Christmas, family and forgiveness # end

 

What is Christmas about?  That question comes up every year, as many a jaded person complains once more about the commercialisation of Christmas, or struggles with the pressure of expectations that drive them to spend more than they can afford and commit to one party too many during the festive season.

 

Personally, I love Christmas.  I take time out, batten down the hatches and have some real quality time together with family and loved ones.

 

But it's about even more than that, especially for those with a faith.  One of the main messages we can find in the whole Christmas experience, is the one of forgiveness – God's forgiveness for all of us.  That's the hope that Jesus Christ came to offer to us as the ultimate Christmas present – that through his life, death and resurrection God the Father has forgiven all of the things we ever have or ever will do to break our relationship with Him.

 

You could say that Jesus himself is the ultimate gift, from his Father in Heaven to us all.  It amounts to the same thing – God loved us so much, that he wanted to give the very best he could with no strings attached, just because he loves us.  That's the true spirit of Christmas, and I know it's a real joy for so many people to be able to give to those they love.

 

Yet, in times of deepening recession, many folks are going to find it hard to give materially this year.  Certainly, many just won't be able to meet every expectation for iPhone's and X-Boxes.  Maybe that's a great opportunity for us to communicate, especially to our children, what the real heart of Christmas is all about.

 

Whether you consider yourself a Christian or not, it is an almost universal joy to give, in some way, to another human being.  And following God's example in Jesus Christ, we can all give something that can cost a lot, but for which we need no money.  Forgiveness.

 

Forgiveness can truly cost us dearly, as we have to lay down our desire for justice and revenge, in the face of the facts that yes, we have been hurt / injured / offended / mistreated and it was not our fault.  The other party, in natural terms, deserves to get what's coming to them.

 

But forgiveness works against all that, and offers the possibility of reconciliation in broken relationships.  It hurts to forgive, but, like giving presents, once we go through with it we can experience joy and peace.  Peace, because we are no longer ourselves trapped in the cycle of punishment and revenge, which can eat away at our souls as we continue to think negatively about those who have hurt us.

 

I want to stress it again – this can really cost us.  It was not easy for the old black lady in South Africa to forgive the policeman who oversaw the torture and death of her husband and son.  (You can hear that story on Cross Rhythms, we love to repeat it).  But she did it, and it brought a whole courtroom together in singing Amazing Grace and so overwhelmed the perpetrator that he fainted in shock.

 

And I am sure it was not easy for God to forgive me (or you?) for those things I have done which have hurt him and separated me from his presence forever.  Yet he paid the dearest price, that of his only Son, to cover the cost of my faults and to bring a lasting reconciliation of relationship with him, which I, and millions all over the world, will celebrate this Christmas.

 

I'll be enjoying this Christmas with my family, and looking forward to some wonderful reunions.  You cannot have those times when you carry unforgiveness towards another person in your heart, I think we've all experienced those 'awkward' and slightly stilted family gatherings where unforgiven offences lie just below the polite surface.  Often, Christmas is the time when they explode into the open and cause havoc – just witness the huge rise in work for divorce lawyers each January.

 

So why not follow God's example, admit you've been hurt and accept it wasn't your fault, maybe even cry little over that and get real with it.  But then try to forgive, to let the other person go from your heart and wish them well and not ill.  If you find that too hard, try asking God for some help – he knows all about the pain and the struggle and how to overcome it with compassion.  It's just about the best present you can give, and believe me, giving it is the best present you'll ever give yourself, too.

 

And for those of us with a faith, maybe we can pray for our neighbours to have a joyful and peaceful time with their families.

 

Have a truly blessed Christmas.

faith and hope in hard times # end

 

In the week that I'm writing this article, Plymouth has heard news about the future of Devonport Dockyard, which is better than many people expected.

 

The securing of a future for the Dockyard and its workforce, which many thought would be threatened with potential closure in the weeks leading up to the government's spending review, is in no small part due to the collaboration between MP's of differing political persuasions, and the local media.

 

Alison Seabeck, Gary Streeter, Vivienne Pengelly to name just three, put aside party political differences to fight for the Dockyard, and the press campaign run by the Herald gave the oxygen of publicity to the fight.

 

It is human nature to side with one or other political party, but to do so at the expense of the 'bigger picture' would lack wisdom.  When we all face a common crisis, we have to find a workable solution.

 

So, the collaboration between MP's of differing politics and also the local media was heartening, and the result for the Dockyard was heartening too.

