Serving without Sinking

Have you ever had that moment where you are just really fed up of serving? At first it was a joy but now it’s just boring and repetitive. It feels like you are the only one who is serving while everyone else has gone home. And no one praises you or encourages you. Day in and day out it you slog away and you’re tired. You’re tired of it all.

Does that sound familiar? If it does, can I recommend a book to you? I know, another book to read – but it has been one of the most helpful books I’ve read on serving.

Serving without Sinking – by John Hindley is a book that is Christ focused. In fact you spend over half the book looking at Jesus and how He serves you. This really makes you examine your heart and the motives of your heart towards serving. You could be like the person I described above where you are just fed up of serving and you feel very discouraged and tired of it all. Then this book will remind you how Christ serves you first and how he delights in you. It will melt your heart to see the love that Christ has for you. With this in mind it changes the way you think about serving from a “I should do” or a “I have to” turned to a “I want to” and “I delight to” Why? because every bit of service – making tea, printing music, washing tables, welcome team is all serving Jesus and we can do that because he first and foremost serves us.

Or perhaps you are someone who isn’t like the person above – maybe you only serve to get recognition or you just can’t be bothered to serve others. John Hindley reminds us what kind of master we have – He is good and kind and he calls us to serve him. Again he calls us to this only after he has first served us. He is a serving master who loves his servants, servants who are sons and daughters of his Father. He calls us to serve with a glad heart – looking to Christ and not for recognition from others. We can do this because we have the Lord who knows us and a Father who sees what we do in secret.

I found this book to be good news for my heart. It’s a short book but with a deep focus on Jesus. I feel like it is something we all need at the moment.

You can get the book at the Good Book Company.

Ali Bolton has read and reviewed the book here.

Preaching Christ

Just read a wonderful blog post about preaching to the depressed, but I think this is for everyone as well. David Murray goes through 8 ways preachers damage those who are depressed by preaching anything other than Christ. I may be so bold to say, that some of those ways damage everyone. Sometimes I feel damaged by them. This is worth reading, here is the most beautiful part of the post:

And that really brings me to the best way to preach to the depressed, and that’s to preach Christ. Preach His suffering and sympathizing humanity. Preach His gentle and tender dealings with trembling and timid sinners. Preach His gracious and merciful words. Preach His beautiful meekness. Preach His miracles to demonstrate His power to heal. Preach His finished work on Calvary. Preach His offer of rest to the weary. Preach the power of His resurrection-life. Preach His precious promises: ”A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench.”

Preach Christ! Preach Him winningly and winsomely. Preach Him near and ready to help. Preach Him from the heart to the heart. Preach Him again, and again, and again. Until the day dawn and the shadows flee away.

The heat of Love

There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
― Homer, The Iliad

Last weekend we were at a wedding of a good friend from Uni. I love weddings. I love watching the groom doing the nervous walk, smiling at people as they come into the church. I love the waiting, and you can see on the face of the groom the longing as the clock ticks time on. It could almost make him crazy.

I love how when the music starts to play everyone turns to look at the bride. She walks in and everyone gasps at her beauty, her dress, her hair and her smile. Eyes are on the bride. She is radiant.

    All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.
In many-colored robes she is led to the king,
with her virgin companions following behind her.
With joy and gladness they are led along
as they enter the palace of the king.
(Psalm 45:13-15 ESV)

The bride is led to her groom and a union begins. He promises to care, cherish and die for her. She promises to receive his tender love and be taken under his wings for refuge.

Joy and gladness are filled in this place.

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.” ― Homer, The Odyssey

It’s a beautiful thing to see two people in love. Its even more beautiful to see how Christ loves his bride, to see how the church takes refuge in Him. As I was reading the book of Revelation, I was soon swept up in the wedding of Christ and the church – the heat of love burns here and the church is covered by the blood of the lamb and she is beautiful. All eyes are on her as she enters the palace of the king, bringing delight to friends and confounding enemies.

Jesus loves the Church. But we aren’t at the wedding yet. The church isn’t quite finished yet. We look forward to the wedding day, but the bride is still being prepared, she is still getting ready. At the moment the church looks messy, it looks broken, and it looks hurt. And so we wait with longing and groaning. We wait with patience and gentleness. We wait for the day when we will take refuge in Jesus, when we see his face, when he wipes away the tears. And Christ waits in eager expectation.

Perhaps one of the songs we shall sing is:

Sands of Time are sinking – by Anne Cousin:

4. The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory
But on my King of grace.
Not at the crown He giveth
But on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Emmanuel’s land.

