Are You Ready?

Hardware stores in Bangkok have been having a field day recently, playing on the fears of many residents to sell materials guaranteed to flood-proof one’s house. many of the purchases made were unthought-through panic buys which would have had little bearing on the flooding potential of the houses in question, but at least brought a little peace of mind to those who shelled out hundreds and thousands of baht to protect their real estate! One local estate had the obligatory wall of sandbags, but also had wrapped the entire outer wall in plastic sheeting (leaving a gap for the expensive cars to drive in and out, of course- and therefore for the water to find an entry point!). No matter that in flood areas the water was coming up into the houses through the drains, and therefore the result of the total encasement of said estate could well have been an unintentional community swimming pool! At least people thought they were ready!

One of the most disappointing and frustrating aspects of the work of The Well has been the attitude of some churches (and especially their leaders) to the people we are seeking to reach with God’s love and healing. A few times now, we have been told that the church “is not ready” to love, serve, welcome, bless and rejoice with the folks we are working with and amongst. Just last week my wife was asking a local church to partner with us in providing gifts and food for a small party for ladies working freelance on the streets. The reply was that while they could help, the church “was not ready” to host the party or embrace the ladies working on their doorstep.

Over this Christmas, we celebrate the inbreaking of King Jesus and His Kingdom into this world, a world that, by and large, was not ready. Accustomed to the silence of God for 400 years since Malachi, the arrival of the Messiah in the shape of a helpless, defenseless child was unexpected, unwelcome and unrecognized by those that were not ready or willing to have their lives turned upside down. However, there were those who were ready, those who listened and obeyed, those who were attuned to what the Father was doing- Mary, Elizabeth, Anna the prophetess, Simeon, the star-gazers and the shepherds were in the vanguard of those welcoming in the new thing that God was birthing in His Son. Later there were others who joyfully embraced the way of Jesus, the way of the Cross, the way of The Master who became the servant. The tragedy was that those who should have been ready (indeed, who thought they were ready, and thought they could ensure that others were as ready as they) who were the most unready, and who excluded themselves and others under their influence from entering the Kingdom and joining in the party. So unready were they that instead of opening the door, they shut it in peoples’ faces, bolting and chaining it up for good measure- if they couldn’t enter, they made sure that nobody else could either!

And us? Let’s get up close and personal for a moment. Are you ready? Am I? It’s too easy to throw up our hands in horror at the attitude of the church, to criticize the arrogance of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. But what about you? This Christmas, are you ready to echo those beautiful words of Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.” - the very words that opened her heart, her womb, her future and her plans for God’s heart, God’s future, God’s plans to be birthed through her into a dying world? Are we ready to listen to what the Father is saying, to see what he is doing, and to do it with Him? Are we ready to say “Lord, I am ready; help me in my unreadiness”? The world is waiting, in eager expectation- for His sake, let’s do all we can to be ready! And let’s pray for our churches, for our families, our communities, that we would be ready to serve up the kingdom feast that Christ has made ready to those for whom it has been prepared.

Reflections on Water

At the time of writing this, Thailand is facing some of the worst flooding in decades. Although parts of Bangkok are still dry, the floodwaters that have been building up in the north over the past few months are continuing their inexorable journey towards the sea, and every day sees the water encroach further, leaving a trail of destruction before it. Over 500 people have died, many people have already evacuated, and despite the efforts of many to stem the flow, this particular force of nature is proving to be stronger.

The Well was closed for a period, and although the water has not reached the centers, staff and students have been adversely affected. The family home of one staff member has been flooded, and they are now having to evacuate. An air of resignation has set in for many, the daily waiting birthing its own form of stress and pressure. The confusing mixed messages from government officials and “experts” has added to the tension, with whether the entire city will be engulfed or whether the end of the flooding is nigh depending on who is reporting.

In the midst of the waiting, the rescue and relief efforts, the evacuations, the confusion, it is important to remember that there is a flood that this city, and indeed the whole nation, needs to see, that of the presence of God, the Living Water poured out on a dry and desolate land. Repeatedly in the Bible we see promises of this flood, be it in the conversation Jesus has with the Samaritan woman, the vision of the water flowing through the temple in Ezekiel, the river of the water of life in Revelation, the cry of God through Amos, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”.

