Daniel's Deliverance and Stephen's Stoning - The Prosperity Gospel in Africa and God's Sovereignty in Suffering

We all like to hear stories with 'happy' endings.

When sin came into the world, it destroyed the happy ending.  On an earth level there is no happy ending anymore.

Yet we still desire it.  We know that the damage sin causes isn't 'right' or 'good'.  We long for something more.....and we give eternal praise to our loving Creator who made a way for a 'happy ending' to be returned.  But its not the happy ending of an 'earthly' definition and level - its one far greater and one that enables us to get through the story until then.  

One day there will be a 'happy ending' to surpass all happy endings when our sorrows and suffering will be replaced by joy and peace in the presence of our Saviour in the house of our Father.

But until then, happy endings on an earthly scale are not promised to us.  This earth is under the curse of the fall.  Our world is not perfect.

Unfortunately many churches like to promote the idea that if you come to Christ, everything will go well from then on - no sickness, disability, suffering, poverty etc etc.  Across Africa the Prosperity Gospel has promoted the idea that Christians get immunity not only from eternal suffering, but from present suffering.

But even if we are not part of a Prosperity Gospel context, it is easy to still focus on God's power as being primarily related to our physical life and positive outcomes on this earth.  We 'rejoice' when a disabled child 'beats the odds' and God intervenes in such a way that all the doctor's predictions of disaster don't come to pass. - a Daniel-type Deliverance.  We rejoice when a person gets the news that their cancer is in remission. We rejoice when a long awaited baby is born.  And there is nothing wrong with rejoicing in these circumstances - there would be something wrong if we didn't.

But we have to also be careful that we don't give the impression that God is good and God is answering prayer more when we get 'Daniel Deliverances' than when we see Stephen Stonings.  

We must not simply equate God with the circumstances we see.  

God can use circumstances we see to show His goodness, but God's goodness is far greater than the circumstances we see.  

As human beings living in the circumstances, this is very hard for us to take in at times.  

Circumstances can seem overwhelming.  

But if we focus on what we determine in our wisdom is a 'good' outcome, we run the danger of not doing 'good' to those God wants His 'goodness' to be shared with.  We can overlook those who are discouraged and suffering who need to be reminded and encouraged with the goodness of God's eternal loving purposes even though they are not seeing any 'Daniel Deliverances' in their life.

A few years back a 'Daniel Deliverance' situation occurred in the church we attended - a baby was born and the birth was a 'mess' to say the least.  It would be a miracle if the baby survived but the prognosis wasn't good.  He lived.  Not only did he live but apart from needing spectacles early on, there is hardly anything to suggest he had such a traumatic start to life.  Everyone rejoiced. His mum wrote a book sharing how good God was as He answered their prayers.

Yes God did deliver Daniel from the mouths of lions, but then Scripture also records Stephen's stoning. There was no deliverance.  He died from those stones.  God didn't divert them or paralyse the hands that tried to throw them or enable Stephen's body to remain undamaged by them.

I have just read a blog about another Mum who's son was also born with a bad prognosis.  She prayed and believed God could heal and enable her son to 'beat the odds'.  But years later he still hasn't beaten any odds.  We have dear friends who had two sons and both developed a genetic degenerative condition and died before they reached 25 - they didn't 'beat the odds'.  Another friend has a son with cerebral palsy and is still changing his nappies/diapers in his 20s - he hasn't 'beaten the odds'.

As I write this blog from my horizontal position while others enjoy the freedom of walking around at the shops or taking a walk through the bush, I am reminded that God was no less God at Stephen's stoning than He was at Daniel's Deliverance.  He was still working His purposes.

As my doctor starts asking me questions about menopause and has never had the need to ask me questions yet about how a pregnancy is progressing, I am reminded that God is still God whatever His purposes are.  Circumstances might not be my choosing but God isn't limited by what humans determine are good 'outcomes'.

Instead, God is working for His great eternal outcomes.  

He is working for the healing of souls from sin, not just the healing of bodies from disease and disability.  

He knows that a soul that trusts Christ in this life is saved from sin and thus automatically rescued from physical suffering in eternity.  But a body that is rescued from physical suffering in this life is not automatically saved from sin and death eternally. He doesn't enjoy seeing His creation suffer, and Jesus spent much of His earthly years healing people's bodies, but God has a higher priority than the temporal.

We need to be very careful when we rejoice with those who thank God for relief from physical suffering, that we explain the 'full story' in the process of preaching and discipleship .  

