Psalm 19 - my favourite

[The image comes from wikimedia. Lovely isn't it?]

My favourite Psalm is Psalm 19, a big part of it is about how God reveals himself to us, and why it’s awesome. If you read on you’ll discover why I enjoy it so much.

Hopefully you’ve just taken a look at the Psalm. I'm going to assume so in any event. Anyway – the first way God reveals himself is through what he has made.

The Heavens Declare

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands

So, if you want to learn something about God, look up at night. See the stars? His idea, his design. If I look up at night and think “Here’s what God has made” it stuns me, as someone who’s only made a couple of websites, and a mess in his room.

The Psalmist says actually puts into words very succinctly what I think in Psalm 8:3-4 when he writes:

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

Actually a young lad who gave a talk at the Church YF that I help out at used the psalm I’ve just quoted from and since then I’ve had Psalm 19 stuck in my head.

There’s just a couple of things to point out here. The term “the work of your fingers” is particularly interesting, as it implies that the universe that we have was well within the ability of God. Finally the question “What is man that you are mindful of him?” raises a thought. It is an incredible boast that Christians make, that the creator of the universe takes an interest in us at all. Let alone to the extent that we claim. I don’t blame deists coming to their position. After all the universe is vast and we are small. Someone of an intelligence that is vast beyond measure designed the universe, and some of us still think that digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

Anyway – the next couple of verses are very interesting

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

In my last blog post (Excellence gets Results) [which ironically wasn’t excellent, or read by very many people] I talked about this simple idea: "people who do brilliantly get pulpits”. Well – the Sun, Moon and Stars get a global pulpit of sorts and from their pulpit they preach to all creation about the wonder of God by their existence. They preach into every culture and into every country, in a way that can be understood at least in part by people of every language.

They pour forth speech to more people then even Kaka with his “I belong to Jesus” vest, which I like.

I think that the story gets more amazing, as people learn more about the stars in particular in our times. [The discovery of a huge diamond in space in particular stuns me]. The universe is vast and it was created and is sustained by God.

Next we get to hear about the law of God. At the time this would have been mainly revealed to the Jewish people. So instead of the General Revelation of the first part we get into some Special Revelation.

The Law of God

While it’s obvious that the Psalmist is in awe of God as revealed through creation, I think it’s fair to say that he sees the Law of God, given to Moses as being even more beneficial. As it says in verse 7:

The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.

The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.

So while the stars tell of God’s Glory and scream “Look what he has made” it is his law that has an effect on David as he meditates on it and attempts to be conformed to it. Even the simple make good decisions whenever they humbly obey it.

Finally he ends with

Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.

…

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,

O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

The Psalmist acknowledges that he will not keep the law perfectly, and won’t even know some of the times when he has failed. Finally he tantalisingly refers to YHWH as his Redeemer.

Redeemer

I think there’s a third part to this story. That third part is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament we get some idea of it in passages like Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53. I can’t help but think that the Psalmist would have waxed lyrical some more about this part because this is the most exciting bit.

The mighty creator who gives us Laws and Justice actually enters time and space, “Makes his dwelling amongst us” and pays the penalty of the law, himself so that we might know him. It’s quite a story.

Excellence – gets results

I've been thinking a bit about excellence this week, and after my friend sent me a link to an interview with Larry Wall [whom I'd not heard of previously if I'm honest], I figured it was time to have a blog post again. It's pretty much about excellence in work, AGAIN, but with examples. Examples with great moustaches, as you shall see.

Larry Wall

[The image came from Randal Schwartz from Portland, OR, USA via Wikipedia and has some copyright restrictions associated with it].

Larry Wall created the programming language Perl, whilst working for NASA in the 80s. All you need to know about Perl (and it’s about all I know about it) is that it’s widely used today. Programming Languages do not get widely used unless they have some benefit. This guy created this language whilst working for NASA. Clearly he does excellent work.

