I've been reading in the gospel of John this week, and was struck by the implications of what Jesus did at the wedding in Cana. If you remember the story, from the first twelve verses of John chapter two, they ran out of wine at the wedding celebration and Jesus did His first recorded miracle: he turned water into wine.
As if that wasn't amazing enough, the man in charge of the feast recognises that it's wine of particularly good quality and asks why the best wine has been saved until last.
I often refer to this passage when I'm talking with people who don't believe in a God who created the whole universe. Such people often refer to things like carbon dating (which claims that our planet is millions or billions of years old) and point out that this would make the universe much older than the Bible says it is.
Irrespective of the fact that carbon dating has been shown to be notoriously inaccurate, this story of the water into wine gives us one possible answer to the dilemma. What makes "good wine"? I'm not a wine drinker, but even I know that good wine is old wine. The older the wine, the better it is considered to be. So, if Jesus could create "old wine" in just a few minutes, I have no problem at all in believing that He could create a seemingly "old" universe in just six days.
When I was leaving South Africa in 2007, I had a number of questions about what my future ministry would look like. I was leaving just at the point where we were beginning to see the fruit of nearly fifteen years of ministry investment in that part of the world, and I wondered what it would be like to "start from scratch" again. Would it take another fifteen years before I could see the same level of fruitfulness back in Europe?
I was encouraged when God spoke to me through verse 10 of this chapter, where the wedding caterer says, "You have kept the best until now." Although I was relocating to a brand new ministry situation, I felt God was reassuring me that, "The best is yet to come." I realised that, although it normally takes years of faithful investment to lay the foundation for a mature and fruitful ministry, God was able to bring maturity and fruitfulness much faster than that - the same as He'd done with the wine at that wedding.
Well, here we are, a dozen years down the road, and this week I was asking myself, has this past decade in Spain turned out to be "the best" so far?
I'm not sure there's a simple yes or no answer to that, but I was amazed to look back at these eleven years in Europe/Spain and see very many encouraging instances of great fruitfulness - from the Planting Together outreaches to the leadership development courses and also my more recent involvement in coaching missionary leaders. God has been faithful to what He promised at that time. I don't know if it's "the best" yet, but it's certainly been a decade of opportunities and fruitfulness.
I wonder where you're at in your life and your walk with God. Are you in an encouraging season of investment and fruitfulness or are you at a place where you feel that the best years of your life are probably behind you now? It's good to remember that, no matter where we're at in our journey, God is able to bring good things out of it if we simply trust and obey Him.
I'm back in Spain again, having flown back here yesterday. To my great relief, the coughing was not a problem during the flight, and this morning I could feel that my breathing was continuing to improve. There's still a bit of a lingering cough, but the attacks of whooping cough seem to have subsided now and I'm more noticeably on the mend.
This means that I can get out and about again, instead of spending my days indoors in pyjamas. It also means that I can slowly begin working towards this year's exercise goal. Target 2020 is, of course, one up on last year. Our goal - for me and the dogs - is to walk 2020 km before the end of the year.
Yes, I know that this figure is actually less than the 2324 km we managed to walk in 2019, but we're all a year older now and there's no sense in setting a goal than can easily be sabotaged by arthritic injuries or lung infections. (Last year I spent several weeks on crutches and several weeks with respiratory infections.) So, even though I'm trusting to go "from strength to strength" this year (see previous post) I'm sensible enough not to overdo things or push myself too hard. So I'm aiming for 2020 km in 2020, and hoping that we might even go beyond it again this year.
As we did last year, we donate our kilometres to medical research - a Spanish charity raising funds for multiple sclerosis. If you also walk a lot and would like to donate your kilometres too, let me know and I can tell you how to sign up. Swimming and cycling kilometres can also be counted.
It's my first blog post of 2020 - largely because I've spent the last few weeks with a respiratory infection, seemingly whooping cough. I've coughed my way all through Christmas and New Year; my two and a half weeks in the UK have mostly been spent in pyjamas!!
