“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness”.
– Romans 8:25-26a
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.
– Romans 15:13
I feel like impatience reflects a lack of trust in God. It’s an inability to let go and trust that God is in control. When we trust God, we also need to trust in his timing. It can be difficult, but there is no point giving in now to our impatience. For if we wait just that little bit longer and hold on to the faith, we will reap the harvest when the time comes. It will be worth all our waiting.
It was late one afternoon at uni and I’d began to drift off while the tutor explained the meaning of ‘literal’. My ears perked up when I heard, “Now I’m just checking… is anyone in here a fundamental Islamist, or a fundamental Jew or a fundamental Christian?”
Man! Why had I dozed off? This could have been my chance but I had lost track of the context of the question. I hesitated. A mature aged student said quietly, “I’m a Christian.” Good on her!
“Oh so you’re a Christian,” the tutor stood over her with one hand on her hip. She put on her concentration face and asked, “But are you afundamental Christian?” There was a pause.
“What do you mean?” the lady asked.
The tutor flicked her short hair back from her eyes. “When I say that, I mean, do you take the words in the Bible literally. Do you think it means exactly what it says?”
The lady hesitated. There was a catch. Clearly, this intelligent woman was trying to catch her out. “There are metaphors,” she said quietly.
“Yes. That’s what I mean. You don’t believe the Bible means exactly what it says? You don’t take it literally do you?” The tutor was putting on the pressure.
There was no response.
I was sitting up in the back corner, reclining in my seat observing the situation keenly. As the silence ravaged through the room I shrugged my shoulders. “I do.” I said simply. The whole class turned toward me. “I think that the Bible says exactly what it means”.
“Do you Nicola? You believe that the Bible word for word? You take a literal view on the Bible? You would consider yourself a fundamentalist?” Her eyes were piercing mine as she tossed her head back provokingly with each question.
“Yes.” I said confidently. “I do”.
“So you don’t believe the Bible has metaphors?”
“Yes it does,” I began, “Even Jesus speaks in parables.”
He eyes widened at the name of Jesus and my reference to the term ‘parables’. Clearly I knew more about the Bible than identifying a few figures of speech.
“So then don’t you think these need to be interpreted?” She asked.
“Yes these parables have hidden meanings but we don’t need to interpret them because Jesus explained right after he told them, exactly what they were about”.
I clearly was not backing down or succumbing to the pressure and she could see that I wasn’t intimidated. With that, she turned and played the following clip from West Wing.
(If you are reading this in an email, you may have to go to my blog page or copy the link in order to watch the video above).
Now this was an interesting video clip but in reality it is so flawed. All of the verses he referred to are talking about Old Testament Law, which we know is no longer necessary because of Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17).
In Romans 10:4 we read, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes”.
I agreed with her that there is more meaning than initially on surface level. I said that when you study the Bible, you look at the original Hebrew or Greek word and see where it has been used in other contexts in the Bible in order to have a deeper understanding of what is being said. I gave the example of how there are multiple words for our single word, ‘love’.
She agreed and then took it on a massive tangent. “You have chosen a very nice word though, how about something like ‘homosexual’…” She paused for the class’ reaction. “Does anyone know the original Hebrew for the word ‘homosexual’?”
There was a long pause and I shook my head. I was kicking myself. Here, she knew she had the upper hand and that there was no one in the room who could correct her opinions disguised as fact. She began to say that the original word for ‘homosexual’ was more closely linked to the word ‘paedophile’ and that all this time, the church has been chasing the wrong group of people. She told this massive story about Paul sailing past the Isle of Capri where apparently children jumped off cliffs to avoid paedophiles. All this time, there had been a wrong translation. That was her argument.
At first I was stumped. I didn’t know how to respond because I wasn’t prepared but really, all it took was an arrow prayer and a bit of common sense logic to rebut her argument.
If this was the case, and the Bible has been translated or interpreted wrong, why was she the only one that knew about it? For endless years, scholars have studied the original transcripts. This would have been found out. This would have been corrected.
And yet, each time I raised my hand she overlooked me and continued telling the class about what she believed.
The way I see it. Fine believe homosexuality is okay. Whatever. Just don’t try to pretend that the Bible says it’s okay. Don’t try to say that the Bible supports your cause, because it doesn’t! Don’t try to put down the Bible.
Now hear me out, I don’t hate homosexuals. Being in the theatre, I have plenty of gay friends, who are wonderful people. If they are not Christians and do not live by the Bible, I don’t expect them to uphold what the Bible teaches, but I won’t let people taint the reliability of God’s word to suit their own interests.
