.

Right. So you finally find the perfect church.

The pastor, the preaching, the music, the fellowship… everything. It’s perfect.

And it’s a good thing because after all these years, you were beginning to think it didn’t exist.

.

But it does of course. You have proof. You’ve just joined it.

Thus you dwell in heavenly oblivion as you relish the Utopian splendour of a truly perfect church.

The jolt

Then one day it happens.

Like a bolt of lightning.

Out of nowhere.

The pastor is wrong! WRONG! Like really, really wrong!

Then, as if it was staged, you find out that the deacon thinks the cleaners are lazy, the pianist gets annoyed at the ukulele player, the church’s snow white reputation was marred by a split in the ancient past, and worst of all, Miss Sandra told someone that you sing too loud!!!

You slowly sit down as the miserable reality begins to sink in… “my church is made up of… of… of… humans!”

Post-honeymoon grace

What makes it work once the adrenaline wears off? What happens when the honeymoon’s over? What oils the machine when you realise there are some people in your church that you just don’t get along with?

We could call it post-honeymoon grace.

It’s when you realise that you disagree with your pastor on some significant non-fundamentals and decide to agree to disagree and love him anyway.

It’s when you decide to look after Miss Sandra’s pet elephant while she’s away even though she thinks you sing too loud.

It’s when you reach out to what’s-his-face even though his views on the eschatological implications of the kingdom are dead wrong.

Post-honeymoon grace is when you realise that your pastor might be right, you might sing a little too loudly, and perhaps there’s a little room for difference on those eschatological implications… just a little.

Settling in

The best part of body life is when you’ve settled in for the long haul. It’s when you’ve gotten past the honeymoon and are really part of the family… foibles and all. It’s when you know the others and the others know you… and you still show grace to each other. Not a blind grace that can’t see the other’s faults, but a grace demonstrated in spite of the faults… like the grace God shows to us.

It’s post-honeymoon grace.

Looking back, did you ever wonder what kind of person you might be if you had attended a different school?  Or looking ahead: if you plan to have children in future, have you considered their education?  As a pastor and school chaplain, I’ve often interacted with parents who are concerned for their children’s education.  Some parents have made unwise decisions in their choice of school, while others must make do with limited options.

I attended Christian schools: one was small and utilised self-directed curriculum, and the other was a large, traditional school.  I was also home-schooled.  In these three types of school, I was able to progress academically in order to transition smoothly into uni.

The small school could not offer the resources of a larger school, yet the teachers and curriculum were sufficient for effective learning.  In the large school, there was less personal instruction due to the greater class sizes, but this was not a real barrier to learning.  Home school was the most flexible but also the most limited in terms of learning with peers.

Which school experience was most helpful for spiritual growth?  Both Christian schools included Bible classes and incorporated the Christian worldview in other classes.  Students were expected to behave according to Bible standards (i.e. the Ten Commandments), which were enforced.  Both schools affirmed my faith in God and the Scriptures and, through the example of godly teachers and the enforced standards, helped to discipline me toward godly choices.  In home school, I benefited from my parents’ teaching and example, as well as weekly interaction with a local youth group.

None of these modes were perfect and I was not a perfect student, but just as each school experience was academically helpful, each school provided help in my spiritual development.

During high school and uni, I made friends who came from public school, home school, or other Christian schools.  I found that they loved God and lived by His Word, and were able to succeed academically — regardless of their school background.

What I’m finding is this: as a parent, your choice of school is very important and will surely impact your family’s spiritual growth for better or worse.  But while school does matter, it is not the only place where children learn.  God’s design is for the parents to take the lead in discipling at home, in community with their church. (Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6)

I believe a child is best nurtured by godly parents, within a Bible-believing church, and supported with a Christian education that is an extension of the church and home.

How did your school experience affect your faith?  How can Christian schools improve in their role?  Any input is appreciated.

