RAW Promotional Video

Getta load of this! (Be there - August 2-4 2007 at Northampton Jesus Centre)

The Voice of the Martyrs

Diana grew up in a strict Islamic family in Pakistan. Her life was pretty typical until she met a girl named Mary who was a Christian. Now Diana is also a Christian and on the run.

When Diana's family learned that she had become a Christian, they repeatedly beat her and insisted she return to Islam. But Diana refused. She was then forced to a local canal where her uncle put a pistol to her head and gave her one last chance to return to Islam. Diana replied, "You can kill me if you want. I will not leave Christ."

It was then that Diana's uncle noticed an extremely poisonous black cobra swimming in the canal. Believing he could escape any prosecution for his niece's death, he threw her into the path of the cobra. He also knew she could not swim.

Diana miraculously escaped from the canal and is in hiding today. She is a new Christian but has already learned what it means to suffer for Christ. She recently told The Voice of the Martyrs, "Jesus was crucified for us. Can we not endure some of the same for Him?"

(From The Voice of the Martyrs)

De profundis - from the depths

The bird on the branch, the lily in the meadow, the stag in the forest, the fish in the sea, and countless joyful people sing: God is love! But under all these sopranos, as it were a sustained bass part, sounds the “de profundis” of the sacrificed: God is love.

- Soren Kierkegaard

RAW!

A modern Jesus army event...

RAW

Real and Wild

2-4 August 2007

For the rising generation...

@ Northampton Jesus Centre

For anyone aged 15-35

What’s going on?

Hundreds of fired-up young visionaries. Passionate worship. Prophetic challenge. Real action. It’s gonna be unmissable. Get all your mates and get there.

What is RAW?

The modern Jesus army has a vision to call young people to be all out for Jesus in their generation. To become a “Jesus Generation”.

That is what RAW is all about. The call to real discipleship. The call of the wild. RAW will combine potent worship and Holy Spirit power with practical training and the call to full on Christian living.

Don’t miss it if you want to be on the cutting edge of what Jesus is doing in the UK of the 21^st century.

Love musings

I’m at the helm tonight at our household’s Agape meal.

(Every Tuesday, the core members gather for a meal and an opportunity to eat, share bread and wine – and fellowship; to worship and study the Bible together. The New Testament Church shared bread and wine within a fellowship meal or “love feast” and we do the same – in fact, agape means love: the unique self-giving love of God.)

And as it happens I’ve been musing about love and the nature of “God-love” (agape) and sharing some of my musings with the household. A couple of weeks ago, I explored a little the opposite of love – fear – and how it has to do with punishment (or “torment” in the Authorised Version). We are held back from trusting each other because we fear “torment” if we do so: the pain of being misunderstood, looked down on, rejected, hurt, trampled. Fear has to do with torment. But “perfect love” – the agape love of God, poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit – “drives out fear”. How we need to let the love of God loose in our hearts.

In this sense, true love is a paradox – in making itself utterly vulnerable (because there is no fear in love), love becomes utterly secure. G.K Chesterton wrote: “The Cross cannot be defeated for it is defeat.” Think about it.

Tonight, I want to continue the musing on a slightly more practical note which has to do with serving which is the reality of love in action.

Jesus said various things about serving. But here’s one particular thought.

In one story a servant is commended as a “good and faithful servant”. As the moral of another, Jesus says, “So when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants’.”

The good servant is congratulated by another; about himself says, “I am an unprofitable servant”.

There is a principle here: about ourselves we say, “I am unprofitable” and about others we say, “Well done!”

Let our household be filled with people saying to others “Well done! You’re doing well! I really esteem the way you work hard in the Lord!” and also saying, “As for me, I am only doing my duty as an unprofitable servant”. Let this be our deep heart-attitude. For this is love.

The flesh reverses this. A household full of the flesh will be full of people carefully setting up their safety zones and feeling that they’re ever so pushed and stretched and really giving so much – but that those other lazy ne’er-do-wells – well! They could really do with getting down to some serving! In effect, the dominant attitude becomes “poor old serving me” and “lazy old unprofitable others.” And the flesh is afraid - so, so afraid. “They don't understand; they're going to get me to do even more.”

