South African news

I'm back in Europe again, but you can click on this photo to read more news of my recent trip to South Africa.

Back to Africa... back to summer...

It's been a long time since I got two summers in the same year. That only happened when I lived in Southern Africa, enjoying a summer Christmas every December, and a summery visit to Scotland every August.

This blog is called "Back in Europe," because it started when I returned to Europe, twelve years ago. If you've come here looking for European news and reflections from the Old Testament book of Judges, please keep reading on in the posts below. If you've come here looking for news of my trip to South Africa this month, you can check my Africa blog by clicking on the photo below.

Self sabotage

Talk about sabotaging your own destiny! In Judges chapter 13 we read about a married couple who, after years of infertility, saw God give them a miracle baby. They're told that the boy's life purpose will be "to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines." The Philistines were an enemy people who was oppressing Israel at the time.

Fast forward to Judges chapter 14, when baby Samson has grown up and is a young man now. And what is the very first thing we see this hero doing? He lustfully takes a fancy to a young Philistine woman and demands to have her as his wife.

Wait a minute! Samson was supposed to begin rescuing his people from Philistine oppression. Instead he wants to get in bed - literally - with the enemy! It seems unbelievable. Why would someone deliberately choose a course of action that was the exact opposite of their destiny and calling?

Not only that, in the course of the drama, we also see him touching a dead body, something that he had specifically committed not to do, because of his calling as a Nazirite who was especially dedicated to serving the Lord.

Samson's case may seem a little extreme, but how often in everyday life do believers deliberately choose things that sabotage their destiny? It might be a bad habit, like gossip, criticism or pornography. It might be embracing unbelief, so that we fail to take steps of faith that God is asking of us. Or, like Samson, it might be a subtle self-centredness that keeps us living our lives the way we want, rather than the way God wants.

We are called to love God, love others and become more like Jesus. How often in our daily lives do we make choices that take us in the opposite direction from that destiny?

Read on below for the sad epitaph of Samson's life.

So, who's really in charge?

Samson's birth, life and death fill just four chapters in the Old Testament book of Judges. We read of his miraculous birth and promising future in chapter 13. Then, in the following three chapters, we watch this spoiled and selfish young man jeopardising and ultimately sabotaging his own destiny - all because of his lack of character.

Fits of temper and rage; bouts of self pity and sulking; arrogant boasting where he takes the credit for what God has done; hanging out with prostitutes, lustful and unhealthy relationships with women.... all of these character weaknesses combine to bring Samson down and rob him of the wonderful future that God had planned for him.

In Judges 15:20, we read a tragic one sentence commentary on Samson's life: he was a judge in Israel for 20 years, but during all that time, the enemy still had the upper hand; the Philistines were still in charge. Samson never fully entered into his destiny of rescuing Israel from Philistine oppression.

May that sad epitaph never be true of my life or yours. May it never be said that I or you were a Christian for forty years, but never went the whole way in defeating the lies and strategies of the enemy.

Some of the character weakness that brought about Samson's downfall are still big dangers for us today: self-pity, anger, pride, lust and selfishness... Our sins and weaknesses may not be exactly the same as Samson's, but our enemy will exploit whatever weakness he can find to make us unfruitful and ineffective in our faith.

In particular, he will seek to do what the Philistines did to Samson in Judges chapter 16. He will try to sap our strength and steal our vision. When we're feeling physically tired and weak, or when we allow ourselves to lose sight of the purposes that God has for our lives, that's when we will be particularly vulnerable to the manipulation and oppression of the enemy.

Samson may have ended his life with a dramatic finale (he killed more Philistines in his death than he did in his life) but he was a broken man, who had completely missed out on the victorious life that God had wanted for him.


May you and I never live our lives in that same defeated way. The antidote lies in radical obedience and in holding on to the faithfulness of God.

Anarchy and syncretism* - past and present...

This morning, when reading in Judges chapter 17, I couldn't help noticing how similar that long-ago society was to the world we find ourselves in today. Despite a long succession of judges that God sent to deliver them from their enemies, the people of Israel were increasingly sinking into idolatry, anarchy* and syncretism.* As it says in vs 6: All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

It's an apt description of our society in the 21st Century. Who would have believed, even only a decade ago, that governments around the world would soon be teaching schoolchildren that you can choose your gender? Who would have imagined that a woman's sporting event could be won by a 6 foot 5 inch male! (identifying as a transgender woman. It happened recently in Montana, USA. You can click here to read the story.)

How did we get to the point where biological males are legally allowed into the girls' bathrooms, where education systems teach that gender is fluid and bring criminal proceedings against anyone who dares to say that there are only two genders? How could it become politically correct to fill in a government form (as happened to me recently) and be asked to tick whether you are male, female or "other" ?

Judges 17 vs 6 gives the answer: we have no king; we have rebelled against the wisdom, truth and authority of our Creator.

