‘There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away…’

I took a walk in the park today and while I was sitting down I picked up a few dead sticks from a tree nearby and started playing swordfight with them, as you do.  Then a thought occurred to me.  They’re dead.  They’re dead.  They’re dead!  No more life in them!  Then I remembered Romans chapter 8, verse 21, where it says: ‘the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.’

I picked up the sticks and carried them home.  Now they sit on my table as a reminder that these lifeless twigs won’t exist in the new creation!  Isn’t that amazing???  There will be no such thing as death there!

In the beginning of that paragraph in Romans, Paul says: ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.’  It makes me excited, it makes my toes tinkle thinking about what this could possibly look like!  Are you waiting in eager expectation for the day when there will be no more death?  Or maybe you fear that day or are indifferent towards it.  I hope and pray that you’ll want to stand on that day to receive the glory that we don’t deserve, but have been freely given in Jesus.  I hope that you’ll want to be there on that day as a child of God.

Have a read of the passage and an excerpt from the book of Revelation here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%208;rev%2021&version=NIV.  (I find it helpful reading the two together.)

God works in funny ways?

It’s been a very interesting two weeks or so for me.  And it’s been very exciting, actually, reflecting on it.  When I tell people what’s been happening, usually I get a ‘oh dear, I’m so sorry to hear about that’ or ‘are you okay?’ but I hope to share what God has helped me see through it.

Before you think it’s anything too serious or too sad, please don’t!  It’s actually not that big at all.  Just the close of one phase and the opening of another.  The last two weeks were meant to be when Honours offers were being announced.  If you don’t know, I applied to do Honours in Psychology.  My motivations, I think, were both out of wanting to understand something of God, of His world in doing a research year, and in doing so in a way that shows evidence of His goodness to others, but also, out of fear, I believe; fear of things God has been putting on my heart for the future, but I know would be tough going once I started pursuing it.  Anyway, so I heard back and I didn’t get in.  Initially I was a little disappointed, and disappointment soon turned into anxiety; anxiety about what I had to ‘fall back on’, because, really, I hadn’t thought so very far ahead when I first applied (not a good mistake to make!).

I’ve always wanted to do teaching, and it had always been my intention to do so once I finished my degree, but my parents have never been keen for me to do this, and I knew that they certainly would not be supportive of it at that point either.  But God proved me wrong.  Over the last few years, especially because of my involvement with international students at uni, I’ve become convinced that English teaching is a powerful way into sharing lives, sharing culture, but most especially, sharing Jesus.  In fact, two good friends of mine, both international students from China and Taiwan, first met Jesus when they had done private English tutoring with English teachers who read the Bible with them.  Anyway, maybe more on that later, perhaps in another post.  Well, my parents were a bit desperate when they heard I had not planned for next year.  So they agreed to let me apply for teaching next year. If you know my parents, then that would probably be a big surprise for you too, not meaning disrespect in any way.  My dad’s even been searching up courses and different options for me (!!!).

This has confirmed a few things for me, things I’m so thankful for.  (1) I think Philippians 4:6-7 (‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’) has been so real for me this week – God keeps His word!  Though initially a bit nerve-wracking, God reminded me to heed these words, to keep bringing all things before him and not be anxious.  And indeed He helped me to see Him as being the one who is in control and to keep dwelling in the peace that comes from knowing my future is secure in Him.  (2) The way my parents responded showed me that God really is the one who hands the hearts of all in his hand.  He is sovereign!  (3) My prayers for God to close and open doors to where I believe He will lead me to were answered, at least the things that happened confirmed for me that this is where He is leading me and He has so graciously made it more observable in my relationship with my parents.

Though an event of little significance, I can see God’s handiwork in the grand scheme of things.  A concluding thought: a friend at Church asked me today ‘Anna, how do you remember God in each day?’ I didn’t have to think too hard to answer, for God had helped me to do that these last few weeks.  I said ‘I think it’s by asking some questions: “What do I know of God’s will?”  Well, simply, it’s that He seeks to restore His world, reversing the effects of sin and ushering in a new creation.  He’s done it through Jesus coming and is continuing to do it through His work in our hearts and through us in our families, communities, and world.  Another question is “How do I fit into this great plan?” If this is what God is doing in His world, then we definitely fit in somehow, and we should actively seek to be a part of His great work in the place He’s put us!  And third question is “What is God teaching me through this?” If He desires to make me more like Jesus, surely He is doing that right now, so I might be where I am in this ‘thing’ for a reason none other than that.’  And I think God’s taught me a bit more about each of these over my reflections this week.

