How Dark Can It Get?

In life, in our interactions with one another, we often don’t see very far into the heart, into the past, into the experience of another. We see as far as they will allow us. At times someone can be so broken it’s written all over them, it’s evident. Such is the extent of their brokenness (that might be you – nothing wrong with that, except that it’s a sadness to be so visibly broken). But I think more often we conceal the darkness of ourselves, and the troubles of our past or present from sight. There is a western middle class cultural ethos of having to present as totally functioning and unstained. Being emotionally put together and in control. Otherwise, it’s an embarrassment – we might think.

But in the context of our church relationships as Christians, we will be (hopefully) prompted to share our burdens with others, to speak of the darkness within – sins committed by us or sins committed against us, or simply the ways the world has tempted us or battered us physically, mentally or spiritually. It should not surprise us to hear of the darkness within and from outside. Although I want to say, it often does surprise us to hear it. Why? Because all around us the world puts on emotional, physical and spiritual make-up. We look pretty to others but it’s not the whole picture. So when we finally get to hear a story of pain or hear a story of sins committed, we may be inwardly (or even outwardly!) surprised and perhaps even worried – “This shouldn’t be happening. This isn’t right. I thought you were a ‘good’ person. I thought you were a decent person. I thought you were ‘low maintenance’!” Such internal dialogue is simply a symptom or product of our world’s preoccupation to hide what’s inside.

In order to correct this thinking or prepare for such a thought, encounter or moment, let me suggest you do a few things.

Firstly, read the bible and discover the perspective of the Lord: “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Gen. 6:5) We are capable of great good. But that’s simply the outworking of God’s general grace. Can we truly merit that to our untainted selves? Nope.

Secondly, don’t have merely superficial relationships with people at church. Find out what’s under the make-up. To aid this, take off your own make-up. In the Anglican tradition we together confess our shortcomings in church. This is such an easy opportunity and space to talk with trusted brothers or sisters about the battles we have with sin. There is a wonderful freedom to be so free from sin that you can actually confess sin. We all know we can ‘confess’ without actually ‘confessing’. Sounds unintuitive. But that’s the place we find ourselves in. We may say, doctrinally, we are no longer bound by sin. But there is a cultural shame at certain sins regardless.

Thirdly, be careful not to say things like, “you might be struggling with [insert permissible sin such as greed], but at least you haven’t murdered someone.” Perhaps they have! We think we are (rarely) capable of committing serious sins. Let me advise caution here. We are capable of great evil. Don’t underestimate others, (and your own!) ability to sin.

Let us remember Jesus words,

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”’ (Matt. 9:10–13)

Racism, superiority, and love to those outside of our love.

If you have a superhuman olfactory sense for racial disrespect, or an uncanny tingle when arrogance is creeping around, then you’ll either be repulsed, or at least confronted and confused by Jesus in Mark 7:24-30. 

In Mark 7:24–30, there is an infamous interaction. I recommend you read it and the preceding story on ‘cleaness’ (but I’ll summarize it regardless).

Jesus heads into a Gentile land and while he’s meandering around a woman comes up to him. Her daughter is possessed by an impure spirit and begs Jesus to heal her, to cast out the demon. This woman is a Gentile, she is a Greek born in the area. In response to her plea Jesus says, “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” She responds, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And for her response, Jesus heals her daughter.

No doubt your eyes fix on one thing. Jesus calls this woman a dog. In today’s language we would call her a minority. She is a pagan dealing with Jews, she is a woman in a mans world, and her daughter is spiritually oppressed – she needs help. No doubt your friend or co-worker would find this kind of interaction “un-P.C” to say the least. And you may find it jarring or difficult to make sense of, especially if strong emotions well up in you.

But if you feel that sort of emotional reaction then you are in a position to understand this story the best.

In the passage immediately prior we see that the religious leaders, the revered in society, were the very ones Jesus condemned. But now in this story, the one who is looked down upon by society is the person Jesus commends. I would argue that she is considered by the Jewish people of the day (at least by the elitist rabbi’s) as “outside” of Gods help.

