Stop having fun!

There's a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was "The sort of person who is always snooping round to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it."

- C. S. Lewis, Christian Behaviour, (J. and J. Gray, Edinburgh, 1934) p. 7

The Grass is Greener

If the grass is greener on the other side, you can bet their water bill is higher.

- Charles R. Swindoll

Or perhaps:

If the grass is greener on the other side that just means you need to water your own grass.

- Brian Houston

Flying in the Fog

To get a pilot's licence, you have to get an "instrument rating". This means that you understand the instruments that your plane is equipped with - compass, altimeter etc. - and are capable of flying your plane using those and nothing else should the need arise. This is important, because otherwise it is easy to become disoriented when flying through fog or cloud. In some circumstances it is even possible for pilots to suffer what is called vertigo - 'up' and 'down' become confused, and you feel like you're upright when you're actually upside down.

To be able to fly using instruments only, a pilot needs the following:

• Good instruments: What's the point in relying on your instruments if they are telling you the wrong thing? Even a slightly misaligned compass can lead you a long way off course.
  
• Understanding: You need to know how to use your instruments in order for them to be useful. You could hand me a compass, or a GPS device, but unless I had been taught how to use it it would be nothing more than a paperweight to me.
  
• Faith: Sometimes a pilot has to believe his instruments, even when they are in direct contradiction to what his senses are telling him.

I believe that Christians, too, need to get an "instrument rating". Too easily we can get caught up in what our senses are telling us about the world that we are deceived. I believe that this is what happened for John the Baptist, when he sent word to Jesus to ask if he really was the Messiah, or if they should be looking for someone else (Matthew 11:2-6). This was a bit of a strange question, really, since John had been one of the very first to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 3:13-17), and had witnessed "the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on him." (16) and the "voice from heaven" proclaiming "'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'" (17).

Things had taken a bit of a bad turn for John since then, however, and he was now in gaol and facing death. Is it any wonder that he began to think that something must have gone wrong somewhere?

Jesus' response serves to remind John of his instruments. First, he suggests that John needs to consider more than just his immediate surroundings - he tells the messenger to let John know about all the wonderful things that are happening. The things he specifically directs the messengers to take not of, however, are particularly important as they are things spoken of in the scriptures as being indicative of the Messiah. Jesus is commanding, "Go back to your Bible and compare what you find there with what your disciples report - then answer the question for yourself."

The Bible is Jesus' answer to not knowing which way is up and which way down. When being tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), it is scripture which Jesus relies upon in overcoming Satan. If he allowed himself to be caught up in his own situation (I love the subtly understated "After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry" (2)!) then Satan's suggestions would no doubt have seemed like good sense - after all, how could he possibly be any good to anyone if he starved to death? Perhaps it would be easier to accept the world from Satan's hand as a gift, rather than pay the price to buy it back. But Jesus knew the scriptures and trusted that the words spoken there were truth, even though his senses and his understanding of the world he was in right then and there were screaming there was a better way.

We need that instrument for ourselves. We need to know what the Bible says in order to know what is right. We need to rely on scripture to navigate us through the fog of this life. We need to trust God's word, even when it seems totally contrary to what our senses are telling us.

Are you instrument rated?

Hope

Hope is the form that faith takes under the threat of death.

- Edmund Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter (IVP, 1994) p. 148

Pleasing God: Fear and Hope

(The audio for this sermon is available here.)

When I was little, few things could make me happier than to bring a smile to my parents' face. I used to love Fathers' and Mothers' days, because they meant that I could get a present and enjoy watching them unwrap it, and could bring them breakfast in bed then crawl in beside them and enjoy their company. Whether it was because of something I said or did, just knowing that I had brought them joy, that they were rejoicing in their love for me brought me great pleasure. Which is not to say, of course, that this was always foremost in my mind. Plenty of times I made them sad, angry or disappointed too, and that generally wasn't so fun.

Nowadays, I particularly enjoy delighting and surprising my wife, Katrie. I love to surprise her, to express my love for her in as many different ways as I can think of - I might cook a special meal, or plan a special night out or organise some time when we can just do something entirely random. Once or twice I've even bought her flowers, but I tend to save that up for really special occasions!

I remember when we were dating, we used to leave notes for one another in innocuous places - in books, on the computer, in the microwave - just for the knowledge that it would be appreciated by the other person. I once heard of a couple who did the same thing, and she unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper so that she could write him a note on the last square. I just hope he wasn't in too much of a hurry to appreciate it!