 

The outcome was better than many people thought it would be.  That is often the way – we can tend to be quite negative about the possible future, and even explain our negativity by calling it 'realism'.  It's not really based on reality (who knows the future?), and critics of this way of thinking may call it, instead, pessimism.

 

Thankfully, those involved in speaking up for the Dockyard did not come from that point of view – if they did, they would have given up the fight long ago in the face of the difficulties that had to be overcome.

 

I don't think those who worked for the Dockyard's future were led by optimism either. Optimism can be as misleading as pessimism in that it exaggerates the current facts and likely outcomes, but instead of negativity as its basis it uses what some have called 'rose tinted spectacles'.  It can be just as unrealistic.

 

Both pessimism and optimism often fail to deliver what they predict.  However, there is a quality that enables us to look at the future without being overly discouraged.  That quality is hope.

 

Hope is a virtue which is perhaps misunderstood in today's society.  From a Christian perspective, we're told that three virtues are of the highest value – faith, hope and love, (and that the greatest of these three is love.)  And hope is much stronger than optimism.

 

The ancient definition of the word hope means 'trust' or 'reliance', and even its modern day meaning is very substantial: "desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfilment".  (Miriam Webster's online dictionary)

 

Optimism, on the other hand, is defined as "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome", which seems to me to be a much weaker thing all together.

 

So where does hope get its strength from?  For those with a Christian faith, it is founded on the nature of the God that we believe in.  He is good, he cares for us and he is faithful and will stand with us through every kind of difficulty and trial.  Ultimately, he wants our best – even more than we do.

 

At times it's hard to see where the 'good news' has gone, when life gets tough.  That's where that ancient description of hope, being 'trust and reliance', makes real sense.  When the sun's shining and all is well with us and our loved ones, we just enjoy it.    It's in the dark times that we need hope.

 

I hope, and pray, that in the trials of life we can all find real hope, and can come to increasingly trust and rely on the goodness of God, even (or especially) in the tough times.

 

The Pope and Christian Values # end

The recent State visit of the Pope to these shores in September was marked by the comment he made when he urged Britain to maintain its respect for traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer valued or even tolerated.  This certainly struck a chord within the press and broadcast media and the politicians.

 

David Cameron linked the Pope's statements to his own vision for a 'Big Society'. Cameron said that religion was at the heart of 'the new culture of social responsibility we want to build in Britain'.

 

Personally, I think the Pope's visit was timely and sorely needed. We had the earthly leader of over a billion of the planet's inhabitants making a strong statement about the values which are foundational to the Roman Catholic Church.  For those of us in the catholic (universal) church, the Pope's reference to protestant believers like Wilberforce and Florence Nightingale signifies a shift within ecumenical thinking.

 

You see the Head of the Christian Church is Jesus Christ Himself. Regardless of your church affiliation, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox your personal accountability, if you call yourself a Christian, is towards Jesus Himself which then enables you to work within imperfect denominations and imperfect leadership.

 

It is always the right time for those who have a faith in Jesus Christ to rise up and engage with the brokenness of our society.  Whether in the church communities or without, we need to stop cursing the darkness, but instead light a candle of hope; to engage with those who differ from you with respect and 'walk the talk'.

 

GK Chesterton, the Roman Catholic journalist and author said, "Perhaps the principle objection to a quarrel is that it interrupts an argument," and Voltaire said this….. "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll die for your right to say it…"

 

This is vital for a free and democratic society. Political Correctness gags personal and public opinion and is inherently unfair. Christians are being arrested today in the UK for 'silently protesting' on issues and values that they hold dear. When Churchill galvanised the nation by exhorting our forefathers to fight for the survival of Christian Civilisation, he was inspired to encourage a nation to fight for its core values against an evil ideology threatening our very survival.

 

A Big Society will require big people who are living for something (or Someone) who is bigger than themselves.

 

According to the last census in 2001, 37.3 million people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian, roughly 70% of the population.  It was Christian values that formed the basis of much of what we regard as good in our society today – William Wilberforce was passionate and effective in the movement that brought about the abolition of slavery, moved by the value of the sanctity of all human life which his Christian faith inspired.  Florence Nightingale had a 'call from God' and in following that call with compassion and courage, pioneered the nursing movement that we often take for granted.

