big brother [part ii]

it has been in the context of ‘being wronged’ that i have noticed it. and also brought up by an email i received the other day asking how we can be okay with the fact that God ordered genocide in the old testament [a really important question which i have grown up not asking – killing of many in the old testament was always seen as okay because it was ‘the goodies killing the baddies’ and i don’t think i ever stopped to think much at all about the fact that they were real people with families and dreams and so on…]

in terms of someone who i think has caused offence to me [often a dangerous sign – “offence is not given, it’s taken”], there is this inherent thing of violation of my rights [often a dangerous sign – the louder i get about proclaiming something that is seen as a right to me, the more i often need to look deeply within my heart, past my selfishness, pride and greed] and i NEED THIS PERSON TO PAY.

now what is unfortunate is that ‘this person’ is usually someone who is, or was, or should be, close to me [in the story, it is the guy’s brother] and the basic truth of the situation is that i am wanting them to suffer [because they did that thing that was unacceptable to me] and so with the story of the lost son, the father tries to focus on the heart of the story: ‘this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’ [verse 32]

the story is of a misguided son who gives in to temptation and greed and heads off and squanders his money and ends up with nothing and returns, absolutely broken, to try and get a job as a servant on his father’s farm… and the older son tries to make it all about himself. WHAT ABOUT ME?

and i’ve seen that in myself, and it is ugly, but while i am feeling offended or holding tightly to my rights, it becomes very easy to forget that this story also involves someone else, who is often broken and hurting and messed up and confused and when Jesus looks at them from the cross and gasps out, “Father, forgive them, for hey do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23.34], i can hear myself wailing in the background, “No, wait a minute, what about me? I have been wronged. Is no one going to do anything? What about meeeeeeeee?”

romans 12 talks about us offering our bodies as living sacrifices which are holy and pleasing to God [ones which are screaming “he/she must pay!” may not fit so well into that category don’tchathink?] and goes on to say, ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ [Romans 12.1-2] and so once again, we hear that in the kingdom Jesus came to speak about, everything is turnedon its head. What is ‘a right’, is freely given up. Offence is cast to the side.

what is brought to the fore is Love. Crazy, unbelievable, nonsensical, indescribable, ridiculous, make-a-mockery-out-of-offence, sacrificial, unmerited Love.

may that become my go to place. may i be identified more as the father in the story and less as the brother.

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 19

psalm 19 is a tough one. because there is just so much in it. it is a beautiful, beautiful psalm. make sure you read the whole thing.

It starts so powerfully with a declaration of who God is:

‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’ [Psalm 19.1] This makes me think of Jesus calming the storm in the boat [‘The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” [Luke 8.24-25]] and when Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly [‘When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Luke 19.37-40]

the message is that God will be praised and if we can’t do it then nature will take over. the glory and creativity and imagination of God are all revealed through nature. take a moment to praise God and add your voice or the meditation of your heart to the chorus…

verse 4 [‘In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun’] got a little more chaotic when i read it to my wife [aka the beautiful Val] because it reminded both of us of a really funny awkward sermon moment which happened here.

but back to more serious things. STOP LAUGHING!

this next section i just loved the poetry in the writing:

‘The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.

The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.

The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.

By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.’

The first time i read over this psalm i read the word ‘warned’ in verse 11 as ‘warmed’ and i think it works both ways… because when you start to know and experience the character, heart and faithfulness of God, then even His commands/law/statutes warm you – there is a confidence and sense of being able to trust this God who promises to be with you even when you are ‘broken-hearted’ or ‘crushed in spirit’ [psalm 34.18] and even when you are walking through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ [psalm 23.4] – He won’t take all the bad away, but He will strengthen and comfort and walk alongside you…

verse 12 and 13 ask for protection and forgiveness from sins we are aware of and even those we may not be which is a good reminder of the accountability we need to have with other people who can help point out our weaknesses in love as we invite them to.

and then the psalm ends powerfully with: ‘May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.’ [vs 14]

if only all Christ followers, myself included, could start each day with that prayer and then try and back it up with our actions, we would completely start to transform the world…

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 5

and on to Psalm 5:

this is an interesting one. powerful line in verse 5 – ‘You hate all who do wrong.’

