Oh, Joy!

If you think the Christian life is the best life you can possibly have you’re mistaken. This is the worst decision you will make. You put yourself up for ridicule, into unnecessary debates, unneeded persecutions, and mightily difficult decisions; all based on the fact you needed help and you couldn’t help yourself.

The Christian worldview, regrettably some might say, is the most hopeful and reassuring worldview on offer to society ever to have been communicated to the human race. This is the trouble: you align yourself against the very society you came from. You try going in the opposite direction. And not because you want society to get out the way and stop it’s moaning at you, but because you want it to turn around as well.

I guess, if you are a Christian, you weren’t told that by accepting the Gospel you would come face-to-face with issues that would never have surfaced I you’d have left the church meeting, or your friends house, or that bible behind, and walked back to your limited and happy version of reality.

Of course that’s the big problem. Jesus offers full and lasting joy. And it’s true. And it’s available now. Because the lies of reality hide joy underneath the big virtues of SUCCESS, WEALTH, and CUNNING.

In the film Gladiator the old emperor tells his son a list of virtues that don’t align at all with his sons character. His son then lists a few characteristics he thinks of as virtues, but we as viewers know he isn’t a virtuous person. This, however is like the world in which we find ourselves. The ‘good’ society wants us to uphold is pristine beauty, overzealous ambition, and amassed wealth. Tim Keller of the Redeemer Church in Manhattan describes western culture as living for the trinity of sex, money, and power. Three things that once tasted can bring joy to many, or pollute whole countries forever.

But this is the worldview entered by giving your life to Jesus. Suddenly you can’t be supportive of these things. You can’t celebrate with your friends about their lack of memory because of a night of cocktails and shopping trolleys. You can’t walk past the Big Issue seller without a pang of guilt and a justification flying through your head like a well rehearsed diversion. Your life has changed and you can’t go back.

But if you want joy; plunging yourself into the depths of the God we experience through Jesus Christ is just the beginning.

The Firstborn of Creation

Firstborn is a title. Jacob, though it was through trickery, was given the title of firstborn. As was Ephraim, Joseph’s second born.

It carries a weightiness with it; a responsibility, a significance.

The ancient world was very caught up in the idea of the Firstborn. They were the one to carry on the family name. They inherited the largest portion of the family estate and were expected to uphold the family name more than the other siblings. They carried favour, as well, with the local community. They had expectations put on their shoulders, and had value beyond simple sons of the father.

In steps Jesus.

Cults have a field day with modern languages and cultures, mixed with the early writings about Jesus. He is the most talked about character in history, and they treat him like a second rate ethics teacher from primary school.

The fundamentals of Christianity are based on two premises:
1. Jesus is God
2. Jesus is risen from the dead, claiming kingship over all creation (see point 1)

To remove this from the faith is to strip Jesus of any importance. None of the claims of Christianity are possible without these. The death of Jesus, if he wasn’t God, is the death of a good, perhaps even perfect man. But all that achieves is the salvation of himself. If he wasn’t God, the salvation laid out for all is not possible.

Yet cults with fanciful ideas about the real and updated Christianity strip Jesus of any power and God-ness, and leave the whole faith a sham. If Jesus isn’t God, salvation is impossible.

Equally if Jesus isn’t risen from the dead, Christians of all people are to be pitied.

But the question remains, why is Jesus described as the firstborn over all creation? Over the centuries, this has been used to show how Jesus was created, how he was the first human spirit, or just generally he wasn’t who he said he was; but he was who “we” say he is.

In Romans he rose from the dead for our justification, and to become the inheritor of the whole cosmos. And we share that with him. In Ephesians, Jesus is the one seated at the right hand above all rule and authority. In Colossians, Jesus is the firstborn, and through him all things were created, and for him. Firstborn from the dead.

Jesus is King. This firstborn is his title. Whatever you see belongs to Jesus. The end.

I Am Shocked

Well, actually I’m not. Yesterday, I was queuing for the checkouts in my local supermarket and happened upon the sight of the horrific events of the week offered up in a variety of forms by the multiple magazines available at the moment. The main topic of conversation?

Peter André and Katie Price.

This is what our country is coming to. A series of weekly installments of a real life saga. A real life soap. This is the information people want: what’s the latest on this sham of a relationship?

Part of me wants them to just be left alone, but they don’t help themselves by periodically speaking to magazines about their latest attitude towards each other. Is it really so interesting that the weeks go by with the ups and downs of someone elses life? Is this entertainment?

It was, literally, every magazine covering some aspect of ridiculous comments made about each other. All exclusive interviews, all revealing secrets for the first time, all wasting valuable paper on a life story of 2 people that should be left to sort out their relationship together instead of using the medium of the press to sort out the divorce settlements.