To help us understand the story I want us to try and be empathetic. Not empathetic towards this Greek woman. That will come later. I want us to be empathetic to the Jewish reader. I want you to put yourself in the Birkenstocks of the first disciples. First of all you’re not really sure why you are even in a gentile land. Sure, you’re following Jesus. But you don’t know why he is in this Gentile land, this non-Jewish land. Jesus is Jewish. He is here for the Jewish people. Now as this woman approaches your Rabbi, you instinctively recoil, perhaps literally taking a step back. This gentile comes from a background which is historically antagonistic to your people. You guys don’t play ball in the park. Her family lives on the other side of the train line.That’s not to mention the fact that she is a woman and the other rabbis said it is improper to be mingling with her. Then you find out that her daughter is under the bondage of an ‘unclean’ spirit. There is a growing sense of disgust inside of you (especially because you have a mind for things ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’).

She asks Jesus for help.

Jesus knows exactly what you’re thinking at this point.  When she asks for help, it’s as if Jesus says the very thing you were thinking, “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27)

“Yes Jesus, thank you for speaking my mind”, says the Jewish disciple. “The Jewish people are ‘the children of God’, and the Gentiles are ‘dogs’.”

But suddenly she replies, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28)

You want to tell her to stop bothering the rabbi. You’ve done that before and you’ll be doing it plenty more times. So you’re about to tell her to get going when Jesus speaks, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” (Mark 7:29)

Now you’re properly confused. Jesus has just helped this woman who you as a Jewish disciple thought was ‘outside’ of God’s help. In your mind, Jesus was not supposed to do that. You were told by the religious leaders that the Jewish Messiah was going to help the Jews. And you fully expect that means only the Jews. But now the Messiah is helping the people you thought were outside of God’s help.

No one in the context of this story is expecting Jesus to cross the geographical, ethnic, gender and religious borders, to help, to bless and to befriend this woman.

In the previous passage the religious elite, the Jewish Pharisee, the teacher of the law, thought they had everything figured out with their rules and traditions. They came from the right pedigree, followed the right rules (and then some), and lived the right way. One problem – it was all in vain. They had evil hearts. They looked good on the outside but were rotten on the inside. It was the most revered of Jewish society who were most criticised by Jesus. It’s not the righteous but the sinner who Jesus came to save. Point been, we are all sinners. But ironically, the religious elite did not nderstand this most basic teaching.

And now, in an incredible contrast, with immense irony, it was the person who was least likely to understand Jesus that actually understands Jesus. The “clean” Jewish religious elitists hate Jesus. Yet the pagan Gentile woman, whose daughter is possessed by an “un-clean ” spirit is saved by Jesus.

Let’s unpack what Jesus said.

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27)

First let the children eat. Jesus came first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles. There is an order, there is a priority. This is rooted in the promises of God in the Old Testament. Through Abraham all the nations will be blessed.

The deep irony of the story is that the Jewish religious establishment (the children of Abraham) are rejecting Jesus. They’re sitting at the table and they are not eating their food.

The whole parable gets turned on its head. The dog under the table becomes a child of Abraham as they receive the blessings of God in meekness and humility while the children of their own stubborn will reject the food, the blessings of God. She is the first person in this gospel to actually understand one of the parables of Jesus. She puts herself in the parable, “Yes but even the dogs eat the children’s crumbs”

It is difficult to understand why Jesus says what he says. But I would suggest he was been intentionally provocative to make a teaching point. That would be very in keeping with his style. I would suggest that he was ‘voicing’ what all the jews at the time were thinking. And he did so to make a point. To point out the irony of the rejecting Jewish people and the accepting Gentile people.

We will miss this point if we are not reading the Bible in its context. If we get hung up on the verse in isolation. We’ve got to read this verse in light of the whole story (the woman is the one that is saved and helped in the end). Then we’ve got to read the whole story in light of the whole book (the irony that the Jewish establishment regularly reject Jesus).  Then we must read the whole book in light of the whole Bible (through Abraham all nations will be blessed, see Genesis).

At first, to our modern ears we are offended that Jesus did not immediately help this woman but mimicked the thoughts of the time. However, consider, The first century reader is offended that Jesus helped her at all! We are offended that Jesus spoke the way he did only because we have been taught to love her the way that Jesus actually loved her. Jesus was the one who taught us to love beyond our own boundaries.

God’s love extends beyond the people of Israel. Remember the promise, that through Abraham all nations will be blessed. That is why today we experience the blessings of Christ. We forget that Jesus came first for the Jew then for the Gentile. God had an order of priority in keeping with the promises that he made. (This is a blind spot for the average Australian because we are such a “flat” society. We have very little time or respect for hierarchy or priority – not that these distinctions are based on ‘human value’).

