What do you do?

What do you do when life hurts? What can you do when it hurts to lay down. When it hurts to walk. When it hurts to stand. When it hurts to sit. Most people run. They try to run away from it and escape. All of us have our methods and forms of escapism. Some methods and forms are destructive. Such as drugs, alcohol and gambling addictions. Others are addicted to fighting. And other forms of escapism push us towards isolation.

But, the best solution is to run. It’s not to walk. It’s not to crawl. But it is to run as fast as you can. Yes, indeed we can learn from the movie statement, Run,Forest, Run! But we are to neither run away from our pain. Nor do we have to embrace our pain. Instead we are to run to the tower. The tower of the Lord is a strong tower. We are to run to our Lord. To enter into his being and to taste the Lord and know he is good. And in the midst of running to him, he embraces us with his wide open arms, wraps them around us and whispers deep into our souls, soothing our hurts, the words how much he loves us.

My friends, no matter what is happening for you today, whether life is good, bad or indifferent, I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord and tell him about it. Talk to him about your fears, your pain, your turmoils. Talk to him about what is good, what is bad. Talk to him about your life and those around you. And despite what ever it is you are going through, the peace of God that transcends all things, will cover you, fill you and flow through you.

Life, pain and joy.

This weekend has been a busy weekend. It’s been one mixed with fun, purpose and pain. It’s been a weekend of fun and purpose, for our church came away together for our church camp. Sorry, no photo’s this time round, as a certain blogger forgot to take his camera and phone charger with him.

The theme and purpose was for celebration and rest. Our youth / young adults pastor was to have given the Friday night talk, but due to other commitments wasn’t able to be there in the night and asked me to give the talk for him. I spoke from Romans 1:12 where Paul wanted to go to Rome and impart a spiritual gift, which was to mutually encourage each other with our faith…and within the them of rest, I shared how we were meant to rest in Christ and in each others faith, as we shared life with each other and therefore, go and talk with people and find out more about each other.

Saturday morning saw one of our ladies share about really trusting in God. This meant that resting in God meant that we ensured we spent time with God. On Sunday morning we had a guest preacher who gave a tremendous encouragement as to what resting in God meant, and how we could only do that by being yoked to Christ.

The fun part involved a pamper room for the ladies, archery and canoeing, a movie night along with a number of card games, footy and basketball. Plus excellent food. One of our church elders spent most of the time in the kitchen, and his talents were truly appreciated as he ensured we were well fed. With of course the variety of groups organised to help prepare, serve and clean up afterwards.

The painful part was that I was struggling with a very painful back and hips. This pain  saw me many times having to lay on the floor to stretch out, when standing became unbearable.  The pain stemmed from a combination of ongoing health issues, recently having hurt it while packing for the move and bursitis. (inflammation) I did ask for prayer during the morning service and thankfully my back pain was greatly relieved after a number of people prayed for me.

But in the midst of the fun and pain, I was able to have many in-depth conversations with many whom I had not been able to in the past. Restrictions stemming from the time restraints that the morning cup of tea at church. I was impressed and encouraged by the faith I found from young and old, male and female, as we discussed the joys and trials of life, and mutually encouraged each other with our faith, and many friendships were strengthened and new friendships made.

He is home. A missional faith.

There is a scene in the beginning of the second chapter of Mark, where after having spent a number of days in the desert, Jesus returns home. A crowd quickly gathers and the house is filled.

A group of 4 men, brought a paralytic to see him and, because they couldn’t get into the house through the normal means and methods, they climbed onto the roof. They then broke through the roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus.

But here is the crunch that I hadn’t noticed before. In verse 5 it says “Seeing their faith, he told the paralytic, your sins are forgiven.”  The story continues where Jesus says to those who mocked and were angered by his statement of forgiveness, “Which is easier to say, you are forgiven, or get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man was healed, got up of his mat and went home.

Here is the crunch. No where in this story does Jesus look directly at the paralytics faith. His faith isn’t directly mentioned.  I’m not sure if he is talking about the dedicated faith of the four friends who forced their way to Christ, or if he is talking about the collective faith of the five. But it doesn’t matter, the outworking of their faith has achieved their goal, which was for their friend to meet Christ.

I ask you today. Do you have this dedicated faith for others to also meet Christ, no matter what? Do you have a faith that will climb the heights, dig through the depths for your friends to meet Christ? Will you take up the challenge to carry others along with you, till they themselves can walk for themselves in faith, having met Christ.

Quote of the day.

You’re never too old or too young to serve Jesus. As their daddy likes to say: There is no “teenage Holy Spirit” and “Holy Spirit.” There’s just the Holy Spirit.

H.T Dave Black

First night of home group.

