Favour with God

In the car listening to a service on the radio yesterday morning - the focus was on Mary.  And a phrase I have heard a thousand times suddenly leaped out at me and made me stop to think.   ' Do not be afraid Mary , you have found favour with God'

Why had she found favour with God?  What had she done to find favour with God?  What does that mean exactly?  Later on in the same passage the angel tells her that Elizabeth is also with child - she too has found favour with God.  For some reason I'd never really noticed those words in this particular way before..... but then that's the joy of the Bible isnt it?  Always something new to consider.

So first off what IS this favour which Mary and Elizabeth both suddenly found themselves experiencing.   Time to delve into Strongs concordance.  Which says the word favour means

Cognate: 5485 xáris (another feminine noun from xar-, "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit") – properly, grace. 5485 (xáris) is preeminently used of the Lord's favor – freely extended to give Himself away to people (because He is "always leaning toward them").

I love that - God freely giving Himself away to His people,  sharing the benefits of being God with people.   Isnt that amazing?.   So that is what God was doing in Mary and Elizabeth - He was giving Himself to them.   But why?  Why them?  What was it that made these two women - one elderly and way past child bearing age and the other barely out of childhood - so special?
Well do you know what?  I suspect it was nothing at all.

The Bible tells us that Elizabeth was a good woman.  She had lived a good respectable life and she and her husband had prayed earnestly for years for a child.   But Im sure she was one of many women in her position in those days.   I dont think Mary was particularly sinless or holy or perfect.  I think she was just an ordinary girl from an ordinary town living an ordinary life.  She probably did all the religious things she should have been doing.  But then again so, probably, did most of her friends and family.   Yes, she was ' of the house of David'  and yes, she was distantly related to a temple priest.  But I really dont think those things gave her any qualifications for being chosen by God.  I think she was chosen because God decided to choose her.

Romans 9 ;15  referring back to Moses quotes God as saying '  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy'.   In other words  ' I will be kind and gracious and show my favour to whoever I want and I don't have to justify myself to you '  !!    Nobody could be ' qualified' to be the mother of the Son of God.  Surely the whole point of the incarnation is that Jesus came, and still comes, to ordinary, sinful, imperfect people and ' gives Himself away' to them.

And surely this is the hope of Christmas.  That you and I can also find favour with God.  The birth of Jesus was a signpost, a prototype, a forerunner of what was to come.  The indwelling presence of God with everyone.  This Christmas God's amazing favour is available to all - as is the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit to bring to birth a new life of faith in us.   We don't have to have any special qualifications or jump through any hoops to earn or deserve it.  God freely gives Himself away to His people.


Lord this Christmas I thank you so much that You are a God who wants to share Your Godness with us.  Thank you that your favour is seeking us out, and seeking out those we love who dont yet know You.   You are actively leaning towards us wanting to share your benefits with us.  This Christmas I pray for all those in my family and circle of friends who have not yet turned towards You or heard Your voice calling them.   Open their ears and eyes to see the amazing gift of grace You offer.  And grant that in this coming year we might all live more under the glory of Your favour and the protection of Your love.   Amen

And heres a rather nice version of Gabriel's message if you want to feel a bit more christmassy :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuY6b616qgQ

Test? Battle? Or both?

My lovely friends from Jersey came to visit yesterday.  We hadnt seen them for a couple of years -their three boys are the same age as my three boys and they have all grown up together.    We have missed them since they have moved away and were all super excited to be getting to spend the whole day with them.  But as soon as they walked in through the door it became apparent that all was not well.  As soon as the coats were off and the kettle was on the boys disappeared upstairs to play and in response to my ' So how are you?' there were tears and we were straight into the nitty gritty of a crisis.   That is the mark of a good friendship.  No frills and pretences, just raw straight down the line, tell-it-as-it-is reality.  They had come over to see parents but also to finalise the sale of their house here in Northern Ireland.  A house which has been rented out for the past couple of years because they couldnt find a buyer.    But in November a buyer turned up really keen to move before Christmas. Papers due to be signed yesterday.   Only problem...... existing tenants refusing to move out.   Aaaaarrrrrggggh

So instead of a nice cosy afternoon in front of the fire exchanging stories about kids and church and the happenings of the past couple of years we spent all day on the phone to various people asking advice, trying to sort out the nightmare which was unfolding - the last minute fall through of a sale on which they are depending for the purchase of their property in Jersey.