One thing I find over and over again is how desperate people are for Biblical teaching on the subject of sexuality.  Recently at a ladies’ Bible study I was teaching on marriage, we spent two sessions on the subject of marital intimacy.  Plenty of questions were fired, and I was surprised how candid the ladies were in that “safe” setting.  After one particularly curly question, one woman commented, “Jane, you have no idea how big this topic is.”  Christian books–good, bad and ugly–abound on the subject yet there is still great need for teaching on this subject in the church.  Plenty of negative sexual propaganda blasts from the mass media, leaving its mark on all but the most vigilant.  Acceptance of sexual perversion as normal undergirds much of what we observe in the marketplace of personal relationships.  As Christians we must consciously and radically re-educate ourselves on this topic.  But how?

1.  Surrender your sexuality and all your thinking about it to God

2.  Be wary of anything that stimulates a false picture of romantic love.  Romance novels are notorious for this, as well as a good chunk of the movie industry, not to mention a lot of secular love songs.

3.  Study key passages in the Bible on this topic.  Starting with Genesis 2 work your way through the Old Testament, noting God’s instructions about sexuality and God’s judgment against those who pervert His plan.   Enjoy the very beautiful love poetry of the Song of Solomon—not everything about sex in the Bible is negative!  In the New Testament, don’t miss Jesus’ expansion of the law in Matthew 5:27-32.   A few other passages not to be missed are Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40, and 1 Thessalonians 4:1-10.

4.  Read some good Christian books on the topic of sexuality.  I recently enjoyed Love That Lasts by Gary and Betsy Ricucci, which devotes two chapters to romance and intimacy.  Elisabeth Elliot’s Passion and Purity is a Christian classic for singles on “loving passionately while remaining sexually pure”.

5.  Pray for a spiritually-minded person you can trust to mentor you through your questions and struggles.

At the end of our camp sessions on sexual purity, some questions arose:  “If I’m a guy and I have feelings for other guys, is that wrong in itself?”  “I’ve already lost my purity.  Is there any hope for people like me who have blown it?”

Thank God His gospel is a fountain of grace for those who struggle, even in the area of sex.

Leviticus 12, 13

“I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” ( Pss. 51:5 KJV).

From the beginning of my life my contact has been with the unclean—how than can a man become pure? The atonement blood that cleanses my mother must avail also for me.

O Lamb of God, what a sacrifice Thou art! Whose blood could avail like Thine?

Goat’s blood could not cleanse for animals are nonmoral.

My own blood could not avail for I am immoral.

Only Thou art perfectly moral, and only Thy blood could be of any effect.

—14 April, 1948

I debated whether to post this today.

In the end, it’s not about singling out one guy. But sometimes dealing with a real situation can make a truth appropriately pointed. So here goes…

The pre-story

I recently read a post by an Australian pastor boasting that he was going to preach on Bono on Sunday.

I commented urging him to preach the Word instead. I was soundly rebuked and brushed off as immature. I was told this pastor does not accept correction from the likes of me.

Well, the message has been preached and posted. You can listen for yourself if you please.

So I listened to the message.

It was cute. It was trite. It was lame.

As he shared Bono’s testimony, he had to apologise for Bono’s “salty language” in the testimony. He said he could only judge by Bono’s fruit but then just about the only fruit he could come up with was that he was faithful in his marriage. Um… ok. That’s good.

To his credit, he did get the gospel in there. In fact, it was almost clear… if you assume he meant what I think he meant.

My beef

Here’s my beef.

Who cares what Bono is, says, or thinks? It doesn’t matter! It really doesn’t. Not even a little. Bono is irrelevant.

Yet the message was on Bono. The Word of God hardly got a mention. He didn’t even make the token gesture of giving a text. He just openly admitted to the world that he’s speaking on Bono instead of preaching God’s Word.

Unbelievable.

We live in a world that desperately needs the timeless truth of God’s Word… note: God’s Word… and our preachers get up and speak about Bono?! And all the while the sheep are starving to death as the shepherd indulges shamelessly in pop culture fads.

