Enter His Courts With Thanksgiving

My cousin used to have a bumper sticker on his pick-up truck.

It read:

“Don’t criticise farmers with your mouth full.”

I thought about that sticker last night, as I watched a man preach about gratitude. 

You know it’s very hard to grumble and complain, if your mouth is filled with gratitude.

I decided last night to make a list of three things I am grateful for - and to add three things to the list every day. Here are the six items on my list so far - by the end of March I expect to have more than 100 items!

1) My wife.
2) My children.
3) My home.
4) That there is peace in this land (that is to say, we are not a war-torn nation).
5) The pastor at church and his wife. Together they make the church community a wonderful place to be.
6) A particular friend of mine (whom I thank God for in my prayers, but shall remain nameless here.)

The Lord’s mercies are new every morning, great is his faithfulness.

My cup runs over. I want to focus on the good things in my life.

Because the measure I use is the measure by which I receive. And so if I go out rejoicing and grateful, surely these things will return to me.

You might want to try it too.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to read this blog. In a busy world, I really appreciate it.
God ever bless you.

He Was Numbered With The Transgressors

 Ivor Williams traditionally had a big breakfast with his children on a Saturday morning.  

Because of this, he obtained a criminal conviction, and was numbered with the transgressors.

    It happened this way.
    It was a day in Spring, last year, when Ivor sat down with his younger children to eat breakfast. His wife, Beth, had taken the car and was driving two of their children to a modelling exhibition in a nearby city. The boys had built many models and were keen to see others who practised their hobby. Beth was a law-abiding citizen in every way, but on that occasion she didn’t notice a change in the speed limit, and ended up travelling faster than the signposts decreed. The first Ivor or Beth knew of the matter was when a speeding ticket turned up in the post. Because Ivor was the registered keeper of the car, the ticket came to him. He was presented with three options.
    The first option was to declare himself the driver of the car, pay a penalty, go on a driver’s awareness course, and receive points on his licence.
    The second option was to swear that the car was in fact, off the road, and no longer in use.
    The third option was to identify the driver of the car, and inform the State of the driver’s identity, and have him or her pay the fine, and accept the penalty.

    Ivor immediately discounted the first two options. The first option, because he hadn’t been driving, but only eating breakfast. The second option he could not choose, because he didn’t want to disobey the teaching of Jesus Christ, when he said, “and do not swear, neither by heaven or earth, but let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.” Besides, the car wasn’t ‘off the road’, so he couldn’t in all honesty choose that option.
    Beth was willing to undergo the “State Reeducation Programme” as Ivor called it. Like many well-educated people, Beth was reluctant to do anything of which the state did not approve, but also, being a responsible wife, she was willing to pay for her error. She didn’t want Ivor to get into trouble for her sake. She was a noble woman in every way, and a willingness to accept responsibility for her transgressions was just one of her excellent attributes.

    But Ivor found the whole idea of becoming a State informant morally repugnant. Didn’t the Bible say, ‘what God has joined together let no man put asunder’? Wasn’t the State now trying to separate a man from his wife, by saying ‘you must hand your wife over to us, for re-education, because she has done something wrong! She has transgressed! She has committed an offence!’

    Ivor believed there were three kinds of wrong-doing. Sins, crimes, and offences. The first of these, sins, occurred when men disobeyed God. If a man stole something, or coveted someone, or failed to love his neighbour, then he was sinning. Sins were trespasses primarily committed against God.
    Crimes required a victim, and involved a trespass by one man towards another. If a man caused another man injury, or loss or damage to his property, then a crime was committed. Generally speaking a crime would need to be pre-meditated, and often would also be a sin, such as when Cain killed Abel.
    The third type - offences - were transgressions created by the State. For instance, King Nebuchadnezzar had decreed an offence when he commanded all the people to bow down before his golden statue. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had committed an offence against the State because they refused to bow before the idol. But their loyalty to the Lord God was greater than their allegiance to the State, so they offended the State rather than contravene God’s command. Breaking a rule of the State was preferred than breaking a commandment of God.
    King Darius had done a similar thing when he outlawed prayer. Daniel had committed an offence by praying to the Lord, contrary to the decree of the State, but he judged his relationship with God more important than the King’s edict.

    On the back of these thoughts, Ivor decided to make some enquiries. Had Beth committed a crime? Had anyone been injured? Had any property been damaged? Were the police sure they had the right car? Because Ivor was in no hurry, and because he wanted to slow down the bureaucratic procedures as much as possible, he did not phone, nor did he email the police. He wrote letters.

    The answers came back slowly. There was a photo of Ivor’s car, travelling, it was alleged, at 59 miles per hour in a 50 mile zone. No, the correspondent assured Ivor, not to worry. There had been no injury to any one, nor had there been any property damage. Aha, thought Ivor. My wife has not committed any crime, this is just the State being petulant (as it often is, he thought). “You drove too fast on our road” was the State’s claim. “But nobody was hurt” was Ivor’s unspoken reply. “But someone could have been!” Ivor thought to himself, arguing the State’s case. “Yes,” Ivor replied to himself, “and somebody could be hurt by my chickens - but nobody has been! So does that mean I must get rid of my chickens - because they might hurt someone. Or, if a father didn’t put his son on a home education register, and the State finds out, has a crime been committed, even though the child has not been harmed in any way?”

