Driver Reviver

Last weekend, Labour Weekend, I went to Christchurch for a friend’s 21st birthday party. The whole weekend was a fun time, catching up with friends that I haven’t seen for 3 years, staying with my cousins, and just doing something quite different to my usual routine.

Strangely, my favourite part of the whole trip (and this is no reflection on the rest of the weekend) didn’t come until the journey home. As I was approaching the creatively named ‘Engineers Camp’ I began seeing signs. Not the Acts 2 type of signs, mind you, or the M. Night Shaymalan movie ‘Signs’, but more the “Free Coffee” type signs. It seemed like a good idea, so I pulled in at what turned out to be a ‘Driver Reviver’ set up by State Insurance to refresh tired drivers traveling during the long weekend.

Simply by pulling in, I found myself confronted by friendly smiling faces offering me free tea, coffee, mocha, phoenix organic juices, water, fruit, sausage sizzles, muffins, lollies… and I even had someone come and offer their services painting my face or making a balloon animal for me. The tables were scattered with newspapers, magazines, and competitions allowing me to win free ipods, and I was absolutely amazed.

I would imagine it is likely that these people were getting paid by State for being there, but at the same time, some of them had their children manning the desks, and it hit me that they had given up their holiday just to serve me. State probably did get a lot of publicity out of doing this, but it was such a nice gesture, that as I drove away, I found myself praying for God’s blessings on each one of the people represented there.

And then I was challenged by it. “God is love,” the Bible tells us in 1 John, and “whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.” Whether or not the people at the Driver Reviver were Christians, they were showing the love of God to every person who came to call. Isn’t that what we as Christians are supposed to do?

The fact is, State are doing effective community outreach through their driver revivers (and good on them for doing so!). It wasn’t really a big thing - just a drink and some relaxation - but they were impacting peoples lives, and leaving a positive and lasting impression on some of us.

How can we be doing the same?

Fiji II - Back to the Mission

For the second time in my life, I have just returned from a mission to Fiji. This was considerably larger than the first mission I went on (about 57 of us rather than last times 20), and we went expecting to bless the Fijian people, but in fact they blessed us far more.

We in the west seem to have it all together, with our money, cars, and happy lifestyles, and yet the Fijians, who have nothing, are forced to rely on God so much more.

The group we took over was made up of a number of smaller groups just working together, and in our group of 16, we had one evening during a prayer meeting when God showed up and worked a miracle in our midst. One of the girls we had taken over wore glasses, and because of the bad weather, hadn't been able to wear them for a few days. When she finally put them back on, she realised her eyes had changed and she couldn't see out of them anymore. This meant she was starting to get headaches etc. We had been receiving a lot of spiritual attack, and took this as another one, so we prayed: "Lord, we need her to be able to see, otherwise she can't serve here. If she can't use her glasses, then please heal her." After praying this, the girl picked up a book and began reading without glasses for the first time in 9 years: healed!

The bible says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. It also says that it is often your faith that makes you well in terms of miracles. Our faith grew by being out of our comfort zone, and serving God, but what really got me is that the Fijians have more faith than that even in their home town. Yet they don't really do anything with their faith.

The bible is quite harsh on this: "Faith without works is dead" warns James, and the Fijians do work out their faith in some ways, but I wonder what could happen if these people, who are not tied down by a desire for stuff, but who have such a contentment in having nothing, could do if they began to use their faith more. To ask for God to more, and to seek His will. To knock and see the doors opened. I believe they could change the world.

Maybe that is one reason I also like the work that Gospel for Asia do. They are a missionary organisation that specialises in training up native missionaries to reach their fellow countrymen, with incredible results. I believe that the faith of these 3rd world Christians is stronger because they have less distractions and more persecution! There is no way for them to be half-hearted with their faith.

It is a real challenge for us in the West. We have everything in worldly terms, but where is our faith? Even though we may be tempted to 'reach out a helping hand' to other countries, we need to not overlook what they can give us in terms of spiritual growth.

Click here to read a post about my first Fiji mission

Click here for the Gospel for Asia Website

Mysterious Ways

Ok, its time for a God moment.
(for those of you who don't know what God moments are, they are moments when God does something extra special in your life, such as a miracle, speaking to you, or something else a bit out of the ordinary)

After church on Sunday night, I came home to find a random guy in our lounge. Not that this is too unusual, because my brother often brings people around who I don't know, but it turned out this was a truly random guy. My brother and his friends had been playing the drums, and this guy, walking past, heard them and came in to have a go himself.

