Dec | 12 | ‘Tins and Hymns’, ‘Beer and Booze’ and ‘Cans and Crowns’

RESPECT

‘Tins and Hymns’, ‘Beer and Booze’ and ‘Cans and Crowns’

Isaiah 6:1-5
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts." NKJV

The Scriptures are very clear about the foolishness, the waste and the sinfulness of drunkenness. Do not get drunk.

I am a British Pastor and have on the odd occasion been seen to enjoy a decent pint in the local pub where such imbibing usually revolves around community, entertainment and often times, I say often times as a British pastor, counseling and evangelism. I tell you now though, that the Christian liberty which I enjoy myself, is often happily and always in a willing love, constrained both in me and by me, especially when I find myself in those stricter cultures, contexts and circumstances that I might experience when travelling abroad in the wider world.

I am sorry to say that Post Modern stupidity coupled with a great Biblical ignorance of the God of the Bible has given birth to a disrespectful aberration around some sections of Western Christianity which I hope to see die a very quick death in the coming years. That nonsense of semi-sober bawdiness I am talking about is: ‘beer and hymns’. At such gatherings of the same, you will usually find a collection of various libertines, glasses all raised high to God in toasting worship, all singing the great hymns of the faith in the style of the drunken sailor, the football hooligan or the semi-sizzled ‘promenader.’ It’s pathetic! Here, young ladies already looking like ‘lad-ettes’ with liver problems, sway with flat capped, hairy chopped and tattooed youngsters all usually led by bald middle-aged fat blokes with big bellies, all reveling together in a joint delusion that such nonsense is honoring to God and provides a boozy banner of ‘normalness’ to the watching world, facilitating some kind of ‘entrance point’ into the church whilst revealing the All ‘Mateyness’ of the God of the Bible. Ha!

I tell you now, the pagans don’t need us to show them how to have a good time! I tell you now, those truly touched by God in conviction and conversion want a very different lifestyle and experience compared to the one they have just been saved from! I tell you now, if you think worship of the Most High God can take place with the attitude of a hairy hobbit dancing on a table in the Green dragon pub down in the Shire of Middle earth then you have got fullers earth in between your ears and haven’t got a ‘Scooby doo’ about the God of the Bible.

The world is looking for something different from Christians. God is looking for something different from His people! Why oh why then, do church ‘loony’s’ want to simply reproduce the world? And in the so doing do such open dishonor to our Holy, holy, holy King? The reason is so very simple, they have no real notion of the God of the Bible, but rather, are following an idol, a God of their own making. Look now, day and night, in unending declaration, creatures of unimaginable and indescribable beauty, majesty and power, exist to do but one thing in their own eternal satisfaction and that is: to declare the tri-fold holiness of God. Look now, even the New Testament elders of the closeness of God are instructed by these living creatures in the giving of glory and honor and thanks to the ever living God and when they do, they fall down before Him in overwhelming adoration. Please note, when this happens, it is their crowns and NOT THEIR CANS which they cast before Him.

Behold the people that do not know the God of the Bible! These are the ones who in bare faced bawdiness are singing hymns and sloshing beer in the face of God. My God, how far have we fallen. How much further dare we go? Stop being such Pratt's.

Listen:- And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." Revelation 4:8-11 NKJV

Pray: -  Great God and Father forgive us. Men and women God who wrote such majestic words to bring us to our knees and not to the bar, please forgive us. Lord, give us a glimpse of your greatness, that honor and awe would pour forth from our lips. Amen and let it be so.

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Jul | 30 | Forever Young

Dream Word – RESPECT

Numbers 11:16-17 So the Lord said to Moses: "Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. NKJV

Forever Young

We have been living in a throw-away society for some decades now. Indeed, speedy advances in technology, already makes those items we purchase off the shelves today, virtually redundant on the morrow. So much so, that most design processes and manufacturing materials, now come pre-packaged with a very limited lifestyle and a lot of built in redundancy. Thus we consistently make way for the new.

I am afraid the same approach is being adopted in the church toward older people and is an increasingly problematic age discrimination type of attitude which is especially adopted by the generationally-focused, emerging churches. It would appear by their rhetoric and action that in consistently making way for the ever new and rising stars, they are throwing away the older folk and I have experienced at first-hand how that throw away age is getting younger by the year!

Should Christ wait a little while before coming to get us, then it will be very interesting to see how the rising demographic of politically powerful, lobbying, old-aged, baby-boomers, will shape the cultural landscape once again. The church will need to respond to this enormous aging crowd in practical loving and caring ways. Only older Christian people can do this. Only they can care enough to do so.

