Barbara

I am not sure how well I knew Barbara, she was not one to reveal her true feelings very often. In many ways she was quiet and did not open up very much, she was quite a private person. However I will be eternally grateful to her for inside her womb grew the person who would be my life's partner, my precious wife and my best friend. Barbara and Roy can be seen in every one of Alison's cells, both of their DNA is alive and well!

Barbara died trusting that the saviour who she followed would allow her to follow him into the next chapter of her existence. At the end, as her body was giving up the fight, she believed in the reality of eternal life. Not some sentimental gush that would hide the reality and horror of death but a rock solid certainty that was rooted in the promise in the Bible

One if the songs that Barbara choose for her funeral service says this: 

Jesus loves me this I know

for the Bible tells me so

This truth was part of the formation of her life as well as a fitting tribute to the faith in which she continued to live until the day she died

So to go back to my original thought. Perhaps the best way to understand what Barbara was like would be to look at how she has influenced future generation. We can discover a lot about someone by looking at their descendants and seeing how that new generation has been impacted. Barbara can still be seen in her children, grand children and great grand children

Barbara may no longer be living and breathing on earth, but as she continues in her new, heavenly body her influence continues. We all will impact the world around us. The question is not whether we will make a difference in the world, but rather what kind of difference will we make?

Paul

Last month I found out that a friend only had days to live. His family asked for our thoughts of Paul that they could read to him before he died. These are my thoughts

I met you only 18 months ago at a service station in South Wales, we discussed what was the passion of your heart - how to reach people for Christ. Less than a year later I began to volunteer at UDC* and to spend more time with you, Sharon and the rest of the team. You visited St Madoc Christian youth camp in Gower where we lived and you were thrilled to have this little pilgrimage to where your Christian journey began. In the short time that we've known you, Alison and my life has been enriched and challenged by your heart, faith and passion. Not only that but the fun we had together at New Wine this year will be unforgettable! God bless you Paul on this next journey

(Paul died on the 14th October)

*www.theuglyducklingcompany.co.uk 

Clothes

Driving home from picking up Josh from school I was asked an interesting question. It was one that I had never heard before, but one that got to the nub of a wonderful issue. We somehow got onto talking about the second coming of Christ and Josh asked, "when Jesus comes back what clothes will he wear?"

Jesus was and is the word of God, God's exact likeness and perfect representation. Jesus was and is also a first-century Jew and therefore God's absolute revelation was mediated to us via language and custom. God's word had a Jewish accent, an Aramaic vocabulary and was dressed in first century clothes. 

After Jesus rose from the dead his human body remained 'ordinary' in that he could be seen and touched and he seemed to need to eat. But his body was also extraordinary, he could appear and disappear and he ascended back to heaven. Ordinary yet extraordinary, human yet devine, flesh yet spirit, the same as us yet also different to us

This is the wonder of the incarnation, God became man and was therefore clothed in humanity to ensure that we could know what God is like. When Jesus ascended into heaven he did not leave his flesh behind, he was glorified as the God Man and skin and hair and bone remains at the right hand of the Father. 'One of our kind' now represents us before God and interceeds on our behalf

So how does a human live in heaven? How does Jesus' human nature impacts his life with his Father? Does Jesus have any physical needs in heaven? Jesus had physical needs when he was on earth - he needed oxygen, water, food, shelter etc but does that mean that he still has those needs? But how could Jesus have any needs, if he does would that suggest that he was not the self-sufficient God? Jesus becoming human did not diminish his nature, Jesus becoming human did not enhance his nature. The incarnation was not about the eternal Godhead morphing into a new kind of deity but rather the eternal Word being expressed in a new way, in a new cultural context

To return to Josh's simple question, like many 'simple' questions they can provoke the mind to look at things in a fresh way. 'When Jesus comes back what clothes will he wear?' is not a deep theological question but one that can lead to other questions that will help in our understanding of the incarnation 

Time to get a drink and think about this further 

Alternative

The kingdom of God is an alternative economy - a different kind of financial system