We need to make sure we focus on more than the 'physical' needs of people in our praise and in our prayer.

Some of you are probably familiar with the movie 'Facing the Giants'  - its a great movie in many ways, but while I rejoice for the many women who praise the Lord for answered prayer for a child, I feel for the many women who, like myself,  know that the gift of a child is not simply a result of our 'prayer', because they have prayed many prayers and still there is no child. 

Prayer is dependancy on God no matter what the outcomes, not manipulation of God to achieve our outcomes.  

So many around us here in Africa are yet to understand that.  

Prayer is not a ritual with magic powers.  Prayer is resting in the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of Kings.

In prayer and praise let's be sure to rejoice in God's purposes even when circumstances 'go wrong'.

Let's teach people in word and example to pray, trust, rejoice and rest in God's sovereignty no matter what the circumstances.

Both Daniel and Stephen entrusted themselves in prayer to their Creator for His purposes.  Their earthly circumstance 'outcomes' people saw, were different at the time.  But their eternal outcomes were the same.....they both died physically (Daniel still died at a later date) and they both live eternally.....and I look forward to meeting both of them in the resurrection!

And as a PS...we might think a Stoning is not deliverance, or a child that 'doesn't beat the odds' isn't deliverance, or infertility is not deliverance, but ultimately as Christians we are part of the greatest deliverance of history - Christ died for us.  

He brought eternal deliverance!  And the ability this gives us to rejoice in Christ's work and the Father's purposes no matter what the circumstances, is a greater deliverance. 

We are delivered from being defined and directed by our circumstances.  

We are part of a greater story than just what we see during our small window of time on this earth.

As the Mum in the blog mentioned above, said " Deliverance hasn't come from our circumstances.  But God doesn't need Calvin [her son's name] to beat the odds in order to prove his goodness, faithfulness, power and salvation. Our weakness is precisely what he is using to show his power and presence."

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas - it just came one month early!

When we first came to Botswana, we were told that sometimes it gets so cold that it can even snow!  We thought that was amazing but a little surprising.

After being here for some time we came to understand that statement a little more.

No, it doesn't really snow here.  But sometimes it can hail so much that it looks like snow……and we discovered the locals call it 'snow'.

….And yesterday was one of those days!

Once again our bush turned white and on the 25th November exactly one month before Christmas, as I looked out across our garden and the wider hillside, and the first thought that came to mind was 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'!

And even after several hours and the sun coming out, the hail was so deep that the bush had its blanket of white for many hours!

In fact it took almost 24 hours for all the ice to melt as in many places it was 5-10cm thick or more.

As the rain cleared and the snow began to melt, another colour change occured - this time the trees reduced in their intensity of green and the ground gained the colour green!

Many leaves had been stripped from trees, or like the frangipani, ripped to pieces, and were now all over the ground!

We even gained a temporary slightly 'green lawn' instead of dirt!

While a white Christmas of real snow is not going to be a wish granted while living in Botswana, we have enjoyed the Botswana version of 'snow'!

In Recognition of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation: The Reformation and the Restoration of Honour - Part 3

In parts One and Two of this blog series, we looked at three ways in which the Reformation, sparked by Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door, was about restoring significant issues of honour. And here we come to the final part:

Honour of God's People

One of the main reasons that such God-dishonouring doctrines were perpetuated in the church in the centuries prior to the Reformation, was because God's people were treated as inferior in knowledge and spirituality.  And the Roman Church leadership were assured the people could be kept that way by with-holding access to God's word.  Most people could not read or understand Latin (the language the Scriptures were in at the time, and was not what the people spoke in their daily lives), and even if they could they would be told that only the 'church' could properly interpret the Bible.  Not until shortly before Luther's theses, the printing press had not been invented and a person also would have had to be wealthy to own a bible or bible portion.  Only the noblemen - those in places of high honour in the society - even had a chance to get access to a bible.

We are told in the book of 1 Peter (2:17) to 'honour all men' - in other words there is no special category of people who have any 'higher' honour requirement than another. Everyone should be given equal due honour. As far as our place in God's family - the true church - is concerned there is no position of greater or lesser honour. Our nationality, gender or social position is irrelevent. In Christ we are all equal heirs of his riches in glory (honour).  (Phil 4:19, Col 1:27, Rom 8:17) We are all the saints (set apart) of God, and we are all members of a kingdom of priests with direct access to God (known as the term 'the priesthood of all believers').

