There’s a storm coming?

Over the weekend the United Kingdom made preparations for what they called ‘St. Jude’s Storm’
The Independent Newspaper in England ran this headline on Sunday 27 October….
What does St Jude have in store for us? The patron saint of desperate causes is being invoked ahead of stormy forecasts
 “It is billed as the "storm of the century" and would, if doomsday predictions were to be believed, bring the country to a grinding halt. However, after initial forecasts of high winds and torrential rains due to strike today, later reports of the path and strength of the "St Jude's Day Storm" were contradictory. The most concrete warning weathermen would give uncertain Britons was to "prepare" for winds of up to 80mph.
In a reflection of the pessimism with which many viewed the storm, it was named after St Jude – patron saint of desperate causes – whose feast day is tomorrow. When asked to comment on the storm's name, the Met Office said naming storms was not within "their remit".

While The Daily Mirror ran this….
St Jude: 10 things you need to know about the patron saint of lost causes 
..highlighting one of those 10 things as… ‘Jude became associated with desperate situations because of a letter he wrote to the Churches of the East. In it he says that the faithful must keep going even in harsh or difficult circumstances.’
And indeed Jude did write such words to the believers…HOWEVER those words only make up the very first and the last paragraph and bring to a close his short letter, interesting is it not, that’s all they take from his words?? They would do well to read the WHOLE letter ALL 25 verses, especially today as people recover from the huge battering, the brief but deadly hurricane-like storm brought to so many!!!

As I listened to the news, here in Tenerife, removed from the pending events where we don’t get such extremes, well not since I’ve been here anyway, I thought back to 1987 when a certain weatherman Michael Fish dismissed the reports of a hurricane on its way to Britain and said ‘we didn’t need to worry?’

We all know it did and history now records it as ‘The Great Storm of 1987’.

Well, have we learned anything in those intervening 26 years??? Looked like it when British Rail together with airports and airlines, cross channel ferries and a host of others decided to take no chances and prepared themselves to face the storm with prearranged cancellations and staff in readiness for any eventuality. The Meteorological Office was being taken seriously this time it seemed as the whole of the South of England and Wales battened down the hatches for a dark and dangerous night ahead!!! BUT even as that was happening, there were the doubters already casting dispersions, like the journalists of The Independent and reporters on the late-night news programs asking the question, ‘Are we not over reacting?’

It seems we haven’t learned the lesson..and it certainly seems we have not learned another lesson too??? 

Only quoting a tiny portion of the words of Jude has no doubt over the centuries been as deliberate as the quoting or none quoting of other portions of Scripture especially those that bring dire warnings to us human beings!!! It was C.S.Lewis who quoted those very appropriate words… 

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” 
Jude has equally startling words that are worth reminding people of today..”Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” Jude 3-7 and that’s ONLY the start!!!   
The Old Testament Prophet Amos had similarly stark words with interesting connections to Jude’s, “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!” Amos 4:11-13 and unless you think this warning was ONLY to Israel..think again…

Hebrews 4:13 “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” 
Revelation 20:11-12. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

What can I say but this, 1987 Michael Fish was the ‘so-called expert’ and he said we had nothing to worry about..about the weather that is!! He was wrong!! This time round people sat up and took notice BUT again there were those who began to say,, you don’t need to worry..Like the old priests of Jeremiah’s day who kept saying ‘Peace, peace when there was no peace’ They keep the old mantra going BUT about something far more important, far more dangerous than ‘St. Jude’s Storm’.  
                                          
It’s the time that is fast approaching when God will come again and begin to judge this world in righteousness and justice. This is not about trying to give some answers to the perennial questions of ‘why does God allow such storms to come to our world?’ but rather to ask you to just consider those words again of C.S. Lewis “God…..shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” and ask YOURSELF TODAY are you hearing something from God? Has this storm caused your ears to prick up and listen to what HE has to say for a change??  In those words of Amos that I repeat again ‘Prepare to meet your God!’ and before you dismiss that voice yet again, just ponder this is the light of the ironic example of Michael Fish… 
”The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31

The Gecko I called Fred!

The Gecko I called Fred!

The other day a rather old and disfigured looking gecko appeared on our balcony wall. On close inspection I noticed that is was tail-less! That’s a fascinating thing about geckos.. Some species of gecko have this interesting defense mechanism: they will drop their tail if threatened or if their tail is grabbed. The dropped tail will actually wiggle and twitch on the ground. This tail loss distracts the predator, allowing the gecko to get away while the predator is left holding just a tail. Of course, if you try to grab a gecko by the tail, the same thing is likely to happen. Not the only cause, the tail can be dropped because of bullying by other geckos, stress or fear, illness or infection.. The gecko doesn’t handle pressure or problems too well at all, seeking rather to flee away from either….Little did I know, although my wife did see a story in the appearance of this little creature which resulted in me taking the photo, and she was quite right but little did she know she would become part of the story!

