Consistency seems to be a bit of a buzz word at the moment (at least amongst the circles I move in). Football managers talk about needing it to get results, at school we need to teach at a consistent level in order to make children progress (and to tick a few boxes for ‘The Management’), and we often bemoan the lack of it when we are looking to apportion blame for what we see as injustices (for example – why do some dual carriageways have a 30mph limit and a speed camera every seven yards?) Not to mention the fact that it is a topic of some controversy when applied to custard.

Generally, consistency is considered a good thing, as I alluded to above. We get results by being consistent; desirable outcomes are achieved by maintaining certain standards. There are obviously going to be exceptions, but when we see someone with a good job, we assume they worked hard consistently at school and/or university. When our team is riding high in the table, we know that they have been consistent in not losing, or conning referees into awarding dubious penalties. It’s rare that to consider consistency a negative attribute; at worst, we might consider a consistent person to be dull or predictable, but these qualities aren’t inherently detrimental. In fact, we could consider consistency to be an essential quality. I can’t think of any jobs or roles in which at least some degree of consistency is required.

The problem is that being consistent is often – in fact, usually – hard work. Just turning up for work day in, day out is a tiring process after a while, particularly when you leave and return in total darkness. I’m struggling to be consistently enthusiastic about my kids’ eight o’clock Saturday swimming lessons for that very reason. To be consistent in some areas is relatively easy – we get into routines after a while – but to be consistent when the goalposts are constantly shifting is much more difficult. This requires a mental toughness and resilience, and the ability to adapt, often at short notice. I find that this is the most draining aspect of trying to maintain consistency – much more draining than physically doing the same actions again and again. Writing on this blog is one example; having set myself the informal precedent of writing something at least every 2 weeks, it can often be difficult to see that through. Last night I stared at the screen for half an hour or so, trying to formulate what I’m saying now, but failing, as I hadn’t thought it through much.

But as we’ve been so often told, in order to achieve something you have to work at it. And if we’ve worked hard at something, we can rightly assume that there will be benefits at the end of the journey. In terms of our jobs, the amount of respect we gain, our relationships – it’s clear that being consistently positive, consistently doing what’s right, brings us success. In the Bible, we’re told to be consistent in talking to God in prayer, and in living out our relationship with Jesus. This gives us inner strength and builds us up. We’re told to speak always in a graceful way to other people, in order to convey the fact that Christ lives in us. And we’re told to meet together regularly, to share our stuff and to praise God. This leads to the outpouring of God’s joy, both amongst us as believers and amongst those who don’t yet know him.

The Bible also says that one of the benefits of being consistent in our thinking as Christians is that there will be no division amongst us – and therefore no conflict (I’ll just put the can of worms back on the shelf…. there we go……) I’ve just started reading the book of Exodus as part of the E100 challenge that our church is doing at the moment. At the moment it’s the story of Moses (you’ll know it if you’ve seen Prince of Egypt). A couple of verses in the story spoke to me of God’s consistency. In chapter 3 v6, God says to Moses, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ (God is saying that he’s been knocking around for a long time). He repeats that phrase a couple more times in chapter 3, and adds, ‘This is my name (I AM) for ever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’ God intends to be around for the whole of known time, and is himself outside of it (his name is always I AM…..). A few hundred years later, David cottoned on to this idea of God’s consistency when he wrote the Psalms, with lines like, ‘The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day the pour forth speech…… God is…an ever-present help in trouble……. The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him……. The Lord remembers us and will bless us….. The faithfulness of the Lord endures forever…..’ What should our response be to God’s consistency, and our own frailty in that area? More advice from the Bible: ‘Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always….. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forever more……’

As these are embedded into our lives so they become the touch-stone for the things that really matter; the things we value determine our priorities – what we do and how we live our lives. Therefore it is essential that our values reflect the heart of Christ.

