Cassie

I have been just finished a really interesting and challenging book which looks at the issue of diversity and multi - culturalism within the context of the local church and the extended body of Christ. The book uses the term ‘gracism’ as a means of defining unmerited favour upon those who operate culturally, ethnically, economically or socially on the fringes of society. David Anderson says…’the one who hears, sees and pays attention to those on the margins - those in the desert - is a ‘gracist’. This book proved wonderfully challenging as it can only take root in your heart once you begin to practise gracism in real life….thus I would like to introduce to you, Cassie.

Cassie is a young girl I met and had the privilege of getting to know whilst I’ve been in Portsmouth, working with a Music Mentoring project called Hope Academy. Cassie was born with down syndrome which means in the context of what we were doing as group on performing artists, it was hard for her to join in and fit in amongst the others kids…she was certainly on the fringes. As I read the book I was challenged as to how I could ‘build a bridge’ of positive inclusion and friendship with Cassie…this was certainly a great learning experience for me. As we grew in friendship I began to include her in her the musical things I was doing… she found seeming enjoyment and pleasure in watching me play the drums and sing songs on the guitar. I too was able to share in the things she was as she demonstrated a few moves that she had learnt on the dance team, and as she wore her black and gold costume with pride.

It’s not easy to extend favour and make a conscious effort to build a friendship with someone like Cassie, when it would be much easier too simply ignore, but I believe to reach out to those who are isolated and ignored is to follow the example of Christ. Even though she persisted in calling me ‘Holly’ all week instead of Oli, and did many things which I found to be quite strange and a little annoying, I know she was just trying to extend friendship, kindness and affection in the best way she could…and because of this I tried my best to do the same.

In 1 Corinthians 12 it says that as Christians we are all members of the body of Christ and we are all placed in a certain position for a certain reason. It says that those parts that ‘seem to be weaker are in fact ‘indispensable’ and the parts that we think are less honourable we should treat with ‘special honour’. It was amazing to stand alongside Cassie and say to myself... ‘I will share myself with you, I will honour you, I will stand by you, I will consider you, I will celebrate with you, and I will suffer with you.’ I pray for more of these privileged encounters.

03 - Some wise words

Continuing my excavation of Augustine's Confessions I would like to quote a passage about the nature of wisdom and folly...

'I had learnt that wisdom and folly are like different kinds of food. Some are wholesome and others are not, but both can be served equally well on the finest china or the meanest earthenware. In just the same way wisdom and folly can be clothed alike in plain words or the finest flowers of speech.'

Augustine is trying to communicate to us in this extract that wisdom and folly can both be dressed in similar ways, they can both be simply wise or simply foolish. Alternatively he says, things can be wise but said so in a way which is much harder to understand and also foolish but said so in a way which would cause doubt and deception as to whether it was foolish or not.

Christians are to seek the gift of discernment and of wisdom, that they may act correctly and avoid foolishness which could cause them to stumble away from God...indeed proberbs 8:11 says wisdom is 'more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare to her.' As Christians we must seek a heavenly wisdom and not an earthly wisdom which is not wisdom at all, but the folly which deceives and confuses, the folly covered in the 'finest flowers of speech' (1 Corinthians 2:14 - 15)

Recently I have been reading the blog maintained by writer Abraham Piper; it's concept is simple in that he uses just twenty words to complete every post...no more, no less. It has been wonderfully refreshing as he manages to capture abstract concepts, make pithy observations and provoke deep discussion in a very concise way. Can we say this type of 'simple wisdom' is greater than wisdom which is not perhaps simple, but is nevertheless 'wisdom' in itself?

02 - Some wise words

I have just finished reading Augstine's Confessions, and I thought I would do a series of posts expounding some extracts from the book which proved beneficial to myself in particuar. Reading this book was admittedly a challenge as at times it was quite lofty and philosophical, but it proved great sustenance for my soul and ultimately very worthwhile. Here goes...

'Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.'

The french philosopher Pascal said within everyman there is God shaped hole which causes each man to search in the deep for something to fill it. Some people don't even realise what shape the hole is and fill it with all the wrong types of things...people will choose the pursuit of fame or fortune, others choose sexual or religious experience and some people choose all of them! These people are searching for contentment and satisfaction which is ultimately outside of God, but as Augustine comments 'he cannot be content unless he praises you.'

Augstine reasons that as God created all things, and that all things come from him, man can find no rest for soul unless he comes back 'under' the one who created him. Thus for man to be truly content he must pursue the good things which come from God, as ultimately there are no good things which exist outside of him. This is the call of every Christian to find delight and contentment in God despite whether he is living life on a mountain top or walking through the deepest valley.

This call begins with the realisation that you actually need God...Augustine says that man bears the mark of death, the sign of his own sin so tha he will eventually turn to God. Indeed the soul is truly lost if he admits that he has no need for God. Ask yourseld do you truly need God? Do you realise this need?

The power of the Cross

This week I have been thinking quite alot about the Cross and the nature of what exactly was acheived there. The theological term which I came across so often was that of penal substitutionary atonement, belief in this doctrine can be a very controversial term and can create obvious divisions between many Christians. Many people reject the idea of 'bloody cross' theology, believing that God does not need to kill to forgive. Similarly there are those who do not believe that Christ could suffer the indignity of the Cross, and undergo 'cosmic child abuse' at the hands of God the Father. Some people choose to over intellectualise the meaning of the Cross, saying that Christ died to identify with the sins of humanity, and in turn mankind would be stirred to change their position towards God, that man would become more 'accepting' of God.

