Hurry up, Psalm 63:1-11

Psalm 63:1-11

Psalm 63 really manages to sum up that longing our beings have to be united with Our Creator. “I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you” (63:1). When you know God you just want to know more of Him and until you do quite often you have this perpetually dissatisfied void that you really can’t fill with anything other than Him. Retail therapy? No. Night out? No. Promiscuity? No. Drugs? No. Be honest with yourself. Ever noticed that these things leave you only temporarily happy and continually needing repetition and renewal to give off anything close to contentment. It’s in our nature to want to know more of our Father, that thirst and longing is an indicator of the truth that communion with God, talking, learning, just being in His presence can only be described as feeling at home. For some of us not raised by believers, this idea of doing something completely new and unlearnt and feeling at home may be odd, but that’s because God is so much greater than earthly ties. God is the Father who intended each and every one of us to live out purposeful lives, the Creator who predestined us to live with Him forevermore, we belong to Him. A common prayer request is to know and love more and more of God, there’s a lot to love and so much to learn and revere. “I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself…You satisfy me more than the richest feast” (63: 2-3, 5).

So why “hurry up”? Having referenced such a beautiful psalm, why not something more contemplative? Because we are our only barriers in this reunion. Our beings thirst and hunger for God, but we often seek worldly things before the Godly. Going to the pub instead of taking some time to read the bible, sacrificing time getting to know God to form fleshly relationships. We are spiritual creatures, who belong to a God who isn’t going to force you to seek Him out. It must be of your own accord. You’ve got to say “God I want to get to know you”, He’ll respond, but He won’t force feed you. Look at the language of Psalm 63, are you “earnestly” seeking Him out? A lot of time we can tell ourselves that we don’t have time for prayer, that we’re too tired for Bible study and yet we find hours to waste away on YouTube, in front of the tv, in awkward idle small talk. For what? If this sounds familiar, re-introduce yourself to the Father, honestly and humbly tell Him you want to get to know Him better and experience that genuine satisfaction.

God bless and keep you always x

Why don’t people like the Church? Hebrews 13:1-21

Hebrews 13:1-21

To be quite frank, a lot of people who don’t like Christians, (some, not all), have come into contact with Christians that they felt gave them reason to. Some people are just ignorant. The stereotype of the judgemental Christian, the Hypocrite, the Haranguer aren’t fables, but pretty visible and all too detrimental to the image of the body of Christ. Jesus spoke to immoral and moral men alike, gave and received from prostitutes, criminals and self-righteous and proud men. At times he did this with righteous indignation, but at others Jesus acted with great humility and compassion. As Christians we have the responsibility to reflect these characteristics with people that we come into contact with. If we’re realistic, this is not a side of Christianity that enough people, believers and non-believers, speak of. We are intended to be the light and salt of the earth (Matt 5:13-16), so clearly we have some work to do.

So, if we aren’t already, what is it that we should be doing?

“Keep on loving each others as brothers and sisters. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realising it! Remember those who are in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” (Hebrews 13:1-3).

I don’t treat everyone like they’re my younger brother. I’m not protective, loving and playful to everyone that I come into contact with. Yet this is what we are called to do. The second part of the verse is asking us to truly empathise, not ignore, not patronise, not pity but really put ourselves in their shoes. Why? Firstly, the supreme authority Jesus said so, so you know…

“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! … Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:32-36).

Christians and non-believers are not the same. Surprise ! If someone reaches those pearly gates, is judged for their actions and didn’t know Jesus you’d better believe that they’ll be in a better position than the person who knew better but let sin and immorality control their motivations. The motivation of the soft heart is a valuable gift to those to whom it comes naturally, and an important prayer request for the rest of us. Don’t be able to repeat these things, or adages to the same value, but not practise them, what good is that to anyone?

We are all God’s creation and even those who don’t believe, were created by Him. The Living God made man to be stewards of His creation, to look after, lead, protect and care for it. As stewards we should strive to love and take care of others with the same intensity and depth that we would our physical siblings.

Unsurprisingly opportunities for resentment can appear from time to time. We can see others with wealth but think it’s unfair because they’re not righteous. We may see a person even in a position in our church or life groups and feel envious of them. The Bible says “be satisfied with what you have” (13:5). At the end of the day God is in control of your life, resenting your situation equates to resenting what God is doing with it, instead of noting the gifts and opportunities He may be making way for.