    And so it was that Ivor wrote to the police department. “I’m a Christian,’ he said, ‘and I am called to love my neighbour. My neighbour was using my car, but nobody was hurt, nothing was damaged. I know who the driver is, but it smacks more of being like Judas Iscariot to inform you who it was, when no crime has been committed. I want to be like Jesus Christ, not like Judas, so I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you who was driving my car.”

    Of course that was a red-rag to a bull.

    A few weeks later Ivor received another letter. This time it was from the courts. He was being charged with driving at excessive speed and withholding information from the police. He would soon be called to court.
    But Ivor never went. He believed in the proverb “Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.”  Thereafter he just threw letters from the court in the bin. His life carried on as normal. Absolutely nothing happened.
    Until one day Ivor went to rent a car from a local car-hire agency. When they checked his licence they couldn’t obtain insurance, because he now had a conviction. So he was unable to hire the car.
    Beth had to hire it instead.
    Ivor had to laugh at the irony. He had only been eating breakfast with his children.
    And the one with the lead-foot was the one permitted to drive.
    What a crazy world.

    And so it was that Ivor Williams was numbered with the transgressors. Beth thought he was mental (although she had to admit, life with her husband was never dull).  But Ivor slept easily. When should a man hand his wife over to the State? When should a husband agree his wife needed re-education?

    ‘Never,’ was Ivor’s answer.
    ‘Never will I let any man, or any institution of men, come between me and my wife.’
    For what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

    When Ivor told that story down at the pub, his friends thought of him exactly the same as Beth. 

    Crazy.

    But Ivor thought; ‘thank you Lord, that you have made me just a little bit more like Jesus. For although he was blameless, yet he was numbered with the transgressors. And in this matter, so too am I. All I did was eat breakfast.  All I did was refuse to snitch on my wife. I am blameless, and yet I too, have been numbered with the transgressors.’

Last week I kissed a stranger.

I kissed a stranger in a car-park in Appleby last Tuesday.

It happened like this.

I had bought some groceries from the Co-op and was leaving the car-park when I saw a lady slowly pushing her trolley towards her car. I wound down my window and called to her if she needed any help, but she didn’t hear me.

So I parked my car and walked over to where she was. She hadn’t been walking too quickly. She had a stick as well as the trolley to trundle along. I called out to her again, and asked her if she would like help putting her groceries in the car.

She looked up and smiled at me and said, ‘oh, thank you, that would be very helpful.’ So I put her four grocery bags on the rear seat for her. We exchanged pleasantries, I asked her if she lived in town and mentioned I lived locally. 

I took the trolley and said I would return it for her. She looked at me and said, ‘oh thank you, you are kind.’

Then I remembered when I worked for Wiltshire Farm Foods that elderly folk often never have anyone touch them. They can go for weeks without any physical contact. Widows and widowers are often very lonely.

So I kissed her and said, ‘God bless you.’

She gave me a big smile - and said again, ‘Oh, you are very kind.’

And so we parted company - never to see each other again.

The Scriptures say of Jesus that he went around doing good.

For me its just too easy to ‘go around.’ 

But last week I healed a widow of loneliness, for at least a short moment.

And, for a small minute in time, I was like Jesus.

This year I’m especially trying to trade unkind words for kisses.

I’m trading bullets for kisses.

I think that will make the world a better place.

Some people are in the habit of sniping at others.

But that’s not a habit I want to cultivate.

I can't stay fighting in the trenches if I only have a kiss for a bullet. One of my favourite Spanish singers sings a song about this, which you can watch here.

Last week I made an old lady smile.

Last week I kissed a stranger.

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Hey, thanks for reading my post. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a truly great day.
God ever bless you.

Disappointments: Part IV

 Applications:

    Has someone disappointed you? Remember, you will probably also have disappointed that person at some point. Forgiveness is key. Have you been disappointed by an unrealised goal? Take comfort that the Lord brings good out of bad, and that when one door is closed it can well be because he is going to open another one. King David was disappointed not to make a house for the Lord, but the Lord planned to make a house for him.
    In my own life, I was disappointed because I wanted to go to Bible College in Oxford, but was turned down. That was God’s plan, for I was to meet Linda in North London at college, which would never have happened had I gone to Oxford.
    Have you felt disappointed by the Lord? Remember, you will probably have disappointed him at some point too.  And remember this, that God’s pure and perfect love, is not simply kindness. Kindness is an aspect of love, but does not capture all of what love means. I would not think much of a friend who said to me he didn’t care if I was dishonest, or cheating on my wife, provided I was happy.  And God’s love for us is not kindness in the sense that all he cares about is our happiness, rather his love for us is such that he will step in, if we are idolising things we should not, or walking a path that is not good for us. Because we are a work of art.

