I told them that God knew their names, and all their stories, and God knows the ones they loved and could see no more.
But later that day as we drove away and I reflected, and realised that our Father God knows even more than that. He knows the Father’s choice, because He let go of his only Son at the cross – to take hold of and save you and me.
Jesus has answer to knife & gang nightmare
Still going through reading the wisdom in the Bible’s book of Proverbs, on the 1st of a new month. Proverbs 1 starts with the promises of wisdom (my version especially talks about how young men need this), before describing the lure of wickedness.
Verses 10 to 14 could have come right out of the mouths of some very lost boys who featured in a disturbing documentary I watched last night; Kids, Knives, and Broken Lives. I have also been brought to tears as I’ve read about the latest boy, Ben Kinsella, stabbed to death in London. 16 years of age!
What the teenagers featured on the show said they were looking for was, “Respect.” (‘If you don’t have respect,’ said one, ‘you don’t have nothing!’). The way they get that? By imparting fear.
Dig below the surface a little though and you saw a lot of fear in them too, these kids can’t leave their own streets!
Parenting guru Steve Biddulph reports that this macho front is a classic sign of what is called under-fathering (he says the opposite extreme of the same problem is to become and remain a ‘Mummy’s boy.’). Where are young men to look for role models?
The Bible says ‘Bad company corrupts good character.” Imagine being brought up, with little or no parental discipline or love – then a gang invites you to belong. Our nation needs some David Wilkersons to rise up, find the Nicky Cruz equivalents on our doorsteps and bring them to know the Lord who loves them. Are they too far gone for that? If you think so – you MUST watch this video:
Look at wisdom’s prescription these young men need to hear; the words of a wise HEAVENLY Father:
….if bad companions tempt you,
don’t go along with them.
If they say—”Let’s go out and raise some hell.
Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.
Let’s pick them clean
and get them ready for their funerals.
We’ll load up on top-quality loot.
We’ll haul it home by the truckload.
Join us for the time of your life!
With us, it’s share and share alike!”—
….don’t give them a second look;
don’t listen to them for a minute.
They’re racing to a very bad end,
hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.
From the Message – Proverbs 1
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!
The trouble with manyana
I was looking at Pharaoh with the ‘we get up early on Friday because we are mighty men of God’ group this morning. We followed a study in my mate Carl Beech’s fantastic book Spadework. Turns out none of us really want to walk like that particular Egyptian. The pride and arrogance he displayed in continually saying no to God is what got him in so much trouble. You think Gordon Brown has problems this morning with the awful drubbing his party is receiving in the local elections around the country? Read the list of plagues – it could be worse!
Unlike Mugabe, at least there’ll be some contrition. No doubt we’ll be hearing from various Labour politicians today about how “…the people have sent us a clear signal that we’re going to listen to and make all the necessary changes… blah blah blah…”
I imagine Pharaoh said something very similar as his nation lurched from bad to worse. He was surrounded by ‘wise men’ who told him he was great, and it would all soon turn a corner and be okay in the end.
This isn’t about Mr Brown, Labour’s misfortunes, or politics. It’s about you and me. Ignoring God.
As God’s spokesman stepped into his palace and demanded, “let my people go,” Pharaoh forgot that all the blessings and wealth he had received which he and his people had received came from God of Israel in the first place, via Joseph (read all about it here). We too easily forget as nations and individuals that without God’s hand of protection and blessing on us, all would be curse and plague.
By the way, isn’t it interesting that many people who would never dream of thanking God when something good happens in their lives, automatically blame Him for something bad?
Much of what happened to Egypt parallels exactly the biblical warnings of the consequences of ignoring or rebelling against God’s laws, one ends up living under a curse of our own making, rather than the blessing He desires for people.