This is a story of Christians at their very best and their very worst.  Cos of course the tenants are Christians...... missionaries in fact, who have been living pretty much rent free in my friends house on the understanding that when a buyer was found they would be given notice and would have to leave.   And they haven't.  They don't even see that they are being unreasonable.  But on the other side there are so many people who have offered help and give great advice and been prepared to put themselves out two days before Christmas to try to find these folks a new place to move to.   It has been impressive and humbling.   People are both incredibly awful and incredibly brilliant.  In the middle of it are my dear friends who after two years of living on a shoestring and trusting God for everything now face the challenge of trusting Him in this impossible situation.  Will the purchaser stay with them or walk away?  Will the tenants move out soon or might they still be there at Easter coming up with excuses why they cant leave?  Is God going to pull something miraculous out of the bag after the midnight hour has passed - is this a test or a battle or both?

 It is easy when you are on the outside of a situation like this looking in, to feel confident that everything will work out OK in the end and to trot out the cliches -  God is in control.....all things work together ......etc etc.   But when you are the one in the thick of it and answers are not forthcoming, when God seems to be ignoring your pleas or doing the exact opposite of what you think you need..... well then its a whole different ballgame isnt it?    But the bible tells us our faith will be tested as with fire.  Circumstances wont just be a tad uncomfortable, they will be ferociously, destructively , searingly hot.   The testing fires will destroy stuff.  It's uncomfortable reading - the sort of passage we tend to skim over and not dwell on.  Because what it is saying is that all the things we build up around our lives which are not God are going to perish.  We shall lose them.  They will be taken away.   Finances, relationships, jobs, homes, churches, positions, ministries..... anything not rooted and grounded in love, in Him.  Someone once told me its better to be judged, tested and tried here and now than at the judgement seat.  And I think that's probably right.  But it doesn't make it easy or pleasant.

And then again we are in a battle.  We have an enemy who seeks to destroy us.  Physically, emotionally. spiritually, in any and every way he can.  He wants to upset our peace, shift the focus from God to our circumstances or ourselves and introduce doubt. ' Did God really say....?'  is still his favourite opening line.  

Did anyone tell you this when you signed up?  LOL  Probably just as well they didn't really isn't it?

And yet...... and yet..... every now and then one is privileged to get a glimpse of what faith tested by fire really looks like.  And it is SO much more amazing than mere gold.   Sometimes we have the honour in life to meet people who have come out of the other side - or are perhaps still in the furnace - and have a quality of faith and relationship with Jesus which is just glorious.   My friends Bill and Janice are like that.  Every single person who meets them will tell you what amazing people they are and what an inspiration.  Their faith is beyond platinum, they are so close to God and yet they have struggled though horrendous physical and emotional pain as Bill has slowly been consumed over the past ten years by a vicious and horrible wasting disease.     It seems cruel of God.  But Bill would tell you that if he had his time over again he wouldn't do it differently.  Because what he has learned of God and experienced with Him through the fire has been more precious than diamonds.   Amazing

Lord, the times of trial and testing come to us all at some point.  We struggle as we see things stripped away from us and we sometimes find it hard to know what is Your testing fire and what is enemy gunfire.  But You have promised that at the end of the testing there is gold.  Imperishable and glorious.   So as You stood in the furnace with Shadrach Mesach and Abednego, stand through the fire with us and bring us out the other side with a deeper love for you and a stronger faith in You.   Amen

Feeling super chuffed

Church yesterday was great fun.  We sang a hip hop version of O Come all Ye Faithful with the entire congregation joining in with bells and maracas and triangles and all sorts of nonsense.   We listened to an excellent sermon about the Christmas story.  We had bacon butties. And coffee and sweeties.  Lots of laughs and Christmas good cheer.  Perfect last service before Christmas

But for me there was something even better - a present from Mervyn the pastor.
Only it wasn't the present that blessed me and made my Christmas.  Cos I haven't opened it yet.  ( I'm a good girl, I shall wait till Thursday)  It was what was written on the gift tag.

