Rope Making is not Blessed

““You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.” (Matthew 5:3-4 MESSAGE)

When we consider verse 3, is it not true that we are so good at manufacturing rope; at keeping up appearances; at leaving prayer to the very end of things? We all tend towards self-sufficiency. So, sometimes our merciful God cuts off our rope. Sometimes he cuts off our options. Every now and then he cuts off our legacy. That’s only because God our Father wants Jesus Christ to be our Legacy, our Option, our Hope and our Rope that is anchored in Heaven itself. Are you at the end of your rope? If you are not, you cannot realize just how strong the heavenly Anchor is.

When we consider verse 4, is it not true that we spend much of our lives fighting to gain and keep what is most precious to us? Our careers. A happy family. Possessions and surplus funds for a rainy decade. A position that is esteemed amongst our peers. But this verse suggests boldly that these things are not “Happiness”. These do not make up the state of "blessedness". This verse says that such blessedness comes through loss….for only when we lose something precious do we then see what is most precious. Only when we lose earthly comforts do we then find and feel the Comfort of God.

When asked for the secret to his great anointing, Smith Wigglesworth suggested that his interrogator should never have asked the question, as Wigglesworth had suffered almost unbearable anguish for years after the death of his wife – and it was out of this deep anguish that his deeper relationship with God was born…and it was out of this deeper fellowship that the deepest anointing of Christ flowed over in signs and miracles.

We are all good at seeing a man’s strengths and coveting them. But we are all bad at seeing what suffering and service in weakness has been involved in raising up those very strengths we covet. We are all good at aiming for the top of the hill, but we are forever seeking shortcuts to increasing elevation.

Matthew Henry described the beatitudes as “the articles of Agreement between God and man”. Do you want to be blessed, happy and to be envied? Then do not despise poverty of spirit, or the journey thereto. Do not scorn tears and times of anguish. Do not resent yourself for wrestling with your own weaknesses, and all the less as those weaknesses increase the revelation of God’s loving strength. Do not seek your first help from Egypt, or from the strong and the noblest of friends. Only make Jesus your Friend of friends and your chief counsel.

Have you lost that which is most precious to you? A spouse, a career, a spiritual office in the church, an inheritance, a reputation amongst men? Then be of good cheer within yourself, because God is making you meet to be a chief servant and cupbearer to the King of kings.

How did Abraham become the father of our faith except through decades of barrenness? How did Moses lead God’s people through the desert except for 40 years of his own solitude in the wilderness? How did David become a righteous king except through suffering under an unrighteous one? How did the prophets stay true except through the scowls and seething of their mockers? How did Jesus become the perfect sacrificial Lamb except through religious persecution and Roman torture? How did Paul flow with such power except through being delivered of his own powers? How did Martin Luther make his good confession except through a night of agony in the prison cell? How did CT Studd blaze with such zeal for God except through being delivered from the shame of his blazing sins? How did James Hudson Taylor happily suffer so much for the Chinese peoples except through his sickly years in serving the poor in England? How did Richard Baxter and his peers so willingly suffer the confiscation of life and property except through seeing how rich they were in secret fellowship with Christ?

Are you at the end of your rope? Are you at least near it? Rejoice, and again I say rejoice. And I will rejoice with you, here in Broken Britain. And that is by faith. Above the drums and cymbals of worldly joys, lies a heavenly joy incomprehensible to fallen minds. It is there. I have caught a glimpse of it now and then. Above the banks and stock exchanges, mansions and sundecks of the ‘successful’ stand tall heavenly silos of blessing and provision for the faithful who are poor in spirit. It is there, and I have drawn down from it now and then. And high above the thoughts and wisdom of this world is a Wisdom that created it; a Knowledge that is paradisical; a Truth that makes worldly wisdom foolish. It is there. I have stood at its open gate.

Here’s three cheers to the hopeless and "Gesundheit!" to the ropeless, for our Redeemer lives, and he bestows his Kingdom and his Comfort on his poor and mourning children.

This is the truth of the matter.

N

"Follow Me" by Ira Stamphill

I traveled on a lonely road and no one seemed to care.
The burden on my weary back had bowed me to despair;
I oft complained to Jesus how folks were treating me,
And then I heard Him say so tenderly,
"My feet were also weary, upon the Calvary road;
The cross became so heavy, I fell beneath the load,
Be faithful weary pilgrim the morning I can see,
Just lift your cross and follow close to me."