One of the most haunting parts of the account is early on, only the second plague, as frogs teem throughout the land. Pharaoh had the chance to heed the warnings of the first plague when the Nile turned to blood, to let the children of Israel go out to worship God. But his advisers stroke his ego, and he thinks of himself as a god anyway. “Who is this God of the slaves?” Why should the powerful and the rich listen to the God of the weak, the poor and the oppressed? (Is it any wonder the book of Exodus – a goldmine for liberation theologians – is specifically banned as radical revolutionary material in some oppressive states?).
I don’t know, perhaps Pharaoh had Batrachophobia, but the frogs really got to him. He begged Moses to plead with God to get rid of the frogs. He promised he would comply and change the policies so the people could go and worship. So here’s the part that grabbed me. Moses said, “Okay, when do you want this to happen? When do you want to connect with God in this way so that things will change? I’ll leave it up to you to set the time.”
(The frogs picture is from http://www.jackiemorris.co.uk)
What would you say, with frogs all over the place? You’re having a laugh! Surely you’d want them to hop it (ouch) now! Not one more slimy second would I want those amphibian atrocities in my house, in the bed, in my kitchen. Get them out!
Exodus 8:10 “Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.
If there was a biblical award for the patron saint of Procrastination, it goes to this guy. He was going to go to Procrastinator’s Anonymous but they never got round to meeting.
So, where are your frogs?
What are you putting off changing today (even though you know it’s going to create a world of trouble) until tomorrow?
Actually going to that gym you paid membership for? A phone call to sort out a relationship? Someone you need to encourage? Someone you need to let go? I still need to sort my taxes out for this year. It’s the jobs I hate I never find time for. People smoke one last cigarette standing outside the cancer ward, and tomorrow they’ll give it up. When will you write the book? Take the trip? Learn the instrument/ language? Do you think you’ll get serious about finding out about God tomorrow? You’ll pray about that situation and ask God’s help with it tomorrow? Tomorrow never comes. Do it today. Carpe Diem!
The leaders of nations need to stop making promises about changes that will help the poor, break the shackles of debt, feed the hungry and set captives free – not ten or fifteen years from now when they’ll be collecting their pension and writing their memoirs, but today. Now.
What is there to stop us getting rid of the frogs today?
My dad was Irish and he told me about a conversation between a Spaniard and an Irishman where the Spanish guy was trying to teach him about the concept of manyana. “It’s a word that means you’re going to put something off until tomorrow, or maybe the day after, or a day after that…”
The Irishman said, “I don’t think we have a word to describe such a terrible state of urgency.”
There but for the grace of God goes Anthony Delaney
They say everyone has a double. To have a double and a namesake appear on the same page of a paper is quite disconcerting! A number of friends have been kind enough to point me to various news sites featuring another Anthony Delaney, also 43 years of age – I know I don’t look it 
My homeless namesake was living at Gatwick Airport for months, until magistrates found him in breach of his ASBO and brought it to an end. If you follow the link you’ll even see that they picture Tom Hanks from his overly cute 2004 film The Terminal . I was told by a nurse years ago that I look a bit like Tom Hanks, those of you who know me may agree or disagree? Let me know.
Do you know what came to mind as I read the other Mr Delaney’s sad story – knowing that if Jesus hadn’t put his hand on me and called me to follow him, I could well have ended up in as sorry a state or worse?
‘There but for the grace of God, go I.”
That well worn phrase was coined by my fellow Mancunian the C16th Protestant reformer John Bradford.
Bradford was imprisoned for his faith for many years in the Tower of London (sharing a cell at times with such luminaries as Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer). Whenever he saw a criminal going to be hanged for his crimes, he said, “There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford.”
Bradford himself was eventually burnt at Smithfield. He had been shown in a dream the night before that this would happen. He kissed the wood beforehand, and the stake, before lifting his eyes to heaven and he cried, “O England, England, repent thee of thy sins.”
He told the man dying alongside him, “Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.’
Unlike the other Delaney, I’m not sleeping rough tonight, thank God.
Reading about Bradford reminds me I have so much to grow in, in terms of godliness, prayerfulness and faithfulness.
Both men’s lives remind me, the grace of God really is amazing.