And so the flesh lashes out, mistrusts, carps, looks for faults in others.

How different if we're a household that is letting love drive out fear: then we will believe the best of one another – including waiting for them to say, “You’re serving well – how about you have a rest.”

We will “do to others (and think of others) as we would have them do to (and think of) us”. This is the whole of the law and the prophets...

Though your sins were as scarlet...

...they shall be white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18)

Love's pressures

Let me love without honour,
Let me serve without applause,
Let me suffer, no-one knowing,
Live for Jesus without praise.

Let me walk without turning,
Follow You, mocked and betrayed,
Pressing forward, hold the vision,
Many pressures, no complaints.

These are the words of a very deep and searching song we sometimes sing. The lyrics are based on something written by Watchman Nee, the Chinese Christian leader who suffered for his faith under the Communists.

The reason I’m posting them today? Well... there’s been a fair number of “pressures” on some of us recently. Some sickness, some over-tiredness. Ironically, the pressure on the core of our church household comes – largely – from the blessing we prayed for!

“Send us people, Lord,” we prayed. “Teenagers will come to us,” we prophesied. And He did, and they did. And we love them – truly, our new disciples are our “joy and our crown”.

Yet, with people come pressures and a number of our “house family” (those living in the community house) have been feeling the strain. We’ve needed to address how we can give the house family some “recharge space” in the midst of all the challenges of a busy schedule.

There’s a danger in this, though. “I can’t cope” was not a phrase found on the lips of Jesus. In the Spirit, we can, in fact, cope. Jesus “coped” by rising early and spending time communing with His Father in the hills. But He wasn’t very keen on the disciples’ “sensible” suggestion to stop “those annoying children” coming to Him for a blessing!

In the same way, White Stone’s house family need to recharge and draw on God and one another; they will need opportunities to do that and wise leadership will provide them while avoiding the flesh taking over and rejecting those the Father has given us.

Let us love, serve, suffer... all for Jesus.

Angry love

'Anger is cool if you can control it.'

I've been thinking about anger (because I've been thinking about love, but I'll come to that later...)

It seems to me that it is an emotion that needs expression. If it is suppressed, it sinks down to become resentment (literally - 're-sentiment' as in it will resurface to poison future relationships). Yet if it is expressed in an uncontrolled manner, it clearly has destructive or violent potential.

So how does one express genuine anger, not supressing it, yet not losing one's self-control.

I think it's impossible without the Holy Spirit (indeed self-control is the fruit of the Spirit), which would lead me to conclude that natural man cannot have healthy anger - to some extent, it will be either suppressed or violent.

Nevertheless, I believe all human emotions are relations (though sometimes distant relations) of love. Now there's a thought...

"Love is a feeling to be learned.
It is anxiety and contentment.
It is deep yearning and hostility.
It is pleasure and it is pain.
There is not one without the other.
Happiness is only a part of love.
Suffering belongs to love also.
This is the mystery of love,
its beauty and its burden." - Walter Trobisch

Love poll

Quick poll: what is the opposite of love?

Hate? Fear? Indifference? Scorn?

Deeper Genesis

The promised deeper reflections on Genesis.

Reading through the book (as opposed to just dipping in) – which I haven't done for years – I've realised that its main message is redemption by faith.

The patriarchs and their wives were a motley bunch. If you're looking for shining moral examples you need to look elsewhere.

Sure, by the end of his life Abraham had learnt a deep obedience to God which led him to be prepared to offer Isaac. But that was after lying about Sarah twice, and getting into a complete tangle over Hagar and Ishmael, sending them away into the desert to die at Sarah’s jealous insistence.

Lot didn’t like the idea of the men of Sodom sleeping with his guests, but seemed happy enough to let his virgin daughters be raped instead (the same daughters, incidentally, who he later has sex with after they got him drunk).

Let’s just take a check – so far we have lying, cruelty, jealousy, attempted assisted rape, incest and drunkenness. That’s the first generation.