 

And the Christian faith today is inspiring millions of hours of volunteer work in the UK, helping the vulnerable and needy in our towns and cities.  In our own fair city of Plymouth, the results of a Faith Audit are expected to show the large contribution made by men and women of the Christian faith, and other faiths, to the welfare of those who are in need.

 

At the heart of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ, who told us to 'Love God and love our neighbour as ourselves' – this is such a profound teaching of tolerance and goodwill to all people that it is hard to see where some of the more extreme expressions of 'aggressive secularism' get their ideas that the Christian faith is not a force for good in our land.

 

Whether the Pope is our denominational leader or not, we should be encouraged that he has spoken out so clearly and bravely for the core values of the Christian faith - love in action, tolerance, the sanctity of life and so much more.  These values are the bedrock of justice, fairness, mercy and a compassionate society where everyone is regarded with dignity and everyone has the right to his or her beliefs, and the responsibility to outwork those beliefs for the good of their neighbour.

Heart Not Head # end

This year's crop of record breaking A level results produces a mixed reaction from people.  Some say it shows that our school system is working well and enabling more and more young people to achieve better and better grades.  Others doubt the quality of the criteria used to make the grades, and are easily started on a 'back in my day things were tougher…' monologue that achieves very little.

 

So let me say from the outset – "Well done!" to every young man and young woman who has achieved or exceeded their expectations this year.  If you worked hard, then you've earned it and you should enjoy the fruits of your labours.  And commiserations to those who did not do so well – for those people, the following may be of some real help.

 

There is a saying, that 'if you educate a devil, you'll get an educated devil'.  By which I take it to mean that education in and of itself will not bring abut the reformation of our character for good.

 

Simply learning facts and passing exams is not what real education is about.  To quote the historian G.M. Trevelyan:  "Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading".

 

That sums it up.  We have knowledge, but we can lack wisdom to know what to do with it.  Knowledge is stored in the head, but wisdom comes from the heart.  Not the physical organ that keeps the blood flowing, but that part of us where we have our values, our ethics, our sense of identity and purpose, and for those with a faith that part of us where we commune with God.

 

But many people today often seem to have no heart, no vision, no self-worth and no value of the worth of others.  The increase in A and A* grades does not seem to have made any difference to this malaise.  Knowledge alone cannot restore a human life to its full potential – there has to be something more.

 

Our young people seem to have everything they could want in terms of entertainment and knowledge at their fingertips through the internet.  Yet so many people live desperately unhappy, unfulfilled lives.  It looks like many of the ills of our society are a symptom of a directionless generation (not just young people) that is trying to consume life with no sense of purpose or value.

 

It's a problem with our whole culture.  We place a high importance on getting knowledge, but less value on the matters of the heart that help us to use that knowledge wisely. 

 

'Knowledge built on wisdom' is a phrase I heard once, and I think it puts things in the right order.  We live life best when we live from the heart, not the head.  We love our wives and children, our friends and neighbours, and we are loved ourselves, from the heart (it's certainly not a rational choice sometimes!)

 

Courage, hope, the over-riding desire to lay your life down to protect or help someone else – all these things spring up from our hearts.  If we made those choices rationally we'd either spend so long deliberating that we'd be too late to act, or we'd logically conclude that it was not the 'rational' thing to do.

 

Education is a much-needed part of the process of learning to live well, and in places where the opportunity for education is restricted, there are many detrimental effects. But let's put the accumulation of knowledge in its proper place – it should be secondary, and serve a life lived from the heart.

 

The Good Book has some advice on this, telling us to 'guard our heart, for it is the wellspring of life'.  And Jesus said "I have come to give you life [notice he says life, not knowledge] in all its fullness".  Now that's wisdom.

 

 

Big Society, big opportunity... #end

 

The Chinese definition of the word 'crisis' is 'dangerous opportunity'.  That definition offers a more positive and hopeful view of the difficult times we face, giving scope for something good to come out of something hard.

 

In the last few weeks the coalition government has begun to lay a foundation for our communities to turn this crisis into an opportunity.

 

The crisis is that finances are tight, and so public services are under threat.  The opportunity is for voluntary groups to step in and fill the gap.  The government's stated aim is to devolve power to local communities to run local services.  There is even talk of funding this from the billions of pounds lying in 'dormant' bank accounts.

 

As well as encouraging greater volunteering and philanthropy, the Prime Minister said he wants to enable "some of the most dynamic" charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises to take over the running of public services.

 

The buzz word for all of this is 'big society'.  Views on this vary depending on the colour of your politics, but this column isn't a place for a party political broadcast for any party.

