Bible Cartoons for American Christian sports organisation

I’ve finished the Bible Cartoons for the American Christian sports organisation, see below:

Exodus 01 - Hebrews oppressed - Scene 03 - Hard labour

Exodus 02 - Birth of Moses - Scene 01 - Nile Basket

Exodus 02 - Birth of Moses - Scene 02 - Pharaoh’s daughter

Exodus 02 - Birth of Moses - Scene 04 - Moses playing

Exodus 02 - Moses murders - Scene 01 - Egyptian slave master

Exodus 03 - Burning Bush - Scene 01 - Wonder (fiery version)

Exodus 03 - Burning Bush - Scene 01 - Wonder (shadow version)

Exodus 03 - Burning Bush - Scene 02 - God calls to Moses

Exodus 04 - Burning Bush - Scene 04 - Staff

Exodus 04 - Burning Bush - Scene 05 - Snake staff (Large version)

Exodus 04 - Burning Bush - Scene 05 - Snake staff (Small version)

Exodus 14 - Parting of the Red Sea - Scene 10 - Walking through (version 03)















Deuteronomy 34 - Death of Moses - Scene 01 - Promised land

Joshua 03 - Jordan crossing - scene 05 - River crossing

Praising God in adversity

Just listening to Australian preacher Katherine Ruonala’s podcast “Praising God in adversity - Part 1" [Transcript of part of the podcast [3]]

Referencing the narrative of Paul & Silas in prison, who didn’t complain about having been beaten for their faith, but, instead chose to sing hymns to God at midnight in the prison. See Acts 16:16-40]...

“God wants to release you into hope. So that you can begin to celebrate...”

Katherine Ruonala goes on to remind us that we NEED TO TAKE THOUGHTS THAT OCCUR TO US CAPTIVE, especially those thoughts that aren’t any good for us [distracting thoughts, worries, etc]...

“[We should say] God, I take those thoughts captive, that are exalting themselves above the knowledge of who you are. You are good, you are lovely, you are wonderful. And I’m not even going to think about these other things [distracting thoughts, worries, etc] My heart’s desire is simply to enjoy you; is to love you & enjoy you.” [1]

Katherine Ruonala goes on to make a VERY important observation about any negative thoughts we continue to allow into our own minds:

“Can you enjoy Him [The Lord] when things AREN’T the way that you want them to be in your circumstances around you? If you can’t, then the circumstances are probably going to get worse, because it’s going to prove to be an EFFECTIVE TOOL OF THE ENEMY [Satan]. It’s like, “oh, that’s working!” But if you are unmoved by the things that the enemy brings to you, & instead, turn it around for good, saying [to yourself], I’m not even going to entertain it, I’m not going there. I’m not going there devil, I’m going to sing. I’m going to sing praises to God. I’m going to be looking out for opportunities to minister, to release the love of God...”

That point seems vital to me: Unless we choose to take captive any thought(s) that are negative & self-destructive, then we are in danger of becoming more & more subject to such thoughts. And we definitely don’t want to go down that road!
It is therefore VITAL that we so order our own thinking that we DO decide to take negative thoughts captive, just as many times as they occur to us. They probably won’t just occur to us once per day! They may occur to us ten times, or a hundred times, or a thousand times per day. What matters is our firm determination to take negative thoughts captive NO MATTER HOW OFTEN THEY OCCUR TO US.

I’m sure Jesus wasn’t tempted by the devil just the one time recorded in the Bible (see Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13) but was tempted pretty much every day of his life, just like we are. In fact Luke 4:13 tells us “When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him UNTIL THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY CAME.” So clearly Jesus was tempted again, at a later date.

Back to the negative thoughts that occur to our minds...
Negative thoughts grow more powerful in our minds IF we allow them to “roost” there. So we need to ruthlessly root them out & deliberately decide to think about positive things INSTEAD. They may try to come back, countless times again, but if we are unmoving in our RESOLVE to reject any & all negative thoughts, regardless of how many times they occur to our minds, then we will take back control of our own thinking. This is self-help at its best! It is also what the Lord God wants us to do. [2]

<br />
[1]
Katherine Ruonala is referring to the first point of the Westminster Larger Catechism, which begins with:
Q. 1. What is the chief and highest end of man?
A. Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

[2]
2 Corinthians 10:5 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, AND WE TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT TO MAKE IT OBEDIENT TO CHRIST.”

Romans 12:2 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING OF YOUR MIND. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

[3]
Katherine Ruonala - Praising God in adversity - Part 1 [Podcast]

[21 mins 21sec’s into podcast]
“God wants to release you into hope. So that you can begin to celebrate, “Thank you Father, thank you Lord, that you are faithful & true. You are my divine distraction, God, you are my divine obsession. God, I take those thoughts that are exalting themselves above the knowledge of who you are. You are good, you are lovely, you are wonderful. And I’m not even going to think about these other things [distracting thoughts, worries, etc] My heart’s desire is simply to enjoy you; is to love you & enjoy you.
Can you enjoy Him [The Lord] when things aren’t the way that you want them to be in your circumstances around you? If you can’t, then the circumstances are probably going to get worse, because it’s going to prove to be an effective tool of the enemy [Satan]. It’s like, “oh, that’s working!” But if you are going to be unmoved by the things that the enemy brings to you, & instead, turn it around for good [like Paul & Silas - see Acts 16:16-40]... say, I’m not even going to entertain it, I’m not going there. I’m not going there devil, I’m going to sing. I’m going to sing praises to God. I’m going to be looking out for opportunities to minister, to release the love of God. To know, this is my divine purpose; is to love God & enjoy Him forever. To bless Him. I’ve been created for fellowship with Jesus. I’ve been created for fellowship with God Himself.”

Snakes & stuff: Exodus Bible Cartoons

Wow! It’s the end of January 2014 already!
What have I been doing this month? Well, I’ve been drawing the life of Moses from the book of Exodus, which is commissioned artwork from a US sports ministry organisation. By agreement with them I am also able to sell the work on this website, which is great!
Here’s the pic’s I’ve drawn so far:

















Exodus 02 - Birth of Moses - Scene 01 - Nile Basket
This picture took days to draw & colour, due to the vast number of reeds I included. Still, it was worth it in the end. I imagine that Moses’ mother & sister would have picked a spot on the bank of the river Nile which would screen them from anyone looking.
I was very pleased with the way the water Lilies in the foreground came out. I think it adds an extra dimension to have a strong close-up object in a scene.

















Exodus 02 - Birth of Moses - Scene 02 - Pharaoh’s daughter
This scene also took a long time to draw, partly due to the reeds & partly due to the complicated figure poses needed. I had to take photo’s of myself wearing a sheet to try to get the features & clothing folds right!
The architecture & stone sculpture of ancient Egypt is very large & impressive, which I hope I have managed to show in this scene.
Notice the 2 Flamingo’s flying overhead... and the crocodile gliding past in the water!

















Exodus 02 - Birth of Moses - Scene 04 - Moses playing (Hide-and-seek)
I enjoyed drawing the columns with their Egyptian hieroglyphics in this scene. I also had to research which plants are found in Egypt, so that I could include appropriate species in the foreground garden, in which the young boy Moses is hiding.
I added Dr. Who’s TARDIS onto the 4th column’s Egyptian hieroglyphics, just for fun!

















