Staying Sane In A Crazy World #2 - Be Gentle!

I am amazed at the quality and impressiveness of the people I follow on social media. They are incredible. I cannot believe the number of those I follow who are experts in macroeconomics and international relations, especially in terms of the UK’s relationship with the European Union. But even more than that, I am astonished that those same individuals are now accomplished epidemiologists and experts in the realm of pandemic management. I apologise for the, hopefully obvious, sarcasm in this comment but the point I am making is that social media has given each one of us a platform to express our stresses, frustrations and anger in a globally public forum and in a way which perhaps if we were in the same room as others, we may not express quite so forcefully as we do on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or any of the other countless platforms. When we place this tendency alongside the reality that social media gives a platform to every wacky, dubious and downright false idea and belief on a par with high quality, thought-through and researched concepts then it can be a recipe for disaster. 

Negative bias is a psychological concept which has existed as a concept for many years, and predates social media. In fact, it could be argued that this concept of always tending towards something negative goes right back to the garden of Eden, when the serpent said to Eve, “Did God really say …?” and so planted doubt about the goodness of God in Eve’s mind. And that negative bias has been a part of our fallen nature ever since. Some have managed to control it better than others but it is still there, lurking in the background. I would call myself, generally, a positive, glass-half-full, type of person. But I know that in times of stress and uncertainty, negativity can rise and I have certainly found this in this current season. One church leader has put it like this,

“The brain is wired to notice danger more than delight. The brain is more alert to what is bad than what is good. We respond more quickly and powerfully to what is unpleasant than to the pleasurable.

In fact, our reactions to good and bad are just not equal. Bad is much more powerful. We are wired to notice threats, problems, setbacks, and to act to protect ourselves from what is bad.

It is easier to be cynical than it is to be cheerful.

Sarcasm is easier than sweetness.

Complaining trumps cheerleading.

We take for granted our health, but obsess over our aches and pains.

Unhappy is just a step away, but we have to climb our way to happiness.

The pleasure we get from winning an amount of money is much less than the pain we experience at losing that same amount.

This is why the evening news focuses so much on what went wrong during the day. (They also have enough psychology to provide a positive pick-you-up-story late in the newscast.)”

(Pastor Brian Rice, Living Word Community Church, Red Lion, Pennsylvania)

The Apostle Paul gives us a stark reality-check in his letter to the Galatian church, when he says:

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious. They are such things as fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, bursts of rage, selfish ambition, factiousness, divisions, moods of envy, drunkenness, wild partying and similar things.” (Galatians 5:19-21a New Testament For Everyone)

Wow, and the part that frustrates me in this scripture is the ‘and similar things’ because I might be able to tick of not doing the detailed list but I know that there is something in me that would have something that fits into that ‘similar things’ category.

So, where does this take us in our examination of the Philippians 4 passage. In verse 5 it says:

“Let your gentleness be evident to all.” (Philippians 4:5a - NIV)

or as Colin Urquhart puts it in his translation of the New Testament, 

“Let your gentle spirit be obvious to others” (Philippians 4:5a - The Truth New Testament)

Yesterday, I looked at the command to be joyful but how do we actually achieve that in a world which is so full of negativity, destruction, criticism and comparison. We Paul starts to unpack that in these verses coming up and the first tool is being gentle.

When I was a new Christian many years ago, I was introduced to a concept which talked about moving in the ‘opposite spirit’ by YWAM. In essence this means that we don’t defeat something negative by focussing on that negative thing but by focussing on, thinking of, something Godly or healthy. Our natural tendency to deal with something such as fear, is to focus on the fear and deal with it. Don’t miss-hear me, we do need to analyse why we are fearful and what things might trigger this. But the key way of combatting fear is to focus on celebrating the good we have. We combat lack and greed by generosity. We combat political back-biting and ambition by being humble and servant-hearted.

