A Hungry Hike

When I was about sixteen, I went on a week-long leadership training course. At three o’ clock one morning, we were rudely awaked and ordered to pack everything we would need for a 36 hour hike. We found ourselves a few hours later watching the sunrise and reading our first instructions. If we followed the directions correctly, we would locate some food and our next bearing.

Three hours later, we were delighted to find the food and wolfed down every last scrap before reading the next instructions ... which told us NOT to eat all the food at once because it was intended to last us until 12pm the next day!

You would not believe how hunger can focus one’s attention. We didn’t dally or dawdle on that hike. We read every future instruction as if our lives depended on it. We sorted our priorities with clarity. Not even girls would have distracted us – unless they had food offer. We had one desire: to get to the fast food outlet at Ruwa for hamburgers as soon as possible.

Desires are immensely motivating. And we are driven by many different desires. Yet how often are we gripped by things that are close to God’s heart? Can we describe our spiritual life as passionate? Make a list of five things you long for in order of importance ... informative?

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matt 5:6)”. Paul wrote, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy (1 Cor. 14:1)”.

I want God to release transforming energy into my life, energy to transform myself and my sphere of influence for the glory of God and the extension of His Kingdom. But I am realising that it starts with a God-given hunger.

It says in Psalm 103 that God “satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (v5)”. It stands to reason that the desires referred to here are godly ones, but look at the result! A satisfied, God-given desire renews your youth like the eagle’s. The rhythm of desire and satisfaction leading to greater desire will have you soaring the thermals of God’s power and plans.

So ask God to plant a hunger in your heart. Perhaps you should ask Him first thing every morning for a week. Look for the stirrings of new life and carefully tend the sapling of godly desire till it grows into a fruitful tree.

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4)."

Cheers for now - Ian

Taken by surprise 2

“We dare not think that God is absent or daydreaming. The do-nothing God. He is not tucked away in some far corner of the universe, uncaring, unfeeling, unthinking ... uninvolved. Count on it – God intrudes in glorious and myriad ways. And thank His holy name He does!” So writes Joni Eareckson Tada in the introduction to her book Glorious Intruder.

In my last blog, I described the first of two “divine intrusions”. Not only did God intrude in my life, but at the same time, he was working in the other leaders of Harvest to re-align our priorities to His. The first intrusion was about discipleship; the second is about reaching the lost. Here is how it happened:

Having realised last year that God wanted us to focus on discipleship, my first reaction was to begin preparing a sermon on discipleship. I turned to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20. I noted that the Great Commission was the mission or assignment that God gave the disciples just before He left the earth. Therefore it was very important. Further, the Great Commission was open-ended. That is to say, it still applies today.

In the Greek, it was clear that the only command in the Great Commission was “make disciples”. The process of making disciples involved “going”, “baptising” and “teaching” – these were participles that modified the imperative verb “make disciples”. Hmm ... when Jesus commands something, we should listen up.

I was humming. There was lots of evidence to back up the proposition that discipleship was important to God, and it still is today. Brilliant! I would be able to preach with authority and conviction...

At this point a little question popped into my mind:

“So, who are you going to disciple at Harvest?”

“Um ... Harvesters?” I replied.

“That would involve the ‘teaching’ bit. But what about the ‘going’ and ‘baptising’ bit?”

It was a short conversation with scintillating input from me, but I can tell you - it grabbed my attention. The Glorious Intruder had intruded!

I realised that I was trying to separate evangelism from discipleship. But why was that the case? It was painful to admit that I wasn’t really concerned about the lost. I would rather have “played church” than run the risk of actually reaching out. Yes, Christians must be discipled from the point of conversion onwards, but our churches should be bringing new “babies” into the family all the time. We do not exist for ourselves alone.

But what was I going to do about it. And did I really care? In some ways, I did not want to pray “give me your heart for the lost, Jesus” because I was quite happy as I was. So in the end, I prayed along the lines recommended by Selwyn Hughes: I’m not really willing to pray “give me your heart for the lost”, but I am willing to be made willing. Then I went out and started acting as though I did have a heart for the lost.

Amazingly – and unfortunately this part of the story is for another day – God got me involved in some life changing conversions. I’m talking about the kind of change where the “before” and “after” photos can hardly be recognised as the same person. Boy was it exciting! I don’t think I had ever experienced such motivation and joy in ministry. And without realising it, God had begun working with me to align my heart to His.

Needless to say, God has been working in our leadership team too, so that since we have the discipleship structures in place, we are planning to get intentional about outreach. That is why we have invited Anthony Dee to visit us in term 1 of 2013. He will give us some practical training in evangelism. Further, we are planning a big Alpha drive in term 2.

