Be Still And Know

Psalm 63:1 NLT 'O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.' I only go in search of what I really want. Too often, more pressing needs relegate my search for God to whatever spare time I can muster. Like reaching for the small change in my pocket for the homeless individual I pass, it is a non-priority and more a spontaneous reaction, often provoked by guilt. I believe that one reason Jesus fasted in the wilderness was that he might experience the power of human appetite and then direct that towards the bread of life rather than the baker’s provision. Forty days and nights represents extreme fasting, but if this is the degree to which Jesus wanted to awaken his hunger for God, I’d best pay attention. As a new Christian convert, I loved serving God. Later I became an executive in a large mission as well as a church leader. This was long before my whole being longed for God. As this ‘God-ache’ gre

Psalm 71:20-21 NLT 'You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honour and comfort me once again.' The word “mystery” is often used in relation to God. This suggests that God is an enigma, often hard to comprehend and always beyond our understanding. As something of an academic, I trust my brain and have spent my life working things out through my active thought processes. However, God lies beyond human rationality. If I could satisfactorily explain God, then the God I explained could not be God. If God can be contained within the framework of the human mind, then God is no longer omniscient, omnipresent or omnipotent. I’ve written previously about moving from the comfort zone into the learning zone. This makes me feel uncomfortable because I encounter what I don’t already know and so have to learn. Will I be successful in my learning? Can I gain greater understanding and new skills? Past le

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen.” When relational disaster strikes, then trust in relationship at every level is most often lost. I have over the years walked with individuals who are experiencing the trauma of divorce. Here a once intimate friendship unravels and ends, often abruptly and at the instigation of one person in the relationship. While the legal process has been made simpler, cleaner and quicker, there emotional and mental anguish former partners, and in many cases, children feel is acute. Divorce is a recipe for pain. It is through our own relational history that we build a picture of the nature of the trust we can place in another person. The very word “love” is unquantifiable, a feeling rather more than a science. While we can identify objective acts that look like they are born of love, they may be from self-love rather than love fo

Psalm 126:1-2 NLT When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.” In the years that I travelled abroad for work, I visited exiles in refugee camps and detention centres. I felt humbled by the dignity of refugee families, but disturbed by the degree to which uprootedness had robbed them of all else. Their exile was almost always beyond their control. In exile, they were displaced and disempowered, unable to pursue a normal life because of their dependence on the actions of others. Return, if possible, offered them the only way they might pick up the threads of their lives. In one sense, as citizens of heaven, we are exiles on the earth. Yet, in reality, we find a way to fit comfortably within the constraints of this “foreign land”. As with every exile, I must seek to make peace with my environment, while never losing sight of my homeland. I want to adjust, bu

Amos 9:14 NLT 'I will bring my exiled people of Israel back from distant lands, and they will rebuild their ruined cities and live in them again. They will plant vineyards and gardens; they will eat their crops and drink their wine.' The challenge in all restoration is deciding what that restoration will look like. Jayne and I restored an old Victorian house in Portsmouth. First, we needed to decide on the character of that restoration. We chose to return the house to its Victorian heritage, while ensuring it fulfilled the criteria for contemporary living. We chose to restore fireplaces, skirting boards, architraving and reveal the original tiled floor. So, a process started which would last some years. The same is true in God’s restoration project. What appears broken can be renewed. Past neglect and mistreatment can be left to the past and replaced with something that is beautiful and fit both for purpose and for today. However, the process takes time, effort and imagination, for no restoration is instant a

Isaiah 61:7 NLT 'Instead of shame and dishonour, you will enjoy a double share of honour. You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.' Daytime TV is filled with shows about restoring old houses or precious artefacts such as Homes Under the Hammer and Your Home Made Perfect. People have great enthusiasm to return something to its original state; this is also what God has upon his heart for each one of us. While we wrestle with sinful thoughts, some of which give rise to sinful acts, ultimately the call of the disciple is to return to that state of goodness and oneness with God that was his original creative intention for us all. The most difficult consequence arising from sin is the shame it induces. Each of us knows the shame and the fear we have of our failings being exposed to public view. Shame differs from guilt in that it tells me that there is something rotten in the core of who I am. Unlike guilt, which I can address through confession and apology, s