Exodus 02 - Moses murders - Scene 01 - Egyptian slave master
More photo’s of myself in action poses enabled me to draw convincing figures here! The things I do for art!
I didn’t want to make too much of the marks & blood on the Hebrew being whipped, as this scene is intended to be used in sports ministry & will be viewed by young children.
I enjoyed drawing the Egyptian hieroglyphics & even added some non-standard ones, just for fun (see below). There’s also a green Tyrannosaurus rex, behind the Egyptian slave driver’s left hand!



















Exodus 02 - Moses murders - Scene 01 - Egyptian slave master - Partial
Note my inclusion of Noah’s ark (bottom left) , a red space capsule (top left) & Dr. Who’s TARDIS (bottom right)!

















Exodus 03 - Burning Bush - Scene 01 - Wonder (fiery version)
I drew two versions of this scene, as a result of adding extra fire in the burning bush & extra shadows across the scene. I couldn’t make up my mind which version I preferred, so I made them both available.
I really enjoyed drawing all the fire & designed it so that it would contrast strongly with the dark mountains behind them. I added the long steamer of fire going up skyward, or perhaps it’s coming down from God in heaven, to show the divine nature of the burning bush that was not consumer in the flames.

















Exodus 03 - Burning Bush - Scene 01 - Wonder (shadow version)
This is the second version of this scene, with striking cast shadows across the background rocks.

















Exodus 03 - Burning Bush - Scene 02 - God calls to Moses
In the version used by the sports ministry people, the words “Moses, Moses” are coming out of the burning bush.

















Exodus 04 - Burning Bush - Scene 04 - Staff
I liked the way the background rocks came out in this scene. The view is looking back towards the rock on which we saw Moses sitting (see Scene 01 - Wonder) & also includes his goats: it’s nice to be able to include objects in two or more scenes that connect those scenes together.


There’s more drawings to complete before the end of February. The next one shows Moses’ shepherds staff turning into a fierce looking snake - should be good fun to draw & colour!

Pastor visiting - a thing of the past?

We had our last Alpha course meeting last night. This is the first time we have run Alpha at Brixworth Christian Fellowship, & it appears to have been successful. Last night’s session was about church: what it is, what it is not & the benefits of attending. During the discussion after Nicky Gumbel’s DVD presentation one of the participants made a very interesting observation. She said that years ago vicars & pastors used to visit members of their congregations regularly, to see who they were doing, to offer prayer & support. Then this lady observed that this seems to go on less & less now.

I’ve been thinking about that today: the apparent decline in pastoral visitation. It may be that some church leaders still regularly visit their congregations, to “touch base” with them & shepherd them. But it seems to me that many pastors don’t seem to have time for this activity today. They are probably busy with sermon preparation, being on various committee’s & serving in a whole variety of very valuable ways...

... but...

... One of THE most important ways to really show that you care & love people is to make the time to go round to their house & be with them. “Love” is actually spelt T-I-M-E. The offer of irreplaceable life-time to someone in need does not go unnoticed. Nor does the LACK of that offer, if you think about it.

One of the terrible symptoms of today’s world & western society is busyness. We all complain about not having sufficient time to do the things we want to do. The church (by that I mean the people who ARE the church, not the building) also suffers from overload in this way. Our vicars, pastors & pastoral care teams also suffer from overload & terribly busy schedules. So visiting people may seem rather a waste of time, especially when we are so apparently accountable for the time we do spend on our jobs...

... but ...

... have we “forgotten” the intangible, hard-to-define benefits to other people of offering our time to them, which is really offering our love to them? Have our vicars, pastors, etc actually become so busy (with undoubtedly good works) that they are now TOO BUSY to go visiting? Add to that the seemingly incalculable but hard-to-see-&-define benefits of regular pastoral visitation, & you can see why it is difficult to justify pastoral visitation; why it is apparently in decline - to the impoverishment of us all.

I’m not “knocking” the great work our church leaders do. There’s is a terribly demanding job - I couldn’t do it, that’s for sure! But I think the benefits of regular pastoral visitation is being grossly overlooked by our “professional” Christian leaders.

Benefits of visiting the flock.
In the past, vicars went to meet their congregations regularly, hence the “more tea, Vicar?” joke! Is it just “wasting time” on drinking endless cups of tea... or is there something far more valuable deep within that seemingly pointless action? Is the REAL BENEFIT of visiting someone rather hidden, rather less-than-obvious, rather hard to define... & so rather easy to overlook, dismiss & avoid in this age of “every second counts”?

In the past the simple reality was that vicars MADE TIME to visit. In this way (as well as in sermons at church) they actually shepherded their flocks - leading them to “good pastures”, providing insights & opinions, support & a “shoulder to cry on” when necessary. It is probably very difficult to “put your finger” on the exact usefulness of a visit. Rather hard to clearly define SMART goals, as our modern business guru’s would insist we have to do in order to justify our time usage! It could be seen as a waste of time, or else as “simply” a visit, with no real benefit to either party...

...but...

...I rather think that there are less-than-obvious benefits (to both the visitee & visitor) that we are too busy to think about or acknowledge. There are probably a whole host of “hidden”, subtle, mysterious benefits both to the person being visited AND to the vicar visiting, if we care to think about it. In fact, there are probably benefits to the wider church congregation &, indeed, to the whole community. Perhaps there is a positive, regulating influence in a vicars visit which we automatically loose by not visiting at all, or else rather infrequently.

Perhaps there is a sense of belonging & community spirit & cohesion which is fostered & enlarged by such visitation? Then there is the sense of friendship, camaraderie & belonging which is fostered & nurtured by visitation. The vicar can leave a home knowing he has made a real, vital difference to a needy person, which helps him/her to feel useful, integral & valued.

When you stop to think about it, I believe there are many benefits to pastoral visitation which we have lost by not involving ourselves in this simple activity.

Perhaps our forefather’s were on to something... & something that we have lost: the art of simply “being there” for others. LOVE is spelt T-I-M-E, after all.

Having something amazing to show a needy world.
I think we have by & large lost that amazing pastoral support due to today’s ultra busy schedules. And the terrible truth of that is that we have thereby lost a AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW LOVE IN ACTION. I fear people outside the church are looking in & seeing very littler difference between their lives & our (Christian) lives, even though we are meant to be showing a better way. One of the spectacularly “different” & BETTER WAYS we (the Christian church) CAN be different, is in our response to people’s suffering. Not only the “big” sufferings of bereavement or redundancy, but the “smaller” sufferings of simply living life in the 21st century. Similarly, if pastoral visitation where to be re-kindled, perhaps people outside the church would look in, see a very real, very different & VERY ATTRACTIVE church-based community, & that in itself would be the “difference” we are trying to show them: caring & love-in-action, which is our reflection of Jesus’ love for us.

If our vicars, pastors & leaders could re-find the benefits of the pastoral visit perhaps we really would have SOMETHING AMAZING to show this needy world once more.

How can Christians know they have eternal life?

There are many verses in the Bible that help us to realise that we can have complete confidence in our eternal life. Probably the most famous is John 3:16, where Jesus himself says:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

I’ve long found the very next verse (John 3:17) equally interesting & encouraging, it reads:
“God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
So there Jesus is telling us why he came into the world, to SAVE the world, i.e. the people of the world.

How does that work?
If we believe in Jesus the Christ (Messiah) then we will be saved from the sure & certain eternal punishment for our wrong-doings (sin), which comes on the Day of God’s Judgement - an unavoidable day that is to come for us all.

