An ABC of Faith

Confession

Confession within the context of the Christian life can have two distinct meanings: 1. a formal statement admitting that one is guilty of a wrongdoing. 2. a statement setting out essential religious doctrine.

The first often forms part of our opening prayers in the context of Christian worship. It is said that confession is good for the soul, but how and why? Psychologist would say that when you do something wrong, there are two typical reactions that pull in opposite directions. On the one hand, you might want to hide what you have done. If nobody finds out, then it may feel like you didn’t do it at all. On the other hand, you might just want to confess what you have done wrong. That gets the problem out into the open and helps people to move forward. So it is in the spiritual context.

However, closely allied to confession is the action of repentance; for example Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

If we are serious about our confession of faith then we too must be just as serious about our confession of sin and confession of sin can also mean that we should be serious about our need to repent. Repentance in Christianity means a sincere turning away, in both the mind and heart, from self to God. It involves a change of mind that leads to action—the radical turning away from a sinful course to God. A person who is truly repentant recognises God the Father as the most important factor of his or her existence.

It was John Wesley who prayed, “O merciful Father, do not consider what we have done against you but what our blessed Saviour has done for us. Do not consider what we have made of ourselves, but what He is making of us for you our God. O that Christ may be “wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption” to every one of our souls. May His precious blood may cleanse us from all our sins, and your Holy Spirit renew and sanctify our souls. May He crucify our flesh with its passion and lusts, and cleanse all our brothers and sisters in Christ across the earth. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.”

An ABC of Faith

Courage

How courageous are you? It was the great Nelson Mandela who said "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

Paul in his letter to the Philippians writes, “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death.” (1:20)

My reaction when I read such a brave statement is; how would I react if faced with the situations Paul faced. Similarly, when I listen to Christian commentators who say that, “Christian courage is the willingness to say and do the right thing regardless of the earthly cost, because God promises to help you and save you on account of Christ. An act takes courage if it will likely be painful. The pain may be physical, as in war and rescue operations. Or the pain may be mental as in confrontation and controversy.” - I wonder if I have the strong enough to endure.

Then I read such verses as: Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Therefore, is it my unstable courage or my lack of faith that is the issue? All of us can recount a life-altering experience brought on by a major life change. And whether we bring on that change ourselves or find ourselves at the mercy of circumstances beyond our control, learning to accept that change and find a way forward isn’t easy.

Perhaps we can find strength the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” So is it a question of not pondering,  will I be courageous enough, but will I rely enough on God.

Prayer

Oh Father in heaven, you sit on your throne, crowned in all majesty and glory. Your face shines on me and your hand touches me every day. You stand in courage. You crush evil and uphold righteousness. Lord, I pray that you bless me with the courage to do what is right in your eyes. May I never shake in the face of temptation, but instead, stand firm in your word. Amen.

An ABC of Faith

Our word for today is Community

There is a lovely paraphrase in The Message of Matthew 9:37-38 “Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”

How would you define community; possibly a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common - the condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.

If we take these definitions and read it alongside Matthew’s words we discover that a real community is one made and centred upon Jesus. 

Mike Ayers, Professor of Leadership Studies at College of Biblical Studies, Houston, suggest the marks of a Christ centred community are:-

1. Where its members are fully devoted to Christ and His cause.
2. Where each has a real Anticipation of God’s Work in the world.
3. Where all have strong commitment to one another
4. Where there is an outpoured generosity in meeting needs
5. Where laughter and fellowship are clearly shared
6. Where there is a sense of shared destiny from God

The issue for many is that a Community is made up of individuals and unless each individual shares the community spirit, or should that be a community of the Spirit, no community of faith can exist.

May we be able to sing:

Here we are gathered, one family in the Lord;

His life is the bond that we share.

Although we are many, we are in one accord,

And as the members, know the family care.

Refrain

And blending with the saints we know,

Our joy has just begun;

We blend together and we blend as one.

And blending with the saints we know,

The building has begun;

We build together and we build as one.

When we’re together our joy is made so full;

The love of the Lord fills our hearts,

And we all partake of the Spirit bountiful.

We’ve found, here in the family life, a part.

Here we will stay, Lord, according to Your plan,

For here in the church life we’re one;

And we will be built up to be the corp’rate man

To consummate the New Jerusalem.

An ABC of Faith

Conversation

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

Have you ever noticed, that when Christians get together they seem to talk about everything under the sun but remain quiet about their faith.  It has been suggested:-

• That in the main, people seem frightened by the notion of sharing the christian experience as they had been led to understand it. They feel they lack the knowledge and confidence to share it.
• The language of faith sharing seems be in pre-formed labelled packages that people do not feel they really understood.
• That our approach to faith has been one of knowledge rather than experience and feeling and that courses and resources are the answer though there is little evidence to substantiate this.

 

So often our concept of Christian Conversation with other solely on the notion of “Proclamation” of the knowledge of faith in the form of “I know something you don’t know, and you need to catch up with my understanding which is more complete than yours” leaves many people feeling excluded.

What if we could grow a new generation of people who are confident and excited about having spiritual conversations based on experiences of life, living and encountering God

Such a conversational model starts with a desire to meet something of the divine in everybody, 

The Art of Christian Conversation has to start with an inner conversation where we get to know ourselves - and God - better. 

The word Paul uses for conversation in the original Greek is logos. It is the same as John uses in his opening chapter, “In the beginning was the word (logos)” Earlier in Colossians Paul talks about the Word (logos) living within us . Maybe that’s where our conversation with others should start. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. – Colossians 3:16 If we follow this guidance I wonder how changed with be our conversations.”

