Monday, July 08, 2019

Reflections on a visit to 9/11 museum


On our recent trip Sue and I had the opportunity to be at “Ground Zero.”   Our visit to the 9/11 Museum, built on the site of the former World Trade Centre, was both overwhelming and haunting.

Two magnificent towers standing proudly over the skyline in the commercial heart of New York, in a matter of hours became a mass of rubble and twisted metal. What was supposed to be a testament to the achievements of mankind, and a centre for communication and understanding became the site of death and heartbreak.

It was haunting to walk along wall after wall of pictures, of the people who had died that day.  Each picture had that person’s story.  There were a wide variety of folks, from all walks of life.  Different faiths, different ethnicity, different people, much the same as you would find in any community.  Places like Marton.

There were people who like BBQs, sports, hiking and running marathons.  There were accountants, firefighters, lawyers and police.

We all remember where we were when we heard the news on September 11th2001. We all agreed that the world would never be the same again.  Anyone who can compare going through airport security before and after those events will testify to that!

Like Christchurch and other terrorist events, it was senseless and brutal, carried out by people who thought they could change the world for the better, but of course it had the opposite effect.

We live in a world that proclaims it wants peace but seems totally unable to achieve that goal. And so we rightly ask “can there ever be peace?”

Jesus talked about a very different kind of peace in John 14: 27 Jesus said :  
 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”   What peace was Jesus talking about?  He was talking about peace with God.  How do we find Peace with God? Only through Jesus.  Earlier in the same chapter Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father (that is God)except through me”

When we have that Peace, Paul says in Philippians 4: 7 that it will “guard our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.”  In other words, it is peace that is available no matter what circumstances we find ourselves, even in the darkest days.

Are you looking for peace, peace with God that is?  Then Jesus is standing, arms wide open waiting for you to come.


Saturday, January 13, 2018

Reflections on Mohammad and David and two walls.

On my last day in Jordan and first in Israel, I spent a little time with two people I found myself liking immensely and with whom I felt, given time and opportunity, I could become firm friends. But two men with profoundly differing world views shaped by their circumstances; circumstances that mean there is little chance they will ever meet even though they live just a short distance from each other,

Muhammad is a taxi driver in Amman. He picked us up after we had dropped off our hire car and took us to our accommodation.  We liked him immediately; he had a warm and funny sense of humour, and like most Jordanians we met had a wonderful dignity, welcoming warmth and sense of treating others with dignity.  So we offered him the opportunity to drive us to the border the following morning.  After some friendly haggling we agreed on a very fair price (half of what we hear some Americans had paid the day before) and we ended up adding 5 dinar in the end as a thank you for his promptness and efficiency in getting us to our destination (I wish I could say the same about the Jordanian immigration officials, who were [it seemed deliberately] tardy and inefficient.



Mohammed, it turned out, is a Palestinian.  A large percentage of the Jordanian population identify as Palestinian, the rest are mostly from Arabic tribal groups such as Bedouin. But Mohammed’s family are from Gaza, a place he can never hope to travel to.  Jerusalem, a holy city for him, is also barred to him.  He can see Jerusalem in the distance as he drives to the border, but under current circumstances, he will never travel there.

He was not angry, just wistful and sad.  So I was sad for him.  His family had lived for generations in Palestine, but Palestine, was a different place, more of an idea really, until history, war and politics created a new state of Israel and changed the very structure of the Middle East. 

The country of Jordan, created as much by history and circumstance as Israel, is a tolerant country.  Christians are a minority, but are welcome and form a vibrant part of the community.

But make no mistake there is anger, particularly at a certain President with a comb over.  We saw and heard a major demonstration in the centre of Amman.  We were in the safety of the Citadel high above the city streets.  Even if we had wanted to get closer we couldn’t as the streets were blocked by police and they would not have let us through.

Having arrived in Israel we took ourselves to the Israel museum, saw the Dead Sea scrolls and the amazing model of Jerusalem at the time of Herod’s temple.

On the bus back to our B&B, I found myself sitting next to a man named David.  A polite, sophisticated Jewish man who was born in London and lived most of his life in the US. His children and grandchildren are still there. We had plenty of time to talk because we were stuck in a traffic jam.

He reflected a very different view of the way things were.  “Why shouldn’t the embassies be in Jerusalem,” he said, “in every other country embassies are in the same place as the seat of Government, why not here?’ He said this as we passed the Knesset, Israel’s seat of Government.