“God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” This is actually a very hopeful message, because it shows JUST HOW committed God the Father is, through the actions of God the Son (on the cross) to save the world. The way TO BE saved is completely open. Nothing is stopping you from being saved right now - wow!

But the Good News gets even better! In the first part of John 3:18 Jesus says:

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.” So if you’re worried about the coming, completely unavoidable judgement of God, where ALL OUR SECRET SINS & WRONG-DOINGS will be laid bare for all to see... YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE! Because accepting Jesus as your own Lord & Saviour (becoming a Christian) means that John 3:18 comes into play FOR YOU: “There is NO JUDGMENT AGAINST ANYONE who believes in him.” Christians will not face judgement, because the blood of Jesus on the cross wipes away all our sins - & God makes a promise never to keep a record of our wrong-doings [1] & [2] - how FANTASTIC is that! 

Why don’t people want to become Christians?
If we do not accept Jesus as the Saviour of our lives, then obviously the judgement of God remains upon us, as John 3:18 goes on to prove:

“But anyone who does not believe in him [Jesus] has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this FACT: God’s light came into the world [that is Jesus came], but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.”

You have the reason why people will not accept Jesus as Saviour of their lives right there: “All who do evil hate the light [that is, Jesus] and REFUSE to go near it FOR FEAR THEIR SINS WILL BE EXPOSED.” But guess what guys? Your sins WILL be exposed, for all to see, UNLESS you take option A & become a Christian! That’s just the way it is.

As we just read: “20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.” All people have been given a conscience, a moral compass, & that is one way that God helps us to know for ourselves what is right & what is wrong. We KNOW, inside our own minds, if our actions & intentions are right or wrong. So we have no excuse for choosing to do wrong. God didn’t want us to be in doubt about that.

Walking into the light.
It is interesting to note that in contrast to people who CHOOSE to remain in darkness & continually choose to run their own life into the eternal fiery pits of hell...

“21 But those who DO WHAT IS RIGHT [become Christians] come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

I hadn’t noticed that last bit before, “... so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” Jesus points out here that it is FANTASTIC to come to the light for our own sake; to be saved from our own sins; to come to close friendship with God (who lives in the light). But Jesus is also pointing out in the verse that there is purpose & a by-product of “coming into the light”, & it is that OTHER PEOPLE can see that we are “doing what God wants.” In other words, people can have an example to follow. They can see people being saved (becoming Christians) & going on in a positive, encouraging, life-affirming way. This “step towards the light” is called obedience elsewhere in the Bible. People who are obedient walk into the light, & get all the benefits of the light - and there are MANY!


Bible References
John 3:16-21 (NLT)
16 [Jesus said] “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

[1]
Hebrews 8:12 (NLT)
[God says] “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

[2]
Psalm 103:10-13 (NLT)
“10 He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him*
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 HE HAS REMOVED OUR SINS AS FAR FROM US
AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him*.”

* "Fear” refers to reverence; worshipful acknowledgement of the awesomeness of God. Not as in fearful running away from God!

Frustration, website problems & the “Dark potatoes in the soil of my life”!

Yesterday I got into a right stew about the Bible Cartoons website! I discovered that the reason I haven’t had any sales lately was because the shopping cart on the website was broken...

My frustration level went from DefCon 5 to 4.

I read some articles on the PayPal website, which just confused me...

My frustration level went from DefCon 4 to 3.

I purchased a piece of software that promised to resolve the issue; I altered it to make it specific for Bible Cartoons, uploaded it & it made no difference...

My frustration level went from DefCon 3 to 2.

I prayed; I read some more; I tried to be reasonable; I tried to remain calm & to be philosophical about the issues, but nothing worked...

My frustration level went from DefCon 2 to 1.

Then I ranted at God saying “If you loved me you’d fix this!”

Doubting God’s love & goodness - an annual event?!
I’ve just been looking through last years journal & I came across an entry from 17/November/2012 outlining a very similar event in the life of the Bible Cartoons website, & a VERY similar “If you loved me you’d fix this!” response in me - unfortunately! It is nearly one year ago, to the day, that I was frustrated & doubting the love of God for me & my life... I even wondered if this could be an annual event!!!

It was interesting reading because I recorded God’s intervention & assistance, some days later. There was even a daily devotional entry in Word for Today entitled “Imagine being adopted by God!” which was very helpful at the time. The sentence that REALLY grabbed my attention was this one: “You don’t earn the Spirit of adoption, you receive it by faith. That’s important, because if you can’t gain it by your stellar efforts, YOU CAN’T LOOSE IT THROUGH YOUR POOR PERFORMANCE. How reassuring!” [emboldened by MY for emphasis]

If you love me.
“IF you love me...” is an old question. It’s a VERY old question. In fact it’s probably the first question. In Genesis chapter 3 the serpent (aka Satan, the Devil) casts doubt about God’s love in Adam & Eve’s minds by asking the question “Did God really say...?” [1] Satan’s tactic then was to CAST DOUBT in the minds of Adam & Eve about God’s love & goodness towards them. He knew that if he could get them to doubt God, then they would eat fruit from the tree & suffer the consequences.

The serpent was planting the idea in Adam & Eve’s minds that God WAS HOLDING OUT ON THEM. And they believed that. That’s why they ate the fruit. That’s why sin entered the world.
It’s interesting to note that when I was at my lowest ebb yesterday, deeply frustrated by the Bible Cartoons website & unable to fix the problem, it was THEN that the thought occurred to me “If you loved me you’d fix this!” In other words, Satan (the accuser of the brethren) had dropped the thought into my mind that God WAS HOLDING OUT ON ME. And I believed it. Satan’s tactics are the SAME as they were thousands of years ago, in the garden of Eden.

Since this outburst against God I have calmed down (back to DefCon 5!) & realised what was going on yesterday. I have repented of my outburst & asked for God’s forgiveness about doubting Him & His purposes in my life. I have received God’s forgiveness.

I have also realised that God ALLOWS these frustrating events to happen in my life for a purpose. It is not that He is being mean to me! It is not that He wants to put hoops up for me to jump through! He is not being deliberately difficult, or withholding his love &/or power from me.

So, why does God allow me to experience frustrating events? I believe it is in order to show me that I have some old thought patterns (doubts & unbelief) deep down inside my mind, & which now need to surface, in order that they can be EXAMINED, EVALUATED & RESOLVED. If that happens then these doubts & unbeliefs will loose their power to frustrate me, & ultimately Satan will loose his ability to cast doubt into my mind about the goodness of God. Once these doubts & unbeliefs are resolved then no longer will Satan’s thought “Did God really say...?” have any power over me. I will simply be able to say “Get out of here, I KNOW God loves me & wants the best for me!” & that will be that! No more DefCon1 verbal explosions at God thank you very much!

”Dark Potatoes”.
The process of UNCOVERING, EXAMINING, EVALUATING & RESOLVING my doubts about God’s love for me may take some time... quite a bit of time I suspect! I can be quite a stubborn persona after all! But God is very patient. I’ve had these doubts about the love of God for me for a very long time; most of my life in fact; they are deep-rooted... & these roots need pulling up!
Last night I referred to my doubts about the love of God as “DARK POTATOES IN THE SOIL OF MY LIFE” which seems quite an apt description. I think God allows me to experience frustration in life in order to “dig up” these doubts. The frustration of life actually causes these doubts to resurface in my mind. Of course, digging them up EXPOSES them to the light, which is rather painful for me! Nevertheless, I can see that God needs to uncover these “dark potatoes of doubt”, or else they will simply remain “in the soil of my life”, deeply buried & unresolved. Then, the next time I am frustrated by life they will re-emerge & plague me again, & again, & again.

