Secular prophets...

“History isn’t about smooth lines and projections that follow nice curves. On the contrary it is very non-linear, and every now and then a black swan will fly across your screen and change everything....The EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund) is just a ponzi scheme in which governments that are already in the red pledge to get even deeper into the red to bail out those of their number that have lost credibility in the bond market. There is a row of countries waiting to lose credibility in the bond market right now, and I am not convinced that this is anything other than a very temporary stop-gap.”

Niall Ferguson, Professor of Economic History, Harvard University, and author of “Civilization: the West and the Rest”. Quoted from a recent Bloomberg TV interview

No Dominant Synapse

"The human brain is composed of billions of massively interconnected nerve cells called neurons, working in parallel. Information is transferred from one neuron to another in the form of electrical impulses through connections called synapses. A typical neuron is connected to several tens of thousands of other neurons via synapses. The neural structure keeps changing throughout the human life. A basic structure which is defined at birth, is developed through learning as new connections are made and destroyed. The large number of neurons, high degree of interconnectedness and complicated behaviour of each neuron is what makes the brain incredible." Neurondotnet


The word "synapse" comes from two Greek words that mean "to clasp together" and so, the brain is unfathomably metaphoric of kingdom relationships. The neural network, alive and firing, is the power behind humans in the image of God. Each synaptic junction has chemistry and electricity - love and the power of God.


But what fascinates me most at this point in time - a time when God is rewiring his church - is how flexibility and accommodation are critical to a healthy mind, and thus a healthy church...humility is the magneto for Grace.


The golden rule of a healthy brain? Every synapse is important, and all need to be firing, and flexing, freely.


Sometimes, we end up in positions of public responsibility. People look to us and some become friends. But what happens when two of my friends become friends in themselves? Or best friends? My best friend in varsity fell in love with one of my flat mates. I thought he so enjoyed my company, he was coming around almost daily. It was fair humbling when it dawned on me that I had, in fact, become the third party..


For friendships formed second, for alliances created through your hard work...can their synapse fire, or do you insist that all firing happens at your synaptic junction? Do you lessen the importance of other synaptic links? Do you permit the possibility of chemicals and electrical impulses in God's church-brain to flow PAST you?


Put another way - can you see people relative to God, and relative to others, or only relative to you? We all know the model answer here, but we will fail the practical exam if we harbour "ambition for recognition". Why? Because another synapse firing louder - that produces something good in the body - overshadows or sidelines me. If you see authority more as the rush of chemistry through your synapse rather than a synaptic symphony that causes the body to move well, you are in trouble.


Wherever there are human beings, there is the potential for synaptic activity. Otherwise the church would really be one big arranged marriage.


The price we pay for controlling the formation of teams is obvious too - we lose the true power of heaven's synaptic energy. You cannot just choose 5 men or acolytes, put them around a table, preach on the power of friendship and then charge them to be friends. That is like finding all the body parts you need to make up the body of a human - an ecclesiastical horror film in production phase. And with a big budget needed..


In a church where all synaptic firing happens at one or two junctions, there is dissonance, bad chemistry and electrical imbalance.


In a region where one apostle imposes his synaptic junction as the virtual head office, there is the feeble-mindedness of a territorial spirit.


Big-shot Synapse Man argues thus: “I have to protect my flock", or (within a region), "I am jealous for the Kingdom to come in Bedfordshire", but the truth is he is an insecure, Diotraphes-Synapse. Diotraphes "loved to be first", or "loved preeminence". (3 John 9).


The truth is this synaptic control is the power behind all denomination. It cannot stop what God has ordained - God given spontaneous friendships, or "random firing of synapses" - but it can and does make for bad mental health and a squeezing of all power and innovation to the periphery….it is what thrust David into the desert of Engedi, and still does to this day.