However, as a church, we must begin right away by inviting God to change our priorities in the area evangelism. If we don’t, we will not be in a position to seize the opportunities that God is planning to send our way next year. If God doesn’t change your heart, you may perceive Harvest’s outreach efforts as an irritation or a threat to your comfort. Worst of all, you might miss the joy God has planned for you because of apathy. Ask God to work with your heart. He may not change it in the same way He changed mine. But if you ask Him to, you can be sure of one thing: He will!

Cheers for now - Ian

Taken by Surprise

My priorities are often very different to God’s. I say that as though it comes as a surprise. I guess it should not, but frequently it does. Somehow, we assume that our priorities are well aligned with God’s.  But they are not, and we need to crucify our pride and work with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis in order to make sure that we are passionate about the things that are close to God’s heart.

Last year, I was profoundly “surprised” by God on a number of occasions. I would like to tell you about two such occasions over the next two weeks.

On both occasions, I was surprised to discover that God’s priorities did not rank with mine - in fact, His priorities did not even appear on my list. Oh how pride can blind us!

The first surprise encounter came at a Pastor’s fraternal. The speaker was talking about discipleship. He explained that God has planted a “seed” in every human being. This seed lies dormant but it is the potential for a person to be placed in right relationship with God so that he may make a unique contribution to the extension of God’s Kingdom and look forward to an eternal reward and everlasting fellowship with God. For this “seed” to be germinated, a person must be 1) born again through faith in Jesus and then 2) discipled in the context of a local church. A person will NEVER truly become what he was created to be, and hence live as he was created to live without being born again and discipled. If these conditions are met, the seed will grow into a verdant tree and begin producing fruit for the glory of God and the joy of His people. Imagine what Zimbabwe would be like if there were more people living as God originally intended and created them to live.

Immediately, I sensed that I was coming to a turning point in my life. The Holy Spirit was crying out “listen up” and my spirit and soul were saying YES! I could think of many people whose lives were like khaki weeds or thorn bushes - perhaps you can too - people that need life and joy and hope and peace. Then I thought of those that come to church but are not being properly discipled, people that are like tiny saplings, without fruit and in danger of shrivelling up if they are not properly nourished and tended.

After the initial excitement, I realised I had some repenting to do. Some time before the Pastors’ meeting, one of the Harvest elders had spoken of his conviction that we should be running discipleship courses through the homegroups. Sadly, I had paid no attention.

At this stage, Dave and Chrissie had headed off for their sabbatical. In our next Leadership meeting, I raised the issue of discipleship and there was unanimous agreement that we should begin setting structures in place to disciple our members. So Theunis began developing discipleship material, which we ended up using in the Discipleship 2 course.

 Interestingly, God had put discipleship on Dave’s heart through a very vivid dream. Dave started doing something about his dream before he left on sabbatical by developing “diagnostic questions” to help people identify gaps and confusion in their understanding of Christianity. Then with his sabbatical approaching, Dave put his work on hold. God reminded Dave of the dream whilst he was on sabbatical, and he determined in his heart to do something about it when he returned to Zimbabwe! When he got back, Dave was excited to discover that things were already in progress to roll out Discipleship 1, and we incorporated his questions as part of the course.

Is it not exciting the way God leads and guides us? I find it amazing that God guides individuals. I find it a miracle that He can guide a group of leaders, given our frailty and tendency to indulge the flesh, but God IS leading our church. We now have Discipleship 1 and 2 going strong and have run three Network courses with the fourth due to start on the 2^nd of November.

If you belong to Harvest, I hope that this testimony will inspire you to get more involved in discipleship – either by attending a course, encouraging someone to attend a course or using the material to disciple someone one-on-one. And if you belong to another church, I hope you will be inspired to respond to God when He speaks to you about priorities.

Cheers for now - Ian

Driving back from the airport last Saturday ...

Saturday morning 6am, I was driving back from the airport trying to decide whether to attend a men’s breakfast. When I have a decision to make, I often set up a conversation between myself and “God”. The “God” side of the discussion argues for what I think to be God’s position on the matter.

So brace yourself. You are about to get a glimpse into the murky workings of my mind. I hope you are not of a nervous disposition! Here goes:

“Why so grumpy?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes you are. Don’t think you can hide it from me.”

“Ok, so I’m looking grumpy. It’s because I have to go to the men’s breakfast, and I don’t want to.”

“Why do you HAVE TO GO?”

“Erm... because I am the pastor...?”

“Is someone forcing you to go because you are the pastor?”

“No, nobody is forcing me to go. I just think I ought to go.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go because you WANT to go?”

“Look, I don’t WANT to go OK!”

Silence...

“Ian.”

“Yes.”

“What if I told you that I want to refresh you at the Men’s Breakfast?”