God loves me FAR TOO MUCH to allow me to have deeply poisonous doubts & unbeliefs buried deep in my mind. He knows that, sooner or later, these “dark potatoes” will emerge to hurt my relationship with Him once more. All it takes is sufficient stress & frustration, then the “dark potatoes” of doubt about God’s love for me emerge again. And at that point Satan is effective at pointing to these deeply held (wrong) beliefs & accuses God TO ME, saying “God’s holding out on you again” & “God obviously doesn’t love you, or else he would fix that problem”, etc.
But this time I think Satan has “tipped his hand” a bit too much, because I’ve noticed his tactics & realised what is going on in my mind. At the same time I believe God is allowing me to experience these doubts & unbeliefs about his goodness in order that I finally UNCOVER, EXAMINE, EVALUATE & RESOLVE them.

As I said, I think the process of recovery may be a long one, but at least I’m ON the road to recovery! God is very, VERY patient with me, & sooner or later these nagging doubts about God’s love WILL be resolved. I look forward to that day.

If you’ve got any similar stories, please do write & let me know.


[1]
Genesis 3:1-7 (NLT)
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

To party or not to party... that is the question!

Isaiah 5:11-12 (NLT)
11 What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning
 looking for a drink of alcohol
and spend long evenings drinking wine
to make themselves flaming drunk.
12 They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties—
lyre and harp, tambourine and flute—
but they never think about the Lord
or notice what he is doing.

That last part really struck me today, “... but they never think about the Lord, or notice what he is doing.”

That sounds VERY SAD to me. Not from God’s perspective, because the Lord is totally self-suficient; He doesn’t have the human desire or the human anxiety & need to be recognised, noticed & affirmed! No, it is sad from the perspective of people who DON’T notice the subtle, wonderful things God is doing. They are the ones who are missing out, & Big Time!

God’s not a KillJoy!
In the “story” above (Isaiah 5:11-12) we have a word picture description of people who seem to be having fun: partying, drinking, making music, revelling, grand parties. That sounds like a good description of fun... until you read the last part, “... but they never think about the Lord, or notice what he is doing.” It seems to me that this Bible passage is suggesting that God does things that are fully observable: anyone can see them, the problem is that not everyone NOTICES them. We can have fun (parties, music, etc) & that’s OK - no problem there. But if that is the height of what we do; the pinnacle of what we do, then I think we have missed a higher purpose or meaning in our lives. Parties can be fun, no doubt about that. It’s great to be with friends, having a laugh. And I believe the Lord provides us with these opportunities - & expects us to enjoy them too! He’s no “kill joy”, after all! But I think the Lord also wants us to notice what He is doing after the party comes to an end; when we are quiet; when we are reflecting on the events of the party, or other events of our lives.

Imagine a life-long party!
We imagine that if life was one long 70-80 year party that we would have fun all the time. But actually I think we need variety; changes in pace within our lives. Quiet, reflective times are useful, & act as accents & counter-points to the more quick-paced, fun-loving, party times. I think a life-long party would become pretty stale & pretty boring after the first 3-4 days, never mind the first 3-4 years!

Missing out.
If we “never think about the Lord, or notice what he is doing” then I think we miss out on some pretty amazing, wonderful, subtle, mysterious, awe-inspiring things. For me, THINKING about the Lord & what He is doing is great fun, encouraging, faith-building, & life-affirming. It helps me to enjoy the parties, AND enjoy the quieter times too. I like to notice the “little” things in life. I like to ponder & question & wonder about stuff: large-scale & minute. And amongst all my musings & thoughts, there I find the Lord... “walking” along beside my thought-self, quietly, subtly conversing with me. The Lord God, supreme being, King above all others, Creator & sustainer of the whole universe - this person who deserves everyone’s attention; who is most able & most capable; who is subtle & mysterious & wonderful & amazing... He deigns to “walk” beside me, & wants to talk to me - Wow! He enjoys showing me “stuff”, He seems to enjoy me noticing what He is doing...
... He wants to talk to YOU too... will you “give him the time of day”? Will you allow God to “speak” to you through a sunset; through something that someone says to you? Through a thought or an event in your life? God seems to enjoy us noticing what He is doing, though He is never anxious that we notice what He is doing. I think He just likes to SHARE WITH US the various things He does. It’s about relationship, after all.

For me, one of the saddest things in this life is to consider people who are “blind” to the subtle works of God, & who only live for the more obvious things... like the fun of the party. You’re SO missing out! Look up from the party floor & notice what God is doing... He really will AMAZE YOU with what He is doing... if you let Him get your attention first.

But God doesn’t give the seed...does He?

I read 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 this morning (which you can see below), which is a figure of speech about farmers sowing & harvesting crops.

What struck me about the passage?
It was the thought that Christians CREDIT GOD with the provision of seeds for a farmer to sow; that we credit God with making the seeds grow & produce a harvest & that we credit God (& give thanks to Him) for enabling the farmer to grind the harvested seeds to make bread to eat. All of that is seen as “evidence” for holding the view that their is a God who cares & provides for us.

For atheists, evolutionists, & people who do not believe in a supreme being, they see EXACTLY the same information (seeds, plant growth, harvest, bread) but they do not credit a supreme being with any involvement in any of that.

So what struck me about this passage?... It was simply the fact that EXACTLY THE SAME information or “evidence” can be seen by different people, of different convictions, & INTERPRETED IN TOTALLY DIFFERENT WAYS. It was the realisation that there is probably no “evidence” at all which can categorically prove one thing to be absolutely true, beyond all doubt... simply because someone else can come along & interpret the same data in a completely different way.

I suppose that is why INFORMATION & EVIDENCE, of itself, can be unconvincing in support of one persons views, simply because exactly the same data can be interpreted in exactly the opposite direction, as a counter-argument! So, for me (a Christian), the existence of seeds, plants, the mystery of plant growth, harvesting & bread are all “evidence” of the existence of a loving & caring God. But I realise that EXACTLY THE SAME information or “evidence” (seeds, plant growth, harvest, bread) can be given a completely different interpretation by atheists & evolutionists, who would see that as evidence of their views on the non-existence of God & proof of their evolutionary ideas.

So it’s all really a matter of how we interpret the data we have. This is probably obvious to everyone else, but it was interesting for me to note this, this morning!
And for me personally, I’m still more than happy to interpret the data (of seeds, plant growth, harvest, bread, etc) as “evidence” for the existence of a loving, caring God who wants the very best for us.


2 Corinthians 9:6-11 (NLT)
6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”[1] 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say,
“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.” [2]
10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity [3] in you.
11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem [4] will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.

[1] Prov 22:8.
[2] Ps 112:9.
[3] Greek: righteousness.
[4] Greek: of God’s holy people.

But do I have to go to church?!