Today in 1965, president Lyndon Johnston signed Medicare into American law providing health care for each American over the age of 65. The cost of this care will continue to rise at an astronomical rate, fuelled interestingly enough, by our ability to cure disease and keep the aged alive and kicking that much longer. Never the less, this throw- away culture of ours, this youth-focused, age-redundant society will most subtly require that old people exit the scene more quicker than before to make way for the newer models. I have three comments on this challenge tonight.

Firstly, may I encourage us older folk to try and stay young in our spirit. Exercise yourself in continual creativity. As much as you can, keep looking to the future. Bring all your experience, the good and the bad, to bear upon your creations of the present that will flower in the future. Even if that future is not yours to rejoice in. Create. Stay young in this.

Secondly, exercise your power. Whilst it is healthy to always apprentice and at some point step aside for the younger, DO NOT be pushed aside. Be young in your spirit, be as strong as you can, continue to create and don’t let the younger bucks antler you out of the way. Bear your arms, show ’em your scars and keep on fighting the good fight. There is MORE THAN enough work for younger folk to be apprenticed into, to be released into, to be resourced into without you stepping aside just yet. Don’t be bullied. Don’t be shoved around.

Thirdly, the church needs to make plans now, about how to evangelize, care for, honour and respect an increasingly elderly population. How we honour and respect our elderly, says much about not only our depth and breadth and spread of mercy, but much more about our vision. We must remember that their life of service is not a limited one and though the outworking of this fallen world in their bodies, will, despite new knees and replacement hips, bring a slowing down of their frame, it is not God who has built redundancy into their being!

Tell me tonight, what kind of vision have you written into your personal law and into your church law regarding both the harnessing and release of powerful older folk into their own personal destinies? Even the emergent churches will one day lose their teeth and one day remove the hip from worship. Think about that.

Listen: - Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. (Numbers 11:17-18 NKJV)

Pray:- Lord, grant to our older folk, youthfulness of heart to go with their years of wisdom, strength of body to continue the fight and courage to lead Your people, "further up and farther in". In light of forced redundancy and a throw-away society, give us older folk some gumption to keep going Lord, in Jesus name I pray, amen.

                                                                                                          

Jun | 14 | Oh Aberystwyth! Bring Back The Old, Old Thing.

Dream Word – RESPECT

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord: "Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' NKJV

Oh Aberystwyth! Bring Back The Old, Old Thing.

I wish God would stop doing new things. What with Toronto, Brownsville, Lakeland, Brompton, and many other unnamed places, God seems to never tire of doing new things. Surely, if Christ has not yet returned, then in the future, together with no doubt many other new locations, the ever growing and even now, monumental list of ‘God doing New Things,’ will have grown substantially. Yes, I wish God would stop doing new things and start doing some old ones again, actually just one old thing. I wish He would save and sanctify people like He used to do in all the days gone by.

June is the traditional time for the trooping of the colour. I watched it today and Horse Guards Parade in London was again decked in magnificence!It was very moving to observe the five foot guard regiments troop the chosen regimental colours of the year past Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, each guardsman having his chest puffed out, bags of swank, eyes peering directly into the eyes of the monarch, with the mounted cavalry bands changing the tune of the quick march to match those songs long associated with the each regiment then passing in front of the watching Royalty. All rousing tunes they were as well, tunes such as, ‘The British Grenadiers,’ ‘Milanollo,’ ‘Hielan Laddie,’ ‘St Patricks Day’ and ‘The Rising of The Lark.’

It was during the rest of the preparatory slow and quick marches that my heart was arrested by the music, in particular, Les Huguenots and Aberystwyth, those two magnificent tunes, the former a Waltz, musically inter-dispersed with ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’ and the latter, the tune to which the old hymn, ‘Jesus Lover of My Soul’ used to be sung. I remember a time when the musical connectivity of such tunes would bring the associated words into a national remembrance; tunes that would bring with them an awe, a thankfulness toward God, a testimony of His grace toward us and of our dependence upon Him. Now they are just forgotten and disconnected tunes. Even in the church now, they are mostly just forgotten and disconnected tunes.

My God! We need a musical renaissance and a noteworthy revival! We need some old tunes, or better still, some new tunes with an old theme of people saved from sin and sanctified to Him!

Yes, I wish tonight with all my heart, that God would troop His colour and stop doing new things and do His old thing once again, even saving and sanctifying His people.

Listen: -

A mighty Fortress is our God, a Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.

(Martin Luther)

Pray:-Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing.

Wilt Thou not regard my call? Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall—Lo! on Thee I cast my care;
Reach me out Thy gracious hand! While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand, dying, and behold, I live.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; rise to all eternity.

(Charles Wesley)