Tomorrow, though, I head back to Spain for the new year that lies ahead, and so it was kind of interesting that my Bible reading this morning was in Psalm 84. I remember a January day, eleven years ago, when I had only been living in Spain for a few months. A South African friend gave me a word based on vs 5 in this psalm: that God saw me as someone who had "set my heart on pilgrimage" (one translation of the part that says "whose heart is set on seeking you") and that He would be my strength in the years ahead.
As I meditated on the psalm later that day, I remember praying that verse 6 would also be true in my life: that, even though I'd moved to live in a new and potentially dry place (without the community and vibrant ministry activity I'd known in South Africa) that God would turn it into a place of refreshing springs.
I didn't know at the time that the town I'd moved to live in, AlhaurÃn de la Torre, was historically famous for its springs and as a place for refreshing the troops. There is still an area of town that is called Manantiales - the Spanish word for springs.
Looking back now on eleven years lived in southern Spain, I can see that it truly did become a place of springs. We planted a church and we established the leadership retreat centre - a place of community and hospitality, worship and refreshing for Christian leaders from all over the world.
This morning, as I re-read that psalm, I found myself praying that verse 7 will become true in my life during this new year: that I will "go from strength to strength" during 2020. In one sense, that has already begun to be true: from being nearly crippled with arthritis in my feet a few years ago, these past two years have seen me daily walking the dogs and gradually building up my physical strength and capacity again. But in another sense, it feels as if I've been growing increasingly weaker on a physical level: I've had a perplexing series of musculoskeletal injuries, and I seem to be having an increasing amount of lung infections over the winter months every year.
So this morning I prayed that 2020 will be a year when I go from strength to strength: that my lungs will be strengthened and that there will not be so many infections this year; that my physical body will be strengthened and that I won't have so many sprains and injuries this year... I prayed for a strengthening of my health in this new year.
But beyond the physical, I prayed that 2020 will be a year of going from strength to strength spiritually: in ministry, in community, in evangelism and in fruitfulness. It's my prayer for you, too. May you know good health in 2020 and may you be strengthened in your relationships (with God and with others) and in your inner self. I wish you God's richest blessings and encouragements for the year that lies ahead.
After Job's friends have all shared their thoughts and opinions, God Himself starts to speak: for several chapters, He asks questions that reveal His power, wisdom and majesty... until finally, in chapter 42, Job is forced to confess that he had spoken in ignorance, getting all worked up about things that were too complex for him to understand.
How often do we do that as human beings? We shoot our mouths off about things we actually have no clue about, and only demonstrate our own ignorance as we question the wisdom or the justice of God.
Perhaps the most well known verse from the book of Job is the words that he speaks in chapter 42 vs 5: I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
If we're ranting and raving against God, like Job did at some points on his journey, we're probably demonstrating that, no matter how long we've been a Christian, ours is more a "hearsay" knowledge of God (at least in the area under question) than a "seen you with my own eyes" kind of knowledge. It doesn't mean that we're not saved, and it doesn't mean that God isn't able to handle our honestly asking Him the hard questions that we struggle with. But it does mean that the time is ripe for Him to take us to deeper levels of revelation and experience of who He is.
The only reasonable response in this situation is for Job to repent and say, vs 6, "I take back everything that I said."
And God is pleased with this attitude. He doesn't hold Job's previous struggles and questions against him. On the contrary, He blessed him even more than He had done in the past. We read that Job lived to a ripe old age and only died after living "a long, full life."
There was, however, one other thing required of Job before he experienced that overwhelming level of restoration and blessing: he needed to forgive the three friends who had spoken so harshly and accusingly to him. God rebuked those men for how they had behaved and for not speaking accurately about Him. He asked Job to pray for them, so that they would be treated with mercy. It seems that Job let go of any desire to see his friends punished for the way they had treated him, and prayed instead for their restoration. This important step, vs 7 - 9, preceded Job's own restoration and blessing.
Ironically, when a bunch of family and former friends come back to celebrate with Job, it says they consoled and comforted him "because of all the trials God had brought against him." It seems that some people continued in their wrong belief that God was the source of Job's trials and suffering.
And perhaps the strangest thing about the story of Job is that is seems God never did set the record straight on that aspect. He didn't say, "Look, everyone, it wasn't me who did all that stuff; it was Satan." He allowed people to continue in their own journey of seeking Him and finding out the truth about Him, and it seems that it is only we, in future generations, who are allowed the privilege of a peek behind the scenes, to Job chapters 1 and 2, to discover what was really going on in that long ago situation.
