I heard or read this quote recently.. I am neither Arminian or Calvinistic: Instead I am Baptist! – Can someone explain this to me?

P.S I guess he would consider himself to be “Baptism”

I’m tired of pressing on.

I have heard many sermons from Hebrew’s 6:1 on pressing on into the things of God. But, I have to say I am truly tired of pressing on. I’m not tired of pressing into God through prayer and Bible study – though to be honest, there are times when I find both really hard. And I’m not tired of the variety of ministries I’m involved with either; though there are times I get so bone wearied tired, I feel I can’t go on.

Instead the tiredness I have is that of doing things in my own strength. And its within this framework of doing things, pressing onto the things of God in our own strength that makes me very tired. Simply put, I have no strength in myself to press on with. For sure, I have a will. And through my sheer will and determination I can press on and complete a variety of goals and purposes in my own strength. Whether those things  have a noble  or a deep rooted selfish basis – the reality is I’m doing those things for self, in and through the strength of self.

BUT! Dave Black just linked to a word on this passage

Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teachings about Christ, let us continue to be carried along to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith toward God

This same idea of being carried forward by God is found in Romans 8:14, where Paul declares that “all who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children,” and in 2 Peter 1:21, where Peter, using the same Greek verb as our author uses here, asserts that the prophets “were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” It is the power of the Holy Spirit that is the true dynamic of Christian growth!

True strength comes from the Spirit of God who leads us. And while there are times I kick and scream. I yell and rebel and I have a hardened heart against the Spirit of God’s leading. I’m sure there are times you have been too! It’s through the working of the Spirit through us, in us, over us and around us – and those we fellowship with – who brings us to maturity.

It took them ages to get it…How long does it take us?

 

I was reading Matthew’s account of Jesus and the disciples going across the lake in the boat.  Jesus was so exhausted, he fell asleep and was even sleeping when a huge storm blew up which was so fierce it frightened the seasoned ex fishermen who were among them. I have shared from this story before where I made the observation that the Gospel becomes deeply personal when we get a personal revelation of God intervening in a personal way.

This time I want to look at the story of the bookends of this story. It begins where Jesus is at Peter’s home; heals his mother in law, and proceeds to heal the sick and deliver those bound by demons. It is the following day where he tells his disciples to take him to the other side of the lake. Once there, he delivers the demoniac of his demons, causing him to be of sound mind. We read  that the demons say we must obey you, because your the son of God. … But, the disciples are asking once again, when they see Jesus calming the wild seas – “What kind of man is this?”

I find it simply amazing that of all God’s creation, its humanity who is always last in recognising Jesus for who he really is.

Called to Pastor Where?

Yesterday my Joanne and I attended our old church where we said “Hi” to many old friends, celebrated the ministry of the interim pastor who had led the way the last 6 months and was now leaving for another gig. (And the celebration of a new full time pastor starting next week.)

It was good to visit and we enjoyed the fellowship, the sermon, the singing and the lunch which followed. (Though we had to leave early because of work commitments.) In many ways it was like walking into my parents family home. In many senses it is still home; but in many other ways, its no longer home. I have sensed since the age of 16, that I was called to be a pastor. Indeed, after that encounter where I heard the Lord say to me, “Craig, I am calling you, calling you, calling you!” and I knew I had told the biggest whooping lie of my life when I told our Boy’s Brigade Chaplain about it, saying “But I know God doesn’t want me to be a minister!” I knew then that the Lord had indeed called me to be a minister.

But, the question I never asked then and it has taken me 30 years to get to where I am now – was just what kind of minister had the Lord called me to be? I had once believed the stereotype and was caught up in the romanticism of what a minister is – dressed in a robe or dog collar around the neck – standing behind the pulpit, proclaiming with great authority God’s word. Now – I don’t want anything to do with the robes or the dog collar for that matter. I enjoy preaching – but the greatest lesson I have learnt is that I don’t ever want to preach to anyone ever again. Instead, I prefer to come alongside people and engage in their life, where they are at, and share God’s love with them – instead of preaching to them.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe in the authority of God’s word. I enjoy preaching behind the pulpit. (Though truthfully, I hate standing behind it, and would rather walk in front of it to engage with the congregation.) These days I am much more at home sharing the good news with a local year 5 and 6 class on a weekly basis. Sitting around the campfire at our men’s group sharing the ups and downs of life, looking into the Scriptures to see what they say to us and praying for each other. I’m more at home at the Tuesday morning community BBQ, where we share a meal and life with those whom the majority of society tend to ignore or look down on. There are conversations that would make one blush and cry. And yet there are other conversations where the real nitty gritty’s of life are also discussed and perhaps the opportunity presents itself to encourage those that indeed there is a God who is for them and not against them. Then there is the ministry with the intellectually disabled and their carers whom I spend some time with…I had the joy of sharing the sermon with a small group just before Easter. And there is a possibility towards the end of the year, where I start doing some School Chaplaincy work.