 

From the perspective of the Christian faith, David Cameron's 'big society' ideas echo the words of Jesus, to 'love your neighbour as yourself'.  Love is more than a feeling, it is worked out in action, and there are hundreds of volunteer organisations that do that on a daily basis.

 

A Faith Action Audit, being carried out right now in the city, is recording just how many hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer time are put into supporting the life of the city of Plymouth by faith groups.  The Prime Minister's 'big society' is actually already taking place.

 

The pressure of the economic crisis may the catalyst that empowers all of us to 'own' how we meet the needs of the vulnerable people in our city in a more sustainable way.

 

Along with the opportunity comes a challenge – 'people power' is another buzz word in the government's presentation of big society, and with power comes responsibility.   The more power we have to impact our society, the more responsibility we have to make sure that impact is for the good.

 

As a Christian, I believe that we are all made in the image of God, and we all have the capacity for great acts of courage, kindness and compassion.  But we also have free will and what the Christian faith calls a fallen nature (in other words, we made wrong choices and we've broken that perfect image of love).  So what lies before us is a great opportunity where we can truly 'pull together', for the good of our communities.  We'll need to lay aside our own desires sometimes to achieve that, and that is where the real challenges will lie.

 

I think a quotation from Charles Dickens, writing over 130 years ago, really sums up our own times of 'dangerous opportunity':

 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way."  (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

 

The hope we have in this time of 'dangerous opportunity' is that, together, we can truly forge the best of times out of difficult circumstances, drawing on the inheritance of Christian faith and good character that has built the best aspects of our nation over hundreds of years.

 

Hopeful Sacrifice #end

Whether we like it or not, we're all going to have to make a few sacrifices somewhere along the line, in order to get our nation out of the hole it is in financially.  The 'austerity budget' that George Osborne laid out on June 22^nd in the Commons has already imposed some of that sacrifice upon us all.

There will be the usual howls of protest from some, and roars of approval from others, as these measures pass through Parliament.  That's party politics for you.  But underneath it all, I think every politician, and everyone in the country, agrees - we have to do something and it has to be quite drastic, in the face of crisis on the scale we are now seeing in our economy.

So, we'll do the British thing, and put on whatever the 21^st century equivalent to the 'wartime spirit' is.  Hopefully.  Unfortunately, many commentators doubt whether the current generation has what it takes to 'man up' (they're talking about all of us who have grown up 'soft' in the unprecedented peace and wealth of the last 60 years).

I'd agree that we seem to have lost something of backbone and the sense of living for something bigger than ourselves.  An evening watching our TV is enough to convince me of that.

But I cannot help hoping, and believing, that this generation can make a difference in our luke-warm, largely uninspiring society.  It's not just the older generation who (thankfully) laid down their lives for us in WW2.  Plymouth is a military city, and almost daily we hear of young men (and women) who are risking and losing their lives in warfare in Afghanistan.

Whatever we think of it politically, when the rubber hits the road they are fighting for a cause greater than themselves, whether it's a war on terror or simply risking life and limb for their comrades in arms. In the theatre of war they are discovering that with rights comes responsibility, and they are learning it in a very tough way.

The economic situation back home also has our leaders almost on a war-footing, encouraging us all to pull together and take personal responsibility financially for the sake of our friends and families and our nation.  

That responsibility, or ability to respond, is a weight carried by every mature man and woman.  Our leaders can make superb governmental decisions, but if we as individuals don't take up our own responsibility those leadership actions will probably have no lasting effect.  We're in this together, and it will take courage to work our way out of it, together.

We have to work hard against the commonly accepted, but ultimately worthless, values of self-gratification and the general sense that 'human rights are the most important thing'.  Without responsibility to guard them and guide them, our ideas of 'human rights' are little more than a disguise for selfishness and 'me first' – really, it's childish, as any parent will know.

'Fight Club' was a '90's movie and book, and it had a memorable quote that summed up one aspect of that kind of thinking:  We're the middle children of history.... no purpose or place.  We have no Great War, no Great Depression.  Our great war is a spiritual war.  Our great depression is our lives. 

We are now living post September 11^th, and post credit crunch.  The world has changed beyond all recognition from the 'do as you please and make a living' days of the '80's, '90's and early '00's.  The disenchantment, cynicism and purposeless typified by the movie 'Fight Club' should surely now give way to something better; character and determination, community spirit in the face of a commonly shared hardship.