Anyway, I arrived home and got talking with him (his name was Daniel) and found out he is in to producing music, specifically drum and bass. He asked me whether I played music, so I played some piano for him, and then he said, "Hey, did you used to live in....?" Following this, he began to sing a jingle I had made up in primary school for a project on advertising!

Surprise! This random guy just happened to go to primary with me for a few years, and still remembered how I had talked with him about God back then! In fact, although a non-Christian, he often thought of God, and had just the night before been thinking even more seriously about him. Following that, God brought him to our house, back to the person who had previously shared with him!

There is so much more to the story as well: the fact that he was about to move to Wellington to live, and so would never have caught up with me again, the visions he has seen of 'higher authorities' bidding for him (see Ephesians 6:12), his passion to amount to something...

We sat and talked until about 11pm, and he came for dinner the next night as well, and although he didn't make a commitment to Jesus because of it, he is so much closer! I also have his cellphone number now so that I can keep in touch with him, and he can talk to me again if he wants to.

But isn't that just like God? He cares enough for us that he would arrange such an unbelievable series of co-incidences just to remind us that he is real and that he wants the best for us.

God works in mysterious ways!

Wasting Time with Pointless Predictions

Now that June has rolled around, I'm having to think a lot more about what I'm doing when my Bible College course finally finishes at the end of the year.
Its a question I've been able to avoid for three years, and to finally face up to it is quite daunting.

As I have mentioned earlier, I'm beginning to feel unsettled, and have been wondering if I'm even going to be here next year, but spending too much time on this has actually had negative results for me. I've become so distracted looking at what the future might bring that I haven't been focussing enough on the present.

Paul reminds us to run the race so as to win the prize, but someone pointed out to me recently that I got tangled in one of the last hurdles. Words of wisdom: no one remembers how you start the race, they remember how you finish.

God has it all in control. If I can stop worrying about the future, he'll make sure that my present takes me there.

Starting Over

These are the lyrics for the latest song God has given me. I got this one afternoon sitting at Esquires with my Caramel Macchiato(?). Makes my life sound so relaxed and 'yuppyish' :-)

We made our plans, I said I'd be there
But once again I've let you down
I can't do this to you forever
Keep failing to show

If you had been any other you would have gone away
But still you long to call me brother/lover
I don't know

How do you keep on loving me
When I have been the man I've been
Has it come down to this again
Starting over
For what seems the millionth time

(c) 2006

The incredible thing about God is his complete forgiveness. We will all let him down at some stage, there is no avoiding that. And yet...!

Wow!

Unsettled

Well, all you readers out there in reader-land (all three of you), its me again.

Lately I've been feeling unsettled, like God is planning on doing something new, but I have no idea what it is. My life has not been particularly busy at the moment, so I've had a lot of thinking/blobbing time, but I feel that something more is coming.

What is it?

I wish I knew.

The funny thing is, God doesn't often let us know much in advance when He is doing something - He seems to like surprising us. This can get frustrating, but it can be exciting as well.

I feel neither, I just feel unsettled.

My Bible College course finishes at the end of this year, which doesn't help.

I know God has a plan for me. He has told me that much.

But what?

I'll let you know when I learn more.

Rated Q

Last night the programme CloseUp on TVNZ Channel 1 ran an article on whether TV should have a higher quality of programming, which a group of prominant New Zealanders have asked for. CloseUp asked for feedback.

Dear Closeup,

Before I begin, I want to reassure you that I am not an elderly conservative type. I am 20.

Although the clips played last night of television from 'the good old days' weren't the most thrilling clips imaginable, the point of these 'prominant New Zealanders' that tv has generally slipped its standard still remains relevant.

Recently, it has become harder and harder to find decent family rated entertainment, programmes both interesting and clean that don't have the words 'sexy', 'seductive' or similar in their advertisements. Even those programmes which on the whole are brilliant - such as Lost - have succumbed at times to portraying a "things are hotting up" type ad.

A good example of this came during last nights episode of Lost, when tv2's "hot friday" was advertised. Although presumably the host of "Distraction" was joking when he said "Nudity, pain... we've got something for the whole family" it is frustrating to be bombarded with such (for lack of a better word) 'filth' so regularly on television.

Why is it that television seems to think that if a programme is filled with sexual innuendos it is funny, or if it is filled with sexual relationships it is worth-while viewing.