The Reformation and the lead up to it with Bible Translator John Wycliffe (often called the Morning Star of the Reformation who lived 1330-1384)), gave to God's people the honour of equal access to the Scriptures, and the honour of an individual being able to come to the Scriptures to learn and know God's truth without always looking to the church for Scriptual knowledge and interpretation.

It restored the fulness of the honour of being able to access God in prayer through Christ without the need of other mediators. 

It restored the honour of the ability to come to God directly in confession of sin and for forgiveness of sin.  

It brought again the truth of the honour of truly being 'in Christ' - the assurance of individually being God's child eternally, safe and secure in Christ forever. 

It restored people to a place of knowing and seeking honour from God alone through Christ alone, instead of the church dictating who was shamed and rejected, and who was honoured and accepted.

It restored the honour of being able to access, read, study and learn from God's word - an honour we so easily take for granted. The average person could know more of the honour of being God's child by having access to God's word in their own language.  No longer did speaking only the local language and not the Latin language of the educated elite, place them in the lower and less honourable position of exclusion from knowing the truth of God's word for themselves.

This all in turn spurred on the ideas we are familiar with today of education and literacy for all, of individual freedom to be creative and innovative, of using one's money and time to develop, invent and build rather than having to spend all one's time and money on the church and securing salvation through buying indulgences.

Rejoice in the Reformation

As Protestant post-reformation Christians, we have so much we can easily take for granted.  But what we take for granted we can also easily lose.  No, it is true no earthly authority can remove heavenly realities and many before the reformation had God's assurance of their salvation even if they in themselves doubted it.  But in the process many people had the truth withheld from them which resulted in confusion, fear, shame, and for some, eternal death because they did not know the Truth which could have set them free. False teaching brings false hopes and false fears.  

We can rejoice that we have access to God's word, can read it for ourselves in our own language, and can buy and own our own full copy, and even multiple copies. 

We can rejoice that we have been able to know the honour of God's salvation in Christ, the honour of access to God's word, and the honour of being one in Christ Jesus as believers together.  

But let us guard the gift we have been given, that many lost their lives fighting for, ….and remember that just like the church became oppressive when it lost sight of the Scriptures many centuries ago, so individual freedom alienated from the authority of God through His Word can, will and has resulted in our current century,  just yet another form of destruction. 

So, as we remember what happened 500 years ago today, let us like Luther, be careful and diligent to be true to the authority of the Scriptures, whatever our nationality, generation, or era, and let us not only know God, but as Romans 1 says, honour Him as God in all things, with thanksgiving!

…..ps

In case you think that this event is saying what the Roman Catholic church was like 500 years ago and its not like it now, please read this article or check out this little video and be challenged that we still need to bring the good news of salvation in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone to those who are falsely and hopelessly looking to the Roman Catholic church edicts, rules and requirements to save them. 

And if you are interested...take a look at this list of 5 ways in which this event impacted the wider world for the centuries following up to our present day!

In Recognition of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation: The Reformation and the Restoration of Honour - Part 2

As we continue to look at the honour issues of the Reformation, sparked by Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenburg church door on the 31st October 1517, following on from Part 1, we come to the next two significant categories of honour restoration:

Honour of God's Word

When we don't honour God as God, we are consequentially not going to honour what God says the way we should. If we honour a human being, human leadership or human systems and rules above God, we are going to honour what they say as authoritative above what God says as authoritative.  And that is what was happening in the Roman Catholic Church.  The church was adding to Scripture's requirements. Words and concepts and regulations and warnings and systems were developed that had no basis in God's word whatsoever. Teaching on such things as Purgatory became central to church doctrine yet are not even mentioned in Scripture, let alone supported.  

God's word had become secondary. The focus was on the teaching of the church and authority of the Pope.  In fact they had gone one step further and made the teaching of the church of equal authority, infallability and holiness to Scripture.  Of course when that happens it is inevitable that the teaching of the church becomes elevated above Scripture.  When supposedly two 'equal' pieces of information conflict, and the church's teaching says that the church leadership speak as the voice of God, no-one is going to question what the church leadership says, and any Scripture that disagrees will be put aside in favour of what the church leadership says. 

To thus treat God's true word with such disregard, is to despise God's Word.  And as God accused and reminded king David when he sinned (2 Sam 12:9-10), to despise God's Word is to despise God Himself. 

