whatshisnumberthough

Fusilier Lee Rigby has been taken from this world in the most unimaginable way. His death serves as a reminder that we live in an incredibly dangerous world and that even with the best will in the world, with all the wisdom that man can possess, there are situations which cannot possibly ever be atoned for in this life or the next. Murder of this kind is, I believe, the unforgivable sin: an offense against life itself.

I have been trying to make sense of all the problems in the world and I find that although I am comforted now by the God who loved me enough to save me from my sin, who rescued me from a life of worthlessness and despair, I am sure that because of situations like this many people must wonder why if there is a God of love he allows things like this to happen. Where is God when these things happen?

It would seem a little banal to say “in the same place as he was when they crucified Jesus”, but there is surely something to be said for that statement. However, I believe in a God who has to be personally involved in people’s lives and as an explanation for suffering, to say that God just looks on would not be sufficient. After all, God does take revenge. He notes every sin and treats with great gravity instances where people have been hurt, wherever and whenever that injury took place. The problem we find is that he doesn’t intervene when we think he should but that doesn’t mean that he does not act to treat the wound and the legacy of sin. In this world or the next, the treatment has been prepared since before the world began. Heaven or hell (life or death) are the only two possible destinations for man. No other alternatives exist.

From the beginning of mankind, we see in the bible that the first murder occurred very early on. The reason was jealousy: Cain killed Abel because Abel offered a better sacrifice to God. Again, to say that the legacy of that sin has been passed down to us from that time seems to be a little sensational but even so, we see in Genesis just how serious sin is in the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from paradise for their sin. Once that happened, the tree of life was no longer available to mankind and the tree of knowledge had been imbued. Just what this means I can’t possibly say but until Jesus came and experienced death, everyone died. Now people can live forever by believing in Jesus. It all seems a little much to me. I will try to make clear what it is that I think is happening here.

The word of God says that in Jesus is the light of life and this life is the light of men (the author of the scriptures clearly did something clever with the words there). There is also a truth which is universally accepted, certainly in this country, that crime should be punished, or that it is wrong. There is not only a sense of right and wrong but also clear guidelines as to what is right and wrong. On top of this we each possess our own free will. The law was instituted as a guardian and fulfilment of the law and our redemption came through Jesus. There is a pattern emerging. It all comes back to Jesus and if we look at the words he said, we begin to realise why.

I find it startling how the detail of the law is expounded in the words of Jesus. When you hear about Jesus from your average Joe on the street, you don’t get the full picture. Have a read for yourself. Read the whole bible from start to finish and you’ll discover that Jesus isn’t just a man. He is God himself, and he has the answers to all of these problems, in this life or the next. But why does he wait, why doesn’t he intervene? The truth is I don’t know but there are some sins that don’t necessarily result in death and God wants all of the sinners of these sins to come to him and receive his forgiveness and the gift of new, even eternal life. He also wants the victims of these sins to come to him and allow him to heal their deep loss. Some murderers, like these men, fall into the category that the apostle John denounces as being people who we should not even pray for.

God calculated the risk before he started and he knows what the answers are. The price he paid for life is grief. The gift of God is eternal life and the offer is open to all. The enemy of god is the devil and he is real, not symbolic. He exists in the hearts and minds of all those who don’t obey God. Scant consolation for the victims and their families but the truth is that we are in a permanent state of war with the strongest power in the universe (save God himself) and until God does intervene it isn’t going to get any better.

Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There are no easy answers. I’ve heard of nations going to war for a lot less than this latest offense but we need restraint. The light disturbs the wicked and stops the arm that is raised in violence, and the light in this case is the firm administration of justice, not revenge. God will take revenge, nothing is more certain. Hell is inside us all and it only needs to be fed to be brought to life: “Their worm will never die, and their fire will never be extinguished”. Eternal life is the free gift of God; losing it is eternal torment.

Do not take revenge. If you have it in you, feed your enemy and give him something to drink. You might melt his heart and turn him to God. You might let God get to him before the devil does. Stay alert and prepare your lamps for a long watch. Be dressed and ready for service. Let the master of the household find you ready, that you might administer to his entire household – God knows we need faithful servants.

Rest in peace Lee Rigby.

We hear a lot about the way that our text messages, tweets, Facebook posts and emails are going to be or are being monitored. The youth police commissioner recently resigned because of the content of one of her tweets, and although it is useful to be reminded that there is always someone watching you and that we need to employ restraint in all of our public communications was this really necessary, and is the way that our communication is monitored necessary and is it fair?

