Putin - and Jesus!

It was, of course, my intention to post, this evening, the second part of a mini-series on the question "What is a Christian?" However, the invasion of Ukraine, by Russian military forces on the order of Vladimir Putin, has led me to shelve that post for, at least, a week, and comment on the current situation. 

I make no claim to be either a political, or a military, expert so what follows is merely the thinking of a fairly ordinary man - but one who is not altogether lacking in the ability to discuss such matters. I must also make clear that I am not "on the ground" and, like the vast majority of us, depend on receiving information that is, in terms of historical research, "Secondary Sources".

It was in the early hours of Thursday that Russian president Putin announced, in a pre-recorded television broadcast, that he had ordered Russian troops to enter Ukraine. Since then, the Russian forces appear to have had what may be referred to as "mixed fortunes"! Certainly, they have not swept through Ukraine in the manner in which Putin may have envisaged! The Ukrainian military, supported by patriotic Ukrainians, have repeatedly stemmed the flow. There have even been some 'amusing' incidents as when a column of Russian tanks stop at the side of the road.  A video was widely shared in which a Ukrainian gentleman stopped to ask them what was wrong. He was informed that they had run out of fuel! His immediate response was: "I'll give you a tow back to Russia!" It's always good to be able to exercise a sense of humour!

It is also reported that Russian soldiers are laying down their weapons; that Russian citizens are deserting their country in order to avoid conscription; and that many of the Russian élite are not giving the president their support.

However, what prompted this post was the 'ticker-tape' message on the television screen in the home of friends that my wife and I were visiting on Friday. I cannot recall the text, verbatim, (it was in French!) but it was along the lines of Putin encouraging Ukrainians to overthrow their own government. I turned to my friend and commented: "What a great example! He sits in safety in Moscow, while sending his own troops to potential death, and urging the Ukrainian people to lay their own lives on the line by seeking to bring down their own elected government!" That, was when I thought of Jesus!

What a difference between them. Putin sits in safety, and comfort, and urges others to do his bidding in a move that is only made in order to seek to increase his own power and influence, and to 'make a name' for himself. Whatever we may think of such attempts in much earlier times, at least the leaders of countries tended to actually lead their armies. They were there, at the front, in the thick of the fighting, risking their own lives as much as they expected others to risk theirs.   

And what about Jesus? He dwelt in Glory - in a realm that is beyond the comprehension of our human, mortal, finite, minds. Glory is inestimably further above even the riches of the Kremlin, as the most sophisticated computer known to mankind is greater than a simple abacus! It is a realm in which sin does not, and could not, exist. It is a realm in which He knew true and pure worship that is far beyond what any of us is able to offer to Him. Yet He took upon Himself the very human flesh that He had created, and entered this sinful realm in the weakness and vulnerability of a human infant.

He knew infinite power, and glory, and wisdom, and knowledge. As, Himself, God, He was able to share, fully and intimately, with the Father. Yet He " « ... did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. » (Phil.2:6-8).

He became sin for us! Paul writes to the disciples of Jesus in Corinth: « For our sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. » (II Cor.5:21). Have you ever given serious thought to what those inspired words are actually saying? They are saying that, not only did the Lord Jesus pay the penalty for your sin and mine as He hung on that Cross, but that He actually, for a brief moment of human time, became the very personification of sin - its ugliness, its blackness, its evil, its vileness, its - well, even as one who has a fairly good command of the English language, and a reasonably extensive vocabulary, I cannot think of words that would adequately describe what I want to describe. But I know this - that He became all of that for me; and for you! Indeed, I believe that it was then that Jesus uttered what we refer to as «the cry of dereliction» - « My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? » (Matt.27:46; Mk.15:34) - because, for that moment, the Father, Who cannot look upon sin, turned His eyes (we speak anthropomorphically!) away from the only-begotten Son.

Putin; Jesus. "Quelle différence" as my French-speaking friends might say! I commend one of them to you - and it is not Vladimir Putin! May you discover, if you have not already done so, that Jesus is the only One Who is fully worthy to be followed; and the only One Who will be with you at all times, and even into eternity. 

What is a Christian? - Introduction

On the cruise which my wife and I enjoyed as a celebration of our Ruby Wedding anniversary (now more than eleven years in the past!), I had the opportunity to minister at two of the interdenominational worship services that were held on board the ship. On the first occasion, knowing that there were folk there with different church backgrounds and experience, I started by sharing about – my school blazer!

You see, there were two particularly important 'items' attached to that school blazer. There was, first of all, a label. Now that label was very important. It held a lot of useful information - the size of the garment; the material with which the garment had been made; the instructions for cleaning it; probably even the name of the manufacturer. That label, however, in spite of carrying all of that important information, was attached either inside the inside pocket, or to the collar - inside the garment. In other words, it was kept out of sight!

The badge, however, was different. It held only one piece of information - the name of my school. There was, of course, the school crest - but, to the vast majority of folk, it would have been totally meaningless without the name of the establishment! It was proudly displayed on the front, breast-pocket, of the blazer, where it could be seen by all.