All of us today ought to recognise ourselves in this woman. We have become children of Abraham through the loving adoption of God (if we are not Jewish). It is not our birth right, it is God’s gracious gift.

Of course there are further implications that are broader than this. The gospel is for all people. That’s a little bit easier for us to say now because racism is so abhorrent to the modern mind. But as you are surely aware racism is alive and well. The real problem is that we don’t like people who aren’t like us no matter what the difference is.

We can think that some people (people we don’t like) are unable to receive God’s help (or blessing). Let this passage be a warning against that kind of thinking. We must search our hearts and make sure this kind of arrogance is not present.

But I would also suggest that there is a kind of Western arrogance that this passage brings up in us. Out of all the things in this passage the demonic possession highlights it in us. We are naturally inclined to dismiss this woman’s plight, that her daughter is oppressed by an unclean spirit. We might think that it’s merely a medical condition, that the people of their time aren’t enlightened like us today. All the daughter needed was some counselling and Vallium.

If that is our thinking, then let me challenge us. In Africa and Southeast Asia, where witch doctors are the powerbrokers, they would have no problem understanding the demonic oppression happening in this story. Of course we may look down on African and Southeast Asian culture and think that they simply don’t understand as much about medicine as we do. We might think that they are ignorant.

But isn’t that ironic. We are then guilty of the very thing we abhor. We are guilty of the very same thing the Jewish elites of the time were guilty of. They looked down on Gentiles with a sense of superiority. And us Westerners we can easily look down on other cultures thinking them unlearned and ignorant (especially with their spiritual superstitions). But of course, their intuitive sense of the spiritual is not an ignorance of modern enlightenment thinking. I suggest that modern enlightenment thinking has given us an ignorance of the spiritual.

Let me point out that the global church is not Western. It’s African, it’s Asian. The non-Western world is very ready to receive the blessings of God while the Western world is more like the religious elite in the Gospels. Except we’re not “religiously elite”, we consider ourselves “intellectually elite”. The price for this arrogance is that our Western ideals in principle reject God and his blessings. If anything we should be cautious we are not the ones sitting at the table and rejecting the food God puts before us.

Creative Glory and Moral Glory – Psalm 19

There is a sense of God we feel as we wander about in creation. I know you get that sense in your bones because I’ve read about it,

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge” (Psa. 19:1–2)

Psalm 19 raises and addresses one of the most common human experiences and desires we have. We want God to make himself known to us. But that is what God is doing. When we (or those around us) complain that God is obscuring himself, the problem is not with God but with us. Perhaps we are not listening.

Creation is speaking, God is speaking, and we need to be listening.

Psalm 19 speaks to our deep desire to know God and it makes two points. The first point strengthens the latter (although we find the first to be more striking). First, God has revealed himself in the creation and secondly, God has revealed himself, in his word.

Revelation Through Creation

This is a universal disclosure. That means nobody is without a sense of God. We are all trying to make sense of it.

This is what the Psalm says

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psa. 19:1–4)

I know you’ve had this experience. Think about the time you went camping and looked up at the stars. When you visited that world-famous location. When you went for a simple walk or sat on the porch and marvelled at everything around you; the seasons, the great trees, the tiny flowers, the waves of the sea, or the cliffs carved into the mountains. Even the mathematical beauty of creation, or the minutia of creation. Take a moment to consider how that felt. There was a tangible sense of the divine in it all.

Reading Psalm 19 we get an explanation for this innate feeling of awe and wonder at creation. It is revealing God’s Glory to us. Creation is singing his praising, shouting out his power and glory, his divine nature, his “otherness” – all without a word.

I want to propose that there is no satisfying answer to why we are so filled with an innate sense of God in creation other than the fact that the bible is right. Creation declares his glory. If there were no God behind creation why should we universally feel that there is? No evolutionary psychology does justice to this phenomenon. Instead, those who promote this narrative conveniently dismiss the universal evidence of our subjective recognition that there is a creator behind the creation. This arbitrary dismissal of such strong evidence undermines the whole argument; that there is no God and that we were made by no one for no reason. That our wonder at the beauty of creation is a meaningless evolutionary hangover… how unsatisfying to be told your experience is simply an illusion. Besides the fact that it doesn’t do justice to the experience, it is a dismissal of the experience.

But the bible tells us that we can comprehend God’s power and glory in creation. The problem is, as Romans 1 makes clear, we suppress the truth about God. The ‘world’ around us may tell us that there is no God even though the ‘world’ we live in tells us otherwise.

