Many trends add up to a disturbing time — but we are not without influence through faith in God
That is a common question, being repeated throughout society as people put together in their minds violent extreme weather events, electoral turbulence and challenges to results, drugs and violent crime soaring.
This week will see another thousand (yes, you read that right) stabbings in the UK which will add their pressure on to hospital accident and emergency departments — together with drug and alcohol abuse. It’s dysfunctional. And it’s preventable.
In the US the polarisation of voters seems to have overtaken clear policies or positions, and appeals for political loyalty have been framed in language of intolerance and even hatred to motivate voters. Both camps are appealing to Christian or at least churchgoing voters to support them on moral grounds. But where is God and where is love in all this confusion?
Many of those taking children into nursery, or school, will meet over a coffee this week and share their concerns about the uncertainties of bringing up children in the world we live in.
What is happening? And what is God saying about this?
Most people don’t talk in terms of ‘the end times’ — that’s a Christian phrase borrowed from the Bible — but people will voice their concerns about spiralling social breakdown and wanting to move to a less challenging neighbourhood.
Might that be a way of getting back some control? Or will it simply turn out that we can’t outrun the difficulties?
Better, surely, to address the cause than to try and insure against, or isolate from, bad outcomes.
There’s a Christian viewpoint that is looking for answers in the kingdom of God — God’s good and just rule and order — rather than any political movement or empire.
Retreating from the world into some kind of religious role isn’t going to make a difference. We need to get involved in meeting needs:
Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically (Romans 12:11 NLT)
We need to know and be known by the world around us — even if the values we hold are different.
It’s not for us to judge those who see things differently but we can influence them — and we are equipped to do that. We are carriers of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus, and we bring Him to every intersection of life that we find. Working hard and serving the Lord enthusiastically has a spiritual dimension.
Our practical involvement — on a school Parent Teacher Association, serving on a local council or as a volunteer at the food bank becomes a divine force for change when it is also a prayerful engagement. Many of the people we meet wouldn’t be confident in asking for God’s help, but we who know Him are talking to Him all the time!
We may be firmly on the side of bringing what is better, but at the same time experiencing lurches to worse; governance gets worse, war causes shortage and displacement over a wide area, dishonesty seems to have the upper hand and trust for people in positions of authority has withered. It feels like watching dying embers. The Bible warns of such a time:
But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. (1 Peter 4:7 NKJV)
The call to “be watchful” implies that as we are forewarned, we are are also forearmed.
Those who are looking to Jesus for answers are told to:
…Be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 ESV)
Watchful, spiritually alert people are not powerless. We can all choose to join the partnership between us on earth and the good and just order we are calling down from heaven as we:
At all times, pray by the power of the Spirit. Pray all kinds of prayers. Be watchful, so that you can pray. Always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. (Ephesians 6:18 NIrV)
The one everyone is talking about is not the one that really matters
Following a controversial and tax-raising UK budget speech in Parliament yesterday, the media discourse centers first on how the cost of changes will fall on individuals. A second area of questioning concerns economic growth. This reflects a deeper concern: Will the UK economy be stimulated or inhibited? Will it grow or decline?
I think God wants us to focus on a different economy and whether that is blooming or heading into leaf fall. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. It was the headline over all of His teaching, and He emphasised its priority by saying:
“Seek first the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 6:33 NIV)
Whether like a fishing boat’s full net, or a buried hoard in a field waiting to be discovered, the kingdom of God is ultimately what the good news about Jesus and His salvation is all about. The kingdom of God is about discovery and growth.
Jesus put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.” (Matthew 13:24 ESV)
It is where a little is transformed into a lot—our input magnified 30, 60, or even 100 times in a mysterious, hidden organic process.
And this picture of vibrant, organic growth needs to be part of the vision held by every church. Jesus didn’t actually say this. He said very little about church because that came later. But He DID say that the kingdom of God was central to the good news that every disciple was to proclaim.
“But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60 ESV)
Where churches have taken hold of this message and their responsibility for making it known, there has often been growth—even rapid growth, leading to a building project.