So, what has all of that got to do with anything? Simply this. In this new, short series of posts, I will be considering a badge, not a label! A label, I would suggest, refers to the particular denomination to which I belong. It holds some important information - what I believe about water, and Spirit, baptism; where I stand in reference to church government; my views on the primacy of the Word of God; etc., etc. But, as a growing schoolboy, I sometimes had to have my blazer replaced - and the label wasn't always the same! However, regardless of how often I changed my blazer, the badge was always the same. And my "badge" in this context is "Christian" or, as I prefer to say (because the word "Christian" has, in my opinion, become so devalued), "disciple of Jesus".

Some time later, in the fellowship to which I then belonged, we went through a series on the general topic “What is a Christian?” We looked at some of the Biblical pictures of a Christian – lover; witness; child of God; disciple; saint; living stone; worker; traveller; etc. But those were, indeed, just pictures. So what is a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, in essence? 

Some of you, in the UK, may have heard of a young man named Garry Brotherston who, during a street brawl in 1994, while still in his teens, killed another man who was 40 years old. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but released after 11 years. In prison, he had a life-changing experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, became a well-known as a singer and song-writer who shares a powerful testimony to what God can do in the life of an individual, and is now minister of Bishopbriggs Free Church of Scotland, in Glasgow.

It is not my intention to discuss the rights and wrongs of his early release, or any other aspect of the case. However, I was interested in a reported comment by the mother of the murdered man. “There is nothing he (Garry B) can say that will convince me he’s a Christian. Billy (the murdered man) was a Christian. He went to Sunday School. I kept all the drawings he did at Sunday School and I placed them in his coffin.”

“Billy was a Christian. He went to Sunday School” Is that all that is required to be a committed follower, and disciple, of Jesus? Or is there more to it than that? Non-Christians seem to have a lot of strange ideas as to what a Christian is. A church-goer; a nice person; a kind person. All very laudable – but I know people who are very nice; very kind; who even attend church services regularly – but who, in Biblical terms, are not Christians! Maybe you know folk like that! Maybe you are one of them!!

So, “What is a Christian?” Paul describes the Christian in a number of his letters. One example is found in his letter to the believers in Philippi: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (4:4-7)

That’s a sort of general description against which we may measure ourselves! But note that it is “measure ourselves”! I am not here to measure you, nor you me. That’s the responsibility of Almighty God. “Let a man examine himself” is what Paul exhorted the Corinthian disciples (I Cor. 11:28), and those words must apply to each one of us!

Over the next few posts, DV, I plan to tease out more of what being a genuine, Biblical, disciple of Jesus is. I hope that you will join with me!

Guidance - Pt.6

Have you ever set out on a journey, and discovered that it was longer than you expected? That is certainly the case for me, with this series of posts on the important subject of "Guidance" in our individual lives. However, the end is in sight and, in this final post in the series, I want to consider the experience of guidance.

Dr W.E.Sangster, the well-known Methodist preacher, and prolific author, of the 20th century, shares a story that, one morning, during his personal devotions, he had a deep urge to call on a certain lady member of his congregation. He resisted the thought since it did not fit in with his plans for the day. "I knew no reason why I should go to her home". he writes. "To go in that direction would mean one call, to go the way I had planned would mean a dozen. Yet her name dinned in my ears and I went. And the memory of that visit will always be sweet to me. ............ 'Do come in', she said and, when I sat down, she added, 'Fancy you remembering'." But Dr Sangster had remembered nothing - and was honest enough to say so! The woman reminded him: "It was a year ago, today," she said, "that you buried my husband. I have been dreading this day, and got up this morning, fearfully overwrought and feeling that I must run away from the house, and every stabbing memory. But, as I tried to pray, God came very near and seemed to urge me to wait within the home. Somehow, I knew that He would send me a word of comfort."

How assured Dr Sangster was that God had guided him to that home. How wonderful to know that God cared enough for that widow, to send Dr Sangster to her.

And how many different stories of clear guidance may be told! The Bible, itself, abounds in them: Abraham's servant seeking a wife for Isaac; Samuel, sent to anoint a new king of Israel; Philip and the Ethiopian; Peter and Cornelius; Ananias and Saul; to name but a few.

And in our own experience, how many of us can look back and see the hand of God, guiding and directing us, even when we only realise it with the 20:20 vision of hindsight?! I recall, all too well, such a situation with my own younger daughter. The company for which she worked had developed financial problems and was looking for those who would accept voluntary redundancy. She offered - but was turned down as, she was informed, no-one else in Scotland knew her job! With help from a colleague, she re-applied and, this time her request was accepted, but on the condition that she would train someone in England to deal with her responsibilities. 

This entailed her working in England for some six weeks, with the weekends at home. After a couple of weeks, she went into the restaurant of her accommodation to be greeted by name. The person was the manager of a small company to which her company sometimes sub-contracted work, and whom she knew well. Having found out why she was there, and that she would soon be unemployed, he immediately offered her a job in his company. However, he wanted her to start on the following Monday! She explained the terms of her VR but was informed that she should leave that up to him, as he had the ear of the "top people"! He arranged for her release, and she started work on that Monday!