God is speaking, we need to be listening. Simply look up at the sky and be reminded of the glory of God.

Revelation Through Relation

Earlier we said everyone wants to know if there is a God. But we also want to know what God is like. So although creation reflects the glory of God, his power and his “otherness”, it doesn’t tell us what God is like. We need to hear from God himself. Which is what God does, He speaks.

And what he says is a display of his holiness, his glory.

“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.”(Psa. 19:7–9)

God’s law, his commands, his guiding words for our lives, reflect his moral character – his goodness. As God speaks to us to teach us about himself and to guide us in his ways, we learn that his word is; perfect, refreshing, trustworthy, right, joy-giving, radiant and enduring. God’s word shows us his moral goodness – his Glory.

But something important has just happened between verses 6 and 7. We just went from verses 1-6 – “The heavens declare the glory of God”, to suddenly, verse 7, “The law of the LORD is perfect”. There is a sudden jarring shift. That’s because the poem is making comparisons. The writer is comparing the glory of God in creation to the glory of God in His word. Creation is great. God’s word is greater.

“[God’s Word] is more precious than gold, than much pure gold; [It is] sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.” (Psa. 19:10)

Think about what this means in your life, especially as we have just spent some time remembering the awe and wonder inspired by God’s creation. That feeling you get when you look at creation, that sense of the divine, should be eclipsed by the glory revealed in God’s words. His goodness and holiness as seen in his word outshines his power and ‘otherness’ as seen in creation. What we glimpse in creation we get full force in his word.

What we have just read from the psalm is in complete opposition to the modern narrative that you will hear. This psalm challenges the modern narratives we are inundated with and encourages and strengthens the Christian to stand strong in the revealed goodness of God our creator.

You will hear loud voices proclaim that Christianity is bad for you and bad for the world. Society is going through a momentous shift. Far from God’s word being good and promoting holiness and a moral life worth striving for, others argue the Bible promotes an immoral life. But nothing could be further from the truth. We’re not talking about Christians. We’re talking about the bible. Christians are flawed but that doesn’t reflect the bible’s moral teaching.

I think it’s worth pointing out some of the flaws in this sort of argument (that the bible is bad for you), as we reflect on Psalm 19 and its abundant praise of God’s moral teachings set out in his word.

Firstly, to say that Christianity is morally reprehensible (from a western perspective) requires the use of Christian ethics to make that argument. The majority of western secular culture is based upon Judaeo-Christian values. It’s just that pervasive.

Secondly, in the modern western secular culture, a prime example of evil is oppression and the subjugation of powerless people. That kind of moral value is again a Judaeo-Christian value. Eastern cultures, early Greek and Roman cultures would find this argument incomprehensible. In the world of old if you could oppress and subjugate then it was your moral prerogative to do so. In the most literal sense, ‘might was right.’ Honouring the poor and weak was an idiotic basis for a society. It was Judeo-Christian values that said the oppression and the subjugation of powerless people is wrong.

Thirdly, the modern concept of treating people with dignity, respect and ultimately with equality, is entirely a Judaeo-Christian value. You would find it reprehensible, and so would most (but not necessarily all) people in Australia, if I decided to leave my child on the street to die simply because she was a girl. The very thought of it stirs up anger. Yet we find it hard to believe that 2000 years ago nobody cared. There are historical documents, of husbands writing home to their wives saying exactly what I said and saying it in passing. Like it was nothing (read John Dicksons, ‘bullies and saints’). The only reason this stirs up anger in us is because we have been so taught by God’s word and so shaped by God’s word that we can’t help but have a mind for dignity and respect and equality. Thank God for that.

I haven’t even touched on charity, health care, welfare, the existence of a weekend, science or sexual ethics. These systems and values that we have today find their inception in the Judeo-Christian ethic derived from God’s word.

One might argue, “Of course you would say that Robbie, you are a Christian.” But I would simply say back, “You would only say that if you haven’t read the history.” Every argument I just made was made by a non-Christian historian, Tom Holland, in his book “Dominion”. It is simply profound the impact that God’s word has had on our society (through his people, and sometimes despite his people).

We simply must affirm,

“The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.”(Psa. 19:7)

That ought to fill us with awe and wonder at God’s moral Glory. It far outshines any sense of awe and wonder that creation inspires in us. Such is the holiness of God as revealed in his word.