The Bible describes this kind of pleasure using the word 'delight', and tells us that God responds that way to us. We are his children and we delight him. True, sometimes we make him sad, angry or disappointed, but the fact remains that he loves us, and we bring him great joy - he delights in us, rejoices in us, cherishes us as his precious, precious children.

This week and next week, we're going to look at some of the things that the Bible tells us delight God.

Psalm 147 - The Lord Delights in those...

1 Praise the LORD.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.

3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.

4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.

5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.

6 The LORD sustains the humble
but casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
make music to our God on the harp.

8 He covers the sky with clouds;
he supplies the earth with rain
and makes grass grow on the hills.

9 He provides food for the cattle
and for the young ravens when they call.

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of a man;

11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

12 Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion,

13 for he strengthens the bars of your gates
and blesses your people within you.

14 He grants peace to your borders
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

15 He sends his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.

16 He spreads the snow like wool
and scatters the frost like ashes.

17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
Who can withstand his icy blast?

18 He sends his word and melts them;
he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

19 He has revealed his word to Jacob,
his laws and decrees to Israel.

20 He has done this for no other nation;
they do not know his laws.

Praise the LORD.

- Psalm 147

Psalm 147 is a psalm of praise to God, the creator and Lord over all - possibly written for the dedication of the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem (see Ne 12:27-43). It is a psalm that touches on the ways God has blessed Israel, building it up, gathering exiles, healing the brokenhearted and binding their wounds. God is revealed as a God of great wonder, great power and great mercy.

Yet the key to understanding this psalm, the very heart of it, lies not in his power, his wonder or his mercy but in his delight.

11 the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

In verse 11 we are told how we should respond to all the other stuff in the psalm. If we want to please the LORD, we need to fear him. If we want to delight him, we must put [our] hope in his unfailing love.

But what does this mean?

God, because of his love for us, desires relationship with us. What's more, he loves it when we seek him out, when we turn to him and pursue relationship with him in turn. He loves it.

Jesus gives us the beginnings of insight into God's delight when he tells the parable of the Lost (or Prodigal) Son (Luke 15:11-32). Picture for a moment the son, finally returning after being all but given up for dead, being embraced by the father who, "filled with compassion for him" (20) orders that a massive party be thrown in his honour - how's that for delight? As he later explains to his other son, "'We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'" (32). The son was not loved because of his actions - after all, by asking for his inheritance he effectively said to his father, "I wish you were dead" - but because of who he was and because of the relationship between them.

I'm fairly certain that my parents' delight when I brought them presents was not directly because of the presents that I gave. Let's face it, a $2 piece of slice wrapped in cellophane and all but destroyed by that peculiar mode of transport we call the school bag cannot have been all that appealing!

I remember that one time I decided to make breakfast in bed for both Mum and Dad. The only trouble was that I had never made either tea or coffee before... but how hard could it be? Now Dad used to drink instant coffee, but Mum used to have tea leaves. I knew that the strainer came into the whole thing somewhere, but wasn't quite sure where... and so I put the coffee in to the strainer and poured hot water through it, and put the tea leaves in the bottom of a cup and poured boiling water in on top. Needless to say, Dad ended up drinking what was, to all intents and purposes, hot water, whilst Mum's hot water had floaties in it! They both smiled, though, however crookedly, and thanked me profusely, heaping me with praise for my kind actions - you see, they were interested not so much in the gift as they were in the heart of the giver. They knew that my gifts were merely a token of the love that I bear for them, and the I was expressing that love the best way I knew how.

In the same way, God is more interested in our attitude as we approach him than in our actions. Some Christians have conceived this idea of God as being like some elderly relative who, so long as you say the right things, suffer your cheeks to be pinched and write a nice thank-you note for them to show to their friends, will give you presents (at least) twice a year. But God is not like that at all. If I'm singing half-hearted praise to him, if I pray with my lips but not with my heart, if I insist on trying to conform God into my own image and plans then that is abhorrent to him. God will not tolerate people who seek him out trusting in their own righteousness, nor will he put up with braggarts or boasters. The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground (6).

Instead, the psalmist spells out the attitude that we are to have when we come into God's presence - one of fear, and of hope.