In all seriousness that gift tag is very probably going to be the best present I get this Christmas.  I'm sure Mervyn was hoping that the CD ( which is undoubtably what is contained therein) will be right and fitting - and I'm sure it will be.  But he possibly doesn't realise that for someone like me,. the words ' amazing support'  go SO much deeper than a physical gift ever could.

It was about 20 years ago that I was introduced to the teaching about motivational gifts.   I'd heard plenty about ' the gifts of the spirit', had loads of teaching about tongues and all the rest.  But somehow the Romans 12 gifts had slipped through my net.  Until the wonderful Syd Niven explained them to me on a memorable train journey through Poland on a mission trip,.

In a nutshell it goes like this.  There are spiritual gifts which are tools we can use to do the job God has called us to do.  These are the ones in 1 Corinthians.  Then there are motivational gifts ( the Romans 12 ones) which are the things we are born with - those deep callings which drive us to be the people was are supposed to be.

6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

All of us are motivated by a spiritual calling - whether we recognise it or not - indeed whether we are Christians or not.  Some are born to lead, others to serve.  Some are givers.... they give of themselves, their time and their money and it doesnt seem to cost then any effort to do so - in fact if they aren't doing it they are not happy.   For others it's teaching.   These people mostly end up in teaching jobs because they cant help themselves.  They have always been teachers and they get the biggest kick out of imparting knowledge.  These are gifts which are intrinsic to our wellbeing.  What make us a round peg in a round hole.  The things that make us tick.

For years Id always thought I was a leader.  I'd been told I was a leader.  I was comfortable being up front leading things.  Confident.  Outgoing.   But the problem was that I seemed to lose confidence once something was up and running.  I didnt like, and wasnt very good at, the mechanics of leadership and I felt the burden rest heavily on me.   I'd do it, but it didn't quite fit.   And then I heard the Romans 12 teaching and realised that leading has never been my motivation.   Im not a leader.  Im an encourager.

The Bible calls it exhortation in the old translations - and its a better word than encouragement.  Exhortation contains an element of ' encouragement with a toe up the backside'  where necessary.  Its not just nice words and hugs and cuddles.  But of course it can be that too.   It's why I am comfortable up at the front and in so many different roles .  As long as I'm bringing some sort of encouragement I don't really care what job I'm doing.  And when someone tells me that something I have said or done has encouraged or helped them - well I'm like the cat who got the cream 

We can spend money on giving people presents this year, but how about we stop for a minute to think about what it is which makes us - and the people around us tick.   If you are married to a teacher  ( and I mean someone who is born to teach and has teaching running through the marrow of their bones not just someone who does it for a living)  then the best present you can give them will be to tell them what you have learned from them over the past year.    If your best friend is a giver, then they probably wont be terribly good at receiving.  But what will bless them more than anything is the way in which you receive their gift to you.   Givers really struggle when a present they offer is passed over with a shrug and a smile.  They will glow and rejoice if their gift is received with excitement and oooohs and aaaahs.    The mercy givers get very stressed at this time of year by the thought of all the people in the world who are in need.  They are the sort of people who need to be volunteering with the homeless project or carol singing in the children's hospital at christmas time.  The best gift you can give them is to let them do that rather than insist they come to the umpteenth christmas party or carol service with you.  Leaders need to be in charge.  They are miserable when they aren't.  They are good at it - so let them plan the party and execute Christmas dinner with military precision.  It might drive you nuts - but it will bless them! 

If you want to read more about Motivational Gifts and discover what yours are then check out this website.   Its good.  This teaching changed my life - it really did.

http://www.timshen.truepath.com/motivational_gifts.htm

Lord, as we get really close to Christmas and we look forward to the giving and receiving of gifts I want to thank you for the spiritual gifts You have given to us which are eternal and of so much more worth than any present under the tree.   I thank you that You place deep within each one of us a motivation and that when we discover who You have made us to be we can live as round pegs in round holes - comfortable in our skins.  I thank You for those ' charismatic'  1 Corinthian tools which You give as and when we need them. I pray that this coming year I would take and use everything You give me so that Your body the church is built up, encouraged, equipped, helped and strengthened.  I want to receive words of knowledge and prophecy, interpretations and visions, gifts of healing and miracles.  I want the whole lot Lord!!  You delight to give good gifts to Your children - Thank You Jesus!