At this time, I have been meditating on why water is such an incredibly rich image for the presence of God. Here are a few thoughts, none original, but worth reflecting on! Firstly, a paradox: water is so life-giving, and yet is one of the most destructive forces on this earth! The presence of God leads to our undoing, the death of our plans, the ruination of our lives for anything except loving and serving Him, and, paradoxically, as we lose life, so we gain it. The call is always to wade deeper into the water, to lose the fear of drowning, to die that we may live.

For fear of stating the obvious, water also runs from the highest to the lowest- as seen in the flow of the waters from the uplands of Thailand to the flood plain of Bangkok! It is in the low areas of our lives, our communities, our sickness, our sorrows and our degradation, that the life-giving Spirit of God flows most, bringing cleansing, freshness, purity and fresh life, sating and saturating the parched earth. Is it any surprise that it is to a broken, ostracized Samaritan woman plumbing the depths of the human condition that Jesus promises a water so refreshing that “Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."? And it is as we follow Jesus into the low places that we will see more of the Water of Life flowing, both in and through our lives.

Which brings us neatly to the last reflection: water that is not flowing is dangerous, diseased, and carries death of another kind.. individual believers and worshipping communities that try to bottle revival, selfishly gorging themselves on the water while refusing to be poured out for a dry and thirsty world, ultimately sow the seeds of their own destruction. As we seek to capture the water, to dam it up and control the flow, the fresh, sparkling water becomes tepid, brackish, and undrinkable, and before long the very thing that was there for life is the bearer of ill-health and death. It is only as we open the sluice gates, allowing the water to flow through our lives for others, that we will begin to have a foretaste of “The river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”.

Please join us as we pray that in the midst of the suffering brought on by the floodwaters in Thailand, we would see a tremendous outpouring of the Water of Life!

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE WORTH?

This week has seen the passing of Steve Jobs, the creative mastermind behind Apple. Tributes have been flowing in from around the world, focusing on his business acumen, his innovation, his team ethic, his value to humankind. Observers have been surprised at how many people have Facebooked, Tweeted, blogged and e-mailed, quoting Mr Jobs at length as if his very words held the key to life itself.

This very same week, another man who had inspired an outflowing of musical creativity also died. Bert Jansch, a folk guitarist whose unique style influenced the likes of Paul Simon, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and many others, passed away. His passing was marked without fanfare, without presidential comment, without television specials interviewing anyone who knew him to glean the detailed trivia that feeds the insatiable appetite of the doting public. But which man had most worth?

Before we rush to answer,we should check our hearts. How much have we bought into the cult of celebrity, the concept of “value added” that defines a man by his productivity, his popularity or his bank balance? How much do we play by the same rules, judging each other by what we can or can’t do, or what we have or have not achieved, even within the community of followers of Jesus?

Outreaching amongst freelancers in Bangkok’s Chinatown area earlier this week, my wife met a woman, six months pregnant, who was touting for customers. She gets one customer a day if she is lucky, and picks up 400 baht, 100 of which goes to the owner of the seedy hotel where she rents the room. How much do you think she is worth? A girl we are helping is dealing with the trauma of having had three abortions, the last one at seven months. How much were the lives of her unborn children worth? And how much is she worth? Last year, 2,000 fetuses were found in a Thai temple, the victims of backstreet abortions- they were worth $16 each to the woman who took them from the illegal clinics to the temple,and were a small part of the estimated 300,000 illegal abortions carried out in a year in Thailand; but how much were they really worth? And what is the worth of the lonely, frightened girls who feel they must resort to such desperate measures? And of the “doctors” performing the abortions?

Again, before quickly answering, we need to pause and reflect.We all know the stock Sunday School answer- in God’s eyes, all people are equally precious, loved by Him, redeemed by the blood of His Son- but in our everyday lives, how do we flesh out that belief? Do we play the fame game as much as the next man? How much does our use of time, of our money, our attention reflect the value that God has placed on every sinful, broken, marred and damaged person? How much do we see the image of God despite the external packaging? And how can we break free from the pandering to the values of this twisted, broken world in which we live, that perverts worship to idolatry of the successful, the talented, the powerful, the beautiful and the rich?

And we need to answer the hardest question: When we use the standards of this world to define the worth of people, what worth are we really attributing to Jesus, the one who:-

“..grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.” ?

May we be continually renewed in the ways we attribute value and worth to others, transformed and not conformed, equipped to live a life that truly sees people as Jesus sees them, as we gaze upon the face of Jesus in worship!