But that insight should be sufficient to settle any doubts we may have had about the goodness of God. Job's journey shows us that we live in a world where bad things happen, but a good and just God is never the source of any evil we face.
As the book of Job continues, we are introduced to Job's three "friends," sometimes known as his "comforters," although we don't need to read very many chapters before we discover that they weren't much of a comfort at all.
Job's dilemma and the level of his suffering was perplexing to them and they didn't know how to respond to his pain. They lived with a worldview that was very black and white: good people will be blessed and bad people will suffer for their misdeeds. And to be fair to them, this philosophy is not completely wrong. We see it all through the Old Testament book of Proverbs: do good and you will see good fruit; do evil and you will end up reaping the consequences of your actions. It's common sense in a way. We all understand that someone who has smoked all their life is at greater risk of lung cancer than someone who hasn't. Or that someone who fails to weed their garden will end up with a jungle at their back door. It's simple cause and effect.
And so Job's friends had a very straightforward explanation for his suffering: you must have sinned, Job, and that's why these terrible things are happening to you; your children must have sinned, and that's why they died in a horrible accident. It's totally understand-able that this only increased Job's despair and wasn't a comfort to him at all. On top of his grief, loss and pain, he now also felt judged and criticised by those closest to him.
The problem was that neither Job nor his friends had the whole picture of what was really going on. You and I have read the first two chapters of Job, and so we know that it was Satan who was attacking him and his family. Job's friends had simply no idea that this was going on behind the scenes... and so they came up with their own conclusion: all of this suffering must be Job's own fault; he brought it upon himself. It's like the photo at the top of this blog post: the shadow appears to be of a cow riding a scooter. It's only when you have the whole picture that you realise the shadow is due to some clever posing by three creative people.
In real life, we so seldom have the whole picture. We don't know the things that happened in a person's background; we don't know the difficulties they may be facing at home or at work; we may be totally clueless about what is going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. How important it is that we guard our hearts from judging others and seek instead to understand them and their situation. How important it is to take time to pray and seek God's perspective before offering our own criticism and advice to a friend in need.
Job's friends seem to have missed out that step. They didn't take time to seek God's understanding and so they had to fall back on their human understanding and limited perspective. Let's not make the same mistake.
Read on in the post below for more about the danger of incomplete theology.
Stung by the criticism of his so-called friends, Job resorts to sarcasm: "You think you know everything, don't you? Well, I know a few things myself." (Job 12 vs 2 - 3) He then goes on, throughout chapter 12, to make an impressive presentation of God's power, strength and sovereignty. There's no doubt that he does know a lot about God.... but, sadly, he draws the wrong conclusion, vs 9, that this means all his misfortunes have been sent by God. It's the danger of partial theology - when we know a little truth, but are missing some elements and therefore drawing wrong conclusions.
In fact, this is exactly what Job accuses his friends of, as we move into chapter 13. In a biting indictment, he says that they are defending God with lies - using untrue arguments in their desire to protect God's reputation.
The danger of partial theology! We see the same thing happening today when a young person dies in an accident and well meaning people tell the family that God decided "it was her time" and called her to Himself. Or a baby is born handicapped and people say that, "God knows best." Their partially correct theology (God is all powerful) leads them to make wrong inferences about life's tragedies, and they're forced to come up with the nonsensical theory that the God who created a perfect world sometimes plans for children to be born with disabilities.
Job dares to suggest that this is displeasing to God and that we need to be in the fear of the Lord when we are making such claims. (Job 13 vs 9 - 10) He then makes a decision to plead his own case directly before God, asking God to show him how he has sinned.
However, as we move into chapter 14, we see that Job himself is just as guilty of faulty theology. He obviously believes that death is the end, and that there is no life or resurrection after our physical death. He compares human life to a tree, saying that if a tree is cut down it can begin to sprout new branches again, but that there is no such new life for people who die.