Some additional thoughts regarding my previous blog post: “Freedom” versus Belonging

The Lord provides a safe zone: with a sense of belonging.
For me, the sense of belonging (to God) far, FAR outweighs any possible feeling of being “corralled” by His rules. When we discern the true nature of God’s “rules” THEN we begin to understand the purpose of them, & can correctly infer the motivation of God: which is LOVE for us & utter dedication to our welfare.

God’s “rules” are not something that are designed to curtail our freedom, or fun or enjoyment in life. They are not deliberately sent to cause us doom & gloom! Quite the opposite: God wants us to enjoy our lives to the full. He is committed to our freedom & our welfare.

The point of worship.
The greatest expression of our freedom & welfare is in our CHOICE to worship God. God doesn’t NEED our worship; God is entirely self-sufficient. Our free will worship of God reveals our RELATIONSHIP with Him: our commitment to Him. If we have a relationship with God then we understand who He is & what He has done, & that knowledge leads to spontaneous worship: gratitude, thanksgiving & praise of an all-might & all-loving God in heaven. Worship is automatic when we begin to fathom the depth, breadth & commitment of God’s love for us & all His created cosmos.

The Lord of the heavenly hosts receives glory when we live our lives in devotion to him. Worship & trust in God brings Him the glory that is rightfully his.

But do I have to go to church?!
Church attendance is not mandatory for a Christian... it’s just a really good idea!
Yes, it’s possible to worship God all on our own. Yes, it’s possible to relate to other people by not attending church. Church attendance is useful in terms of encouraging one another in our faith in God.

Church... and me!
As a person who is MUCH happier on my own, rather than in company, I can completely understand people’s reservation about going to church. Just about every time I go to my local church I go with trepidation! But I realise that the fallible church, full of hurt human beings is a good place to be, even if it doesn’t feel like that!

For me, it’s not so much about belonging to a church congregation, it’s about BELONGING TO GOD. Attending church is simply one way that my allegiance to the Lord is publically DEMONSTRATED. Sure, I could find a hundred & one other things I’d much rather do than going to church on a Sunday morning! And our local congregation has it’s foibles, problems, issues, etc, just like every other human organisation, which can make it even more tempting not to attend church!  But my attendance at that congregation (or any congregation for that matter!) has a higher, heavenly purpose, than simply going along “because I should”!!!

I admit, I find it difficult sometimes to go to church. It doesn’t come naturally, at least not for me. I think that’s because I enjoy my own company & I often find that being around other people “costs” me emotionally. But, as I pointed out, I answer to a “higher calling” of God, even when He & I know that answering that call will cost me something. I wouldn’t choose to attend church, or lead a house group (a mini-church on a Wednesday evening), or be involved in children’s work, or run an art & craft stall at Messy Church once a month, or be involved with an Alpha course. But I know that my activities honour God, and that’s the higher purpose that I am alluding to.

My natural inclination is to remain on my own... and mercifully, in most of my working life I am able to do that! But I mustn’t remain in my “natural” state. Jesus died & rose again: saving me & my soul in the process, & for that reason alone I owe Him everything I am, even (& especially?) when it costs me something.

“Freedom” versus Belonging

Isn’t Christianity simply a set of rules you have to follow?
People who criticise the Christian faith often see it as being no more than a set of oppressive, prescriptive rules, with a strong sense of “You can’t do this”, or “You can’t do that”.

My experience is the EXACT OPPOSITE! Having been a Christian for about 30 years I would say that there are very few God-given rules. And ALL of the ones God has given us are actually for our benefit. Far from being prescriptive & oppressive, the “rules” of the Lord are ALL for our good. He is like a parent who warns a child against a danger. Of course, the child can still go & do the dangerous thing anyway, & get hurt in the process. God doesn’t want us to get hurt, but He is committed to our freedom of choice & so won’t stop us from choosing to hurt ourselves, if we are bent on doing that.

Dangers around the bend in our life choices.
In terms of understanding God’s MOTIVATION, it is not that he wants to “spoil our fun”. That is not the purpose of “all those rules”! It is simply that God knows what is good for us, & what is not, & his “rules” help us to determine which is which. All of his directives are to MAXIMISE our freedoms, not minimise them.

God’s foresight is a lot better than our own. He can “see over the hedges” & “see around the corners of our life’s “roads” much further than we can. We might think our choice(s) will send us towards something good, but often we can not see the hidden dangers of our own choices. We can not see the “potholes” in the roads of our lives. The Lord’s warnings to us are to help us; to prevent us from following a course of action that may harm us, &/or other people. The problem is, WE OFTEN CAN’T SEE that far ahead of our own choices in life; what the consequences will be. We can’t see over the “hedges”, or “round the bends” of our life’s road, so we don’t REALLY know where our choices will take us. But God does know, & He really wants us to be successful, & happy & healthy. That’s why He warns us of impending disaster, if we follow the course we are set on.

The question is: WILL WE LISTEN?
Will we trust God to lead us away from the dangerous situations we have inadvertently chosen?
The only way we will do that is if we TRUST God.
Do you?

Willfulness gets us into hot water!
The problem comes when we become willful; when we INSIST on going our own way; doing our own thing, even despite God’s warnings. As Proverbs 14:12 reminds us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” The thing(s) we do; the new things we try may seem OK to us, at least initially, but sometimes they will lead us towards hurts, downfalls & real dangers which we can not (yet) see. It’s at times like that which God will try to tell us (as a loving heavenly Father) that our choices may lead to our own hurt, or the hurt of other people, through our actions & choices.

But if we choose to ignore God & do the thing anyway, then who is actually at fault? Can we blame God... No. It is our (poor, shortsighted) choice which led to our misery or injury, not God’s. We can not blame Him for our willfulness. Nor can we shout “You didn’t warn me!”... because God HAS, in the Bible. All those “oppressive, prescriptive rules” that people bang on about are there PRECISELY for one purpose: to keep us safe from harming ourselves, or anyone else for that matter.

God would be negligent if He DIDN’T warn us!
As I wrote earlier, my experience of the Lord is that he is utterly committed to me & giving me freedom to achieve & enjoy many things in life. But if I veer off course & approach something dangerous, then He can warn me. That’s God being like a parent. How can I complain about that? Wouldn’t I consider a human parent UTTERLY NEGLIGENT (and UN-loving) if he/she DIDN’T warn me of impending danger or hurt?

Why then do non-Christians consider God’s warnings (in the Bible) to be oppressive & prescriptive, when all the Lord is doing is trying to keep them safe? They are really being unkind & almost deliberately misunderstanding what the Lord’s loving nature, & His revealed wisdom (in the Bible), is really all about.

... And always let your conscience be your guide!
Real freedom, where I can be secure & safe, comes from knowing that my choices are right, both for me & for other people who my actions may influence. When I’m unsure of what to do, God is there to help me see the right thing. That knowledge is in the Bible. He also “talks” to us through our own conscience. God has set the eternal within the heart of every person, & our conscience is a vital way of letting us know what is good & what is bad, both for us personally & for other people.

Conclusions.
1) God is for us, not against us. As Romans 8:29-30 (NLT) reminds us:
‘For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son [Jesus the Christ], so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.’

2) It’s not actually about following rules at all. The history of the Hebrew people proves that! Most of the Old Testament shows how people who try to follow rules INEVITABLY FAIL in that attempt, no mater how hard they try.