... who fear him

Fear is a word commonly used in the Bible, particularly in relation to God. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7) we are told. It usually has one of two meanings: terror; or awe.

Terror is the kind of fear we are most familiar with. We're afraid of many things: snakes, spiders, sharks; heights, depths, small spaces, large spaces, empty spaces; separation, commitment, rejection. In fact, I looked up phobias on the internet and found a site where they are listed from ablutophobia (the fear of washing or bathing) all the way through to zoophobia (the fear of animals) - some 530+ in all! Indeed, we make and watch entire movies whose sole purpose is to scare the wits out of us!

Psalm 147 alludes to many things of which we might rightly be afraid: a God of piercing knowledge, able to count the stars and call them by name (4, 5) surely knows all of our secrets, the ones we'd rather stayed buried; a God who can cover the sky with clouds and supply the earth with rain, who makes the grass grow on the hills and provides food for the cattle(8,9), well, what happens if he decides to stop doing those things? Who can withstand his icy blast? (17)

Is it God's desire then that we should cower in fear whenever we are in his presence?

We've already established that he is a God of love, that he rushes to meet us when we return to him. Indeed Psalm 147 gives more evidence (as if we needed any) of God's unfailing love for us... he builds up Jerusalem' he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (2, 3), and He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat. (14). No, this is not the picture of a God bent on intimidating us into cowering submission and incoherent terror!

Instead, it is God's intention that we should approach him with awe and respect.

Imagine for a moment that you were presented with the opportunity to meet with your greatest hero, or someone who you respect above all others. What would you do to prepare yourself? Who here would rock up drunk to a meeting with the Queen? Or would go to a wedding or a funeral wearing stubbies and thongs? Even if you did, you would know it was wrong, right? Why? Because there are certain people and certain events that demand our respect.

In certain people, both of these aspects get mixed. For example, when pulled over by a police officer, most of us are able to respect that he or she is doing their job. At the same time, however, we know that the officer has the power to take away our licence, impound our vehicle or even to imprison us - and this leads us to fear that they might do so. Similarly, imagine yourself in front of a judge, who has the power to fine you, imprison you or even (in some places) condemn you to death. Even an innocent person might be afraid in such a setting, because what if the judge got it wrong?

But if there was ever a person for whom fear and respect were in order, it is Jesus. When the time comes, and all the peoples of the earth stand before him, Jesus himself tells us that "'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" (Romans 14:11, quoting Isaiah 45:23; see also Philippians 2:10-11) Note what it doesn't say. It doesn't say "some knees", or "most knees". It doesn't even say "every Christian knee". No, when Jesus comes again, and is revealed in his glory as the Judge of all the Earth, everyone will acknowledge him as their Lord. I assure you that, when that happens, both kinds of fear we have talked about will be present to some extent or another in every mind. Who can doubt that we will be in awe of Jesus, who "will come like a thief in the night" (1 Thess 5:2) and yet will be undisguisable in the same way that "lightning that comes from the east is visible in the west" (Matt 24:27)? Who can even imagine standing before Jesus and not harbouring the tiniest amount of fear - even an innocent man standing before a judge has his doubts and fears, how much more should we who are far from innocent and standing before the One who knows everything we ever did?

There will be a difference, however, between those whose uppermost thought is one of fear and those who are overcome with awe. That difference will be where they have placed their hope.

... who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Now we've come to the heart of the matter.

Picture, if you will, the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and friend finally reach the Emerald City. As they are escorted through the city, drinking in the wonders of a horse of many colours and the grandeur of the great city, their trepidation steadily builds, climaxing as they are ushered into the vast chamber of the Wizard himself. As the Wizard's voice booms out, all of them are afraid, not least the cowardly Lion whose knees are almost visibly knocking together. And yet they don't turn tail and run. Why? They have heard the tales of a Wizard who is good, who is able to help them out of their various predicaments. They have come in hope that he will do so, and their hope overcomes their fear.

One guy describes it like this:

There is a beautiful relation between hope and fear... They are like the cork in a fisherman's net, which keeps it from sinking, and the lead, which prevents it from floating.

- George Seaton Bowes, In Prospect of Sunday, quoted in C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David (Hendrickson) Vol. 3, p. 430

Together our fear and our hope keep us with a proper attitude towards God. Psalm 147 is drenched in this balance: on the one hand you have the LORD, counter of stars, mighty in power, with limitless understanding (4,5), who hurls down his hail like pebbles (17) and is, above all others, worthy of fear; on the other hand stands the LORD whose lovingkindness for Israel stretches across generations, whose provision brings prosperity (8,9), who has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel (19) as a sign of his covenant with them, his special promise that he will be their God, and they will be his people - cause for hope above all others.