The kingdom of God is an alternative community - a different kind of neighbourhood

The kingdom of God is an alternative family - a different kind of belonging 

The kingdom of God is an alternative civilisation - a different kind of empire

The kingdom of God is an alternative theology - a different kind of revelation 

The kingdom of God is an alternative society - a different kind of association

The kingdom of God is an alternative nation - a different kind of government

The kingdom of God is an alternative outlook - a different kind of viewpoint 

The kingdom of God is an alternative gathering - a different kind of congregation

The kingdom of God is an alternative future - a different kind of dynasty

The kingdom of God is an alternative jurisdiction - a different kind of sovereignty

The kingdom of God is an alternative power - a different kind of potency

The kingdom of God has an alternative King  - a different kind of sovereign

Words

Bible black words etched in red

The thoughts of God inside my head

Encased by skin and hair and bone

They settle there as if alone.

We grapple deep within our mind 

To try to fathom some new kind

But these are words that need to see

To come alive as new decree 

They have not heard, they have not seen

The words of life are but a dream

The words that offer life and hope

If not lived out are merely smoke

They promise much, deliver little 

Transforming words are simply brittle

Our greatest joy and deepest pleasure 

Found in knowing Christ our treasure

Therefore we search and hunt and seek

To know his way, to hear him speak

And as we hear, respond and thrive

The words of God will come alive

No eye has seen no ear has heard

The wonder of incarnate word

The logos lived forever free

And now alive lived out in me

The world around can't see the name

He lives within, inside our frame 

So as his body shines his grace

An impact on the human race

What the church should fear

What the church should fear is not incompetence, being unable to answer people's questions; but irrelevancy, being able to answer questions that no-one is asking

My Space Their Space

I turned up a few minutes early and just about found somewhere to park. I walked in and found that I shouldn't have bothered to bring a coat, it was far too warm. I went back to the car, dropped off my coat and returned into the main reception area. After waiting ages to be greeted I eventually got into the main area. Everyone else seemed to be with a partner or in a group. I knew no one!  

I looked around for a place to sit, nothing! I looked around for a vaguely friend face, nothing. Even the children seemed to know what was going on, I stood on my own and played with my iPhone. I looked around wishing that I could see some bloke, a bit like me, that I could have a chat with. Two Billy No Mates who fate had brought together. I wouldn't try to start talking to a 'non bloke' person, that would be seen as chatting up at best or weird at worst. I hoped that the music would start so that I could at least look as if I was there for a reason. Then someone mentioned that it wasn't starting for half an hour!

Now, if you know me you will understand that I am an extrevert, I am normally happy to initiate conversations. But being in an unusual situation where everyone else seemed to be enjoying the company of friends and family made me unusually uncomfortable. Then I became religious; I am a Christian aren't I, God has a plan for me to be a blessing wherever I am. Surely there is someone in this busy congregation that needs some encouragement. I looked around, trying to see if anyone appeared to be, well ready for my pearls of wisdom. Nothing. 

Then I saw them, hallelujah God is here! Two friends drove past, parked up and came up and joined me. I was saved, or safe, no longer alone!

This event could have been a church meeting but wasn't. It was a pub and I was there to listen to a friend's son playing with his band. However it reminded me how difficult in can be for visitors to feel at home in our gatherings. Is it right to expect people to cross a large cultural divide? What can be normal for us can seem like a different world to them. We forget that the average person has no idea what the average church meeting is like. 

Surely, like Jesus in the incarnation, it is us who need to cross the divide. To join others in their space rather than think they have to come into ours

The Hiddenness of God

Looking through an old diary I found the following which I wrote as part of a three month period where I was focusing on the hidden life with God.

Mar 17th2009

‘”I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.’ 1 This is one of the most tragic verses in the Bible; Samson with all his power could not tell when God was no longer close. I pray that will God keep me from focusing on my ministry and end up with no tangible knowledge of his presence. I want to know the difference; I want to feel his distance when he has distanced himself. I know that he will never leave or forsake me but I don't want to talk about being close to God, I want to know his presence.’