1  Value the Kingdom  Prioritise Jesus’ priority  Do what Jesus said to do

“Seek first the Kingdom of God”  Matthew 6:33

2  Value prayer  A culture of prayer first  In all things

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests let your requests to God” Philippians 4:6

3  Value the Holy Spirit’s resources  Live in God’s enabling / empowering - God-centred living

“Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always”  Psalm 105:4

4  Value people  People matter to God   Investing in people for the Kingdom

“… to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices”   Mark 12:3

5  Value God’s revelation  Seeing what the Father sees  Recognising His purposes

He has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.  Ephesians 1:3

6  Value God’s calling   He has shaped you to serve Him

Using the gifts you have received, faithfully administering the grace of God given to you.   1 Peter 4:10

7  Value each other’s gifts  We are all part of Christ’s body

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  For we are the Body of Christ   1Co 12:27

These values are foundational to all we do

These seven values are foundational for Kingdom living and have an immediate impact on our life and ministry.  The expression of God’s Kingdom is validated as we live lives that are Christ-centred and God dependent.

Make this your daily pursuit. 

31 January 2012

Consistency seems to be a bit of a buzz word at the moment (at least amongst the circles I move in). Football managers talk about needing it to get results, at school we need to teach at a consistent level in order to make children progress (and to tick a few boxes for ‘The Management’), and we often bemoan the lack of it when we are looking to apportion blame for what we see as injustices (for example – why do some dual carriageways have a 30mph limit and a speed camera every seven yards?) Not to mention the fact that it is a topic of some controversy when applied to custard.

Generally, consistency is considered a good thing, as I alluded to above. We get results by being consistent; desirable outcomes are achieved by maintaining certain standards. There are obviously going to be exceptions, but when we see someone with a good job, we assume they worked hard consistently at school and/or university. When our team is riding high in the table, we know that they have been consistent in not losing, or conning referees into awarding dubious penalties. It’s rare that to consider consistency a negative attribute; at worst, we might consider a consistent person to be dull or predictable, but these qualities aren’t inherently detrimental. In fact, we could consider consistency to be an essential quality. I can’t think of any jobs or roles in which at least some degree of consistency is required.

The problem is that being consistent is often – in fact, usually – hard work. Just turning up for work day in, day out is a tiring process after a while, particularly when you leave and return in total darkness. I’m struggling to be consistently enthusiastic about my kids’ eight o’clock Saturday swimming lessons for that very reason. To be consistent in some areas is relatively easy – we get into routines after a while – but to be consistent when the goalposts are constantly shifting is much more difficult. This requires a mental toughness and resilience, and the ability to adapt, often at short notice. I find that this is the most draining aspect of trying to maintain consistency – much more draining than physically doing the same actions again and again. Writing on this blog is one example; having set myself the informal precedent of writing something at least every 2 weeks, it can often be difficult to see that through. Last night I stared at the screen for half an hour or so, trying to formulate what I’m saying now, but failing, as I hadn’t thought it through much.

But as we’ve been so often told, in order to achieve something you have to work at it. And if we’ve worked hard at something, we can rightly assume that there will be benefits at the end of the journey. In terms of our jobs, the amount of respect we gain, our relationships – it’s clear that being consistently positive, consistently doing what’s right, brings us success. In the Bible, we’re told to be consistent in talking to God in prayer, and in living out our relationship with Jesus. This gives us inner strength and builds us up. We’re told to speak always in a graceful way to other people, in order to convey the fact that Christ lives in us. And we’re told to meet together regularly, to share our stuff and to praise God. This leads to the outpouring of God’s joy, both amongst us as believers and amongst those who don’t yet know him. The Bible also says that one of the benefits of being consistent in our thinking as Christians is that there will be no division amongst us – and therefore no conflict (I’ll just put the can of worms back on the shelf…. there we go……)