Isaac inherited his father’s faith – but along with it he seemed to inherit his father’s tendency to lie about his wife. He also favoured one son on the basis that he made nice tasty stews for him in his old age. The other son gets the patriarchal blessing however – as the result of his mother (Isaac’s wife) Rebekah’s deceitful scheming.

Jacob appears to have inherited – along with his father’s faith – his mother’s deceitful streak. In fact his name means deceiver – and where do you start with this wily wheeler-dealer? Tricks his brother out of his birthright and blessing, marries two sisters who enter into frenzied competition over who has more children (“Here, have sex with my maid”, “No – my maid!”) Fleeing from his uncle (who he has fleeced – pardon the pun – out of most of his livestock), his wife, Rachel, steals some idol gods (presumably, she wasn’t too sure about Jacob’s mysterious deity at this point), but gets away with it because she lies to her father.

Jacob’s sons? Well, there’s the scarcely justified slaughter of the Shechemites, the selling of Joseph into slavery – and then the disgraceful catalogue of events surrounding Judah’s family.

Briefly: Judah runs off with pagan mate; gets a wife; has three sons; first two die (because they were “wicked in the LORD’s sight”, which feels like a rather superfluous bit of narrative in this chapter of iniquity); daughter-in-law disguises herself as roadside prostitute; unrecognising Judah supplies her with “business” but orders that she is “burnt” when suspected of prostitution (bit of a NIMBY is Judah, you could say...) and relents when it is proved that he is the father of the twins she is carrying.

Twins, incidentally, one of whom is an ancestor of Christ.
No wonder Paul can write: “Before the law was given, sin was in the world” (Rom.5:13). Too right it was!

But reading this catalogue of sin and folly makes one particular verse of Genesis stand out like a beacon: Genesis 15:6

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

This is a verse that Paul makes much of, quoting in both Romans and Galatians. It is a foundation stone of biblical revelation.

Abraham had faith. He believed. And this was what God was after. This was what God could work with. Isaac believed. Jacob believed (in the end!) Theirs' was a righteousness that springs from faith. James, in the New Testament, rightly insists that Abraham’s faith led to actual acts of righteousness – but faith came first.

Even bad old Lot is described in the New Testament as “a righteous man”. What kind of righteousness is this? The faith kind. Because it sure as hell (I use the expression advisedly) wasn’t the works kind.

The message of the first book of the Law, the first book of the Bible: redemption comes by faith. From true faith springs righteousness.

For 'richly ornamented' (NIV) read 'amazing technicolor' (Lloyd-Webber)

I'm a child of my times, I realise.

I'm reading through the Bible this year and I've got to the last section of Genesis, the bit about Joseph. As I read, I simply can't stop all the tunes from 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' running through my head.

Not sure if this is a blessing or a curse really. But it's quite fun.

Way way back many centuries ago...

Maybe I'll post some more profound reflections next time. In the meantime, I'll close my eyes, draw back the curtain (ah-ah-ah) to see for certain (ah-ah) what I thought I knew...

They don't write lyrics like that anymore...

Go, go, go! Stop?

Last night’s “Friendship meal” left me feeling fairly jiggered, though there was lots of good stuff going on.

Over forty people (and that’s with a few regulars away). Catching up with an old friend. Visit from father-in-law (and in-grace, as it happens!) New faces, newish faces (and old faces – a few people needed an early night.) Prayer with the under-25s. A roaming brother returns. A struggling brother is ghost-like – but there. A hearty meal. Hearty sharing. Lifts home to every corner of Coventry. Hot drink and still time to read in bed before eyes become leaden and another day fades into oblivion.

Tonight, I have a choice of four possibilities. Go to Northampton to join with a youth activity there. Go to London to join our late-night evangelism team. Go to Worcester with another evangelism team. Or stay in and catch up with some rest and reflection.

As my father-in-law said last night, I must do what is right. Which could be any of them. Decisions decisions.

Hope springs eternal

We’re about to launch our evangelistic cell group at the university again. Ah, the ups and downs and hopes and disappointments of this cell group!