It’s an “are you for real?!” moment. Seriously.

Might as well say it

About now, you’re expecting me to give a flaming diatribe, so I might as well do it.

How dare you!!? How dare you stand in God’s church and speak in God’s name and then talk about your own infatuation with pop culture?! How dare you?!!

That’s flimsy. That’s shallow. You probably got most of your content by Googling some popular sites. Shame on you!

Get out your Bible. Pick a passage. Any passage. Dig into it. Don’t wait for “a word” from God. You have the Word of God in front of you.

Read it! Study it! Explain it to your people!! Then, when they understand it, explain it again. And again. And again.

That’s your job!

This is not optional. This is essential.

Why post this?

I have nothing personal against this guy. I hope he will have the wisdom to at least consider my critique in this format since he would not consider it in my previous format. But this is not for him. It is for others who sit under men like him.

Don’t play that game. Don’t sit around eating the rare crumbs that fall from your fad-engorged shepherds.

Get out. Find a church that preaches the Word of God. Find a church that preaches it carefully. Then settle down there and feed sumptuously.

This man will give an account to his own Master for what he did in his “preaching.” You will give account for what preaching you choose to put yourself under.

The phrase, “wholly followed the Lord” is repeated three times in this story.  First Caleb testified he had followed God wholly.  Moses had also attested that Caleb wholly followed God.  The story records that Caleb was given the city of Hebron “because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.”  The same words describe Caleb on three other occasions (Numbers 14:24, 32:11-12; Deuteronomy 1:36).

Caleb’s devotion is interesting because he was not an Israelite.  He was one of the Kenizzites, a nomadic desert tribe.  An outsider who had intersected with Israel, Caleb demonstrated more conviction than his unbelieving generation, who passed away in the wilderness.  Along with Joshua, he was the “last man standing.”

The word “wholly” comes from a verb meaning fullness, completeness. Referring to space, it means to fill up something.  It also means to fulfill, to bring to completion.   Caleb’s heart was filled with God, so he followed God completely and wholeheartedly.

To follow God fully implies that someone can be less than fully devoted to God: to be slow to listen; to be slack to respond; to be driven by fears instead of fear of God; to love self more than God.  This is the daily struggle of our hearts, isn’t it?

But it’s a fight worth fighting, because full commitment to God is the only legacy that matters.  Later in I Kings, God recorded this epitaph regarding Solomon: “Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done” (I Kings 11:6).

Think of all that Solomon had achieved in his life: his buildings, his life experiences, his writings.  He impressed people and people envied him.  God had initially blessed Solomon with wisdom and peace and wealth.  Yet how did Solomon spend God’s gifts?  He was successful at many things, but he did not follow God wholly — and that was God’s evaluation of his whole life.

I recently read this: “Don’t fear failure — fear success at things that don’t matter.”  God help us to be successful at the only thing that matters: following Him with all our hearts, no matter how old we are.

Do you remember the circumstances in which the Lord gave you a special window into your own weakness?   Did that knowledge suddenly come to you, or did that realization slowly dawn on you over a lengthy period of time?

Moses first attempted to deliver the Israelites from bondage when he was forty years old and “…full of his own ways…too strong for God.” F. B. Meyer writes, “…it would take many a long year of lonely waiting and trial before this strong and self-reliant nature could be broken down, shaped into a vessel meet for the Master’s use, and prepared for every good work.  God’s work can only be done by His chosen instruments, and they must be specially fitted for the service they are to render.  That special adaptation is not natural to any of us, and can only come after years of deep and searching discipline.”