Jesus sent his disciples out into the community. He sent them out to the back blocks, the highways and the byways of life – into every sphere of society to share his love. And he said, “If you do this, I will build my church!”  We have been having some discussions as to what church might look like if we plant one from the work we are doing. (When I say we, I mean the whole ministry team that I am a part of) At the moment we have women’s group, Sunday school, youth groups, men’s group, community groups, school ministry and a stack of other things that are going on and the reality is, this is the church in action. And while we may never all come together in one specific time : we do come together and celebrate the Lord when we meet together over a meal, a song, a word of encouragement, a time of prayer or Scripture sharing…and as we do this – its Christ who is continuing to build his church.

Truly, I love being a community pastor – it can’t get any more exciting then that, can it?

Depression and the Fruit of the Spirit.

There has been a lot of talk within Christian circles and the blogosphere recently about depression and the many issues surrounding it. This morning I found a blog post I made in regards to Depression and the Fruit of the Spirit in July 2010 had a number of hits on it, so I thought I would re-post it here.

A few years ago it seemed that my life was going great. Then it suddenly imploded. I was struck down with sudden illness which required hospitalisation for 52 days and resulted in loss of mobility and memory. I required ongoing rehabilitation and care, and recovery was slow. I was also faced with an increasingly hostile and abusive family situation which ended with separation and divorce.

My sense of identity was shattered. My sense of manhood, worth as a human and my salvation was questioned. My church black banned me and I became deeply isolated, finding myself in a situation where I trusted few people, even myself.

I remember praying a prayer. “God, I have no Joy, can you restore my joy” And for a long time afterwards I lived a life of numbness. I was told by a few well intentioned souls that all I needed was faith and I would snap out of it. A few more offered other platitudes which offered no hope what so ever.

I found reading my Bible hard, and when I did I  felt condemned, filled with guilt and shame for having failed as a husband, father, individual and Christian. Yet One day I found myself sitting on a chair near my bros garage. The sun was shining and I read about the fruit of the Spirit. I had a revelation that the fruit of the Spirit is Gods nature towards us and towards me.  God is love to me. He is patient towards me. He is kind, gentle, joyful, merciful, peaceful, towards me, because He is those things.

The prayer I prayed was.

God, I receive your love, so that I can love myself.

God I receive your joy so that I can be joyful with myself.

God i receive your kindness so that I can be kind to myself

God I receive your gentleness so that I can be gentle with myself.

God I receive your mercy so that I can be merciful towards myself.

God I receive your patience so that I can be patient with myself …. I also added to the end of each sentence, that I could also be that with others.

What I learnt through this was to be kind to myself. To be merciful to myself. To be patient with myself. I learnt that it was ok for me to be who I was, where I was, at that moment in time. Through this process and the professional help of others I was able to move through this debilitative depressive stage.

Life has now moved on. I have married again. I am still suffering a disability to some extent. There are times when I still get depressed, though those times are fewer and the episodes are shorter.

But this I know, God loves me as I am, no matter what I’m going through or feeling. So I can love myself and others also. I also want to say to you the reader if you are going through a depressive time… that its ok. That you are ok. That its ok to be kind to yourself. To be patient with yourself. To be joyful with yourself. To be gentle and merciful to yourself. ….you get the drift and you can draw on the source of these gifts from our God who is the source of all comfort.

Ministry in the blurbs.

I have had a particular busy week this week. Late nights. Early mornings. (Well early for me) Long and busy days. And its only Thursday morning   It’s been a week of many ups and downs. Highs and lows. And I am emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically exhausted.