Our church has encouraged our congregation to form some small groups and do life together. My wife and I have been invited to be part of a new group that is forming and is meeting for the first time tonight. Another couple from church have generously opened their home for us to meet and have asked me to run / facilitate it. This morning I have been working on the format of the study and the series of questions we will be asking. The following is the introduction to the the book of Mark, which we will work through.

 

The Scriptures are a story of life. It’s a story of God, who is the source of all life. It’s a story of God and his creation and how they relate with each other. It’s the relational story of God’s creation within its self.

Today, we live in a different time. We live within the framework of a different culture, different traditions and different technology. And within this experience of life we have our own story. We have our own individual story and in this regard, the story of our life is an ongoing one. Yet our life story is a not an isolated story. It’s woven into and through the very fabric of the lives of others. And therefore our story becomes a communal story. And while our individual experiences can be widely varied; within the sense of communality, we have a commonality of experience of life. One where we experience fun and laughter, and one in which we experience great sadness and grief. And so our story becomes your story and your story becomes our story. And our lives become intertwined as part of the greater story.

The Christian life is a continuation of the communal story. It’s an individual story, woven into the fabric of community. It’s a story where God redeems us from our sins and brings us into relationship with his-self and with others. And therefore while salvation is a deeply personal experience, it’s also a deep communal experience. And therefore our communal experience becomes part of the ongoing communal experience of the story found in Scripture.

The people of Israel had experienced a time span of 400 years in which God had been silent. During this time, they suffered persecution, trials, tribulations and captivity. And it seemed to them that God had remained silent. Hence this period is often called the 400 year period of silence, for during this time, no prophet had been sent to them, to rebuke, encourage and comfort them in that God indeed was within their midst.

Despite this, they had great and precious promises given to them by their prophets of old. And Mark begins his Gospel account within the framework of the Old Testament narrative story. For it is a continuation of the communal story of God and his creation. And with this backdrop, Mark dramatically begins his Gospel story with the promise spoken through the prophet Isaiah, that indeed God was fulfilling his promise to them.

The beginning of Mark.

The people of Israel had experienced a time span of 400 years in which God had been silent. During this time, they suffered persecution, trials, tribulations and captivity. And it seemed to them that God had remained silent. Hence this period is often called the 400 year period of silence, for during this time, no prophet had been sent to them, to rebuke, encourage and comfort that God indeed was within their midst.

Despite this, they had great and precious promises given to them by their prophets of old. And Mark begins his Gospel account within the framework of the Old Testament narrative story. For it is a continuation of the story of God and his creation. It’s the continuation of the story of relationship. Relationship between God and his creation and relationship of God’s creation with each other.

And so Mark dramatically begins his of account, with the promise spoken through the prophet Isaiah, that indeed God was fulfilling his promise to them.

Mar 1:2  As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.
Mar 1:3  He is a voice calling out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!’”

Mar 1:4  John was baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism about repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mar 1:5  People from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were flocking to him, being baptized by him while they confessed their sins.

The Ethos of Pastoral Care.

The main ethos behind ‘pastoral care’ is that those you care for, know that you do care. This knowledge can only come about through the personal relationship of taking the time to know where the other is at. This knowledge then requires action, for it is only through this knowledge being acted upon, that real care takes place.

Caring is an active word. It’s not passive. Nor is it an emotion, an intention or an acknowledgement. Though the act of care certainly requires emotions, intentions and acknowledgement; they are only the initial reactions to the need at hand. They of themselves do not equate to pastoral care, for care does not take place, until the cause of those emotions, intentions and acknowledgements are acted on.

Therefore pastoral care is a responsive care. Within the context of pastoring, the action is one of provision. The need for provision can be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. And its within the context of personal relationship, that we can only know that which is to be provided. The sheer nature of pastoral care is one of privileged responsibility. It has a burden of responsibility, that is not to be taken flippantly. 

Note that pastoral care is a responsive care and not a reactive care. Reactive care can be dangerous care. The result causes little to no real care and its effects are short lasting. We might say that reactive care is a knee jerking response. There is little thought and reflection put into what is the best way to care. Another term for ‘reactive care’ is ‘Rescuing Care.’ The mentality behind rescuing changes the whole dynamics of the relationship. It shifts the relationship from being one of equality and coming along side the other, to that of a pecking order. I am top dog and you are an underling who needs my scraps of attention. It becomes a disempowering care. it’s a form of care that doesn’t involve or empowers the other to make decisions that are best for them.

Empowering care, is a care that simply empowers. It’s a care that is based on coming alongside another. It has the ethos of equality, one which is framed in treating all with dignity and respect. And within this framework of equality, manipulation and control by either party can and should be avoided.

Kevin Rudd: The Truth Leaked Out.

There is a U Tube video doing the rounds at the moment of our former prime minister Kevin Rudd, venting, swearing and in general behaving badly. There is no doubt that his behaviour is terrible.