He made a reasonable point, but in Israel and Palestine’s case it is simply not that simple.  The Palestinians also claim Jerusalem as their capital.  He was convinced most of the world is anti-Semitic, and saw most of the world’s issues in these terms.  I did not argue I just listened.

The following day we spent the day wandering around the old city of Jerusalem.  We saw all the usual things, the various tomb sites, the “Via Delarosa,” the Golden dome, etc.  But unquestionably the most moving thing, was praying at the Western Wall, also known as the ‘wailing wall.”
 As I prayed I was surrounded by Orthodox Jews, dressed in traditional garb, prayer shawl and Yarmulke.  Some even wore a Phylactery or prayer box on their foreheads. The passion was obvious; being able to pray at all that is left of the wailing wall is so important.  I felt overcome that here I was praying at (or near) a place where people had prayed to the Sovereign Lord for over 4,000 years.

The Israeli passion is understandable (at least for religious Jews).  They see the state of Israel as Inherent in who they are, their very identity.

The following day we travelled to Bethlehem.  It took about 20 minutes in a bus from the Damascus gate.  But it may as well have been 100 miles.  The streets were in a sad state, the amenities unreliable.  We were in Palestine, under the control of Israel, but out of sight. 

Down the road from our accomodation at the Bethlehem Bible College, there were tear gas canisters everywhere from when there are riots and the soldiers come.  A little further down the street there is a giant wall cutting Bethlehem and the West Bank off from Israel. Put there (so it is said) to protect Israelis from suicide bombers, not sure it achieves that goal, it simply alienates and makes worse a difficult situation.

Every day thousands of Palestinians have to go through a difficult checkpoint to go to their jobs in Jerusalem.  We went through that check point, I would not like to do it every day!

Bethlehem is the town of David, a large percentage of its residents are Christian, my brothers and sisters.  Hebrews 13: 3 tells us “to remember those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” I could also paraphrase Paul and say “In Christ there is no Jew, no Palestinian.

I will leave for others to speak of the theological implications of all this.  I do know that the problem is far more complex than some of the simplistic pro-Israel stuff I see on Facebook.

Whether or not Israel (most of which is secular) has a place in the eschatological story is not at issue. I personally think it should exist and be protected.  However, evangelical Christians should ask themselves, given Scripture’s call on us to care for one another, is it right to have an agenda of establishing Israel while at the same time ignoring our mistreated Palestinian brothers and sisters?  This is not a question of Israel’s right to exist.  It is a question of caring for all people and ensuring they all have a hope and a future. 


I do not know the answer to this conundrum, I simply think we should not see the Israel-Palestinian question as black and white, but complex and requiring the needs of all parties to be given the respect they deserve.   


Wednesday, November 15, 2017

My year of living carblessly


While on Holidays in January, I set out on a Kayaking trip with my son Dave and my wife Sue.  

It was a miserable experience.  I couldn’t sit straight in the little seat and kept sliding forward.  Why? Because I was too big!  Truth is; I had been feeling pretty unhappy with my weight for a while.  It was making me feel uncomfortable, tired and short of breath.

At the doctors I weighed in at 125kg (276 pounds) .. not good, something had to change.

I also realised that this was one part of my life that need to be brought under control.  I definitely felt under conviction.  As a Pastor I was not setting a good example.

So at my birthday dinner with Sue I told her I was going Carb Free and she said “so am I”

And the next day we began and now, in November, we look and feel very different.  Both of us have produced dramatic results. Sue has reached her goal weight, I am already down to 85 Kilos (186 pounds), with a final goal of another 5-8 Kilos. That’s 40 kilos in 10 months and no Jenny Craig or weight watchers!

While this programme worked for me, do talk to your doctor, read everything and other people who have tried it. And don’t give up. 

The biggest thing is to learn to say NO!

A few weeks after the dinner came my birthday present.  An Apple Watch and with it a commitment to an exercise programme.  So I have closed the circles every day for now over 265 consecutive days.  I love my watch for not just the support it gives for my exercise, but also although other great things it does.

To say I feel better would be an understatement.  I feel healthier, happier, fitter and more energised.  But quite a lot poorer given that I have had to spend quite a lot on a completely new wardrobe.

So what was my programme?  To be honest it changed as I have gone along.   I have refined and changed, particularly as I learned what worked best.   Every Kilo lost has been a victory of sorts.  I just kept seeing new goals as each was attained.

One of the main things to learn is that we do not need to eat as much as we think we do 

So here is my programme as it is now.

FOOD

Breakfast – 2 eggs boiled (occasionally add bacon, with eggs fried sunny side up) – No bread!