Nuggets of wisdom

I’ve been reading this book by Elisabeth Elliot called Passion and Purity, which has been a very interesting read so far.  It’s interesting because Elliot never seems to say exactly what she means, but that makes it all the more helpful having to think through what she’s trying to get at.  Often I’m not really sure why she mentions something until a day or two later!  Two such ‘nuggets of wisdom’ I’d like to share:

1. There’s a chapter in the book where Elliot shares a diary entry she wrote just after Jim Elliot (who was her first husband, who died whilst sharing the good news about Jesus in Ecuador) told her that he liked her.  She struggles with this because even though she greatly admires and love Jim, Jim told her that he felt convicted to lead a life of singleness (which is also puzzling in itself, as I wonder why Jim told her how he felt about her even though he felt convicted in this way).  Anyway, her journal entry for that day is a list of different verses that ‘represent warnings and aspirations that shaped [her] thinking’.  She says:

I was very cautious about what I put in the journals.  I don’t think it was because I feared someone else would discover my secrets.  I think I was afraid to articulate, even for myself, feelings I might have to get rid of.  Better to stick with what God was saying to me than what my heart was saying.  It seemed the safer course.  I do not repudiate it now.  The only way to build a house on the rock is to hear the Word (I couldn’t have heard it if all I listened to was my feelings) and then to try to do it.

What wisdom!  My journal entries are always full of lots of babbling thoughts and I don’t think I’ve considered that mulling over my thoughts could be dangerous.  But more so, it seems there is much wisdom to not just not mulling over my thoughts/feelings, but actually making sure I ‘mull’ over God’s thoughts instead of the former.

2. In another chapter, Elliot recounts a time when a girl who was staying with her told her about a dilemma: she was eager to marry a handsome and wealthy man but she was going out with someone who was a Christian, handsome, and interesting, but ‘poor and homely’.  Here’s the excerpt:

Elliot: What do you want more than anything else in life?  God’s choices or your own?

Jane: God’s, of course.

Elliot: What if He should choose for you a man who was poor and homely?

Jane: Oh, but He wouldn’t!

Elliot: Why not?

Jane: Because He loves me.

…

Jane: …I’ve prayed for His will, and I’ve prayed for a rich, handsome husband, and that’s what I’m going to get, because Jesus loves me and Jesus wants me to be happy.

Elliot: So if you don’t get him, will that prove God doesn’t love you?

Jane: Doesn’t He want me to be happy?

Elliot: He wants you most to be holy.

Jane: Miserable and long faced, then.  Is that what God wants?  Is that what holiness has to mean?

Elliot: Has to?  No.  Not only doesn’t have to, but can’t.  Real holiness can’t possibly be miserable and long faced, Jane.  Holiness means ‘wholeness’.  Comes from the same root as hale–you know, hale and hearty.  Healthy.  Fulfilled.

Jane: Well, that has to mean happy.

Elliot: That’s what it means for sure.  The problem starts when we make up our own minds what will give us happiness and then decide, if we don’t get exactly that, that God doesn’t love us.  We slither into a slough of God-hates-me self-pity.

Jane: But you just said He wants us to be happy.  He must want to give us what we want, doesn’t He?  I mean, within reason.

Elliot: He wanted Adam and Eve to be happy, but He didn’t give them everything they wanted.  He knew it would be the death of them.  So they got made and decided He didn’t love them and was being stingy when He told them not to touch the fruit.  How could He love them if He didn’t let them have it?  They put more stock in the snake’s reasoning than in God’s.

That is pure gold, right there.  I have to admit, though Elliot’s voice is in my head, Jane’s voice is sometimes a truer reflection of my thoughts on a wide range of issues.  I know God wants me to be holy, to be the person He created me to be (before sin entered the world) and to be the person He has saved me to be (in Jesus), and His desire for that is pure goodness, but sometimes the circumstances he uses to do that are certainly not desirable, at least not initially.  But Elliot is right, ‘the problem starts when we make up our own minds what will give us happiness and then decide, if we don’t get exactly that, that God doesn’t love us.  We slither into a slough of God-hates-me self-pity.’  I need to heed the wisdom of point 1 and let God’s thoughts fill my mind, and not those of my sinful nature.