Either way, the Bible and homosexuality are touchy subjects for some people. I’m not sure how appropriate it was to spend 40 minutes talking about it in a tutorial.
On the bright side, it gave me an opportunity to stand up for what I believe and let people see I am serious about being a Christian.
And now have the next four years ahead of me. I’ll admit my respect for her decreased, but I will strive to continue to show her respect and God’s love toward her. If I can’t win her over with words, I will do it with love by my actions.
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” -1 John 3:18.
If the opportunity ever comes up for you, take it! Don’t let it pass you by. Stand up for Jesus. Even if you don’t know the words to say. Shoot up a quick prayer and speak His name. God promises he will never leave our side (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Our lives are a rich tapestry of experiences… Faces, names, thoughts, places and times all mixed together to form what we are and who we have come to be. Even in the most mundane of lives you can still glimpse the bright colours of unique experiences shining through. We all experience life, we all have a story, we are all unique.
Growing up in a Christian family, there were times I felt I had the textbook “Christian” life – two Christian parents, a family who went to Church, a Christian school and an understanding of God from a very early age. I never had the desire to drink, to swear, to disobey for the sake of disobeying. I wasn’t interested in what cheap love could give me, who fancy clothes could make me look like, and I couldn’t care less what the “trendy” thing was to do.
We’ve all been there. Someone starts paying you a little extra attention. Their smile curves your lips. Their stare reddens your cheeks. Their words are spoken with a hidden meaning. You contemplate their question. They imagine their future with you. You imagine your future with them. You know those dreams that are gone in a glimpse? You see the two of you tomorrow, then a wedding dress, a house, kids and eventually the rocking chairs on the front porch. They are assessing you and you are evaluating them. In your mind, everything seems perfect.
Until you are brought back to reality. Yes, he has an incredible smile. Yes, he is polite. Yes, he makes you feel like a million dollars. Yes. Yes. Yes. You can continue rationalising and ticking multiple boxes but there is one box you cannot tick. It’s the most important box. Everything else is debatable. What they look like, where they work, what sport they play.
Some things are negotiable. Some things are preferences. Yet if you are a Christian and strive to take up your cross and follow Christ, when you are looking for a husband, there is one thing that cannot be negotiated.
He must be a Christian.
I didn’t say, ‘he must go to church’. I didn’t say,’ he must believe in Jesus’. I didn’t say, ‘he must have been baptized’. There are many people in this world who go to church, honestly believe that Jesus was God and were baptised as infants. This does not make them a Christian. There is a difference. Hear me out.
A guy can seem like the man of your dreams. He might compliment you. He might call your mum ‘Mrs’ and your dad ‘Sir’. He might open the car door for you. He might buy you flowers. Heck, he might even drive you to church and sit in the front pew with you! Just because he does all these things, doesn’t mean he is the perfect man.
The thing is that the Bible clearly states that as Christians, we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14).
Often, people can appear to be something that they are not. I know so many Christian women who married charming men. These attractive men knew what their girlfriends wanted them to be and so they played the part til they made those girlfriends their wives. Only too late did these wives learn that their husbands had been pretending all along.
To this day these women continue to struggle living with a man who does share their beliefs or they are living alone because their husband ran off with someone else.
The thing with feelings is that we get caught up in the moment, rather than seeing the bigger picture. We see them as they are now and how they make us feel instead of really asking who they will become and facing the hard truth.
On the other hand, I have seen so many Christian couples who are shining God’s light, just in the way they relate to each other. Their common belief brings them together for a common cause. Rather than arguing, they are in a partnership. Together they are seeing more and more people come to know Jesus. They are selfless and put each other before themselves. They read their Bible and spur each other on to become better people. They pray together. At my church I see elderly couples more in love now than ever. I see old men opening the door for their wives who now have walkers or wheelchairs.
I want a man who will one day become an old man like the ones I see at my church. If you want some one like that, they need to be showing those qualities now. Don’t just hope for the best thinking they’ll develop them later on.
Plainly put. If you want an eagle, don’t pick up a crocodile egg and expect it to transform.
On a final note, how can anyone argue with 2 Corinthians 6:14?
“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?”
Don’t set yourself up for failure. See the potential beauty that comes, if you will only be patient.
It’s one of those times when I am realising how much some people suffer and how good my life is in comparison.
Looking outside my own bubble, I see that there are kids growing up with alcoholic parents who abuse them. There are kids who don’t have any parents at all and have to try to navigate life on their own, getting tangled up in their mistakes. There are kids who wish they had a ‘normal’ life but what is normal?