‘Like the Jews, we feel God's hiddenness as a disappointment, an aching in the heart, a doubt never fully set to rest.’ 2 This statement from Philip Yancy sounds deeply disturbing but how much worse than an aching heart would be a heart that did not know the difference between God being close and God being far away.

-------------------------

1 Judges 16:20

2 Yancey, Philip, Disappointment with God, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1992, p.104

Communion

We are having communion this morning

I want to truly meet with my brothers and sisters around the Lord's table

I need to look into their eyes as we share the bread and the wine

I want to break one loaf and drink from one cup to demonstrate that we are one body

I long for a real communion with Christ and a real communion with others

I want us together to remember the Lord's death with deep joy and sincere gratitude 

I want to eat and drink and receive and be full of Christ

I want to pass the bread and pass the cup from one to another

I want this act to be a corporate proclamation of Christ's death until he comes again

Instead...

We will sit in pews and will be ministered to by the ordained

We will drink from individual small glasses instead of from one cup

We will have small pre-cut squares of bread rather than break a whole loaf 

We will participate but only by opening our mouths to eat and drink

We will be less than a handful of individuals dotted around a mostly empty chapel

We will be sat facing the pulpit not gathered around a table

And we won't celebrate this act again until the fourth Sunday of next month

I want to come away feeling full, instead I fear I will leave feeling empty

I long for more than this...

There is a beautiful song written by Claire Cloninger and Martin J Nystrm which sums this up

Come to the table of mercy

Prepared with the wine and the bread

All who are hungry and thirsty

Come and your soul will be fed

Come at the Lord’s invitation

Receive from His nail-scarred hand

Eat of the bread of salvation

Drink of the blood of the Lamb

All Things

And he made known to us the mystery of his will... to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ

Ephesians 1:9,10

All thoughts

All opinions

All ideas

All attitudes

All ideologies

All theologies

All cosmologies 

All futurologies 

All hopes

All dreams

All desires 

All passions

All fears 

All concerns

All doubts

All heartaches

All friendships

All love

All relationships 

All family

All politicians 

All authorities 

All powers

All leaders

All material

All spiritual

All past

All future

...under one head, even Christ

Consider Dexter

Jesus never said 'consider Dexter,' I do not even know if they had greyhounds in first century Palestine. But Jesus did say 'consider the birds' and expected his hearers to learn something from doing so. After nearly nine years with us Dexter has gone the way of all the earth, his full name 'Ted Dexter Blackstock Indabiningy Satoli Bobbo Baldi Doggy Features Holland'demonstrates that he was not just any ordinary dog. 

Thinking about Dexter's life has led me to 'consider' the following:

Dexter was almost entirely focused on food, any food. His entire life seemed to revolve around eating, he would break all of our rules if it meant he could grab some small morsal and scoff it down in half a second. Nothing else would get in his way from the one task. The question this raises is obvious, am I pursuing Christ with the same singleness of purpose, do I 'count all things as rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ my Lord?'

The other love of Dexter's life was to run, he had never raced as a greyhound but given the chance he would run wildly in large circles. He loved it, he seemed to run for the pure pleasure of it. He wasn't going anywhere, there was no destination, no place to get to. And oh, he was quick. When he ran it was a beautiful thing. In the film the Chariots of Fire the runner Eric Liddell said this, "When I run, I feel His pleasure. ”. ... “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast!" This seemed to be true for Dexter, God made him fast and when he ran we all could feel God's pleasure. John Pipper said that 'God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.' 

I want to know God's pleasure as I run with him through life

Breathe In and Breathe Out

I want to listen and I want to speak

I want to understand and I want to explain 

I want to follow and I want to lead

I want to know and I want to make known

I want to hear the story and I want to tell the story

I want to find joy myself and I want to see joy in others

I want to be provoked and I want to provoke 

I want to look in and I want to look out

I want to kneel down and I want to stand tall

I want to drink in and I want to overflow

I want to gather and I want to scatter

I want to breathe in and I want to breathe out