Strange. Although this group is only four or five people plus an even smaller number of friends, it sometimes consumes more anxious energy and nervous hope than the whole of the rest of the church community that I lead (of about thirty people and numerous friends)...

I guess it’s because, at heart, I very, very, very much want new people to find real faith in Christ. And I want young men and women of substance to join us and put their strength to the oars.

So it matters.

Oh God – bless my cell group!

Ministry of defence

Last night, after dinner (a quiet meal, just thirty-six of us), my wife and I prayed with a young sister who's been finding the going tough recently. This was certainly not just a case digging her out of the "poor old me's" (which, alas, shepherding can sometimes come down to...)

This sister is committed, pure-hearted and eager. But she'd hit a wall. We discerned that she was being targetted in the battle - the enemy was seeking to wear her down. So we prayed.

As the Spirit came, we named certain spirits that were seeking to get at her and sent them away; the demonic fog lifted and it was beautiful seeing the lines of tension fall away from her face and peace fill her. And God spoke to her and affirmed her: "I am your shield and your shelter. I am your very great reward."

That's how it is in a Jesus army. It's a real battle against a desperate, amoral and ruthless foe. And in community we're at the front line. We need each other. We need to be able to pray for and receive from each other - and live to fight another day.

Still please yourself?

House family “Together Evening” last night, a time in which those who live at White Stone set aside a whole evening for – you’ve guessed it – being together.

Last night, after the trademark long drawn-out meal, followed by coffee and laughter (we laughed at the famous last words of General John Sedgwick in the American Civil War, “They couldn’t shoot an elephant at this dis−”, at a “knock knock” joke about an interrupting cow, and at a failed joke about an interrupting elephant...)

After that, we went through into the lounge and made cards for each other with encouraging scriptures on them.

My reflections afterwards were a little similar to after last time we had such a gathering (see “Please yourself”, 3.10.06) – that such occasions, though worthwhile and refreshing are, paradoxically, also rather hard work.

It’s comparatively rare for us to have an event where the basic purpose is that people enjoy it. Sure, I would always hope that every Agape meal or worship meeting would be refreshing and enjoyable – but that’s not the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is to give: to build the church up and to worship God.

And, as a leader, you want people to enjoy that, but it doesn’t matter too much if they don’t (or, at least, if they don’t every time).

But here I was last night, sitting, relaxing, enjoying – but with the background tension that I was very concerned that others enjoy themselves. Come on! Enjoy yourselves! Now!

Let me illustrate: the meal was lovely – tasty, imaginative and lovingly prepared. But inevitably, some people aren’t as keen on chicken tikka as others. The coffee and laughter was fun. But inevitably, some people would rather not sit so long on our hard dining room chairs. The card-making was creative and encouraging. But some people don’t flow as easily in “arty” stuff as others.

My conclusion: church, by its very nature cannot function according to pleasing everyone. It cannot be about everyone having “the time of their life”. Because church is, fundamentally, about people who have laid down their lives for each other and for One greater than them. Church is not an interest group. (“Fly fishing for men”, “Tennis for beginners”...) That is why it is difficult for us to all do the same thing together for enjoyment and all find all of it – well, enjoyable.

The thing we truly have in common is Jesus. His cause. Sharing this we become precious to one another and take real joy from each other.

Then it’s not so much what we do. It’s who we are. And when we love one another – that is when “God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”.

I’m not suggesting that everyone ought to have spent the evening worrying about whether others were having fun (that’s my peculiarity!) But I am saying that, if we’re truly church, we ought always to live for the good of our brothers and sisters. And if this is true, then church becomes a wonderful place to be - hard chairs and all!

Getting old?

The silly season is over and life returns to it's normal routine. And I felt rather glad as I sat at my desk at 8.30 this morning.

And how did I see the New Year in this year? I went to bed - at ten past eleven.

So: am I getting dull in my thirtieth year?

Actually, the other day, as I read from 2 Samuel in the Old Testament about David who came into his kingship, aged 30, I had the distinct sense that God was saying that this year would be a discovery year. Coming into full adulthood. Ministry. Stature.