Let me share with you a little story about my own launch into missionary work.  In 1997, my first husband and I prepared to go to western Canada to serve in a small church.  Our sending church made preparations for the commissioning service where they would ask the Lord’s blessing and guidance for the work we would undertake.  On the chosen Sunday morning, my husband preached, and then the church leaders stood up to make all the appropriate remarks to commission us.  They asked our family to sit on chairs on the platform, and the church leaders gathered behind us, placing their hands on our shoulders and heads.  One of the men, a very dear friend of ours, commenced praying.  He began, “Lord, they are weak…”  That assessment jolted me like a little stab of electricity!  I felt incredulity! Astonishment!  In fact, at first glance, it almost hurt!  ”Weak?!”  ”Us?!!!”  He continued on, asking the Lord to use us in spite of our weakness, in the midst of our weakness, and through our weakness.  Ever since that prayer was prayed, I have meditated on it, from time to time. Yes, we were weak.  We went up to Canada and ministered there for 4 years.  During the first year, 3/4 of the congregation emptied out for a variety of reasons.  Some things were petty, some things were over doctrine, and perhaps in some cases we weren’t like the former pastor.  Whatever the reason, it was quite daunting to see the church empty out like that.  Years 2 and 3 were like a re-building, a time of teaching, a time of starting over.  During year 4, my husband battled cancer, and chemo, radiation, and surgery heightened our weakness.  We left Canada on November 12, 2001, because Canada would not renew our visa due to Jerry’s terminal illness.  I look back over those four years and see how the Lord especially enhanced and increased that weakness that we might know His strength.  In the midst of our weakness, in spite of our weakness, through our weakness, the Lord took what little we had and used it!   Apart from Him, we were made to know that we could not do anything!

A proper understanding of our weakness creates an adjusted perspective on what we bring to the task.  But we must not forget what the Lord brings to the task—-Himself!  We can do all things through Christ who will strengthen us.

Written by Deborah Lake, posted here by permission

So the BBQ was delivered to our door still in its original box, never used, and ready to be assembled.

The boxed BBQ is currently stationed on our back patio ready for assembly.

I am looking forward to cooking prawns, chicken, calamari and the usual Aussie delights on the BBQ, but not having to assemble it. That will take some effort and practical skills. The last time I put together a BBQ was about 5 years ago and I can still remember the frustration factor.

If the BBQ remains unnassembled there will be no special outside dinners and meat cooked in a way that only a flame grill can do.

This quandary reminds me of the part we play towards Christ-likeness. While God promises to accomplish what He has begun in us, the fact is He expects us to co-operate, even enthusiastically so. While He works in us and energises our feeble efforts, we are still ‘co labourers together with God’ and accountable for how we use the talents He gives us. Indeed there remains a judgment ahead for the believer’s works.

There is mystery in the outworkings of our salvation in this life. How human responsibility and sovereignty co-operate and achieve the divine purposes is to me unfathomable. If we are not careful we will end up denying one of those truths if all we do is emphasise the other. They are in fact friends and partners rather than competitors or enemies.

So if you want argue with me about this post, give me week or so, then come over to my place and we can talk some more while I grill some delicacies on our new BBQ.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13

Pro-life speaker Bruce Coleman (Choices Of Life) spoke in our school this week, regarding the value of life and the Christian response to abortion.  Several students expressed thanks for the informative and practical presentation, which also prompted me to do some research.

Some online statistics I gathered:

• Australia’s abortion rate is high in comparison to other developed nations.
• There are around 90,000 abortions in Australia each year, or two aborted lives for every five live births.
• There are 800 abortions each week in NSW.
• A woman seeking abortion is most likely to be aged in her 20s, single, childless, well educated and employed.
• The vast majority of abortions relate to convenience, not to medical purposes, rape or foetal deformities.
• According to one survey of around 4000 Australians, over 80% believed abortion is a right.  In the same survey, over 75% of Australians with religious views supported the right to abortion.  Even among evangelical Protestants surveyed, over 50% were pro-abortion. (2003 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes)

If you are pro-life, you are in the minority.  If you actually participate in promoting the right to life, you belong to an even smaller minority.  One thing is certain: it’s hard to face these statistics without wanting to do something.