Blue January

January.

Yesterday was Blue Monday, apparently.

The problem for us all is that it is easy to root our moods in circumstances and place rather than in Jesus. January in this household means time to renew house insurance, travel insurance, pay tax, figure out US tax … if I base my mood on what I am trying to accomplish this month, it will definitely become Blue January.

I lift my eyes to the hills. My help is in the name of the Lord. Today I will trust in him. I will cast all my cares on him, because he cares for me. I will not worry about tomorrow but focus on today. My God meets all my needs in Jesus Christ.

And yours.

Cold Comfort

Cold comfort?

Wrestling with those opening verses of Isaiah 40 this morning. Hard to reconcile the God of love with a God who pours out double punishment on people for their sins. Am I reading this wrong? Is it really meaning that he gives double blessing to those who have been suffering greatly? Any insights on this out there?

Led me to think about how John the Baptist’s audience heard his cry (from verse 3 of Isaiah 40) about preparing the way in the desert. They would certainly have felt they were in a desert, with the Romans in control, so how would they have understood the injunction to clear a path for God’s glory to be seen by all mankind? Seems like they responded on a personal level – what about corporately though? I guess the Temple largely ignored him or thought of him as a solitary and singular figure.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension, though, those who prepared the way were filled with the Holy Spirit and the glory of the Lord was certainly revealed. As it still is.

On to today’s persecuted church. What do our brothers and sisters make of these verses, if they even have time and space to consider them? I’ve just read an article on the report by Open Doors on the state of the persecuted church in 2015 and it makes grim reading. Scattered and frightened, fleeing situations of brutality and often having no safe haven to run to, how can they prepare the way for the Lord? 

Where is there comfort for them? Is the onus on us to be speaking tenderly to our brothers and sisters and reassuring them that the tough times are over? But are they? And I am not happy with the implication from this reading that they are suffering because of their sins, when our sins are just as heinous.

What about the state of the church in the west? Today’s news coverage is all about the Anglican Community’s sanctioning of the American Episcopal church for its stance on gay marriage. More fracturing, more disunity but how to repair it? 

What I take from this reading this morning is that we are all in the desert and somehow in that desert we are to make an effort to remove the impediments which promote division and discord. How do we even identify these with integrity and love? 

Conclusion today is that more than ever we need to live and walk close to the Lord as the body of Christ, because only he can guide us on the way forward. That as we come together in humility and in a spirit of seeking the way forward, he will highlight and demolish strongholds of division and discord. And as these things happen, all mankind will see it and marvel and recognise the glory of the Lord. 

My prayers are powerful and effective, according to God’s word, so I better get on it.

Winter do your Worst

Gazing out the window at a wintry landscape. A weak sun fights through intermittent snow cloud cover, bare black branches silhouetted against the colourless sky. Now the snow flurries sweep across the field in columns of ghostly figures. I stifle an involuntary shiver.

I am not an ascetic. I grew up in a lovely climate and enjoy the heat and the year-round fragrances and lushness of foliage. But there is something sobering, challenging and probably healthy about a few weeks of winter winds.

It first struck me when I was a ‘newbie’ in Scotland. Every morning I flung open the curtains and if the weather wasn’t promising, my mood plummeted for the day. Eventually I decided that I couldn’t base my emotions on something as fickle and beyond control as the weather – so I stopped opening the curtains first thing and dug deep to find the source of happiness within me.

I’m reminded of the stories of children – and adults – in Africa and other developing communities who have absolutely nothing and yet glow with a radiant joy which erupts in laughter and cheerful banter. And I’m thinking that in contrast, how many of us in the west see therapists or pop pills or seek other ways to find that elusive joy. 

Blessed with living in a place of abundance, I need a reality check so that I don’t forget that the basis of happiness comes from a contented and thankful heart, a heart which recognises that all good gifts and especially that of life itself comes from our loving creator God. Seasoned with that dash of wisdom, I hope that if/when circumstances in my life are more wintry than summery, I will be able to dig deep and hunker down in the arms of my Saviour Jesus. Nobody and no circumstances can rob me of this most valuable of treasures, a relationship with the Lord of life.

So winter, do your worst. My outlook is not anchored in the weather forecast but in Jesus Christ, who will never desert me. What a blessing.

Pernicious Weeds

Coming back up the drive, Don paused to gather as many dandelion flowers as he could before they puff themselves up into a jillion seeds which rain down on the garden and invade the cultivated landscape.

They get put away into a bag, in the bin, where their seeds are contained, wither and die.

Dandelions flower in many areas of our lives and culture today. They add colour and variety but can be pernicious weeds if we leave them to flower and reseed. Sometimes we need to be ruthless in recognising potential future dangers and getting rid of them before they spread. Different approaches to law and order, for instance. Acceptance of sexual innuendoes which may usher in abuse. Gender discrimination over employment and pay. Tolerance of drinking which can lead to violence and social unrest. Outlandish bonuses for managers even when the work done is below standard. The list goes on.

Dandelions in my own life? Sure, plenty of them. Self-indulgence which can undermine my work ethic and sabotage the goals God has for me. Laziness which can keep me from effective prayer. Fear which can short-circuit faith and become a ruthless slave-driver. And so on.

As Paul wrote to the Romans, ‘although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ‘ Or in another version, 'the moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. ... I’ve tried everything and nothing helps ... is there no one who can do anything for me? ...

‘The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.’

I am so grateful that I can ask him to not only break off the dandelion flowers of sin in my life, but actually dig them out, and uproot them so they can’t re-flower. 

I want no pernicious weeds in my life, and I thank God that he can get rid of them for me.

Your Kingdom Come

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

On earth, as it is in heaven.

God is good, all the time. The evil in the world is rampant and running amok. It’s up to us Christians to stand up to it. God isn’t overcome by evil. God is good, all the time. God is love. That’s who he is, the essence of his being. He is the Lord who heals. He is the Lord who suffers alongside us. His kindness is breathtaking and his mercy is overwhelming. His grace is beyond our understanding.

Today I am going to step forward in faith. The resurrection of Jesus over two millennia ago is the victory over death for which the whole creation has been waiting. Yet we are watching the earth slowly die because our stewardship of it has been so greedy, selfish and profligate. 

Jesus died to redeem it too. I am so grateful. It is such a beautiful earth. The news this morning was that the Great Barrier Reef is shrinking away to nothing at an alarming rate. The news this morning was that a wee girl was snatched while outside playing in a town in Wales. The news this morning detailed further atrocities against innocent children in Syria.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, Lord Jesus, as it is in heaven. 

Use me today to help bring it about. Amen.