There was also an understanding by the Reformers that God's word would lose no honour by being translated into the language that the people spoke.  The honour of God's word was not in it remaining in the Latin language accessible only to those of high church rank and status.  The honour of God's word was founded on its nature and source, not what earthly language it was in. Luther's translating the bible into German, like John Wycliffe before him in England translating it into English, was because they believed God's word would have greater honour in the hearts and lives of the people if they had access to it in a language they could understand and which they spoke on a daily basis.

The Reformation sought to restore God's word to its rightful place, that it might be once again honoured as God's supreme and ultimate authority shared with no other human authority, person or organisational rules, but that it could have the honour of being accessible to everyone in their own language.

Honour of God's Son and Salvation brought through Him

I remember sitting in a Christian Convention as a teenager, many years ago, and hearing the speaker say "Christ+ = Christ- = not Christ"! (ie Christ plus equals Christ minus equals not Christ)

God sent His Son, His only Son to be the only way of salvation for sinful humanity. 

He sent His Son to be the one and only Mediator between man and God.

We are not saved by any other name, only Jesus' name.

When we pray, we are to only pray to God the Father and only in the name of God the Son.

There is only one who sits at the right hand of God the Father, Jesus Christ. Only He is the firstborn from the dead.

Only Christ is the Messiah, only Christ is Immanuel God with us.

And I could go on…..

Mary is not Christ, she is not a mediator between God and humans, she does not hear and answer prayer. 'Saints' of the Roman Catholic Church are not deity in human form, are not elevated to some higher spiritual power after death, and have no power or influence over creation or life on this earth.  To say such things is to say we need more than Christ, which is to say that Christ is not enough for God's saving, sanctifying and sustaining work in a Christian's life.  A view of Christ that says this, is a view of Christ which does not equal who God tells us Christ is.

We are thankful for Mary's availability, obedience, humility and submission to God's will in God's plan, but we don't need her for salvation or answers to prayer.  She has no more powerful or special spiritual connection to Christ, than you or I. 

We are thankful for the lives of great Christians of the past and their example of godly actions but they too are not in any different spiritual catagory from anyone else…..if they truly came to Christ alone as sinners and accepted His full finished work of salvation for them, they were saved just like you and I can be, and if they did not they are just as lost eternally as you or I can be.

Not only was the Roman Catholic church denying the priesthood of all believers which allows us to all access God's throne in prayer directly through Christ, and not giving sole Mediator status to Christ, they were giving authority to priests to forgive sins, an authority that was only God's. 

The 'church' was also saying that salvation was not assurred in Christ.  The 'church' taught that to be saved, or have a good chance at being saved, you had to do good works. You had to participate in the seven sacraments of the church which were believed to be the channels of receiving God's grace including the Mass/Eucharist and Confession. The church had also invented the unbiblical category of 'purgatory' between life on earth and heaven, a category in which the church was telling people if they were to give money to the church (called indulgences) it could help them reduce their time in purgatory and to get relatives out of purgatory and into heaven.

From beginning to end the 'church' was promoting a works based salvation in which people often had no sense of assurance of salvation before or after death, and definitely no assurance if the priest hadn't given it. They had to hope that their 'good works' outweighed their 'bad works', or that they had paid enough indulgences or had relatives who would keep paying after your death.

To think there are some additions needing to be made to salvation in Christ alone, is to not honour God as God, because you are not accepting that God's way of salvation through Christ's once for all sacrifice, is enough.  It's saying you don't believe God when He says it is enough. That, in adddition to saying that the 'church' and its leadership know better, is thorough dishonour of God.

The Reformation was to restore to God's people a right and true understanding that they could be saved by faith alone and grace alone in Christ alone.  It was about restoring the honourable rightful place of God's Son as the sole means and assurance of salvation from sin.

To be continued in Part 3…..

In Recognition of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation: The Reformation and the Restoration of Honour - Part 1

This is the year of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation - or rather the event that was the major trigger for the Protestant Reformation.

It was October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther, the preacher and professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door, which served as a bit like the community notice board. It seems he did not intend to start a new church or radical movement, but simply to put forward some issues on which he wanted to spark further discussion about matters in the church he was concerned about. But that wasn't how it turned out.

Yet there is so much to be thankful for because of that event.

When we think about the Reformation, we most readily recall the events themselves, the people involved and the tangible results it brought about of greater access to God's Word and greater awareness of the biblical basis of salvation and a greater assurance of salvation. But underlying the Reformation were actually foundational matters of honour.