is that true? of course it is. it is true to where david is at the moment of writing and what he is feeling [and maybe secretly wanting]

but is it Truth? absolutely not. we know from reading the rest of scripture that God does not hate anyone – His desire is that all will be saved [‘This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’ 1 Timothy 2.3-4] – but we can see this as an expression of the frustration david is feeling as he writes this piece.

what’s interesting is that david himself secretly doesn’t want it to be true… read a little further – ‘You destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful, You, LORD, detest.’ [vs 6] is that starting to sound familiar?

remember this same david when it comes to the story of bathsheba, the wife of one of his trusted army officials and how david tells lies, is bloodthirsty and deceitful and even more… he definitely does a whole lot of wrong and is not hoping at that point that God will wipe “them” out quite as passionately as he is in this psalm… which makes me think he wrote this before the events of 2 Samuel 11 had taken place, probably from a place of thinking he was so much better than those around him who get it wrong.

this feels like the psalm from someone who is largely naive and untested in the ways of temptation and needs a bit of the reality check that screwing up royally can bring you. which he later gets. to the extreme. i wonder how this psalm would sound if it was written after that incident? probably a lot more use of words like ‘mercy,’ ‘grace’ and ‘forgiveness’?

i do like how it ends though, ‘But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. Surely, LORD, You bless the righteous; You surround them with your favor as with a shield.’

[To continue on to Psalm 6, click here]

[To return to the start of this series on Psalms as well as some other Bible things, click here]

you’ve probably seen this video. [and why i hate the world of birds]

i have seen this video around on FB for the last long while and wanted to check it out but not enough to actually do so and so i didn’t til today – it’s called ‘Why I hate religion, but love Jesus’ and it’s a spoken word piece by a young guy called jeff bethke.

i didn’t watch it til i started skim reading this really good but really too long for me to read in its entirety blog by a guy called mike morrell which seems to give it and peoples’ response to it a fair commentary.

this blog isn’t so much about what jeff said [which i largely agree with] or what mike responded with [cos even though he looks at both sides of it i largely agree with a lot of what both sides say – think there is often a lot of semanticals floating around that debate] but more about this.

some people [and i hope i am not guilty of this, but i am really scared i probly am sometimes, if so, please punch me on the nose, cos it’s silly] focus too much on the peripherals than the actual point… and it manifests in many different ways…

for example, i started a podcast a while ago [and stopped it after a few cos it never really got going] and this one on forgiveness got 57 comments which i think is the most comments i have had on any post…

only this the first comment was by someone asking me to get involved and save ‘the world of birds’ as it was about to close down and when i said that i wouldn’t it descended rather dramatically into character assassination because i hate birds, i hate all animals, all christians hate animals and so on… you can go read them, i am sure they are quite humour-flled – in fact i could be wrong but i don’t think a single comment related to forgiveness [the original podcast intent] until my humour-filled friends started chiming in semi-sarcastically with ‘great audio thort on forgiveness, brett’ and of course my personal favourite from my friend Mj, “What an audio blog on forgiveness Brett. Thing of champions. Especially that part where you talk about sponsoring the World of Birds as a way of showing retribution for all the atrocities that Christians have committed (Dodo killing and Theatresports advertising to name a few).”

i posted a cartoon recently and someone went off at me for the title of the cartoon site [which i hadn’t noticed in small print on the bottom of the cartoon and which contained a bad word] and someone went off at me for a bunch of comments that people had made on the original cartoon which i hadn’t even noticed as i just hit share.

and so on. a spelling mistake halfway down the blog or the colour of the background or the fact that they posted it at 2am and what were they doing up so late? and so on.

ha, this blog has been so interrupted [supper with housemates, games, shopping lists] that i can’t remember the signficance of writing it any more and it seems so silly and it’s not like a huge gripe i have anyways so i should just delete it except MJ’s comment is too worth reading plus people having the opportunity to be alerted to my bird-hating ways.

but the bottom line point is that often we miss the message and get caught up in the peripherals, oh and my other point was we can get so caught up in arguing [the video on Jesus vs religion] and then arguing about the arguing [the article] and arguing about the arguing about arguing [comments on article] that by the time we have felt good about getting our say in, no-one can quite remember what the point is.