In the early hours of Sunday morning, I awoke to find Lorraine in the Living Room of our apartment strapped up to our portable blood pressure machine..I discovered her heart rate had hit the roof and after an hour of her heart racing out of control things had not improved. By 5.00am we were in the ‘Urgencias’ of the Hospital in Adeje and as is the usual way here, Lorraine was whipped away in a wheelchair having almost collapsed as she entered the door. I was left on my own in the waiting room and as many will know from your own experience what was really only a short time felt like a lifetime of pacing and twiddling AND worrying!!!

I have nicknamed our gecko ‘Fred’ for a couple of reasons that I hope will become apparent now! One of them is in honor, if you could call it that for an admired author! I have the utmost respect for and am greatly indebted to the writings of Frederick (Hope he doesn’t mind me calling my little gecko Fred after him???? I’m confident he won’t when I think of his often wicked sense of humor (NB the US spelling)!!!)) I have recently become acquainted with his writing and have been challenged by his sermons as recorded in ‘Secrets of the Dark’. I am going to quote in a moment or two from his sermon, ‘The Church’ Page 146ff but even as I am putting pen to paper or rather finger on keyboard, I have noticed his recent facebook post and wow, talk about appropriate..Look it up……https://www.facebook.com/Frederick.Buechner.Center/posts/629373457113193
He begins with these words…” "Have no anxiety about anything," Paul writes to the Philippians. In one sense it is like telling a woman with a bad head cold not to sniffle and sneeze so much or a lame man to stop dragging his feet. Or maybe it is more like telling a wino to lay off the booze or a compulsive gambler to stay away from the track.
Is anxiety a disease or an addiction? Perhaps it is something of both. Partly, perhaps, because you can't help it, and partly because for some dark reason you choose not to help it, you torment yourself with detailed visions of the worst that can possibly happen.”
The article of course concludes with what we understand is the reality of the Gospel message and confidence in the knowledge that God is with us ..ALWAYS and we need not fear but even in the midst of the roughest storm we Christians can know peace..HIS PEACE.. “Yet "the Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything," Paul writes, who was evidently in prison at the time and with good reason to be anxious about everything, "but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

You know that..I know that…better than most perhaps? As a Pastor I have been with people in the middle of hugely difficult circumstances and have endeavoured to encourage and comfort them through those circumstances by reading from and reminding them of Scripture..BUT you know sometimes folks we, and when I say that I mean ME!! I have to tell you that while I know the Bible and I know the God of the Bible, and I trust Him with heart soul and mind, in the early hours of Sunday morning I sat in that waiting room a shaking, worrying wreck..AND I’ve been there before, beside the incubator in which lay our dying first born son, Stuart. Outside the Operating Theatre into which our son David had just been taken. At the doors of Craigavon Hospital have driven, I reckon way beyond the speed limit to get my injured daughter Julie to casualty..In the Labour Ward of Coleraine Hospital waiting for Joanne giving birth to Matthew who when born looked like he would never make it!!! AND you know I have a list that would take up the rest of the day recounting, days like those, as I am sure you have too???

In his sermon, ‘The Church’ Buechner records for us the 12 Disciples beginning with Simon and then says this so poignantly, “Those were the people Jesus started His church with, as Matthew names them anyway. We know little about them and would give so much to know more…..They’ve had a pretty bad press over the centuries, and by and large they seem to have deserved it. On the night of the arrest, for instance, not one of them apparently raised a finger to defend their friend except Peter, who cut the ear off one of the High Priest’s slaves with his sword, which can hardly have made matters anything but worse and might have led to worse still if Jesus hadn’t told him in effect to cool it…… But of course the other reason for their bad press is that they never seem to have gotten any of His points very well, or if and when they did get them, never seem to have lived by them very well, which makes them people very much like you, if I may so, and also, if I may say so, very much like me. That is to say, they were human beings. Jesus made His Church out of human beings with more or less the same mixture in them of cowardice and guts, of intelligence and stupidity, of selfishness and generosity, of openness of heart and sheer cussedness (Stubborness! Who was it said the US and UK are two nations divided by language??)  as you would be apt to find in any of us……It’s a point worth remembering……It is also worth remembering that even after Jesus made these human beings into a Church, they seem to have gone right on being human beings. They actually knew Jesus as their friend. They sat at His feet and listened to Him speak; they ate with Him and tramped the countryside with Him; they witnessed His miracles; BUT not even ALL of that turned them into HEROES. They kept on being as human as they’d always been with most of the same strengths and most of the same weaknesses”