I personally would much rather some of these older programmes, even the ones which do contain some sexual references, over many of the modern programmes such as Mile High, the OC, or even to a lesser extent Joey and Shortland Street, which - by looking at the ads - seem driven by them. Not that I watch these programmes, but only because I still remember that there is a choice between watching them and reading a book.

Why can't there be a better range of clean television programming? Shows such as your own can manage to be informative and clean. Surely there could also be clean fun programmes in all genres. Comedy, Drama, Action, Thriller, rated Q for Quality Programming.

Strengthen Strands

(A newsletter cover I wrote from the thoughts I finished the previous post with)

Last week someone visited Jeremy and myself at church. Although this person has enjoyed a close walk with God for some time, we were shocked to hear him say that he is no longer willing to consider himself a Christian, his reason being that though he believes in God, he finds himself consistently falling short of God’s standards. Instead of being a lukewarm Christian, he said he would rather not be one at all ‘until I can be authentic.’
To some extent, what he said is true. In Revelations God does tell lukewarm Christians he would rather they were hot or cold, and that because they are neither they will be spat out. But, just because a person struggles to do the right thing as a Christian doesn’t mean they should just give up. Every Christian has their moments of struggle, and even Paul found he would “do what I do not want to do.”
But if you sincerely wish to become a better Christian, the way to do that is not through removing God from your life. It is by relying on God more.
Think about it: God can see the beginning from the end; He already knows exactly when, how, and how often you will mess up, and yet He is also prepared to stand with you through those tough times. That famous verse from Ecclesiastes sums this up: “Those one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” If you are struggling to be authentic, don’t run from God, run to Him. Not just that, but seek help from other Christians, to ‘strengthen’ the number of your strands.

Reasonable Hope

The author is Kenneth Scott Latourette. The book is A History of Christianity. It’s his shorter book, at only about 1,400 pages (in probably size 9 font), and I’m about 400-500 pages through it after only 3 months. It’s pretty intense, but it’s also very interesting.
Did you know, for example, that the early church though of images of God – even of Jesus – as potentially blasphemous? And yet, fast forward to today and the only ones getting ticked off about offensive cartoons are Muslims. I even own a t-shirt with a caricature of Jesus on it, which I have worn to church on occasion. And we see nothing wrong with that.
Now I don’t want to get into a debate about the “graven” ratings of these images, and whether we should smash out all the stained glass windows in the world or not – I personally think these are just signs of our culture, not to be taken in offense – but it does seem to me that, compared to Islam for example, Christianity has lost a great deal of its passion for the things that traditionally we have stood up for.
We have become a one-trick pony, condemning sexual immorality at every turn (if we even bother standing up for that), as if it’s the only thing left that good Christians have to be upset about. It seems that as long as we can convince people to marry, and be monogamous, straight, and possibly church attending, we have done our duty in the wider world.
To be fair, some of this pussyfooting has come in for quite legitimate reasons. Christianity does have a tendency to raise up loud-mouthed offensive bible-bashers who think that if we stuff enough bible verses into people’s ears without any other explanation, the world will be a better place. How many times have you read a letter to the editor by someone claiming to speak on God’s behalf, and just cringed as they called non-believers idiots or worse?
But on the other hand, there is a severe lack of modern day C.S. Lewis’s, Thomas Aquinas’s, and (to take a modern example) Ravi Zacharias’s, willing to stand up in the secular sector and give legitimate arguments as to why we believe in an outdated, unscientific, improbable God. As the editorials have questioned during this cartoon debate, why is it that Muslims kick up such a fuss over such a little thing, when tv, newspapers and radio can distort and ridicule Christianity to any extent they want and get away with it?
We have learnt from our past not to go to literal war against our enemies (another thing early Christians would never have dreamed of doing), and we have also learnt that being loud and condemning of everything around us doesn’t help the matter at all. So what is the answer?
Peter advises us to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3:15-16). That is advice I wish more Christians would adhere to. You see, God isn’t a God of disorder and stupidity. Everything he commands and does has a logical reason behind it, one that can be easily discovered. To take the old one-trick pony out of the stable again: God commands monogamy, but the reason for this is that God knows that without this, STI’s, and diseases like AIDS run rampant, not to mention the emotional devastation such an intimate relationship can result in when it breaks down.
Have a reason for the hope you have. If you are going to follow God, find out why. If someone is wanting to turn away from their saviour because they can’t take the hypocrisy of their sin, it pays to have an answer for their question of “Why should I bother?”
Why? Because God already knows the beginning from the end, and even though you might not be serving him wholeheartedly now, he wants to help you get through it. You can only see your past and your present, but God loves you, and sees you future.