Yet those who reject the bloody cross theology also reject the justice and wrath of God, similarly they neglect the seriousness of sin, and the fact that God cannot stand sin and must take payment for it. Those who go along with idea of cosmic child abuse fail to see the willingness of the Son in submitting to the Father. Those who believe that Christ died to identify with humanity neglect to realise that the Cross was acheived not to change the position of man towards God, but the position of God towards man.

The reality of the gospel is none of these weak, alternative and unbiblical positions. The Son of God became man for the principal reason that his blood may be shed and that he may die on a cross; this was something the Son willingly undertook. Christ came to earth to live a sinless life, that when placed upon Cross he would prove a suitable payment, a suitable sacrifice to appease the wrath of God against mankind. The death that should have been ours was paid in full, by Jesus...he was the substition for our punishment.

Safe gaurd your soul

A Christian must always safe gaurd his soul, it is his only possession and most important concern. It is an on going process of self examination, confession and repentance. It is a sad day when someone steeped in the squalor of their own sin looses care for their own soul, and like a boat drawn out to sea by the strength of the ocean current, surrenders to the force and pull of their own sinfulness. Giving up the fight and quitting the race, they have lost sight of their calling in Christ Jesus. Three things we can say about sin therefore...

Firstly, if you think your too sinful for God to do anything with you, realise all people all steeped in sin, and all of fallen short of the glory of God...'we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way...' (Isaiah 53:6). Some aspects of sin you can be more accutely aware of, and other aspects are more hidden and can easily go unnoticed; it is these latter sins which are often more pervasive and persistent. Don't be downcast if your sin stares you straight back the face, rejoice...it gives you opportunity to rid yourself of it their and then. This is far better than the sin which lurks like monsters in the closet which you throught never existed, and furthermore only come out at night when you sleeping and blind to it.

Secondly, if you feel the weight of sin in your life this is undoubtedly a good thing, it is a matter of how you deal with it. Do not let sin press you down and condemn you...their is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), instead let it stir you to confession and repentance. Understanding the seriousness of sin is not evidence for the absence of God in your life but actually strong evidence for him working in your life. The non believers eyes are blind to their own sin, but the Christian's eyes are firmly focussed on their own sinfulness and their overwhelming need for the grace, forgiveness and on going santification.

Finally, when you are so preoccupied in the struggle with one particular sin, you can completely lose sight of any other short comings...it is like holding a large picture close up to your face, innevitably you focus in on one small part of the picture and lose sight of the whole thing. Sometimes we need to step back and with eyes wide open and look deeply and objectively into our own lives. What aspects of life is their evidence of the grace of God at work, and what areas does Satan seem to have built strongholds in. Sometimes more obvious surface sin's have a deeper root which stems from a hidden and more pervasive sin which lies unfound and out of focus. Like the leaves on the trees which wither and turn brown, the problem is not with the leaves but with the root. We must learn to search out sin in our lives often, and invite the light of Jesus Christ to shine in the deepest corners of our being.

Misunderstanding God

Do you really understand the greatness of God? As soon as you think you have grasped just one aspect of the Lord’s greatness that which predestined a people for himself through adoption, even before he spoke the universe into existence…you have not understood it at all.

Do you honestly think you have begun to understand the mercy of God? If you think have you, truly I say to you, you have not experienced but one ounce of the mercy of God. You have not understood the mercy which removes all our transgresssions as far as the east is from the west, the mercy unsparingly offered to all who call on his name.

Do you really understand the faithfulness of God? If you think can begin to fathom the faithfulness of God that promises uncountable children to the elderly man and baron woman, or the faithfulness of God that promises a nation of slave’s freedom and unmeasured favour…surely you will never fathom the Lord’s faithfulness.

Have you begun to understand and comprehend the Lord’s provision? If you think you can understand the immensity of what it means to be blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, or the common grace which is bestowed upon every man, every day, month and year…you do not understand the great provider.

Do you really understand the justice of God? If you think you can begin to measure the justice of God, the justice of God which breaks the arm of the wicked and upholds the righteous, the justice of God which did not stop at the New Testament but was instead poured upon his own Son Jesus Christ, the justice of God who does all things right…indeed, you do not understand his justice.

Can you ever begin to comprehend the Love of Christ? If you think the love of God is to be known by the intellect, that love which leaves the other ninety nine in search of the one lost soul, the love which with arms wide open welcomes the prodigal home, those same arms spread wide upon the Cross...you have not begun to comprehend his love at all.

''Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.''

The Glory of God

The principle reason for God's existence is the display of his own glory. He exists to glorify himself; he does this in many ways. It says in the Romans 1:20 that all creation speaks his praise, however, mankind reflects the glory of God like no other living thing; we are exalted above all other created things.

Bearing his own image and reflection, human beings are the most glorious creatures of all creation....God has chosen to populate the earth with billions of creatures which look like him and reflect his glory. It says in 2 Corinthians 3:18...' And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.' Even those who scorn or hate God, or those run from him cannot run from the fact that every breath they take, points to glory and grace of God.

What a priviledge it is to be called a child of God, he has revealed himself to us that we might praise him, and give back to him everything he first gave us. I pray that my heavenly Father would place a desire in my heart, that in every word, thought and deed, I would live to glorify God; that I would be a vessel of God's glory.