I’ve just started reading the book of Exodus as part of the E100 challenge that our church is doing at the moment. At the moment it’s the story of Moses (you’ll know it if you’ve seen Prince of Egypt). A couple of verses in the story spoke to me of God’s consistency. In chapter 3 v6, God says to Moses, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ (God is saying that he’s been knocking around for a long time). He repeats that phrase a couple more times in chapter 3, and adds, ‘This is my name (I AM) for ever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’ God intends to be around for the whole of known time, and is himself outside of it (his name is always I AM…..). A few hundred years later, David cottoned on to this idea of God’s consistency when he wrote the Psalms, with lines like, ‘The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day the pour forth speech…… God is…an ever-present help in trouble……. The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him……. The Lord remembers us and will bless us….. The faithfulness of the Lord endures forever…..’

What should our response be to God’s consistency, and our own frailty in that area? More advice from the Bible: ‘Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always….. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forever more……’

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With all my heart
I praise the  Lord  ,
and with all that I am
I praise his holy name!    With all my heart
I praise the  Lord  !
I will never forget
how kind he has been.    The  Lord  forgives our sins,
heals us when we are sick,   and protects us from death.
His kindness and love
are a crown on our heads.    Each day that we live,
he provides for our needs
and gives us the strength
of a young eagle.    For all who are mistreated,
the  Lord  brings justice.    He taught his Law to Moses
and showed all Israel
what he could do.    The  Lord  is merciful!
He is kind and patient,
and his love never fails.    The  Lord  won’t always be angry
and point out our sins;    he doesn’t punish us
as our sins deserve.    How great is God’s love for all
who worship him?
Greater than the distance
between heaven and earth!    How far has the  Lord  taken
our sins from us?
Farther than the distance
from east to west!    Just as parents are kind
to their children,
the  Lord  is kind
to all who worship him,    because he knows
we are made of dust.    We humans are like grass
or wild flowers
that quickly bloom.    But a scorching wind blows,
and they quickly wither
to be forever forgotten.    The  Lord  is always kind
to those who worship him,
and he keeps his promises
to their descendants    who faithfully obey him.    God has set up his kingdom
in heaven, and he rules
the whole creation.    All of you mighty angels,
who obey God’s commands,
come and praise your  Lord  !    All of you thousands
who serve and obey God,
come and praise your  Lord  !    All of God’s creation
and all that he rules,
come and praise your  Lord  !
With all my heart
I praise the  Lord  !

The fact is that gifts that you can touch are more fun. When I was a boy I liked my presents to be large, colourful and to have been well marketed since October (although clearly I wasn’t aware of this at the time). As a teenager I just wanted money or vouchers, as I felt (with good reason) that no-one really understood my tastes. During both phases, I used to pity my Dad, who always seemed so happy with a jumper, socks, new tie, etc. How can he not want some lego/latest Sega game/new Pearl Jam album, I used to wonder. And jumpers are just something you get as and when they’re needed, I wondered, confused. So I was not a little horrified when I heard the answer, ‘A new jumper, perhaps?’ leave my mouth when asked what I would like for Christmas this year by Mrs C. I have become, it seems, a true Dad……

Clearly, as we get older we let slip some of the materialism that plagued us as children (and I realise that there are varying degrees of ‘some’ here…..). As well as this, the delight we feel as we witness the joy on the faces of others is often heightened – we discover that actually, it really is better to give than to receive. Having reached this zen-like state of seasonal being, surely I can sit back and rest on my spiritual laurels, smug at having successfully managed to pull myself free of the commercial mire that everyone else seems to be wading through as soon as Halloween’s over. Can’t I?

