The Body

Acceptance

Service at Randmeth Sunday 16 July 7pm

Different generations of people tend to like different kinds of music.

It would also be true to say that different cultures or races or nationalities like different types of music and that is not the only thing that is different about them. Let’s face it, we are all different. I am a different generation to my daughter. I think blouses and tops should be tucked into skirts and pants, she thinks they should hang out. The church is made up of different kinds of people.

Paul likens the Church to the Body of Christ. He says,

Now anybody who has ever done any Biology will know that our body is made up of cells. Perhaps you’ve had to learn to draw a diagram of a typical animal cell and it looks like this… …

Every cell in your body has the same DNA, bundled into 23 pairs of Chromosomes.

That is what makes you, you and me, me.

Now every part of Christ’s body has His Holy Spirit. If we have asked Jesus to come into our lives and take over ownership, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. That is our spiritual DNA.

But guess what? If we look carefully at the cells of our body, we don’t even see one that resembles the typical animal cell we just talked about.

Let’s look at muscle cells.

Kind of long and skinny, aren’t they. These cells are very active and use a lot of energy. They get things done. There are people in the church like this and let’s face it, the church would not function without them. They are always busy – feeding the hungry, raising money for the poor, educating the illiterate. If Martha was a body cell, she would probably have been a muscle cell. Other cells might say they are not spiritual enough. But even muscle cells need to be fed. They need a time to rest as well as a time to work. Otherwise the body would not function properly.

Then we have bone.

Bone gives structure and order to the body. Christians who have studied the bible extensively and have done a lot of reading are a bit like bone cells. They usually have an accumulated life experience as well and have walked with the Lord a long time. They are wise. They know the rules and stick by the rule book.

Other cells might say they are too rigid and set in their ways. The biggest danger to bone cells is if they lose their connection to the Lord. If routine and discipline and order strangle out the voice of the Spirit and they just keep going in the same path without the life of Christ, the bones might get brittle and break too easily.

Still with bone, we have bone marrow. This is where new blood cells are made.

These people are the evangelists. They are so excited when people come to the Lord.

They are essential for the life and the ongoing existence of the body. Billy Graham might be an example of a bone marrow Christian. It is the job of all cells to reproduce- to make new cells to replace old ones but bone marrow does it as its primary function. Other cells might say they are not practical. They are so busy thinking about people’s souls, they forget their bodies, their need for support and sometimes the new converts are left to flounder on their own. The danger for bone marrow Christians is when they start judging success by the world’s standards. How many people came to the rail or signed commitment forms. They forget whose work it is. Only God can make a person a Christian.

Then we have the pray-ers, the red blood cells,

supplying oxygen and life for every cell in the body,

the nerve cells,

the communication network ,

macrophages,

who guard the body from infection and distortion,

and my favourite picture, the cells in the eye.

These are rods and cones, the cells that make up the retina of the eye. They have different functions. The rods see light and dark, the cones see more detail. These are the people who see the vision. But unless they communicate with the nervous system, the vision is lost. Some cells might say they don’t do anything so they are useless.

There are many more. I could spend 100 pages showing you pictures of body cells but this is a sermon, not Biology class.

The point is, just as there is no typical animal cell, there is no typical Christian. We are all different and that is not a mistake, God did it on purpose. We are all unique and God made us with a purpose, with a plan in mind.

Of course we think that all Christians should be exactly like us, should think like us, should worship like us.

Because we are all different, God deals with us differently. Nobody can say to another Christian, because your experience is not my experience, you are not a Christian.

Paul says, “For we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” We can make this more relevant to our situation by saying “We are all baptised by one Spirit into one Body, whether Youth or Old Fogy, Black or White, Educated or Uneducated- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

He goes on to say, imagine of one part of the body felt inferior to the rest of the body.

Imagine if a bone cell were to say, because I am not a muscle cell, I am useless, or if a nerve cell were to say, because I am not a rod or a cone, I am not part of the body. We can all see that that is ridiculous. We would hate any such thing going on in our body.

And Christ hates such things going on in His body.