Does this essay open a door for wolves to come in? Only if there is an absence of a godly neural network! In the name of control, the flock actually loses protection. What I mean is that godly friendship networks are the bastion of defense in a church. Chemically strengthened by the pastor's preaching and prayers, such profound lattices are less likely to allow ingress of angular men intent on slashing and cutting.


The Synaptic Shift will be tested in us all - what if my two good friends, who had until now never met, were destined in God to become best friends? Am I wanting what is best for my friends - the will of God - or what is ‘best’ for me?


What happens if I invite some men to my home, and three of them pursue a future relationship beyond me? Am I wanting what is best for the Kingdom - healthy firing synapses guided by the Mind of God - or what is best for short-sighted me (insisting on padding my insecurities in cotton wool).


What happens if one of my disciples becomes the better preacher? Will I allow a more powerful synapse to fire out across the congregation, or will I insist he waits his turn?


What happens when our children gain wisdom we don't have? What happens when two elders become best friends, and the team captain feels excluded? What happens when two men 'fire up' and connect from different teams, churches or movements? Is this "bad etiquette" or "good chemistry"??


Oh how unhealthy the church brain is, how poor our synapses are under such control from the hands of insecure and unqualified neurologists who seek more to rule than release.


And what of apostles? How are their synapses placed? The power of the apostolic is really in facilitating new synaptic firing! It is in helping found an organic network of impartational connections, through the preaching of the true and scandalous gospel. Very few can facilitate such connections and then not want control, or at least kudos..."single point captaincy" (of the rigid variety) - not found in Acts-Epistles - has gained undeserved kudos for hundreds of years (if James were the senior pastor of Jerusalem church, what was Peter, let alone the other 10?).


Am I saying God does not use a man? I am not!! God uses a man, but God must get the glory. If you are the best preacher, preach the glory and often. If you are the best leader, lead diligently and humbly. But keep the towel round your waist and the crown off your head. And when your moment is over, remain addicted to the obscurity of loving and praying and giving in secret, as the Lord commanded us all. And we need remember that all ministry - every firing of every spiritual and relational synapse - is so that the body of Christ can be built up into the fulness of the Head, which is Christ, not you or I.


If only we all took more regular time to ask, “what's best for others?”. God will have his way in the end - he will get the Silas's and Titus's and Timothy's together. Thousands more Jonathans don't have to die on the Mount of Misguided Loyalty, otherwise known as Gilboa. The church can be led by Samuels, not Sauls, again. Thank God for the power of repentance!


May I have the privilege not only of future friendships, but also of witnessing such friends firing synaptically in freedom and fulness, without being greened down through the Jealous Eye.

“As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.” (Galatians 2:6–7)

Courage,
Nick

Ex Qs Me

“We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.”

(1 Corinthians 8:1–3 NIV)

If Intelligence Quotient (IQ) were a true measure of mental acuity and capacity, high IQ would speak of the potential for competence.

If Emotional Quotient (EQ) were a true measure of good soul management and relational skill, high EQ would speak of the potential for intuitiveness.

If Spiritual Quotient (SQ) were a true measure of transcendent vision and inner ambition beyond survival and current success, high SQ would speak of the potential for a zealous, goal-directed humility.

So the most mature ministries are competent, intuitive and humbly zealous. Some can be highly competent but have no genuine awareness or love interest in the welfare of others. Some can be intuitive but invulnerable. Few are intelligent, interested and vulnerable.

Books, study and life experience activates IQ. Working with people tests and stretches the EQ. but only worship, meditation and secret devotion can enliven the SQ. Yet, it is SQ - the most neglected of the Q's - that emblazens both IQ and SQ.

I can love books without loving people.  I can love people without a devotion to God. But I cannot find higher devotion without becoming better with people and more hungry to learn. 