The thought that God might have plans to refresh me brought tears to my eyes. My emotions, my spirit, my entire being said, “YES, Lord, I want to be refreshed. I need to be refreshed”. And so I went to the meeting because I wanted to. And I WAS refreshed!

But why is it that we so often go to or stay away from meetings for the wrong reasons? Why do we go under a sense of obligation to God or people? Why do we go just because we feel compelled to go? Do we feel compelled because we want to earn the approval of God and others?

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, asking them to take up a collection for the poor in Jerusalem, he said:

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).

I think we should apply this principle to other areas of our lives. Imagine a church were everyone served with cheerful willingness and a sense of God’s purpose in all they were doing.  Yes, even in the matter of attending meetings, we should go to God and ask Him to impress on our hearts what He wants us to do, and then do it willingly and cheerfully. In this way, we will attend or miss meetings or courses for the right reasons.

Sometimes, however, we miss for the wrong reasons. We throw up barriers which prevent us from finding the good reasons FOR doing something. For example, “I don’t do men’s meetings”.  Such an axiom is usually established to cover a deeper reason for not attending. It could be, “I am anxious that nobody will talk to me.” Or perhaps, “I might be asked to share or pray out loud.” Are these things really that terrible? Would it harm you if nobody talked to you? It might be unpleasant, but if God shows you a compelling reason for attending surely that would outweigh a little discomfort? And if you do not want to share or pray, nobody can force you to. A polite, “I would rather not pray/share” would suffice.

Another bad reason for missing is failure to consider attending. Simple selfishness and lack of concern for the purposes of God often cause me to overlook opportunities to bless or be blessed, to receive or to contribute. Just because I feel a lack of conscience about missing something doesn’t necessarily mean I am in the will of God. The important thing is to consciously seek God and His purposes.

I hope this makes as much sense to you as it makes to me. Let us make decisions with God’s help, and then we will DO and NOT DO things for the right reasons. And when we do things we will do them willingly, joyfully and with an awareness of God and His purposes.

Cheers for now - Ian

Police and an inspiring trip down memory lane

I was crazy about Police when I was a teenager. I am talking about the music group – not the men in uniform. My brother and I had a 7” vinyl of Police’s collected hits. I dug it out just now for old time’s sake. I wish I could play it. Do you remember lifting the needle, swinging it across the LP with the edge of your index finger and then gently lowering it down? There was something mesmerising about the way the needle floated over the slight undulations in the vinyl, sliding quickly along to the first cut and making that distinctive crackly, grainy sound before the music began.

I loved Police. Was their music rock or reggae? A bit of both I suppose. Whatever it was, it captivated me. Walking on the Moon was just SO cool. And how could a band of just three be that effective? I wanted the whole world to know that I listened to Police. Perhaps I would become cool by association. I can remember waiting tensely for the neighbours’ daughter to come riding home from Arundel School so that I belt out De doo doo doo, De da da da at top volume whilst she pedalled down our cul de sac. We had a Supersonic record player in those days. Remember them?

I listened to Invisible Sun for the first time on the Radio 3 Top Ten Hit Parade. My brother and I used to borrow my Dad’s little portable radio. It was called a Darling radio. I kid you not. Initially, my dad bought it for use during guard duty when the war was still on. Either my brother or I – I can’t remember whom – dropped it in the bath one evening. Hoping to avoid having to own up, we secretly tried to dry it in the oven. Unfortunately we set the temperature too high. The case of our little Darling melted. It still worked, but from then on adjusting the knobs was a challenge.

Anyway, I digress. I WAS talking about Invisible Sun. The black and white music video features footage from Northern Ireland. People walk through driving rain and soldiers patrol against a forlorn backdrop of derelict buildings. A tiny boy in an anorak with the hood up runs alongside an armoured troop carrier and spits defiantly on it before letting fly with a rock. The question behind the lyrics seems to be, “how do you cope with life in a miserable, war-torn world?” Indeed, whilst the song was being recorded, Stewart Copeland’s hometown of Beirut was being bombed to rubble.

Invisible Sun

Police came up with a poignant answer to their question. In the chorus, they sing:

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's done

As a teenager, I remember being sobered to discover that even my cool heroes were crying out for something to pin their hopes on. And it seems to be the same for every generation. Take these words from Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park:

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve felt so long
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along

Somewhere I belong

I guess I will never get the chance to tell Police that there is an “invisible sun” or to show Linkin Park where they could belong. Many would think I am arrogant because I claim to have the answer. But they aren’t my answers. And if you know the answer, you owe it to God and others to love with the warmth of the “invisible sun” and to live like there IS “something real”. People need healing and reality. They want “hope when the whole day’s done”.