Lunch – a protein bar, with an apple added 3 times a week

Dinner – A reasonably normal meal, with the exception of carb items listed below.  Protein and Veg or salad, cooked in a variety of ways.  We enjoy curries, roasts, BBQ in fact a good variety helps To keep us on track.  But smaller portions are good, we don’t need to eat as much as we think we do.
The new me

Not included on the diet list

Potato, sweet potato (kumara), rice, bread, noodles, flour, avoid sugar.  No desert, no beer, an occasional glass of wine as a treat.  No snacking between meals (I did have nuts as a last resort, but don’t really need them now).  Sue is now able to enjoy some of the things above as she has reached her goal, but still in moderation.

I also found that often when we are hungry, we are really thirsty, so I drink a lot of water, I put natural sweetener (Natvia) in my flat whites and have always drunk my tea without sugar.

Read labels

A lot of the carb content of in food is sugar.  Did you know that light milk has about twice the sugar content of normal milk?  I also discovered that the right type of fat is OK.  Be careful with oil, Olive oil is great! Butter is better than margarine.  It appears that everything we used to think was right (low fat etc) is not quite as we thought.

AND LEARN TO SAY NO!

EXERCISE 

Most days I walk 6 kilometres, which I try to do in 50 minutes to an hour.  Once a week I take that up to 11 Kilometres in under 2 hours.  I haven’t found that at my age exercise help much with weight loss, but it does help keep it off.
The old me

It took me a while to work up to my current programme.  I did what could and built it up bit by bit.  Now I love my morning walk, such a great way to start the day.  I have the  “NIV live” app downloaded on my phone and walk along listening to the Bible being read to e as I walk.  So far I have listened my way the entire Bible 3 times.

Keeping it going … well that’s my plan.  Sue and I are heading off to Europe for a couple of months in Jan/feb while I am on study leave, so there are challenges ahead to stay on track, but I am determined  to hang on to what has been achieved and to improve on it.  My year of living carblessly may just turn into 2 years and beyond!  

Thursday, June 26, 2014

A few thoughts on Habakkuk -

Sermon July 15th

Does the situation in New Zealand worry you?

Are you worried about what you see as injustice?  are you worried about the environment, family violence, immoral behaviour, drunkenness? Do you think we could treat refugees with dignity and compassion? 

Do you think something needs to be done about all this?

Is that the focus of you’re prayer life?

Are you crying out to God for change?

Is your prayer for God to take action?

Do you pray like the Psalmist “How long Lord, must we deal with what we see around us”.

What  if God said to you, I hear your prayers and I am going to do something about it?

I am sending the Iraqis to invade New Zealand, (this might have to be before the latest invasion, while Sadam Hussian was still in power, to get the full impact of this).

But Sadam will bring New Zealand to heel.  New Zealand will experience terror like they have not known before.  The Iraqis are my instrument says the Lord, to punish New Zealand for its behaviour.

And then you cry out, hang on they are worse than us.  Sadam is a murderer, who has Weapons of Mass destruction.  and so ignoring the fact that our allies also have these weapons, we point to him using chemical weapons on his own people, we can see pretty clearly that we might be bad, but in comparison Sadam is an absolute shocker

Well travel back a few thousand years to the land of Judah and that is pretty much exactly what happened to a man named Habakkuk.

He was crying out about the behaviour of the people of Israel, He was complaining about the injustice he saw all around him IN the first chapter of Habakkuk we see this

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, 
but you do not listen? 
Or cry out to you, “Violence!” 
but you do not save? 
3 Why do you make me look at injustice? 
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? 
Destruction and violence are before me; 
there is strife, and conflict abounds. 


, and God said I hear you Habakkuk an I am going to send the Babylonians to punish Israel for their behaviour.

Now if you thought Sadam Hussian was bad, his ancestors the Babylonians were  horrible.  During this short period of history, historians believe that the Chaldeans ran Babylon and they were particularly nasty, even nastier that the other really nasty babylonians we have heard about.

Here’s what God says about them in chapter 1

5 “Look at the nations and watch— 
and be utterly amazed. 
For I am going to do something in your days 
that you would not believe, 
even if you were told. 
6 I am raising up the Babylonians, 
that ruthless and impetuous people, 
who sweep across the whole earth 
to seize dwellings not their own. 
7 They are a feared and dreaded people; 
they are a law to themselves 
and promote their own honour. 
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, 
fiercer than wolves at dusk. 
Their cavalry gallops headlong; 
their horsemen come from afar. 
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; 
9 they all come intent on violence. 
Their hordes advance like a desert wind 
and gather prisoners like sand. 

