Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

On the amazing Baptism in the Holy Spirit–and its limits!

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John the Baptist’s preaching caused a revival, of sorts. “The whole Judaean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.” (Mark 1:5)

This explosion of popularity did not throw him off course. He did not try to maintain his momentum or his platform. He stayed focused on the Message-giver, and his message was one of utter simplicity: “There is one greater than I. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”

That simple promise of John still speaks to us today, whose experience of the Spirit in our daily lives resembles the occasional sip of champagne rather the wisdom and peace that comes from a steady abiding.

John’s message is one of hope: There is one more powerful than I who will baptise me with the Holy Spirit.

Ever now and then, Christians traditionally take stock of their lives and plan to revise them.

And the best way is with the power of the Spirit, with the power of Jesus, not with the power of our weak and fickle wills.

 

Let’s take a peek at some of my New Year’s goals, which, sigh, I have made before.

I would like to sleep early, and wake early.

I would like to be more active, and eat healthily, and be physically fit.

I would like to be tidier and more organised.

I would like to be more productive, and finish the book.

 

I think I omitted an important element in New Year’s resolution making. Instead of focusing on my struggles with discipline in early rising, healthy eating, exercise, housekeeping, and productivity, I should ask for Jesus to baptise me with the Holy Spirit as I tackle discipline, and then do things with the power of the Holy Spirit.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit comes in all the forms and shapes and variety of God himself. For me, it was a seismic, once in a life-time event. But what I rely on more is a daily filling.

A good father does not give the son who asks for bread and fish snakes and scorpions, Jesus says, so if we ask for the Holy Spirit, for help us, he will give it to us. (Luke 11: 11-12). Fresh bread, sufficient for the day. Tomorrow we will be hungry, and we must ask again.

I need to focus on Jesus, clothed in light, who breathed on the disciples, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and they were transformed. Ask for his interventions in my little struggles with disciplines, things you can’t go over, you can’t go under, you have to go through.

I’d rather read than declutter, but I should declutter significantly because I hope to move… There is one greater than I who will baptise me with the Holy Spirit, and with the power to do what I have to do. Come, Holy Spirit.

I’d rather eat comfort food, and surf the net rather than eat nutritious food and exercise. But there is power, there is one more powerful than I, who will baptise me with his Spirit again, and give me power to do what I must do.  Come, Holy Spirit.

I want to stay up late, reading or surfing. It’s more appealing to sleep in, or read newspapers or magazines or Facebook than to finish my book. But there is power to do the right thing, there is one more powerful than I, who will baptise me with the Spirit, and who will help me.  Come, Holy Spirit.

The place of helplessness is the ironic place of power, because we need to really, truly come to it to lean on the one stronger than ourselves.

* * *

Besides, all these tedious old resolutions are part of the idols of our age. Clean eating. 10,000 steps. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  Productivity.

But Jesus said nothing about them in his long great sermons on record, The Sermon on the Mount, and the Upper Room Discourse, or in any of his red letter teachings.

His focus was on the heart and spirit, the secret thoughts and emotions which no one else guesses at. The ways we disobey the teachings of Jesus in our innermost thoughts affect the course of our lives, and our peace and happiness far more than the habits of health and productivity.

If Jesus were to help us make New Year resolutions, he might say, “Stop judging!!  Stay in your own lane. Turn that judging energy into improving the speed and elegance of your own race. Ask me for help in seeing yourself clearly, and when you have seen the beam in your own eyes, ask my help in removing it. When you want to judge others, ask me instead how you can follow me more closely.” He might say, “Do unto your family and friends what you would they do unto you.” He might say “Give,” or “Forgive.  Cut the tangled fishing line of grievances, and see how much lighter you feel.”

And these things my wonderful Jesus might say are infinitely harder than New Year resolutions–Wake earlier. Eat healthily. Write more. Be tidier.  And, as we follow where Jesus leads, step by step in the minutiae of our daily lives…(I love the German word for discipleship, Nachfolge, follow after)…these things fall into place.

* * *

So, will you and I then go to our graves as perfect human beings, without all these weaknesses and limps and thorns in our flesh that keep us humble?

I have two stories…

The powerful, brilliant, spiritually gifted, dynamic St. Paul, he who heard the voice of Jesus, who had a vision of heaven, was beset by an annoying “thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass” him. His weakness could have been physical, emotional, or spiritual…  He emphasises, however, that it came from Satan, not God. He is also clear that God could deliver him from it, in an instant, with “one touch from the King.”