Poetic Prophets, Cracked Creation and Dispelled Darkness

“Ring the bells that still can ring,

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s where the light gets in.”

(“Anthem”, Leonard Cohen).

Working in the craziness of Bangkok, in daily contact with the brokenness of students at The Well, and having to confront one’s own brokenness, could easily be seen as an invite to despair, hopelessness and depression! Whatever our natural disposition, it is a challenge to realize hope in the midst of the desperate situations people find themselves in, sometimes through no fault of their own. Faith, hope and love are stretched, sometimes near to breaking point. And yet.....

In the words of Leonard Cohen, a poetic prophet (is there any other kind?), there is a crack in everything. Everything in this world is broken, imperfect, marred in some way, twisted from its original intent.That would be a recipe for despair if it was the whole story, but Laughing Lenny (as our family call him) is quick to counterbalance his reflection on the brokenness of our world with the awesome, mind-blowing statement that it is precisely there that light breaks through! It is in the darkness, the brokenness, the damage and pain that the light of Christ shines brightest. It is not in our incredibly organized and neat churches, our structured “sin-management” discipleship models, our shallow “fellowship over coffee”, our tailored “worship experiences”, but it is in the dark recesses, the messiness of daily life, the bars, the slums, the inner cities, the dysfunctional families, the sweatshops and massage parlors....

And it is precisely in the brokenness of our own lives, our insecurities, our sin, our fumbling, stumbling attempts at fully following Jesus, our misunderstanding and misappropriation of His Kingdom, our slowness and dullness of heart towards Him and towards those who God treasures, that the light is seen! It is not in our perfect offerings, our personal righteousness, our having it all together, but it is seen in and through the cracks in our lives. Often the cracks are barely seen, having been carefully concealed, sometimes for many years. They appear as mere hairline fractures, similar to when the seed breaks through the dry earth, when the oyster opens up to reveal its hidden treasure, when a beautiful aroma is released through the fissures in the crust of newly baked bread, where yeast has done its work. But we know that once the seed has pushed through, it is destined to grow; the oyster will release its splendor; the bread will be broken, shared and feasted on. The hidden things will be revealed.

This may be nothing new, but there is a need to be regularly reminded of these things as we live out the promise that we are the light of the world. As we seek to reflect His light, recognizing that we are cracked people serving other broken people in a fractured world, we can draw courage, hope and faith from the reality that this, here and now, is where the light gets in. As another poetic prophet, Isaiah, declares:

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Is. 60: 1-3).

May we have eyes to see beyond the darkness, through the cracks, to see the brightness of the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom dawning in the darkest of places.

Book Review: Fall To Grace, Jay Backer with Martin Edlund

Normally I don't do book reviews, but I am a sucker for a free book, so when I was offered this book for free in return for a review I thought "OK, what's to lose?"! Anyway, a book written by the son of disgraced televangelist and leader of PTL ministries Jim and Tammy Faye Backer had to be juicy, right? A scandalous read that made one feel self-righteous and tut in all the right places, surely?

Well, no, because this book is about grace- the scandalous, incomprehensible, glorious foundation of the Christian life, and the stuff so lacking from much of what we call church. The story of Jay's journey from the destructions of a graceless life is charted in the initial few chapters, while the second part takes a closer look at Paul's continual challenge to believers in Jesus to live by grace, and not by law. So far so good, except...

In the effort to explain and defend grace, in light of the continual pull against grace by our natural selves and by the Law, I feel that Jay oversteps himself. His explanation of the decision by the council of Jerusalem to ask the Gentile believers to abstain from eating meat offered to idols, sexual immorality, and eating the meat of strangled animals as being an example of "grace plus" is stretching the point, to say the least. Would Jay suggest that refaining from sexual immorality is a grace plus issue, or would it be more sensible to understand these requests as being asked in line with the teaching of respecting the weaker brother (Romans 14), or as restraints on freedom to allow fellowship?

Furthermore, although Jay tackles the hot potato of homosexuality head on, the breadth of his treatment of grace is rather limited. I would suggest that reading "What's So Amazing About Grace?" (Philip Yancey) and "No future Without Forgiveness" (Desmond Tutu) would give a wider picture as to how grace is not just confined to our individual relationship with Jesus and each other, but actually transforms societies.

Finally, although this book is a good read, it does have a major fault- it will expose some of your own areas where grace is not, and could leave you sitting rather uncomfortably in your seat! Read and be challenged!