Monday 23 January 2017

St Barnabas devotional


Introduction


I was leading a prayer meeting and bible study on Thursday morning and I came across a verse I had a problem with. It’s in 1 Peter 2:2.  It says “like newborns CRAVE pure spiritual milk.”  I’m interested in the verb in this sentence this morning. Crave. In Greek “ἐπιποθήσατε - epipothēsate”.  It’s an imperative form of the verb “epipotheó”.  Everywhere else in the NT it’s used in the present tense – ‘I crave’ – only here is it a command ‘crave!’

Let me show tell you why I had a problem with that verse.  My wife and I have had three children – and during each of the pregnancies she had different cravings.  The first pregnancy involved me getting up at 6am and making fish finger sandwiches for a couple of weeks.  It’s pretty inconvenient but it’s relatively cheap and a pretty easy way to show her that I was a good ‘involved’ husband – whatever that means.

The second pregnancy was a problem.  See we had a lower combined income than before and when I got home from work and Emily said she was craving fillet steak I was pretty frustrated.  Every night she was desperate to eat steak and spinach for tea.  I’ve got no problem with steak – but our bank account did, and to be honest I wasn’t super keen about going out to buy steak when I got home after work.

Imagine then – if you dare – that I turned round to Emily and said “craving steak is stupid – crave fish fingers instead!”  What do you think would happen to me?  I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t have been a third pregnancy.

You can’t tell someone what to crave.  Can you?

Guard your heart

One of my favourite verses in the Bible is Proverbs 4:23.  It’s been translated in different ways because the concept is tricky to communicate in English – but literally Proverbs 4:23 says something like this:

Before doing anything else – before guarding anything else – ahead of any other protection – guard, protect your heart.  Because it is the very source of your life – all your life comes from it – everything you do flows from it.

Micah, my son, is five and he invented a phrase last year – keep a care.  I think it helps us here – doesn’t quite work in English but you understand what he’s saying – keep a care on your heart.  Keep a care on your heart bigly.  Is that a word now as well?!

We’ve been theology students for a while now – so you don’t need me to tell you that ‘the heart’ from any biblical worldview is more than our emotions.  The heart, as Oswald Chambers said, is:
"best understood if we simply say “me,” it is the central citadel of a man’s personality. The heart is the altar of which the physical body is the outer court, and whatever is offered on the altar of the heart will tell ultimately through the extremities of the body. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

The heart is the seat of all our cravings.  Everything we desire, we desire it because our hearts desire it.  So when Solomon says to keep a care on your heart bigly – he’s talking about sorting out your cravings.  Crave pure spiritual milk.

Why? Because everything we do flows from the cravings of our hearts.  All our ministry flows from the cravings of our hearts.

If we crave fame?  We’ll be gutted when no one notices us, and proud when someone does.

If we crave sexual gratification?  We’ll be angry when something gets in the way – maybe an institution, a person or even our own bodies – and led into all kinds of debauchery by what offers us gratification.

If we crave power?  We’ll be dangerous when we don’t get our way and easily swayed by who or whatever offers us power.

Brothers and sisters, keep a care on your hearts bigly.

As Jesus himself said: out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, or:

"It is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly"

This morning I’m going to offer you one thing you can do which will guarantee to keep a care on your heart.

Eyes on Jesus

Eyes on Jesus.

The author of Hebrews had it right
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus... consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews knows that the heart is always craving.  The only way to stop a heart from craving is to kill it.  Surely we must have a better solution – surely we must offer the heart something better to crave after.

It’s all over the Bible – it doesn’t matter how true your beliefs.  It doesn’t matter how right your actions.  If your heart is sick your life is sick.

There are two biblical solutions for a sick heart.  God has done the first one – he has taken from us a heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh.  The second solution – once we have a new heart – crave well.

Someone in the Bible study I was leading suggested that if they were to talk about chocolate for five minutes then everyone would want to eat chocolate.  How much more with Jesus?

We don’t glorify Jesus because he is on an ego trip – we glorify Jesus because as we lift up Jesus he wins our hearts.  You don’t sing his praises because he needs it – we sing his praises because our hearts need to hear it.  My heart needs to hear your singing.

The great Puritan pastor, John Flavel, reflecting on our proverb, wrote that the heart is like a stringed instrument that can be tuned – but needs retuning every day and in every new situation.
“and therefore every duty needs particular preparation of the heart”

Conclusion

Let us make much of Jesus today.  Let us lift him up as the hero of our ethics, our linguistics and our preaching.  Let us learn to glorify Jesus in our apologetics, our study of mission and our biblical studies.  For the sake of our hearts.

As we do it we are protecting our hearts – and helping each other to find life.  But more importantly – as we practice exalting Jesus in our studies we will learn to exalt Jesus in our lives.  Lifting up Jesus is the only way to guard your heart.  More than anything lift up Jesus – adore him in your heart because from it flows the springs of life.