She had been there a few weeks when she spoke with me, explaining that this company had a special voluntary Health Insurance Scheme into which both employees, and the company, paid. Should she join? She was in excellent health, but I pointed out that one never knew what was around the corner, and advised her to sign up. It was only weeks later that she was diagnosed with breast cancer! To cut the long story short, the Insurance Company paid for her to receive private treatment and, by the time she was even given a date for a referral to her local hospital, she had already been operated on, and was half-way through the subsequent chemotherapy treatment! The cancer turned out to be a particularly aggressive one and, after her chemo was completed - about November, if I recall correctly - her Oncologist informed her that, if she had not been treated in time, she would not have seen Christmas!

We are convinced that she only got that job so that she would receive that private treatment. By the way, this is no criticism of the NHS! However, they are so snowed-under that waiting times can be very lengthy - sometime fatally so! As we look back, we are so grateful that Almighty God was guiding in all of that. Experience is, indeed, the ultimate proof of God's guidance - I know that He guides, because I have experienced His guidance.

Reginald White, a former Principal of the Baptist Theological College, in Glasgow writes, in one of his books: "In the last resort, a man knows the Gospel is true by his experience of its power within himself." The same, we may say, is true of God's guidance - a guidance that is promised; that is given; which may be tested; and which is experienced as the loving care of our great and gracious God.

It is there for all - but those who are in His family know it best. Does that include you?

Guidance - Pt. 5

As we draw close to the end of this wee series on guidance in the life of the individual, I want to look at the test of guidance - how may we be sure that the guidance we believe we have received is genuine!

Actually, we have touched on this in the last post, as it is often tied in with the means. There is, for example, the test of God's written Word. Not only may we be guided through our reading and study of the Bible, but we may also lay all other guidance and advice alongside the holy Book. Nothing can ever be from God if it goes, plainly, against the clear teaching that is provided therein. To take a simple example - sometimes we learn of someone convicted of murder who blames God because "voices told me to do it"! That may, for a mentally-distubed person, be true - but those "voices" were not from God. How may I be sure? Simply because His Word states, very clearly: "You shall not commit murder"! (Ex. 20:13). Of course, this doesn't just concern direct commands, or prohibitions, but also the very spirit that underlies them.

Another test is that of common sense. As a general rule, we need to think for longer, and do so more carefully, about any course of action that even appears to be against common sense. There is, of course, one important proviso - that it is sanctified common sense, not merely that which the world would recognise. Many of the greatest heroes in God's service have been considered madmen in the eyes of the world. I am coming to the end of reading, again, through the book of the Acts of the Apostles (or the Acts of Apostolic Men, or the Acts of God the Holy Spirit through Apostolic Men). A few days ago, I read of Paul's testimony before Agrippa and Festus. It is Festus who bursts out with: "Paul, you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad." (26:24).  Mind you, I also recall my afternoon Sunday School teacher (those were the days!) making the very valid point that the trouble with common sense is that it isn't very common! 

The third test, I would suggest, is that of circumstances. Because circumstances may restrain action just as much as they may spur us into it. You see, we view situations, and circumstances, from the point of view of time. Almighty God is above, and beyond, time. He sees from the perspective of eternity. Speaking through His prophet, Isaiah, He says: "... I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, ... " (46:9-10). He is the "I Am" (Ex.3:14) - eternally present with all of our time spread out before Him; able to see the end from the beginning. That job for which you applied; that you were certain you would get; but for which you were passed over! He not only sees you in your disappointment, but also sees what is going to happen next week, next month, next year, or whenever. And His way is best! 

I often share our experience when we were moving to France on a more permanent basis, and needed to purchase a house. The problem was that, in order to do so, we had to sell our house in Scotland. We set a price, and the house was advertised - but there were no takers. We reduced the price - no joy. We then changed our estate agent and, eventually, an offer was made. The 'phone-call came on a Friday, and I asked for time to speak with my wife. Then, at the worship service on Sunday, the pastor's wife approached me to inform me that she and her husband were interested in viewing the house for them to purchase for his imminent retirement. I explained that we had just had an offer, but that if they were quick about making a decision, I would prefer to sell to them. The earliest that they could come was the Thursday of the coming week. I agreed and, on Monday morning, 'phoned the estate agent, explained the situation, and asked if they could put the other couple off for a week. Our friends arrived, and I asked for a decision by that evening. They made their decision - the house wasn't really what they wanted.

On Friday morning, I 'phoned the estate agent and instructed them to accept the offer already made. It was a week later before they called me to tell me that they were having difficulty contacting the couple. It was another two weeks before they called to let us know that they had, finally, managed to make contact - but that the couple had already purchased another property! I may not have been totally devastated - but I was close! I had some unworthy thoughts about my pastor and friend (I didn't tell him, of course but now, so many years later, as he is on this mailing list, he will find out!). It was some months before we eventually sold, at a price £10k less than had been offerd by the earlier couple, but ----------- in the intervening period, the exchange rate between the £sterling and the €uro had changed dramatically, and we ended up with considerably more euros to spend in France than we would have had if we had sold to the earlier couple! Once again, we discovered that God's timing is always perfect.

Next week, DV, we will look at the experience of guidance in the lives of some others. 

Until then!