The “official” line is that the authorities need to monitor our internet activity so that terrorism can be better dealt with. But surely the authorities have been monitoring internet activity since its advent?  I have heard some people refer to this situation as akin to “big brother” monitoring all of our communications but “big brother” needs to do this doesn’t he? Are we not all safer if the authorities are making note of anything suspicious in the hope of preventing atrocities?

Who else then has access to our information? The truth is that just about everyone does. There isn’t really any regulation that protects us as users of (particularly) social media sites. Every time you make a comment online it is recorded and can be recalled. Is it really the authorities who are monitoring us on a microscopic scale? How did the ex-youth commissioner’s comments come to light? I suspect that it wasn’t the authorities that brought this to light at all. It was the media, wasn’t it? As has been said, “it is better that this young person rebuilds her life away from the intense media scrutiny”.

Sensationalism sells and unfortunately we are buying it. If some in the media live by their own high standards, should they really even still be broadcasting to the general public? Do we need to mention specifically all the instances where they have overstepped the mark in the hope of selling newspapers, for example? The truth is that every time a new person comes into the spotlight for good or ill, journalists young and old trawl the internet for anything they can find to sell a story. They probably don’t mean to do any harm, they are only trying to make a living. But when they find something for their story, they sell it to the highest bidder, and once the media get hold of it it spirals into the inevitable machination of a person, ideal, or political stance at best, or the distress and grief of an overburdened family at worse.

If we look in the word of God, something which we don’t do as often as we should, we see clearly that the behaviour of some in the media, as well as the behaviour of the people they talk against, is just as much open to criticism as anything that is reported. For example, the book of Proverbs states clearly that it is foolish and sinful to malign your neighbour. Some in the media have noticed the foolishness of a young lady’s comments but have failed to recognise their own failings. We are also told in the word of God that love prospers when a fault is forgiven. We will never know now, whether showing mercy to this young lady would have evoked an expression of gratitude which might have reached out and affected our much troubled youth of today. The truth is that love covers over wrong for good. Most seem to be incapable of doing this.

Those in positions of responsibility are put there by God and they are his servants (as is said in the Bible, for punishing those who do wrong and for honouring those who do right) but because of the intense media glare and the pressure this produces, those in positions of authority cannot show compassion. The decision to get rid of this person from her position had already been made by the masses, since the media not only ride the wave of popular opinion but they also create the wave!

We are not all kings, but whether we live in a palace or a hut, we have a duty to live responsibly and affect for good the world we live in. The unfortunate truth is that some aspects of the media are not helping us to live compassionate lives in a world where love is little known. It seems that some parts of the press operate in their own way and under their own supervision and if they get it wrong they can make a shallow and hypocritical, pretentious apology and start their business again under a different name. The ex-youth police commissioner made a full, frank, and sincere apology for an immature mistake and she wasn’t shown even the faintest hint of mercy.

As human beings we are all, to some extent, regulated by our own sense of right and wrong but we are for the most part not in the least bit interested in what God has to say about the matter. But it’s clear that we are seeing double standards in some parts of the media and this is something that God hates. I hope it isn’t just me who recognises the presentiment of these double standards. We need to be courageous enough to not only oppose what is wrong and stand up for what is right but to also forgive and forget. This will benefit us much more in cases like this one, I am sure.

You can’t write a person off for making a mistake. Imagine if God wrote us off every time we made a mistake. Where would we be then?

The church can be described as a surface made up of many different tiles, with each tile representing a person in the church. Each tile emits a colour of light, each affects surrounding tiles, and the effect is what the world sees. The church needs to be bright white light warning people of danger and guiding them to safety. The devil and the world have made this difficult. We are also prone to compromise and we are weak, but even so.

The church is a serious testament. It is the interpretation of the love of God by human beings. We know that the powers of hell will not prevail against it (her). We know also that the Kingdom of God exists in the hearts and minds of believers. But do we know the love that God has for us as human beings? In the last days the love of many will grow cold as or when inequity increases. Is this, however, the only reason that the love of many will grow cold? I suspect that it isn’t.

The mission of the church is plainly stated: go and make disciples of all the nations. What happens when we get saved? Is the soil of our hearts such that we patiently do our part so that the great commission is accomplished? Or do we open the Bible, read the promises, the wonderful promises that are true for us personally, and not allow the truth of Christ’s love for us to enter into our hearts and then be transmitted into the hearts of others? This is certainly a problem for me!