And maybe as we go and minister from this place in days and weeks and years to come we will be known as people who make much of Jesus – and by lifting up Jesus the people we serve will not only learn to think rightly.  They will not only learn how to live rightly.  They will learn how to crave rightly – and that is the greatest gift a pastor can impart.

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Present Presence

They’re two words that sound an awful lot alike.
  • Present: NOUN “the thing put into the presence of another”
  • Presence: NOUN  “the state or fact of being present – as with others”
I’ve not bought my wife her Christmas present yet this year.  In fact it’s her birthday two days before Christmas and I’ve not sorted that either.  Queue the anxiety, frantic impulsive shopping and stressful waiting to see what she thinks…

What should I get her?

Maybe there’s a clue in the talk I did last week at a men’s breakfast where I was encouraging men to love their wives, (and to some extent the other women and children in their lives) as Christ loved the church.  How did Jesus love the church?  Ephesians 5 says by ‘giving himself up for her’.  There’s a clear sense in which Jesus gave himself as a gift to the church and we should give ourselves as a gift to our wives.

Give myself?  If that sound odd to you then I’m with you.  What on earth does that mean?

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Friday Night Theology

I wrote this blog for the Evangelical Alliance a few months ago and re-posting it here so I can find it in future.  The original is: http://www.eauk.org/culture/friday-night-theology/to-die-is-gain.cfm


Sunday 2 October 2016

At the Pearly Gates

What state do you want to be in when you meet St Peter at the Pearly Gates?

It seems to me that the goal of much western Christianity is to arrive in style.  The physical style of the most relevant hairstyles and inculturated clothes.  The emotional style of the most ‘chillax-ed’ horizontal hippie you might hope to never imagine.  The spiritual style of the expensive-suit-wearing, bearer of glazed eyes – the pastor in a mid-life crisis extending their adolescence so that they might be ‘attractive’ to their generation.

Arriving in style might be in vogue but it’s not my style.

I don’t exactly believe in the image of the pearly gates and St Peter with a silky white gown and a shiny golden halo – but even if I did I wouldn’t want to match his style on arrival.

Monday 26 September 2016

Check out those Love Jugs

You’ve heard of the idea of love languages right?

Basically it’s the idea that we understand love given and received in a certain form better than others.  You might give and receive love in terms of touch.  You might give and receive love through helping out – serving people.  You might understand love communicated through kind words, quality time & attention or possibly even through giving and receiving gifts.

Love languages.  They’ve helped my wife and me understand and communicate our love better.  I think they’re great but let’s not get stuck in one metaphor.

Studies: Scripture and Authority

Here’s the question of the week:  if the Bible is a story, in what sense can it be authoritative?

This is my first ever class in academic theology and I was slightly underwhelmed.  My first reflection was that it was rather a bizarre reflection on the philosophy of language, the way in which God might or might not guide our behaviour and the destruction of some fairly feeble straw men.

We got tied up in knots discussing whether God dictates the Bible or in some other sense fixes every iota of the text in some magical way.  We felt good about ourselves for dismissing the demythologising of the likes of Spinoza, Kant and Bultmann.

There was a fairly frustrated discussion about the degree to which the church creates or discovers the Scriptures. And we had fun ridiculing the ESV for fixing their translation for all time after a couple of pretty controversial translation edits in the final version.

I’m no academic theologian – at least not yet – but I’m a Pastor and practical theologian by trade.
My sense is that people need to know they can trust the Bible as authoritative – but they have no idea quite what that means.  This class did little to reinforce or clarify but it did allow for some interesting exchanges.

For what it’s worth – probably nothing in an academic sense – my answer to the authority question is fairly simple.  It’s all about Jesus.

Thursday 4 February 2016

You are my son


Let me tell you about this hero.  Ethan is 5 now - nearly 6.  He's hilarious, beautiful and smart.  He's the world's greatest oldest brother - and has the world at his feet.

Last week my wife and I had a couple over to dinner after he (and his little brother and sister) had gone to bed. Just as we're serving food he rocks up in the dining room asking for a drink - he didn't know we had guests over and when they greeted him he was terrified.

I'm standing near Ethan so I pick him up and hold him close.  Ethan buries his head in my chest and looks for the world to swallow him up.  I feel for you little man - I've been there - we've all been there.

Except this time your dad's got you safe.  I introduced him like this:

"Hey guys this is Ethan.  He's amazing.  He's so big he's nearly six now.  Did you know he is so clever - he even got 6 on his spelling test this morning.  He's my biggest boy and I'm so proud of him."  Or something equally gushing and cringe-worthy.

Except he didn't cringe.  He didn't hide even more.  He jumped down to show off his spellings, talked about his day at school and his computer game and his little brother.  He came out of himself and our guests got to see the 'real' Ethan.

I wonder if that's how Jesus felt when the Father says "this is my son - I love him - I'm proud of him"?  As Christians we have the same status as Jesus - so maybe today - if you're struggling to show people the 'real' you the solution is not another social media update, drink or label.  Maybe just maybe the solution is stopping to let yourself hear God your Father whisper

"You are mine.  I love you.  I'm proud of you."

It worked for Ethan.