Job is equally guilty of partial or incomplete theology. He says in vs 5 that God has decided the length of our lives and that we are not given a minute longer. It may well be true that we don't have the power to lengthen our lives, but this doesn't take into account that we ourselves do have the power to shorten our own lives - by suicide, by causing ill health through our smoking or eating habits, or by taking risks that expose us to accidents (such as drunk driving or extreme sports, etc.) It also doesn't allow for the fact that other people might shorten someone's life - like a murderer or a reckless driver.
If our theology doesn't allow for that, we're forced to conclude that it was "God's will" for someone to be murdered. This is an illogical nonsensity. Why would God forbid murder in the Ten Commandments and then plan for someone to die that way?
Father, guard us from faulty and incomplete theology, and from using our own imperfect wisdom to explain life's mysteries.
Did the title of this post shock you? I believe that the Bible is completely true.... but sometimes it gives us a completely true account of someone's wrong opinion or behaviour.
It's December today and 2019 is slowly beginning to draw to a close. As I reflect back on this year of my 60th birthday, my thoughts are drawn to "life lessons" that I've learned during those sixty years - particularly during my five decades of knowing the Lord and my four decades of working as an overseas missionary.
Then, in my quiet time this morning, I began reading in the Old Testament book of Job, and there I was reminded of a lesson that has become kind of a "life message" for me - something that I've preached about and talked about throughout most of my lifetime. It's an insight that I first grasped when I was in my mid twenties and I realised this morning how it has hugely impacted my life over the past 35 years. I am so thankful that I was equipped with this understanding when I entered some of the hardest and most painful seasons of my sixty years here on earth.
If you're familiar with the book of Job, you'll know that it tells the story of a godly man who faced an incredible amount of suffering and injustice. Much of the book is given to dialogue between Job and his friends, as they grapple with the question of, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
I won't go into the details of the story at this point. (Perhaps that will come in later blog posts over the coming month.) In the first two chapters, that I read this morning, I'm particularly struck by two WRONG pictures of God that Job holds.
- Job 1: 21 - he believes that God arbitrarily takes away the good things that He has given us.
- Job 2: 10 - he believes that God sometimes sends bad things into our lives, and not only good.
It's ironic that some Christians, even today, use these arguments to explain the mystery of suffering. They're based on a belief in the sovereignty of God (and it's true that He is sovereign) but these two opinions are completely contrary to the picture of God that we see in the rest of the scriptures. For example:
- Romans 11: 29 tells us that God's gifts, and His call, can never be withdrawn. Even when we sin, God doesn't "take away" what He had given us.
- James 1: 13 - 17 tells us that every good thing comes from God and that nothing evil - like temptation, for example - can have its source in Him.
So those two ideas - "He gives and takes away" and "He has the right to send us bad things as well as good" - are there in the Bible, but that doesn't make them true. They are simply a true account of someone's wrong belief system.
The rather amazing thing in these chapters is that, even though Job has this wrong understanding, he doesn't sin by blaming or cursing God. While this is commendable on the one hand (demonstrating unconditional allegiance to God), it's dangerous on the other hand, as it borders on an Islamic kind of fatalism, where we become passive, believing that everything is "God's will," and so we never do anything to alleviate suffering or to combat evil in the world.
A correct response to suffering and injustice is to recognise that God is not responsible and that He might actually want us to do something about it.
Its source might be our own sin that we need to deal with, or other people's sin that we need to forgive. Or, as clearly shown in these two chapters of Job, its source might lie in our enemy, Satan, and we need to do spiritual warfare against that.
So, what was my life lesson from these first two chapters of Job? What is the mind-blowing insight that has impacted my life for these past 35 years? It's the understanding that Satan's attacks are not so much about hurting me (I'm relatively insignificant in his eyes) but are aimed at hurting God - by distorting my picture of His character, and therefore robbing Him of the trust and worship that He deserves.
I'm eternally thankful for a three-step strategy that has guided my life over the past few decades:
- Ask
- Choose
- Worship
When bad things happen, I ask myself, "What aspect of God's character is being called into question by these events?" Then I choose to believe in that aspect of God's character, anyway, and to worship Him by proclaiming Bible verses that tell the truth about who He is in that aspect of His character. This response has seen me through some of the most challenging times in my life and has left me knowing and believing beyond a doubt that God is good.
What aspect of God's character has been under attack in your life this year?
