Jesus

James’s Blog: The Desert is Good.

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James’s Blog: The Desert is Good.

I know that the title looks like I mispelled ‘dessert’, but it’s actually correct as it is.

Being in a spiritual desert doesn’t sound appealing, and certainly anyone who has experienced it will know full well that it’s about as fun as it sounds, and yet…

Luke 4:1 tells us that Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, is then led into the desert by that same Holy Spirit. It’s like the closer you get to God the more likely you are to end up in the desert – and not because you took a wrong turn, but because it’s where God was wanting you to be all along.

Jesus is in the desert to be tempted, or tested, and in this way his journey mirrors that of Israel herself. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 tells us that Israel’s time in the desert was that they might learn humilty and be tested, and that they might understand that we don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God…hang on, I’ve heard that somewhere before…

What I’m getting at is that desert time proved to be a central part of Israel’s identity. It was in the desert that God provided for them out of nothing, it was in the desert that He gave them the Law, it was in the desert that they learnt what it meant to belong to Him. Equally, the desert was Jesus’ training ground, where he learned what it meant to love God and get his identity from Him alone.

In short, if you want to grow, deserts are inevitable, because it’s only in the desert that you learn this type of lesson. As much as we wish otherwise, you can’t learn what it means to follow God from the comfort of a sofa, TV blaring and a cream cake in your hand.

But the desert is not supposed to be our goal. It’s a stop along the way, but it’s a crucial one, and a good one. Every now and then, you might find the Spirit of God steering into the dry wilderness once more, in order to be reminded of a precious lesson that you are in danger of forgetting, or to sit another exam, but He’ll always bring you out, stronger and fitter than when you went in.

I’m not telling you that you have to be happy about it, but the desert is actually a good place.

James’s Blog: Lines in the Sand.

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James’s Blog: Lines in the Sand.

We’re pretty good at drawing lines in the sand, but I wonder where God draws His. What’s God’s deal-breaker? Maybe it’s a good thing to not be able to provide a concrete answer to that question – after all, human beings have a tendency to take lines in the sand and turn then into a box and then to wish hell upon everyone who’s on the outside.

Take ‘Statements of Faith’ for example. These can be helpful things for organisations and churches. They can help individuals find a home where they can grow in some measure of security and comfort, without having to navigate tricky conversations every day. You know what you’re getting. They’re like stablisers; training wheels as we learn how to relate to and love others.

But they can also consist of nothing more than ornate lines in the sand, drawn by human hands; the stone cold truth about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Sin, Humanity, the Bible, Heaven, Hell, Predestination, Women in Leadership, Baptism. Death by bullet points.

Those lines can become a box, or perhaps more acurately, a cage, where what you think about the person and work of Jesus Christ carries as much orthodoxy as what you think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and someone who thinks differently to you on whether or not women should be allowed to preach is as much ‘in error’ as someone who thinks that God is a cola-flavoured ice lolly.

(Sigh) I’m not against theological wrestling, by no means, but I remember one of my lecturers once saying that the goal of theology is not to provide answers but to categorise mysteries and I think there’s a lot of mileage in that. Certainly, it helps us deep thinkers with the old humility problem. No, what I’m against is drawing lines in the sand in places other than where God might have drawn them.

As I’ve pondered these mysteries, I have adapted my views and changed my positions over the years, and I have no doubt I will continue to refine my worldview as I continue to better understand the rhythmn of God’s heart. But here’s the thing: God has been with me and guided me and helped me and blessed me and used me all the way along my journey – regardless of my views on predestination or tongues or baptism. God has remained faithful while I’ve stumbled along, sometimes holding views that were quite damaging to myself and potentially others. So God must draw His line in the sand somewhere other than along the denominational or theological boundaries that have provided the framework of my faith for so long. Otherwise, at some point in my journey I would have been persona non grata to Him for some belief I held.

I think God does draw lines, and I think there is a point where God says, “You and I can no longer do business together”, but I think this has much more to do with Jesus than it does to do with all those other details that take up so much space on the page – after all, you know who you find in the details…

James’s Blog: Like Us or Like Him?

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James’s Blog: Like Us or Like Him?

The heart of the gospel speaks, I believe, to all people, regardless of culture, creed or race. Because of this, we can make the mistake of thinking that the gospel belongs solely to us; to our culture, creed or race. If it speaks to us, then God meant it for us, right? And if He meant it for us, then you have to be like us to fully appreciate and understand the gospel, right? Then we find ourselves in a position where we assume that being a true follower of Jesus means fitting in with a particular culture – or as Steve Taylor puts it in I Want to be a Clone, ‘if you want to be one of His, got to act like one of us.’

This was perhaps at its most blatant in past missionary eras, where the line between ‘Christianizing’ and ‘Westernizing’ was blurred at best. In the 19th century, the London Missionary Society established a mission in Bechuanaland in Africa, and the Missionary Magazine reported on its progress in the following way:

‘The people are now dressed in British manufactures and make a very respectable appearance in the house of God. The children who formerly went naked and presented a most disgusting appearance are decently clothed…’

Of course, it’s easy to look down our noses at the missionary pioneers of the past, but we’re guilty of the same crime when we insist that there’s only one ‘proper’ way to do worship, one ‘proper’ way to preach, one ‘proper’ way to look and sound. We’re too quick at times to slap the label ‘Biblical’ on things that turn out to just be cultural traditions, and too slow to deny the implied criticism that traditions which differ from our own are therefore ‘Unbiblical’. Our cultural perspectives enable us to share something of the truth of God with others, but not everything of the truth.