5. O I am my Beloved’s
And my Beloved is mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His house of wine
I stand upon His merit -
I know no other stand,
Not e’en where glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

 

Christmas: The Tender Mercy

Advent Day 23

Zachariah Says:

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

(Luke 1:76-79 ESV)

We know that John will preach the Good News of Jesus and we know that Jesus will bring salvation. The cause of all of this is down to the character of our triune God. He is a God of love and he has tender mercy. This is a beautiful verse. Not only does the Lord have mercy, but it is tender and his mercy is tender to those who are in darkness, in death and are sinners. His tender mercy is for the weak and the suffering, for all those who call on the name of the Lord for salvation.

This is a God who brings forgiveness and mercy. A God who sends his Son to earth to take on flesh and walk in our footsteps and die a death for us. He is a Son who calls out to the weak and helpless to come to him because his mercy is tender and will bind up their broken hearts and offer them comfort.

Spurgeon says:

“Like as a mother comforts her children, even so does the Lord comfort His people, and like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. My Lord is as gracious in the manner of His mercy as in the matter of it. Glory be to His name! O sinner, come to the gentle Jesus and live”

Christmas is about the tender mercy of the Lord.

How to enjoy Relay Homestart

Around this time a few years ago I was getting ready to go on my next adventure by doing Relay Homestart in Peru. I know all the feelings of being excited, nervous, unsure, insecure, scared, happy, sad to leave friends etc… with a million emotions all in one I knew I would be boarding that plane soon with no language skills and no real understanding of what it means to live in a different culture and really no idea of what I was really doing. So as I am guessing that some of you will be feeling these things at some point, I want to write a quick guide on how to enjoy and make the most of Relay Homestart and also short term mission – whether that’s in Europe or China or South America…

1. Pray and continue praying – this may sound like a given. But we are sinful creatures that like to draw upon Gods help at the start and then when we get use to the culture and the language, suddenly God can be out the picture. Don’t be complacent, continue praying and bring everything to God
2. Don’t expect it to be like Relay – On Relay you had amazing support every week, you had theology to read, students to meet up with and conferences to build fellowship. But its all different on homestart, don’t expect it to be like Relay at all – you may not get weekly support and it will take you a while before you can speak the language enough to be able to meet up with students one to one. This wont be like fitting on a glove. You are not the star relay worker in your university spouting Grace and Grudem. Your the foreigner that cant speak the language. But there are lots of advantages for it not being like Relay and you will find them out.
3. Jump into the culture – The Culture your going into is different and can seem scary and you may get culture shock. The only way I dealt with this is by not shutting myself away but being apart of the lives of others in the culture. I was living with a family and so I joined in on everything the family was doing – watching TV with them, going to church events, going shopping with them etc…although I couldn’t speak Spanish, my actions and my time shared with them proved to be shouting louder then words. So join a youth group or prayer group, join in with a family, be with different people and don’t just hang out with English speaking people. Also try and eat everything or at least a bite – it shows your willing to try things.

4. Don’t live on Facebook – Its very tempting to hide yourself away on facebook everyday. My suggestion is to not touch facebook for the first month – your friends will understand. Its more important that you get to know people where you are living then keep updated on the facebook feed. Your relationships where you are will be better off.

5. Enjoy the Differences – everything will be different – smells, food, people, clothes… but don’t be cynical – its easy to believe that the English culture is always right, but you will see that its not and there is so much to learn in the differences. At times it will be frustrating, but as much as you can enjoy the differences – don’t complain about them to other people, but let your words be encouraging and pure.

6. Your Identity is in Jesus – This is a huge lesson I learned. It is very easy to place your worth and Identity in everything but Jesus. You will want to place it in your language skills or how many one to ones you have or what you are doing compared to everyone else. But quickly you will see that when you place your worth in those things you will fall apart because they will not stand up – your language will fail, you will find yourself at times doing nothing or not knowing what to do! But Jesus will always remain and if your identity is in Him you will not fall and he will never fail you. Ever.

7. Don’t expect to stay in touch with everyone – Some people are good at keeping in touch, some are not. Some will be annoyed that you are not emailing them everyday. The truth is, is that you wont have time to be keeping in touch with everyone and that’s a reality that you will have to not feel guilty about.

8. Read your bible – Keep yourself in the word even if you don’t have a routine. You will find that church wont be a place where you can get either teaching you understand or teaching that’s going to feed you. But the Word of God will feed you. Keep in his word, enjoy His word, Delight in his Word, Weep over His Word and Rejoice that you have the Word of God in your hands.