Isaiah 35:10 NLT 'Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness.' “It is always helpful to start with the end in view.” As a disciple I have come to appreciate the richness of that phrase the more I’ve progressed along my Christian way. I am quick to become distracted and then captivated by things in hand, both the good and the bad. As such, I quickly lose perspective. That is, I no longer have the end in view. My horizons shrink to the reality of the present moment. For all disciples, the end in view is heaven. Heaven is not some ethereal plane of existence. It is a reality in which I am fully aware of God in all his great glory, and have a part to play in continuing to love and serve him. The good news is that those distractions and demands that accompanied me on my earthly pilgrimage are no longer a part of my eternal existence. One other factor to bear

Philemon 1:7 NLT 'Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.' In a busy, online world, making friends can prove difficult. While Facebook suggests we are globally connected, it is all too easy to feel isolated and alone. Jayne and I want to be a part of a social community, one in which the friendships were a source of joy in and of themselves, not just a resource for the projects that we might accomplish together in God’s name. Having read Ron Sider’s book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Thomas Nelson) in my 20s, I have carried his phrase, “total availability to and unlimited liability for one another” ever since. I embrace it as much as I draw back from it. It demands everything, and my trust level in other people is lower than when I was young due to some life experiences. The Japanese have a wonderful word: “kenzoku”. It is translated as meaning “family”, yet describes the deepest of human connectedness. This is a family

Isaiah 12:6 NLT 'Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.' I can’t think of many recent occasions when I have shouted, either from joy or anger. We used to live in the shadow of Fratton Park, home to Portsmouth Football Club. No need to wonder what the score was. The roar of the crowd on seeing their side put the ball in the back of the net was an overwhelming shout of joy. You could also tell on the faces of the crowd as they left at the end of the game if the result had gone Pompey’s way. Finding joy in life proves elusive for many. The standard answer to questions about our well-being is: “I’m fine.” A friend of mine suggested this stands for: “Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional.” We can look at others and assume that their smile is more genuine than our own and they have found the elixir of happiness. Yet, on closer examination, most people are struggling. Psychologists have shown that we each have different joy levels,

1 Peter 1:8 NLT 'You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.' Joy is something that impacts my senses. At the start of last autumn, I remember throwing open the windows at the back of the house one morning and being entranced with the scent of fennel from our garden that wafted across and filled my senses. It was a wonderful experience, shared by no one else. Even had Jayne been alongside me, there is no guarantee that she would have enjoyed the same joy that I did. We are all wired differently, yet God knows each one of us down to and including every hair on our heads (Luke 12:7)! In much the same way, our love for God is unique. We live in an age in which so much of life is reduced to mechanistic models that ‘work’, removing both individuality and the personal touch in favour of efficiency. However, God has little interest in efficiencies, and every interest in each of us as an individually crafted creati

Ecclesiastes 9:7 NLT 'So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!' My favourite dictionary defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires”. Scripture tells us that “the joy of the Lord is [our] strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Life has a habit of crushing the joy out of us. Once our joy is gone we, like a squeezed lemon, are reduced to an empty skin. Our substance has gone; our principal ingredient lost. Recently I discovered an online tool (thejoyprinciple.net) that promised to measure my joy. It was simple and immediate, as any online experience must be. It measured more than 16 yes/no questions where I perceived my state of happiness with family, friends, the world around me, and finally my possessions. I scored 95 per cent joyful. Not bad, the average being 68 per cent. I was encouraged since I had set the parameters high on family, low on friendship, medium on the world aroun

Luke 4:13 NLT 'When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.' Jesus has experienced three separate and acute temptations in the wilderness, and now the devil departs from him until a fresh opportunity will appear. Jesus had steadfastly resisted and therefore endured the struggle. For each of us there is the temptation to buckle under pressure. God does not deliver us from the struggle, yet is there when we reach out and use what lies within our resources to resist the temptation to crumble. Of course, the intensity of the struggle is real, and usually all-consuming. Here, Jesus, hungry and alone, draws upon scripture to battle against the mind games the devil plays with him. We live in a society in which we are invited to establish normality on the terms set by others. In an age of mass media, platformed commentators shape our world view. Society is unfairly weighted in favour of those it defines as physically and mentally “able”. So, if born with a learning disabili