So in the midst of challenge and uncertainty, Paul tells us here to be gentle. As Tom Wright puts it in his translation of this verse, “Let everybody know how gentle and gracious you are.” For me, that means not giving way at this time to every tendency to criticise, complain, challenge or question. One of the greatest challenges at the moment is that a 24-hour news media needs to fill every minute of every day and, as I quoted earlier, the best news for any news channel is ‘bad news’ because it feeds that negative bias in us. Therefore, I have chosen to do the following:

• GET RID OF THE NEGATIVE. Switch the news off. If you know me you know that I am rather a news junkie. It comes from doing a degree in politics where I needed to watch and review the news from 5-6 different news outlets every day. However, I found that I was constantly watching the news channels, who have only one item of news, coronavirus, and I was getting more and more anxious! So, I now probably only watch one news programme a day and I choose a specific news programme rather than the 24/7 channels. 
• DON’T REACT TO NEGATIVITY. Don’t respond or react to every negative social media post. I find I can spot a negative, critical post a mile off and try not to open it or respond to it. It is not my duty to police the internet. Very occasionally I might make a general comment on a friend’s post suggesting that this may not be the most helpful but if I respond to a critical post by being critical, all I have done it reinforce that negative spirit and I find myself getting sucked into being negativity again.
• CHOOSE TO BE GENTLE. Find good things, hopeful posts or kind comments and focus on those and if I can’t see them … post some new ones myself. So, to live this out, I am going to try and remember to post three separate posts on my social media each day, (i) A person I am thankful for, (ii) A place or experience that brings me joy and (iii) A small or local business who I want to encourage and celebrate, especially as they may be struggling at this time. 

I’m loving how different Bible translations are putting these verses I am looking at and so here’s how The Voice Translation puts. Verse 5a,

“Keep your gentle nature so that all people will know what it looks like to walk in His footsteps.”

As we choose this way, we are helping others too. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones says of this verse,

“You must go further if you want your moderation [gentleness] to be known unto all men: you must actively and positively consider them.”

Or as Nicky Gumbel says of this gentleness,

“It is the opposite of contention, abrasives and self-seeking desires. It means being willing to forgo retaliation. There is no need to defend ourselves because the Lord is coming and he will vindicate us.”

I don’t know about you, but I need to remember this and I need to put it into action in my life and especially in my online interactions. Social media can be good, so let’s make it that way and try to implement these words of Paul online as well as in our thoughts. To finish let me challenge myself (and you, if you want) to use these words of James as we consider what we put online:

“If you consider yourself to be wise and one who understands the ways of God, advertise it with a beautiful, fruitful life guided by wisdom’s gentleness. Never brag or boast about what you’ve done and you’ll prove that you’re truly wise. But if there is bitter jealousy or competition hiding in your heart, then don’t deny it and try to compensate for it by boasting and being phoney. For that has nothing to do with God’s heavenly wisdom but can best be described as the wisdom of this world, both selfish and devilish. So wherever jealousy and selfishness are uncovered, you will also find many troubles and every kind of meanness.

But the wisdom from above is always pure, filled with peace, considerate and teachable. It is filled with love and never displays prejudice or hypocrisy in any form and it always bears the beautiful harvest of righteousness! Good seeds of wisdom’s fruit will be planted with peaceful acts by those who cherish making peace.”

James 3:13-18 (The Passion Translation)

Staying Sane In A Crazy World #1 - Be Joyful!

As I sit on Easter Bank Holiday Monday in the UK in a world where going to the supermarket is the highlight of my week and where everyone I know seems to be a world-class epidemiologist ready to instruct the government on how to best deal with coronavirus. On a more serious note, I sit in a world where numbers of deaths under 800 per day is considered a 'success' at the moment and where everyone seems fearful of interactions with others and how to avoid this terrible illness. Fear, anxiety, concern, worry - all seem to be the words of the moment. So how am I, as a follower of Jesus, supposed to navigate all of this.

Ever since I became a fully-committed follower of Jesus twenty-nine years ago, I have had various favourite scriptures and passages which have spoken to me a different times. However, one passage became my absolute favourite when I became a Christian and it has been my favourite ever since. It always seems to speak in to every situation but has been the one I keep coming back to in this time of pandemic and lockdown. So, I thought I would unpack the passage over the next week in a series of reflections. I want to say a huge thank you to my friends in Vale Village Church for the privilege of being able to preach this back in August 2019 when the world seemed a lot less crazy than it does now!!

So the whole passage from The Passion Translation is:

"Be cheerful with joyous celebration in every season of life. Let joy overflow, for you are united with the Anointed One! Let gentleness be seen in every relationship, for our Lord is ever near.

Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honourable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always. Follow the example of all that we have imparted to you and the God of peace will be with you in all things." (Philippians 4:4-9)

So, today, I will start at the beginning with verse 4 and say that the first step to staying sane in a crazy world, is to BE JOYFUL.

"Most of all, friends, always rejoice in the Lord! I never tire of saying it: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4 The Voice Translation)

A couple of years ago, some good friends came to stay with us for the weekend and joined us at City Church on the Sunday when, if I remember rightly, we were preaching our values and were on the value of choosing joy. When they left to go home, they set up a WhatsApp group where regularly ever since we have shared encouragements to choose joy. Sometimes these have been silly but often these have been sent through gritted teeth in the midst of stress, struggle or pain. Joy is not the first thing we think of when we're in the midst of difficulty and worry and yet it is how the Apostle Paul starts this passage.

Now, let me make something clear at the outset. Joy and happiness are not the same. The dictionary would have us think they are almost the same with joy being described as "the emotion of great delight or happiness cause by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure or elation." (Dictionary.com). But I would argue that they are actually very different. Happiness is utterly dependent on external circumstances, whereas Joy relies on something that is held in the core of our being. Joy is a deep rooted knowledge of something that does not rely on externals. When Paul wrote the letter to the church in Philippi, he was in prison and yet he writes this letter which Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones calls 'The Life of Joy and Peace.' Brian Simmons, the translator of the Passion Translation of the Bible, writes:

"What joy and glory came out of Paul's prison cell! Most of us would be thinking of ourselves and how we could get out; but Paul wanted to send to the Philippian church the revelation of joy!" (Introduction to Philippians - The Passion Translation)

So, we have nothing here that allows us in this time of global uncertainty to say that we are excluded from this verse or that Paul doesn't understand what we're going through. He certainly knew firsthand what it was like to be in "lockdown." 

Also, let us remember two important things from this verse:

Firstly, this is a command! It is not a suggestion. He doesn't say rejoice ... if you feel like it. There is something about choosing to celebrate God and rejoice in the Lord that starts to transform our attitude and then the externals. Change has got to start deep in the inside before it affects the outside. Too often I have heard myself say (at least in my head, if not outwardly), "When this situation changes, I will feel different ..." That isn't how it works most of the time. We need to choose to rejoice in God, not our circumstance, not our strength, not anything else which is weak or fleeting. We choose to be joyful in God, who is our rock, our strength, our fortress in times of need. 

As it says in the book of Isaiah:

"I will sing for joy in God,

    explode in praise from deep in my soul!

He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,

    he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness,

As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo

    and a bride a jeweled tiara.

For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,

    and as a garden cascades with blossoms,

So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom

    and puts praise on display before the nations." (Isaiah 61:10-11 The Message Translation)

Secondly, Paul repeats himself. Whenever a writer in the Bible repeats something, it is important. The writers do not waste their words and so when Paul says "I will say it again ..." we are to prick up our ears and take notice. In some respect, he is saying that there is no point in going on to whatever else he going to write until we get this. Rejoicing isn't simply something to do on a good day, when the sun is shining and everything is going our way. It is what we need to do in darkness, in pain, in despair, in lockdown. We choose joy, not ignoring the situation we are in but because there is One who knows exactly the situation we are in and still loves us and remains in control of every situation. In his wonderful translation of the New Testament, Bishop Tom Wright translates this verse as:

"Celebrate joyfully in the Lord, all the time. I'll say it again: Celebrate" (New Testament For Everyone/Kingdom New Testament) 

or as the wonderful wordsmith, Rob Lacey put it, 

"Celebrate the Boss, 24/7. I'll copy and paste that - this time in bold: Celebrate the Boss." (The Word on the Street). 

As we make the decision to choose joy each day - not any type of joy but joy IN THE LORD - then we strengthen ourselves deep inside. We build foundations of hope and peace which can be built upon and which we can use when our circumstances do not live up to all that we had expected. We develop a lifestyle where God is at its heart with a knowledge that He is good, whatever our circumstances may suggest.

Therefore, today, can I suggest (and let the Apostle Paul command) that you BE JOYFUL. 