9. Be prepared for crazy emotions – At times you will find yourself so happy your skipping down the road and then the next moment you are crying. You will feel alone and then very loved. This is normal, so don’t worry. But remember your emotions are not reliable – but God is. Your emotions go up and down but God stays the same. God is still God. That is a good truth to hold on to. Don’t be subject to your emotions, but know that God uses you in your weakness and when you are alone, you are actually very close to Jesus.

10. Love – Love the people, love the fruit lady, love your team mates, love other missionaries, love the crazy drunk man on the street, love the unlovable, love Jesus and do everything in Love. And enjoy every moment.

Collection of Webs (21)

A really great article in the NY Times on The Joy of Quiet – “We have more and more ways to communicate, as Thoreau noted, but less and less to say. Partly because we’re so busy communicating. And — as he might also have said — we’re rushing to meet so many deadlines that we hardly register that what we need most are lifelines.”

Glen Scrivener has written a great post on Marital Communion (or, in other words, sex)-  “If I sit in my pew until I really really feel a heart-felt connection to Christ, I’ll never take communion.  But if I’m assured that Christ is promised in the bread and wine, then the focus is taken off my feelings and put objectively onto the real offer of Christ. So it is in the bedroom. “

A wonderful post by Dan Hames on Reclaiming the old language of spirituality - “There is a difference between having faith, and depending on your faith.  Faith relies on the truth of the Word, and not on itself.  We may have many questions about our faith– its strength, goodness, quality, genuineness, and whatever– and can allow ourselves a healthy dose of pessimism about it.  My faith is not good. I’m not good.  But I don’t have faith in my faith!  Rather, I trust One who alone is good and true. “

Emma Scrivener wrote a great post on Heroes: Fallen or Pushed? – “I build them up in my head.  I praise them to their face and to others.  I consider myself a follower, a disciple, a devotee, a subscriber.  And in return, all I ask is that they never, ever make a mistake.”

The standards we live up to

We all have standards (and expectations) – standards that we try to live by and standards that we want others to live by. When I became a Christian at the age of 17 I quickly learnt the standards that were expected of me from other Christians. Those standards were: serve in church, read your bible everyday, don’t get drunk, don’t have sex outside of marriage, be a Calvinist, be a complimentarian, go to prayer meetings and make sure you root out your idols everyday.

Some of these are very cultural, I learnt this when I went to Peru and found that the standards of Christians there were very different. (In each culture they believe they are doing things biblically)

This has led me to think about this quite a bit recently. I realised that trying to live up to other people standards is crippling and leads to a path of guilt and feeling terrible. Why? Because I can’t live up to anyone’s standards or rules for living, I can’t tick anyone’s boxes and they can’t tick mine. To be honest I can’t even live up to my own standards! (There is a difference between standards I impose on people and a contract you have with work, like with relay there is a standard of you will do a study response and hand it in on time and I expect that, yet even in that there must be grace.)

In Tim Kellers wonderful booklet “The freedom of self-forgetfulness”, he says:

“I cannot live up to my parents standards – and that makes me feel terrible. I cannot live up to your standards – and that makes me feel terrible…Perhaps the solution is to set my own standards? But I cannot keep them either”

There is often a great feeling of guilt or shame when we don’t live up to someone’s standards – we feel like they are disappointed with us, they expected us to perform better and we haven’t and we haven’t ticked their boxes and we start feeling like a bad Christian, a second rate Christian compared to them. As I think about this and can resonate with this which I think it leads me to two things:

1. A word to leaders – what standards are you setting? The standards you set may lead people to death. Living under rules leads to a great burden. What about speaking more of Christ and showering your followers/sheep with the living water of Christ? Let your people enjoy the freedom of grace that Christ gives us. This makes me think how I will mentor my relays next year and students – will I set standards that causes death? Or give great freedom of grace with the overflowing living water of Christ. Speak more of Him and hearts will be changed and warmed.

2. A word to our guilty hearts – This feeling of trying to live up to people’s standards or your own standards will lead to death and brokenness. But Tim Keller says that there is a better way:

“Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance?… The moment we believe, God says “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”

Look at that! In Jesus we don’t have to perform – Jesus gave us the verdict and we didn’t lift a finger to perform. Our identity isn’t bundled up in how we live, or how we perform or how we live up to the standards of our church leaders, boss, friends, spouses and ourselves. Because you won’t ever live up to those expectations and we are not meant to. Our identity is wrapped up and clothed in Christ! There is no guilt in him. All that we may do in church, in our relationships, at work must come out of a love of Christ and knowing how much we are loved by the Father.