Jesus prays for His disciples in John 17:20-21. “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

In 2000 years, Jesus’ prayer has not been answered. His disciples are not one. Being one, does not mean being the same. God made us individual and unique, he does not want “typical Christian clones.” But what he does want, is unity. He does not want Christians refusing to accept each other, criticising each other because of their God made differences.

Paul says in verse 18, “God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.”

God has put us where we are. He has put us with the people He has ordained. It is not for a toe cell to decide – I don’t want to be part of the foot – I am surrounded by calloused cells. I want to be part of the hand. That is where the action is. I’ll just move.

One part of the body, can’t say to another, “I don’t need you.” When that happens in our body and one part starts attacking another, it is an autoimmune disease and we die from it.

Vs 24 “ But God has combined the members of the body and given greater honour to those that lacked it, so there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.”

When we first look at a body what hits us is skin. The skin is the largest organ of the body and statisticians would probably find out that there are more skin cells in the body than any other kind. So it would be easy for, say the adrenal gland to think I am not a skin cell, therefore I don’t fit in. Those who think they don’t fit in are all the more important because they have their uniqueness to offer. “God has given greater honour to those who lacked it”

What can we do practically, to accept other people, particularly those in Christ’s body?

First of all, Jesus accepted everyone. Here he was, the sinless son of God, and they brought Him a woman caught in adultery. As a good Jewish boy he knew very well that adultery was a sin forbidden in the law of Moses. Notice he did not condone her sin. He said, I do not condemn you, go and sin no more. He accepted her. He treated her with respect.

The Samaritan woman, a hated foreigner, he treated as a person of worth. South Africa’s equivalent today would probably be a Nigerian – after all many people think they are all criminals. We make jokes about them. But Jesus never treated anyone other than with respect and acceptance.

Paul says in Phil 2:5 “let this attitude be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.”

Let us treat others with the attitude of Jesus.

That includes the teacher at school who has it in for you, it includes the inefficient black woman at work who has been promoted over you because of affirmative action, It includes the loud, noisy neighbours who’s teenage son has just bought an ear splitting new car sound system.

As our section of the body, the Randmeth Church, I would suggest the following four steps.

1. Find out what your gift is, your purpose and use it to God’s glory and the building up of our church. Everybody has something to offer. But remember – Christ is the head. It is His Body and He is in control.

1. Don’t be oversensitive. I’m sorry to be the one who has to break it to you, but the world does not revolve around you. People are probably not talking about you when you come to a little group in discussion, they have much more important things to talk about, themselves for instance. If your name does not appear in the church notices, it is not because the office staff are out to get you.

If you are not invited to present your team’s report at some boring meeting, it is not because your team is unimportant.

Oversensitivity is a subtle form of selfishness. It is relating everything in the world to you and how it affects you. It is just as much a sin as the more overt form of selfishness.

Because sin has tarnished the image of God in all of us, you will sometimes get negative comments. Other people aren’t perfect either you know but just because one person in the church says you can’t buy two cakes at the cake sale does not mean that the whole church rejects you and you should now find another church. Just because one person criticises the work you have done for the Lord, does not mean that nobody values your work and you will never do anything for the Lord again. In fact it would be much safer if you just did everything for the Lord and not for people anyway. Christ is the head of the Church. He is the one in control. We should never confuse God’s work with our work. We are working for Christ according to His instructions, not what seems good to us.

1. Put on rose coloured spectacles. I have said we are all imperfect and a mixture of good and not so good. It is easy to see the not so good. Let us make an effort to see the good in people, in their work and filter out the not so good.

Can we see God’s image in other people? It is there, you know. One of the Holiday club leaders told us last week that although they had gone to teach children, in some cases they had learned from Children. That is seeing God’s image in other people.

Don’t look at the differences that irritate you. Look at the things we have in common. We are all working for the good of one body.

1. Let your words build up, not break down. Tomorrow, somebody will probably phone the church office to complain about tonight’s service. Perhaps they didn’t come for a Biology lesson, but an uplifting sermon. Perhaps they didn’t like the music. Let’s put on our rose coloured spectacles and filter out what we didn’t like and look for perhaps just one thing that we did like.

Compliment rather than criticising and complaining. When you feel a negative comment coming, zip your lip. Think hard to find a positive comment and then hand it to someone as a gift from God.

