Archive for the 'Faith' CategoryPage 2 of 2

More meaning at Christmas

Published
by
Graeme
on December 18, 2007
in Faith
. 0 Comments

In the last post I wrote about some of the things we’ve been up to this Christmas! The other thing was on Sunday evening which was our Carol Service. Our normal Sunday night congregation is around a dozen people, but for our carol service we had 33 in the hall. This was wonderful as that is most who have been there since I’ve been at the corps!

This year the Carol Service was quite a traditional affair, with contributions from the band and songsters plus carols and readings. As is normal I did a short talk and it’s that I’d like to share with you!

I’m pretty certain that if you were to ask the majority of adults whether Christmas is about giving or receiving, then the answer that would come back is that it’s about giving.

This is true, but it seems that even giving is becoming detrimental to the Christmas spirit. There are various reasons for this but two stand out. Firstly, for many, it seems that each year they need to out do what they did last year. So the presents they give have to be bigger and better and more expensive than they did last year. What’s worse is that in a generation that seems to have everything available to them a lot of what is bought is simply unnecessary.

The second problem is in many ways a direct result of the first. At a time when the inhabitants of this country spent more than half a billion pounds on credit card last year and when the Citizens Advice Bureau has dealt with 1.7 million debt problems in the last 12 months, the follow up to Christmas this year is not going to be a happy time for many people.

But maybe that’s because the focus has got all screwed up! Maybe Christmas is not actually about giving after all! Maybe Christmas is actually about receiving.

Tonight we’ve sung carols and read parts of the Bible that talk about the arrival of Jesus Christ, the person who Christmas is all about.

You see Christmas is really about receiving the gift that God gave to us just over 2000 years ago. In a secular world it seems that maybe Father Christmas is the central figure of the Christmas story, but it’s not true, because really he’s just another symptom of a consumer led society!

The reality is that Christians believe that we are celebrating that God gave us the greatest gift that could ever be given. The first Christmas present was the best Christmas present ever, God’s own son.

God gave us the gift of Jesus so that he could heal the relationship between himself and us. He gave us Jesus so that the world would become a better place as those who believe in him live a life that reflects the gift.

The real meaning of Christmas is receiving this gift and accepting everything that comes with it!

This Christmas, what will be your response to the gift of that first Christmas?

Confrontational Evangelism

Published
by
Graeme
on October 23, 2007
in Faith and Mission
. 0 Comments

On my way from WeightWatchers1 to the hall this morning I was listening to Rob Bell’s podcast from Mars Hill. Whilst I know that this is enough to get me ostracised in some circles, I felt that he had an interesting point in the sermon that I was listening to.

He says this:

‘I would argue that many … have been taught the Christian faith in terms of conquest and persuasion. By conquest, I would argue, that for many people the way they’ve been taught the Christian faith is, “You are right! Other people are wrong! Your job is to convince them of their wrongness and at the same time … convince them of your rightness.” I would argue that for others their fundamental paradigm is that of persuasion or proving. “You follow Jesus! Somebody else doesn’t! Therefore the nature of your relationship is proving to them the rightness and truth of your worldview, over and against the wrongness and error of their’s”‘

My mind was instantly taken back to a situation a few years ago with a good friend. He had been trying to reason his way into faith in Christ for many months and everyone around him was more than willing to debate with him and answer his questions, to which he would always come back with more. There came a point, over a drink in a pub one evening, when I simply turned round and said to him that he can ask all the questions he likes, but sooner or later he will come to a choice between taking a step of faith or not! Eventually he did take that step!

Rob Bell goes on to say that Jesus speaks of faith as ’satisfaction’. In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, he offers her the water of life. Rather than an intellectual discussion that can end up antagonistic, Jesus says that true faith will satisfy the deep longing we all have in our lives. How do we find that method of evangelism today? How do we show to a generation that is clearly seeking for something of meaning in their lives, to a generation that is turned off ‘Church’ by the seeming arrogance or irrelevance of what it appears to stand for, that faith in our God will actually satisfy that longing they have?

Is it through reasoned, or sometimes unreasonable, debate and apologetics? Or is it in another way?

1 Lost another 3lbs (1.5kg) :D ! That makes 11 1/2 in just over 5 weeks!

Stir it up!

Published
by
Graeme
on October 7, 2007
in Faith
. 1 Comment

This morning the theme of the sermon was “Stir it up”. The idea came from the passage in 2 Timothy 1:6Open Link in New Window where Paul says to Timothy that he should stir up, or fan into flame, the gift that was in him through the laying on of hands.

It is very easy for us, as Christians, to get into a routine sort of life that eventually leads us to a faith that grows stagnate. Ours is a faith that cannot stay still. The moment we lose momentum in our daily striving to be more like Christ, is the moment when we start to settle for something less than the fulness that we have in Christ.