So then…

Reading my bible can’t come from the standards of “you should read it every day” but it should come out of a joy and love of wanting to know more of Jesus.

Serving in church shouldn’t come out of bullying or feeling guilty that you aren’t doing enough, but it should come out of a love for Christ and a love for those that are in him to see that they drink deeply from the springs of eternal life.

Evangelism shouldnt come out of fear of hell, guilty remarks of “this is what Christians should do” or bullying, but it should come out of a love for Christ and a joy in sharing the one you love with others in whichever style you want to.

If those areas are a struggle (and they always are for me) and I feel guilty then I need to remind my heart of Christ and sit at his feet, drink from his living waters and enjoy him which may take longer then people wish or I wish, but it depends on our hearts and how broken we have felt from these things. I really believe in time as we sit and enjoy Christ we will thirst for him in his word, we will outwardly pour love on those around us and in church and we will naturally speak of the one who binds broken hearts.

Would love to read your comments:

- Has living up to other people’s standards caused you guilt and heartache?

- How have you overcome that?

- Does that challenge you with how you set your own standards and standards for other people to follow?

First Year of Marriage

Yesterday marked our one year anniversary being married. I can’t believe time has flown so fast!  It has been an amazing year and I have to say that I love being married.

Before we got married we got many warnings about our first year, warnings that it would be the hardest year of our lives, that we would hate it and be ready for the divorce papers to be signed. So we went into marriage with a reality punch and found it surprisingly wonderful and a lot of fun. I guess people react in different ways, everyone is different and so some of that advice was helpful because marriage isn’t exactly the “happy ever after”, stare into each others eyes with fluffy bunnies eating grass around you and birds tweeting songs to your favourite love melody. Nope. You learn quickly that marriage is that of the mundane, where there is washing up, going food shopping, cleaning the house and working out finance. There are evenings where you just watch TV or read a book and there are weekends where hubby has to work. It’s not all adventures and romantic dinners because at some point the ironing needs to be done!

That’s life.

And its nice to share it with someone and that someone being my husband!

The Joy of the Lord

“It is the consciousness of the threefold joy of the Lord, His joy in ransoming us, His joy in dwelling within us as our Saviour and Power for fruitbearing and His joy in possessing us, as His Bride and His delight; it is the consciousness of this joy which is our real strength. Our joy in Him may be a fluctuating thing: His joy in us knows no change.” – Hudson Taylor

Have you ever tried to concentrate so hard to have joy in the Lord that you thought you would explode? Maybe you gave up. Days where you feel like you cant put any more effort into trying to muster up feelings of joy. Remember that verse – The joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh 8). And you think – HOW DOES THAT WORK!? How do I get that joy?? How do I get that strength? I dont feel joy and I dont feel strength.

Maybe we are working this from the wrong place. We always think this is talking about us but what if it wasn’t about your joy in Him? Or the effort you put into doing things for him?

What if its about the Father’s joy in us through Christ? What if it’s about what Christ has done and not what you are doing or have done? I dont know about you, but its a relief to know that its all about Jesus and not me and the Father gets Joy from his son and from all all those that are in His son. I think Hudson Taylor is right – Our joy in Him is fluctuating and unsteady, but his joy in us doesnt change and doesn’t that give us strength? When my joy dips to a low I have no need to muster up energy to find joy, but I can rest in Christ whom places great joy in me.

So the Joy that Christ has in me is my strength. Rather then the Joy I have in Christ is my strength. The joy of the LORD is my strength. Not the Joy I have in the LORD is my strength.

It changes things. This isnt dependant on me but the Lords Joy in me… and all those that are in Christ, the Father says to them:

“This is my son, whom I am well pleased” Mark 1:11.

23 Days Left

23 Days to go and what am I looking forward to? Christmas presents? A day off with family? Yes but also something more… So you may look at the human race and think why? Why did the Father send his son to us to die considering we turn to idols and things that fade away. The place that gives me a glimpse of the Fathers heart in all of this is Hosea 2v16-20:

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

Why? Because the church is a Bride and we are betrothed to the Son and all in love, mercy and faithfulness. We don’t deserve it. But soon we can call the Son our husband… ! There will be a wedding feast and so in 23 days time what am I looking forward to? Well the reminder of the Brides husband being born and a wedding feast to take place in the future. Just as I eat my turkey and stuffing, it reminds me of a better feast to come. (without sprouts I hope!)