Easter Sunday 2020 Resurrection - New Hope & Fresh Purpose

“Easter isn’t cancelled; indeed, we need Easter as much as ever. The discovery of the risen Christ on the first Easter Day gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose, and we can all take heart from this. We know that coronavirus will not overcome us.

As dark as death can be – particularly for those suffering with grief – light and life are greater.

May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future.”

These words of HM Queen Elizabeth II are a powerful reminder of the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter morning and every Easter, in fact every day, since right up to today. 

There is portrayal of Christians in the world today, often reinforced by the media and sadly by some Christians, which is that we are, at best, well meaning do-gooders. We might have some wishy-washy vague ‘faith’ in a divine being but to quite frankly we are to be slightly pitied for believing such silly stories. But that could not be further from the truth. Easter is about light over darkness, hope over despair but only because of one life-changing, history-changing, world-changing universal and unique truth - JESUS IS ALIVE. 

The grave was empty and has been ever since. In the words of the angels in Luke’s gospel, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” There is one individual who is not, nor has ever been, in lockdown. The risen Jesus! The Romans could not keep him in the grave, nor could anything or anyone else since, whether armies, ideologies, or even viruses! We might not be able to leave our homes but the risen Jesus is alive and well and moving throughout the world by his Spirit. 

The wonderful Ben Fielding and Brooke Ligertwood song ‘What a beautiful name’ says it so well,

“Death could not hold You

The veil tore before You

You silence the boast of sin and grave

The heavens are roaring

The praise of Your glory

For You are raised to life again

You have no rival

You have no equal

Now and forever God You reign

Yours is the kingdom

Yours is the glory

Yours is the Name above all names”

As the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth:

“Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.” (1 Corinthians 15:12-15, The Message Translation)

So, as Her Majesty said in her Easter address ‘the discovery of the risen Christ … gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose’ and that reality is the same for Jesus’ followers today as it was 2,000 years ago.

New hope!

Fresh purpose!

A living reality, that is neither theoretical nor imagery or allegory. It is true, it is real and it brings power, life, hope and purpose to anyone who will accept it and embrace it.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” (1 Peter 1:3-4a NIV) 

Happy Easter - Pasg Hapus!

Holy Saturday 2020 Reflection - Uncertainty!

Uncertainty!

Now there’s a word you don’t often hear in evangelical circles, as is a reflection on Holy Saturday, or Easter Eve. We tend to love Good Friday and go mental about Easter Sunday but Easter Eve … what’s that? Surely it’s just the day in between the two big events where we can have a breather between two big sets of services!!

But what if we actually learned to live the scriptures each day. For the disciples, the great celebrations of feeding the 5,000 or preaching to the multitudes or of the great miracles were in the past. The triumphal entry probably felt like an eternity ago as well as very painful as the same crowed who had cheered Jesus, had also jeered Jesus and shouted ‘Crucify him!’ Perhaps Jesus would do one final amazing miracle by evading death. But no. That dark and gut-wrenching day had now passed and Jesus was … dead. Sometimes, as 21st century Christians, it is helpful for us to stop always reading the scriptures knowing the outcome. Yes, ‘Sunday’s a-coming!’ but for the disciples at this moment, they don’t know that. Yes, they may have remembered Jesus’ words about being raised but would they have known what that actually meant. At this moment they are sitting behind locked doors in despair trying to deal with … uncertainty. And if we, as Spirit-filled Bible-believing Christians rush too quickly from Good Friday to Easter Day, we don’t learning the lessons of handling uncertainty we can gain from this day and understand what it means to ‘wait in hope’ as our brothers and sisters in the historic churches would say. 

Tim Dakin, the Bishop of Winchester, has written this about Holy Saturday:

“As followers of Jesus, we have come to this most disturbing point when the brutal reality of Jesus’ death confronts us in the undeniable reality of the cold dead body before us. We are now part of the drama: we do not stand outside it, or above it. The great and wonderful resolution of the resurrection is yet to happen – we have yet to see that ‘epic’ perspective. Holy Saturday disciplines us to stay in the story as participants. Staying with Jesus puts us alongside many of our fellow citizens who are mourning their loved ones. We mourn with those who mourn. We bring before God our deepest fears and lost hopes. We long for new life and pray that, even in our weakness, we might also offer loving kindness to others.”

