He has ordered my goings…

I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings.

(Psalm 40)

Once upon a time, oh, probably about last Friday, a man was running some errands over lunchtime. He finished his tasks around 1.15pm, and really wanted to go home and chill out. But he had arranged with his son to go to a nearby town and give him a driving lesson. While he was meditating on what he wanted to do, versus what he had agreed to do, he remembered a passage of scripture that he had been memorising that month. The last part of it read He (the Lord) has ordered my goings.
The man realised then that he had been looking at the upcoming driving lesson with his son the wrong way around. The Lord had arranged for that event to happen. The man realised that ‘to order’ something had at least three meanings:
To tidy up something that was messy or disordered. As in the phrase to restore law and order.
To ask for something from someone. As in the phrase he ordered the roast beef sandwich and a cup of tea.
To demand or make an imperative of someone. As in the phrase the sergeant ordered the private to clean his boots.

And so the man realised that the Lord, in some sense (perhaps all three of the above) had ordered the driving lesson. So then he went with his son cheerfully and willingly, not begrudging any lost time, but realising that his Heavenly Father had ordered that part of his day. God had ordained that the man and his son should spend time together.

We don’t live the life we want or plan. We live the life we’re given. It really helps to see that much of what’s in your diary, and even the stuff that isn't, and 'just pops up', God has ordered it. 

The Lord orders what will happen in my day, he orders my goings.

Go well today, may you know that both the plans and the interruptions are ordered by the Lord.

Times change - the Old Ways aren't always the best.

Once there was a man who settled in the west to establish a farm. The land was swampy and damp, and there was much rain in the region. So the farmer set to work, felling trees and draining the land. After a number of years of hard work, the farmer managed to turn the swampy, damp land into a productive farm.

So pleased was he with the success of his hard work, that he decided to fell more trees and put in more drains. He purchased more land and followed the trusted methods which had served him so well. But as he continued in his old traditions, he did not notice that the environment he was living in was changing. No longer was the problem so much one of too much rainfall and swampy land, now it was a problem of draught and insufficient water. But no matter, the farmer knew the best way forward was to carrying on digging drains, emptying swamps, and felling trees. He was sure of this, for he had seen this method work before, and from his own experience he knew it was the right thing to do.

One morning he awoke to find it sunny, as it had been for the last two weeks. He noticed the grass getting very dry and the crops starting to wilt. He thought perhaps he should try a different farming method, but all he knew was to fell trees and drain the land. What else could he do? He knew no other method. So he carried on with the old methods which had served him so well in the past.

A few months later the farmer lost his farm. So enslaved had he become to his old ways, he did not see that the environment around him had been changed, and the old problem of swampy, wet land had given way to a completely different problem. The problem had changed, but his commitment to the old way of doing things blinded him and led to a catastrophic loss. He was completely undone, he lost the farm.

This story was one told by Thomas Arnold, in which he illustrated the tendency we have as humans to slavishly follow our old way of doing things, without paying sufficient attention to the changes going on around us. He observed that as humans we very often take something which is good, but we become so enslaved to it, that it becomes a positive evil. It is all too easy to become slaves to tradition, traditions which worked in the past in a different time when circumstances were different. We do not pay sufficient attention to how things are different now from how they were many years ago.

No doubt this is why Jesus Christ taught that:

No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ (Luke 5:37-39)

New wine needs new wineskins. Without them, we lose the wine and the skins.

But aaaaahh the old is good! We don’t want to do things in a new way, for the old way always used to work well enough.

Jesus Christ teaches us that ‘New wine must be put into fresh wineskins.’ 

Maybe we need to reflect on that.

Otherwise we may lose the farm.

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Hey thanks for stopping by. May the Lord give you your heart's desire today; fulfil all your plans; and grant all your petitions.

He must increase, I must decrease.