    God does not exist to make us happy, it would be closer to the truth to see it the other way around. We exist to make him happy, or even more accurately, to bring him glory. Lets look at John’s gospel to close. John 21:18

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me”

    Was Peter disappointed to hear how he was going to die? We don’t know. But his death was to glorify God, just as his life was. You and I may be disappointed in life, but we were created to bring glory to God.  And often it will be in the midst of disappointments that we will glorify him the best. Our Lord Jesus’ words to Peter are the same to us. “Follow me.” The Lord of glory simply says, ‘follow me.’
    A Prayer for the disappointed:
    Lord, we recognise that in a fallen world we will often be disappointed. Help us to see that hopes often are unrealised because you have a greater plan than we, with limited understanding, can see. Forgive us our many sins Lord, and please would you move the hearts of those whom we have disappointed, to forgive us, just as we forgive those who have disappointed us. And Lord, please forgive us where we have felt disappointed by you. The truth is that we must have disappointed you many more times and in many different ways, without even knowing it. Thank you that your love for us means that you will, from time to time, disappoint us. Sometimes you will take our idols from us, because we will not give them up or see them in the right light. But above all Lord, we thank you that your son never disappointed you. And even though he suffered, he never lost faith in you, and you delivered him from death.
    Help us to rejoice in our sufferings o Lord, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and ultimately, character produces a hope that does not disappoint us or put us to shame, because your love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom you have given to us. We ask this in Jesus’ name,  Amen. 

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Hey, I've said this before, but I really appreciate your taking the time to read this post. In a busy world with many options before you, you could have been doing anything else. So thanks for stopping by. 

May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and those whom you love, both near at hand, and far away, this day, and always.

Disappointments. Part III

 Fears

    After the death of our Lord, the disciples were fearful to go out and about. They had been crushed by disappointment. They had hoped that they would enter Jerusalem, and Jesus would set up God’s kingdom, and they would reign with him. No more Romans about, no more legalistic religious people. Can you imagine their sadness and disappointment? But then Jesus appeared to them and they realised that their hopes had been in the wrong place. God’s plan had been far bigger than throwing the Romans out of Jerusalem - it was his plan to conquer sin and death through his Son.
    We may have been disappointed by something in the past, and we may now be fearful of the future. ‘I had a good friend once, but she let me down, so I’m not going to get close to anyone again.’ 

Billy Joel captures this sentiment in his song Innocent Man:

"Some people stay far away from the door, 

if there's a chance of it opening up,

they hear a voice in the hall outside, 

and hope that it passes by.

Some people live with the fear of the touch, 

and the anger of having been a fool;

they will not listen to anyone, 

so nobody tells them a lie."

Or we might think: ‘Yes, I had hoped to do this, I prayed about it, but the Lord did not bring it to pass. So, I’m giving up on prayer and, I think now that God has few plans for me.’
    That’s not the way God wants us to live. The world is not impressed by Christians who don’t take any risks for the Lord. The world is impressed by Christians who show the world that God is more important to us than anything else, so that we risk disappointment. Esther overcame the disappointment of her parents death and then leaving her uncle’s house, to enter the king’s palace. She overcame her fear and risked her life to speak to the king, even though it was illegal.
    Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego overcame the disappointment of Jerusalem being captured and their being relocated to Babylon. But they lived by faith, telling the king they would not bow down to his idol. Paul overcame his disappointments and lived by faith, and so he was useful in the Lord’s service. He showed the world that knowing Jesus Christ was more important to him than anything else. He was faithful unto death.

    The point is, how we handle loss and disappointment shows the world who and where our treasure is. The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we can give our riches away for Christ’s sake and count it gain. We must not fear living life and perhaps taking risks for the Lord, for fear of disappointment. One of the biggest fears a pastor has is that he will be unable to persuade you to live for Jesus and not to waste your life. 

Jesus calls us to live now. That’s why I used to get cross with the amount of time I spent watching TV, or messing around on Facebook. At the end of time, I didn't want to say to the Lord, ‘look Lord, how I spent the time you gave me. 30,000 hours of watching TV.’ 

Doesn't it seem a waste of life to spend hours looking at flickering images that we cannot remember the next day? 

Doesn’t it seem to you that Jesus is calling us to a higher life?
    In life we will have disappointments. And God wants us to overcome them. Romans 5 shows us the way:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

    Disappointments are simply unrealised hopes. That’s all they are. Disappointments produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And we are to hope in the glory of God. Not that our children might become brain surgeons, nor that we might become CEOs, but in the glory of God. That God might be the most important thing in our lives.

    In the resurrection of Jesus we see God conquering disappointment. Whatever disappointments we feel now, or will feel this week, lets not lose sight of the fact that Jesus comes to his disciples and says ‘do you love me, more than all these other things? Then come, I have work for you to do.’ Don’t let fear of failure stop us from living for the Lord. Don’t let it stop you from writing the book you always wanted to write. Don’t let it stop you from having the child you always wanted. Don’t let disappointments stop you from living. Disappointments are part of life itself. We're not living if we're not having disappointments!

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Hey, in a busy world where you have many things to do, thanks for taking the time to read this blog. I really appreciate it. 

May the Lord make His face shine upon you today. 

May He lift you up.

May He give you JOY!