Doesn’t that encourage you??? It does me…
Oh not because of my humanness and my constant ability to get things wrong BUT the fact that God knows my humanness and my weaknesses and my failings and He loves me just the same. He accepts the shortcomings, not that He wants to leave me like that, Oh no!!! He who has begun a work in me, says Paul, HE is going to finish it…I will be perfect ONE DAY..in the meantime..in other words of Paul, those I posted on Sunday morning, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10
AND my anxiety on Sunday morning was soon lost as faith took over..and the picture I saw was Peter, who had been so victorious in being able to walk on the water but now sinking in the very same water and in response to his cry of faith, seeing the hand of Jesus reach down and pull him back up….

I think those of us in Church Leadership, we are wrong to have people believe that we never have doubts or fears, or worry or cry or have questions we cannot find an answer for….

The other reason I nicknamed the Gecko ‘Fred’ was a song I remember from way back…Bernard Cribbins recorded it in 1962 called ‘Right said FRED’ telling the account of three workmen, one of whom was Fred who tried and tried to shifted some large article, like a grand piano or such down stairs and despite doing everything from removing doors to knocking down a wall they just  couldn’t move it..The song finishes with this verse;
"All right," said Fred, climbing up a ladder
With his crowbar gave a mighty blow.
Was he in trouble, half a ton of rubble landed on the top of his dome.
So Charlie and me had another cuppa tea
And then we went home. 
They gave up and as the dialogue bringing the whole thing to a close says, the reason they failed was;
(I said to Charlie, "We'll just have to leave it
Standing on the landing, that's all
Trouble with Fred is, he's too hasty
Never get nowhere if you're too hasty.")

Don’t be like Fred, either of the song or the gecko…Don’t be giving up too hastily, God hasn’t and don’t be too hard on yourself either, God isn’t..BUT don’t be afraid to admit that sometimes life does get scary and you might not handle it the way you should, and you might just think, here we go again…you want to throw off your tail and run…Go on do as Paul exhorts us even in your most difficult situation, “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:10-11

Timely Reminder in a Truck.

The word ‘Grua’ can send fear into many a motorist in Tenerife, especially if you’ve parked in the wrong spot anywhere in Los Cristianos or Las Americas. They are the guys who roll up in their trucks, and hoist your illegally parked vehicle onto the back and the only way you get it back is paying a 60 euro fine!!! BUT then there are those friendly ‘Gruas’ that you so glad to see when their truck appears..For the uninitiated the word ‘Grua’ is the name given to the man with the ‘tow truck’! And last week Lorraine and I were overjoyed when one of the friendly ones came to our aid. We had driven up to Santa Cruz, just 40 minutes up the motorway from Palm Mar and a journey that he have done many times but on this occasion it was to prove just a little different. We began to have problems with the car about three quarters of the way there. We stopped did a few checks, topped up the oil and the water and back on the road. By the time we got to the well-known (at least here it is!!) Alcampo Shopping Centre it had become evident that our car had a serious problem and we were not driving this vehicle home!!! Thank God for the ‘Grua’ who appeared within 40 minutes in his little yellow truck! It was no time at all until the Seat was secure on the back and Lorraine and I unceremoniously climbed into the cab to begin the journey home..We speak very little Spanish and the ‘Grua’ spoke no English at all yet we managed to communicate and he delivered us, car and all safely back to Palm Mar..

No doubt our experience has been the experience of many, if not all who drive regularly, indeed you could hardly describe it as an epic event in your life!! BUT therein is the point and the ‘Timely Reminder I had sat in the very hot middle seat (atop of the churning engine) inside the cab of that Grua truck last week!!

I have become very fond of words of Frederick Buechner and the other day he posted a quote part of which read “EVERYBODY PRAYS whether he thinks of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else's pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way.” (https://www.facebook.com/Frederick.Buechner.Center?hc_location=timeline)
I had one of those Ah-h-h! moments that day..You see I know all about prayer, the necessity of, the power of, the principle of, the daily practice of, indeed I begin every day with prayer and I know that on that day I prayed with those very profound theological words of many of us super-duper Christians..”Grant us journeying mercies as we drive to Santa Cruz”????? (I know, I know what does that means exactly?? Answers on a postcard to….) How many of us have prayed similarly?? Well the thing is, I don’t think that I am the exception here when it comes to praying. I pray sometimes with words that sound ‘Holy’, words I have picked up along my Christian journey, likely from listening to others praying the same words..Now the words are not the point here either, just a little tangent along the way!!! BUT what is the point that I pray BUT……

DO I REALLY PRAY AND DO I REALLY PRAY ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING???