A Prayer:

Teacher God, your wisdom is beyond what I can comprehend. I ask that you open my mind to your teaching. Let me receive it, understand it, and apply it. Let worship be on my lips and in my heart. Let scripture guide my actions. Develop me into a disciple of God. Amen.

An ABC of Faith

Communion 

The word Communion within the context of the church can have a number of meanings. Communion in the sense of being ‘in communion’. We speak, for example, of the Anglican Communion which can be defined as sharing or exchanging a common and organisational approach to be disciples of Jesus. The more common understanding within Christian Circles of Communion is the institution of the Lord’s Supper also referred to as the Eucharist, the Mass or Holy Communion.

This institution of course centres on the night of the supper before Jesus was put to death. Lukes Gospel records that “(Jesus) took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

John Wesley believed the Lord’s Supper to be “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God” he would also encourage his societies to see partaking communion an essential part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

He wrote, “The first reason why it is the duty of every Christian so to do is because it is a plain command of Christ. That this is his command appears from the words of the text, 'Do this in remembrance of me': by which, as the Apostles were obliged to bless, break, and give the bread to all that joined with them in those holy things, so were all Christians obliged to receive those signs of Christ's body and blood. Here therefore the bread and wine are commanded to be received, in remembrance of his death, to the end of the world. Observe, too, that this command was given by our Lord when he was just laying down his life for our sakes. They are therefore, as it were, his dying words to all his followers” 

He went on to say, ““The grace of God given herein confirms to us the pardon of our sins by enabling us to leave them. As our bodies are strengthened by bread and wine, so are our souls by these tokens of the body and blood of Christ. This is the food of our souls: this gives strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection. If therefore we have any regard for the plain command of Christ, if we desire the pardon of our sins, if we wish for strength to believe, to love and obey God, then we should neglect no opportunity of receiving the Lord's Supper”

A Prayer

We do not come to this Your table, O merciful Lord, with self-confidence and pride, trusting in our own righteousness, but we trust in Your great and many mercies. We are not worthy to gather the crumbs from under Your table. But You, O Lord, are unchanging in Your mercy and Your nature is love; grant us, therefore, God of mercy, God of grace, so to eat at this Your table that we may receive in spirit and in truth the body of Your dear Son, Jesus Christ, and the merits of His shed blood, so that we may live and grow in His likeness and, being washed and cleansed through His most precious blood, we may evermore live in Him and He in us. Amen

An ABC of Faith

Bethal -  Is the name of a place often used in the Bible and first mentioned in Genesis 12:8 as being near where Abram pitched his tent. Later in Genesis, it is the location where Jacob dreamt of seeing angels and God, and which he therefore named Bethel, "House of God." 

The word Bethal is also associated with the Mission to Seamen, now known as the Mission to Seafarers. Various ad hoc flag signals were used to publicise services on ships. Finally it was the designing and adoption of the Bethel flag which gave the movement, and subsequent societies, a visible symbol and title. . . Soon the presentation of the flag to a Christian master or to a Bethel Society, and its hoisting in a new port of call, became the way in which the movement was identified.

I wonder what symbol of flag would you design to call others to worship. It strikes me that in recent centuries we have become fixated with places of worship; permanent structures that often are the only place in which official worship takes place.  But isn’t there something to be said for this notion of with Jacob denoting a location where God becomes evident to us and there racing out Bethel Flag. Tony Evans claims that, "If you limit worship to where you are, the minute you leave that place of worship you will leave your attitude of worship behind like a crumpled-up church bulletin." Place this alongside Charles Spurgeon’s words of "All places are places of worship to a Christian," and we begin to understand the true nature of place and worship.

In John 4:246 we find Jesus extolling, “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must bring Him true spiritual worship." (Weymouth Translation)

A Prayer

Abba Father, by the gift of your Spirit I come to you as your child. Thank you so much for giving me your Spirit so that I can approach you with confidence and know you hear the concerns of my heart. Please accept the worship of my heart, of my words, and of my actions. May the things I do today bring you glory. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

An ABC of Faith

Benevolence

Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38

It was Charles Dickens who. in his well known work, Oliver Twist, wrote, “Without strong affection, and humanity of heart, and gratitude to that Being whose code is mercy, and whose great attribute is benevolence to all things that breathe, true happiness can never be attained.”

Whilst the word benevolence may seem to be a word from another era, the need for a benevolent spirit in our day and age appears to be more necessary than ever. Yet the word is beginning to reappear in the realm of modern sociology that stresses, “Benevolence, compassion and a sense of connectedness towards others doesn’t have to be a difficult thing to achieve. This is because these qualities are a natural part of our humanness, when we allow them to be. What gets in the way of that? – anything we allow to do so! Negative beliefs, lack of confidence, avoidance of risk, stressed responses, e.g. ‘I don’t have time for this’ or ‘what if they want something from me that I don’t want to give?’”

Isn’t it amazing how scriptural words or at least their latent meaning has a way emerging in the language of our times. In our verse from Luke, we see the challenge of Jesus is to be merciful and to live in a way that makes the first move towards forgiveness, that is, to be non-judgemental of others and to always want to give. Mercy doesn’t count what it gives nor look for anything in return. Mercy is the heart of God’s love.

Jesus invites us to be as God is – nothing less! He does not intend to overwhelm us or cause us feel frustrated by such an enormous invitation, but wants us to wonder at the immensity of God's capacity to love. In our humanity, we are not infinite, but we are called to great love and hope. The invitation reaches to us as we are in our lives, calling us into the life of God.

Lord, I am the focus of your indiscriminate love. Grant me a profound appreciation of this limitless gift. Transformed by this love, may I in turn show unrestricted loving to others-especially to with whom I live and have my being. Amen