We have a war (on terror, like it or not); we have the looming threat of a Great Depression akin to the twenties and thirties (or worse).  Hopefully the hardships we face will create a sense of purpose and destiny, a sense that we do have a place and a role to play in the bigger fight that we are all now facing – the fight to preserve a hopeful future for the next generation.

2,000 years ago one Man took manhood to its ultimate extreme, fought (and defeated) torture, death, and Hell, all in the cause of something other than Himself – to give eternal Life to you, and me, and our children.  Jesus is my hero, and I pray that His example of unconditional love will shape all our decisions as we face the months ahead.

A Bigger Picture #end

I have been thinking lately about the need we often have to put our personal feelings and opinions aside, for the sake of others.  Whether this is for our families, our communities or society as a whole, it is a choice that we all have to make, and our political leaders are no exceptions. 

The political landscape in the UK has recently seen a huge shift, with the formation of the first coalition government for 70 years.  This coalition will require some genuine laying down of agendas in order for it to work, as did similar governments during the Great Depression and World War 2, when all parties agreed that party politics should take second place to more serious issues.   

Whilst the circumstances surrounding the present coalition are different to those 70 years ago, they are not all that different.  We are facing global economic difficulties which are affecting many countries adversely, and look as though they may affect us here in the UK even more in the coming months.  We're all going to need to submit our preferences for the sake of the 'bigger picture'.  The old-fashioned term for this was 'pulling together'.

It will take courage and character on the part of politicians to face up to unpleasant realities with a resolve to put the wellbeing of our communities and society above party politics.  

On an individual level, this kind of character is evident in the lives of many people today who give of themselves for the benefit of others.  The laying down of personal ambition for the sake of others is the very nature of real love, and is summed up in the Bible in the letter Paul wrote to the early Christian church in Rome nearly 2,000 years ago: "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves" (Romans 12v10).

As a Christian, I believe that the strongest motivation in the world is God's love, demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ.  This love, which Paul wrote about, will override selfishness and personal ambition in any of us.

Love, not just romantic love but the compassionate, determined love of a Mother losing nights of sleep nursing her sick child; and the courageous love of a soldier risking his life for his friends; or the simple, enduring love that makes the commitment of a marriage last for decades, is what is needed by and from us all.  This love is not the exclusive property of those of us who call ourselves Christians, but I do believe that real love, however it is expressed, comes ultimately only from God.

We should hope that the coalition leadership that we now have in this country will be effective in the days ahead.  The Bible encourages us to pray for our leaders.  I believe that for those of us who profess a Christian faith this means our political leaders as well as spiritual leaders.  They will require courage to be able to put their long fought-for and firmly held party political beliefs to one side, as they seek to steer the nation through stormy waters.

And it's not just our leaders who have to shoulder this burden – we can all play a part in this.  Some events impact on us all, and the global economic crisis is one of those.  We might need to lay aside our own political preferences and feelings and allow our leaders to lead well, supporting them wherever, in good conscience, we can.

Just like the political parties, the various church denominations can also have strongly held and differing opinions on matters which seem a little unimportant to someone looking in.  However, they too are able to work together for the greater good of their communities, and often do, pouring thousands of hours of voluntary service into their local communities in Plymouth.

Thankfully, by God's grace, we all have the opportunity to 'mine' the character of love for ourselves and let it shape our decisions and actions for the good of our families, our communities and even our nation.

‘weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.’ #end

As I started writing this article, my wife Kerry and I were amongst the tens of thousands of Brits stranded overseas as a result of the ash cloud from the Iceland volcano.  This was inconvenient for one or two days, but for the length of time it threatened to carry on, it could have been a lot more than that.  Just about every aspect of our national life could heave been affected in one way or another by the closure of UK airspace, and one of the most unsettling things about these events is that they are completely out of our control.

 

When things are running relatively smoothly, we can have a sense that we are in control and we can look forward to a settled existence where we work, rest and play to our heart's content, providing for and enjoying our families, hoping for what the next new day will bring.

 

But when things happen that are beyond our ability to control, our sense that we are in charge of life falters and shows itself to be a bit of an illusion.

 

Personal events like serious illness or financial hardship, or more wide reaching events like war, natural disasters or even the ash-cloud, can quickly rob us of our security, unless our security is in something other than ourselves and the world around us.