"I work so hard for Jesus" I often boast and say
"I've sacrificed a lot of things to walk the narrow way,
I gave up fame and fortune, I'm worth a lot to Thee"
And then I hear Him gently say to me,
"I left the throne of glory and counted it but loss,
My hands were nailed in anger upon a cruel cross,
But now we'll make the journey with your hand safe in mine,
So lift your cross and follow close to me.

Oh Jesus if I die upon a foreign field someday,
'Twould be no more than love demands, no less could I repay,
"No greater love hath mortal man than for a friend to die"
These are the words He gently spoke to me,
"If just a cup of water I place within your hand
Then just a cup of water is all that I demand.
But if by death to living they can Thy glory see,
I'll take my cross and follow close to Thee.

Ditching the cup of water for the reservoir

There is no doubt that the end game of Christianity is made up in small but outrageous acts of love, service and self-sacrifice. There are no rewards to attending meetings and worshipping - surely these are already rewards in themselves? Surely also there can be no rewards in setting up lives or churches to self-exist in a middle-classist kind of way? Likewise, are we going to get rewards by giving our money to get more? Or by using our gifts and talents to empower our futures?

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” (Matt 25:34-36).

Our faith outworks in love, or it is hollow faith. Our fellowship with the Spirit outworks in increasing tenderness, care, meekness and esteeming of others...or it is self-indulgent fellowship.

Of course, as with biological processes so too we are on a growth-journey. It takes time to have the mind renewed; to have all the selfish rocks lifted out of the soil. That is why infants do not run governments.

We have been justified now and forever before the Father, in Christ Jesus. Our position is secure, for eternity. Nothing can snatch me from him, how blessedly true. But let us not confuse soteriology with sociology: I can lose connection with the Head, who gave his life for humanity; I can lose my bearings when I still live trying to serve my own ambitions; the wheat can be choked by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth; I can spend my whole Christian life on earth without ever finding traction in the sufferings of others.

My middle-class brass bubble can remain somewhat intact, and transfer me to glory with....nothing.

And I can chase after "noble" goals with an ignoble mindset. I can seek to travel into many nations and yet hardly ever witness to Jesus Christ. I can seek to love my friends and still ignore my suffering community. I can be part of something "big" and yet lose sight of the little acts of service, kindness and generosity. I can "switch on" the glory-face, but show little of it to my wife and relatives at home, let alone my enemies. I can preach in big venues and still love money and status more than a love for the poor.

I can miss out on daily opportunities to give a cup of cold water to the thirsty, in my quest to find the Reservoir.

Vanity, vanity. a chasing after the wind. The Kingdom is coming, and it is a Kingdom of Love.

Nick

Oh My

There are now 15 million AIDS orphans, of which 12 million are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 3 billion people live on less than £2 a day. 80% of humanity live on less than £7 a day.

28% of all children in developing nations are malnourished. 800 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished.

1 billion people cannot read a word.

128 million children have no access whatsoever to education.

1 million people die of Malaria every year, with 400 million new infections.

1.8 billion people have no immediate access to running water and live on less than 20 litres per day. The average Englishman uses 50 litres a day just flushing his loo.

Over 400 million school days are lost every year due to water-related sicknesses.

1.5 million poor people die every year because of lung diseases due to solid fuel burning.

There are 35 million widows in India.

161 nations are now involved in human trafficking. Children make up half of the world’s slaves, in whatever form. 30 000 Romanian women are just “missing”.

The wealthiest 20% of the world’s population account for 77% of total consumption. The poorest 20% account for just 1.5%.

497 billionaires are worth £2.4 trillion. The nett financial worth of the world’s poorest 2.4 billion people is £1.1 trillion. In other words, one billionaire possesses more wealth than 10 million poor people.

Let's have another conference..

figures approximated from various sources

Fame by No Other Name

What does it mean to be famous? How much are our own definitions coloured by our grooming, by noise and color and the dazzle of this present age?

We live in a strategic, humanistic world. But for all man’s cleverness, those who stand out in history aimed at something more than rational ability. Consider the splendor of Beethoven’s 9^th, the delicacy of a Shakespearean sonnet or the power of a Churchillian speech – is there not something profoundly deeper, weightier, more skilful and sacrificial to fame than mere rational living?