On the other hand, pursuing ‘churchianity’ by putting form above faith, and allowing religiosity to replace relationship, is like upping the tax burden that causes decline.
What God so keenly wants is revival. A growing excitement about Jesus and His continuing presence today, transforming lives and renewing church congregations and reaching out effectively to many who don’t know Him. But strangely, God cannot—or perhaps more correctly chooses not to—do this without the partnership of His believing people.
It is as we say ‘yes’ to Him and what He is doing in the world that His economy is released to expand and touch even more lives.
I baked a batch of scones the other day, but they came out all wrong – too small, too flat, and a bit of an embarrassment. Not something that I could hand around.
This was an upsetting experience, but also a helpful one. It prompted me to do some comparison of recipes and to access some tips and techniques which I hadn’t thought of before, even for a straightforward bake.
I used a general purpose flour and worked it a bit, like bread dough, folding and chafing to give it structure before dividing in ‘rustic cuts’.
And the next batch came out really well.
This was a small, everyday kind of mistake, and its lesson was hardly life-changing.
Life gives us all kinds of failures and mistakes, but the big lesson is about letting God make them profitable for His greater purpose of shaping us.
Instead of seeing the latest mistake as negative, just something to apologise for, we can embrace failure as a learning point that brings change.
This lesson was spelled out was back in Israel’s up and down history by the prophet Azariah who declares, speaking for God:
“King Asa and all of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, listen to Me! God responds to you as you respond to Him: If you are with the Eternal, then He is with you. If you look for Him, then He will let you find Him. But if you abandon Him, then He will abandon you. So learn from the mistakes of your ancestors.” (2 Chronicles 15:2 Voice)
We don’t always need a prophet to get us back to hearing God. For us, it’s a “Come, Holy Spirit and teach me —what is your wisdom?” moment.
And that wisdom often comes through God’s Word which the Holy Spirit uses as His starting point as He leads us.
Paul writes to his apprentice, Timothy:
“There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another — showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.“ (2 Timothy 3:14 MSG)
Salvation is much broader than spiritual repentance and belonging. Our growth and maturity comes from understanding that the Holy Spirit can redeem any of our failures as a learning experience and opportunity to seek His wisdom and grow in it…
King Asa’s lesson was about getting back to listening to what God us saying. Add to that Timothy’s lesson and we have the way God has given us to tune in to His voice.
We just need the resolve to make our next mistake a ‘pause and listen’ moment around the question: “Lord, what are You teaching me here?”
We need churches full of people who are excited about having met Jesus to be telling others about who Jesus is and what He has done. We need the stories of people who have met Jesus and we need those stories and that excitement, to find its way to people where they are — the great majority who find church an alien place and concept.
Centuries of religious control and insincerity have buried the simple message of who Jesus is, and how we can know him now. It’s been disguised with a lot of ‘churchy’ protective wrapping.
People have learned — quite wrongly — to associate Jesus with a falsehood.
Instead of Jesus being the Saviour and the friend who loves unconditionally, people associate the name ‘Jesus’ with a catch.
Coming to know Jesus does not come with a catch, but it does change our priorities. As we come to realise how Jesus has given His all for us, we want to give more of ourselves to Him. That’s not the same as an obligation to attend on Suinday morning or put money in the plate, poor ways of expressing commitment, but it is more about making our priorities more like Jesus’ priorities. That will inevitably shape where we put our resources of time, energy, gifts and other resources.
It’s a bit like a pub conversation among mainly single people, one of those amiable but none too profound arguments.
One says, “You don’t want to fall in love. You’ll end up getting married, having children, and that will take up all your out-of-work time and all your money, and you’ll lose your independence.”
The married friend, overhearing this, replies: “I found it was the best decision I ever made, and I gladly gave up my old independence for what I have gained now.”
Any change of a lifestyle and change of priorities can be viewed, either positively as an opportunity and an achievement, or negatively as a loss involving a cost.
To echo Jesus’ language, following Him is a commitment and also an investment in the kingdom of God — the better, fairer, less confused and more compassionate world order that He brings.As Jesus said: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and God will give you everything you need.”
(Matthew 6:33 NLT)
