1 Peter 5:6-10
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Basic questions about gospel fruitfulness:
- Is it possible that the reason many churches in the West are not making missional advance (or having relatively little impact on our own contexts) is due to our chosen path to prioritise safety and comfort ?
- As a consequence, do our "Christian" lives which are swamped by material and emotional obsessions for this world, mean that we lack spiritual and divine power?
- Is it possible to ignore the mission of GOD and whilst remain living in relative comfort be awoken to the reality that we are not living in the provision of GOD for the purposes of GOD ? What will it take for this to happen ? What would you expect GOD to do to wake us up to these realities?
- Are there things in the church which prevent the gospel advancing in "established first world" countries, when conversely there are those countries where poverty and challenges pervade which are seeing so many come to Christ (even though the church may be more messy) ? Have we dressed Christianity up too much in middle class attire, over organised it to be a merely human administration ?
- As an apostle who knew the resurrected Christ, Peter writes to a persecuted church in 1 Peter 4:16-17. He sees the issues of suffering, (persecution, leaving comfort, being sacrificial yourself for the spiritual wellbeing of others, and living well under the microscope of hostile opposition) as very key to both the purposes of God and gospel advance. In short this is what authentic, living like Jesus looks like. As the world is allowed to seemingly suppress and oppress children of Christ, the gospel and name of Jesus is lifted higher. God's purposes are always buoyant and always good.
"Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And“If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good."
even the most damaged and broken of us as people can still overflow with spiritual fruitfulness.
PRACTICAL CHALLENGES AND EMOTIONAL WEIGHTS TEST THE POWER PRINCIPLE AND PURIFY OUR SPIRITUAL METAL:
Take for example the electricity and power outages, water cutoffs, basic food supplies and travel challenges in Ukraine these last few days. It has become the norm for many pastors and their families to experience 4-6 hours a day without electricity. Can you imagine this reality in this context. You are responsible for the safety, wellbeing and spiritual encouragement of many, yet you cannot get online, or operate in pastoral ministry or even family circumstances yourself. Simultaneously your family is sleep deprived, wearied by nightly raid alarms, tired of hiding between two thick walls or hunkering in the bathroom during drone and missile attacks. Add to this the excessive financial charges for banking, and other types of heating and cooking, corruption which may increase during combat, and the growing economic challenges of less employment and higher transport costs.
- Of course all this is designed by the enemy to bring fatigue, and many are shot in their emotional human capacity, yet supernaturally the church is accomplishing more than it has ever accomplished. How is this possible?
- What is the greater challenge of reliance in Ukraine? ... to see the believers keep going with basic daily provisions, or to see them stand firm for Christ in torture as their families are captured and kidnapped with the promise of prosperity if they denounce or dishonour Christ? Both are weights many of us are not used to lifting.
- How are believers able to keep going? Is it really true that man does not live by bread alone... do we believe this? Have we come to define life as basic comforts alone? or do we believe by faith that the word and gracious presence of God is enough for any circumstance ?
- I fear that Christianity in most of the West has become so very cosseted, that we not only assume comfort always comes as part of the "life package", but even more we feel we are actually entitled or deserving of a comfortable life if we try to do God's will.
Be alert to ...THE EMOTIONAL PROSPERITY GOSPEL.
Very few in UK evangelicalism would say they believe in or live for a "prosperity gospel", but there is a common approach to Christian living which I fear would leave many severely lacking if things got worse for the church. For many, "normal christian living" is seen as a settled routine of life. Many Christians live in a preferred place where the Church is relatively well funded (compared to the rest of the world)). There are numerous places where there are no UK churches, but Christians hardly ever gravitate towards them, and there is a reason no one wants to plant a church there. I was talking with a precious friend who cited how his house went down in value (as guaranteed) on the day he chose to buy in an area to plant a church.
We do worship family and settled existence, which has driven numerous missional decisions for those in the prosperous West.
I am often surprised by how increasingly competitive UK families are to get their kids into good schools. It feels a little like a modern day gold rush or land grab, which guarantees a future. They will do anything for a good outcome. The idol of career and what defines success for our children, (and the spiritual poverty we bring our children up in as a result), is a monster few speak of.