Such anarchy* leads to a self-deceptive syncretism.* So, in verse 3 of this chapter, we see Micah's mother dedicating silver coins "to the Lord"... and using them to make an idol. Later in the chapter we see Micah setting up a whole shrine of idols in his home, and then employing a young Levite to serve as his "priest." We see the Levite willingly receiving a salary to serve idols, even though his tribe had the sacred calling to minister to the Lord and live off the tithes and tabernacle offerings of those who worshipped the one true God. And at the end of the chapter, we see Micah so self-deceived that he believes, vs 12: "I know the Lord will bless me now because I have a Levite serving as my priest."

Sadly, this is not just an extreme Old Testament story that happened thousands of years ago. It's happening again today and it's similarly infecting and deceiving the people of God. One of the most tragic videos I've ever seen on YouTube is the story of a Texas mum in a Bible-believing church, raising her little boy to love Jesus... and to live life as a transgender girl. Check it out on YouTube: the video documentary (click here) is called: Kai Shappley - a trans girl growing up in Texas. It's heartbreaking to watch this mother, who obviously loves Jesus, believing that the most loving thing to do for her son is to dress him and raise him as a girl.

Gender theory infiltrating the church is perhaps one of the more extreme examples of moral syncretism that we face in the 21st Century, but it's by no means the only one. Perhaps even in your own church there are people who are in same-sex relationships or who see no inconsistency in worshipping God on a Sunday while living with their common law partner all week. There are churches who ordain homosexual priests or who encourage couples to abort their Downs syndrome babies... We claim to believe and live out Biblical truth, yet we embrace the morals and cultural norms of the society around us.

It's happening on our watch! Let's not ignore it or cluelessly embrace it, like the generation of God's people that we read of in Judges 17. Let's be a people with radical allegiance to the Lord and to His Word.

* Dictionary Corner
Anarchy = a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority.
Syncretism = the blending or amalgamation of different belief systems.

Further Reading
Interested in knowing a bit more about the origins of the gender ideology that has taken our world by storm in the 21st Century? Click on this picture to read an excellent article on the subject.

A brilliant time...

I'm back in Spain, after spending last week in Germany - firstly for leadership meetings with the KKI European leadership team (photo above) then with a group of KKI national leaders from 22 different countries, and finally for the Brilliant conference, a gathering that brought together 300 people from four generations and 24 nations of Europe (photo below.)

It was a joy to connect as a family with young and old from all over our continent, to worship God together, to pray for the nations, and to seek God's direction for the different ways that we can brilliantly shine His light in these times where many parts of Europe face challenges and crises. (The Brexit debate in the UK, and the independence demonstrations in the Cataluña region of Spain would be just two examples of this.)

Much of the conference planning had been carried by our younger leaders and the sessions were led or MC-ed by young leaders and teenagers working together. People from North, South, East and Western Europe were involved in giving TED talks and facilitating workshops, and the younger generations were involved in leading the worship and intercession.

The conference theme - Brilliant - continued what had been begun at our 2017 gathering (Light up, Europe!) and so it wasn't surprising that the logical next step was for us to sense God prompting us all to plan a Europe-wide outreach event that will allow us to shine His light and His love all across Europe in Summer 2022.  

As the conference participants return home to Poland and Slovakia, Armenia and the Ukraine, France and Italy.... we carry the vision to bring God's kingdom to the nations where He's placed us, and to work together towards making God known throughout our large and diverse continent. We're called to be brilliant!

The freedom of being in the right role...

Centre stage in Judges chapter 9 is Gideon's son, Abimelech, and he seems to be the complete opposite of his father. Where Gideon was a fearful and reluctant leader, Abimelech is an ambitious and power-hungry man. He masterminds a plot to kill his 70 half-brothers, so that he himself can rise to a leadership role among the people. 

The youngest brother of all, Jotham, manages to escape the massacre and later, when Abimelech has been made king of Shechem, Jotham briefly emerges from hiding to call out a powerful and prophetic parable: a story about four trees.

In the parable, the trees want to choose a king, but various worthy candidates turn down the leadership role, opting instead to do the thing they were created and called to do:
The olive tree keeps producing olive oil.
The fig tree keeps providing sweet fruit.
The grapevine chooses to focus on growing grapes for wine.

So then the trees ask the thorn bush (by implication, an unsuitable candidate) who willingly takes on the role, demanding allegiance from all the others and ultimately devouring them with fire. 

The parable had a specific application to Abimelech's situation. (After a series of military skirmishes, the city of Shechem was destroyed and Abimelech died in an undignified way. Selfish ambition never ends well; there is always a price to pay.) But the story of the trees also has relevance for us as believers in the 21st century.

How easy it is to look at others and envy them for their leadership role, their music ministry or their gift of communication. We can easily fall into the trap of trying to copy others or work ourselves into their sort of role or position in the church.  We focus so much on wanting to be like someone else, that we don't do a good job of developing our own gifting and finding the kind of role and fruitfulness that is ideally suited to us. Or, like Gideon, we hold back and allow our own sense of inadequacy to prevent us from stepping into the things that God has for us.

The fig tree knew it was good at producing sweet fruit; the olive tree knew it was created to produce fruit and oil. What were you created to do, and how can you honour God by fully embracing that role and calling?