But we revel in it. We love to know everything that is going on, no matter how irrelevant. This age is the information age. Previous generations traded in goods, technology, even people. Today we trade information. And there is even a place for the tragedy of a relationship started on a Z-list celebrity TV show, with 3 children in the wake of one massive package that has become worth millions of pounds. It’s being rinsed for every penny because at some point enough people will come to their senses and it will be worthless.

I don’t see that happening anytime soon. It’s been going on for 4-5 years.

We can all offer our advice to the troubled couple, but the problem is much more with society as a whole than these two celebrities. They’re just having a nationwide row. But why do we enjoy it?

Gossip is entirely useless. It creates rifts, people divide over information and whole communities can split on rumours. Jesus was clear that truth is truth and speculation is empty. The apostle Paul was, in instructing his churches, very clear that there was simply no place for gossip. Any information simply needs to be taken and prayed for. And if there is anything the community can help with they do. The greatest thing in any church is reconciliation, because that is what it’s based on. They have all been reconciled to God which is why they meet. So now any rifts, any arguments, all need to be sorted and reconciled. Seeing marriages restored, children kept from split homes, and husbands and wives looking past each others issues and working through them, it makes the whole church and the larger community delight in what is possible through the cross.

We don’t need to know what they’re thinking. We just need them to talk face to face. Not run off into the jungle and hope it all goes away.

A Q&A Correction

I was reading a blog that was answering some questions on free grace.

Most of the questions were answered biblically, but very directly. There was no compromise or openness to the Truth of Christianity that is full of paradoxes. One such question:

Q. Can a true Christian lead a worldly, carnal life?

Now apart from use of archaic language, it’s a valid question. His answer was yes.

My answer is whole-heartedly both. By all means we have the power, Christian or not, to live entirely for ourselves. But true Christians actually can’t. If we take the bible as truth, it states many times that we are dead to sin, so alive to God. If we live by the Spirit we won’t sin. If we are baptised we are released from slavery.

The fact is there are too many compromises with conservative evangelicalism that has meant life in the spirit is simply put to one side. There is the explaining away of blatantly straight-forward statements, like: ’sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.’ (Romans 6.14)

A quick disclaimer pronounced over this statement that ‘of course we will keep sinning’ is proclaiming a license to continue in disobedience. But the fact is the truth of grace, that we have been crucified with Christ and raised in a new self with him, means we don’t have to sin anymore. Romans 5.17 tells is that receiving the grace and righteousness of God means we can reign in life!

So take heart. The spirit living in you is working out salvation. You may reign in life in the power of the spirit. And there is no condemnation, because if you are found in Him, you are free from obedience to laws, but obedience in the power of the spirit, to grace.

How to feed a small Town

The most reliable historical documents concerning Jesus just happen to be part of the Christian scriptures. And because they’re part of the canon, they are disregarded as propaganda.

I don’t understand the various misinformed critics that take the most reliable historical documents in existence and place them along with Aesop’s Fables.

Of course, if you carefully observe Christianity as a whole, the vast majority treat the bible as a bunch of fables, with morals to be followed, and examples to be upheld. And that misses the point of the Bible itself. It’s as if some kind of deceiver came in and robbed the stories of Jesus, leaving a moralistic message that can never be removed.

Take the story of the feeding of the 5000 for example.

The clear instructions to be taken from the story can be listed:
- Say a prayer before you eat your meal
- If you ‘follow’ Jesus, he asks you to feed other people. So go and feed them
- If you have enough faith (faith usually has to be brought in as a good and respectable work) you can even have leftovers from what God will do through you
- There’s probably something about sitting in groups of 50-100; like churches should be no bigger than 100 people.

In actual fact, Jesus is the focus, and he does some crazy stuff. The big thing is the removal of oneself to a desolate place. No food to be found there. But the crowd still followed. Jesus was leading a new Israel with his 12 as those that would be taking ground when he ascended to heaven. There is an echo of the 40 years in the wilderness, where the whole nation had to be miraculously provided for if there was any hope of survival.

Jesus recreates and redirects the story.

Have a look yourself.

Testing Times

Can you handle the test of favour?

Or the test of prosperity?

The gospel promises neither, in a certain way, that makes the humility of Christ essential to your being as the hand of God guides His people to transform the world from the inside.

If the society we live in is described as a fridge, you can quickly realise just how easy it is to be swept along by whatever the ‘whole’ chooses. If you put anything in a fridge it matches the temperature with not effort of the item. Even if you put a boiling pot of water in the fridge, it will have power over it to change the temperature to the fridge.
As soon as the door closes the process begins.