They were violent people, who loved to maim and slaughter, and to bring destruction and devastation on anyone they defeated.

And God has said to Habakkuk, I will answer your prayers Habakkuk, I use the most vile people on earth to discipline my chosen people!

Now we need to put a bit of background on this.

There are two things we need to remember

  1. God is the Judge of the whole earth
  2. Israel are God’s chosen people They were chased by God to be the instrument by which He would save the world, this was promised long ago to Abraham and to Jacob.  The promise repeated through Israel’s history, right up until the time when Jesus came and fulfilled that promise.

When God made his covenant with Israel, he said to them I am you God you will be my people, but there was a rider on that.  God promised to look after them, bring them to the promised land, and through them save the world.

But the thing about a covenant is that has two sides.  Their side was that they would be a holy people .  A people who would be just and live God’s way, this included, worshipping only God and not false Gods, caring for those in society who could not care for themselves, people such as orphans and widows.  And the alien, of if you lie the foreigner, the refugee.

And Israel were not doing their bit.

Habakkuk was one of a number of prophets who were called to warn Israel and Judah that God would not tolerate their behaviour any more.  That punishment was coming.

We are not certain of the date that Habakkuk was written, probably about 7th or 6th century BC, but that is not important to our story.

Habakkuk looked about himself and saw that it was all going wrong.  The injustice that was not to happen was happening all around him.


We come to Habakkuk’s 2nd complaint

12 Lord, are you not from everlasting? 
My God, my Holy One, you will never die. 
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; 
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. 

In his criticism of the Babylonians Habakkuk attacks the same kind of imperialistic policies, that have been part of International politics throughout history

The building of powerful armies, forcing their will on other countries and exploitation of resources as if that is their right. Destroying the forests of Babylon for instance so they can use the timber

13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; 
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. 
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? 
Why are you silent while the wicked 
swallow up those more righteous than themselves? 

14 You have made people like the fish in the sea, 
like the sea creatures that have no ruler. 
15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, 
he catches them in his net, 
he gathers them up in his dragnet; 
and so he rejoices and is glad. 
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net 
and burns incense to his dragnet, 
for by his net he lives in luxury 
and enjoys the choicest food. 
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net, 
destroying nations without mercy? 


Now here is Habakkuk a member of a small nation, seeing an imperial power exploiting the poorer nations for their own profit.

It is impossible to read this without considering whether the same warning could not be applied to the relationship between powerful industrialised countries and 3rd world countries


2:1 I will stand at my watch 
and station myself on the ramparts; 
I will look to see what he will say to me, 
and what answer I am to give to this complaint. 

He really needs to know what God has to say about all this and so we end up with this image of the prophet waiting for God’s response like a watchman on a watchtower.


 2 Then the Lord replied: 
“Write down the revelation 
and make it plain on tablets 
so that a herald may run with it. 
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; 
it speaks of the end 
and will not prove false. 
Though it linger, wait for it; 
it will certainly come 
and will not delay. 
4 “See, the enemy is puffed up; 
his desires are not upright— 
but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness— 


There is a lot of argument about the meaning of the first verse here, one even suggesting that it is written plainly so that it can be read while running.

The answer I think is a little more obvious than that.  It is simply that the job of the prophet is to record what God tells them and to take it to the people.

The next verse (3) is important because it tells us that Gods promises are reliable, and that they will come to pass, even if there seems to be a delay, they when happen at the appointed time, when they are supposed to happen and not when we think it should,

Verse four is quite significant because it reminds us of the contrast between those who trust God no matter what the situation and those who trust themselves.  The enemy in this case is full of themselves

But the righteous person lives by his faithfulness.

This phrase was the hallmark of the protestant revolution.  Luther based his preaching on the phrase, the Just will live by faith.  Paul directly quotes this passage on several occasions.  Romans 1: 17, Galatians 3: 11 and Ephesians 2: 8

And it is entirely appropriator in this instance.  Our understanding of God’s Justice must be a long term picture, we need to Trust that God’s justice will prevail.

And that is exactly what the prophet is being asked to do here.

To trust God in tough circumstances, knowing that in the end God’s purposes will prevail.

For us the call is simply to trust God and know that it matters not 

The remainder of this chapter makes it clear, that God is not on the side of the Babylonians, he makes it very clear that they will have their come up-pence.  God roundly condemns them, for their evil behaviour.