i find Christianity can get hard and confusing and complicated and contradictory and difficult to understand and a whole lot more UNTIL i do this magical thing – i start doing it. When i start actually just loving God, when i start loving people, when i do something that lifts up someone considered ‘the least of these’, when i reach out and intentionally do something that disciples a young oke nearby, when i forgive someone or refuse to be drawn into a fight, when i stand up for justice or stand against injustice, when i stop and talk to a homeless woman and walk away with her name and story, when i give some money, time or energy away, when i recycle, when i encourage someone, when i don’t fight for my position or recognition or place, when i love someone who maybe doesn’t show love to me, it all becomes SO INCREDIBLY EASY.

so maybe some of us need to argue, correct, debate, post, re-post, block, link less and be living it more.i think there is some kind of answer in there.

easter for dummies – part 2 – the save

so a quick recap then:

# everyone has sinned and as the bible says “fallen short of the glory (or high standard) of God”
# the wages/punishment/outcome of sin is death (both now in various areas, but also spiritually and eternally at the end)
# on Easter Friday, the man many believed had come to save the world is lying stretched out on a cross, dying an agonising death.

# one of the statements Jesus calls from the cross is “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
# a second statement from the cross is where Jesus asks one of His followers John to look after His mother
# a third statement occurs when Jesus grants salvation to one of the thieves dying on the cross alongside Him, who acknowledges Him and Jesus tells him “this day you will be in paradise with Me.”

but this is where the twist occurs:

# Sunday arrives, the third day, a significant number to God as witnessed throughout the Bible and as spoken of by Jesus while He was alive and the women who are heading to the tomb to anoint the body with traditional herbs are surprised by an empty tomb and the news that Jesus is alive

# various of His followers witness Jesus alive over the next few days – He speaks to them, walks with them, even prepares a fish braai on the beach for some of them and finally He sends them off with a mission [“Go and make disciples of all mankind, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”] and then, before their eyes, He is taken up to heaven.

# in John 3.16 Jesus has spoken one of the most well-known passages of scripture to Nicodemus the pharisee who visited Him at night – “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

# and so yes, we all have sinned and are all due the penalty of death that is spoken of in the Bible. But God in His love has made a way [which still satisfies His justice] of coming Himself and taking on the punishment in our place [as evidenced throughout most of the Old Testament when an animal was sacrificed in the place of a person and why Jesus is referred to as the lamb of God, fulfilling that same duty] so that we do not have to die.

and so the bottom line of the Christ-following faith is this – God is offering a gift, the gift of life – when Jesus was here He spoke about bringing “abundant life” or “life to the full” which speaks both of life now on earth as well as life after our physical bodies die – and you either choose to receive it [acknowledge Jesus as God and bow your knee and life to Him] or reject it [and one day be turned away by God] – the choice is yours – it is a free gift on the one hand, but also a gift that costs everything [nothing you can do can earn you the gift, hence it’s free, but God calls for you to follow Him with everything you have, and so it is costly]

the choice is yours. choose life.

‘Then Jesus said, “If anyone would follow Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” [luke 9.23]

trust God but have a, um no don’t.

so me and tbV have been in a place of really trusting God for the future and for just general every day life and i haven’t wanted to blog about a lot of it because when you start mentioning stuff and people start responding to ‘save you from the crises’ then it kinda cancels out a lot of the trust element…

but i will say this. when you are trusting God and not having a backup plan, then when things are going well and it appears that you are fine and sorted and when the provision arrives and so on, then it is an amazing place to be.

when it doesn’t or it hasn’t yet or it looks like it might not, then it’s not so much fun. in fact, it can get kinda scary and you know, i think that’s the point.

i just don’t want people to get all romanticised by the idea of trusting God without a backup plan – as i like to say I’m pretty sure that, when David got back from killing Goliath, when Gideon got back from slaying all those Midianites and when Daniel was let out of the lion’s den, they all three had to go and change their pants, or robes, or something.

i would imagine you can trust God but still crap yourself at the same time. possibly cos trusting God, like Love and Forgiveness is not a feeling but a choice and an action linked to that choice. But maybe that’s just me.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3.5,6

new audio thort – forgiveness

okay, so haven’t quite hit “for the week” yet but i have uploaded a new audio thort on my Tumblr site if you would like to give it a listen and link it to other people if you think it’s any good…

check it out here