At this time of uncertainty for our communities, nation and world, where we do not really know what is going to happen next and we are still dealing with the grief, despair and sense of loss of freedom, normality and sadly for too many of loved ones, we need to find a way of digging deep into our faith to find that Jesus is with us as we wait in hope but also in uncertainty. Despite the various and different prophetic promises individuals (who are well meaning) try to give us, we don’t know what the future holds. But in that rather trite statement, we have to keep believing that whilst we may not know what the future holds but we do know who holds our future. 

Holy Saturday is about preparing our hearts for what is to come. For the women mentioned Luke23:55, they were preparing spices and ointment to anoint Jesus’ body. For us it is preparing our hearts for whatever God may have for us next; for whatever the future holds. Of course, we now know that Resurrection is coming but in our daily lives, struggles, illnesses, and uncertainty we don’t know when resurrection is coming. We have no idea how long we are going to be in lockdown or uncertainty. We may feel despair and hopelessness but God had promised his people many hundreds of years before that first Holy Saturday that he would “never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6 & 8) a truth that Jesus, himself, repeated after his resurrection in the final words that Matthew records in his gospel … “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Whatever happens next in our lives, we wait in hope, knowing that Jesus is with us in our despair (Good Friday), our uncertainty (Holy Saturday) and our joy (Easter Day). Do not lose hope; do not give in to despair. We may not have the answers but we do know that Sunday is coming.

May you know the peace of God which surpasses all understanding and may it guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. 

Good Friday 2020 Reflection - What Actually Is Good News?

“Come see His hands and His feet

The scars that speak of sacrifice

Hands that flung stars into space

To cruel nails surrendered

This is our God, The Servant King

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to The Servant King”

As I was sitting and reflecting upon Good Friday, I was drawn back to the lyrics of a song by Graham Kendrick, the Servant King. It is an incredibly powerful (if rarely sung in my own circles) song and I particularly think of the lyrics of the third verse about the surrender of Jesus Christ upon the cross.

I also remembered that last night I had seen the front page for Good Friday of one of the UK’s national newspapers, which said “Boris is out - now that really is a Good Friday” referring to the fact that UK Prime Minister has come out of Intensive Care. Now I need to start by saying that I am very thankful that our Prime Minister is recovering in the same way that I celebrate everyone who is recovering from COVID-19. But, apart from the huge insult this headline is to the millions of Christians in the UK by diminishing the core event of our faith and saying that it isn’t actually ‘good’, it completely and utterly shows that modern secular Britain simply does not get, remember or understand the heart of Christianity.

The heart of the Christian message is that one man, Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life and did nothing wrong, CHOSE to undergo suffering that was unimaginable and then CHOSE to allow himself to be mocked, beaten and ultimately killed, not because he deserved the punishment but because WE deserved it. He died, not for himself, but for us … for me. So that I could be forgiven for every wrong act, thought and word. He chose the punishment for my wrongdoing (or to give it its technical name, sin) so that I do not need to face that punishment but, instead can be forgiven, accepted and welcomed by a perfect and holy God. To quote that headline, “Now that REALLY is a Good Friday!”

If you have every wondered why we call a day that celebrates a death, ‘good’, this is it. Anyone who recognises that they have done wrong in their life (any wrong … not just the big stuff), then we deserve to be punished. But, because of Jesus’ actions on the cross, we can be forgiven and free.

There is another great Good Friday song which I love, by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, which has the following lyrics in it:

“Oh, to see my name

Written in the wounds,

For through Your suffering I am free.

Death is crushed to death,

Life is mine to live,

Won through Your selfless love.

This, the power of the cross:

Son of God, slain for us.

What a love! What a cost!

We stand forgiven at the cross.”

Now, this is only scratching the surface of what was achieved at the cross. Oh, but what truth.

As it says in 1 Peter 2:21-25 in the Bible …

“In fact, you were called to live this way, because Christ also suffered in your place, leaving you his example for you to follow.

He never sinned

    and he never spoke deceitfully.

When he was verbally abused, he did not return with an insult; when he suffered, he would not threaten retaliation. Jesus faithfully entrusted himself into the hands of God, who judges righteously. He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness. Our instant healing flowed from his wounding. You were like sheep that continually wandered away, but now you have returned to the true Shepherd of your lives—the kind Guardian who lovingly watches over your souls.” (The Passion Translation)