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.

Forgiveness is the reason for the season #end

 

 

Cross Rhythms recently won a significant media award for the 'Truth & Reconciliation' piece, which regular listeners will have heard broadcast over the past few months.

 

The piece tells the true story of a Christian black lady from South Africa who forgave the policeman who brutally tortured and killed first her husband, and then her son.  Her forgiveness of this man extended as far as embracing him in court and asking him to become her 'son' so that she could pour out the love she had left, on him.

Forgiveness was also at the fore recently in our news media, which reported on the tragic death of Rosimeiri Boxall, the 19 year old girl who died jumping from a 3^rd floor window to escape a sustained and violent episode of bullying.

The response of Rosimeiri's parents must have challenged every parent in Britain.  In their own statement, they said: "We continue to pray for those who are responsible for Rosi's death. We want them to know that we forgive them. That does not mean that what they did doesn't matter".

The couple hoped that "forgiveness will allow the girls to be released from the burden of what they have done, so that they can even now grow into the sort of people that God intended them to be".

It is the faith of Rosimeiri's parents, and the lady from South Africa, who are Christians, which gives us hope in these troubled times that there is a way to resolve what otherwise could be endless conflicts, on a personal and national level.  There is a power greater than us Who empowers us with the divine attribute of forgiveness.  He came to earth 2,000 years ago and we celebrate his birth in a few weeks time.

Also in the news recently is the dreadful revelation of how British children were deported to Australia as late as the mid-twentieth century, at times without their parents' consent, in a drive to 'improve their chances in life'.  This misguided state objective caused untold misery for thousand of children who grew up in loveless homes, often suffering abuse and with no hope of returning to the families and friends they were torn away from.

Now adults, many of these deportees are understandably hurt, angry and seeking financial recompense for what happened to them.  No-one, on Earth, can fully appreciate what they have been through. We hope and pray that these people will find some measure of grace to forgive, because remaining bitter and unforgiving is like taking poison while you wait for the other person to die.  As the Boxalls said, forgiveness does not mean the wrongdoing does not matter, but it provides the only way out of hopelessly broken situations that cannot be undone.

 

Forgiveness is one of the chief building blocks of the Christian faith, which has undergirded the structure of civilized societies throughout the world.  To lose this value is to lose hope for reconciliation personally and in world affairs, and to devalue our humanity.

2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ was separated from his Father, and came to a land that was not his home, offering love, healing, hope and reconciliation to God.  He was misunderstood, brutally tortured, mocked, derided, unjustly accused and killed.  He did it all for love, of his Father and you and me.

The Good News is that death couldn't hold him and the grave couldn't keep him, and the Christmas story meets the Easter story in the most profound example of the power of forgiveness.  Today, 2,000 years later, that power is still flowing from the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

This Christmas, as we gather with our families and seek to share hope and joy with one another, it would be a good thing for us to take time out, think of where we've been offended or hurt by those we love, and forgive them from our hearts.  It's a 'gift' that will last a lifetime and beyond.  It's a gift we need to receive as well as give.

Freedom of Expression #end

Recently, we heard of a Christian nurse from Exeter, who is facing disciplinary action for simply wearing a necklace on which hung her confirmation cross. Under duress, she accepted an offer of redeployment to an administrative post, and has instructed lawyers to file an action at the Employment Tribunal for discrimination.

Shirley Chaplin, 54, having served as a nurse for nearly 30 years, was threatened with disciplinary action after refusing to remove a necklace bearing a cross - a symbol of her deeply felt Christian faith.  Despite wearing the cross ever since studying to be a nurse, bosses at The Royal Devon & Exeter Trust Hospital ordered her to remove the personal item, deeming it a breach of uniform policy and a health risk to her and to patients. 

Mrs. Chaplin claims the demand to remove her cross has nothing to do with health and safety, but is an infringement of her human rights, and that of being able to express her faith, which has been her foundation and strength for nearly 30 years of serving members of the public through nursing. Mrs. Chaplin informed managers that necklaces were worn by other members of staff and the Trust had promoted the hospital in photographs where staff were wearing jewellery, and many staff wore visible medialert chains.

Mrs Chaplin said: "This blatant piece of political correctness amounts to the marginalising of employees' personal human rights, a blanket 'secularising and neutralising' of the NHS intended to stop Christians from expressing their faith in the public services of the NHS."  On September 21, the nurse was told she either accepted redeployment to a non-nursing role or face the sack.

I expect this debate will raise its head again and again, as we now seem to live in a society where the foundational Christian values of freedom of expression are being seriously undermined, ironically in the name of 'religious tolerance' by the 21^st century religion of secularism.  Let's pray that common sense will prevail, and even more stringent and discriminatory legislation will not be passed in the name of 'freedom' which actually acts against the freedom of people to express the very beliefs that motivate actions of service and compassion.

Just for the record, the cross has not always been the main symbol of the Christian faith.  For the first three hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was images of the resurrection that dominated Christian art.  The hope of new life, the power of the forgiven life made available by the death of Jesus, depends on the fact of his resurrection, which put an end to the rule of death and legalistic religiosity and replaced it with grace.

No wonder this hope, the resurrection, formed the bedrock of Christian imagery during the centuries when the Gospel was at its most influential in bringing life to so many people.  Maybe we should start to wear jewellery and paint pictures that depict this hope – after all, destroying evil and giving abundant life to us was the purpose that led and sustained Jesus through the awful journey of the cross.

Unless and until we have some new art, however, the cross is an important symbol of faith to people like Nurse Chaplin – can it really be, in our liberal and enlightened times, that someone wants to stop the good news that it points to, being freely expressed?