Simplicity - Stop getting so complicated!!

Spoke to a friend of mine the other day who has been keeping tabs on my blogs and musings. I'm always keen to hear what people are thinking and to enter into a conversation about stuff that matters rather than the redundant "how are you (although I don't really care)?" sentiments. So when we got onto my blog and if he had any thoughts he gave me some incredible feedback. He told me that my thoughts and blogs were great but often he found them a too long.

After I got over my immeadiate rage and thoughts of "how dare you!!" I began to reflect on my sometimes wordy, long over complicated thoughts. Yes I believe it is important stuff I want to dialogue about, the gospels are about life and death after all, but, was I over complicating a simple God?

A scripture immeadiately came to mind and it is this scripture that all of our questions, answers, complicated theologies and intrisic philosophical frameworks need to be born out of. It is this scripture that all of life, justice, hope and faith comes from. It is this scripture that all our understandings, whether they be grand or more impressively childlike, about God need to flow from. And this scripture??

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" 1 John 4:8

I desire so much to get into the compexities of God being love and what that means but i'm not going to. Instead I'm going to choose to know him and therefore know love. We all crave simplicity in our lives and we have a God who is simply LOVE. God bless you all.

The God in the corner

I was in Peterborough again yesterday. I'm starting to feel like Queensgate shopping centre is my second home after the countless times I have been there over the last month. Part of my job is to facilitate summer residential camps and this year we are joining with East Midlands division to create a joint school. Therefore Peterborough is the half way point for myself and DYO Andy Whitehouse to meet. Yesterday we spent 6 Hours in Starbucks planning the residential camp. Now I like Starbucks, I have a Starbucks card, I like the free refills, I like the scrumptious BLT sandwiches. But 6 HOURS!!! there is only so much whirring of the grinding machine and milk frother one can take. By the end of the meeting I felt like I had gone 1 round with Mike Tyson (could have put the cliched 13 rounds statement, but lets be honest, one round is generous to me and my breakable frame). The meeting however opened some new insights for me and was definitely worth the fatigue.

During our marathon, caffeine fuelled, meeting, myself and Andy were discussing this years bible studies for the small groups at our residential camp. We got into quite a deep conversation about where God often speaks and celebrates with us and whether that is where we look for him. It came about as we were discussing Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3) and the grand gesture in a quiet corner of the desert.

I see often in our journey with the church and as the church that we are continually looking at ways to bring God into the limelight, to bring him into a place of the X Factor final, Royal Variety Show or O2 Arena. We create church services that look like west end musicals or a coldplay concert, we have celebrity worship leaders and speakers who sign our bibles and we strive to emulate the numbers of the football stadia and night clubs around the globe. We have a grand Saviour in Christ who deserves to be given a place of prestige and honour, that I can agree with. But there is a huge however looming over us that I see in scripture.

No christian would deny the titles of King of Kings and Lord of Lords that Jesus is attributed with. We would rightly bow our heads and fall prostrate on the floor before him. We acknowledge his throne and wish that others would too. But what are the actions of this prestige saviour, how does he respond to the public proclamations? As myself and Andy chatted away about this stuff I was struck with a characteristic of Christ I knew of but had never really taken hold of. Jesus operated in the corners of society, in the places of the loner, the places not even fit for beggars let alone the King of Kings. He was born in a stable, He was homeless, His friendship circles were not the political powers or smooth talkers but the despised, hated and spat on by all in society. He was not liked by everyone, He did not win the phone vote for Israel's Messiah factor and He was not understood. On the surface he was not, what even today we understand to be, the king of kings. If Prince William is not allowed to laugh in public during certain occasions then the King of Kings was acting very below par indeed.

Run scripture back to Moses and Exodus 3 again. The burning bush was not for all to see, it was not in front of all the Midianite people, or the Egyptian people. It was in a quiet corner of a desert and only for Moses. In that moment the wheels of redemption began turning for the Israelites in Egypt. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah is on his own up a mountain and meets with the Lord not in the grand and the powerful but in the quiet whisper in the corner of a mountain, as he comes down from the Mountain he anoints another great prophet in Elisha, Elijah's eventual successor. In Genesis 40 it is in the corner of a prison cell that Joseph listens to God and explains the dreams which leads to his redemption. It is in the prostitute Rahab in Joshua 2 that the Lord is proclaimed and her family are redeemed in a small house in the corner of a great city. In Matthew 6 Jesus encourages his followers to pray, fast and give in secret, in the quiet corner of your heart. Although there is equally occasions where God is glorified in Public, on the stage we might say. In reading the breadth of scripture we witness a God who operates in the corners, who often is not seen and missed because we're looking at the stage or the lighting rig or the PA.