You know yourself how a simple thank you or a well done grows your spirit.

Shall we withhold life and growth to our fellow body cells?

And when you are given a compliment, sniff at it and then give it to the Lord. Any beauty you have is from Him. Any talent you have is from Him. Anything you have achieved is only because He has enabled you. Give Him the glory.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

Believing Lies

From a sermon I gave in an old age home in 2006.

This is a riddle by Greg Mc Kinnon.

You are on the road of life and you come to a fork in the road. One road leads to heaven and the other to hell. There are two guides standing at the fork in the road and you can ask only one question of either of them. One of them is an absolute liar and will not tell you the truth. The other is one hundred percent honest and can only tell you the truth.

Which one, and only one, question can you ask that will let you know without a doubt that you are on the right road? Even after asking this question you will not know if the guide told you the truth or not, but you will know that you have chosen the right road.

The answer: Since you can only ask one question and you don’t know which guide will tell you the truth, you can ask either guide this question. “If I were to ask the other guide which is the right road, what would he tell me?” You then take the opposite road.

Here is why: If it was the liar you questioned, he will lie about the true answer the other guide would give, so you would want to take the opposite road from the one he told you. If, on the other hand it was the honest guide you questioned, he will truthfully tell you the lie that the other guide would have told you. So you know the opposite road is the answer. So this one question will produce a wrong answer no matter which guide you ask and you can take the opposite road.

Today I want to talk about believing lies.

Twice I have received counselling for depression, once from a Psychologist, and once from a Christian Counsellor. Both of them told me the same thing in different words.

I am made in the image of God. The devil has used the world and circumstances to make me believe lies about myself and obscure that image. It occurred to me that it is very likely that there are many others who have also believed lies of the devil and as a result are living in depression. I just want to add that there are more than one kind of depression. Sometimes when we have experienced a trauma or loss we are in a state of depression, like a bottle of oil and water all shaken up. This is a perfectly natural state of affairs and I think we would be most concerned if we did not react like this. It is wise under these circumstances to go for trauma counselling or bereavement counselling. Sometimes there is a chemical imbalance in our bodies and medication is called for – this is just as natural as insulin for a diabetic – there is some malfunction in our endocrine system, and medical science is advanced enough to be able to supplement the deficit.

So today I am just going to talk about the image of God.

The bible says that we are made in the image of God.

Isaiah 44:2 says :”I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born.” Albert Einstein said, “ God doesn’t play dice.”

In his book, “The Purpose driven life,” Rick Warren says,

“You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of Nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it.

Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor co incidence that you are breathing at this very moment. You are alive because God wanted to create you. The bible says, “ The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me.”

This is exactly what psalm 139 vs 13-18 says. From “The Message”

“O yes, you shaped me, first inside then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High god – you’re breathtaking!

Body and soul I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration – what a creation!

You know me inside and out. You know every bone in my body. You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit; how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

This tells us, before we were even conceived, God planned us. Think about it. I think we all know the biology of fertilization. Only one egg cell is produced by the mother. Millions of sperm are produced by the male, but only one, the fastest, the strongest, in fact, the winner, became each of us. So in that sense, we were winners even before we were born. And God watched, from conception to birth as His plan unfolded. Think of a new born baby. Think of yourself as a new born baby. As it is born, God takes it onto his lap and loves it. He doesn’t love it for anything it has done. It has not yet done anything. He loves it because it is His. Made in his image. And nothing we can subsequently do can make God love us more. Or less.

We are made in our Father’s image. We glorify God. Those of you who have children might remember that love that came over you the first time you saw your baby. That is only a faint shadow compared to the love God feels for each one of his children. So be assured. God loves us, very, very much. I am my Daddy’s little girl and the apple of his eye. And so are you.

But the devil will do anything to discredit God and distort his image.

Let’s look at his modus operandi.

First he casts doubt on God’s character and our relationship with him. In the garden of Eden he says to Eve, “Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” What is his implication? Wow God is so mean. He makes this beautiful garden and won’t even let you eat anything in it. He doesn’t really love you, my dear,does he?