I also read about Saul - who, intriguingly enough, also became king aged 30. But he blew it, after an impressive start. Relying on himself and losing the honour of God, he ended up a spectacular failure.

But there's a (large) part of me that feels desperately sorry for Saul. There but for the grace of God go I or you or any of us. It's so easy to 'get professional', to 'do it our way', to lose any sense of real dependance on God.

If I want to 'come into my kingship' that means the recognition that I can't. Not without leaning on the True King.

But with my God... 'with my God I can leap over a wall'.

Caption competition #3

(Taken last night on a Jesus Army holy rampage through Coventry...)

Hearth felt warmth

Last night, about fifty people crammed into one of our country community houses’ lounge. It was a special night of vision for New Creation Christian Community.

We sang the songs of Zion, some brothers shared Kingdom of God teaching, we listened to some community-inspired poetry read aloud – and finished with soup, hot crusty bread and gingerbread men round the open fire.

Beautiful.

Unrighteous mammon

Just written some of our church’s weekly bible study. Here’s an extract. I’m writing about Luke 16:

Having dealt thoroughly with the Pharisees’ self-righteous contempt for sinners (ch.15), Jesus now deals with their own abiding sin: love of money (v.14). He uses the story of a worldly-wise manager who gets himself out of a tight hole by dodgy dealing. Jesus’ point is this: if worldly people use their heads to get by in their generation (that is, in this world), then the sons of light ought to use their wealth in a way that invests in eternity (v.8-9). Worldly people know how to look after themselves in this life; Christ’s people ought to know how to store up treasure in heaven (Matt.6:20) – principally, by sharing their money within the brotherhood (v.9, 12:32-33, Acts 2:45).

Predictably, the worldly Pharisees sneer at this (v.14). Jesus responds with a powerful story illustrating God’s favour towards the poor and His judgement of the rich [v.19-31].

At death, all wealth will fail (v.9 – the Greek word means ‘an eclipse’. Death blots out wealth like an eclipse. See 1 Tim.6:6-10, 17-19): we can’t take money with us when we die!

I then pose this question:

How do you invest your money in eternity?..

Zion revisited

Since I wrote the last post, there’s been a certain amount of discussion about the term “Zion”.

On the one hand, it’s a term that is charged with a certain amount of vision and emotion for many in my church (as I explained in the last post).

On the other hand, as a word in its own right, it clearly has some much less positive associations – like blowing up Palestinians in the Middle East, for instance.

(And for some it’s that place in The Matrix...)

In other words, it’s a loaded word. And it’s also rather fuzzy – what exactly does it mean (even to members of the Jesus Army who tend to use it, rather loosely to mean “us”)?

Scripturally, it’s fairly clear. “Zion” is a frequently-used Old Testament word. Strictly it is the name of the fortress in Jerusalem, but it became synonymous with Israel as a whole. This is the way we find the word used in the Psalms and the Prophets.

In the New Testament, it seems clear that the word “Zion” (along with words like “Israel”, “kingdom”, “nation” and “Jerusalem”) came to denote the church as well as the literal, physical nation of Israel or city of Jerusalem.

Galatians 4:26, 6:16; Hebrews 12:22; 1 Peter 2:5-10; Revelation 1:6 etc. etc.

Such words sometimes took on a spiritual meaning and applied to the church and sometimes still referred to the earthly or natural city/nation. (At times, it can be a tad difficult to distinguish with certainty which is which, especially in “difficult” bits like the book of Revelation...)
Perhaps the part of the point of the word “Zion” is that it is mysterious – and highly-charged (it wasn’t for nothing that the writers of The Matrix called their city of freedom “Zion”). Zion is an ideal. It is the vision of the kingdom coming in. A taste of heaven on the earth. Reaching out for a better society, a Utopia... the kingdom of heaven.

We can’t fully have it this side of eternity. But nor should we just sit about waiting for “pie in the sky when we die”. We live in the creative tension between “now” and “not yet”.

When we speak of Zion, we should do so with care. We’re really not into blowing up Palestinians (or anyone) – but we do want to press into the kingdom of God as much as possible and live the prayer:

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.