Do you want to do life?

That was the question that Karl, my pastor, was asking tonight. We had a mind-blowing baptismal service tonight! The presence of God was so tangible in the testimonies of the 6 who were baptised. Each had a different story of the work of God in their lives but attested to the grace of God in changing them and giving them real life with Him. The presence of God was also evident in the joyful praise and preaching, from John 3:16. Sometimes we get a taste of heaven on earth and what an amazing glimour of the hope that is in Jesus Christ!! God is so good...

All present?

My small group at church started a new series on Wednesday night. It’s called NOOMA and is led by a guy called Rob Bell. The name NOOMA is an English phonetic spelling of the Greek word pneuma, which is commonly translated to “spirit” or “breath”. (see http://nooma.com/)

Here’s a little taster of one of the NOOMA studies:

Many of us have experienced situations where we’ve prayed and it felt like God wasn’t listening. And yet other times we’ve prayed or known someone that prayed and the situation changed. Does God answer prayer? Sometimes, but not all the time? Or does God always answer prayer and it's just that sometimes God says no? Some of us are angry with God for not answering the prayers we’ve prayed for years. Why did he answer their prayer but not ours? What if there’s more to prayer than just God listening and answering? Maybe if we understood how Jesus prayed, our concepts and expectations of prayer would change.

Incidentally, that’s not the one my small group watched. We will soon, I hope. The film we viewed this week, entitled Today, was dealing with not living in the past or always thinking about the future, but living to the full - now, today. It was a challenge as a group to discuss what our favourite / most fulfilling time of life was and why it was. Did we hark back to a better day or time, wishing things were somehow different today? Did we think we had been dealt a bad hand? Had life given us a bum deal? Were we carrying baggage that we needed to put down? Or, were we realising what Jesus has for us in his fullness and power today? Were we living selfishly for ourselves or living with open hands, engaging with others and serving them.

Bell spoke of John 20:17 where Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to the Father, to my God and your God’. The context was after Jesus’ death and resurrection and Mary Magdalene was looking for Jesus’ body at the tomb where his body had lain. Jesus appeared to Mary and said these words to her: Do not hold on to me. Bell took this to mean that Mary wasn’t to wish that Jesus was still alive in his pre-crucifixion life, that things had somehow turned out differently, that Jesus would remain on the earth, that...Jesus had something far more amazing and profound for Mary, the disciples and his followers for all time. The Holy Spirit was being sent to comfort and indwell his people, to empower and minister the power of Jesus in this world through the lives of Christians.

That stimulated and gripped me. Although I don’t necessarily think back to a specific time that seemed better in my life, I am not always living in the light of the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. I am not always present for those in my life. It is so easy to be full of the stresses of life or occupied with other thoughts when people need our full attention and relationship.

I was driving to Glasgow last week and was caught in a mega traffic jam on the M8. As I was starting to allow myself to get frustrated, wishing I could sail straight through and not have to negotiate the mayhem, I was reminded of the NOOMA study. I could pointlessly wish I was somewhere else or accept the circumstance and think on good things as Philippians 4:8 challenges us. This wasn’t just the power of positive thinking but actually moving beyond the circumstances and seeing and experiencing what God has for us at that time, now. What does God have for us to learn? How can we more closely relate to him and to others around us?

This morning at church another circumstance painfully brought this lesson home to me. A guy, Mike, who I had been getting to know at church over recent months died this morning. Last Sunday I sat next to him during the morning service and he requested prayer for going into hospital during the week for heart issues. I said I would pray for him. I had every intention of doing it and I like to think I said a silent prayer for him last Sunday. I don’t remember. But I didn’t diligently pray for him when he was at the hospital. Now, I’m not saying that Mike would still be alive today had I prayed for him like I wanted to. God is a sovereign God. What I am saying is that I allowed the busy-ness and circumstances of last week to cloud my vision and distract me from being present and praying for Mike.

Relationship is about getting near to someone and being there for them. Often, I am not good at relationship. OK, maybe on a superficial level, but I take a long time to really open up and get real with people and allow them to get real with me. That is possibly why I am not (yet) married. Again, God is sovereign and has his will and purposes and, yes, I am glad that I am not yet married but I have failed in relationships so far. I have been selfish and unintentionally hurtful to those who I have got somewhat close to.

I am so thankful for the grace of a wondrously tender and generous Father God. We make mistakes, we sin, we foul up again and again and again. We hurt, we forget, we fail, and yet, God is there and loves us despite...He is there for us and wants us to learn from our weakness, from these circumstances that come our way. Oh, how I want to learn from these things and be here, today, for the people I know and love...

The Hope of Spring

A vivid yellow splash of colour under a graffiti-sprayed flyover caught my eyes recently as I was driving to Glasgow. I was driving to an Easter Sunday morning service in Glasgow thinking of the mess and chaos of the world within and without when I noticed the daffodils. There they were, sheltered under the bridge, amongst the traffic, the rubbish, the bottles and the art-work painted on the uprights.

Those daffodils were a timely reminder to me of what it means to be a Christian. We are here in this world, living on a fallen planet, surrounded by chaos and beauty and sin and suffering and righteousness.

Those daffodils made me think of that first resurrection Sunday. Scriptures speak of the need for Jesus to leave heaven, to be born on this earth and to live a perfect life, amidst the pain, the suffering, rejection, ridicule. He was a good man, a good teacher, a prophet, yes, but he was so much more. He was God in the flesh, showing a fallen and degraded mankind the way back to a relationship with a perfect and justly holy God. Jesus was willing to condescend so much that he became one of us - a man who would hunger, hurt, weep and suffer. A man who would heal, comfort, restore and laugh. A man who was willing to get his hands dirty in the mess and humanity of the world. A man who was put to death on a cross. Jesus, although Scriptures tell us he had no beauty that we should esteem him, was beautiful in how he lived that perfect life and how he spoke of the way back to God. He was like those daffodils surrounded by ugliness.

Three days after lying in the grave, Jesus rose from the dead, with the Father's approval that he had paid the penalty for sin, our sin. He had no sin of his own - he did not deserve to die or to suffer in any way and, yet, he chose to suffer in the worst way imaginable. Jesus gladly chose to receive our sin transferred to his unblemished account. And, what did we receive in return? His perfect, spotless righteousness. Righteousness acceptable to God transferred to our overdrawn and bankrupt account.

That is the hope of Easter, that is the power of the resurrection bursting into the darkness of this world! That is our only hope.