Let me fill in some of the good, the bad and the ugly. The good is that I borrowed my brother inlaws lawn mower and did our jungle on Monday. The bad is that it actually lowered my stamina for the things needing to be down throughout the week. Suffering chronic fatigue isn’t much fun. It’s like there is a energy bank, that once you withdraw so much, its hard to top it up once again.

Tuesday was heaps fun, but again busy. It started of with a prayer meeting, followed by our community BBQ in the morning- sausages, eggs, bacon and mushrooms, as well as the plenty of cuppas to go round. I love this group of diverse people…old and young. Male and female. Some are reasonably well off, where others don’t have 2 cents to rub together. And its fully multicultural comprised of  Indigenous, Islanders, Egyptian, European and others. And while at times the relationships there can be strained; for the most part, the those involved have each others back. I was talking to one particular man who said he want’s to come to our men’s group. To quote his words he said, “I need to hang around people who are sane! I haven’t used for a couple of years now, and many of my friends do, and I don’t want that scene anymore.” What a wonderful compliment that was, to be considered sane.

School Scripture followed after lunch. I love this combined group of year 5 and 6 students. Its loud. It’s noisy. And that’s just how I like it…we have fun  telling the kids about the God who is for them and not against them. But, there had been some miss-communication and because it was the last week of term, Scripture wasn’t on. But, our team had a wonderful conversation with some of the teachers there- of which some greater ministry opportunities may follow in the 2nd half of the year.. watch this space. And the night was finished with our men’s group coming together around a fire, sharing life.

Wednesday (yesterday) was terribly sad. I attended the funeral of the son of some long time friends whom I have known for 28 years. I hugged my friends whom I hadn’t seen for so long and quietly said “Bless you!” It was a long day, that required a 400km round trip drive. I left home at 10am and was back at 10pm. I also caught up with other long term friends and was embarrassingly reminded of some of my prior antics as well as myself returning the favour. Among the many discussions, tears and laughter.(It is ok to laugh) There was the heart ache and tension of seeing one couple (old friends) who for what ever unknown reasons have cut me out of their lives and who have turned their back on me.  One man I haven’t seen for a long time shared with me about his own experience of fatherhood and how that has taught him the meaning of life. I shared with him the importance of taking his daughters out on dates, and start showing them what it means to be treated with dignity and respect. And I shared how I also tell my sons that I both love them and like them very much… with those words he stopped and looked at me as if I had said something profound.

He replied.. as kids our parents would say we love you, or it would be assumed, but, knowing they like us is a different thing altogether. I am going to start putting that into practice.

To all who follow my blog – can I encourage you today to say 2 things to your nearest and dearests around you. The first is that, “You love them and like them very much.” And the second is, “That God loves you and likes you very much also.”

Till next time.

I got a burr under my saddle.

I urge you to read this article by Kevin Brown about his experience of one of his parishioners needing hospitalisation (within a life & death situation), but her insurance company said no!

I was at the hospital yesterday afternoon and I was blown away by what I witnessed. I was visiting a member in the church who has pneumonia and her white blood cell count is big-time out of whack. She’s in the ER and waiting to be admitted. Then a “hospitalist,” (what our local hospital calls a “doctor”), comes in with a telephone and says to the lady, “You need to speak to your doctor. He hands her the phone and I saw the look on her face (already pale and ashen in color) turn white. She said, “Oh, ok.” She handed the phone to her husband after a couple of minutes and said, “I guess we’re going home.”

I said, “What!” She looked at me and said, “My doctor says I’m a very sick lady, but not sick enough according to my insurance company.”

On a personal level, I totally agree with the Obama’s administration to bring about reforms so that those without insurance can have medical help in times of need. Here in Australia, we have tax incentives to carry private health insurance and many of those policies do provide great coverage. For many though, private health insurance is not affordable and thus many don’t carry it. Australia also has a “Medicare” system which is paid for through a tax system. This tax covers every Australian for medical and hospital needs and provides a gap coverage for those with private insurance, when their own coverage doesn’t cover. ( The only thing our Medicare doesn’t cover is dental, some medications and elective surgery)

I am thankful for my country as I have had a number of visits to hospital over the years and not been covered by workers compensation or private insurance and the quality of care has been excellent.