This is what it means to be Christian:

In all it’s fullness, you are committed to Jesus and his mission. You are committed to a body of believers. You are sent from them and plugged into them.

If a water boiler is placed into a fridge, still plugged in, the fridge is suddenly found in a dilemma. The final stage is to unplug the fridge so that the surroundings of the water boiler become hot.

The task becomes the need to find where society is plugged in and pull it. Pull the plug.

This is where prosperity and favour find their place. Moving easily among the powers, still plugged into church, so that the cities of the world are transformed.

Who’s up to it?

Repent – Have Your Minds Renewed

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying ‘Repent,’ intended that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” Martin Luther, Thesis 1

Religion and Public Service

“I think that it’s perfectly possible to live a good life without having faith, by which I mean a positive and altruistic life, but I think the teachings of Jesus just as the teachings of other religions are a good guide to help us through. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you; don’t walk on by. These are good and thoughtful ideas to bring to life.”

A politicians way of saying, “I’m a Christian”, when they actually mean, “I’m English.”

Further Contemplations on Contentment

If you seek this or that, if you seek to be in this place or that place to have more ease and pleasure you will never rest or be free from care, for some defect is found in everything and everywhere someone will vex you. To obtain and multiply earthly goods, then, will not help you.

Wise words from Thomas Kempis

An elderly welsh couple who won £91 million on the euro millions lottery, split their winnings with a local charity and sat on a yacht drinking champagne. The husband said, “Now I can finally enjoy life.”

True story.

If he couldn’t enjoy life with little, he won’t with loads.

The lie permeating through today’s western culture remains the same. Contentment is something strived and attained for, but never reached. It’s not really that good. What you really want is euphoria.

Many people say that they’re confused about getting to the top of the food chain in their trade, only to find that there’s nothing there.

Money is a very touchy subject in the UK. Charities are half-respected, half-despised with their attitude of perpetual begging.

I’m slowly becoming aware that what I see as foolishness when it comes to addressing money is my own ego that this culture is more right about not talking about it. Now I’m very keen to specifically address money in my church to those with difficult church backgrounds that we don’t want their money unless they are being compelled to give, not out of guilt or to pay their way, but out of a generous outlook on the larger picture and mission that we are on.

If I say they can take a bible completely free, they could offer me any amount of money for the church pot, but I wouldn’t accept it. We wouldn’t accept it. Giving of money is no obligation.

It is, however, necessary.

The only way I can think about this is by seeing money as a power that has risen up over time. There was a time when there was no such thing as money. These days, however, the decisions made in society are purely on the basis of money. It is something to be pleased. It is something to be served. It is something that brings joy, or pain; happiness, or despair.

But God, out of his wisdom, declares the only way to gain control of money is, not to accumulate so much there is never any need to think about the price of a coffee, but to give it away, joyfully. With a passion.

Joy costs money. But it’s worth it!

How will you spend your life?

“I have decided to think for myself. I am not rebellious or independent, nor do I want to reinvent the wheel, sort of speak. But I will not let Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Larry King, Bill O’Riley or anyone else for that matter, think for me. It is not that I don’t appreciate other people’s opinion, I really do learn a lot from others. It’s just that I am no one’s puppet. I have been commanded to arise and shine, not arise and reflect (Isaiah 61:1). I have been called to be a voice not an echo. I refuse to be reduced to a political affiliation, a denomination, a generation, a geographic location, my sexual orientation or my ordination. I will not settle for becoming a cheap imitation of another instead of an original of myself. I wouldn’t be condensed to a history lesson nor will I allow someone’s fear to constrain my own exploits. I will not bow down to anyone’s idol or be conformed to old religious ideologies that that render me predicable and irrelevant to the Kingdom.
On the other hand, it is not my desire to become a heretic who exchanges the solid foundation of time tested truth to be come a brave maverick in the test tube of isolation. Therefore I will allow the Holy Spirit to lead me, guide me and correct me. I submit to true leadership and will remain moldable, teachable, influencable and humble. I will love passionately, live zealously, work whole heartedly, laugh joyfully, and be completely spent at the end of my life. I will walk powerfully, pray unceasingly, give extravagantly and serve God with my whole being.
It takes courage to break ranks with religious clones and think for yourself because creativity is never cultivated in crowds. Bill Johnson says, “What you know can keep you from what you need to know.” He’s right because as soon as you consider yourself an expert you stop learning and start musing. The Pharisees are a great example of people who memorized the Word of God and didn’t recognize the author of the Book when He stood right in front of them. History is full of experts whose imagination was imprisoned by their education, experience or fear of rejection.”

Kris Vallatton