In fact, that was not what God said. God gave them permission to eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

When he talks to Jesus in the wilderness, the first thing he says to him is “If you are the son of God…” He is trying to cast doubt on Jesus’ very identity, his love relationship with God. He is saying, in fact, prove you are the son of God. Jesus does not need to prove anything to the devil, nor do we.

The aim of the devil is to cause a rift between us and God. He does this by putting doubt in our minds about God’s love for us and our relationship with him, but also about the word of God. In the Garden of Eden he misquotes God’s word, but keeps close enough to the truth to make it sound plausible. In the wilderness he actually quotes scripture but uses it out of context. He uses verses from Psalm 91: “ He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus wisely counter quotes and says “It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

The devil hasn’t changed his tactics. His main aim is to cause a rift between us and God and to make us believe lies. Quite often he uses people and circumstances to make us believe lies.

The fact is: We are made in God’s image and God loves us.

The devil gets the world to tell us things like,

“You are not good enough. You have never been good enough”

There are variation on this theme: You are not a good wife, or you are too old to be any use to anybody, or you are not interesting , You have to earn your value.

Another line of attack is to attack our relationship with God. It starts similar to the opening attack on Jesus, “ If you are the son of God,” In our case it usually starts, “If you were a real Christian….”

Have you ever heard any of these lies.

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t be worried about going in for this operation or you wouldn’t be worried when your husband goes in for a heart by pass.”

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t be suffering from depression.”

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t have lost your temper.”

“If you were a real Christian, you wouldn’t have evil thoughts like that.”

All of these are lies. Being a Christian is a relationship. Once we have invited Christ into our lives, we become children of God. Our actions do not change that. Certainly we can put up a barrier by sinning against God, by turning our back on Him, but in the same way that a child is still your child even if he gets into trouble and makes wrong choices, or sulks and won’t talk to you, we are still children of God. Our humanity, that God created, does not affect that relationship. Of course we will be afraid if we face danger and possible death. Of course we will feel sad if something has happened to upset us.

Besides using people and the world to tell us lies, like the teacher who says “You will never be any good” and the friend who says, “I don’t want to be your friend, you have no personality,” the devil also uses circumstances and trauma. If you had an unhappy childhood, he will whisper, “it’s all your own fault, you deserved it.”

After a major setback or trauma like a hijacking, he will say, “See, I told you God doesn’t love you. He would never have let this happen to you if he really loved you.”

He might even quote scripture like he did to Jesus for instance, God made a number of promises to the Israelite about their 40 years in the wilderness. Their shoes and clothes would not wear out, none of them would miscarry, the diseases of Egypt would not affect them. The devil might use some of these texts and say, “see God does not keep his promises. Your daughter had a miscarriage. God does not love you. He can’t be trusted.”

God never promised a trouble fee life. He never promised to protect us from problems and disasters. In fact Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but behold, I have overcome the world.

So how can we defend ourselves.? Like Jesus we need to know the word of God to be able to see God’s word as a whole and not just isolated texts here and there.

We need to focus on the facts revealed by God.

Fact 1. We are made in the image of God.

Fact 2. God loves us very very much, more than any human love that we have ever known or ever heard of.

Fact 3. God has a plan for our lives and it was planned before we were born. God has a plan for our whole lives and not just two thirds of our lives.

Fact 4. God has made it possible for us to be forgiven, no matter what.

Fact 5. God has prepared a mansion in heaven for us where we can live with him forever.

These are the facts. Are you going to believe the facts of God, or the lies of the devil?

When negative thoughts come into your head, Ask yourself, is this of God or is this a lie of the devil?

I want to tell you a story about believing a lie also by Greg mc Kinnon.

There in the middle of the chickens was an eagle. It was a full grown, king of all birds eagle! But he was scratching in the dirt looking for worms, insects and seeds. He was clucking and cackling and flapping his wings as he flew just a few feet at a time.

This eagle had a six foot wing span that would allow him to fly above the clouds, but instead he was just fluttering around on the ground. His keen eyesight and sharp talons were supposed to make him a threat to every small bird and mammal anywhere near him. Yet the only thing he was a threat to was some unsuspecting worm he might happen to unearth.