Are you planning on unwrapping your presents?

My boys are getting excited.  The presents have been put under the tree and much shaking and poking and prodding has been going on.   We have a routine on Christmas morning - boys get up ridiculously early and are allowed to open their stockings.  Then we have breakfast and I try to persuade them to wait until Grandma arrives mid morning before opening the tree presents.  But I usually fail in that and they all get ripped into before half past nine!  There is something hugely exciting about a big pile
of presents..... even when you are a bit older than ten.  It's really the only time of the year when we dedicate a whole section of a day to giving and receiving gifts.  And I love it.

A couple of years ago I wrote a sketch for church.   In the sketch a person arrives at the pearly gates laden down with carrier bags and is interviewed by St Peter  ( dont hang me for my theology, its supposed to be funny!)   Peter asks the person if they received the gifts God had given them throughout their life.   At which point the person dives into the bags and starts pulling out gift wrapped presents.  Each has a label describing the gift inside.   Healing, Prophecy, Knowledge, Hospitality, Mercy, Administration, Tongues, Wisdom, Faith, Patience,. Family, Friends, Talents.....
'Why are they still unopened and unused?' asks Peter.   'Well,  ummm,  I wasnt sure if they were really all for me.... and I didnt know how to use some of them.. and I didnt want to spoil them so I thought I'd just put them away and keep them safe'    And then Peter points out that God gives gifts because He loves us and that not receiving them hurts Him deeply.

There is someone in my family who is never satisfied with any present ever given.  Its a bit of a longstanding family joke that on Boxing day they can be found returning all the presents they have been given cos nothing is ever the right make, or size or colour or whatever.   It actually takes all the joy out of giving when you know that however hard you try your gift will be rejected.  In the end you give up.   I think that's sometimes how God feels when He pours out His goodness on us and we either don't receive it or don't actually use the gifts He has given us.

God loves giving.  He is doing it all the time.  And we take so much of it for granted.  But every now and again He likes to treat His kids to special things.  Ive started to look out for His presnet on my birthday.   It started a few years ago when I had a particularly difficult birthday and was feeling somewhat overlooked and under appreciated.  As I was shopping the day after and having a bit of a moan to Him about it, I felt Him say that I was to look out for a special present from Him.    I had been looking for a coat for ages.  I didnt exactly know what I wanted but I knew I hadnt found it despite having been looking on and off for months.  That very day I went into my local charity shop and there right on the first rail was the perfect coat, brand new still with the tags on, in my size, the the perfect colour for £5  !!    It was probably a £90 coat.   I think I laughed out loud as I picked it off the rail.    Now every year I keep my eyes open for God's birthday present to me.  Sometimes its a physical ' thing'  which comes to me in an unusual or unexpected way.  Sometimes it's not a thing but a happening or a person or something else.  

The practical gifts are easier to spot.  We usually receive them, although I think that often we miss the fact that God is the giver.  The spiritual gifts are trickier for many of us.  We either receive them and then neglect to use them very often.  Or we dont ask for them in the first place.  Or we think that we are somehow not worthy, qualified, mature enough etc etc etc  and leave it to others to exercise the gifts.   But the truth is that God loves to give us gifts.  And when we don't use them it makes Him sad.  Because all the gifts are needed in order for the church to be fully functioning and operating as the hands and feet and mouthpiece of Jesus in the world.
It is not enough just to receive the gift of Jesus this Christmas.  We need to gladly receive all that He came to bring, and the Holy Spirit who He left behind.

Foundations

For the past five or six years the plot of land next to our house has been lying empty.  When we bought our house we we are the end of a row of small shops with flats above and stone barns in the back yards.  But they all got bought up by a developer who demolished the lot.  Leaving our house sitting alone next to a large piece of derelict land which grew weeds and then trees and looked a bit of an eyesore.