Life is a given: how losing my first baby affected the way I viewed my second pregnancy.

Life is so precious, and the arrival of a new baby is naturally a joyfully anticipated event. 

In the weeks before the birth of our second child I had many strangers ask me, ‘when are you due?’ And one old lady who I hadn’t met before but who lived on my waddling route even came out one day and said that she’d been watching me and wondering when I would pop. 

Everyone was waiting for this baby. And my husband and I were also eagerly anticipating our second little one’s birth. But for us, behind our excitement was the reality that our first child had died. In July 2020 I gave birth to our daughter, Ellie. She lived eight days in the Westmead Children’s Hospital NICU, before dying from an inoperable heart condition. We returned home without a baby. 

Despite stats and the anecdotes of others, one’s first experiences of something leave a mark on one’s expectations.  

For me, this resulted in a frequent emotional disconnect with the assumptions behind the confident joy of my beloved family and friends. As though everyone else were able to blissfully expect that I would very soon have a healthy, live baby, as though there were no possibility that anything could ever go wrong… But for me, it had before.

And so I drew this short comic. 

The intention of this post is not to have a go at anyone, but rather to share my experiences as a bereaved mother. So that, 1) readers who have not experienced this grief may empathise and have greater awareness of what other people may be going through in a first pregnancy post child loss. And that, 2) those who have experienced grief relating to infants may find some resonance here. 

Written and drawn January 2022, by J. Nichols.

The Almighty(‘s) Government

In a dark world there are many clouds. Concerns about China loom on the horizon. The storm clouds of climate change are always present in the newsfeed.  There have been stifling government restrictions brought about by covid-19. There is a general cultural failing at upholding women with dignity, but particularly so in our Parliament.

So what hope has the world offered you in light of all these problems?

In many, perhaps most of the cases, our world puts its hope in the government and it keeps telling you to do the same thing.

In this secular age, the government is the highest authority. Hope in light of China is governmental diplomacy (think political boycotting). Hope in light of climate change is governmental initiatives. Hope in light of government restrictions is of course, government freedoms. Hope in light of the mistreatment of women in the government, is ironically, government bodies introducing stricter governance on said government.

So much of our world’s hope is in government change or government action. In the minds of many that’s the highest authority to appeal to. If there is any hope for a brighter future it will come from the Almighty… government.

There certainly isn’t anything wrong with wanting change from the government. But if that’s all we’ve got then it’s a pretty dim light in a pretty dark place.

But the bible speaks of another king of another kingdom. King Jesus. Isaiah speaks of this king saying the “government will rest on his shoulders” and his reign will bring freedom to the oppressed, hope to the hopeless and peace without end. This is a ‘government’ (a kingdom) like no other (see Is 9:6-7. The classic Christmas text). No other human King can do what Jesus does. Every human ruler on whom the government rests at best brings temporary relief to some present crisis. At worst they create the crisis. And every leader goes the way of mankind. They die and their dynasty and efforts are left to another who will also go the way of mankind.

Not so with King Jesus. Jesus is born a child, he is fully man and yet he is fully God (Is. 9:6). And on his shoulders “the government will rest.” As people we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. In our current climate we are always pointing the finger at our leaders (sometimes rightly, but other times – maybe mostly – we do it because we are way way way heaps heaps heaps smarter than them and if only I was in charge the world would be better and also why can’t I keep my own life in order again???). Yes, we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. But with King Jesus he shoulders the load himself. He takes our burdens. But he doesn’t do it just as a man. He is the mighty God, he’s the prince of peace. That makes the world of difference. Jesus rules with perfect justice and perfect righteousness. Not just temporarily, because he has conquered death and is raised and seated at the right hand of God where he rules forever.

All of this means His is not an earthly rule but a heavenly rule. In one sense we are really hoping for an earthly rule, like a theocracy – “Jesus for president!” But that’s probably because we are tempted to put our hopes in this world and we are tempted by the solutions that this world offers us day in and day out. But our hopes go beyond this world to a heavenly King who rules all creation in justice and in righteousness. Under his Lordship and in his kingdom (his government) there is peace for his people. You might say, “peace amidst war”, there is light amidst the darkness, there is hope in a hopeless world. That’s what this king provides. That’s what Jesus provides.