Three times he asks God to free him from it, and Christ refuses to. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” Christ replies.

In his neediness, Paul will have to learn to rely on Christ’s power, which he would not need if he was self-powered, Paul-powered.

Paul concludes that he will delight in his weaknesses and hassles which will teach him to rest on Christ’s power, “for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Sometimes God lets our struggles, difficulties and problems linger, so that we learn to trust him, discover his power, and learn to pray constantly out of necessity. Or merely to keep us humble. To keep us walking, instead of running, and collapsing in burnout.

* * *

And sometimes the weaknesses we lament are just part of our make-up, the way God created us, the shadow side, the necessary adjunct of our strengths. The awkwardness and extreme introversion Donald Miller, whose memoir A Million Miles in a Thousand Years I am listening to on audio in the car, mentions in Blue Like Jazz, his highly original memoir, perhaps provided the necessary space for his independent thinking on faith, love and “how then should we live.”

 

A last story. All his life, the great Christian and lexicographer Samuel Johnson struggled with sleeping early and waking early. He wanted to wake at 6 a.m., he would have been content to wake at 8 a.m; he often woke up at 2 p.m.

1738: He wrote, “Oh Lord, enable me to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth.”

1757: (19 years later) “Oh mighty God, enable me to shake off sloth and redeem the time misspent in idleness and sin by diligent application of the days yet remaining.”

1759: (2 years later) “Enable me to shake off idleness and sloth.”

1761: “I have resolved until I have resolved that I am afraid to resolve again.”

1764: “My indolence since my last reception of the sacrament has sunk into grossest sluggishness. My purpose is from this time to avoid idleness and to rise early.”

1764: (5 months later) He resolves to rise early, “not later than 6 if I can.”

1765: “I purpose to rise at 8 because, though, I shall not rise early it will be much earlier than I now rise for I often lie until 2.”

1769: “I am not yet in a state to form any resolutions. I purpose and hope to rise early in the morning, by 8, and by degrees, at 6.”

1775: “When I look back upon resolution of improvement and amendments which have, year after year, been made and broken, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal.” He resolves again to rise at 8.

1781: (3 years before his death) “I will not despair, help me, help me, oh my God.” He resolves to rise at 8 or sooner to avoid idleness.”

Johnson spent much of the night in taverns where he enthralled an audience with his encyclopaedic knowledge, and his quick and ready wit. He was the best thing that ever happened to the young Scot James Boswell, who wrote one of classics of English Literature: The Life of Johnson.  Boswell, an early fan-boy, surreptitiously recorded everything that Johnson said, and there was his book.

Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all, Johnson quipped to Boswell. (Yeah, yeah, perhaps he should have gone to bed a bit earlier after all).

But genetically, Johnson was a night-owl. In trying to rise early, he was fighting against his chronotype, his biology. (I’ve read that night owls may be evolutionary descendants of the Paleolithic  night watchmen who sat at edges of the encampment, protecting the people, telling stories and singing songs to keep themselves awake. Creative, intelligent, resourceful types). Many creative people are night owls, are messy, are sedentary, or fight addictions…. These things are often the shadow side of creativity.

Perhaps Samuel Johnson was just the way God meant him to be, a brilliant night owl who sparkled after the sun set. Perhaps his struggles with early rising taught him humility; taught him a gentleness with others who struggle; taught him his need for God. If not for his late hours as recorded by Boswell, his wit and wisdom and life experience would have long vanished, he would be one of the 99.99% of humanity who are long forgotten, and lie in unvisited graves.

Dr. Jack Miller (who catalogued Johnson’s failures I just quoted in his own great Sonship talks) mocks him, saying he struggled because he did not know the power of the Spirit. But I think every human being goes to his grave with weaknesses, blind spots, and even sins…so that they continually feel the need for God,

 

God determines our chronotype, lark or owl. God determines our body type, ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph, and there are limits to how much we can change it. God determines our IQ, our physical attractiveness, our talents. He knows exactly the role he has planned for us to play in this our life—Hamlet, or Ophelia, Lear or Cordelia– though we can decide whether we will play it well, badly, or not at all.

Our weaknesses are as much a part of God’s plan for our lives as our strengths. Both guide us into our vocation, suggest what we should undertake, and what we should not. And sometimes, of course, what we see as our weaknesses are just the shadow side of our strengths. I am a distracted housekeeper because I spend so much time reading. I am not an early riser because I read into the early hours! I carry extra weight because I spend more hours reading than exercising…

So while we try to change, we should also treat ourselves with the affection and amused tenderness that God feels towards us; we should treat ourselves as tenderly and indulgently as we would treat a beloved toddler who announces she’s going to run the London Marathon…tomorrow!

