A Word for the Restless

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you" (

1 Thessalonians 4:11)

"Quiet" - hesuchasa: to live in tranquility; not over-busy nor busybodies; not moving to and fro, but staying put and tending to/minding your business.

So wrote Paul to the whole church. He was compelled by the Spirit to move and preach. He was graced and gifted and anointed to do it. But he knew well that the body needs a theology of time, of quietness to take root and provide shelter for many birds. 

Heroism is not firstly in foreign trenches or full passports. My heroes now are the quiet majority, being willing to be salt that remains on the plate of food for the savor to penetrate and delight their neighbors, their nearest.

An Ode to Frank

Can you identify with Frank Abignale Jr., aka Leonardo di Caprio - the main character in the movie "Catch Me if You Can"? He was the son who so desperately wanted to impress and bless his dad Frank Sr. that he posed as an airline pilot, a doctor, an attorney and prosecutor before being caught.

I can. I have often felt like a phoney. Without grace. In my darker moments, I certainly don't quite feel like an engineer or a project manager or a preacher or a theologian or a husband or a father. And I still do a lot to impress the Snr. and his other children.

Frank Abignale wore a confidence he did not have. He bought a Pan American pilot's uniform and flew the world. He bought a white coat and posed as a doctor, offering help to the sick. He wrote the bar exam in Louisiana (which he actually passed - an irony in itself) and became an attorney for a while.

And all the while his chief skill was in writing fraudulent cheques. He paid for things with money he did not have, through facades he had altered - the facade of his face, the facade of his clothes and now the facades of these cheques. We too can wear looks and words and advice for others that is just as fraudulent...it does not come from the depths of inner authenticity in places given by grace and God's timing alone. It comes from books and heroes and TV and stuff we learn as quickly as we can, to progress as quickly as we can, with the cry of "catch me if you can!".

And so, we too end up on the run. We end up deceiving everyone and that deception becomes our inner reality. We too end up with a plagued conscience, fearing the dreaded day when we are "Found Out".

We too have a Carl Hanratty, aka Tom Hanks, chasing us. It is not only our conscience, but the Spirit of God. He does not want us to fly the world with a fake smile, a forged ID card and smooth talk. He does not want us to prescribe medicine and perform surgery on others with just a white coat, as it were. He does not want us as a fake lawyer, brining fake justice with a shallow understanding of Truth.

And what happens when Frank is caught by Carl? He is found out; he is sentenced...but then he is released to work with Carl in the FBI's bank fraud department. To this day, Frank Abignale Jr. makes a good living out of helping Carl.

And so too we must be found out. And then realize - like the woman caught in adultery - that our Savior does not want to throw us in jail, but bring us near to him as authentic helpers, whose consciences have been assuaged through authentic grace.

Free at last, thank God all mighty, peace at last.

N

Moving the Massive Mountains

You know, the good things really can be the enemies of the best. Especially “in church”. We have two hundred years of church momentum that tosses her head and dares to be challenged. No all of it mind you – the preaching of the gospel, hard work, loving the world, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked….

Momentum is our Mountain, yet Motive does count more than a whole range of those mountains. Motive counts in cardinal position actually, because at the end of it all, God weighs the heart. Only man is silly enough to look at the outward appearance. But we churchgoers aren’t foolish enough to worship sin publicly. We mostly make good things our lesser gods. And we get a lot of good things from our histories.

The church has hot topics. Two today are 'mission' and 'church planting'. I believe only God can plant a church. He uses men and women as parts of his body, by His calling and grace gifts, by his timing and providence. In this case, He uses the powerful preaching of His word by men He has prepared in the wilderness. 

But what if you are part of a church planting culture? Can church become the ugly stepmother to the Kingdom?

What if…

·     success in ‘planting’  has been elevated above a sacrificial love for people?

·     the call of a culture has been elevated above the call of God (so many displaced persons)?

·     strategy elevates itself above intimacy?

·     work for the Plant has been elevated above worship before God?

·     petition (for success, for people, for growth) has elevated itself above personal prayer?

·     preparation for success (-ful preach, meeting, Sunday) has elevated itself above daily bread?