 

A wise man once said that the only constant thing is change, and another added that there are actually two certainties in life: death and taxes.  Maybe a little pessimistic, but both hint at the same uncomfortable truth – we are not masters of our own destinies, and it does not take much to shake our lives up and challenge where our security lies.  We should not really be surprised when our world shakes and falls apart a bit – it seems to happen to every generation and to everyone.

 

There is a modern myth that we in the West are immune from the trials that we see in the rest of the world.  We are often so entertained by our gadgets and mass media, we can be in danger of avoiding the truth that, at times, life is tough but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

The Christian faith has some good news for us in all this:  there is something permanent that we can trust in, the fact that God loves us unconditionally and cares for us deeply.   If we let him, he will walk with us through the difficult times of life.  He will not necessarily take the hardships away, nor does he want us to live in denial of the negative emotions and pain that accompany our struggles, but he will share his compassion and mercy with us, encourage us and strengthen us, and lead us in the best way to walk through our trials.

 

The Good Book has much to say on the subject of suffering and hardship, and I'd like to share some things from there that many people have found helpful:  Firstly, God says he will comfort us in our troubles so we can comfort others with the same comfort we've received.  In other words, through meeting God in our own trials we can help others in theirs.

 

The Bible also says that God allows tough times to build patience, perseverance and the character of his son Jesus in us.  And this is not just stoicism, but a hope based on God's active work in the hearts and lives of those who rely on him.  In fact God is so positive about this that the Bible says we are to rejoice when we encounter all kinds of trials, because of the hope of the good that will come.

 

Finally, there is a verse that says 'weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.'  Troubles will come but they will not last forever.  God is merciful, if we put our trust in him he will not let us down, he'll take us through our trials and bring us out into a better place with a stronger character and a deeper compassion for others who go through their own troubles.

 

 

Fathers and Sons #end

There's an emphasis in the local media on changing the perceptions of us older folks towards the younger generation.  I'm all for that, because the central message of the Christian faith is the love of Father God, towards His wayward, unruly, disobedient children (that's you and me). 

At Easter, we remember that the loving obedience of Jesus Christ to His Father led Him all the way to the cross, where he died for wrongs he did not commit, (the Bible says He took the punishment for your and my sins, for every way in which we don't measure up to God's standard of real love). 

And this Easter, 2,000 years later, Christians all over the world will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus which followed His crucifixion, paying the price for all of us to come into that wonderful relationship with Him and His Heavenly Father, and to live lives of love through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

This new life is for everyone, not for people who are 'good enough'.  The fact is, we're all imperfect, we all get it wrong and we all need forgiveness.  It is sometimes said that a 'minority of young people spoil it for the majority'.  Jesus also came for that minority, and His love is as much for them as anyone.  In fact, I believe it is only the love of God that can truly change a human heart and cause us to become more loving ourselves.  Jesus said 'I have not come for the righteous, but for sinners'.  In other words, we need a dose of humility to realise we're all in need of the change that His love can bring. 

The church is not exempt from needing to see young people in the same way as God does.  In the Sixties, thousands of young people found a faith in Jesus during their hippy days; they were the delinquents and drop-outs of their day and they found a life-changing relationship with God.  But, as Aussie reverend John Smith said, 'the Church judged them for the length of their hair and the fact they had no shoes on their feet'; and so in some ways we put up barriers to a generation, and we missed out on the enthusiasm for life that they would bring. 

That is a mistake we should not make again, and Cross Rhythms, with its roots in that youth culture and the excellent contemporary Christian music that it generates, has a passion to reach our young people without alienating them by judging or dismissing their culture. 

For our broken society to really experience healing, the Bible teaches that we need a turning of hearts from fathers to children, and from children to fathers.  Relationships are two-way (at least).  Father God, as I said last month, deeply affirmed His Son Jesus during his life and ministry on earth, saying more than once that He was 'well pleased' with Him. 

And Jesus, the best example of a Son that has ever lived, said that his actions were those he had seen His Father doing, and His words were those His Father had told Him to say.  (I am paraphrasing, from the Gospels). In Jesus' relationship with His Father, that obedience borne out of love brought the power of heaven to earth to transform lives and deal with our selfishness like nothing else ever could. 

Let's celebrate the fact that there is a move to view young people positively and to counter the negative stereotypes that we sometimes accept without thinking; but let's also follow Jesus' example, and honour our Fathers and Mothers too.  Then we can truly hope and pray that God will come and heal our nation, which heaven knows has enough troubles that need healing.

