Wait on The Lord

Recently at Mittagong Anglican Church we had a Moore College mission come for a week.

On the second Sunday of the mission, immediately before the last service of the day at 6pm, one of the students came up to me and said that he had been praying with a group before the previous service when he felt God give him 'a word' for me.

He said this usually wasn't his thing. I said to him in a sigh of exhaustion, 'Is it bad?' He said 'No!' and then quoted these verses from the Bible:

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31

I found this greatly encouraging just a few seconds before I led the last service of the mission. It had been terribly exhausting over the week and I had felt beforehand as if I had no physical or emotional strength left to keep it all together. God was gracious and kind to remind me of that verse.

About 10 days later I was reading through Satisfy Your Soul by Bruce Demarest when I was stopped in my tracks by this passage from the book:

Have you ever wondered what it means to 'wait on the Lord'? I suggest that it is akin to practising the presence of God. Isaiah declares, 'Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. they will fly high on wings like eagles. they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint' (Isaiah 40:31).

So I have been really thinking hard and praying to 'wait on the Lord'. Since the mission finished I have still not recovered. I feel enormously exhausted still even 10 days later, especially emotionally.

New strength from God awaits.

Christian Spirituality - a Context

Theological correctness alone is no balm for the wounds of our frail and sinful humanity...We cannot nourish the mind but neglect the heart....good theology is not enough. There is the serious danger of the emergence of an arid evangelical rationalism.

We can think of spirituality as the internalisation of our faith. It means allowing our faith to saturate every aspect of our lives, infecting and affecting our thinking, feeling and living....the way in which Christian individuals and groups deepen their experience of God.

From Alister Mcgrath, 'Loving God with Heart and Mind', in A McGrath and T George (eds), For All the Saints: Evangelical Theology and Christian Spirituality, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.

The 12 Stones

Hi, nice to talk to you again. It's been too long.

I've learnt a lot from God since we last were together (always grateful to God for that). Can I share some?

1) In 1 Samuel 3 is the story of when God first spoke to Samuel the prophet (and Israel itself again, after God's previous long absence from speaking during the time of Eli the prophet). Samuel hears God, and then at the end of 1 Samuel 3 the narrative says,

And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19).

That last phrase - and let none of his words fall to the ground - God really hit me with that. I've been praying for that for myself, the ministry team here, and the Moore College mission team that's been at Mittagong this week. How awful that the words I speak could fall to the ground. May God keep them all off it.

2) The 12 stones - from Joshua 4:2-20 - placed by Joshua as a way of remembering God - ultimately that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever (Joshua 4:24). Again, hit me between the eyes and made me take the picture above.

3) I've been entranced by the idea of Christian spiritual formation. What a horrible phrase. It's otherwise known as Christian spirituality or Christian formation. Again, these are all horrible names. Basically it's just the idea of daily Christian living. Living in Christ in his fullness and what that looks like.

So, I've been reading Henri Nouwen, Dallas Willard, Bruce Demarest, Eugene Peterson and Marva Dawn. May I strongly recommend any of these writers. Check them on Google books. I think it's what's been missing from my Christian life and education: simply what Christian living looks like and thinks like and acts like.

Jesus as KING as well as SAVIOUR is what I hope to pass on to others in my preaching and speaking. May God continue the transformation.

Listen to the Postman

Neil Postman, that is.

I've been meaning to read his book called "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business", which gives a critique of media and television and their extensive negative influences on our society.

In the meantime, I've read a key Neil Postman idea from the pen of Marva Dawn (probably my very favourite author along with J I Packer) - an idea called the Low Information-Action Ratio (LIAR).

[Quote from Marva Dawn, Preludes to Discovery, in 'The Unnecessary Pastor', p38]

This Low Information Action Ratio (LIAR) is caused by our society's plethora of contextless information. The result of our bombardment with too much data is paralysis - we are not able to, or become not willing to, act on what we hear and see. In fact, television has trained us NOT to act on what we learn. thus, the ratio of action to the amount of information received spirals continually lower...it makes LIARS of us to read the scriptures and not act on God's commands, to hear sermons and not put them into practice.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

In the last year or so my wife Cecily and I have been learning (purely by compulsion - it's required for our son Campbell who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder) to slow our lives down.

You would not believe the improvement in the quality of our lives at every level since we have had to do this: from a parenting point of view; (my) relationship with God; a genuine appreciation of, and enjoyment of, others; enjoying hobbies at a far deeper level than for many years - just to name a sample.

Here's how my lovely wife has summarised our recent journey:

'We had to get to a point where we accepted what we had done with Campbell so far had not worked, and was not going to work. I’m talking about the regular parenting things like naughty spots and reasoning and explanations and smacking and time outs and all of the stuff we all do all the time. We had to completely change our tack with him. We also had to look at our attitudes of how we perceived our children, what we expected from them and why, and what our basic presumptions were.