Inordinate Greed (2:6–8)
Their greed is insatiable
Pile up stolen Goods and make themselves wealthy by extortion

Those you have hurt by your behaviour will respond in kind
Woe to those whose build their house by unjust gain.
A Hunger to Dominate (2:9–11)
Woe to you builds a city with bloodshed and established a city by unjust gain.
Atrocities (2:12–14)
In our society there are those who believe that they should be able to become rich by whatever means they can, and too bad if others suffer. There is condemnation of those who abuse the environment.  as I said early they were destroying forests in Lebanon for the timber.  But also animals and people,
IN Genesis we understand that we have been made stewards of the earth and our stewardship is failing.

God has determined your fate and by contrast God will be glorified.
Debauchery (2:15–17)
Then we see condemnation of sexual abuse.  This who would manipulate others for their own sexual gratification.  IN this case getting people drunk so they can have their way with them.


Idolatry (2:18–20)
And finally there is condemnation of those who worship idols of their own making.

But an idol is not just a statue of Buda an idol is anything that we worship, it could be technology wealth or even our lifestyle

So what is the answer when we see injustice all around us.  How do we deal with the idea, that the bad people seem to be winning?


The final chapter which was read to us earlier makes that clear.
 That God is control that Gd is sovereign

IN this final part of the chapter we see the prophet waiting and knowing that clarity is about to strike

7 Though the fig tree does not bud 
and there are no grapes on the vines, 
though the olive crop fails 
and the fields produce no food, 
though there are no sheep in the pen 
and no cattle in the stalls, 
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, 
I will be joyful in God my Saviour. 
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; 
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, 
he enables me to tread on the heights. 


You see Judah did pay a price, many of itds people were carted off to Babylon, for some years they were an enslaved nation again.

But God had a plan and that plan was the saving of the world through Jesus

In order for that to happen, the people had to be brought back to God, and discipline was needed.

So God used the evil Babylonians to make that happen.

He was not suddenly saying the behaviour of the Babylonians was no OK, they were simply His instrument.

I want to finish to day by giving you a donation of Justice.

Justice which is like righteousness is when Things are in right relationship.

When things get out of wack in terms of relationship with God then Justice fails.

When we do not live with compassion for one another and especially those in need, when there is hate, when love for brothers, is gone, it is because relationship has broken down.

Think of two news items in recent weeks

One where the family say of a person who has been sentenced to 5 years, we will suffer for the rest of our lives, he just gets 5 years where is the justice in that?

Or the other, the woman who lost daughters when a tourist went through a stop sign.  We forgive him, he is also a victim, he would be welcomes in our home.


Which is Gods Justice.  The 2nd because relationship has been restored.
Its been so long since I blogged that I realised that if I do not blog soon it will be all forgotten.  So my blog is back.

Back in my HK days I was just blogging random thoughts, but I have decided to start including sermons and other communications.

This is the church in Marton where I serve as Minister.  So far it has been a 2 1/2 year journey since leaving Bible College.  Having come at this pastoring business late in life, I can really see the value a little life experience brings to what I do.  I have great respect for those who managed to maintain an effective ministry for decades.  Being already in my 60s I cannot see myself doing this for anywhere near that time, but that does not matter what matters is that I love the people that God has put in my care and point them to Jesus, who is afar all the only way to God (John 14: 6)

So stay tuned I will endeavour to put edited versions of my sermons on here as often as I can

Friday, September 17, 2010

Launderer's soap


Haven't blogged in so lone and my life has changed so much, but now that I am a Bible college student I have decided that I need to air my views on a few things so I am back blogging again. Thought I would start by reblogging an early post.

Have you ever looked at the prophetic verse that talks about Jesus in Malachi 3:2

“But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap” (NIV).

Funny you never hear anyone talking about Christ as Launderer’s soap. Or for that matter writing songs with that theme. Try this (to tune of Refiner’s Fire):

Launderer’s soap

I’ve been such a dope

I need to Be-e scrubbed

Hung out to dry for you Lord …

Hum…maybe not!

We readily understand the concept of Refiner’s fire. The idea of refining a metal is that you heat it right up until all the impurities are ‘cooked’ out of it and only a pure metal is left. We need to understand that this is a tough process on the metal. And if that picture is us then we will need to go through a little fire in order to be refined.

But then think about the concept of Launderer’s soap. This is particularly tough and heavy soap, used for getting out the toughest grime and stains.The idea is that we may need to be scrubbed somewhat in order to be ready for service. Sometimes it may leave us red raw.

We understand that when Jesus died he paid the price for our sin. We became completely clean, when we have faith in him. What we are discussing here is the process of the ‘work in progress’ we remain until we are made complete on that day.