Why in the world was this eagle acting like a chicken? Here is the story: An Indian brave found the eagle egg and he didn’t know what to do with it, so he put it in the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched and grew up with the other chicks. He never saw another eagle – only chickens. All his life he thought he was a prairie chicken. He mimicked their every move.

One day when the eagle was growing old, he looked up into the sky and saw an eagle soaring on the wind far above him. “What a beautiful bird!” the eagle said to the chicken next to him. “What is it?”

“That’s an eagle – the king of all birds,” the chicken clucked, “but don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him.”

Don't believe lies - they might stop you from achieving your full potential.

Wherever I go, I go too...and spoil everything

I have been thinking about sin. My ideas come from many books I have read, many sermons I have heard and formal studies I have been required to do but they must not be regarded as church doctrine or Christian doctrine. They are merely the result of my personal reflections on the matter and the accumulation of impressions that have made sense to me.

I believe God made the universe perfectly. He built into it various laws that hold it in place. These are not only physical laws, like the law of Gravity or the law of thermodynamics, but also spiritual laws. What we regard as the phenomenon of cause and effect is our observation of these laws in action. God made us, humans, in love, out of love and through love. He made us for Himself - to express His love and He made us for Love - to love Him, to be in a relationship with Him and with each other. Not wanting love from mere automatons, God gave us the greatest gift He could - free will. We could choose to love Him, or not. We could choose to obey Him, or not.

Whether the Garden of Eden is literal or figurative, the message is the same. The devil, who is against God and all He stands for, set out a choice before man. "If you eat of this fruit, you can be like God..." In other words, you don't need to obey God. You can make up your own rules.
You can be your own god. That is what man chose.

The result was a cause and effect thing. God created the whole universe for man that He had created to be in a relationship with Him and as a result of man's decision, there was a subtle shift in the fabric of creation. Creation fell and was no longer a friendly place for man. In other words, the relationship between man and creation that was supposed to be, was broken.

In the same way, Man fell. As a microbiologist my best picture is of a nucleotide poison that entered his body (spirit? will?) and got into his DNA. There it inhibited some of the perfect functions of the genetic material so that various imperfections came about. The body would no longer last forever, but get old, die and decay. Abnormalities could arise. These abnormalities were not any immediate change but rather a potential for the future. The worst effect, however, was a breaking of the relationship with God. Fear came in for the first time. The change was a change in tendency, a new direction alignment. So instead of focussing on God, loving Him and relying on Him as God, the default setting was now to focus on ourselves as god.

The third effect was in breaking the relationship between man and man. What was meant to be a community of love, encompassed by God's all-embracing love, became a collection of little gods, all wanting the best for themselves and not caring about the effect of others. Instead of love, there was now suspicion and fear. Man was now a flawed creature. That is sin. The actions that follow from this flaw eg murder, anger, slefishness, they are sins.

These changes were in the very fabric of nature, possibly even in the atoms or quarks and because they were in the genetic material, they were carried over into each new generation.

God choose a people for himself and made a covenant with them. He gave them the 10 commandments. If they followed them perfectly, they would not commit the sins that result from the flawed nature and the relationship with God could go ahead although not in the originally intended love community. The first one is "You shall have no other god before me". That deals with the broken relationship with God. The other 9 have to do with how we treat other people.
Jesus summarised the commandments by saying "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and you should love your neighbour as yourself." The problem is, all these commandments are actions but the basic flaw is a tendency.

Little children do not need to be taught to be selfish. That is their tendency. They do not need to be taught to grab a toy away from another child. It is inherent. They are gods and the world is there to serve them. Left to themselves, they would grow up not much better than animals, relying on basic instincts like hunger, self preservation, sexual instinct.