 He must increase, but I must decrease….Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
(John 3:31, 36)

    You know, when I was five, I could have been anything. An All Black, a train driver, a plumber, an astronaut.
    By the time I was 18, none of those dreams were likely to come true. Potentially, I could have become one of them, but in choosing to become an astronaut (had I done so), I would have had to give up the potential to become anything else.
    When you’re single and 25, potentially you could marry any other person of the opposite sex. But once you marry, you sacrifice that potential, while the door to other possibilities (such as fatherhood) become realistic.
    When you are young, you have few memories (I have only one or two memories prior to the age of 5). Now, in my middle-age, I have many memories, but far less potential. I have memories of my time in Argentina, but little chance of returning.
    And it seems that men in their 80s have many memories, but much reduced potential. Health issues for a man I know means that his days of international travel are over, but he has many great memories of his time abroad. Now he has trouble walking, but he has memories of his feet taking him many places.
    My potential, looking square on, is getting less and less. One day, when I die (which I hope to be many decades off), my potential will be zero. And my memories will die with me, and I too will become, just a memory. And this would all be incredibly tragic, if it were the whole truth about life and death. But it isn’t the whole truth, because one man, whose name and glory must increase, has conquered death. In the world to come, there will only be good memories, and there will be unlimited potential, for the passage of time will have no impact whatsoever. There will be no tomorrow there, for it will always be today.
    Which means we will have both the potential and the time to learn every language under the sun. We will have the potential, and time, to meet everyone we want to meet from history (assuming the individual is a believer in Jesus) and the time to become friends.
    Part of the good news of Jesus Christ is that he makes this life meaningful, and shows us that the apparent meaningless of life (caused by the inevitability of death) is a false spectre. The resurrection is real, death is temporary.
    And so, as my potential decreases as I get older, so the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ in my life must become greater. He must increase, I must decrease…

Increase your Spirit in me today Lord, may there be more of you, and less of me…

Gathering up the fragments.

 
[True Story]

Once upon a time a great number of people went to hear a popular speaker talk at an event. Unfortunately the place where the event was held was some distance from local amenities, and the time of year, being the end of winter and very early spring, meant that there was no wild fruit on the hedges or trees.
This rally appears to have been organised in something of a hurry, for the assistants to the speaker had not even brought food for themselves. Only a little boy with a lunch box had any food, which was hardly going to feed over 5000 men, let alone women and children.
But the speaker’s assistants did as instructed with the boy’s lunch, and somehow there was enough food for everyone to eat their full. Not only did the crowd eat, but so did the assistants. The official record of what happened says ‘And they [the crowd] did all eat, and were sufficed, and they took up of the fragments that remained, twelve baskets full.'
Note that there was one basket left over for each disciple (12 in total).

There are many lessons here, but I think one of them is that if you gather up the fragments, you will have enough for yourself. I have found this to be a particularly true lesson in terms of time. I have enough time to do everything I want, if I gather up the fragments. For instance, there’s a 45 minute window of time I have every Sunday morning, between breakfast and getting ready for church. This week, I used that ‘fragment’ to clean the chicken coop and cut back dead flowers in the garden. The chickens are happier, my garden is tidier, and I am better satisfied. Especially because the weather in the afternoon turned foul, and I couldn’t have done those tasks then as I did between 8.45 and 9.30 on Sunday morning.

Gather up the fragments of time, and we’ll have more than enough time to do both what we need, and what we want.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,  making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:16)

Slave or Son?

 Some years ago - in 2009 to be precise - on my birthday Linda gave me a book of sermons by Thomas Arnold.
This evening I was prompted to re-read one of them. The text was Galatians 4:7

Gal. 4:6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

What I found interesting was the way Arnold brought out how people behave towards God, if they believe in Him, before they are born again – before they become sons.  People who have some knowledge of God but aren’t born of his Spirit, often obey God, but they do it begrudgingly, as a slave obeys his master.  Or as Arnold put it, as a school-boy begrudgingly goes about his books.  I’d better do this because Sir said so.

“I’d better do it or God might get annoyed.”

However, when we become sons, we willingly do what we’re commanded, because we want to please our loving Father.  The One who loves us, and whom we love more than anyone else in the world.

What’s your approach to the commands of God?
I’d better do it (you’re still a slave then).
I want to do it (ahh, looks like you’re a true son).

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome.
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

(1 John 5:3-5)

Thanks for stopping by.
May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble, may the name of the Lord Jesus Christ protect you.