Will you point them in the right direction?

Cheers for now - Ian

Use the future to shape today.

The story of Chad le Clos’ Olympic victory over Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly need not be told here. Needless to say, it has been celebrated repeatedly in the media and interviews with his Dad – who refers to Chad as “my beautiful boy” – have brought tears to millions of eyes. Indeed, one such interview seems to have gone viral on You Tube.

Be that as it may, I was struck by Chad’s reflections on an interaction he once had with a fellow student at Westville Boys High in Durban. The lad in question observed that Chad was very “lucky” to have been awarded full colours for swimming. Chad was clearly of the opinion, however, that success in swimming has less to do with luck than hard work and discipline. So he talked about his Friday nights when socialising with friends had to be sacrificed on the altar of Saturday morning galas. No doubt early Fridays were the tip of the iceberg where sacrifices were concerned.

As I watched Chad on the winner’s podium, his lip quivering and tears sliding down his cheeks, it occurred to me that a future hope will inevitably shape the present. The hope of winning gold must have shaped Chad’s life for months and years at a time, right down to the details of every hour, minute, second and in the case of the final, every hundredth of a second.

An image of Chad on the podium flashed across my mind’s eye a few weeks ago when I read:

1 Peter 1:13 ... prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

The “grace” you will receive when Christ returns is immortality and an eternal reward. These sure beat an Olympic gold medal, and you must allow the hope of eternity to shape your life.

In the Greek, the only imperative in this verse is “set your hope fully”. But Peter uses two pictures to illustrate how to “set your hope”.

The first picture is one of a man running. The phrase “prepare your mind for action” could be translated more literally as “gird up the loins of your mind”. The dress of Peter’s day included a long “shirt” that hung down to the ground. This “shirt” had to be tucked into the belt so that the runner would not get entangled in it.

If your focus is the return of Christ, you will be ever watchful and alert, making sure that your mind has not become entangled with lies, obsessions or worldly philosophies and values.

So the first picture was of a man trying to run but getting tangled in long flowing garments. The second picture is of a drunk. A drunk is not self-controlled. He is controlled by alcohol.

If your mind is focused on the winner’s podium, you will not allow anything to take control of you. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:12, “I will not be mastered by anything”. What is mastering you at the moment? Perhaps it is fear, or bitterness, or the love of money, or anger, or insecurities, or an addiction or problem behavior.

Larry Norman sings, “this world is not my home – I’m just passing through”. Do not live as though this life is all there is. It is a constant battle, I know. People must see the hope of eternity shining in the way you think, in the things you do or do not do and in your treatment of others. Therefore, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed, and use hope to shape today.

God is for you

At the age of 19, Derek Redmond shattered the British 400m record. He went on to attend the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games but sadly had to withdraw from the 400m race with an Achilles tendon injury. Redmond endured numerous operations but was determined to recover his form and compete in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

True to his aspirations, Redmond qualified for the Barcelona Olympics and found himself at the start of the first semi-final heat. His Father, Jim Redmond sat on the edge of his seat in the grand stand, watching with baited breath as his son erupted from the blocks.

“Redman has got off very fast indeed,” declared the commentator.

Things were looking good, which made what happened next knock the breath out of the 65 000 strong crowd. Down the back stretch and less than 200m from finishing line, Redmond grasped at his right leg and stumbled to a halt before falling to his knees.

65 000 voices groaned in unison. But I am sure that there was only one person in the entire stadium exploding from his seat – Jim Redmond. As Derek began hopping along his lane, brushing away help and determined to finish, Jim was barging down his aisle, vaulting over security barriers and avoiding officials.

Derek had one thing on his mind: to finish the race. And Jim had one thing on his: to help Derek do it. As Jim ran up to his son, Derek steadied himself on his Dad’s shoulder, and they crossed the line together.

“Whatever happens (sic) he had to finish, and I was there to help him finish. I intended to go over the line with him. We started his career together. I think we should finish it together,” said Jim in an interview after the race.

Recently, I have felt as if I have pulled a muscle in the race of life. I am determined to finish, but like Derek Redmond I am hopping along on one leg. Perhaps you feel the same way. If you do, I would like to give you the same assurance that God gave me.

Your Father is not sitting up in the stands watching you hobble along. He isn’t cheering from a distance or asking himself “I wonder what he’s up to now, limping along when he should be running”.  No, your Father is on the track with you. He is holding you up with his arms. He wants to speak words of encouragement into your ear. Your Father is a GOOD Dad like Jim Redmond ... but even better.

Jim Redmond said, “We started his career together. I think we should finish it together.” The Bible says, “(God) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). You must just be determined to finish the race. And God will help you to do it.

Cheers for now - Ian