I realised that I came from a point of view where even though I loved them, I saw the children as unimportant, impositions and also a source of pride and status. What they did reflected on me. If I could make them behave, I looked better and got more kudos as a ‘good parent’. I also wanted them to go away and leave me alone when I was doing most things because they took up time and energy and nothing was as efficient. I also saw them as naughty and gave them consequences accordingly.

People said here and there to me, “Well, even if he autistic, how much of his bad behaviour is just plain old sinfulness?” The assumption was that you had to handle the ‘naughtiness’ with smacks and punishment and time outs, even if he was autistic. Well, the reality was that that stuff just didn’t work with him, even if he is sinful, which of course we all are. I needed other ways to deal with him, so I started reading stuff. One important book was ‘The Explosive Child’ which basically taught me to relax and realise that there are many things that just don’t matter. It also taught me that punishments and time outs put up power struggles. Better to work through and see the child as a partner in solving the problem.

RDI (our rehabilitation programme for Campbell) as well has taught us to take a far more interactive approach with all the children. We command less, and invite more. We do more things together, we slow down, we get rid of things we don’t need and that cause stress. We enjoy our company together and choose less pressurised lives. We don’t worry so much about things that make us appear good and acceptable.'

The Wonder of Generosity

Three young members of my church with not much money were hoping to go to Katoomba Youth Leadership Convention this year (cost $275). In spite of their lack of funds they paid with what they had anyway.

A little later, a money donation came to me from another church member who wanted to pay for them all.

I face my own money issue at present. There is not enough money in the church coffers to support Cecily and I this year in Mittagong. We will know by the end of February whether we are able to stay.

In January, someone sold their second car and gave the church the money to contribute to our staying. People have given anonymous donations. Usually our offertory is around the $2,300 mark - it was $11,000 two weeks ago.

It's a privilege to receive generosity from God's people - and to receive the grace of God himself.

Click on the Two Ways to Live button on my blog to hear more about that grace if you don't already know of it...

A Test of Privilege?

An interesting post from Byron Smith's blog recently. He posts a class consciousness quiz. I thought I would answer this quiz and I invite you to have a go too.

[Text below copied (with modifications) from Step into Social Class 2.0: A Social Class Awareness Experience. Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka, Indiana State University, © 2008. See Rev Sam's post for the original.]

Embolden the true statements.

1. My father went to university.

2. My father finished university.

3. My mother went to university.

4. My mother finished university.

5. Have any relative who is or was a lawyer, doctor or academic.

6. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.

7. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.

8. Were read children’s books by a parent.

9. Had extra-curricular lessons of any kind before you turned 18.

10. Had more than two kinds of extra-curricular lessons before you turned 18.

11. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.

12. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.

13. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your university costs.

14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your university costs.

15. Went to a private primary school.

16. Went to a private high school.

17. Your family regularly employed a cleaner.

18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.

19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.

20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.

21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.

23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.

24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.

25. You had your own room as a child.

26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.

27. Participated in an HSC preparation course or study camp outside of school.

28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.

29. Owned a mutual fund or shares in high school or university.

30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.

31. Went on a cruise with your family.

32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.

33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.

34. Growing up, you were unaware of how much electricity bills cost for your family.

I scored 18 out of 34. An interesting set of questions to answer.

Billy Stewart Sings 'Summertime'

I'm on holidays this week and have discovered the music of Billy Stewart. I'm listening to his version of 'Summertime'.

He made this arrangement of Summertime when he was only 29 - (fantastic achievement!) - then died in a car accident only a few years later. What a loss. You can find his music on iTunes if you are interested.

Coincidentally, being 35, I have been aware of my own mortality in the last year. I was thinking - if I was to live out an Australian average male age, I would have maybe 45 years or so left to live...although I like to think of it as being half way to heaven (if not way more than half, only God knows that one) now.

Being a bit slow on the uptake, being much more aware of my mortality has been truly, marvellously liberating.

Paul, when he was commenting on those who preached the gospel out of false motives in Philippians, could say 'What does it matter? the important thing is the gospel is preached'.

It feels kind of like that. Time is short. Petty things become clearer. Forgiveness seems to come easier with a 'forward to heaven' perspective. Seeing what is important and decision making becomes sharper and much more fun!

This may seem like a morbid post, but actually it's a post about Christian freedom!

Incidentally, have you noticed how hard it is to find the definitive 80s music collection??

From Your Lips She Drew the Hallelujah

Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this the fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain

I don't even know the name

But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?

There's a blaze of light in every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah

Baby, I've been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor.

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I've seen your flag on the marble arch,

But love is not some kind of victory march,

No it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah.

There was a time you let me know

What's really going on below,

but now you never show it to me, do you?

I remember when I moved in you,

And the holy dove was moving too,

and every breath we drew was Hallelujah.

Now maybe there's a God above,

As for me, all I ever learned from love

Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.

And it's no complaint you hear tonight,

and It's not some pilgrim who's seen the light

it's a cold and it's a very lonely Hallelujah.

(Words by Leonard Cohen)

(Hear this beautiful song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMrZ7lChK-g)