Let's take a moment to consider what kind of hope we're talking about here. Hope as the world would describe it is something of chance. "I hope I win the lottery," "I hope you have a nice day," or "Hopefully it won't rain." We are expressing a desire that something will (or won't) come about. Usually it is something we have no control over. And usually we have some sort of backup plan in case it doesn't happen.

That's not the kind of hope Psalm 147 talks about. Listen again to verses 10 and 11:

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of a man;
the LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Horses and the legs of men represent cavalry and infantry, the armies of ancient times. The psalmist is deliberately setting up a contrast between those who rely upon their own strength rather than God's mercy and love. This is particularly poignant if, as is speculated, this psalm was written for the occasion when the returned exiles had just finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. In that light, God is saying through the psalmist, "Even though you now have walls, even though you have kings for friends (for the moment), don't rely on them. Rely on me."

This is a reminder for us as a nation. How much do we Australians rely on our strength, easy-going natures, tolerance and our relatively peaceful and democratic society? We define ourselves by who we are friends with, we go to war overseas to prevent war coming to us. We feel safe because of our physical distance from other nations. Let me ask you, is our hope in our horses and men, or is it in God's unfailing love? When the chips are down, do we turn to God? Or to the Americans? When we consider our world in chaos, climate change out of control, floods, cyclones, fires, hail storms, tsunamis - where is our hope in these things? In God's love? Or in our own efforts?

More than just a message to our nation, though, I believe that Psalm 147 challenges us to consider our own attitude towards God. Let's play a game. In your head, I want you to finish each of these sentences:

• When things are hard, I am encouraged because...


• When things go wrong, and not according to plan, it's OK because...


• When I screw up, when I let myself and everyone around me down, I tell myself that...


• When the chips are down, when all other hopes have disappeared, the one that will remain is that...

How'd you go? What kinds of things came to mind? Here are some of mine: I have an education; I have a job; I am resourceful, and will find a way through somehow; I have friends and family who love me; I'm an Australian. Perhaps you came up with some others: I'm a good person; I'm attractive; I'm healthy (or perhaps I have the right doctors); I know the right people; I have the right girlfriend/boyfriend; I come from the right family; I'm financially secure; I've done this before. Some of you might even have "spiritual" answers: I go to church; I pray; I read the Bible.

Your answers to each of those questions reveal where your hope lies. And unless your first word in finishing each one was "God", your hope is in yourself - your qualities, your possessions, your relationships, your actions. But what happens when those things are taken away? What will you do for hope then? Compare this with placing your hope in God's unfailing love, a love that will not ever be taken away, a love backed by the power to transform your life, a God who makes "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" (Jer 29:11), both in this life and the next. God loves us. Unfailingly. He preserves our inheritance for us in heaven, and he shields us until the time comes for us to receive it (1 Pet 1:4-5).

I was reminded recently of the story of Jairus and his daughter (Luke 8:41-56). Jairus, a "ruler of the synagogue" (41), was an important man whose job would have included reading the scriptures in the synagogue and perhaps preaching from them; he would have prayed with and for the sick; he would also have been responsible for protecting the people under his care from 'false Messiahs', of whom he no doubt considered Jesus to be one. When "his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying," (42) he would certainly have prayed for her - after all that was his job. But that didn't work. I can imagine him there on his knees, pleading with God: "I have served you all these years, I have studied your word, I have cared for your people - haven't I earned the right to have you heal my daughter? Whatever I have to do, I'll do it! Just, please, please, save her." All of his hopes had been stripped away. None of them were any good now. Can you imagine his confusion when God's response was, "You need Jesus" ? Can you imagine the mixed feelings as he "fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house" (41)? How about the emotional yo-yo as Jesus first says he will come, then stops half-way there for some seemingly trivial matter of someone touching him, the arrival of messengers to inform Jairus that his daughter is dead? And then come Jesus' words, "'Don't be afraid; just believe and she will be healed.'" (50) How would you be after a day like that? I suspect strong drink might be involved!