In Romans 1, Scripture tells us that we can know about God but fail to honour Him as God. When we fail to honour God as God the way He says to honour Him, we fail to live the way He wants. Even worse is the situation, when the church and its leaders are the ones failing to honour God as God.

The word 'honour' may not have been prominent at the time, in regard to the Reformation, and not really be mentioned even now, but the principle was permeating the whole process. In fact we use the simile of of the word 'honour' all the time when we talk about the Reformation….the word 'glory'. 

The fifth all encompassing 'sola' of the five solas of the Reformation, is Soli Deo gloria: "to the glory of God alone"

The Reformation was all about the issue of 'glory' - the issue of honour, and I see it permeating in four significant ways. Over the next few posts, we will have a look at these.  Firstly we see the…..

Honour of God

By 1517, the church leadership and system had more and more overstepped its role and place. It had set itself up in the place of God. It saw itself as the one to decide if a person's sins would be forgiven, if a person could go to heaven or not, and what rules and regulations should define sin and as the only ones to interpret scripture. It saw itself as the voice and authority of God in the lives of people and in society. 

Not only that, but it was promoting idolatry by having people bow at carved images of Christ and Mary the mother of Jesus, at the feet of church leaders and of religious 'relics'. It set Mary up as a sinless human being to be venerated and as a mediator, encouraging people to pray not only to God but to Mary.  The dishonour of God went even further as certain people were elevated after death into a category of an unbiblical definition of 'saint', appointing them to some mystical position of great spiritual power over earth's events.

The Reformation was about wanting God to be honoured as God.  It was about a desire for God to get the glory He deserved. It was about wanting the Roman Catholic church and its leadership to ascribe the full honour to God that was and is due Him, instead of taking it for themselves. When the church refused, it was time to honour God and the true church of His children, above any earthly organisation that set itself in God's place. 

The Roman Catholic Church might have been saying that they honoured God above all, but in reality they were putting themselves in the authority position of God in the life of the church corporately and the lives of people individually, and that does not honour God as God. 

The Reformers were seeing a church giving more honour to rules and rituals than understanding the reality of God.  The Scripture that comes to mind is 'They honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me' (Is 29:13, Matt 15:8). The honour of the church system and the honour of its leaders had overtaken the honour of God. The Reformers were zealous for God and His honour above all.

To be continued in Part 2…..

Lessons from a Cactus Flower

Beauty from thorns 

- that about summarises a cactus flower.

After the recent rains our garden has come alive.  Green shoots and buds are showing up everywhere.

But the most spectacular spot is where a half dozen or so cactus flowers have bloomed.  As I went 'up close' yesterday, I realised that this plant had a lot to teach me about life and about how God works.  Once again, His creation became His voice to me…..let me share with you what I 'heard'…..

This cactus starts small and thorny - very thorny. 

It's so thorny, there is virtually nothing else to see…..

That so often feels like life - very thorny - everywhere you look and walk feels and looks painfully thorny

Then as the cactus grows more green is evident and the thorns reduce proportionally in size, but those thorns still stay.

In their own way, their presence is part of the design and appeal.

As we walk through the thorny paths, sometimes smooth patchees open up, but not for long.  The thorny bits stay there. But they aren't simply a nuisance to be avoided or eliminated, they are working their own part of the design and attracting the eye of the on-looker. Others might be attracted to observe your life, my life, simply at first by the occasions of suffering and difficulty in our lives that don't go away.

But it is from the thorny spots that the flowers come, although at first, what later becomes a flower, just emerges from the thorns as a scruffy hairy growth.

Sometimes life feels like the thorny bits will never change and will forever be sharp and painful…..but then something changes and we hope for more pleasant times, only to find another set of circumstances that may not be as thorny, but appear just plain ugly, messy, uninteresting, dull, or simply chaotic.  

At these times we can begin to feel discouraged and downhearted especially when there are multiple thorny or messy parts in our lives. 

 Thorns may tempt us to be angry or bitter or to quit, but the 'hairy mess' tempts us with discouragement, dullness of heart, and just to be 'down in the dumps'.  It can feel like all the persevering through the thorns was for what?….just another hairy mess??

But we are called to keep trusting that God is working 'good' despite what we might see from our perspective and limited understanding.

Little by little that messy hairy bulge becomes a longer hairy bulge and we see the first glimpses that something else might be coming from what appeared to be inconsequential.