What’s the point of the Bible... what’s the message then? It’s actually God showing us that following a set of rules (no matter how good they may be) will not make us holy, or happy, for that matter!
The point of the Bible’s long Old Testament narrative is to show us that the one thing we REALLY NEED, in order to get our lives in order & “fly straight & true” is to get into relationship with the living God, Jesus the Christ.

3) God doesn’t want us to slavishly obey his rules, or else! He wants us to feel safe & secure; to recognise that He loves us; to know that we BELONG - that’s where the sense of freedom comes from.

4) If we’re “hung up” about the rules of God, then we actually missed the point of the Bible’s message.
The Bible’s message is this: God really loves you... He really, really, REALLY loves you. He really, really, really loves YOU.

The Lord does a lot more than we expect sometimes!

Last month (July 2013) I made some design changes to the Bible Cartoons website, but in the process I accidentally deleted the purchase buttons... so no-one could buy any cartoons. Oops! That had quite an effect on sales, such that, towards the end of the month I didn’t have much hope of achieving our sales target.

But hang on one minute...

...I was forgetting that we serve an amazing, profound, miracle-working God, who sustains all things... including our sales!

In the last few days of July we have not only had enough sales to reach our original (quite modest) sales target, but we have had sales way, way, WAY above that! I’m still picking myself up off the floor over this!

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve got faith; I’ve got belief in a miracle-performing God called Jesus. I’ve seen Him do amazing things before. But somehow I didn’t expect this result. It’s almost as if the Lord wants me to recognise again that He controls EVERYTHING that happens to us/me. I believe He is urging me to believe more... MUCH more, in His sovereign rule, authority, control & above all HIS LOVE for us/me.

Sometimes we can sort of “forget” that God loves us. We hear it quite often & I know I can sort of fail to realise just how MUCH God really does love me, and indeed, us all. I think I’ve been having a bit of a “downer” on myself lately, which is always a danger for me. But this amazing sales result has “brought me up short” & really shocked me (in a good way!) & helped me to realise that God is trying to get my attention; He seems to be “proving” His love for me in this lavish, unexpected way.
Apart from achieving a sales target I didn’t think we would, I find myself believing for other things too, miracles concerning family, friends, complete strangers. I really hope that my faith is stirred up & built up & this is not just another “flash in the pan” for me.

Temptation in The Lord of the Rings

I’ve been listening to the audiobook of The Lord of the Rings, as I have been drawing & colouring Bible Cartoons (currently I am colouring Acts 08 - Philip & the Ethiopian eunuch - Scene 06 - In Azotus.)

Story Background
The story has got to Book 2: The Two Towers, & chapter 10, in which our heroes confront Saruman, the evil wizard. His lacky (Wormtongue) throws a Palantir (or seeing stone) which is picked up by one of the Hobbits (called Pippin) but quickly handed over to Gandalf (the good wizard.)

I have just been listening to the next chapter (11, The Palantir) which describes our heroes camping for the night & Pippins increasing curiosity about the seeing stone. The story describes how Pippin’s mind keeps returning to the mysterious stone & before long he has taken it from Gandalf in his sleep & steals it away. Pippin seems to know he is doing wrong, but something causes him to act against his own good sense & he looks at the stone. It turns out that the Palantir enables one person to communicate with another who has a similar stone, many miles away. Pippin sees the mind of Sauron (the Dark Lord), who holds another stone. It was Sauron’s mind that tempted Pippin, in his search for our heroes.

What struck me about this part of the story is how similar it is to our own deadly struggle, as Christians, with personal sin. There are several noteworthy points of similarity which I can see:

1) The danger of a little touch.
We only need to handle something (a dangerous, tempting thing) for a very short time, & yet even with that brief exposure, the seeds of longing for that sinful thing can be sown into our hearts.
In the story, Pippin only touched the Palantir for a few moments, yet it played on his mind & he was tempted (without even knowing it) to look at the seeing stone again, & that was the danger of the temptation to him.

We don’t have Palantirs, but there are equally dangerous things which we can see or experience in our 21st century world. Those evil or corrupting things which we allow ourselves to touch, can ensnare our minds & hearts just like poor Pippin with the Palantir. If we are not watchful, wary, careful, & keen to keep our faith-guard up, we can accidentally stumble upon something; we can “touch” something that is wrong & hurtful to us. Then that single touch can come back to tempt us time & again to return to that evil thing. Every return to that thing only weakens our resolve to resist it, & increases its hold over us.

Fortunately, in the case of Christians & temptation to do evil, our Lord & Saviour Jesus the Christ constantly offers us a way & means to reject evil, sin & temptation which we may find in our path. We don’t have to “touch” anything wrong or sinful that comes our way. And VERY wise is the person who listens to the Holy Spirit’s call to come away from the things which could ensnare us.
Even if we do not listen to the Holy Spirit’s wise council, & we do “touch” something inappropriate, it is still possible to repent (turn away from) of our folly, & return to the path of wisdom. We can turn away from the sin/wrong-doing, ask Jesus to sprinkle His cleansing blood upon us & our lives & be clean, spotless, sin-free once more.

Needless to say, it would NOT be wise to entertain that ensnaring, potent temptation again... “Once bitten, twice shy” as the saying goes! Better to put it behind us & shrink away from it, whatever it is.

2) The deadly dangerous thrill that precedes a terribly costly deed
The story’s description of how Pippin feels, once he has stolen the Palantir from Gandalf is very enlightening, it reads, “He bent low over it [the Palantir], looking like a greedy child stooped over a bowl of food, in a corner away from others.”

Isn’t that exactly what it feels like when we have the “thing” within our grasp, even though through ignorance or recklessness we may even know that it is wrong to do what we are about to do?! This thrill that precedes doing wrong may even be what we seek, in an otherwise hum-drum life, & that in itself is a dangerous & beguiling snare to our passions & senses. We may well know that the “thing” is wrong. We may well know that it will do us no good. But the desire for strong feelings, or strong stimulation can itself be a terribly strong inducement to “touch” the thing in question.

3) The mind behind the temptation.
“Driven by some impulse that he did not understand, Pippin walked softly to were Gandalf lay ... and drawn forward again, half against his will...”
Notice in this description from the story that there was a will other than Pippin’s that seemed to “force” him act. In the story it is the malevolent, powerful mind of Sauron (the evil Dark Lord of the story) who reached out to capture Pippin’s mind, for his own evil ends. That was the mind behind Pippin’s temptation to look into the Palantir.

In the same way, we have a deadly adversary (the Devil, or Satan & his host of evil fallen angels) who can place tempting things in our path, designed to unseat us from our faith & destroy our friendship with God. Such things are designed to ensnare our senses, emotions, thoughts & passions. Sauron in The Lord of the Rings is the equivalent of Satan in the real world, although J. R. R. Tolkien often said that he was not writing an allegory of our world. nevertheless, it is instructive to see the comparison in this case.

4) The lessons of sin.
Later on in the chapter of Lord of the Rings (chapter 11 The Palantir) Gandalf tells Pippin about the seven seeing stones & Pippin says, “I wish I had known all this before, I had no notion of what I was doing.”
“Oh yes you had, “ said Gandalf. “You knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so, though you did not listen... But if I had spoken sooner, it would not have lessened your desire, or made it easier to resist. On the contrary! No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.”
“ It does,” said Pippin. “If all the seven stones were laid out before me now, I should shut my eyes and put my hands in my pockets.”
“Good!” said Gandalf. “That is what I hoped.”