Anyway – the other thing is he’s a Christian. I hadn’t heard of him until I was emailed a link to this interview on Slashdot. I’m afraid that I can’t link you straight into the bits that are relevant to out discussion so I’d recommend that you read the intro and question 7. You can of course read it all if you want to read about Perl. You’ll notice he answered question 7 in a way that took in Schrödinger's cat and introduced some thoughts about the doctrine election, and new life, on a technology website! It was relevant to the culture of the person who asked the question too [apologies for that!]. Do you know why? It was relevant because Mr Wall is part of that culture, anyway.... Suppose he hadn’t strove in his professional life to work hard. Do you think he’d have had that opportunity? [That’s not to say that work for it’s own sake is not worthwhile, obviously].

Francis Collins

The image is Public Domain, and from Wikipedia]

Now, Francis Collins is a geneticist and evangelical Christian. Not just a run of the mill ordinary one. His CV is so full of huge achievements that I’ve heard of some of them.

Recently he was nominated to the United State’s National Institute of Health, (to the shocked bemusement of some on Richard Dawkins’ forum, who seem to be amazed that someone with strong philosophical views does science, much to my amusement) and has written a couple of books, which people actually buy, one called “The Language of God”. People buy them and read them because he’s excellent in his field. How was Collins converted? Well one of the things he cites is the C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity. Frankly I’d recommend this book to everyone.

It would be churlish to pretend that Richard Dawkins has a small voice, however, he probably isn’t exactly rubbish at what he does either.

Work is something we should do for all the reasons outlined before, but this was just a wee point I guess.

Proverbs 22:29 [ESV] states

“Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”

My ESV Study Bible’s says of this verse in the notes:

“People of great skill, whatever their craft may be, win the respect even of kings. The implied exhortation is that one should never be careless about the quality of ones work”

Which is what I was trying to say, but put with great skill. I’m glad there’s guys like Collins and Wall who are excellent, and prepared to talk about their faith in a way that is relevant to their vocation.

Obviously most of us will work hard and not achieve anything like the influence of someone like Collins, but that's OK. The basic principle is "Work hard - people will have time to listen to what you have to say - and if it's about Jesus, then great!"

The Incarnation and Status

A few weeks ago I was on holiday in Malta. One night in particular I had a great meal at Le Meridien in St Julians. Climbing the glorious staircase made me feel like I was someone special. Having the waiter and waitress serve us as well as they did made me feel like someone special. The quality of the food made me feel like I was someone special. Each little thing that made that meal so superb helped to give the impression that I was elite. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Bizarrely once I found out that the hotel was part of a chain after I’d returned I was disappointed. However that’s not really what I want to discuss tonight. (In copyright notes - I'm quoting the ESV translation for this entry and the photograph came from Csaba_Bajko's flickr).

So I’m sitting at home on Christmas Eve waiting for tomorrow. It’s reasonable time to think about the incarnation, rather than a nice meal. (If you're ever in St Julians, pick the salmon starter by the way– incredible)…

Anyway I’ve been thinking specifically about what Philippians 2:1-10 has to say on the issue. This is a passage well worth reading if you haven’t recently.
From it we learn how Christ gave up his status with the father in heaven being instead in “found in human form” (v 8). You see I told the wee story about dinner because I think it tells something about me and possibly about most people – we like to think we are something in comparison to our peers. Now while it’s great to spend a bit of money on being treated really well sometimes, the idea that our status (permanent or temporary) is something that should be gloried in is one that runs contrary to what Paul says of Christ here. Paul's words “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” cut through the pretentious attitude that we have because of our clothes or our jobs or the exclusivity of wherever we eat or whatever else we derive status from.
Christ on the other hand who had (and has today) a genuine status volunteered to give it up for a time. And so was made man.
This was a pattern that would happen so often in his life. Throughout Christ’s earthly life he was and did many things that seem to defy his deserved status. Selected highlights are below.

1. He was laid in a feeding trough for animals as a new born baby

   A manger sounds so lovely in comparison doesn’t it? Well lets have a look at this again. We’re in Luke 2:1-7 if you’re interested. Mary and Joseph travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem (this is a long long distance) while Mary was heavily pregnant. They may have had the use of a donkey – they may not have. We don’t know. What we do know is that whenever they arrived there the inn was full. So Mary did the best she could. That was a stinky feeding trough probably in a stinky cave full of animals. Mmmm lovely.
   