 

 

 

One body, many different parts

‘Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.’ (I Corinthians 12:12, 15-20)

I think God is teaching me to appreciate this more and more.  I’d always think the ‘gifts’ that Paul is talking of here, with each member of the body being different, that is having different gifts from the same Spirit, as being skills mainly.  But I’m discovering that it’s a whole lot more than that!  I was talking to a good friend tonight (or rather, last night, since it is now the morning of the following day!) and she told me that she feels like she’s not ‘outward-looking’ enough, always staying in one place and not venturing beyond.  But as she spoke, and as I thought of how to respond, I was reminded of the above words, and encouraged to see them with new eyes.  What my friend didn’t see, but I see often, is the way she comes up with the most creative and engaging ways to teach children about Jesus, the way she notices the little things in the classroom, the way Luke answered a question, or the way Benjamin helped another person solve a puzzle, and encourages them by sharing these things with them, or the way she talks to new people at church, sensitive to their sense of awkwardness and listening to them patiently.  Not to praise her, but to praise the Lord who brings all peoples to himself and calls them together under the headship of Christ, do I mention this.

Unlike my friend, I’m a bit of a broad strokes person.  She doesn’t think too much about ‘the future’ but is content to do her best in the present.  I, on the other hand, think a bit too much about the future at times, and can be neglectful of the present.  She likes to pay attention to things on a day-to-day basis; I like to pay attention to things in ‘monthly view’ and ‘yearly view’.  She doesn’t mind and in fact enjoys decorating, adding pictures and even creating fun fonts for the Sunday school worksheets I make; I, on the other hand, like to just type everything up in Arial Font Size 12 and print it, thinking only of the content and not very much of the presentation.  Both I don’t think I’d be a very good Sunday school teacher without her, or people like her!

It seems the many parts of the body are just that!  It is the whole person, God’s creation and God’s recreation in Jesus, that God gives and puts into the body of Christ!  It makes sense that ‘God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?’ (I Corinthians 12:28-29).  It is not that he gives the gift of teaching to some, but that he gives teachers, evangelists, people who are good to noticing the details, people who like to think things in systematic ways, people who are thinkers, people who are doers, etc.  Of course, we change, and that’s entailed in being part of the body actually (‘Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind’ (I Peter 3:8)) but more importantly, ‘he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that ti builds itself up in love.’ (Ephesians 4:11-13, 15-16).  What a breath-taking picture of what God has in stall for bringing such a diversity of people together – and what an ambitious project indeed!  To be distinct in our roles, in the way He creates and moulds us to be, but at the same time having one mind (the same ambition, purpose, attitude, motivation, and heart as Jesus).  And it is God who will do it!  What an amazing God.

Striving to rest (Part 2)

I gotta thank Keiyeng for getting me thinking more on this (thanks Keiyeng!).  And Jayne, I hope you read this: http://jeaninallhonesty.blogspot.com/2008/05/cj-mahaney-on-sleep.html.  This blog post might be helpful concerning the insomnia episodes you’ve been having!

Keiyeng raised lots of questions in my head (in a helpful way that is) and something a friend of mine said the other day also raised more, while answering some I had previously in my first post on this (and I wonder if perhaps he was addressing those very questions/thoughts I had while speaking to me!).  Anyway, he said that we can rest now, because the work has been done!  Jesus has done it by His saving work on the cross 2000 years ago and the work is finished.  And he’s right.  That is true!  It definitely got me thinking in a new light, specifically the value, then, that our ‘work’ now has.  If Jesus has said ‘it is finished’, then what kind of work is the work I do now?  What kind of rest is the rest I have now?  It was certainly a rebuke for me to think about ‘work’ in the right perspective.  The Christ, Jesus, ultimately has and does the work that needs to be done to achieve the rest that we so desperately need and were created to enjoy.

If I were drawing all these words in a diagram, I would put the above paragraph in the centre with a circle around it and label it ‘the cornerstone truth about rest’.  I think it certainly has far-reaching implications…somehow.  Initial thoughts, when reflecting on the great truth above:

My ‘efforts’ to serve God can be done with a great sense of completion already and of assurance of their outcome, for their outcome is in His hands, not mine!  Thanks be to God for that!

There is no ‘unfinished’ work to be done!  I can never not do the things that need doing!  (Does that make sense!?)  What a liberating and amazing thing!