As I was reading I realised one thing that really stood out for me in the text; Paul was telling Timothy that he should stir up the gift. That is the real issue here! We need to be prepared to stir up our own faith. It’s not enough for us to simply wait for someone else to fan the embers of our lost passion; we need to do it ourself. We need to find ways to regain our forward momentum in faith, instead of waiting for someone to give us a push. Only if we do this ourselves can we really hope to maintain our faith in the future.

This is something I’ve discovered over the last few weeks. I can no longer expect others to provide the inspiration for me to go forward in faith, I have to do it for myself. I have to have the passion to read the Bible, to study His word and find the depth in it. Yes I can use others to both inform my study and study with, but only if I choose to put my all into it, and to shake myself up, will I really learn anything and hear God’s voice. Only when the Holy Spirit is stirred into action in my heart and I relinquish control to the Spirit can I truly become more like Christ.

My God is an awesome God!

Published
by
Graeme
on September 2, 2007
in Faith and My Pilgrimage
. 0 Comments

We still don’t have a good internet connection here, but I’ve signed us up for a broadband service which should be up and running in the next couple of weeks! Hopefully, once that’s sorted, I’ll be able to update more often.

However, this morning I was reading my daily reading which was Psalm 97Open Link in New Window. As I read the following thought came to mind. Obviously as Christians we know that God is the creator of the whole of existence and that He can do anything He chooses to. Throughout the Bible we see how He is so awesome that the things that He does changes the lives of individuals, communities and nations. However, more often than not in our own lives we don’t rely on that power and fall into the trap of placing our trust in the things of man.

There is a song that has meant a lot to me over the years and the words are:

I have made You to small in my eyes
O Lord, forgive me;
And I have believed in a lie
That You were unable to help me.
But now, O Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong;
And in my eyes and with my song
O Lord, be magnified
O Lord, be magnified.

I have leaned on the wisdom of men
O Lord, forgive me;
And I have responded to them
Instead of Your light and your mercy.
But now, O Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong;
And in my eyes and with my song
O Lord, be magnified
O Lord, be magnified.

Be magnified, O Lord
You are highly exalted;
And there is nothing You can’t do
O Lord, my eyes are on You.
Be magnified,
O Lord, be magnified.

Why do we do this? Why is it that we fall into the trap of reducing the power of God and Jesus to little more than a glorified set of party tricks? I think the clue to the answer goes back to the Garden of Eden and Satan’s first interaction with humanity. In Genesis 3:1Open Link in New Window the serpent as Eve, “Did God really say…?”. Ever since then, he has done the self same thing to everyone else; he makes us question the things we read, hear and experience. When we start questioning the things of God there is a danger that doubt can start to set in. This is not to say that we should accept everything that others tell about Him without question, but we have to be careful what questions we ask.

Flying like geese

Published
by
Graeme
on June 28, 2007
in Faith
. 3 Comments

Having read a little bit of Søren Kierkegaard’s writing I’m coming to the conclusion that he was a fan of geese. Certainly, I’ve so far discovered at 4 parables based around the practices of geese. I read this one earlier today in Threshold of the Future by Michael Riddell. It’s my favourite of the geese parables I’ve read so far!

A certain flock of geese lived together in a barnyard with great high walls around it. Because the corn was good and the barnyard was secure, these geese would never take a risk. One day a philosopher goose came among them. He was a very good philosopher and every week they listened quietly and attentively to his learned discourses. “My fellow travellers on the way of life,” he would say, “Can you seriously imagine that this barnyard, with great high walls around it, is all there is to existence?”

“I tell you, there is another and greater world outside, a world of which we are only dimly aware. Our forefathers knew of this outside world. For did they not stretch their wings and fly across the trackless wastes of desert and ocean, of green valley and wooded hill? But alas, here we remain in this barnyard, our wings folded and tucked into our sides, as we are content to puddle in the mud, never lifting our eyes to the heavens which should be our home.”

The geese thought this was very fine lecturing. “How poetical,” they thought. “How profoundly existential. What a flawless summary of the mystery of existence.” Often the philosopher spoke of the advantages of flight, calling on the geese to be what they were. After all, they had wings, he pointed out. What were the wings for, but to fly with? Often he reflected on the beauty and wonder of life outside the barnyard, and the freedom of the skies.

And every week the geese were uplifted, inspired, moved by the philosopher’s message. They hung on his every word. They devoted hours, weeks, months to a thoroughgoing analysis and critical evaluation of his doctrine. They produced learned treatises on the ethical and spiritual implications of flight. All this they did. But one thing they never did. They did not fly! For the corn was good and the barnyard was secure!

He has said this so eloquently I won’t even try to add anything of my own! It speaks for itself.