The plot changed hands a couple of times and we saw two or three lots of proposed plans for houses - but nothing ever happened.  Until last week.  When all of a sudden a large digger turned up and the fence was removed and work started.   Within three days a large part of the land has been cleared and flattened, lines have been marked out on the ground and foundation trenches have been dug.    The cement lorry was here today pouring concrete into the foundations.  It has been amazingly quick.   After years of nothing happening it now seems as though the buildings will be up within weeks!!

It struck me today that it doesn't actually take long to put in foundations.   They are so important and yet really they are pretty simple.  Just a hole dug in the right place to the right depth and the right amount of concrete in the bottom of them.   Nothing complicated at all.   But if the foundations are wrong..... well then the whole building is in jeopardy.   Or if something erodes the foundations.... as we discovered to our peril with our house in Lisburn.

That house is an end of terrace house.  Over the years the whole row has sunk ever so slightly pulling our house down with it until the drains cracked.  Of course we didn't know the drains had cracked because water was still draining away - we just didn't realise that the water was draining into the ground under the house causing it to sink even further.   It was only when large cracks started to appear inside the house and the doors wouldn't close properly that we began to realise something was up.   By the time we had worked out what had happened we were in trouble.  The foundations of the house have been eroded by the waste water and now need underpinning.   Which will involve us having to take out the staircase.  Expensive,. annoying and very disruptive.

There is of course an analogy to be made here with our lives of faith - and most specifically with how we build church.  Foundations dont necessarily take long to put in,  but they need to be done properly or we set ourselves up for problems later on.   It seems to me that the church can be very vocal about outreach and mission and church planting, but I fear we are not quite so good at getting our hands dirty and helping those new to faith to put down good solid foundations.   At best the approach can
often be haphazard.   But if people dont have a bedrock of solid theology underneath them they will start to shift and crumble when the storm hits.   Which is why the church needs teachers as well as architects and builders.  We need pastors who can help people to prayerfully identify areas of error in understanding and weakness of character.  Because Jesus said that when He builds His church the gates of hell wont be able to prevail against it.   It will be built on the rock - immovable.

Ive been a christian for 30 years now.  The past decade has been the hardest of my spiritual life so far.   In may ways I feel as though most of what had been built previously has been dismantled and all Ive got left to show for it all is the foundations.  But the foundations are still there and Im deeply grateful to those people back at the start who helped me lay them down.   I had some great systematic teaching and saw wonderful examples of solid, grounded lives.   Now Im a parent and Im trying hard to ensure that my boys have good foundations too.  Im grateful for all of those who are digging with me, praying and teaching, inspiring and leading by example.   Building is definitely a team effort.


Lord please help your church to give people solid foundations of good theology - systematic and complete so that when doubt and lies come, when difficulty surges and storms batter that peoples faith can stand the trials.   For those who feel they are slipping and sliding away would you please underpin the foundations and pour into them what they need to stand solid once again.   Thank you for all those who poured into my foundations years ago.  Help me to be one who builds the next generation , always and only under the instruction of the Master Builder  Amen

Having a clear out

Today I went into the wardrobe and I cleared out the clothes I haven't worn for years.   I've meant to do it for years.  I've stood and looked at those clothes several times and then shut the wardrobe door again and left them where they were.  I've convinced myself that as some of them were barely worn it wouldn't be right to get rid of them.  I've told myself that I will fit into the too-small ones again sometime soon.   I've vowed to sell them, or find someone with my taste and my size to whom I could give them.   And they have just stayed in the cupboard.   Until today.   Today they finally made it to my favourite charity shop.

There seem to be two sorts of people in the world.  Those who have no stuff and those who have lots of stuff.  I have always been a ' stuff' person.  I like stuff.  Stuff comes in handy.  Alot of the things I keep are crafty things.  Painting paraphenalia,  etc. And music making stuff like various instruments and lots and lots of sheet music and music books.   But I'm already making excuses.  Nobody needs drawers of old felt tipped pens and crayons.  Nobody needs  78 pairs of socks ( although that's Keith not me.  I probably only have 35 pairs :-)  )   I've just never been good at letting go of things.  I'm a ' that might come in handy' or ' that was such a bargain' person.   I'm quite bad with books.   I buy them for the kids all the time and then they don't read them!!  Ho hum  At least there's a bit more space in the wardrobe today.