“Simple Church” by Rainer and Geiger – A Brief Summary

Simple Church is a church process designed around focusing on discipleship, particularly the process of discipleship. The book is based off research done by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger comparing ‘thriving and vibrant churches’ to churches that are not, while seeking to find what makes the difference between the two. Their answer is “simplicity”.

Complex churches have a variety of programs running all through the week. Congregation members are encouraged to attend a huge number of these many different programs. For the congregation members it means they are just going from program to program depending on what might be on that week (or whatever tickles their fancy) with no clear through-line tying everything together in a ‘discipleship process’. Congregation members have little time for anything else, while at the same time they are contributing to ‘spiritual congestion’ within the church. Nobody is moving forward, maturing. The staff in this situation all have their assigned program, and this assignment gives them tunnel vision. There is no sense of ‘the whole’, just what is assigned to one or another. The lead pastor in this situation is a program manager, just keeping the whole thing afloat.

The main problem with this ‘model’ is that there is no clear process to discipleship in a complex church. The programs don’t connect to each other with an overarching purpose of growing people in maturity. Rather it is just assumed that people would grow in maturity as they attend all these different programs. The staff are not aligned because there is no real process to be aligned to. The church motto (or mottos) is just nominal. Every idea for a ministry or outreach or event etc., is a good idea, just so long as the calendar has enough space (which it doesn’t).

A simple church on the other hand, is simple. It has clarity, a clear process and movement, the staff are aligned with the ministry philosophy, and there is great focus on the process. This means that every ‘program’ has its place within the discipleship process. It can be clearly understood why this program contributes to the overall process of making disciples and growing disciples in maturity who will eventually become disciple makers themselves. The whole process is kept in mind for any particular program’s part in that process.

Clarity in the process starts with a clear definition of what the process is. We might consider this the ‘motto’ of the church, for example, ‘we exist to love God and love neighbour’. The language is simple, it is short and concise, it requires no great explanation, it is itself a process (one must first Love God to then love their neighbour). This kind of simple process has great clarity and can be taught to the whole church and agreed to by the staff.

Movement through the process is clearly defined and expected. Disciple making in this process looks like people growing in their love for God and then growing in their love for their neighbours. All the different ‘programs’ clearly contribute to this movement in disciple making. If they do not, then they’re not run. But the programs are not just standalone events. Each is to be connected to the whole. So between the programs, between the movement in disciple making, there is a clearly defined progression to make. A congregation member in their early stages grows in their love of God. It is then expected of them to grow in their love of neighbour, and then they serve their neighbour. Each step is linked to the last and results in the movement of disciple making, the process of disciple making.

The staff in this picture are all aligned to this process. If they are not, then it may be inappropriate that they are staff. It is more important that they are aligned philosophically with the process of the church than having particularly great skills in running a certain program. No one is an island in this process, and everyone is working together, having clearly defined roles that contribute to the process of disciple making. The pastor in this situation is more like a designer, writing up the blueprint and seeing it come to fruition in the context of a team.

Focus on the process is essential. It means that if a ministry is not explicitly contributing to the process of disciple making according to the church’s defined ‘motto’ then it won’t make the cut. And this means that most ideas and desires won’t make the cut. One of the difficulties in this aspect is that churches tend to become more complex, or they ‘drift’ towards complexity naturally. So a regular refocusing is essential as well.

This, in a nutshell, is the ‘simple church process’.

Rainer, T. S., & Geiger, E. (2011). Simple church: Returning to God’s process for making disciples. B & H Pub. Group.

Psalm 13 – A Model for Suffering and Lament

How do you deal with your pain?

We could ignore it and pretend it’s not there. We could medicate ourselves so that we feel less pain or suffering. If the pain is caused by someone who wants to hurt us then we want to hurt them back. We could blame others for our pain, sometimes that makes us feel better. Or we could compare our suffering to someone else. We might say, “at least my pain is not as bad as their pain” or we say, “I am suffering much more than other people are, I deserved pity”… and that makes us feel better.

Some of these have their place. There is a place to simply ignore suffering. There is a place to medicate against suffering. There is a place to fight back against an adversary. And a bit of perspective can help us with our own suffering.

But that’s not how God has taught us to deal with pain and suffering. The way the Christian deals with hurt is given to us in Psalm 13 (amongst others).

God tells us to turn to him, complain to him, ask him for help, and affirm our faith in him.

First, we must turn to God.

If we don’t turn to God then the alternative is that we rely on ourselves to find the answer to our pain and suffering. The problem with that is that our own resources will eventually deplete.  Hence, we must first turn to God using his resources.