Image Credit: Tolle et Lege, Alighieri Press

PS: Slowly blogging through the Book of Mark!

In Praise of Desert and Wilderness Experiences

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John the Baptist, his heart and mind and spirit filled with the word of God, pregnant with his calling, does not do what we would today if we sense a calling. He does not go to the cities, to Jerusalem; he does not seek a platform; in fact, he initially does not speak at all.

He goes into silence, into solitude and lets the silence and solitude mould him into the Prophet God wants him to be. He does not seek the audience, the ministry, or the influence; he seeks his God, and God brings it all to him–the ministry, the recognition, the influence, the crowds, the “cross”.

He put first things first: He put God first, and the rest came to him.

* * *

John the Baptist’s season in the desert of preparation for his prophetic calling was a period of extreme simplicity–in his clothing…a garment of camel hair with a leather belt, and in the simple eating, locusts and wild honey (protein and simple carbs) which helped him focus on the most important things…

In solitude, he got to know God, to know his voice, to let the Spirit which had filled him from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15) strengthen him, so that he wasn’t thrown when crowds seeking baptism flocked to him “from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan” including tax collectors and soldiers whom he fearlessly challenged. The time in the desert was necessary for him to gain the strength to stand up to the priests and Levites and Pharisees and Sadducees, whom he scathingly labelled “a brood of vipers” (Matt 3:7) and not hesitate to confront Herod, precipitating his own death (Mark 6 14-29).

The time in the desert made John unique (among those born of women there is no one greater than John, Jesus says, Luke 7:28), for in the desert, he had unusual, totally inspiring company. God was in the desert; the Spirit of God hovered over the desert, there were ministering angels in the desert (Matt 4:11), and eventually the Son of God, Jesus himself came there. John the Baptist, “a voice crying in the wilderness,” sounded unique, he sounded like himself. He sounded like God

Thomas Merton writes, “Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They never get around to being the particular poet or the particular monk they are intended to be by God. They never become the man or the artist who is called for by all the circumstances of their individual lives. They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint…They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavour to have somebody else’s experiences or write somebody else’s poems, or possess someone else’s spirituality. There can be an intense egoism in following everybody else. People are in a hurry to magnify themselves by imitating what is popular-and too lazy to think of anything better. Hurry ruins saints as well as artists. They want quick success and they are in such a haste to get it that they cannot take time to be true to themselves. (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation).

* * *

“God leads everyone he loves into the desert,” Paul Miller, a friend who mentored and “discipled” me for five years writes in his excellent book, A Praying Life, Moses, David, and Elijah among them.

We all have seasons of quietness, when, if we are to do the work involved in fulfilling our call, we must be alone and silent and quiet. God shapes us in that silence with his word, his spirit, and his love, until we are ready for the next season.

But desert seasons can be unendurably quiet. We can feel like failures while we wait.

However, if we try to short-circuit the desert season necessary for us to be shaped in silence into the kind of people who are able to bear the weight of the call of God, then the desert season gets prolonged, for we are not yet ready for our call.

* * *

For me the call to the desert in my life has been to retreat into silence and obscurity and “do the work: write the book.” I admit I have tried to get out of it by social life, volunteering in church, school and the community; teaching Bible studies, travel, adult education courses, films, theatre, money-making, money-saving, hosting and attending parties, “friendships” or small groups in which I did not add something of value to my friends’ life, or they to mine… But trying to get out of your calling, and out of doing what you have to do because of the sacrifices involved is not really satisfying. Ask Jonah. But God uses and shapes even our mistakes into a beautiful and useful story. Read the Book of Jonah.

By refusing to accept the deserts God calls us into, by filling them with noise, distraction, and busyness, we can prolong the season of preparation for our call. And, more chillingly, we may never do the work God has uniquely called us to do. I suspect many people never really step into their calling and vocation, for they are not willing to accept the sacrifice that preparation for it entails.

* * *

If God calls you into the desert, accept it. Do not numb the occasional loneliness and solitude with “crazy-busy, sugar, alcohol, the internet” (from Brene Brown’s list of the way we numb the pain of living, and then grow too numb to experience its joy). Pray, work, grow. Desert seasons end when you are ready for the next stretch of your call.