Advent is about preparation.  Looking forward to the day when Jesus comes back and recognising that we need to be ready.  Part of the getting ready is getting rid of stuff we don't need.  When you move house you don't take your years of accumulated rubbish with you - you take the opportunity whilst packing up your belongings to get rid of things you don't want to take with you to the new place.
Similarly in getting ready for Jesus we need to be getting rid of the stuff we wont need in our new home.   Will we need our grudges and resentments, our jealousies and ambitions?  Will we need bad tempers and impatience stubbornness or greed?  No, I don't think so.

Metaphorically I think we all have closets we don't visit very often.  Places where we have stuffed things we cant face dealing with, or don't want to get rid of.  Perhaps things which were once useful and precious to us but which now are irrelevant - but we don't quite want to actually get rid of them.
Advent is a good time to take stock and be a bit ruthless.   Lots of people in the run up to Christmas go through their kids toys and throw out all the old stuff so they can make way for the new presents the kids will get at Christmas.   This year maybe we should be inviting Jesus into our cupboards and hidey holes asking Him to help us get rid of things which displease Him or which are tangling us up or holding us back.   For everything he removes, His Holy Spirit will pour in to fill the gap.  And we shall be better, more prepared people as a result.

Listen for the second word.

This might be a bit obscure...   and I might have said it before in a previous advent blog, I can't remember.  So if you dont understand what this is about  don't fret.  It isnt for you at this time and that's just fine and dandy.

Let me tell you a story.......

A long time ago there was this old chap called Abraham.  Abraham listened to God.  When God said ' Go outside your tent'  Abraham went outside.   When God said ' Look up'  Abraham looked up.   And because Abraham listened to God and then did what God said ,. God called Him His friend.
One day God told Abraham to take his only son up to the top of a hill and sacrifice him.   Abraham knew God well enough to know that there must be good reason for this request.   Whilst he really did not want to obey, nor did he understand what God was up to (this looked like the very opposite of everything God had promised)  he nevertheless called his son and proceeded up the mountain.
Abraham was good at listening.  When he heard something he didnt want to hear he did not make excuses or pretend he'd made a mistake.  He didnt argue with God or plead with Him to change His mind.  He didnt decide to just disobey and wait to see what would happen next.   He heard and he obeyed.

And of course we all know what happened next.  Just as he was about to sacrifice his son as God had asked him to, Abraham heard the second word.

He heard the second word.

The first word said sacrifice your son.  The second word said ' Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”   Gen 22 12 The second word contradicted the first word.   What would have happened if Abraham hadnt heard the second word?  Even in the distress and the confusion and presumably the struggle of the moment, when he had got his only beloved son tied up and lying on a pyre ready to burn as an offering.... even then Abraham was listening.   I dont know about you but I'm not all that great at listening when all is calm and quiet and when I'm focused on God and I'm ready to hear something.   I'm downright rubbish at it when I'm in the middle of a crisis!  I think what I learn about Abraham from this story was that even in the middle of the biggest crisis of his life he was focused on God not on himself or on the crisis.
And that's what enabled him to hear the second word.

So......  if you are reading this and you are in the place where you feel God has asked you to lay down everything you have been aiming for for the past..well, forever, be prepared to do it, but LISTEN FOR THE SECOND WORD.   The second word might well be the same as the first.  But it might be something radically different.   Don't focus on the thing you are laying down.  Don't turn inwards and start listening to yourself or you might just miss that crucial next instruction.  God does sometimes ask difficult things of us.  But sometimes it is not to adjust our circumstances it is to test our attitude.

And Im not really sure what any of this has to do with Advent.  but it has been on my mind today and I felt I should share it.   If it has been helpful in any way I would be greatly encouraged to hear so.

Lord I pray that in this new year You will help me to listen well and to obey readily without question or hesitation.   When things are difficult and unclear - that's the time I need most to hear You.  Give me the courage to change course when You indicate that that is what is required.  Regardless of what others may think.  Keep me focused on You whatever my circumstances so that when the time comes when I might need to hear it, I can clearly hear the second word.

Amen