2. He was a refugee

   One of the things that happens early on with Christ’s live is that king Herod hears of the birth of the messiah. Now on hearing this – he immediately plots to kill the child. He doesn’t want any sort of rival king on the block. This forces Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt until Herod dies (Matthew 2: 12-21). On a side note the fact that Christ himself was a refugee should have a massive bearing on how we treat refugees. (If you want to read something well written about how some Christians are getting involved here there's one on the guardian website)

3. He probably had an ordinary job

   OK so we don’t really know what Christ did between the ages of about 14 and 30, but it seems reasonable that he had an ordinary job.

4. He was baptised

   OK – on the face of it this doesn’t sound like a big deal but it is. This is the baptism of John that Jesus takes for repentance. Although he was in need of no repentance he went ahead and took this baptism – identifying himself with the people he would save.

5. He died a criminal’s death

   Dying on the cross was the ultimate humiliation in Christ’s time. It was the way that the worst criminal elements were executed. This he did, the righteous for the unrighteous – to bring you and I to God. (1 Peter 3:18).He didn't deserve it and that is in a way, the point.
   

So not only was Jesus willing to slum it with us. To make his dwelling with ordinary men (which is a massive downturn for him). He was willing to die the death of a criminal in order to bring ordinary men to his father and to himself by faith. Now that’s worth celebrating. Happy Christmas to all my reader. That isn't a typo :-)

Workin' for the man

Wow, it’s been a long time since I put anything up….
It’s Sunday – time to blog about work, obviously.
Anyway – before I start here’s something you might enjoy. It’s from the film “Office Space”.

Hopefully you can’t identify too closely with the protagonist in this! I guess I’m going to more or less explain why this is not what we should aspire to. (Although the movie is hilarious).

I’ve been thinking about excellence lately – the quality with which things get done. Do we concern ourselves with doing things well, or do we just do what needs done in whatever haphazard way we think we can get away with?
Now I’m thinking about work in particular. You see we often think of work as being this black box that God isn’t that interested in: you know - just this thing we have to do to get money to get food, iPods and other essentials.

That’s a shame – because it’s blatantly untrue, and is in fact a fairly dangerous heresy. What I’m going to say today is as follows:
1. The concept of work is God-ordained
2. God cares about every aspect of our lives
3. God has specific requirements for how we work - he’s had them written down and everything

I’d quite like to just leave a list up there and leave it, but that’s no good to anyone.

The concept of work is God-ordained
Do you ever think “In an ideal world I wouldn’t have to work”? Well I think that Genesis 2 paints a picture of God’s ideal world – everything precisely as he intended.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Says verse 15. I’d like to point out that this is the first record in the bible of God interacting with man since his creation. What does he do? He relocates him so that he can do a job. Interesting isn’t it? Indeed the curse, if we look at it carefully can be interpreted as “Man has to work very hard now”, rather than “Man has to work at all now”.
To not work goes against God’s design for mankind.

God cares about every aspect of our lives
How often have you heard someone say something like “God doesn’t care how well you play football” or something like that? Well God won’t think any less of you if you’re not great at something (and with my ability on the ball that’s a relief!). There’s one image of God in the bible, and one of the church, that I think will help us with this, to understand what I mean.

God the Adoptive Father
15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15
The word “Abba” almost means “daddy”. So here we have a parent who has deliberately chosen a particular child, and who has a close relationship. Are you going to tell me that such an image gives the idea of someone who is only interested with your direct interaction with him? Is that what your dad is like?

The Church: The Bride of Christ
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27
OK – so right now, it’s more like the Fiancée of Christ – there is an eternal relationship like a marriage promised. While this, for me is one of the most bizarre images of the Church, and one of the toughest to understand, but what I do understand of it is that some of the ways that a husband should relate to his wife are some of the ways that Christ relates to the Church. Again – In this image it would seem to be bizarre if we think that Christ only cares about the church’s (hint: if you’re a Christian that includes you – and the Church probably what I’ll blog about next, in about 6 months time!) direct interaction with him.