Why is this? Is it because I read statements like “you are all sons in Christ Jesus” and infer that my duty lies in his being pleased with me and not with my being pleased with him; with what he has done for me on the cross and by his resurrection, what he says to me in his word, and what he is doing for me now in prayer on my behalf; and subsequently allowing this truth to affect the way I behave and the way I treat other people? Or is it because I read part of the scriptural truth and neglect the part that requires something from me, whether it be personal sacrifice or my time, or charitable giving, or any act of love?

The church is not the only expression of God’s love on planet earth, but it is the preponderant one in terms of salvation of souls. We are clearly instructed that people will not hear that God loves them unless they are told, and we are further convinced that we have been sent into the world to do this if we have faith to believe what the Bible says, but if, for example, we are convinced that one sin, or one sinner, is worse than another, how are we as a body expected to reach those who are caught up in the particular sin that we have condemned as being more pernicious than the rest? With difficulty!

The answer should be quite simple. Do not judge. Leave that to God. I read an interesting book called “The Shack” and there is a passage in the book about judgement which stresses that we don’t know where the buck stops. The Bible confirms this: our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they knew best. We don’t know everyone’s story but we do, surely, know that there is a reason why people treat people badly and that if one of those people turns to God that he will show mercy to that person, that heaven rejoices, and that the person that God died for has returned home and also that the mission of the church has stepped closer to completion.

Do not look down on these who believe in him; watch that one of these who believe in him does not fall into sin; look after each other so that no one misses the grace of God. Look out for each other. Each one must carry his own burden, sure, but don’t forget the beginning of the paragraph: carry each other’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ!

Do you know that God loves you? Can you express that love effectively to the world? What does it mean to love someone else? The scripture that has been going through my mind is that “this is real love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” It really is down to you and me to understand his love for us. Do we think that our own righteousness is enough to save us? Or that the proverbial tower did not fall on us because we are righteous or special in some way? We must be careful.

Of him who has been given much, much will be required. Is it a small thing that we are saved? Do we need to find the scriptures that say, essentially, that no one, not you nor me, can do anything to save themselves from sin and there is no price big enough to buy a person’s soul save the redemptive work of Jesus? As we work out our salvation in fear and trembling, we really need to see the “big” stuff in perspective and all the things which we assume to be trivial in a similar manner, don’t we?

It is clear that the behaviour of Jimmy Saville as he occupied his earthy body was wholly wrong. As a Christian I know that God’s mercy does run out for sinners and that at that time the sinner will face his justice or his wrath, either in this life or the next. Since God is good it seems strange that he does not intervene directly more often, hinting at a peculiar sense of timing. Is there something that we don’t understand, or is it something more subtle? Can any explanation of why a God of love would allow the injustice of abuse to happen ever help us?

It has occurred to me during my life and particularly in my walk with God, that my free will is my weightiest stewardship. I become, more often than not, the result of my choices. When a wicked man dies his hope perishes, his name rots and often the people rejoice. But God doesn’t want the wicked man to die, does he? Ezekiel tells us clearly that God would rather have the wicked man turn from his sin and live. In my experience I have been able to turn from a life which was less than satisfactory to me, to my family, and to society in general and I am very grateful that I have been given the opportunity to exercise my will in this way.

Ezekiel also clearly shows us that we needn’t follow the example of sinners above us, even in our families. If a son sees his father sinning and decides not to sin in the same way, then the son will not die for his father’s sins but will live. But what if the effect of abuse is what causes the child to sin in the first place? One of the most troubling examples I’ve heard is of a child (8yrs) having been chained naked to a post in the back garden by his father for breaking a household item, while his mother and sister looked on from the living room, too scared to help. The child was/is serving a jail sentence for rape. There are many, many more such examples.

Thinking about the solutions to problems like this is a difficult thing. I look in the bible for answers and even there the answers are painful and personally costly. To walk in love would seem to be the best solution statement, but what does that look like? Certainly, to oppose evil is seen as good but do we really know the best way to do this? In cases like the one directly above, I’m persuaded that someone has been labelled as evil when he isn’t, necessarily, and this must surely be happening all the time. Similarly, people knew what Jimmy Saville was doing and yet did nothing. Does this hint at a deeper responsibility for all of us?

As adults we must decide to live with probity and we must also insist that those we come close to do the same. It seems to me that in the Jimmy Saville case there were many opportunities for adults to blow the whistle on this man’s behaviour but for one reason or another this was not done. It is now too late. Whatever is happening now to the soul of Jimmy Saville in no way palliates the effects of the abuse that he caused whilst he was alive. Socially responsible adults could well have changed at least some of this deep injustice.

