I had to replace the battery on my car on Sunday. Now, that statement is not quite true. I didn’t have to replace the battery. I could have said to the mechanic type person, ‘Yeah, thanks for that mate; but just leave the old one there, it’ll be okay.’ I have to get a fill of petrol sometime this week; but I don’t have to get more petrol. Your right, Pastor John is once more beginning to talk jibberish. Of course you have to replace a dead battery and fill the car full of petrol otherwise you are not going to get anywhere.
Hmmm? I wonder how many people who say they are Christian have had a spiritual battery check and filled up with petrol lately? A reading from one of my devotional books struck me yesterday morning: ‘May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.’ 2 Thessalonians 3:5. Sorry, I have claimed this little verse its mine!
These words come after the writer – Paul – has asked for prayer so that God’s mission might flourish everywhere. He seeks their support in being protected from wickedness and reminds the church at Thessalonica that God is faithful and that he will guard us from evil.
In our busy lives I am always fearful that we are trying to be good Christian people without regularly taking on fuel for the trip. How is the battery – our prayer life? How much fuel is in the tank – reading of the Scriptures? What is the tread like on the tyres – meeting, sharing and being open to others?
The latest gadget for our cars is of course a Satellite Navigation system. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. How is our Sat Nav system going? Is the Lord directing your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ?
I love the passion of St Paul. He was full on for Jesus! So much so that then and even now many people can’t stand the bloke! If he was an Aussie, he would have fitted the tall poppy syndrome and we would have chopped him down long ago! I think that it was the great hymn writer Charles Wesley, who said that it was his desire to be so on fire for Jesus that people would come from miles around just to watch him burn.
If you had cut Paul – or either of the Wesley brothers – they would have bled mission. It was all they knew. Paul’s constant prayer was to have the way clear so that the message could be proclaimed and that the good news of Christ’s love might be transmitted and heard far and wide.
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Are you making space for the Lord to speak into your heart? If we don’t, we do so at an enormous risk and potentially enormous cost, because our hearts have to be directed and filled with something.
There are so many TV shows these days that show human bodies disfigured, butchered and cut open that we have become immune to it. Nothing shocks us anymore. It is so for the subject of love. We have become engorged with so much love/lust that this has become our norm. We have allowed the bar to drop far too low and we are satisfied with too little.
What does the love of God mean for you? How is it being seen in your life? If you were a poster boy/girl for Jesus how is the ad’ campaign going right now? I have never suggested that it is an easy road and there are easier gigs, but I have found that it is worth the journey and that the steadfastness of Christ is enough for me to press on.
I didn’t have to replace the battery. I could have left the car in the driveway; maybe sat in it occasionally to remind me of the good old days. Looks good, but is totally useless.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Thanks Sir Francis
I came across a prayer attributed to Sir Francis Drake the British explorer of the 16th century. It is a long one so excuse me if my waffle is mostly poem:
It must be a part of the process of age; but I have to confess to frustration at what I frankly see as a narrowing of vision in society today. When something of a controversial nature crops ups like disposal of nuclear waste or the settlement of a less than popular ex-criminal, we often come across the letters NIMBY – Not in my back yard. ‘Yes, we know that something has to be done; but not in my back yard.
Might I suggest that here in good old OZ – I can only speak for what I know – we might also suffer another societal malady called OIMBY – only in my back yard. I am thrilled that we can invest so much money into research for the many cancers that assail us across the world and that a worldwide disaster invariably finds Australians digging deep to generously give support; but what are we doing on a regular basis, week in and week out for a pain wracked world?
It is estimated that a child dies every ten seconds in the world and many of them don’t have to. We have the resources – money, medicine, food – to prevent this yet somehow these children keep on dying. Ronnie and I have sponsored children via Compassion Australia for many years now and will no doubt continue to do so, probably only increasing our support. I have taken too many funerals of little children; but my heart also breaks for the ones that we never hear of. Do we not bear a responsibility toward them?
‘
It is over 200 years since William Wilberforce and his supporters brought an end to the African slave trade and yet slavery continues in 2010 right on our doorstep. ‘Disturb us O Lord when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.’
I don’t believe in the church because of what it is; but because of what it might be, if we could only break the sin of apathy and neglect that contains us in middle class mediocrity, where we have convinced ourselves that all is well on our little ship, while all around others are sinking. Thanks Sir Francis. I appreciated the wake up call.
Disturb us, Lord when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love.
It must be a part of the process of age; but I have to confess to frustration at what I frankly see as a narrowing of vision in society today. When something of a controversial nature crops ups like disposal of nuclear waste or the settlement of a less than popular ex-criminal, we often come across the letters NIMBY – Not in my back yard. ‘Yes, we know that something has to be done; but not in my back yard.
Might I suggest that here in good old OZ – I can only speak for what I know – we might also suffer another societal malady called OIMBY – only in my back yard. I am thrilled that we can invest so much money into research for the many cancers that assail us across the world and that a worldwide disaster invariably finds Australians digging deep to generously give support; but what are we doing on a regular basis, week in and week out for a pain wracked world?
It is estimated that a child dies every ten seconds in the world and many of them don’t have to. We have the resources – money, medicine, food – to prevent this yet somehow these children keep on dying. Ronnie and I have sponsored children via Compassion Australia for many years now and will no doubt continue to do so, probably only increasing our support. I have taken too many funerals of little children; but my heart also breaks for the ones that we never hear of. Do we not bear a responsibility toward them?
‘
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:40Are you aware that slavery is still rampant in the world today? Known today as people trafficking, some 700,000 to two million people are trafficked each year. Children of primary school age are sold into slavery – most often prostitution – just so that their families can eat. As the Delhi Commonwealth Games are in full swing it is worth noting that of the 74 million women reported missing in South Asia, some 20 million are thought to be in Indian brothels of Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata.
It is over 200 years since William Wilberforce and his supporters brought an end to the African slave trade and yet slavery continues in 2010 right on our doorstep. ‘Disturb us O Lord when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.’
I don’t believe in the church because of what it is; but because of what it might be, if we could only break the sin of apathy and neglect that contains us in middle class mediocrity, where we have convinced ourselves that all is well on our little ship, while all around others are sinking. Thanks Sir Francis. I appreciated the wake up call.
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