I often get very emotionally tied up in relationships with people, and I can get very concerned/anxious, especially when a friend is struggling with something that seems to turn them away from the Lord, and I can start being overwhelmed by it and ‘take matters into my own hands’, forgetting that the Lord is the one who not only holds the whole world in the palm of His hand but has power over every man’s heart.  Both are breath-taking facts (though the first is obviously metaphorical) and it’s only by going back to the cross, where God revealed how He was going to complete the work He had set out to do since the beginning of the world, to restore the original rest He made, that we can fully appreciate rest now.  We can sleep soundly, enjoy a whole day at the park, just spend time reading, because we can be sure what needs to be done will be done (and in fact has been done already).

Hmmm…I don’t know whether I’ve answered any questions or just put up more thoughts, but will have to keep thinking and praying about this!  In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think :)!

Striving to rest

I had an interesting albeit brief conversation with a Christian brother today about rest.  I was sharing with him that my parents want me to go with them on a three-week cruise aboard the P&O (if you don’t know what that is, I just learnt myself the other day!  It’s a very big and luxurious cruise ship with tremendously huge varieties of perks on board).  I was feeling reluctant to go, despite the fact that it would be a really good bonding time with my parents, because I felt somewhat uncomfortable about the notion of being indulgent and somewhat idle for three weeks.  My brother lovingly reminded me that we all need to take a break and rest.  I think this word is both vague yet so specific in our minds, both taken for granted and yet contentious.  We first see it manifest in how God rested from his work of creation on the seventh day and invites us, humanity, to join him in his rest.  And this is the rest that was broken by humans but progressively being restored by God until it reaches full fulfillment when Jesus returns and renews creation so that it will be again.  But what does that look like now?  Do I look forward only to that rest and not really in the now?  What does rest mean?  Is it ‘taking a breather’, ‘taking a four month holiday to Hawaii’, or ‘spending a few hours just talking to God’?  Is there a wrong and right rest?  These questions are buzzing in my head (and I really need to ask Jade Schroers who just prepared and gave a seminar on this at Club Veg!).

I should not say these things with lightness as I really need to do some reading to make sure I’m understanding God’s word correctly, but the times that I’ve read about rest in Scripture, it speaks of a specific state (or rather, more correctly, a specific relationship between things): God is our God, we are His people, and we are enjoying Him in His presence in peace and full trust.  This seems true in passages like Exodus 33:14 (‘And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”‘) and 1 Kings 8:56 (‘Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.’).  Passages like Matthew 11:28-30, which is so frequently quoted (‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’), seems to speak of an assured confidence we gain when we ‘enter into Christ’s rest’; when we enter into relationship with Him we in fact find rest for our souls because they are now washed clean by Jesus’ very life.  Even the Old Testament speaks of this, though not specifically in Jesus, but certainly in the same God: ‘For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength’ (Isaiah 30:15).  The serious command that God gave the people of Israel in the Old Testament to keep the Sabbath Day holy (which just means ‘set apart’ or ‘different from the rest’) thus made much sense in this light.  It points to how it was meant to be at the very beginning, but more importantly, how it will be one day, as God restores creation to his original intention.  In this light, how should I rest now?

People keep telling me I work, work, work (not in the sense of uni work and such of course, but of being spent for the Kingdom) and I really need to take a break.  And I know they say this to me out of love and a desire to see me refreshed and better to serve others, but there is much joy in being spent for the Kingdom, for we know that our labour is not in vain, and, as Packer reminds us, those who are zealous for God gain great energy from Him to continue doing the work He has prepared in advance for us to do.  So, I could definitely be doing much more :)!  Of course, or rather, furthermore, God is the one doing the work, and I am simply a vessel through whom He brings Himself honour (yet how incredible that I should see the fruit and be so very blessed by Him).  I guess all I’m saying really is that I’ve met people and read about people, Christian brothers and sisters, whom I admire and seek to imitate, as Paul urged his readers to imitate him as he imitates Christ, because they saw the coming Kingdom, the fulfillment of rest in its ultimate-ty (what’s a word that means this?) as first priority.  Men like Jim Elliot and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, women like Corrie ten Boom, and many men and women I’ve met in my life, never took a holiday, but put all their energy and time into loving the Lord as living sacrifices.  Of course, this is not to say that taking a cruise with my parents is bad stewardship of my time, but it did make me think: is our understanding of ‘rest’ missing something?  Have we not really understood the link between the final rest we are looking forward to and the life we live now?

Hmmmmm.