The problem is that I don’t fully understand just how significant a present Jesus is. I can’t. I have a comfortable life, and as such my chances of grasping what it would be like to not have Jesus are dealt a major blow. I judge the success of a gift by how much I enjoy it, or how much I wanted it in the first place – not by how much it cost to give, or how much I might need it. The impact of Jesus as a gift has been deadened by years of tradition, false cheer, who’s-going-to-who’s-house family politics and an ever-expanding buffer zone of ‘I deserve this’, which separates us not only from the true joy of receiving Jesus but also from those to whom it really does mean everything. In Simon Guillebaud’s book More Than Conquerors, he tells of a man he encounters in a refugee camp in Africa. The man’s family have been murdered, all his possessions destroyed, and he has walked hundreds of miles to reach the relative safety of the camp. He owns only the clothes he stands in. And because of his circumstances, he knows just how vital a gift Jesus is. He is completely thankful for what he does have; completely trusting of God to provide for him.

We lack the kind of lifestyle that demands total engagement with what the Jesus-gift really means. God probably isn’t calling you to go and be utterly destitute in a third world country (if He is, then great….) – so that means we have to try and work out how this intangible, unconventional and misunderstood present actually fits into the way we do life. Unless we do that, Jesus will never be the best Christmas gift we’ve ever received, and there’ll be no point saying otherwise, because you will sound like a liar, if only to yourself and God.

So now here’s the bit where I tell you how to do it – how we untie the bow and rip the paper from the greatest gift the world’s ever heard of.

Um….. Now I’m stuck – but I’m pretty sure the answer involves prayer and reading the Bible. A lot, and with purpose. And then acting on what we hear, read or have revealed to us in any other way. Maybe we could try stepping out of our comfort zone, as opposed to just talking about doing so, or talking about other people who’ve done so. I volunteered to give out chocolates and invites to our carol service the other day. I was nervous and apprehensive, even to the point of getting angry with no-one in particular beforehand. Yet when it came to the end of my stint, I found that I wanted to continue. I found the experience of making people smile (mainly due to the chocolate) really uplifting. I exercised just a scrap of faith in stepping out – only a few crumbs, really. What would happen if I exercised a sandwich of faith, or perhaps a mince pie? Can we imagine putting into practise a Christmas dinner of faith, complete with all the trimmings?

It’s only when we’re dependent on Jesus to get us through life that the genius of His gift kicks truly kicks in; it’s only then that we get the organically reared, Nigella-approved, full-flavour version of Jesus. In our faith-free comfort, we can only access the frozen ready-meal-for-one version of Jesus. It ticks certain boxes, and to the casual observer seems legitimate, but under scrutiny is found to be second-rate…..

However, I am conscious of the fact that I’m approaching this book with an attitude similar to the ‘fundamentalists’ that Dawkins criticises in the book. If I set out in the mindset that this book will only serve to help me argue with atheists, and refute the possibility of an alternative viewpoint before I’ve begun, then I’m doing the very thing that he finds so objectionable. Am I right to take this stance? Or should I actually be prepared to be converted to atheism, unlikely though this is? I guess it all comes back to the fact that we cannot have true faith without doubt……

I’ll be interested to see what he has to say about the value of ‘religious experience’ ie: how people of faith have interacted personally with God. My guess is that he has no experience of God’s presence, and his encounters with Christians are limited to those focused on the ‘religious’ aspects and on militantly defending their viewpoint on some issue or other (Dawkins seems particularly keen to argue against Creationism – I suppose that’s natural for a scientist….). I find myself agreeing with him to some extent – rigorously defending something like creationism seems to me to be a waste of energy on the part of the Christian. Why aren’t we focusing on the commands of Jesus? The Bible says that we can’t fathom God, so why are we worrying about producing tons of evidence to fly in the face of evolutionary theory? And more importantly, why are people so angrily defending their stance on ‘issues’? There’s no wonder people are put off religion (for want of a better phrase).

