I have to let go of straight lines.
Certainty may stifle creativity.
I have been a follower of Jesus for a long time now. I have seen how messy life is. How random.
It is rare that I can join the dots of God’s plan. The joining has often happened after the season.
Somewhere in the midst of that is the joy of creation. Making something new.
Let me sing a new song to Jesus.
For some wine, alcoholic beverages are problematic. The effects are devastating. For those people perhaps the brief thoughts here might best be skipped.
Recently I was listening to a podcast on wine and struck by the story of Noah after the flood.
Genesis 9:20-21 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.
Two verses and two thoughts.
A vineyard is not something you plant in the short term. Grains bear food within the season. Wine takes years to be something worth drinking. Noahs act of planting the vineyard was an act of faith. God would no longer flood the earth. It was time to plant something which would take years. The future for Noah and his family was assured. Wine would be something they could look forward to in years to come as his sons and their wives had children, then grandchildren. This wine would be enjoyed as they celebrated life and goodness and Gods provision.
The second thought involves the folly of wine. Noah became drunk, he was naked and the story would not have a good ending. In this moment Noah has taken what was a provision and a joy, and a sign of promise, and misused it. Does the misuse cancel out the faith and the joy? No. But it is a reminder. To celebrate the good things given from God, but not to misuse them.
The first miracle Jesus performed was to make wine. The best wine for the best occasion, a wedding. He drunk wine as He and His disciples anticipated what would be Jesus’ worst day. He will drink it again with His disciples when He returns. Most references to wine are positive in the Bible. I think back to my conservative bible college days when we were told the wine Jesus drank was non-alcoholic fruit juice. For a college which prided itself on Biblical authority, it sure took liberties with the reality of the text and the story.
Celebrate, enjoy, be grateful. Don’t be silly.
Perspective
My mentor said to me, Mark your capacity for friendship will increase. And it has.
I came back from a Christmas break in Perth, just for a quick sickness interrupted week, having caught up with just a few friends in those few days. It was tank filling.
But then I stepped back into the first staff meeting for the day and also saw a few people from church. I am going to catch up with a mate this afternoon.
Perth no longer feels like home. Kew is home.
It is different and you can’t make up 20 year friendships in two years. But you can make two year friends.
I am even getting used to the fact on Sunday it was 35 degrees….and Monday it was raining.
Is there anyway to measure when someone fully accepts the Lordship of Jesus into their lives?
When we baptise someone at Kew Baptist Church we use these words.
Do you believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
In obedience to the call of the risen Lord Jesus Christ do you repent of your sins and come to be baptised?
With the help of the Holy Spirit do you offer your life in service to God wherever He may call you to go?
Having heard of your repentance and your faith, I now baptise you in the name of God the father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
These are actually fairly weighty words. The claim of our Creator on our lives is clear. Do we believe in Him? Will we seek to say yes to Jesus? Will we go, sacrifice and obey the call on our lives. I am reminded of the weighty words of Jesus on what we are to give up to follow Him. These are not small sacrifices.
Personally I have not have to leave the comfort and safety of Australia. In fact I have followed the prompting of the Spirit to one of the most liveable countries in the world. Yet it was not the place I grew up with. I left behind 29 years of ministry friends. Contacts in every part of my state. I was known and I knew. I had friendships that had been forged over decades. You can’t replace that. Nor can you build new ones in a short time, not if they took decades to make.
Sometimes people misunderstand such a move. Truth be told they think about the effect such a move has on them. They lose something. A close friend they could duck out and say hello to. Friendships and family moments that can’t happen naturally and easily again. Of course you still contact each other. Social Media is helpful. And special plane trips and visits are good. A reminder of the deepness of the connection. But it is not the same. People you saw every week, and could hug when you needed to are gone. They sacrifice, but it was not their choice. It is tough when decisions you make affect other people negatively. That is not easy to navigate.
When Melinda and I moved to Melbourne it was a joint decision, borne out of a real whisper from God. And so it has proved right. Wisdom is proved right from its results. That does not mean it does not come with sacrifice, for us and for others. But we don’t serve a God who says come to a life of comfort and no sacrifice. We serve Jesus who calls us to say Yes to Him at every point of our lives. That saying yes to Jesus means we often have to say no to ourselves, and even to others. I don’t write those words glibly. I understand the weight of them. But Jesus is Lord. And He is my Lord. I don’t always get it right, but the whisper is there, guiding and speaking.
Jethro was the father in law of Moses.
Moses had a problem, he was kept busy all day listening to the people, solving and judging on their disagreements.
Jethro came in and saw the problem, a problem Moses could not see.
All of us need someone who can come and see the problem we can’t.
Jethro had the courage to tell Moses the truth in love, kindly.
All of us need someone who we trust and trust to tell us the truth, even if it stings a little.
Moses was given some wisdom from Jethro. You don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to. You can and should as a leader delegate tasks, take the ones no one else can handle.
Getting given advice is good, implementing that advice is even better.
Or any other such statement which seems good on the surface. So often it flows out of a desire to remove from yourself people who take advantage of you, stop yourself from always being worried about what other people think, and allow yourself to be your own person.
There is an element of truth, but there is also a serious shadow side.
Friends have responsibility to each other. Husbands and wives have responsibilities towards each other. Human beings have responsibilities towards each other!
If we take prioritising our own happiness to its logical conclusion, we become the selfish person who we say that we set boundaries on. We become a friend who doesn’t turn up when they are needed. Who makes promises they don’t keep .
Being selfish is not the path to true joy. Finding ways to give to others, and dare I say, give to our Creator is.
None of us wants to be used, nor do we want to be people pleasers. But neither do we want to prioritise our own happiness over where true joy is found. In loving others, in giving to others. As the Great Man said, it is better to give than to receive.
It is rare that anyone gets through this life without some serious grief and pain. The longer you have the privilege of being alive, the greater the possibility for pain.
Having children opens you to the enormous possibility of joy, love and validation. It also opens you up to the possibility of immense pain in various ways.
Real serious grief can be like a constant presence in your heart and your life. So much so that while it may be compartmentalised, in those moments when you are not distracted it can actually be debilitating. It comes back to the fore and you might be surprised by its ferocity. It can also affect your behaviour in ways that surprise you. You observe yourself behaving in uncharacteristic ways. Unchecked anger, frustration, withdrawal from the normal joys of life.
Practicing silence, solitude, prayer and gratefulness helps.
Enjoying quiet moments of pleasure, reflection, song and food helps as well.