Now that we at least have some vague idea that God cares about our work - lets see what he'd like us to do about it.

God has specific requirements for how we work - he’s had them written down and everything
All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them. 1 Timothy 6:1-2

Now, I do not want to get into a whole discussion on the Bible and slavery (that might happen another time). Other than to say that it was in fact Biblical principles applied that led the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

In any event the word translated as "slaves" here can be translated as "bondservants" (and is in the ESV and NKJV for example), so it's debatable whether or not Paul is talking about slaves per se. The word as far as I can tell applies to anyone with a boss. Hey - at work I have a boss, and he has a boss, and now he has a boss too!

That said we see that if we work hard, and respectfully that reflects better upon the name of God than if we’re lazy and disrespectful. Remember Christianity isn’t a one day a week faith, to follow Christ properly is to follow Christ with everything.

Now that's not to say that we only work so that maybe we get to introduce people to Christ, we work because it's a natural God ordained thing. If you watched that video at the start and it reminded you of your work, you need to sort that out.

As always I'd love your thoughts on this because I want to know what you think and how my ideas on the subject can be improved upon (That they can be is not in question)

Jesus - the forgiving & trusting.

As stated in the previous blog, I'm going to discuss something of Christ's character. Again, since I reckon him to be "in very nature God" I feel as if I might learn something. Sorry this has been a while coming. I've been looking for an image that worked for this one on flickr, but I couldn't find one anywhere. Anyway...

I don't know how often you've been wronged. I'm sure it's happened though. I can be sure because you're surrounded by the rest of us. That's how it goes. I've wronged people in the past and will probably do so again.

Anyway - since that's the way it is, I figure it'd be good to know how to respond to that, since it happens.

In order to do that I'm going to look at John 13:36-38 (Jesus predicts Peter would deny him) Peter denies Jesus once (John 18:15-18) and twice more (John 18:25-27).

Lets set the context. The context is that Jesus has been captured and is being questioned in a ridiculous show trial. He will be crucified soon. The person that Peter denies Christ to is a girl on duty at the High Priest's courtyard, a person of low status in the culture of the time.

She's been asked by another disciple (almost certainly John) to be allowed in, like John and Peter had. They were allowed into the courtyard as the High Priest knew that they were close associates of Christ.

We could speculate as to what made Peter say "I do not" when asked the question. Was it fear? Was it a horrible feeling that he'd been had? I don't know. A fairly natural reading of the passage indicates though that John was beside Peter when this first denial was made. Check it out.

How would you treat a man who let you down while the other people who depended on didn't? Would you trust him again? I don't know that I would. Would you remain in contact? Possibly. I know this though. There'd be a nagging voice in the back of my mind, hilariously ignoring all the times I've let people down and saying stuff like "can you trust him?". I Praise God however that Jesus is much better than that.

You see that wasn't the end of Peter's friendship with Jesus. It wasn't even the end of
Jesus trusting him.

Heck - it wasn't even like Jesus waited for Peter to come and apologise in a sort of "tell me how sorry you are and I might forgive you" sort of way. No. The resurrected Christ
goes after Peter, who is still shaken up and unsure of himself. Here's what happens. I've added the Greek in for the word love because it shows something interesting:

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love [agape - the highest form of self-sacrificing love] me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love [phileo - strong affection] you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love [agape] me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love [phileo] you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love [phileo] me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love [phileo] me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love [phileo] you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!" John 21:15-18

Peter couldn't tell Jesus that he loved him as he should. He was unsure of himself after his earlier denials. Look what Jesus does. He trusts Peter to "feed his sheep". He works to ensure that Peter recovers from the consequences of his own sin. There's no "Well I'll forgive you but you have to wallow in that mess you've made for a bit". This is why Jesus is worth emulating.

We can be very sure that this meant to help look after and to lead Jesus' church and eventually to die for him. Jesus didn't just forgive (I say "just" but that's a struggle sometimes). He trusted again. To be put simply Jesus loved Peter. He kept no record of wrongs. It's a refreshing and glorious change from the detailed records I keep. What about you?

If you're one of the 3 (if I'm lucky!) people who read this please leave your comments and we can have a discussion on it.