I think it’s vital that anyone who really wants to live as a disciple of Jesus seeks to understand where we’ve gone wrong over the years in portraying out faith, because that is a large part of the reason why people like Richard Dawkins feel like they do (that, and a load of scientific evidence…..). Shutting out other viewpoints makes us narrow-minded and less able to relate to others effectively. One-to-one relationships are, in my view, the way forward in making Jesus known. I love the church (by which I mean the people), but I agree with Dawkins – organised religion is responsible for a lot of crap. I propose to comment more on The God Delusion as I read it, as I think we can gain valuable insight from such books. Obviously I’ll be offsetting all this heathen-ery by reading plenty of the Bible (I’m looking at John at the moment, trying to make more sense of Jesus…..).

In other news, I’m excited about letting everyone hear the newResponding with Tea songs. If you’re on Facebook then there’s a RwT page on which I intend to post the songs for download (some other tracks are there at the moment). There are also plans afoot for some CD artwork to accompany the music. On the writing front, I’m going to put the next part of The Weight of a Voice in a separate post to this one. I had another agent rejection the other day. This summer was supposed to be the time when I made a big push to get an agent, but that hasn’t happened. My efforts have gone into music. And camping…..

uk voice in the global conversation about alternative worship, mission, postmodernity, emerging church and all that.

One of the things he often does on his site is what he calls ‘Worship tricks’. He gives little ideas for services, worship, prayer… that kind of thing. He is also involved in a service that is called ‘grace’. He shared a blessing that was used as part of grace a bit ago and I liked it so thought I would share it here. It’s worship trick 87 for those that want to find it on his site.

Here’s the blessing:

May the extravagant love of God the Father
Fill your hearts and minds and his embrace hold you
When you feel unworthy to be called his son or daughter

May the friendship of Jesus Christ, your brother
Rid you of any notion that you are only a slave
And you find your home in and with him in his kingdom

May the Spirit of God release you
From a world of duty
So that a new joy and freedom wells up in your life

Go and reconfigure the world as on order of embrace
In your friendships
In your work place
In your families
In your street
And in your churches

And the blessing of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always

Faith week was an amazing experience; God answered our every prayer and showed us his awesome faithfulness. One morning we got specific, praying for some work on a farm, a meat pie for lunch and we got it all, including playing with the farmers 5 grandkids, answering a prayer from earlier in the week.
After faith week we’ve had teaching on relationships, spiritual warfare, Lordship, Dreams and Visions and God’s revival through the Jewish people. These weeks have been weeks of real breakthrough and I thank God for continued energy and hunger. Spiritual warfare was a real eye opener, and the final day of Lordship was huge laying down things that simply hold us back from everything God has for our lives.

I was also baptised in the local river on Thursday which was incredible, declaring publicly that Jesus is Lord. It was amazing to publicly set in stone many of the decisions I’d made on DTS. It was a special time for us as a school and God definitely moves in the spiritual through baptisms J

As I write this letter in around 5 hours I will actually be leaving New Zealand for the next stage in the DTS, the outreach. This is very exciting and it’s an answer to prayer that every student has the finances and is flying out, praise God. As I mentioned in my last letter I am spending 2.5 months in Africa, with about 3 weeks in South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Morocco. In SA we will be working at an orphanage for children who are victims due AIDS and TB. Then in Uganda we will be part of a sporting crusade consisting of around 3000 people from the Ssese islands to the north of Lake Victoria. I will share more about Tanzania and Morocco in a later prayer letter.

Praise

An amazing family that I have been blessed to be a part of here at the base.
Great teachers that God really spoke through satisfying our hunger for more and more of God.
Finances for all the students. We raised nearly $200,000NZD in under a month, God the provider is good.
The permanent base staff that make a DTS possible and who are such a blessing to all of the students.

Prayer for……..

Safety in travel for all the teams heading out very soon and as they continue to travel all around the world.
Unity throughout the teams that we would all stay so strong and rooted in his Word.
Continued growth in him and an overflowing confidence to spread the gospel to everyone we come across.
The hearts and minds of everyone we are going to minister to over the next 14 weeks

Thank you again for all your prayers; I could not be learning so much or having such a good time without yours and God’s help. Love and Blessings in Him to you all. John H