I am no different at times to anyone else, if we would admit it, that I really pray when I’m in a fix, when trouble hits me and when I really need God to break in..I really pray when something BIG is afoot, I really pray when it comes to my family, I really pray when it comes to my ministry and to the Church I pastor BUT when it comes to me, I’m not sure if my mind does not think, ‘well Lord you have enough on your plate with ALL the other and bigger stuff and….well the little stuff, I can probably look after that…..(Go on admit it, you do too!!!)  

Last week our journey ‘up the road’ to Santa Cruz was, as I have said, a journey that he have done many times, just a routine run out in the car, normal everyday stuff…BUT then events changed that and even though the event was NOT really an event it reminded me that ever little, familiar, routine, everyday thing that we do is something that needs to be given to the Lord in prayer and to Him is just as important as any other of the ‘bigger’ events!! AND remember this, for this is what I was reminded of….What begins for us all as an ordinary day, an ordinary event has the potential, of which the ALL KNOWING GOD is already aware, of becoming an extraordinary day or an extraordinary event that ONLY the supernatural power and the amazing Grace of God will enable you or I to ever get through it. So rather than wait for things to change, as they inevitably do....

TAKE EVERYTHING…ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING TO THE LORD IN PRAYER….AND DO IT NOW…BEFORE YOU BEGIN ANYTHING..

7 HATED THINGS!

7 HATED THINGS! 

Last week I came across the story of the homeless man from Boston, Glen James, who having found a backpack containing among other things money to a total of $42.000 in cash and travellers cheques, immediately handed the bag over to Boston Police who were then able to return the lost bag and money to its rightful owner..
The story got headline attention WHY???
Because of his HONESTY!!

What a sad, sad reflection on our world I thought!! For me however something else struck home when I read further and discovered the reason the man returned the bag. Despite saying he has been homeless for years, he wrote: “Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a ... penny of the money I found.” Mr James said in a statement: "I am extremely religious. God has always very well looked after me."

AND that’s what got me thinking, Bad enough the world is haywire BUT what if the Christians aren’t much better????

I have been a Christian since 1985 and whilst I would love to say that I have been ALL that I should have been, I have made my fair share of mistakes and guilty of much sin in those 28 years.. I am not perfect by any means and neither am I entering into the realms of hypocrisy by making rash statements like, ‘I would never do this!!!’ BUT in those years of walking with the Lord and ministering for the Lord as a Pastor I have been also bombarded personally and hurtfully by other Christians who by their words and deeds exhibit clearly to me that, while they may know God, they evidently DO NOT know the Word of God.

It reminds me of a story of W. P. Nicholson, one of Ulster’s greatest evangelists who was conducting a mission in Cookstown…On one of the days after the previous night’s meeting were many had been saved, W P, as he was called, was walking in the Main Street of Cookstown and noticed a drunken man on the other side of the street who was trying to gain his attention. He crossed over and the drunken man proceeded to tell him that he was one of the ones who was ‘converted to the Lord’ at the meeting the night before? To which W.P replied 'well you may be one of my converts but I doubt you are one of HIS?'

Here’s one of those portions of Scripture you read and you underline, at least I do and I did because it says here these things God HATES!! Hates to see in His Children, yet it is sad to say I have got to the stage where, like the world has almost given up on expecting people to be honest, I to have almost given up expecting ‘brothers and sisters’ to live and talk and behave as they should…Listen to this…as its paraphrased by ‘The Message’
Here are six things God hates,                                          

 
and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,                                                                  
hands that murder the innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family. - Proverbs 6:16-19

NOW here’s my 2013 personal paraphrase…. 7 HATED THINGS
1. A people who find it easier to be dishonest than honest?
2. A people who find it easier to be unforgiving than forgiving?
3. A people who find it easier to be uncommitted than committed?
4. A people who find it easier to gossip than speak truth? (Linked to this then!)
5. A people who find it easier to make judgements of hearing one side of a story than take the trouble to find out the other side first?
6. A people who find it easier to say things behind your back and to others rather than say those things to you face to face?
7. A people who find it easier to be un-Christlike than to be Christlike?????

All I want to say today is come on guys get your act together live up to your calling in Christ. Start behaving right, get out there and say you’re sorry to a lot of people and ask the Holy Spirit to change that attitude you have got…. Here are TWO more verses just to finish with and for ALL of us to think about this week…

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished (perfected) on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6 (NLT)