And the desert is not really a quiet, empty place. It is full of very important, very powerful, influential, and creative people you simply have to get to know to be happy and creative and fulfil your calling. God is in the desert. The Risen Jesus is in the desert. The wind of the Spirit blows and gusts through the desert. The desert is full of angels, to help you withstand the temptations of the desert–to too much food, to wanting power, to showing off. (Matthew 4 1-10).

 

It’s a quiet and desert season for me at the moment, empty-nesting, and guess what–I rather like it. With God’s grace, I hope not to short-circuit it, but to meet the one who came to the desert to meet John the Baptist, the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

 

P. S.  I am reading through the Book of Mark, and hope to share a reflection inspired by that great and short book every Sunday. Join me?

God of the Clanging Cymbal  

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You are

the God of the noisy gongs,

and you are the God

of the clanging cymbals,

 

of those who speak in the tongues of angels

and are impatient,

who prophesy

and are unkind,

 

who understand mysteries

and resent the success of the unworthy,

 

whose faith moves mountains,

and are rude and easily angered.

 

Such people are “nothing,” Paul says.

You are the God of those nothings.

* * *

 

You are God of the wildly generous

And yet self-seeking,

Who surrender their body to the flames

In ardent faith, but remember

every wrong done to them

and are delighted

when retribution overtakes their persecutors

And so gain nothing.  Alas!

 

You see their tragedy.  You are their God.

* * *

And when I speak and write eloquently

But am neither patient, nor kind

I still love you,

And oddly, you love me,

Noisy old clanging cymbal.

 

And when I prophesy, truly

And envy a friend’s success,

And when in a flash of insight,

I fathom mysteries,

 

And I gain knowledge,

through toil, or your spirit

And tell (okay, boast!)

Oddly, I still love you,

And you love me.

 

And when my simple faith has moved

Obstacles, and I subtly

Take all the credit for it,

Goodness, you still love me,

And, you know–I love you, Jesus.

 

When I give far more than I afford,

In a grand gesture I regret for years

But am easily angered

And remember ancient grievances,

And am delighted when my enemies reap

What they’ve sown–at last, at last,

And smile that there’s justice in the universe

 

Oh Lord, you see and you know,

You shake your head, and you love me.

And I love you.

* * *

I would like to learn to love

A dangerous prayer.  And now I

Want to flee from it far beyond the sea,

But will not.

 

Jesus, I believe in your love for me,

(Most of the time!)

No, truly, I do.

 

Let the river of that love

Flow through me to other people

 

Let me follow you

In the most excellent way!

In which God forgives us, we forgive ourselves, and we are freed from paralysis

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jesus paralytic 150x150 Jesus Heals Paralytic Man | Mark 2:1 12