In this blog’s first year, I posted a ‘poem‘ (I use that term loosely), suggesting that sometimes an author will write a book about what Jesus is really like and, what do you know, it turns out that Jesus is just like them.

There’s something in our humanity that seems determined to repeatedly recreate God in our own image, to want to turn Him into one us – whatever we are. The irony is, of course, that God has already turned Himself into one of us, through Christ. When we do it, we make God smaller. When He does it, He makes us bigger. We do it to bring God down to our level, to make Him easily digestible. He does it to bring us up to His level, to make us more than we are.

We can’t help but be shaped by our culture and history, but we can certainly try to make sure that it’s God who is shaping us more.

James’s Blog: Rubbish.

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James’s Blog: Rubbish.

Ruth and I have very different ideas on ‘stuff’. She thinks that if it’s not being used, and is just lying around making the place look untidy, then chuck it out. I think that if it’s not being used, and is just lying around making the place look untidy, then leave it alone. It’s not hurting anyone.

My parents were happy when I moved out. They turned up on my doorstep with cardboard boxes full of stuff I’d left in their attic. Boxes of things like cinema ticket stubs, old posters and last year’s exam papers. Basically, boxes full of fire hazards.

When we got married, Ruth said, “You don’t need that stuff. Get rid of it.” I stood my ground, because I knew that a day would come when she desperately needed to know the name of a film I had seen at the cinema ten years previously, and then I’d be laughing.

But that day never came, and now it’s all gone. It’s not the first time my wife has been right about something, and it won’t be the last.

You throw out stuff that you don’t need, but you don’t throw out the useful, shiny stuff. I’m sure we’ve all got stories of people we know, on their hands and knees, going through the bin because they think that they threw away the receipt or the money from a birthday card or some other good thing that they didn’t mean to lose. No-one deliberately throws away good things. Well, as Fred Craddock once suggested, no-one except Paul of course.

Whatever was to my profit, he told the Philippians, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

He was talking about all the useful, shiny stuff he had. His academic achievements, his hard work, his A+ credentials. You don’t need that stuff. Get rid of it.

That’s the thing about following Jesus. No-one bats an eyelid if you say, “I used to lie, cheat and steal. I used to say really hurtful things to people. I used to throw bricks through people’s windows if I didn’t like them. But now I am a Christian and I consider all of that rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Christ.” No-one is going to object to that. That’s what religion is for.

But if you say, “I used to work hard at my job. I made good money. I was a valuable and productive member of my community. But now I am a Christian and I consider all of that rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Christ.”? Well, that’s the kind of thing that raises eyebrows. That’s the kind of thing that gets bricks thrown through your window.

Once again, we must consider what it really means to follow Jesus. It’s not just the boxes of old exam papers that are fire hazards now. You have to be prepared to consider it all, everything, rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Christ. It doesn’t matter how shiny and impressive it is. It doesn’t matter that it took you years to collect. You don’t need that stuff. Get rid of it.

But who among us has the courage to do that?

James’s Blog: Ugly Truth.

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James’s Blog: Ugly Truth.
I had an idea for a blog post, but just as I was about to start writing I got distracted by browsing through some old stuff that I’d written. I found this thing from 2007 which, while needing a bit of work, is probably better than what I was going to write… Read more

James’s Blog: Leading or Being Led?

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James’s Blog: Leading or Being Led?

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.

Mark 4:35-36

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James’s Blog: Forgiveness Plus.

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James’s Blog: Forgiveness Plus.

With everything that’s going on it might be easy to forget that Easter is on the way. We lose sight of Easter at our peril, especially at a time like this, so that’s what I’m going to write about for the next couple of weeks. I’m sure you’ve had your fill of talking about the Coronavirus anyway…

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James’s Blog: The Real Sickness.

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James’s Blog: The Real Sickness.

It’s been curious to track the passage of Covid-19 by the newspaper headlines. We’ve gone from a story announcing that ‘Something is Happening Over There’, to a stream of stories announcing that ‘Something is Now Getting Closer’, to a barrage of headlines telling us that ‘Something is Now Here. HERE! IT’S HERE!’.

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James’s Blog: Get More Jesus.

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James’s Blog: Get More Jesus.

(Once again, I wrote a devotion for our church’s week of prayer. Once again I’m using it as my blog post for this week.)

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24)

This morning the streets of Canterbury, in the early wind and rain, are almost deserted. It makes a nice change after the Christmas excess. Read more

James’s Blog: Being Taken Advantage Of.

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James’s Blog: Being Taken Advantage Of.

(Look, I promise I’m not going to make a habit of this, but I found a post on my old blog that I thought was interesting enough to just cut and paste, so here it is. This one comes from April 2011.) Read more

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