Then we get a hold of ourselves and remember it is better to talk to our hearts than let our hearts talk to us.  We tell ourselves that we need patience, that God is not in a hurry, but he's never late!  We need to persevere and wait on Him for His timing, plans and purposes. Just because we can't see anything 'of use' coming of our difficulty doesn't mean nothing is. Our timing may not be God's timing. Sometimes we need to press on for quite a while in the 'hairy bits'!

With a bit more waiting, a bud of beauty comes forth, something vastly different from the brown hairy mass…..but still nothing like the full beauty that will soon emerge.

From a hint that God is working something greater than the mess we feel we are in, we begin to see more of 'the substance of things hoped for'.  Our faith that God is at work despite the mess, is being encouraged to press on, to have hope and not give up.  

God is graciously giving us some further 'evidence of things not yet seen'.

And then when you are least expecting it, suddenly a magnificient flower opens up, the beauty and elegance of which surpasses anything you could have imagined. 

The contrast from thorns and the hairy mess, counldn't be greater!

That is just like God, when we least expect, so no praise goes to us, God opens up something that far suprasses our expectations.  

And we stand in awe and thankfulness and praise, with all honour and glory to Him.

He is working toward something that is breathtaking!

And the beauty of it only increases the longer you look at it.

That is just like our walk with God, the longer we walk with Him the more we are in awe of Him and His work and purposes. The 'closer' we walk with Him the more we will see His glory in the midst of the messy thorny areas of life.  

The messy and thorny may not disappear totally while we are here on this earth - in fact we have a guarantee they won't, but like this cactus flower, the spendor and beauty outweighs the lingering thorns and messes. 

As the flower spike emerged the thorns didn't disappear totally but they are now insignificant in our gaze. 

The hairy bits are still on the flower stem, but again, the magnificence of the flower overtakes any prominence of hairy bits!

Here are some 'close ups' of these magnificent flowers, as I looked at them from various angles - may they serve to remind you, as they did me, of our wonderful Creator.  

- stripes only seen from the underside….

- shimmering whites - reminded me of a beautiful bride!….

- and from the front…

- and in the centre, almost like a ring of delicate lace….

- and I'm hoping you can see the shimmer of the sparkles in the petals like they have been woven with a fine silver glitter!

The intracies and beauty of this flower from thorns, teaches us once again that we can entrust our lives to our loving Creator who is also our loving Father.

  If we think circumstances are difficult, thorny, painful, messy, chaotic or dull, we can be assured that we don't have the end of the story.  

We who belong to Christ, have an eternal glory awaiting us where we will experience the fulness of majesty, beauty and glory, for we will worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.  

Yet also, often even in this life, we get to glimpse the reality that God can bring beauty from ashes and good things from thorns.  

We wait on him with patience and trust, knowing He is at work even when life looks bleak and ugly.  

We live by faith in Him that His purposes are far beyond what we see and experience at this point!

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:11

A Saturday Garden Stroll

I never cease to be amazed at how our garden in the African bush can continually surpise and delight me!

Today I heard high pitched shrieking and went outside to investigate…

....only to discover monkeys everywhere, maybe around 20 of them or so, including several scruffy 'teenagers', and a mother grabbing her very young shrieking baby back toward herself and getting him to 'hang on' as she ran off with him clinging to her belly. 

I proceded to chase the other monkeys off the car and out of the garden, but one didn't run off quickly and looked a little panicked.  

As I got a little closer I realised there was a reason for her slowness….

I noticed she had a very tiny newborn, 

But then realised it wasn't just one baby, it was twins.

I think I must have stumbled upon a her very soon after delivery as she showed signs that may have been the case. But her two babies looked very weak and very, very new. As long as I stayed a reasonable distance away from her she didn't run off, although she looked like she wanted to.  But it meant I did get some good photos.  When she had finished picking some morsels to eat for herself she grabbed her little ones and went and sat in a low tree branch. She also wasn't moving too energetically and seemed to be struggling a bit trying to carry two babies. At one stage I wasn't sure if her babies were even alive, but then I saw each of them voluntarily move, and the tiniest of them did have his eyes open just a little bit.

I don't know if they will survive, but their mummy was trying her best to take good care of them, and it was rather special to get such a long time of watching them.

Having got the camera out, I thought I would take a further gentle stroll around the garden and see what it had to show me at this crossroads of seasons - the end of the dry season, with a first storm yesterday that brought a short soaking downpour.