This drive for a "good school" decides where we live based on catchment areas, and this being a bit more expensive propels us to work longer hours to pay for it and cars which will enable us to commute. Living in such an area often coincides with a larger church which is full of like minded young parents who feel the same way and do not want to go near the nasty areas for their "children's wellbeing". Of course we understand this fear as a parent, but is this a real or imposed reality? Are there groups of the next generation gathering to avoid the real missional hotspots ?
One of my greatest pains in life was seeing my daughter in a primary school where those under 11 were pushing the drugs and crime of their parents, abusing (kicking and spitting at) teachers. This was due to us relocating for pastoral ministry which in our eyes was a step of obedience. Many of our fears as parents were exceeded about how bad a school can be, even when it is trying so hard not to be. Yes, my daughter certainly paid a cost for being in such a place, and the guilt torcheres me, BUT...LET THE STORY PROGRESS. In God's grace I believe it made my her a more compassionate person, and our family way more aware of a life we could've easily been cut off from. We started praying for people we would've never rubbed shoulders with, and enjoyed having them at our table. In fact their colourful conversation revealed what a boring lot some of our other church friends were. They opened up transparently, deep frustrations, expressed appreciation and love in ways more touching than those who were in church. Our family, missional and spiritual life was richer for being out of the confines of the holy huddle. Just to complete the story for full exposure, she is a also now a complete brain-box and doing brilliantly in her degree. This is not the most important thing however, and her relational skills which I've seen in mission trips are off the scale. What this reminds us though is that God has ways of giving you more than you expected when you walk in obedience and follow his safe keeping in missional advance.
Often young Christian families in the UK have chosen or had some financial flexibility and liberty to move near a local fellowship which "provides for the family" a multitude of programs. The expectation or assumption is that all programs and weekly activities will continue to be well managed, the leadership is expected to be constant (not sent to a frontier situation) ,and that leaders will be so trained that they will never make a mistake or unsettle the church. Good churches are seen as those who do not "rock the boat".
Many of us as parents believe that our kids would not survive spiritually if we weren't part of a "big healthy church" (Note to self... that term can mean different things to different people). What does this say however of what we envisage as God's ability or capacity to keep us? Is our faith so fragile that we need the tangible existence of a big church so that we can see with our eyes that God is with us. Can a human network really be the foundation of what we truly rely on for Christian life? or is the Christian life a matter of faith in the unseen transcendent power of God himself , displayed so clearly to us in Christ (Heb 1:2) ?
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory...
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
We believe that when we lay everything on the line for him he hears our hearts, and sees us as an open book, and we will never out-give God. I know this (deciding schools, and where to live, where to invest our families future) is a wisdom call for every family and I am not trying to minimise it. I just wonder if our reticence to step into a danger missional zone says more about our lack of preparedness to trust God as we do so, rather than his ability to keep us. Maybe the best thing we can teach the next generation is that God is big enough and gracious enough to help them even though we have failed and been seen to fail (Psalm 78), then they too will trust in him and not themselves.
...he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them. the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments
Biblical church by contrast to the over sanitised safety zone, is about sailing on rough sea , being led by a skipper and a team who rely on the Lord who is greater than the storm. In fact if I can say it reverently the skipper is always the risen Christ. (Matthew 8:23-27). His hand is on the rudder even when we have to trust in faith that he can control things even when we can't see his hand on the rudder. When the Spirit leads, obedience will lead us into greater temptations, greater tests of faith and greater storms (Matthew 4:1) in order to show his surpassing power to sustain us in perseverance through them.
WHAT REALLY MATTERS?
OBSERVATIONS:
1) I am noticing that church leaders in hard (persecution, unreached peoples, and frontier mission) situations do have such a messy malaise of challenges each day, yet they seem to think more clearly about eternal issues and prioritise what is really important. There is greater clarity for life... however complex it gets. This is God given, and there can be no other reason for it. Lord give us this clarity for living !
2) I am noticing that spiritual leaders in places where the battle is "hot" do make mistakes as they "have a go in faith", that they are not afraid to fail. The difference is that their congregations are defined by grace, transparency and by urgency of what really matters at a pivotal time and in a consciously critical context, and this is part of what keeps God's people moving forward in his strength, provision, power and presence of God.
3) What people have signed up for and expect really matters. If people are signed up to your church because it promises comfort and to fulfil their desires, you will reap a torrid season when it doesn't provide it, and even if it does what are you achieving for the gospel? How is the mobilisation for the mission of God going where you are ?