“For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” (13:5-6)

He will NEVER fail you, God has you 100% covered. Every Christian lives in the blessed position of being reliant on the Eternal Father, whose very nature is loyalty and love. The Father who listens to your prayers, who seeks out a relationship with you, who gifted you with ETERNAL salvation. We have a lot to be happy about, even when things appear to be unappealing, we must never allow a chasm for the Enemy to sow seeds of anger and resentment. As the verse says, our Father, our dad, is the Living, intervening, caring, just God – WHAT is there to fear? The position of the Christian is like no other, there is no better place than it.

I see an awful lot of complaining coming from Christians, about other Christians, on social media. Firstly, I find it inappropriate, Paul labours the point of not arguing and belittling Christianity in front of non-believers so no Christian should be doing so. Simple. There is a key difference between trying to address issues in the hopes of building up the Church and prattling on about what you don’t like about Christians, undermining the unified body that you belong to. Secondly, I think a lot of it is short-sighted. A lot of people speak out pride and self-righteousness, vilifying those doing positive things and usefully forgetting John 8 (the story of the woman caught in adultery). For those with the aforementioned selective amnesia let me paraphrase the story: woman gets caught in the act of adultery, crowd want to stone her, Jesus says whoever is without sin let them throw the first stone, and off everyone disappears. Don’t like that bit of scripture, cool, let’s try Matthew 7:1-6, headed DON’T JUDGE OTHERS.

Your intentions will colour the words that you say, if not dictate them. “But the words you speak come from the heart – that’s what defiles you” (Matt 5:18). When you desire what God desires, when your motivations are goodness and love, your advice or constructive criticism for the church body and others will be healthy and beneficial. I don’t think the alternative needs further going into. Our lives on this earth are going to be judged one day, and even without that hanging over your head, when you came to God you received plentiful gifts, shouldn’t you get to sharing some of that with other people?

“For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. Therefore, let us offer Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.” (13:14-16)

God bless and keep you always x

Have you ever loved someone, so much you thought you’d die? Matthew 6:24

“Have you ever loved someone, so much you thought you’d die? Given so much of yourself, it seems the only way, tell me what you want and I and I will give it to you…”

I can hold solid conversation on faith, football and new jack swing, if you don’t know, well now you know (I’m finished). So I was listening to this yesterday and actually paid attention to the lyrics. The lead singer was FIFTEEN YEARS OLD at the time – dramatic much? But jokes aside he was expressing things that people genuinely think and feel. It can feel like you’re giving your entirety to someone and are just spent, doing whatever you can to please them to the extent that you’re left feeling drained. This is plain wrong because even when we’re in love and give ourselves over to the only man we should do, we experience continual joy, continual peace and continual security. But men AND women idolise their partners, family, friends, and then when it all goes awry they’re left broken, in crisis.

Often when we think of idolatry we think quite literal stuff: steer clear of other gods, polytheistic/ new wave ideas, materialism etc. But we rarely look at it beyond the skin deep. What’s the idol in your life? If your life and your thoughts and your actions and your joys don’t revolve around God what do they revolve around? What thing comes out of your mouth more than talk of your Father? What thing do you need to address?

Sometimes we need to step back from things and have a look at ourselves. Spending copious amounts of time on our presentation is idolatrous. That does not mean don’t buy new clothes, don’t wear make up or don’t get your hair done. But committing a large amount of time to perfecting yourself is vanity and self-love, let’s be honest. You’ve gone from preening yourself to narcissism and the consequences are not pretty.

God can’t come second to your girlfriend. You give your all to Him not her. Stop talking your friend’s ear off about her/him, chill with acting like they’re the only person on the planet. They’re not; yeah they’re cool but you don’t seem this excited about God and He kinda gave His Son as a perfect sacrifice for your eternal life, but whatever…

Until you know what it is to be loved by Him and trust in Him, and Him alone, chances are your relationship or the fallout from it is going to be pretty unhealthy anyway. When we know what love from God is, it also means we can have a framework for what love ought to look like. I don’t mean the perfect guy and the perfect wedding we see in chick flicks because setting yourself up for that dream is pretty idolatrous in itself, rather it gives you the opportunity to gauge things that are attractive in a christ-like, biblical light. In the way God intended us to love and be loved.

Further, loving God first and truly basking in the fact that He loves you, means that if a person lets you down your world won’t end, because He is the only being that will never hurt, never disappoint, never manipulate… at the end of the day the rest of us are fallible.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matt 6:24).

We are here to serve our God and His creation, to be stewards in this world and light in a place of real darkness. That’s more than just some imagery and anything continually distracting you from this ought to be evaluated.

God bless and keep you always x