N

The regular crowd shuffles in - and costs us the prize

“I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:23–27)

Sometimes I enjoy a good old-fashioned first wave advert - "Product X gets dirt even in those hard to reach corners"... the scandalous gospel certainly does, given time. Not all of us are prepared to wait that long for God however, after our honeymoon with Jesus. We have some weeks, possibly months, in the euphoria of discovering heaven as a Real Place. We live in the Cloud of knowing we have been chosen for salvation. We experience the Creator in recreative ways. And we know we are 'saved'. 


I suspect all of us who have been changed thus by God have wanted to stay in that place - like building a tent on the Mount of Transfirguration. We want to freeze-frame time, where the sweetness of God's love causes us to forget our troubles and even see the repugnant through rose-tinted lenses. But then, those awe-full words... "Go, I am sending you out like lambs amongst wolves" (Luke 10:3). And as we go, we start to comprehend fearfully other passages like “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
(Hebrews 12:11 NIV). Again, this unprosperous exclamation from the lips of those suffering saints, Paul and Barnabas: "Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God must go through plenty of hard times" (Acts 14:22).


And so, for us commoners, the reality of heaven becomes a dream again. A real dream, but a distant one. And that is where the choices begin. That is the Race. To be saved is easy, because God happens upon us in a rush. But to be a diciple of Christ is a daily signing up, all too often devoid of anything but a Client-Deposit. We wait for Him morning by morning; we travel over land and sea to meet with Him in some far-flung Distant conference or antiquity site; we get more significant others to lay hands on us as a holy assurance of still being on 'the Path'. But the Truth is, while God be silent more now than in the way-back-when, He is very much alive and supervising the life in us. The trouble comes when we sigh and grumble because the road is long and the water-points too few. 


A premature post script at this point: anyone who claims to live 24-7 in the glory must be trusted as much as ants trust an aardvark to help supervise their colony. 


Are you worried here that I have drifted into cessationism? Do I still believe in miracles? Well, a genuine one happened to me last Saturday (one of the few I am clear enough to observe, that is). Divine coincidences, healing Hands, grace under fire, the lively Spirit within....oh yes, I believe in Him, and I believe Him. Not perfectly, mind you. But I digress - the point to this article is simply this: DON'T GIVE UP! He who has sworn to come back, is coming, and He will not delay. And His reward is with Him. And said reward is very great. And very permanent. And very glorious. And worthy of every single bit of trouble you and I might still be called to endure. Worthy of every enemy, every slander, every attack, every sacrifice, every cheek turned, every minute in jail. 


Jesus Christ is coming, His advance party is in the world already. AAnd in the headlines. A king whose sandals the current prophets are not worthy to untie is mounting up his wedding warhorse. And this King wants to find his attendants attentive and his servants serving. He wants us to partner with him in his troubles, knowing we will share in the spoils of war very soon. 


But for most of us, a deadly combination of desensitizing routine and uncrucified ambitions of the mind steal us away, ounce by ounce. We who started by the Spirit now try to attain OUR goals the natural way. Sure, we still find some moments to read, and we have perfected the "5 second mental prayer", but the heat is gone and the ashes are all but warm.


The regular crowd has shuffled in. 


Boot them out! Serve notice on such unholy squatters as Frank Lee Bored and Justin Case. Smash apart the shacks in your back garden of Luke Warm and Christian Dodger. Shake off every deceptive thought that the world has got it right and the church might not be the keeper of History's keys. 


Deal decisively with indecision. The gradual gradients; the moderate moderation, the addiction to suddenlies. No weapon formed against you will prosper, o worm Jacob.

“Persisting to the end will be the burr under your saddle – the thorn in your flesh – when the road ahead seems endless and your soul begs an early discharge.  It weighs down every other difficulty of your calling.  We have known many who have joined the army of Christ and like being a soldier for a battle or two, but have soon had enough and ended up deserting.  They impulsively enlist for Christian duties…and are just as easily persuaded to lay it down.  Like the new moon, they shine a little in the first part of the evening, but go down before the night is over" ("The Christian in Full Armour"; W Gurnall).

Nick