If your church promises to follow Christ whatever... , the payoff will be increasing and unceasing.
Focus on Him, being alert to His priorities. Having humble reliance on him really works, he makes sure of it.
I ask myself as I ask you... would our resources be invested in the right place to live fruitfully for the long haul, should persecution or mega poverty, the removal of all comforts, rights and routine fall on our Christian lives? If the enemy of the church turned up today at our doorstep, how would our lives unmistakably declare that we belonged to the missional family of God and are investing everything in the gospel?
This matters also to the enemy : (1 Peter 5:8), Don't be fooled.
Consider also that our spiritual enemy, the hater and opposer of the church is never distant from any child of God, however far we may seek to isolate our lives from missional and spiritual battle lines. He is prowling, ready to devour our passion and distract us from anything which ultimately matters. His greatest tactic is to make us content to be out of spiritual growth, when we feel comfortable with the idea that we would be better of out of spiritual service, that the comfort of life will overflow when we avoid stepping out into the unknown in faith. In this we may appear or may feel most safe, but the reality is the opposite. In isolation we are most prone to his manipulation, in our idleness most prone to failure in temptation (think of David alone in comfort in 2 Samuel 11 and how that ended up spiritually and generationally).
ARE YOU LIVING BY A HIGHER POWER?
When Chris Martin excitedly sings to millions about a higher power, and declares amongst the lasers of the mega stadium that "this boy is "electric", I'm not sure any of us are totally convinced he knows what he's on about and precisely what this power is for normal every day life. The best definition deciphered between his lyrics is that the love of another woman (her song of love) enables him to feel better in the moment and about himself ("singing every second" and "dancing every hour"). This is a good summary of how our world deals with sadness. Finding a distraction rather than a solution is the goal. Considering the multiple women Chris has been with and sung this about, (listed here but not for the feint hearted) and the roadside of crashed relationships, the sadness he's been through, i'm personally not convinced his idea of sex, and intimacy with multiple ex love interests is a lasting or sustainable solution for him or us. He needs Christ, rather than another failed relationship. He needs the one who will never fail him.
Julia "Hurricane" Hawkins was inspired to run at 100 and here she is on YouTube at 103 / here at 105. On first appearance this a beautiful story which does inspire us, until we scratch the surface of her motivations which are less inspiring. She confesses she is driven by her ego and desire to impress her friends. Even Julia is not satisfied in herself with what she is enabled (by God) to do. This leaves something of an aftertaste to this remarkable story which has been used to illustrate perseverance. Whilst the media loves a trier and is quick to leap on them as an "example to us all", we are left thinking of the wisdom of this ideology and the relational impact this would have, if we all lead ego driven unsatisfied lives. Is Julia impressive? Absolutely !.. but also increasingly very frail. Will Julia have enough strength to get herself and us all through tomorrow, next year and eternity ? Is trying against all odds ultimately enough for ourselves, never mind God, or are there some realities that we just have to face up to however well people think of us ? Will Julia be a hurricane for ever?
Do you know and can you define what keeps you going ?
Over subsequent blogs, we'll continue to think about the glorious reality of what God is doing in his people and how he is keeping them going. Ukraine, Eurasia, hostile to the gospel countries are demonstration stages to the surpassing keeping providence of GOD. I hope this will encourage you.
Am I being sensational or alarmist? or can we admit that at least on some level, each of us (regardless of context) will face this issue of perseverance and where we find our strength to carry on. It is an issue too critical to be wrong about, and we all need encouraging in it, however long we've been on the road and strong we feel.
Sometimes a climactic situation will bring these things into sharp focus, and how much we need God. How can we carry on without him? When bereaved of a loved one, when several children lose both parents, and we are the ones to take care of them, when all physical things we count on disappear overnight, when the doctor gives us a terminal diagnosis... what will keep us going ? More exactly, what will keep us going to serve God, his gospel and those who need his love when we are running on emotional fumes, or in old age when our capabilities and our favourite avenues of ministry are taken from us? We need something much better than ego, more powerful than trying to defy the ageing process. Is it possible even at the end of our lives, and when we are at our weakest to be growingly profitable and not just painfully persevere... but flourish?
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
HEBREWS 12:1
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."
2 Corinthians 4:16
Use these psalms which remind us our God's ability to keep us persevering to the end. Our hope is in him !