In the Salvation Army, and indeed often in the wider church, we Love events. We rejoice in mass gatherings whether it's the ISB120, ROOTS, Soul Survivor or Congress. In conversations over coffee yesterday God challenged me that whilst these events are brilliant, whilst these events can often fortify our faith we can often miss what God is rejoicing about. Luke 15:10 says:

"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents"

It is conceivable that at all these "Christian" events we attend, that all those attending are also believers. The sober thing is that should there be a forgotten, young, normal, lonely woman, sitting on her bed all alone in her tiny box bedroom because she has no friends and her family are unconcerned about her, who declares to God " I believe", Heaven bursts with more rejoicing over that one woman than the 1000 listening and worshipping to music and watching the lighting display. That's the God in the corner, who is infinitely more worthy and powerful, and rightfully will take his place on the throne as described in Revelation. But for now he is off his throne operating in the quiet corners of our lives that we might know him and be loved by him. I'm simply glad my God found my corner and that Starbucks do good coffee.

How am I driving? Please Call 0870 8355 463 (0870- TELL-GOD)

So guess what I did last week? More driving!! I feel like I know the intricate nuances and noises of my car more than the cryptic toddler declarations of my son Malachi when he's singing 'Our God is a great big God'. I was stuck on the A47 to Peterborough (again) last week. The A47 is one of those roads in which your sat nav believes you will get there in just over an hour, but thanks to wonderful automotive vehicles such as the HGV, Tractors and Toyota Pirus', you end up losing an extra hour of your life into the abyss known as the East Anglian Road system. Last week the vehicle being used by the abyss was in fact a van.

Now vans normally come equipped with dare devil stunt drivers who believe their vehicle is in fact the size of an old mini with the power and speed of a Bugatti Veyron, but for some unknown paradox in the universe this driver was more James May than The Stig. Said van driver would consistently do 10 miles under the speed limit and never overtook, even the tractors that only have a single speed of 'slower than a mobility scooter' were happy to have cautious van man sitting behind them until they decided to pull over. Man was it infuriating and boring. On my long and monotonous journey I noticed that the van in front had one of those 'How am I driving' notices on the back. You know the ones with a number to call in case the van driver is in fact Evil Knievel who finds all manner of death defying ways to over take you on a country road. And this sign got me wondering. What if when we became Christians we too where given a sticker to be visible to others asking the question 'How are we living?'.

Would all of our skeletons be exposed, would every bad word, curse, frustration or lack of holiness be brought to account? Would the church be a much more holy and Christ like place if we were publicly called to account through the 'How am I living? scheme'. How great would it be if we were all to have these stickers. Then the lies, hypocrisy, gossip and damaging ways of the church could be dealt with and Christ could be evident in his body. I continued with this train of thought for a few days, thinking through how this sticker scheme could transform the face of the church and how the motivations of many would be turned back to Christ and Christ only. I was proud of myself for hearing God's challenge to live as though we were a part of the 'How am I living' scheme and giving me an insight for my next blog. However I was to find out I had got it wrong!!

At church on Sunday we spoke about the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11-12. We could of focused on David's actions, his rebuking by Nathan, his adultery, lack of holiness and need for the 'how am I living scheme'. But we didn't, we looked at the faithfulness of God, the love of Christ on the cross and the acceptance given to us which is undeserved and totally unwarranted. And in amongst this story God corrected my thinking. You see by creating a way to scare people into living the way Christ calls us to is not the way a loving father wraps his arms around the prodigal sons and daughters who return home. To condemn people for how they live is not the way of a loving friend who welcomes all, including the prostitutes and the dregs of society, and loves them first and foremost above everything else. To ask people to call 0870 -TELL GOD every time another Christian Brother or Sister steps out of line is not the behaviour of Christ's loving body.

This is not to denounce accountability or challenge, the holy spirit holds us to account as does the body of Christ, his church. But God challenged me to see that the man driving the van maybe wasn't driving it safely because that was his character and identity, but because he was fearful of those who may condemn him or rebuke him. God Challenged me with 1 John 4: 18, the love we receive from the Father through Christ drives out fear, and that this love, not fear, is the basis of seeing change in people and forgiving them when they don't. This love is the foundation of challenging the idolatrous whilst being loving friends with those Christians who have worldly idols. This love is about transformation of the believer not control of their behaviour.

I thought by the end of this blog I would be challenging anyone who reads these words to live as though you had a 'how am I living sticker' on your back. But I feel a harder but more fulfilling challenge, and one God has challenged me with, is to live in Christ's love as though you don't need one.