I have no doubt that famous men and women of world history all had diligence as a cornerstone. Laziness gets a man nowhere. But still, the honors roll of fame is distinctly lacking in certain types of job – casino owners, share traders, consultants and church managers. Not that I am saying these kinds of people are bad people. I am sure that some could be famous in their own way. What I am saying is that a special communication with Creator and Creation is always part of the mix. A going beyond the visible, into the visceral and unexplored. And then an ability to persuade others to their end. Whether through the symbols of e=mc², the words of “friends, Romans, countrymen”, or the sleepless lyrics of Nessun Dorma (who does not get goosebumps with Pavarotti’s cry of “Vincero!”?)…we see a glimpse of the essence of fame.

We know in our gut that normal - selfish – living will only guarantee us a place in a cemetery.

And so too, in the church of God, fame does not go to clever churchmen. There is no honors roll devoted to mere managerial strategists or obsessive sheep-counters.

Who are the most famous people in Christian history? I guess most of them will only be known on Judgment Day. But we can be fairly sure that some of these will be on the honors roll already. I have taken the liberty of noting very briefly the reason for their fame, to demonstrate that a higher passion and motivation was central to all of them:

Paul the apostle – scarred preacher, apostle, writer, miracle-worker

Peter the little rock – preacher, miracle-worker, martyr

Polycarp – preacher, martyr

Blandina – a woman of the word of her testimony in the face of gruesome death

Augustine – theologian, preacher

Boniface – evangelist, extremely courageous martyr

John Wycliffe – theologian, Bible translator, martyr

Martin Luther – one justified by faith, resister of religion

John Calvin – theologian, preacher, writer

Thomas Cranmer – author of book of common prayer, martyr

John Knox – embracer of the Reformation, fiery preacher

Richard Baxter – puritan preacher, sufferer for Jesus

George Fox – uncompromising saint and preacher

John Wesley – a strangely warmed heart, evangelist, hymnodist

George Whitefield – revivalist, evangelist

James Hudson Taylor – sacrificial evangelist to China

William Wilberforce – determined abolisher of slavery

Florence Nightingale – tender nurse to the Crimean wounded

William Booth – carer for the poor, founder of Salvation Army

Charles Spurgeon – preacher, writer

DL Moody – evangelist, friend of deprived children

Smith Wigglesworth – preacher, faith healer

Martyn Lloyd-Jones – expository preacher

Amy Carmichael – Irish missionary to India, friend of the poor

Corrie ten Boom – Holocaust survivor, helper, rehabilitator

Mother Theresa – minister to and advocate for the poor

Even when we think of the “living famous”, we see a higher cause and a living embodiment of the Word of God as the central theme:

Billy Graham – evangelist

Jackie Pullinger – faith minister to drug addicts of Hong Kong

Tim Keller – pastor, preacher

John Piper – theologian, writer, fiery preacher

RT Kendall – preacher, author

John Stott – theologian, teacher

J John – preacher, evangelist

D Yonggi Cho – Yoido minister, preacher, evangelist

Terry Virgo – grace preacher, apostolic minister

Michael Eaton – Bible scholar, preacher, teacher

Matt Redman – psalmist, song writer

If I have left your hero off the list (which I surely have), then why don’t you think what has made him or her “famous”? By the way, I have generally excluded younger men and women, as they too must stand the test of time (not my test, but the test).

Do you want to be a famous Christian? Firstly, don’t aim for greatness - that will just devastate you. Don’t aim at managing your future, and thus your surrounding situation – that will just make you another control freak (you might become famous for 15 minutes, as the saying goes). Take aim at Christ Himself, to do His will and to live to please him first and foremost. Dig into the word to find out what pleases him. Make the most of every day. Test and approve his good, pleasing and perfect will. Beat your body and make it your slave. Put sin on the cross. And temptation too. And then - do the works of Christ, in Christ. Serve Him, with or without applause. Preach as though He alone were listening. Give your private life fully to Him. Don’t live for the same things the pagans run after.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither”. Clive Staples Lewis.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Writer to the Hebrews (Heb 12:1-3 NIV).

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Apostle Paul (Phil 3:10-12 NIV).

N