I am reminded that in ancient times, as well as today, society is led to worship the most awful things. These dark gods occupy the crossroads between the temporal and the eternal, ever tempting us to choose the quick and easy way and it is not obvious immediately what is happening. Seemingly good people turn out to be base and evil acts seem to have some horrifying causes of their own. We are called to be watchful and we certainly must be, since our enemy is a roaring lion, prowling about, seeking someone to destroy (as in 1 Peter 5:8); or more mythologically, “Hecate of hell, Mighty to shatter every stubborn thing, Hark! Hark! her hounds are baying through the town. Where three roads meet, there she is standing.”

Our freewill gives us a choice to choose right. Look down and you’ll see that you are standing either on the cross or over the abyss. Find out where you stand and determine to ensure that you do what you are being asked to do so that social justice is truly justice.

Amid the turmoil of this life how often do we consider that the storms are sent by God and do we understand that he is a God of love in spite of this? We see in Isaiah 45:7 that He brings both prosperity and disaster and that he has even created the destroyer to work havoc (Isaiah 54:16).

I don’t particularly want to be misunderstood about this, although I might be. The devil did (has) fallen and evil does exist but more in the hearts and minds of man than in anything else, surely? “…the heart and mind of man are cunning” writes the psalmist (Psalm 64:6); and even though we fight a spiritual battle, we need to take responsibility for our part.

Looking at the world as it exists today, we see many men who are blameworthy for great acts of repression and evil. We see and hear fragmented reports from journalists who, let’s be frank, have historically been proven to be more than a little self-seeking, but we are assured that the world is in turmoil nonetheless. It would be helpful to hear and see more about what is actually happening in the world in general and I believe it is important that we do so but that’s another story.

“There is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1). Has God established a despotic ruler in Syria? No. Who then did establish him? His countrymen? Himself? What is God’s purpose in the “storm”? He seems to be in the process of tearing his authority away from him, doesn’t he?

I believe that we have to look more closely at the scriptures to make a link between God’s purpose and man’s dominion in the world. In every way, when I look at the scriptures, I find myself lacking. Could the same be true of other people? Is it possible that during coup, after coup, after coup in Syrian history, that someone didn’t obey the ruling authorities; (Romans 13: 1 – Everyone must submit to the governing authorities)? Might the whole country, every desperate citizen, the surrounding area and even the whole world now be suffering from these acts of disobedience, passed down from the heart and mind of man?

I don’t know the history of this conflict well enough to comment on who is actually to blame or what was said around those early corridors of power but we might say that the storm has come to resolve the issue. Whether the issue is resolved or not, we can be sure that we have made this storm ourselves, directly or otherwise.

Are we likely to experience more “storms” of this nature? If we look at the scriptures we can clearly see that we are lending money selfishly, for example, not in any way consistent with what God would have us do. Since God gives us a choice, if we choose unwisely he can and does let these storms come. Not all the time but he can, and he does.

What is it about “me” that makes me “look at myself in rose-tinted glasses, but other people with a microscope.” (Joyce Meyer – Battlefield of the Mind)?

Is it that I don’t realize how much God loves and forgives me and that I can’t therefore see how much God loves and forgives other people? Is it something more fundamental, like pride? Do I think I know better than other people when I don’t and if I do, is it just me who has this problem? We are clearly warned about being hypocrites in the word of God if we fail to see that our own behaviour is wrong whilst we try to offer our opinion about someone else’s behaviour.

How deep does the rabbit hole go? Am I sitting here writing about this issue and in so doing have I accused another man of myopia in his spiritual affairs? Without any doubt this is possible! And what is the cure for this horrendous ill? First to remove the log from my own eye! But how, when I can’t see at all?

By diligently searching the scriptures I am helped only if I do not fall over and blame my fellow man whenever I am specifically mentioned. When God says, for example, “forgive anyone who has hurt you”, he is talking to me and it is my responsibility to forgive, no one else’s. I need to trust God enough to let him deal with the other man, release the offence and by doing that receive the reward for trusting him, so that through the word planted in me I obtain the salvation of my soul.

Forgiving isn’t easy but we’re asked to do it because it restores relationship. Indeed, forgiveness can be as brutal an act as the offense itself and our need for forgiveness necessitated our Lord’s crucifixion. I hope not to have so much to forgive but we are all tested with fire and great acts of obedience won our salvation. In the same way, great acts of forgiveness can restore something which had died and, of course, the opposite is true. Not forgiving can keep dead and even destroy, importantly, someone who God died to make alive. Do we trust our own judgement so much?

There is one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbour? (James 4:12) In God’s eyes we all fall short. Maybe it’s time to cut each other some slack?