That means we open God’s word. Perhaps you thought turning to God means turning to God in prayer. Which is true, we turn to God in prayer. But we must first turn to God in his word. We must first hear from God. Because God will teach us how to pray.

Secondly, we complain to God.

I don’t think any of us have a problem complaining to God. We have got a lot of stuff to complain about. Complaining to God is going to be the easiest thing for us to do. Although it’s always an emotional and turbulent stage.

“How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psa. 13:1–2)

Thirdly, ask God for help.

You can’t just stop at the complaining stage. If you’re anything like me, that’s what you do. In life I get stuck at the complaining stage. Jemima, my wife, will happily complain to you about how bad I am when I get stuck in the complaining stage. It’s too easy to get stuck complaining to God all the time. You’ve got to move beyond that. You’ve got to ask God for help.

“Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.” (Psa. 13:3–4)

The Christian has many trials, and many enemies.

For us living in Australia, it can be as simple as certain people who want to pass awful laws. Some of the laws in Victoria, basically exist to undermine Christian ethics and values. They are self-proclaimed enemies of God.

We live in a broken world where everything seems against us at no personal fault. You face some sort of trial, whether at work, or home. Whether financial or health related – physical or mental health deteriorates.

Then there’s our own sin. When you have a heart on fire for the Lord, there is nothing you hate more than the enemy that dwells within. The sin that wants to wreck your life. You want nothing more than to get rid of it, to defeat it for good. But you just can’t seem to win the battle against temptation, whatever form it takes.

And of course, there is the archenemy, Satan, the Devil. A personal spiritual entity whose only purpose it seems is to accuse us and tempt us. It’s hard to describe spiritual warfare but it’s naïve to ignore spiritual warfare, to ignore this dangerous enemy.

Whenever you face these trials, these enemies, turn to God, complain to God and ask God for help. 

Finally, we must reaffirm our faith in God. 

This is possibly the easiest part of the process… to miss! But it is equally one of the most important parts of the process. As Christians it is essential that we remember and proclaim who God is, especially when in pain or trouble.

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’S praise, for he has been good to me.” (Psa. 13:5–6)

The writer reaffirms their trust in God’s character. The writer praises God because God has been good to them. But get this, their circumstances have not changed. They are not praising God because between verse 4 and verse 5 God immediately acted in some way. They are praising God because of who he is and because he does save (the exodus from Egypt is surely in the mind of the writer and the cross of Jesus Christ should be in our minds). God saves his people. God loves his people. I will therefore praise God no matter what circumstance I find myself in.

When we turn to God, when we complain to God, and when we ask God for help, we are doing it because we are feeling it. We say the first half of the psalm because we are feeling the pain. We say the second half of the psalm even when we don’t feel it! The writer is choosing to reaffirm their faith in God. They are choosing to praise the Lord. Don’t just praise God when you feel like praising God. Don’t let your feelings or your circumstances dictate when you praise God.

No matter your feelings and no matter your circumstances, turn to God, complain to God, ask God for help and in the end, praise God.

Struggles with Faith

When someone says they struggle with the faith, what comes next could be a myriad of different issues. People may struggle with an intellectual aspect to the faith – perhaps it’s the reliability of the gospel, or philosophical questions regarding suffering and God’s sovereignty. Others may struggle to simply ‘feel it’ (coming from a Pentecostal background, I can easily recall people who no longer walk in God’s ways because they never ‘felt it’). Others struggle with the faith because the allures of the world are much too strong for them to handle, and they succumb.

In what way do you struggle with the faith?

I think we all have our struggles, and we each feel them in different ways. One that I haven’t mentioned yet is that we can struggle in the faith because we are not seeing God’s promises fulfilled (and I might add, fulfilled as we might expect them to be fulfilled).

Personally, this is one aspect that I find challenging in my own walk, and perhaps it’s the same for you.

God has promised many things. Some promises that come to mind are promises such as,

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matt. 16:18)

And,

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” (Rom. 6:20–22)

I don’t want to go too deeply into these two topics, but to summarise them, God will grow his church and God will sanctify his people.

These are just two things that I struggle with at times. Obviously if the church is in a season of growth, or I’m meeting with someone whose life is completely changed for the better, I’m not struggling very much to believe these promises. God is fulfilling them in front of my very eyes.

But more often than not (in my own experience), I fail to see these things (as I might expect to see them).