 I am re-reading Mark. John’s my favourite gospel guy, followed by Luke, but the immediacy of Mark, our immediate immersion in a fast-moving scenario of accelerating success grabs me every time.
Jesus issues his great call to repent and believe the good news.
He heals most everyone, dramatically, and so “news about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.” He became the Obama or Daniel Radcliffe of his day, “As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Still, people came to him from everywhere.”
                                                      * * *
And then in Mark 2 1-12, so many gather to hear him preach the word that there was no room left, not even outside the door.
(I have just been to hear some amazing speakers and miracles workers, and I can testify there is the same spiritual hunger and over-crowding today.)
And though it seems unfair, the pushy, the hungry, the desperate are often rewarded. That’s one of Jesus’s puzzling sayings, “The Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Matt 11:12.
So instead of being polite, waiting their turn, which surely seems to be the right thing to do, his friends cheekily dig though the roof, and lower him in.
And, remarkably, and encouragingly for all those who pray for their families, or do prayer ministry, Jesus heals him because of the faith of his friends.
And—whoa!!—what interesting words of healing
“Son, your sins are forgiven.”
And those words, the forgiveness of sins, heals the man’s paralysis.
                                                   * * *
A river is a consistent Biblical metaphor for God—leaping, rushing, dancing, forceful, iridescent, full of energy.
Never stagnant. Never “paralysed.”
Mental and emotional paralysis, or paralysis in any area of one’s life, does not comes from God, in my opinion. The first chapters of Genesis give us an insight into God’s nature—imaginative, fun, creative, thinking, making, shaping, active—then punctuating six days of activity with a day of complete rest, when “he rested from all this making.”
No paralysis there!!
                                                    * * *
When my daughter Zoe was born, I often wheeled her around in her stroller to put her to sleep. (We never let our children cry themselves to sleep—I considered that unthinkable—which, of course, meant hours of walking or driving or holding them to sleep, or sleeping with them. Or vice-versa. Very undisciplined.)
I had four major areas of need or “paralysis” which I used to ask for God’s help with as I pushed Zoe in her pram.
1)   My writing, in which I was paralysed and perfectionistic, and worked with much painful second-guessing and perfectionism, and without significant output.
2)   Housekeeping. My house was messy, and disorganized, and this upset me.
3)   I was a night owl, and so woke late, and this is not the most efficient thing.
4)   I was overweight.
                                                                                                                                       * * *
Over the last 18 years of following Christ with wobbles and falls backwards, I am glad to report that my writing is flowing freely. The house is no longer embarrassing. It’s not immaculate, but not messy either. We tidy every room at least once a week (well, Roy does.)
I don’t wake early, but not ridiculously late either.
But weight! Alas, I am at my heaviest ever. I am failing.
And I don’t believe God intends this paralysis or failure.
                                                * * *
And Jesus, mysteriously, heals the man’s physical paralysis, by forgiving his sin, and he walks.
Is this a key?  Repentance and receiving forgiveness to break paralysis in any area of our lives. Paralysis like Paul describes in Romans 7 when one knows and loves and desires what is good, but does not have the power to pursue it.
                                                 * * *
Obviously, being overweight is not a sin, any more than being paralysed is.
But, in my case, sin has led to it.
1) Using food as an all-purpose anaesthetic, when sad, angry, stressed, depressed, low-energy, listless, bored, or fed-up.
2) Eating because I enjoyed the taste of good food, even when not hungry.  Eating foods not good for my body.
3) Putting off exercise because reading and writing were more interesting.
And, so I spent some time today repenting of these weaknesses, and asking for the blood of Christ to wash these sins away, and to filled again with the spirit of Jesus, so that I remember to turn to him instead of chocolate when sad, stressed, angry, bored etc.
That I remember to respect my body and not give it excessive yummy stuff that is not good for it.
And the empowering of the spirit that I will make myself exercise even when the laptop and books are more tempting.
Jesus, heal this paralysis.
                                                      * * *
I am reading The Anointing by R.T. Kendall. The Anointing (among other things) is a divine enablement which makes the difficult easy. Kendall stresses the need of getting a fresh anointing every day, so that we do not continue using powerful spiritual gifts (preaching, let’s say, or writing) in our own strength.
I think it’s the same when breaking free from an area of paralysis in one’s life. You repent; God forgives you; gives you his Holy Spirit on request, (Luke 11:13). But you are not yet home free. You need to continue asking for fresh grace, fresh strength and enablement.
I have read testimonies of alcoholics and drug addicts or heavy smokers who have been instantaneously healed from their addiction. I myself have experienced a grace-enabled kicking of a coffee addiction.
Perhaps healing from something which has put tentacles into the very way you function, such as emotional eating or using food as an all-purpose anaesthetic can come all at once.
Or perhaps, step by step as the powerful waterfall of the Holy Spirit and God’s grace breaks down the last filaments of bad habits. Perhaps, it’s a daily process—just as acquiring knowledge or physical fitness or a godly character is a long process. You sometimes tire, sometimes rest, but you keep rowing.
But slow, or fast, Lord, heal me. Let there be no little strongholds or holdouts to your full reign in me, body, mind, soul and spirit!

Good Christian Blogging should be John-The-Baptist Blogging

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How can a Christian blogger make sure her writing is a blessing to her readers?

Not every post, of course. The word “blog” is an abbreviation of weblog, a diary, and there is a therapeutic, transformational element to  recording our lives in our blogs–who we are, and what we do and think. Without that, I think I would either bore-out or burn-out of blogging!!

However, if we aim to be a blessing to our readers, most posts should point to something to someone bigger and greater than ourselves.

To the ultimate rock-solid foundation for happiness: the  deep, deep love of Jesus

And that is the best gift we can give our readers, not just ourselves and our insights but a reminder of the deep sea joys of God, the sea in which alone we find rest.

* * *

“After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie,” Mark 1:7.

Oh, amazing John the Baptist–who, while surrounded by crowds, and much praise and adulation knew that he had nothing solid to offer them,  no solid foundation for people’s hope, or joy or bliss.