However, still in man is a genetic memory. He was created for God and there is a God-shaped vacuum inside him. Something deep inside him knows what is right. We instinctively know we should be truthful and feel hurt when somebody lies to us. We know that courage is to be admired and selfishness is to be deplored but we don't have the necessary ingredient, perhaps it is strength, to be able to always do what we know to be right. We make resolutions and sometimes have a bit of success but it is always a battle against our default setting. Most people find it easier to lie than to tell the truth. We have to teach our children to share and to be kind to others. So often we know what is the right thing to do but we don't do it - then we berate ourselves afterwards. This the human condition - sin. It leads to the feeling of "wherever I go, I go too and spoil everything." Paul described it as "..what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do" (Rom 7:15)

This tendency leads to the actions of sin. In an extrovert, it is easy to pick up the tendency in conversation. The entertaining conversation consists of what I did, how I felt, how I told the so and so what's what. Long stories where I am the hero because I am my god. In introverts it is much more subtle and might go unnoticed. I think people are talking about me, I am hurt, I am over-sensitive. The centre of my world is still me. Again I know what is right. I must forgive.
I must not hold onto grudges, I must not keep remembering the hurt that was done to me so many years ago but my natural tendency resists. We live in a constant tension of not being able to quite come up to the mark. That is one definition of sin - missing the mark.

The better of us spend our lives striving to do what is right. We probably do not murder, commit adultery, lie (well not much anyway) or steal. Maybe we covet, but coveting never hurt anybody, did it. Maybe we don't abuse people but we ignore them or treat them as of no importance, or just, in our preoccupation with ourselves and our own little problems, we don't even notice them.(after all, we are the gods here) However, if we look at humanity as a whole, we see the outward expressions of the inward tendency. Our newspapers are full of the outward expression of the human condition - corrupt politicians, hijackers, murderers. The bottom line is we have broken God's laws. Even if we have kept 9 out of the 10 commandments 90% of the time, we have still broken the conditions of the contract. We have still broken God's law. That means we are sinners - whether we like the title or not. We like to compare ourselves to others and there are many people who we think are much greater sinners than we are. We are not rapists, serial killers, child abusers, thieves or corrupt despots. Neither are we Mother Theresa. Although Mother Theresa was a very good woman, she would have been the first to admit that she was not perfect and that she was a sinner, falling far short of God's requirements. Where does that leave us?

Storms and Boats

Imagine you were a boat builder. You wanted to build a boat that would be your last and would be your masterpiece. All the skills you had refined over many years of boatbuilding would be utilized for this, your best project.

You’d use the best materials and design. You wanted your boat to last. Not to be a showpiece in some fancy Sandton toys for big boys shop, but a boat that could go to sea, could withstand salt water, buffeting winds, relentless hammering waves. You’d make it strong.

Then you’d take your boat out to test it. You wouldn’t go on a calm day on a peaceful pond. A sea going vessel can only be tested on the sea and you’d thrill as it weathered storms and cut through the challenging waves.

We are living in perilous times. You only have to look around you to realize that. You only have to read a newspaper, listen to the TV or even talk to other people. Life is not plain sailing.

And God knows that.

I recently listened to a tape by Tom Inglis called “Born for storms.”

He says God created us for storms.

That made a lot of sense to me. We all know that life is full of problems and trials, challenges and setbacks. Even the bible says so.

2Ti 3:1 says, "but this know, in the last days perilous times will come"

If God knows everything, then of course He would have created us to be able to cope with whatever life will throw at us. I don’t think God intended us for a life of ease, with no challenges to overcome, no victories to celebrate.

What happens when there is a major disaster? Like the twin towers of September 11^th?
Stories of bravery emerged, stories of helping each other, of pulling together. Sometimes it takes a crisis to get the best out of people. With the recent outbreak of xenophobia, the ordinary people of South Africa were amazing in rallying round to do something to help the displaced people.

God’s plan for us is that we should be the best that He intended for us. He wants us to grow more and more like Jesus. He is more interested in our growth and maturity than in our happiness. He uses storms to grow us. Even Jesus had to face storms.

So God allows storms in our lives so that we can grow. But the good news is, the storms are tailored to our ability to withstand them.

! Cor 10:13 says “Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people, But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.”

Isn’t that great? We are destined to be over comers. We are destined to win. The devil is destined to loose.

So God sends storms tailor made for us to emerge stronger and victorious.

So how do we handle storms? How do we handle all the bad stuff that comes up in our lives?

James 1:2 tells us:
“My brothers, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

God never promised us that we would have no problems. What He did promise is that he would be with us. Psalm 23 says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”

Let’s look at how the disciples handled a storm. Jesus had been busy all day, preaching, telling parables. The disciples had been involved too. At the end of a busy day, Jesus says, “ Come let us cross over to the other side.” Wow! a chance to go somewhere with Jesus. Let’s go.