Now there is a lot to unpack here and I would readily expect to be misunderstood on these points so please read me right. I believe God is always fulfilling his promises. I believe that despite not seeing it at times or for a season. This is because my faith doesn’t rest on my experience of these matters. God has already accomplished them.

If I was to do some self-diagnosis, I would simply tell myself that I’m short-sighted and my memory doesn’t serve me very well. Not that this makes me feel any better when I just want to see people saved and changed before my eyes! But it does help.

So if you’re anything like me, be encouraged.

Our perspective on God’s work is often very limited, and even now many decades of life is a short span of time in the history of God’s growing kingdom. God may not do what we had hoped in the way that we had hoped. But it will far more often be the case that God has done so much more than we had hoped. Who of us has such a vast imagination that God’s wonderful grace does not surprise us? Our most fantastic dreams about God’s work and God’s kingdom are but mere watery reflections of his ability and his work. Were we to really see what and how the Lord is at work, I dare say we would feel ashamed for even having read such a post as this – let alone having written it!

Let us keep trusting in God’s promises despite our limited perspective and our troubled hearts. For there is always more than meets the eye when it comes to God. We would do well to remember that.

“The Experiment of Faith”

When John Stott became a Christian, he spoke of his initial experience as taking, “the experiment of faith” – or to paraphrase, “I just gave it a go”. It got me thinking about how I became a Christian. I remember the time when I had exhausted many of the initial questions I had and at the end of that list decided to take “the experiment of faith”, from which I have not stopped. I have not looked back. Neither did Stott, nor many millions of other Christians for whom that is their story.

My guess is that many of us are like that. Perhaps we tell the story a bit differently though. I know I have, not intentionally, but because I did not reflect enough upon my experience. There were many aspects to my journey of becoming a Christian. But this aspect I had forgotten for some time, or at least I had not realised the significance of it.

So when I thought about how I became a Christian, for a while there was an emphasis on a ‘lightbulb’ moment as it were, or an emphasis on going to church, none of which is not significant. But there was also a distinct, “I’ll just give it a crack and see what happens”.

Consider what this may mean in our conversations with those who are yet to see the glory of Jesus. There are many parts to our evangelism. You want to be in a good relationship with them (generally), and you want to faithfully speak the gospel. But we can also call people to simply ‘test it for themselves’.

This is a very light-on approach and could be just the sort of prod one might need. God is good, and when we approach God we can see that for ourselves. Many will rely on what they have heard third hand about God and about Jesus from others who are not Christians. There is a place to simply invite someone to, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” (Psa. 34:8)

“The experiment of faith” – Foreword in Cross of Christ, p.8, Alistair McGrath Quoting Dudley-Smith, John Stott.

Modern law(lessness)

The modern human of western values is in the process of trying to re-write moral laws. What was once right is now wrong, what was once bad is acceptable, what was once a grey area is a display of the self – an expression of authenticity.

Where do these modern moral laws come from?

Much has been written on this. But basically, they come from an unmoored genesis of morality, with the only alternative being the individual as the morality maker, doing their own little dance and making it rain good stuff.

How stark a contrast this thinking is with Rom. 7:7

“What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Rom. 7:7)

Our age is comprised of a mostly therapeutic worldview, where pain is wrong and feeling good is a moral obligation. The basis of this worldview is a shifting subjectivity rather than seeing the world as a moral world where there is inherent good and inherent evil within an action or attitude.

What’s this mean? It means our age does not really know what is right and wrong for they do not have someone outside of themselves telling them what is right and wrong. The moderner is a law unto themselves. But get enough of them together and they set the law for everyone else too. Like kids playing in a playground, setting the rules to their games – all the while unawares they are fenced in and supervised by another who has set the rules already.

This has and will cause a sort of lawlessness. But God speaks to us from outside of our world. He speaks as the creator and lawgiver with authority and holiness. Now we know by what moral standard our world is measured against.

But being left with a knowledge of our darkness is a burden unbearable, and it only becomes all the more unbearable the more we look into the law of God. Even living according to our own laws is unbearable.

To this God speaks through Christ. He offers us a righteousness outside of ourselves. Just as the law comes from outside showing the darkness inside, so too does righteousness come from outside of us. It comes from Christ and is received by faith.

Set free from the master of sin, we are not our own but belong body and soul, in life and death to God and to our saviour Jesus Christ, to live for him in holiness according to his ways by the power of His Spirit.