As Gandalf observed in the story, we too know in our hearts when we are doing right & when we are doing wrong. God has put morality into our hearts & we know when we err. We too can tell ourselves, but fail to listen, often to our own ruin.

But it’s not all bad. The Bible tells us that temptation & “the sin that so easily entangles” leads ultimately to death. But before that ultimate fate, we can (& should) learn from the mistakes of our sins, so as to turn aside from them & avoid that deadly end. As Gandalf pointed out, “... the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.” Although God does not want us to dabble in sin, yet well He knows our temptations, & if a sin does not kill us instantly, then we can learn to avoid that particular sin, if we will listen. Just as a hand burnt by fire learns a stark lesson, so our own involvement in sin can teach us a life-saving lesson to avoid it at all costs.

God NEVER puts temptation in our path, even to teach us about sin. It is NEVER the purpose of God to put us in a situation where we are tempted to do wrong. However, since we do occasionally sin, there are positive lessons that God can teach us about it. In the end we will come to realise that “fire” is hot, & that if we stick our hand in it, we will be burnt! The ONLY way to avoid paying the cost of any sin (being burnt) is to avoid the sin altogether. Perhaps that is the best lesson to learn about sin.

Sin can & should be resisted & overcome.
It takes a strong mind & a resolute heart, coupled with Christ-focused spiritual “eyes” to avoid all the snares & schemes of Satan when we encounter them in our path. That is why we, as Christians, are encouraged to consider our Saviour; to “die to sin” & to put behind us those things which can cause us to stumble in our faith.

I’m sure we do indeed encounter sin-soaked snares of Satan now & again. We also have a “flesh” nature (also referred to in the New Testament as “the old man” or “old self”) which tends towards the wrong, rather than the right; towards sin & wrong-doing, rather than towards rightness. That nature & the internal struggle we Christians face is described by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 [*1] “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” writes Paul... “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

As Paul goes on to describe, we have an “ace up the sleeve”, we have our Father God in heaven, who is constantly turning His love towards us; we have Jesus the Christ in heaven, who intercedes for us; & we have the Holy Spirit living within us, who is powerful & able to help us overcome ANY & ALL sinful behaviours. When we realise & recognise that the triune God is for us & not against us, then we can stand against the Devil’s schemes, & lead victorious, sinless lives.

The difference between Pippin & us.
Had Pippin (in the story of Lord of the Rings) been able to recognise the subtle, tempting mind (of Sauron) on his own will, he could have avoided the snare of the Palantir. But he couldn’t & didn’t. We Christians are very blessed indeed in that we have been born again, of the Holy Spirit. He is constantly guarding our hearts & minds & will help us to avoid sin, if we allow Him to direct us.
Romans 8:5 says, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.”

So dwelling on sinful things will entice us to sinful behaviours. If, on the other hand, we want to avoid sinful behaviour then we must think about Godly, good things & avoid dwelling on sinful acts.
Paul explains the outcome of this mutually exclusive thinking in Romans 8:6, “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

Which would you rather have: a mind dominated by the sinful nature, leading to death, or a mind focussed by the Holy Spirit, leading life and peace?
If you’re a Christian, then the choice is yours.

If you’re not a Christian, then maybe it’s time to think about becoming one, so that you to can have a mind focussed by God, which leads to life, rather than death. Again, the choice (& the responsibility for your life’s outcome) is yours. Please email me if you want to become a Christian. I’m here to help.



[*1]
Romans 7:14-8:8 (NLT)
14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Romans 8:1-8 (NLT)
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

Each individual is of vital importance to God and special to Him

‘The universe is not an impersonal "thing," but rather the planned expression of God's might and power and personality.
Genesis also explains man as being the focus and pinnacle of Creation—a creature made in the image of God and thereby vested both with significance and a derived glory. Man cannot be understood unless he is seen as irrevocably related to the eternal, though temporarily occupying space and time. Because man is made in God's image, each individual is of vital importance to God and special to Him.
So these earliest chapters of Scripture, represented by Adam in the genealogies, introduce us to ourselves and to our identity. They explain why each of us stands in need of a vital relationship with God. Without such a relationship to the God whose image we bear, each of us is incomplete. God made us for Himself, and we are restless and ill at ease apart from Him.’ - The Teacher's [Bible] Commentary.

I particularly noticed a sentence in that quote: ‘each individual is of vital importance to God and special to Him’... it is very easy to either UNDERSTATE or OVERESTIMATE our own importance.

UNDERESTIMATION: On the one hand, if we are “down” on ourselves,  we can wrongly conclude that we don’t matter at all. That is NOT what God says about us. Those of us who tend towards self-deprecation, & further towards self-denunciation forget that we are made in the image of God, by a mighty, holy God. We are his handiwork, & it is wrong to underplay our own importance, as defined by God himself in the Bible. It can be a struggle to correctly see ourselves & gain the correct view of our own importance. But do that we must, to avoid the more unpleasant aspects of underestimating our own worth, to ourselves, to others & most especially to God himself.

OVERESTIMATION: Then there is the other side of that coin; people who think too highly of themselves. Pride & arrogance are in that direction; self-delusion, blindness to errors/faults in our own thinking, narcissism even. To think too highly of ourselves, & of our race of human beings puts our whole planet’s survival at risk. We are a part, not APART from our world. We are important, but so is everything else on our world; nothing is insignificant. We should hold all things in reverent esteem, always giving thanks to God for what we have.

The middle ground, sometimes difficult to maintain & ALWAYS requiring our continual effort & refocus to remain within; there is the truth. We are important to God, unique & special to Him. Without unnatural, self-destructive self-deprecation, or, equally, without overestimating our own importance (with pride & arrogance) we can strike that dynamic, God-focussed, balanced middle position, where both our true identity & true position in the Cosmic order is to be found. We are not less important, nor more important than anyone else, nor anything else. We are all bound up in an intricate, inter-dependent “dance of life”, ultimately responsible to God, our creator & sustainer, for all that we are, have & do. Out of reverence for all other life we should guard against underestimating or overestimating our own importance. ‘Each individual is of vital importance to God and special to Him’... I can’t argue with that!

Do we believe God is for us? Trust

Psalm 106, verse 24-25 struck me this morning. Here is that reading:

Psalms 106:24-25 (NLT)
24 The people refused to enter the pleasant land,
for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.

The Psalm refers back in time to when the Hebrew people left Egypt (the Exodus) & saw the amazing power of God divide the Red Sea for them to pass through. Only a few days later (unbelievably!) they had “forgotten” that display of God’s power & favour towards them, & were now grumbling about the wilderness they were passing through.

The phrase that caught my attention was ‘... they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them’.
How often do we doubt God’s goodness towards us, even after a display of His commitment to us?!
Even though God has promised time & again ‘to never leave us nor forsake us’ [1] & ‘to prosper us & not harm us’ [2], yet we STILL do not believe Him. It’s as if we hardly dare hope that God might want us to prosper. It seems as if somehow we are more “comfortable” with Him NOT caring for us! Perhaps we think we don’t DESERVE to be looked after by God. In effect we sort of say, “if you only knew what I was really like God, then you wouldn’t want to help me!” But, of course, God DOES know EXACTLY what we are like - warts & all! And the truth is, that despite our best efforts to reject God’s help & assistance, He STILL persists, all of our lives, to offer His love, kindness, care & council. What amazing patience God has with his creations!