And, knowing this, the only honourable thing he could do was point them to the rock which would endure when all else crumbled; to the only hope which would not disappoint; to the only joy which would satisfy in a world in which everything else offers diminishing returns, so that we wearily need more and more achievement, acquisition or experience to fill the emptiness within.

But one thing and one thing alone satisfies our restless spirits completely: the living waters of God.

Oh Lord, help these letters to the world, which are our blogs, offer these living waters to the world.

Repentance and Forgiveness

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Image, Cafe Biblia



Mark 1:4
Blog Through the Bible Project

 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Repentance. Changer la vie in French probably gives as better idea of what it means, or metanoia in koine Greek, changing one’s soul
.
What is so tricky about repentance is that it is not a doing word, like fasting or giving. It is an interior thing, a matter of changing one’s thinking and one’s emotions.

Often the sheer repetitiveness of our sins so tires us, that the repentance tires us too. Oh no, here I go again, I am sorry, Lord, the chocolate, the laziness, the sharp-tongued barb.

And so we grow dulled to our sin.

I like what Augustine wrote in the Confessions, “I would sacrifice to Thee the service of my thought and tongue; do Thou give me, what I may offer Thee. “ I would repent, Lord; help me to repent. 
* * *

If we could easily change our lives, and live purer, more Christ-like lives, we would have done so.

And that is why the coming of the Holy Spirit to us who are weary and heavy-laden, and feel powerless to do all the good things we know we should do is such good news.

Come Lord Jesus. Come, Holy Spirit. We fail in love and unselfishness. We fail to such an extent, that we even fail to feel our sin. Come, help us to see ourselves as you see us, in truth and mercy.


Help us to repent.

Repentance and Forgiveness

By

Image, Cafe Biblia



Mark 1:4
Blog Through the Bible Project

 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Repentance. Changer la vie in French probably gives as better idea of what it means, or metanoia in koine Greek, changing one’s soul
.

What is so tricky about repentance is that it is not a doing word, like fasting or giving. It is an interior thing, a matter of changing one’s thinking and one’s emotions.


Often the sheer repetitiveness of our sins so tires us, that the repentance tires us too. Oh no, here I go again, I am sorry, Lord, the chocolate, the laziness, the sharp-tongued barb.


And so we grow dulled to our sin.


I like what Augustine wrote in the Confessions, “I would sacrifice to Thee the service of my thought and tongue; do Thou give me, what I may offer Thee. “ I would repent, Lord; help me to repent. 

* * *


If we could easily change our lives, and live purer, more Christ-like lives, we would have done so.

And that is why the coming of the Holy Spirit to us who are weary and heavy-laden, and feel powerless to do all the good things we know we should do is such good news.

Come Lord Jesus. Come, Holy Spirit. We fail in love and unselfishness. We fail to such an extent, that we even fail to feel our sin. Come, help us to see ourselves as you see us, in truth and mercy.


Help us to repent.

Repent and Believe the Good News

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 Image :downeyubf.com



 Mark 1: 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

The first thing Jesus says in this first appearance in Mark’s Gospel, the first Gospel to be written is “repent.” 

He tells people that it is now the right time to live as citizens in the Kingdom of God, as subjects of the King, their lives surrendered to him.

What they have to do is to repent, to stop doing the wrong they were doing, and to believe in what Jesus taught.

All very well. It’s when the wrong thing is so profitable, or convenient or comfortable or easy or tempting, that repentance is hard.


And of what should we repent? I sometimes imagine the waterfall of God’s spirit, and power flow through me. What impediment might it find? Of that, I need to repent.
                                    * * * 

Time to pause and reflect.


Because a little bit of sin and wrong-doing is like mould. It will spread and spread, and overwhelm one’s immune system, and cause seriously respiratory illnesses, and even death.

Better clear the mold out of one’s life immediately! 

Hebrews 121 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

                                   * * *

And the second imperative is like the first. Believe the good news.


And what is so good about the news Jesus told us?


That we are told that God cares  for the birds of the air, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without his eye being on it.
  
That just as he puts it into our hearts to care for them, to put out fat and nuts and seeds for them, he himself cares for them.

And even more for us

And we are not just urged but commanded not to worry.

That prayer to our Father works.

That we are to forgive those who sin against us, and not carry the backpack of hatred and longing to revenge. That we can hand that backpack to God to deal with as he pleases. 

That, incredibly, unbelievably, we are forgiven, because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross.

It’s all good news, isn’t it? And, luckily, we are commanded to believe it. 

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