It does however cause me to ask the following questions, to which I will follow with the explanation as to why I asked those questions.

1. What is the context of his venting
2. Its obvious the video is a collection of a variety of times, what was the time span of those clips?
3. What is the purpose of this video being leaked?
4. Why are we so indignant about his behaviour?

Now for the basis of my questioning .

• Everyone of us has the ability to vent in frustration.  In fact, its important that we do allow people a safe place to vent their frustrations. Within the framework of venting, it is important to ensure that our venting is done in a way that doesn’t cause others harm. In general, I don’t swear. I personally don’t like it. And one of my favourite sayings to people who do swear a lot, is just what are they going to say, if they were to hit their thumb with a hammer?  However, I have hit my thumb with a hammer and it really hurts. And I can assure you that I didn’t just say: Oh my gosh, I just hit my thumb with a hammer…Oh my gosh, that hurts!

 

• Time Span. This is an important question to ask. Did this recording, take place at the one time. Did it take place in the course of a day. Did it take place in the course of an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a year. Certainly his behaviour is intensified in this clip. Would we be as concerned for instance if if was shown that those instances took place over a year and not within a 5 minute span.

 

• The purpose. What is the purpose, of this video being leaked. Who leaked it. Why is it being leaked now. What are the motives of those who leaked it. There has been many recent scandals within our current leadership and this is just one out of many, whose purpose has to destroy and denigrate another.

 

• Why are we so indignant of his behaviour. It’s been my observation that many of the critiques and comments about it, seem to be coming from self righteous indignation. Yet, scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In God’s eyes, all sin is equal. They question we should be asking is, how could he not behave in such bad behaviour.

Within the framework of asking these questions, I want to also state that I am not defending him either. I am deeply disappointed in his behaviour, and just as disappointed in those who put it together and published it. Within the framework of Christians being disappointed, indignant and critical of his behaviour, and not only his, but that of all of our politicians, I would like us to consider that their behaviour and politics has a lot to do with us. We are encouraged by Paul to pray for all in authority, particularly that we may leads our life’s of faith in peace.

In this regard, let us not be overtly critical of any of our politicians, rather, let us raise up with a spirit of prayer and thanksgiving and pray that the leaders of our nation will know and show the grace and peace of God, working over, welling up within and flowing through their lives and how they live their lives and govern our country.

In The Original Text–the irony.

I’m currently reading the book, “In The Original Text It Says”  and will be posting up my  overall review in the coming weeks. For now though, there is some slight irony in this book, which I want share.

Before I mention this irony, I want to make the caveat that I am enjoying this book and am enjoying the overall thesis of it. I want to say, that this mistake in no way detracts from its message. I also have the utmost respect for the publishers and think that any proof reading and editorial content of any manuscript must be one of the hardest jobs out.

Now for the irony. I found a mistake on page 14, in the first paragraph. In the section where the author is talking about the Rapture and compares John with Acts, he mentions “Peter” as being the person raptured in Acts 8:39-40, when instead,  it was “Phillip” who was caught up in the Spirit.

I thought I would point that out, after all, in the original text, it says….

Pastoral Care Skills.

I was humbled this morning where in the course of the conversation, I was told I had great pastoral care skills. This person wasn’t yanking my chain, nor were they just flattering me; instead they were sharing with me that they too had a heart for pastoral care and wanted to know if they could be taught the skills to be more effective and intentional in that area and asked me if I could come along side them and teach them what I know.

My reply was that anyone who truly has a passion for pastoral care work and wants to learn more, can certainly learn skills to become better at what they do. And that I thought this person would be an excellent pastoral carer, as they already had the character of being slow to speak and quick to listen.

Its an area I am deeply passionate about, have spoken often about and prayed about, and have felt from time to time that God would use me to teach others in this area. And so I was deeply humbled and yet excited by this mornings conversation. I also felt a burden of responsibility come over me, a burden in many ways that has some elements of healthy fear, as it’s something I cannot be flippant about.

There are many thoughts and ideas that abound as to what pastoral care is; and within this framework, my favourite is Pastoral care is intentional friendship. Within the specific context of the Christian community, we can expand this to have a twofold meaning, in that we are intentional about our relationships with God and with each other.

Within the framework of the working outside the church, in a multi-faith community and society, pastoral care has its added difficulties, in that we need to address the issue of how do we care for others within this environment, as well as working alongside those of other faiths. Some organisations allow you to freely wear your faith on your sleeve, others are more restrictive, and a more subtle approach is needed. But even within this environment, intentional friendship is the important factor.

At its heart, it has a philosophy that says: “You are important to me!” And because you are important to me, I will do what I can to empower you. And this is the crux of pastoral care ministry of the church, in that we know that we are important to God, and because people are important to God, we make it our priority that people are important to us also.