In the end, Jairus had to believe Jesus and take him at his word. What choice did he have? But believe he did, for he went in with Jesus and witnessed his daughter being healed, indeed being raised from the dead.

Here's the point: Jesus didn't come because Jairus was a good man, although he probably was; he didn't heal the girl because Jairus was well respected, or well educated, or popular, or pious, although he was probably all of those things; Jesus acted because Jairus had chosen to rely upon his love and his power, he had chosen to acknowledge that he was helpless in himself and was utterly reliant upon God's unfailing love to be sufficient for him and for his daughter.

How about it? Is that the kind of hope that you need, the kind that can bring the dead to life, the blind to see, the captive to freedom? Are you ready to give up the uncertain hope found in your own power, privilege, position, performance and piousness? Do you hear God's voice saying to you, "You need Jesus"? The good news is that God loves you, and his love for you is unfailing. He invites you to put your hope in his love. [Possibly pray some sort of sinner's prayer here, explaining that it is not the words themselves that are special, but rather the attitude - a mixture of fear and hope.] The choice is yours. If you have made that choice tonight, I would love to hear from you, to pray with you and encourage you to take hold of the hope that God is offering to you.

One final note. Our hope in God's unfailing love is for now - he loves us now, he cares for and tends his flock now. But that is not all. The hope we have now is like the promise of the time just before dawn: light appears in the east, and we know that the darkness is on the way out, even before the sun is revealed in all of its glory. But it is the Son that we are hoping for, who is the answer to and completion of all our hopes. It is the Son who will chase away the darkness and imperfections of this world, who will judge the world according to true justice. It is God's Son who is our hope, who is the gift of God out of his unfailing love.

Our hope is anchored in the past: Jesus rose! Our hope remains in the present: Jesus lives! Our hope is completed in the future: Jesus is coming!

- Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter, IVD, p. 46

Shadow

To understand the difference between the Old and New Testaments, imagine looking at a man and his shadow. The shadow reveals the outline and certain features of the man but not too much more. This is similar to the Old Testament explanation of God's plan for the world. The New Testament, however, brings God's plan into focus. It's like looking at the man face to face. That man, of course, is Jesus Christ.

- John Dickson, Hanging in there (St Matthias Press, 1991) pp. 27-28

Punished

The Sydney Morning Herald today includes this article about whether yesterday's tsunami in the Solomon Island's represents God's punishment for "straying from Christian ways".

I don't believe that this is the case however. Those who work regularly with children will tell you that discipline is only effective if the child knows what they are being disciplined for. Throughout the Bible, where God has used natural disaster as a means of judgment, he has accompanied it with prophetic explanation of the reasons for it - which hasn't (so far as I know) occurred in this instance.

This disaster, to me, is another instance of a world in trouble, "groaning as in the pains of childbirth" (Rom 8:22). A world where such things happen and lead to death is a world gone wrong, a world far astray from the perfect creation God had planned for us. So whilst the tsunami is not a specific judgment upon the people of the Solomons, it is in many ways an ongoing judgment upon humanity in general.

I also believe that God uses the forces of nature to remind us that he is ever present, to cause us to lift our eyes to him even if only to cry out, "Will not the Judge of all the Earth do right?" (Gen 18:25), or, "Oh that I had someone to hear me!" (Job 31:35).

Before we go asking for such things, however, we need to be prepared for God to answer as he did to Job:

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know!"

- Job 38:4-5

... and again...

Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
Let him who accuses God answer him!

- Job 40:2

Check out this song by Todd Agnew:

I thought up all the question that my human mind
could bring and laid them out before the Lord
And demanded a reason for these things
I asked about inequality and about the success of evil men
But what was I to say to Him
When He answered with this question

Where were you when I split the sky and sea
Where were you when I taught the lion to roar
Where were you when I made electricity
Fall from the sky in the middle of a thunderstorm
Where were you

I had no response, I had no reply
As the One who spoke and is the Truth
opened up my eyes
I laid my time of doubt at the feet of the Infinite
But what was left for me to say
When he answered with this question

Where were you when I split the sky and sea
Where were you when I taught the lion to roar
Where were you when I made electricity
fall from the sky in the middle of a thunderstorm

Where were you when I put stars in the sky
Where were you when I taught the eagle to fly
Where were you when I made that little child look just
like her mom but she had her Daddy's eyes
Where were you

- Todd Agnew, "Where were you" from Reflection of Something