The bible tells us they took Jesus with them. It is always a good idea to take God with you when you are going somewhere. Of course first, they had to leave the crowd. Why? Because the crowd didn’t want to go where Jesus was going. In general we will find we will have to leave the crowd to go with Jesus. We will need to go against what is popular and considered the social norm. The disciples were happy to do that.

Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water.

Now most of this crew were fishermen. Don’t you think they had come across storms before? So they used the skills they had learned before. They took down the sail, angled the prow to the wind and started bailing water as it splashed into the boat.

But it wasn’t working this time. The water was coming in as fast as they were chucking it out. What to do?

Ah! We forgot. We have God in the boat with us. Quick, call on Him!

One of them is delegated for the job. He comes back in a short while.

“Guys, I have good news and I have bad news. God is in the boat with us.’Yay, all cheer! “ The bad news is - he’s asleep”

Well, go and wake Him ups for heavens’ sake, before we all drown. It’s amazing to think that these disciples really believed that they were all going to drown, God with them. So they wake him up. “Teacher, don’t you care that we are going to drown?’

This is an honest, desperate plea. No fancy words or polite phrases. It’s telling it like it is. So Jesus woke up and spoke to the wind. He addressed the storm. “ Be quiet, “ he said, “Be still.” Then He said to His disciples “Why were you so frightened? Have you still no faith?” The disciples were filled with awe. They had not realized how powerful the one with them was.

Did the disciples learn from the experience anything of value? Anything that they would not have learned if there had been no storm?

You bet! They learned how mighty Jesus is. They had had a life changing experience. Their faith and their trust grew in leaps and bounds.

Was it a comfortable experience? No way! They were wet and soggy, bailing to exhaustion, pitching and tossing on an angry sea. They were really frightened and had got beyond their ability to cope.

God is not interested in our comfort, but in our growth. If any of you have watched survivor, how many of them said it was an experience of a life time. Yet were they comfortable? Not in the least. It was much worse than they expected. But God’s rules of the universe decree when you face storms with the right attitude, you grow.

So what can we learn from this? First of all, if we are facing a storm right now, know that we are overcomers. God made us for storms. We will get through. We are destined to be victorious. We need to do everything in our power to help ourselves. We can use all the coping skills that we have learned in the past, seek help if necessary, rely on our support system.

Secondly, always go with God. Take Him with us in the boat. Sure, there are times when he seems to be asleep. The situation just gets worse and worse and it seems like

our prayers are falling on deaf ears. Remember, God will not allow us to be tested beyond what we can endure. Persevere.

Wake him up. Be honest. Tell Him you are afraid. Tell Him you are angry with Him because it seems like He doesn’t care. Storms are a time for fellowship with God. Almost anybody you meet who has got through some kind of struggle will tell you how they got closer to God through it.

Then, trust Him. Just leave it up to Him. There is nothing really else that you can do anyway.

One version of James says, “Count it all joy when you face various trials.”

Don’t moan, don’t complain, don’t grumble. Count it all joy. You will overcome.

Broken

This morning I picked up my porcelain doll from the chair where she sits and, with a clinking sound, the top of her head came off in 8 or 9 fragments. She had looked fine. Nobody could have carefully arranged the pieces to stay together so I must conclude she did not drop on the floor. Perhaps something fell on her head or she was hit by an idle broom or something.
I love that doll. I made her myself about 10 years ago. She is the size of a newborn baby and she's got a soft body which is very cuddleable.
I am hoping that with a bit of strong glue and a lot of patience I will be able to mend her and perhaps hide the cracks under her wig.

Aren't we all like that? We are broken. Circumstances which were beyond our control have worked together to break us in some way or other. Sometimes we can hide the cracks and we pretend we are whole but sometimes it is beyond hiding. We are surrounded by other broken people, all hiding their cracks and pretending till we think we are the only broken one.