·     functional worth of a ‘member’ has elevated itself above intrinsic worth of God’s son/daughter?

·     numerical growth has been elevated above the individual discipleship

·     missional preaching themes have been elevated above the gospel, and thorough doctrinal foundations?

·     the Missional movement has steadily elevated itself above the universal church?

·     a love for church growth has elevated itself above a love for the world?

·     care for the poor has been replaced by ensuring there is a ‘food cupboard’?

·     financial seduction has elevated itself above hard work? Or ministry royalties have been elevated above royal ministers?

In all these things, where is the heart and ministry of Jesus in the 4 gospels? Let's take it out of the past 200 years (I think that's why Paul had to reference Creation at times)...

I am sure we are not all great pretenders, in the words of Freddie Mercury. I am sure we are sincere. I am sure there are many saints working towards a rich eternity out of the glare of public movements. I am sure God can plant churches, and is. I am hopeful to see revival in my days, where our motives are sifted like raw wheat, and the world is stunned by millions of hot loaves falling from heaven.

But we are here. Now. Are you going to be one of the next “70 Great Christians who Changed the World”? (I loved the book). Well, don’t aim at it, and ask God for a new level of inner honesty. You will know when you look in the mirror how great your great themes are. Or we could all carry on claiming innocence in all these things, with a strong denial based on secondary motives. We say, "Of course I do love people". 

But that's how idolatry works - it is not about hating God, just loving Him second....or third. It's not about hating God, just loving him second to church success.

So we could ask this, going back to the original questions in this blog...is sacrificial love at work first? Is the call of God your first driver? Does your strategy flow from intimacy? And so on…

Again be warned, o saint – in all these matters we have learned to elevate correct response above inner integrity. We can insist we are praying years after we have stopped calling on the Name. We can carry on singing publicly years after we last sang in private. We can claim to love the lost decades after we have exchanged God's motive (in sending his Son) for a comfortable position in the church.

But - if you answer yes to these last questions of motive, I am chuffed - make no mistake! Even 'yes' to some of them means a great deal for your family, for your village. The world is a better place. But if we are ‘building castles in the sand’, the world is worse off, the name of God is more blasphemed, part of our life is wasted, novice saints are likewise deceived.

Oh yes I’m the great pretender

Pretending I’m doing well

My need is such I pretend too much

I’m lonely but no one can tell

Oh yes I’m the great pretender

Adrift in a world of my own

I play the game but to my real shame

You’ve left me to dream all alone

Too real is this feeling of make believe

Too real when I feel what my heart can’t conceal

Ooh ooh yes I’m the great pretender

Just laughing and gay like a clown

I seem to be what I’m not (you see)

I’m wearing my heart like a crown…..

(Queen, The Great Pretender)

N

Righteousness that makes us Relevant (A Lovesong for the Illiterate)

“Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to these words. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man.” 
(Ecclesiastes 12:12-13 NIV)


There is no power in reading and studying and writing, unless it is accompanied by and arising from meditation and personal interaction with the living and personal God. Private study without person-to-Person dialogue gives rise to a personalized religion and pride that increases as knowledge increases. May you always reject this. May you rather be found more in prayer and meditation than in private padding of our inner knowledge sanctum. This is about which audience you truly play for. I am not yet sealed into the concert hall of One. It is this place of spiritual devotion that gives rise to sounds that attract many – even enemies. It gives rise to the sounds of compassion, wisdom, generosity and activated love. It gives rise to the sound of hard work, of selfless inventiveness, of consistency and sustained godliness.


The concert hall of many is a cacophony of noise and tunes and shouts and proclamations. It is stuffed full of booths and stalls of men and women trying to ply their knowledge onto prospective fans and supporters. It is a place of anesthetic gas puffed out of puffers of praise. It has no end of items to trade and purchase. It is an endless parade of conferences and ecclesiastical opprtunity. 

So what of the gospel need for an endless array of nations and villages, dying in famine while the saints enjoy their own excess? So what, goat or sheep. So what.

To misquote Mike Batt, we must write our love for God on the Walls of the World, not the walls of the church or our private porch.

“Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him. Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.”

(John 7:3-9 NIV)

ND