Let me show you some of what I found…

Firstly - just to show you how dry some of our plants get over the dry months - this succulent, normally so full, smooth and fat and green, is currently not only stressed and red, but shrivelled and wrinkled!

Next - a fascinating assortment of dry open seed pods - various shapes, sizes, colours and patterns…. more examples of the creativity of the Creator!

Here is a hoodia plant wide-open seed pod (it is also in a state of stress from the dry weather and lacking its usual green colouring - but instead is showing the beautiful 'white dotted' effect on the edges!

This succulant is the same one that was a brilliant white stalk a few months back - that the sunbird was photographed on, now it is tipped with a subtle burgundy...

Here is the dry flower stalk of a native bulb with its stylish light browns, creams and black...

This is the seed stage of the very pretty orange flower that you saw butterflies photographed on in a previous blogpost

Here is a frangipani seed pod with its patterned arrangement of compartments inside

But not everything is dull and dry - the flowers are beginning to bloom too, and looked so beautiful in the afternoon sun...

And birds and squirrels are busy trying to find a mate - this little guy had to fight off a competing suitor this afternoon and in the process fanned his tail and revealed a brilliant copper colour hidden away, but he was too quick for me to catch a photo in the midst of his display.  Hopefully he will win over his lady without too much more ado!

Then as I headed indoors a heard the familiar squirrel mating call and looked up as he was scurring to the very top of the stone parapet on the end of our house where he continued his wholehearted efforts for quite a while!  There was no "mrs" in sight so he is going to have to work a bit harder for some time yet!

So many opportunities to once again marvel at our God's amazing creation, and the reminder that as the seasons change, that His hand is still directing and sustaining this earth's systems. 

We can trust Him!

Word watch: Worship.....Part 2

Replacing the Misplaced

How often have you seen a church notice board say on it something like 'Worship service 9am'?

How often have you heard church musicians referred to as the 'worship team'?

Have you heard a Pastor encourage fathers to lead their families in a daily 'family worship' time?

It seems we have relegated the general use of our term 'worship' to what Christians do once or twice a week when they are together in their building, or at least together somewhere.

Now it is certainly true that these times include worship - or should.  

But our whole New Testament covenant life is one where worship of God is supposed to be happening everywhere and anywhere. 

 All of life is worship, and it should be to Yahweh - The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In fact no matter who we are we worship something or someone - we are born and created to worship and worship we do not fail to do…..

- we all centre our lives around whatever we think will give us meaning and purpose and significance in life. Our focus and goal might be love, sex, family, success, work, wealth, popularity, fame, pleasure, fitness, education, travel, beauty or fashion. Whatever it is, we will put the achievement of it in a place of value, honour and priority in our lives.

….what we might fail to do however, is give our worship to the One who alone deserves it - the One who made us and redeemed us.

We don't have to go to any 'special place' or a physical temple building to go where God is, to worship and bow down to him, rather it is a heart attitude of honour and submission to Christ as God and King, as we worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24).  We don't have to go 'to church' in order to pray, like they do on Downton Abbey…..or even here in Africa where time and again I hear people put special emphasis on 'going to church to pray'.

Right now you are probably saying, 'But I do believe worship is more than at church'.  

But does your verbal terminology reflect that view?

Either we need to be talking a lot more - a very lot more - about worship in our interaction outside the once-a-week-gathering, or else we need to stop using the word 'worship' around the concepts of the gathering and its music, and at least change the term on our church signage.

There are so many mis-conceptions about worship

• I had someone recently say to me after going through a difficult time that they just hadn't been able to worship.  Yet I was watching this person choose to humbly submit themselves to God's will through tears. Yet because they were finding it hard to sing, they believed they hadn't worshipped! How sad.

• I hear others say they had a good time of 'worship' this morning in their quiet time and they will name the CD and songs they were listening to and singing along with and how it helped them really 'connect' to God, as if that was what constituted 'worship' for them. What are deaf people supposed to do?

• I hear others comment that they noticed someone was really 'worshipping' because they observed hands raised and eyes closed - does that mean those whose eyes are open and hands are not raised are not worshipping?.

• Some think that worship means warm fuzzy feelings and a sense of euphoric happiness - that's probably more mystical than Christian.

• Some people mistake awe for worship - we can be in awe looking out to the stars at night, but it isn't worship of God unless it translates to a desire to submit our lives to the One who created it all and who is so much bigger and more powerful than us!

• I don't hear anyone say that they had a great time of worship as a mother cleaning floors and dishes, or as a policeman catching criminals, or as a receptionist answering telephone calls, or even counseling a depressed unemployed father.

