Growing in God

In just ten days' time, I'll be facilitating a spiritual growth workshop in Scotland. Over the past days I've been preparing the presentations and the participants' workbook. If you live in the Central Scotland area, perhaps I'll see you there at the end of the month.

Moving on, and not turning aside...

In my daily reading of the Bible, I generally manage to read cover to cover (all 66 books of the Bible) every eighteen months or so. Last year, I read the whole Bible with the exception of some historical books of the Old Testament and the long book of prophecies written by Ezekiel. So that's where I decided to begin reading at the beginning of this year. Wow! Those books are long! I can hardly believe that it's taken me the best part of eight months to meditate my way through those six books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles. It's been a rich time of insights, though, and some of those thoughts and prayers have been posted on this blog over the past eight months.

Today I moved on to the last book on my list, the book of the prophet Ezekiel. The first chapter is extremely complicated as the prophet first receives a mind-blowing vision of living creatures and wheels within wheels (sounding something like a scene of spaceships from a science fiction movie) and then has an amazing revelation of God on the throne, in all His power and majesty. The first vision is not readily understandable and Bible scholars throughout the years have debated about what the rich symbolism could mean. The second vision, the glimpse of the Lord on the throne, causes Ezekiel to fall to the ground in respect and worship.

I've been reading the Bible long enough to know that we could waste a lot of time pondering about the complex parts that we don't fully understand… when there are so many other parts that are there to be obeyed and are so simple that a child could understand them. Perhaps that's why my attention was caught today, not by the dramatic vision of creatures in the heavens, but by one simple phrase that described the way those creatures functioned. In verse 12 it says that, Wherever the Spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went.

I realised that this is a description I'd like to be true of my own life: that I'd be sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and go wherever He goes, without turning off to the left or right, or turning and looking back in hesitation. I'm not sure I understand all the complexities of Ezekiel's vision, but this one thing I do understand: I want to live a life of radical obedience, constantly sensitive to the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit in every situation and circumstance.

September seminar

It's September, and in just three weeks' time I'll be heading to Scotland to give a short weekend workshop about growing in in God: just three sessions of two hours each - on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening. I'll also be speaking at the church service on the Sunday morning. If you live in Central Scotland, I look forward perhaps to seeing you during that weekend in Falkirk.

Stopping the enemy in his tracks

This morning I was reading in 2nd Chronicles 32, an account of how an ancient king responded to enemy threats and took practical steps to protect himself and his people. When King Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib of Assyria was mounting an attack in an attempt to bring Jerusalem down, he took some pre-emptive steps (see verses 2 - 5) to "lessen" the enemy's power in advance: he blocked off the springs of water and the stream that flowed outside the city, so that the enemy would not find a fresh supply of water to sustain him during the attack. Then Hezekiah also repaired any broken parts in the wall around the city. 

We can do the same things to protect ourselves, our teams or our churches from the attack of our enemy, the devil: we can block off every trickle of gossip, and we can repair every cracked or broken relationship that would threaten our unity and give the enemy a foothold.

The source of Hezekiah's confidence, as he took those practical steps, is clear from the words of encouragement he spoke in verses 7 - 8. Do not be afraid or discouraged... for there is a greater power with us than with our enemy. The Lord our God is with us to help us and to fight our battles. God promises that He will fight with us and for us, so we never need to be fearful, even in seasons where we sense that the enemy is engaging us in a spiritual battle.

Romans 8 verse 37 reminds us that we are more than conquerors; overwhelming victory can be ours when we keep our focus and our trust in God.

(The photo shows Hekekiah's tunnel in Jerusalem; friends of mine explored it recently, while in Israel with a KKI outreach team.)

Heart attitudes…. and money matters

When King Hezekiah initiated reforms that helped the people return to the Lord (see this previous post), there was much celebration and enthusiasm. Not everyone did things the right way (see 2 Chronicles 30 vs  18 - 20) but God was merciful and didn't judge them for their mistakes. He saw that they had "set their hearts on seeking God" and so He was quick to forgive them for their wrong way of doing things. God looks to our heart motivation and doesn't make it difficult for us to come to Him. He accepts us "just as we are."