Luke 4:3-4 NLT Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’” One immediate challenge with persevering is that we never know at the start how long we shall need to endure. Here Jesus faces his first approach from the devil. We know with the benefit of scripture that this season will be for 40 days, around six weeks. Jesus is unlikely to have known how long he was to face temptation in the desert. What he discovers is that the devil wants to mess with his mind. What’s more, the devil approaches him after 40 days of desert life. One imagines Jesus is at a low point for he has been fasting and would have been in great need of food. When we are tested, it is our resolve that is slowly challenged and we become increasingly vulnerable to Satan’s tricks. The experience of the desert generally leaves us feeling distant from God. Like Jesus, the enemy will whisper in our ears somethin

Luke 4:1-2 NLT 'Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the River Jordan. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.' Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. The word “Lent” means “lengthening” and identifies the growing hours of daylight as spring advances. Symbolically, it speaks of the approaching light of Christ, with the resurrection dispelling darkness once and for all. Easter is the moment darkness is defeated and God re-established friendship with all humanity. Today, in many traditions, Christians will receive an ash cross upon their foreheads, a sign of penitence and reminder that it is “through many tribulations” that we enter God’s kingdom (Acts 14:22, NKJV). In an instant, the Spirit leads Jesus from the glory of his baptism to the wasteland of the desert. How often have I fallen from the heights of worship and wonder to the despair of doubt and despondency? The desert is an essent

Romans 5:3-4 NLT 'We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.' Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day is the day before Lent starts, a season of abstinence in preparation for Easter. It recognises Jesus’ trial in the wilderness and is also called the Great Fast by some churches. On this day all the fats and foods that were to be avoided throughout Lent are used up, hence pancakes. The idea is that if all the temptations are removed from the house, it is easier to manage our human frailty, and thereby offers us support in persevering through this voluntary fast. There are no rules as such, although some traditions, such as the Orthodox and Catholics, offer a framework. The idea is that we embrace a fast to focus on our faith choices and reflect upon our faith commitments. It offers an opportunity for couples and families to draw together around their fa

1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Perseverance is characterised by the ability to achieve something despite difficulties and obstacles that stand in our way. It takes both grit and determination, and is not easily accomplished. In fact, it reveals the depth of our convictions and the lengths to which we persist. The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ encounter with the devil in the wilderness reveal perseverance is not simply grim determination. It requires clarity of thought in finding ways to press on and avoid capitulating early. Jesus used scripture to counter Satan’s craftily composed temptations (Matthew 4). The core of our perseverance as disciples lies in the reality of the depth to which we are loved by God. Great news here – no matter where we find ourselves, God never gives up on us. We are invited to build our faith muscle by persevering through challenges. A friend introduced me to the concept of the learning zone. Thi

Acts 4:32 NLT 'All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.' Unity creates an atmosphere of trust and harmony. Within such an atmosphere, remarkable things become possible. I grew up with stories from my mother of life in Britain during the Second World War. The war years affected her from age 14 to 20. She lived away from London, but close to Plymouth, which as a naval port, suffered from enemy bombing. Yet, it was not the inconvenience or danger of war she spoke most of, it was more the way her local community came together and cared for each other. The war had united them in heart and mind, and consequently they shared freely with one another in a common goal. When there is no visible threat, it is easy to become consumed with my own interests. Individuals and families are shocked and appalled when some interruption to their plans breaks in, such as an unwelcome illness. There is usually little motivation to pull

Philippians 1:27 NLT Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. A quick search on Google will identify how different countries identify citizenship. Common to all is that it is a relationship between rights and responsibilities. The scripture contains the essential elements required of a disciple, aka a citizen of heaven. As with all relationships, my freedom in Christ is related to my willingness to abide by God’s life-giving instructions. Perhaps, as Ghandi, the Indian nationalist, declared that he would be a Christian if it wasn’t for Christians. This followed his exclusion from a Christian church in Kolkata on the grounds that it was for high-caste Indians and whites. Having been drawn by what he read of Jesus in the Gospels, Ghandi turn

Romans 12:4-5 NLT Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. Last summer I ran down the garden, stretched down and picked up a fallen apple, recreating my great cricketing fielding past. I felt my right tricep scream out in complaint, and so began a journey of sorting out an injury. St Paul’s analogy of the human body (Ephesians 4) for the community of Christ is well-made. It’s all too easy to forget that we each exist and play an essential role in making the community function. After some delay after injuring my arm, I made an appointment with a physiotherapist and got some advice on how to manage the healing process. This was not instantaneous and demanded a lot of me, some of which included further physical discomfort. The tricep injury impacted my ability to cook, garden and do other tasks. There is a unity to the human body in that each part is designed to work with every other part.