 

help

Hi Neil
A couple of people have pointed out that what looks like the play button by the logo on the Cross Rhythms blog doesn't play the radio. I realize it's a minor point but is there anyway you could set it up so if someone does click on it it would go to the radio live?
 
Many Thanks
Paula

The Father Heart of God #end

Fathering is an issue that can be very difficult to discuss in our culture, as so many people nowadays have a negative perception of fathers, either through not having a father around, or having an abusive father.  Fatherlessness seems to be an epidemic all over the 'developed' world, and the statistics on the negative outcomes for families with broken fathering can be very sobering reading.  There is a deep cry in the human heart for the love of a good father.

 

It is in the light of this that I want to encourage our readers that there is an incredibly good Father for all of us to find – God himself.  I appreciate that just calling God 'Father' can be a problem for many people, because of their own experiences.  Unfortunately, many people today simply have no idea what affirmation and validation from a good Dad is like.  However it's clear that Jesus Christ had a tremendous loving relationship with God as his Father, and his Father thought the world of him. 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased' is just one affirmation recorded in the Good Book from Father God to Jesus his Son.  The Bible also tells how to meet with this loving, heavenly Father; Jesus said 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'.

 

Rev Mark Stibbe is a man who has a deep understanding of the Father heart of God, and he shares honestly and vulnerably from his own experiences as he ministers to people, helping them meet God's fathering in a personal and very real way.  He is coming to Plymouth at the end of March and I'd encourage you to get along to his meetings (see the end of this article for date and venues).

 

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Mark for my Art of Living Show on Cross Rhythms Plymouth (this will be broadcast on Monday 15^th March at 11am, Wednesday 17^th at 6pm and Friday 19^th at 1pm, all on 96.3FM).  He said something that struck a chord with me: "Whenever I minister I tell my own story of brokenness because people are looking for reality.  We are all wounded healers, we're all works in progress and we all have a story."  Mark was orphaned, along with his twin sister, when he was a baby. Because he shares honestly and authentically from his ongoing experience of healing from the brokenness caused by this abandonment and fatherlessness, people are able to connect more easily with the message of the love of Father God.  He also shares about the mothering nature of God, bringing healing to emotional wounds in that area too, but it is in the area of Fathering that he mostly ministers.

 

Mark places a lot of emphasis on fatherlessness being a cause of some of our social ills. "We are reaping the whirlwind of decades of fatherlessness," he says.  "In our society today we have boys with guns and girls with babies, and both on drugs, and the number one reason for this is absent fathers or abandoning or abusive fathers." This may be a 'politically incorrect' viewpoint in the eyes of some, and I know there are many wonderful single mum's who love their children passionately and courageously, but I have to agree with him from my own experience of pastoring many folk during the last 30 years, and seeing healing and transformation come to deeply wounded people when they encounter and become established in the love of Father God, and go on to become better fathers and mothers themselves than they ever dreamed would be possible.

 

Sadly, the wounds of fatherlessness are as common within the church as they are in society as a whole.  Mark's message of the Father heart of God is just as much for people with no church experience as it is for those who go to church, and all are welcome at the meetings he will be speaking at on March 28^th.  I would encourage you to go along with an open mind, and be prepared to let Father God love you and heal you if you have any kind of wounded heart in the area of fathering.

 

Mark Stibbe will be speaking at Plymouth Christian Centre, Cattedown Roundabout, Embankment Road, on Sunday March 28^th at 10.30am; and at Mutley Baptist Church, Mutley Plain at 6.30pm that same evening. All are welcome.

Prayer

Prayer. Everyone has heard of it; many people practice it. Christians, Muslims, Jews - even professing atheists, in a time of crisis, have been known to pray!

For many of my generation, The Lord's Prayer was something you just knew, even though you did not remember how you knew it. It was said in school, maybe at home now and then at bedtime, it was also heard on the radio, occasionally on TV and of course, at church on those times when we were dragged in, usually for Christmas or Easter. We just knew it, like we knew that Sunday meant Sunday roast, and all the shops were shut that day.

But in 2010, where does prayer fit in to our secularised, 7 day a week lifestyle? Well, let me quote a couple of praying people: firstly, Corrie ten Boom, who learned some things about prayer in a Nazi concentration camp in WW2, where she was sent for hiding refugees from harm: "Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre?". Think about it – is prayer there for emergencies when all else fails, and life goes flat? Or is it there for everyday use because we need direction, and to keep us on the road?