Perhaps the real source of the trouble, SELF-DOUBT, rather than “God-doubt”.
I wonder if the issue is not so much that we don’t believe God & His promises, but rather that we DOUBT OURSELVES; our motives & “true” natures. But we simply MUST remember that God KNOWS our true natures, through & through. Nothing disqualifies us for God’s grace, because that grace IS undeserved; that is the definition of grace: UN-DESERVED FAVOUR.
God chooses to lavish His undeserved favour on us; He wants to help us. Yet, in spite of His continued promises & words of encouragement (recorded for us in the Bible) to simply believe in His benevolence, more often than not we “throw it back in God’s face” by reacting today (in the 21st century) just as the Hebrew people did during the Exodus (circa1440 BC), with the conclusion: ‘... they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them’.

There is a rather chilling consequence outlined in Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary, in response to our continuing doubt regarding God’s motivation of wanting to do us good:

‘Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels. An undue desire, even for lawful things, becomes sinful. God showed his displeasure for this. He filled them with uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach.’
(Source: Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary.)

That sounds a bit “wordy”, but I gather Matthew Henry was saying that if we will not accept God’s words, reassurances & good council (designed to help us & bless us) then we will inevitably follow our own ideas (our council) & that will lead us inexorably away from God’s blessings, & into a condition where we will not have peace of mind, security, confidence, but rather we will have, ‘uneasiness of mind, terror of conscience, and self-reproach.’

I think that is a very real danger, especially for those of us who seem unable (or is more accurate to say unwilling?) to accept the “simple” truth that God is ‘for us & not against us’ [3].

One of two positions.
In the end we have to EITHER 1) accept that God wants what’s best for us (in spite of all our sins, errors, wrong-doings, doubts, etc) or else 2) we reject Him & His motives.
Sorry if that sounds stark, but what else is there?
We either accept the profoundly self-affirming pleasure of simply CHOOSING to trust God; what the Bible says; what other Christians have experienced & “know” about God, or else we stumble over this point, & actually reject that truth.
There appears to be no middle position that we could hold; partial trust & partial mistrust doesn’t seem possible!

There is great power in simply CHOOSING to TRUST that what the Bible says about God (that He is love [4], that He cares for us [5] & that God is entirely trustworthy [6]) is actually true. Once you “come down on that side” of the argument, then there is GREAT peace of mind, GREAT simplicity of faith, GREAT confidence, security & self-worth to be had.

I’ve just found a very good, helpful & uplifting blog about the trustworthiness of God, especially in personal suffering. This lady’s talent is in explaining the “So what?” of reading the Bible, in practical, real terms, during our times of suffering.

Here’s this lady’s conclusion in the 2nd of her 4 articles:

‘The argument of Romans 8 is from the greater to the lesser: <b>Since God is absolutely trustworthy in all aspects of your salvation, you can wholeheartedly trust Him in your present suffering.</b> If He is trustworthy in the big thing, then He is trustworthy in the small things. The promises of God for your salvation in the past, present, and future, are guaranteed, and so you can trust in His promises that He cares for you even now. “Is God trustworthy in your suffering?” The answer is a resounding and eternal “YES.”’

Here are the links to her 4 blog articles. I found them VERY uplifting, & I would heartily recommend that you read them:

1) http://womenwalkingwisely.com/category/gods-trustworthiness/
God in the Storm: Jonah 1

2) http://womenwalkingwisely.com/2012/01/29/god-is-trustworthy-part-2-is-god-trustworthy-in-your-suffering-2/
God is Trustworthy, Part 2: Is God Trustworthy in Your Suffering?

3) http://womenwalkingwisely.com/2012/02/05/god-is-trustworthy-part-3-seeing-him-as-he-really-is/
God is Trustworthy, Part 3: Seeing Him as He Really Is

4) http://womenwalkingwisely.com/2012/02/11/god-is-trustworthy-part-4-what-does-real-trust-look-like/
God is Trustworthy, Part 4: What Does Real Trust Look Like?</a>




[1]
Deuteronomy 31:6 (ANIV)
6 [Moses said,] “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

[2]
Jeremiah 29:11 (ANIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

[3]
Romans 8:28 (ANIV)
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose....
Romans 8:31 (ANIV)
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ...
Romans 8:38-39 (ANIV)
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[4]
1 John 4:7-8 (ANIV)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

[5]
1 Peter 5:7 (ANIV)
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
John 16:26-27 (ANIV)
26 “In that day you will ask in my [Jesus’] name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
Romans 5:8 (ANIV)
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[6]
Psalms 9:10 (ANIV)
10 Those who know your [God’s] name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Psalms 111:7-8 (ANIV)
7 The works of his [God’s] hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
8 They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.

Time delay in prayer answers

We have been praying to God for an answer to a particular issue for some days, but haven’t received a definitive answer... yet. Today I was reminded of the time delay Daniel experienced when he prayed to the Lord. The story can be read in Daniel chapter 10...

Daniel 10:12-14 (NLT)
12 Then he [an angel of the Lord] said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. 14 Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”

I remember reading this story several times before & it seems pertinent to our situation now. I draw your attention to verse 12 which states, “Since the first day you began to pray... your request has been heard in heaven.” It seems that our prayers go up at the speed of thought (instantly) to God.
The angel then says to Daniel that he has been sent in answer to Daniel’s prayer.
The next verse is very interesting (verse 13) because it states that the REASON for the 21 day delay in that angel’s delivery of God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer was due to, “...the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia [who] blocked my way.” That person is possibly Satan/ the Devil, or possibly some other deamon. It doesn’t really matter who it was, what is interesting is that there appears to be a very real battle going on in the unseen realm of the spirit world, WHICH CAUSED THE DELAY.

I don’t think God’s reply, in the form of His thoughts coming to us, are ever delayed or can be delayed by any unseen spiritual forces of evil. In the story above it was an angelic messenger who was delayed. In the Old Testament it appears that God often used angels to communicate His will to human beings. Clearly, such beings can be delayed in delivering there message from God to man, by evil spirits or deamons. But I don’t think God’s direct thoughts “beamed” down to us can be delayed at all!

There remains though the question of why it is that sometimes we don’t get an immediate reply to our prayers to God. Perhaps there is a PURPOSE IN THE DELAY, such as God’s desire to increase our persistence in prayer. This persistence would not, of course, come into being if God answered all of our prayers instantly! And it is quite possible that God providing instant replies to all of our prayer requests would actually keep us in spiritual immaturity, rather than time delays in His answers, which have the effect of increasing our maturity, particularly in the realm of persistence in prayer.

I’m not sure whether or not God uses angels to communicate His answers to our prayers any more. After all, Jesus’ death on the cross opens up direct access for Christians to communicate with God the Father at all times, so it would seem unnecessary for Him to send angels with His answers nowadays, rather than communicating His will directly.

Christians have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, which means that there is no distance between our thought-prayers & God hearing them! The Holy Spirit IS God, & one of His many honourable tasks is to reminds us of God’s true nature (loving, caring, compassionate towards us, etc) & to encourage us towards spiritual maturity.

The result of this story in Daniel is that MY CONFIDENCE INCREASES that God always hears my prayers, & that He will answer me, even if there is a mysterious time delay. Even though I may not know WHY there is a time delay, I can be confident that God WANTS to answer my prayers, & that’s good enough for me!