We are apt to relegate 'worship' to a very narrow category that never impacts or intersects with the world and community and life on a daily basis or reflects the truth that worship is about the honour attitude of the heart. It's not about having the emotional energy to sing, or to feel 'connected' or to be in a physical position of hands raised and eyes closed or for that matter even necessarily heads bowed.  While each of these may accompany a worshipful heart on occasion, they are actually outward, secondary and even superficial indicators of worship.

Remember God says "man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart" and He also said of people who appeared to be doing all the outward appearances of worship, "You honour me with your lips but your hearts are far from me", and in the book of Amos 'remove from me the noise of your songs"  (1 Samuel 16:7, Matthew 15:8, Amos 5:23) A corporate gathering or outward visible action is not the definition of worship.

Worship is about the heart, not just the outward action.

There was certainly no large corporate gathering when Abraham went up the mountain with Isaac for the sacrifice and said they were going to 'worship'.  It almost certainly was not accompanied with excited dancing and singing and praise.  This was an occasion of rigorous, deliberate trust and obedience. Abraham viewed this as a time when his own heart desires would have to 'bow' to the desires of the One who he knew should be given the highest honour, no matter what the personal cost or whether he understood or not.

Then if we jump to the New Testament, Jesus explained to the woman at the well, that worship is not about coming together at a place, its about a heart attitude toward God rooted in truth and in the power of the Spirit.  True worship is about about bowing our will to God's will and allowing the Spirit of God to fill our hearts (the seat of our very being, our will, our desires, our mind, our emotions) in every facet of daily life, firmly rooted in the truth of the Word that the Spirit enables us to understand and live out. 

We, as the modern church, have taught the world by our language that 'worship' happens 'at church' or is only related to our private activity in our own home.  It is separate from the surrounding community.  It is separate from daily life.  We have kept our 'worship' separate from the world, and now the world is acting according to the way we have trained them over decades, and they are simply saying that if that's how we are, we should keep it that way. 

We have made 'worship' an 'act' or a 'ritual' rather than a heart attitude and all of life reality!

We need to take greater consideration as to how we use words, what we communicate to others with our words and how our words even impact our own perspectives on our faith.

We have taught society by our words and our lives that being a Christian is primarily about 'Sunday worship at church'.   

Instead we should be teaching them that being a Christian is about being part of the church of believers who's lives have been transformed and who are living no longer for the honour of themselves, but for the honour of God their Creator and Saviour and the true honour of the people he created, as they worship their Father in Spirit and in Truth in every area of life.

When we do our work well as a cleaner, 

or teach algebra to a class of teenagers, 

or care for the cancer patient, 

or serve at the supermarket checkout with a smile 

or help the truth to be heard in a legal case, 

or be patient and gentle with your kids in the home, 

or deal kindly and firmly as a police officer,

 or with integrity as a politician, 

or whatever your daily activity involves….and someone notices and asks how you manage to do that?…..answer by saying its because its just part of worshipping God with every area of my life.

This is not to say that people are not genuinely worshipping the Lord when they say they worship 'at church'.  We also need to be sensitive to how people have come to use terminology. God sees hearts, and sometimes hearts have only had certain terminology in their teaching by which to state what they want to express. We must be careful not to be merely condemnatory but corrective, bringing people from traditional to biblical frameworks.

Meanwhile, let's consider taking the word 'worship' off our church notice boards where it is the only time the watching world sees it and they are very much getting the wrong idea.  And while we are at it, lets consider ceasing from using the term to describe those who lead music when we gather together as a local church group, and speaking of worship as if it belongs exclusively within the domain of music. And lets start using the word in relation to everyday life and allow its meaning of honour to permeate all that we do.

Worship is not about singing on a Sunday, its about bowing our will to God's will as we give Him the highest honour with our whole lives!

To quote Kay Arthur: 

"To worship God is to respect and honour Him for who He is."

If we are to get our minds out of a rut, cease giving the watching world the wrong idea, and truly honour God as we bow our hearts and will to His heart and will, we have to begin in this foundational area of our use of the term 'worship'.

ps. it is a good thing to allow the majesty of creation, the truth of God's word in His word and expressed in song to lead and prompt our hearts to a place of honouring God rightly with true worship - take a few moments to read the truth in the words in the picture above set on a background of a starry sky, and be prompted to once again have your hearts bow to the One who is to be honoured and praised.