The second quote comes from John Bunyan, famous as the author of Pilgrim's Progress which he wrote whilst in prison in the late 17^th Century. He said this: "In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

It's not how much we say, but where our hearts are at. God wants the honesty of our hearts, he wants us to talk to him with no 'show', no fear, no pretence or attempt to be anything other than ourselves.

If you'll let me get a bit mystical here, I believe the Christian faith is a love affair with God, and prayer is the language of that love affair, from the heart. You don't talk to your wife, or boyfriend or girlfriend or husband with 'proper' language and at a distance, not expecting them to talk back – you engage with their hearts at a deep level, and find some real joy in doing so.

Nowadays, millions of praying Christians all over the world practice prayer often, not just in set times and ways (which is fine) but also in the car, at work, in the shower, in fact anywhere that they find themselves.

There are loads of ways to pray – if you're into the internet you can go to www.crossrhythms.co.uk and find the prayer rooms, which many of my friends in the 'facebook-generation' find really helps them talk with God, as it's how they communicate with their friends anyway.

Jesus himself showed us not just how to pray, but what attitude we should have in our approach to God. Let me quote a bit of the Good Book here, from a modern translation called 'The Message': "People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. "Let these children alone. Don't get between them and me. These children are the kingdom's pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."

God doesn't want us to have 'proper' prayers or a fully formed theology or loads of church experience in order that we can come to him in prayer. He just wants us, just as we are and not as we should be.

If you've learned the old fashioned version of the Lord's prayer, that's great – think about it, ponder on it, and look a little bit deeper into it with a heart open to God. I'll finish with a modern version of the Lord's prayer, again taken from 'The Message'

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Bible quotes from The Message. Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group."

Who Is Jesus? #end

 

The focus of some of us at Christmas, even in our post-modern age, was Jesus Christ.  But for the majority of people in Plymouth, there is probably still a very real and understandable question that is not often asked – just who really is Jesus?

 

For countless millions all over the world, he is much more than a good man or a great moral teacher.  The debate about who he is has gone on for nearly twenty centuries, and probably began amongst his own close friends and family.  So, rather than add fresh fuel to the fires of theological argument, I'll let others do the talking:

 

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life—He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centrepiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life". James C. Hefley, Christian author, editor, publisher, and journalist.

 

Many people are prepared to accept Jesus as one of the greatest men that ever lived, and to align themselves with his teachings (sometimes this is easier where those teachings promote their own agenda).  However, the struggle for belief involves wrestling with the claims for divinity, which ancient writers made about him:  "He shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" according to the prophet Isaiah writing a few hundred years before Jesus' birth.

 

The Bible is really clear on the matter and leaves no room for having Jesus as a merely historical figure pointing the way to God.  He claimed divinity for himself, while assuming the full nature of humanity and serving those very human creatures he had created in loving community with his Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father except through me," which is a fairly blunt declaration, coming as it did from a carpenter whom most thought was born illegitimate to a young Jewish girl.

 

According to renowned author and philosopher CS Lewis, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

 

So much for the Christian writers and the Bible, but please allow me just one more quotation, from a military and state leader in Europe who established a vast empire through the use of force and political machinery, in a very short time.

 

"I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him."  Napoleon Bonaparte

 

At the start of this year, following on from the year when many commemorated the achievements of Darwin in his scientific research and his theory of evolution, I'd like to be very clear on our position here at Cross Rhythms – Jesus is exactly who he says he is; he is alive, and is expecting a response from us to his claims; he will not force us to make one; but we will give an account for how we think about and answer the question.  He is utterly trustworthy, completely loving, and absolutely right in every decision and judgment he makes.  He is as tender as a lamb in his merciful dealings with doubters, wrong-doers, children and the downtrodden; and as fierce as a lion in the pursuit of truth and justice and in dealing with arrogant pride, especially of the religious variety.  He is also Almighty God.

 

That, in essence, is simple Biblical truth and it has formed the bedrock of the freedoms we have enjoyed in Britain for many hundreds of years.  As Christians at Cross Rhythms, we cannot water down the presentation of what the Bible has said for thousands of years – to do so would be to erode the very foundations of freedom and allow the rising tide of sometimes well-meant humanism to drown the voices of many of the weakest people in our society, with a flood of legislation that has proven again and again to be powerless to correct the evils of our times.  We need the Way and the Truth, and we certainly need Life.  Jesus Christ offers it all, like no other ever has or could.