As we continue reading in 2 Chronicles chapter 31, it's interesting to note that serving God and giving to God go hand in hand for these worshippers. For four whole months they gave so faithfully and generously that there was surplus in the temple - even though the people's tithes were being used to provide for the priests and Levites who served God "full time." A priest called Azariah explained this great wealth by saying that, once the people began tithing faithfully, the Lord began blessing them - which meant that there was even more for them to tithe… and the end result was that there was, "enough to eat and plenty to spare." What a wonderful picture of how God's faithfulness and ours go hand in hand.

Store rooms needed to be prepared to store the surplus provisions (animals, grain, oil…) that were being brought to the temple, and we see in vs 12 that the provisions were made up of three different kinds of giving:

• contributions
• tithes, and
• dedicated gifts.

Contributions, I guess, are small amounts that we put in the offering - like notes or coins that we put in the "collection" at church on Sunday morning.  (Later, in verse 14, these are called "freewill offerings.") Tithes are something different: they are a specific percentage (a minimum of 10%) of our income that we "owe" to God as an expression of our dependence on Him and our thankfulness for the ways He has blessed us. (The prophet Malachi told the people that failing to tithe is the same as stealing from God. See Malachi chapter 3.) And dedicated or designated gifts are perhaps larger amounts that we choose to give for a particular purpose - like a building project, a missions trip or some other specific need in the Kingdom of God. (Later, in verse 14, these are also called "consecrated gifts.")

The people's giving was so faithful that it provided adequately for all the worship in the temple, as well as providing for the priests and their families. What Hezekiah and the people did is described in vs 20 as "good and right and faithful before the Lord."

In fact, the summary of King Hezekiah's life - in vs 21 - is that, in all of his service to God and obedience to God's commands, " he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered." And so we're back to heart attitude again. Right there, in two short sentences, are guidelines for pleasing God and being successful in life:

1. seek God and keep Him at the centre of everything
2. work wholeheartedly in all that you do

It's not a complicated "recipe." But these two things are evidently important keys to living a life that prospers and is blessed by God.

Encouraging B2b

We've just finished a really encouraging week of leadership training called B2b (be the leader God wants you to be.) It was attended by young leaders aged 17 - 32, mostly from Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. When we debriefed the week yesterday, it was incredibly encouraging to hear their feedback and testimonies of all they had learned and how they had grown. Investing in young leaders is one of my favorite things to do and I thoroughly enjoyed the week. It was a privilege to be able to teach, lead, have deep conversations and spend time in prayer with these enthusiastic young missionaries.

Over the next few days, I'll be giving more time to coaching again, and I also have a friend arriving from Switzerland at the weekend who will be with me for a full week of coaching and personal processing.

I've also picked up my animal-training "hobby" again, and I'm working with Teddi who is learning to play the guitar in preparation for releasing a music video later this autumn.

Repairing the temple doors

I was reading this morning in chapter 29 of 2nd Chronicles - the account of how King Hezekiah purifies the temple and reinstates worship of God. (His father, King Ahaz, had led the nation into idol worship.) I was struck in particular by verse 3,  where it says, He opened the doors of the temple and repaired them, because it’s such a good picture of the process that needs to happen when an individual or a group of people returns to the Lord. If someone has let their relationship with God grow dry, if it’s been a while since they opened the Bible or spent time with God in prayer, the first and very necessary step is to open up the door and get back into God’s presence again.

But the next step is to “repair” those doors and address the issues that caused them to fall into disuse in the first place. Was it busyness or laziness that caused your time with God to be neglected? Did something or someone else become more important? Did a difficult situation or an apparently unanswered prayer cause you to withdraw from the Lord? Those things need to be “repaired” so that coming into God’s presence becomes a joyful and regular occurrence again.

Is there a "door" that needs to be opened up or repaired in your life this week?