It brings to mind a strange dream I had last night. I dreamt I had a baby boy who had fairly big ears. He also had the capacity to open his ears and one could see the earhole opening wider. His father didn't like his big ears and flicked him painfully around each ear and told him to stop opening his ears. Such a look of pain crossed that baby's face that it still brings tears to the back of my eyes. Then slowly and painfully he started retracting his ears into his head until there were no signs of an ear at all. I knew that he would never hear again for the rest of his life and he was only 6 months old. That was a broken baby.

They say that we are all the characters in our dreams. What does that say about me? Broken I know about but deaf?

I believe in the Bible

What do I believe about the bible? I believe it is the inspired word of God. Not the dictated word of God. I believe it consists of different kinds of writings - history, poetry, motivational talks, theological debate etc- and should not always be taken literally in the same way that the decorative trim on a bridge is not meant to take the full load. I like the analogy that Nicky Gumble gives. God inspired the bible, but he didn't write it. Sir Christopher Wren designed St Paul's Cathedral. It took him a very long time. Nothing was done in the building process that was not part of his plan. Yet in all those many years, he never laid hands on one stone or lifted one beam. Other people did that. He was the designer. I believe that God is the designer of the bible but people wrote it. In their humanness they might have inserted something of themselves in it. For instance the writings of Luke show more of a scientific mind while John goes for deeper meanings and symbolism.

I believe that the choosing of the Canon (the books that were to be included in the bible) was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit even though comittees and councils did the actual work and recording. Comittees never wrote books of the bible - they decided from all the writings available what would be included in the bible and what would be left out.

I don't see a conflict between the bible and science. The bible teaches that God made everything (very few scientist really believe that everything came about by chance) and that he set up the laws and rules of the universe. Man has broken his rules. The Old Testament is an account of how God made a Covenant with His people but they always broke the terms of the contract. I have an open mind as to whether the world was created in seven days or seven periods of time. It does not matter. The world was created. It is. That is the important thing.

The New Testament is much easier to read but it has more meaning in the light of the Old Testament. I believe the accounts of Jesus on earth are historically correct and I believe in the miracles as they are set down. The parables on the other hand were just that - illustrative stories from every day life to impart a spiritual truth. The letters were just that - letters from a Spirit-guided church leader/founder to various churches relevant to the times and situations they found themselves in. Revelation is a deep symbolic book and different people have different ideas about the various symbols. The basic thrust however is that God is on the throne, this world as we know it is going to end traumatically (that's what scientists and environmentalists tell us too) and that Christ will come again and gather his people into a new world/life where there will be no more death, disease, sadness or evil.

I believe in the words of Paul to Timothy, "All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." I also believe that the bible is a very powerful way in which God communicates with us. How often hasn't a verse come alive to me, speaking straight into the situation in which I found myself even though it was written to somebody else nearly two thousand or more years ago. It is not the only way God communicates with us, but other forms of communication, especially dreams, visions, prophesies, words of knowledge, should always be checked against scripture because God will not contradict Himself and it is so easy for us humans to get it wrong or to misinterpret what God is trying to get through to us.
I believe the bible is God's written communication with us, like love letters, instruction manuals, inspirational thoughts, and that if we want to get to know God better, we need to get to know the bible better.

What would you like me to do for you?

I was reading in Mark 10 today. On two occasions Jesus asked somebody "What do you want me to do for you?" The first was to James and John who asked him to do for them whatever they asked, I assume it was the equivilaent of asking him to do them a favour. They wanted to be at his right and left in his new kingdom. This is not necessarily a bad request. It meant that they wanted to be near him, involved with him, believed in his cause and were willing to put in the necessary work for him. What they probably also envisioned was to get a bit of the glory, a bit of the fame, to be seen as leaders in the new kingdom.
Their request was denied.

The second was blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus. He asked to be able to see. He asked for the removal of the genetic or accidental defect that prevented him from living an abundant and full life. He did not ask for fame or even for the privilege of being close to Jesus or for any kind of ministry. His request was granted. Nowhere does it say he spent the rest of his life living for the lord, perhaps he did and perhaps he didn't but he lived a more abundant life and the glory of God is man fully alive. He got fame too. Wherever the gospel is read his name is mentioned - after more than 2000 years people know something about him.

The question is, if Jesus stood in front of you and gave you his full attention and asked "What would you like me to do for you?" What would be your answer?