My life isn’t normal. It’s probably the nearest to the way that God created it to be, but that is rare these days. I have a loving mother and father, sisters and brother. I don’t struggle financially. I don’t go searching for love. My room is crammed with clothes, books, CDs and presents from other people who care about me.
This is not normal. If normal is:”conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected”, my life is not normal.
I often have bouts of guilt. I wonder why I am so blessed and happy, while so many around me suffer. Then I realise that if everyone was like that, there would be no one to help them. If everyone falls down the mud-hole, there has to be at least one person standing up the top, lowering down the rope to help them back up. If everyone was in darkness, there would be no light.
Those of us, who are blessed enough to know Jesus’ love and peace are called to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).
So if you feel discouraged because so many around you are flailing through life, don’t be downhearted. Take the opportunity to praise God for sparing you that pain. Don’t gloat. It is by God’s grace that we have been saved. Use your position to help others. With great gifts, comes great responsibility.
The beautiful thing about this is that through us, others will also be brought into the light of Jesus. If we are doing our job properly, lighting the way, God can use us to rescue others. We are instruments of God’s love.
Now THAT is exciting, not only for us, but also for those who are awaiting our help.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”
“What if ten steps- just one thousandth of your daily average – could actually impact eternity… What if redirecting a person’s forever is really as simple as walking across a room?”
– Bill Hybels (Just Walk Across the Room)
Have you ever felt the unmistakable pleasure of seeing somebody come to know Jesus as their personal saviour and friend?
I spent the last week at a kid’s camp teaching children about the love that Jesus has for them. I skipped out on uni for a week. I forgot about my pending assignments and looked outside my own little square. Before me was a large room of children, crying out to be loved. Children from broken families and orphans were among them. We sang songs about Jesus. We did skits about Jesus. We read the Bible and talked about Jesus. We prayed to Jesus. Everything was all about Jesus.
And each day, tears came to my eyes. This is what I want to be doing. I want to be sharing God’s love with others by proclaiming the name of Jesus, which has the power to save. It is amazing to see the lives of every child transformed by the end of the week, just by seeing that there is a God who loves them, who promises he will never leave them, will always forgive them and is there to help them.
It makes every other desire seem meaningless. What can compare? What is as important as changing someone’s eternity? The feeling of getting High Distinctions does not compare with that of seeing lost souls saved by the Lord. There is something so fulfilling in knowing that God has used us as an instrument for his bigger plan.
When we are studying, or working, we think that doing well is the most important thing. It becomes our number one priority. Even if it is not for ourselves, but to bring glory to God is still drives us to work hard and focus our full attention on it and yet, what God loves more than anything else, is people. Everything God ever did was derived from an unfathomable love for his children.
We know that in life we will always give ourselves to something. I love this quote:
“True followers of Christ who really get it right give themselves to people. Most importantly, they give themselves to pointing people to faith in Christ. That is the highest and best use of human life – to have it serve as a signpost that points people toward God”
-Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian
When I am talking to other people about Jesus there is this overwhelming excitement and simultaneous peace. It is like a guitar being strummed to play beautiful music, rather than hang on the wall. It is like the book being read rather than sitting on the shelf. It is that feeling of going, “Wow, I was made for this purpose!”
People talk about finding their purpose in life and they spend years searching for it. I have found it and it is an overwhelming feeling. I got home and cried for half an hour tears of absolute joy. God has called me (and you!) to be a part of his rescue mission in the world. He calls us to love others who need it and to tell people of his ultimate gift of love, forgiveness and life.
So I urge you to take a walk across the room. At a party. At work. At the beach. At the park. At the markets. At a shop. At the bus stop. On the train. Bring God’s light into somebody’s life. It may only be a seed planted, but get back to me and tell me that you didn’t find your purpose in life. Tell me there is no greater joy… and I won’t believe you.
“Shine your light and let the whole world see. We’re singing for the glory of the Risen King, Jesus!” (Mighty to Save).
“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim”. – Romans 10:8
When you befriend somebody, you should not do so lightheartedly. With relationship comes commitment. The inability to see it through leads to disappointment. I often see people who I know could do with a decent friend and yet I am afraid that in befriending too many people and spreading my love too far, I would be unable to love properly.
I suppose it comes back to whether you are the type of person who wants to be something to everyone or everything to someone. I fear that I am the former, but is that so bad?
Can love really be spread too far, or is the consistency of love stronger than that of butter being spread across toast? Toast is dry. People are not at all like toast.
People are loving creatures. Toast can exist without butter, but people cannot possibly exist without the love of another being unconditionally being bestowed upon them.
I therefore conclude that we should not restrict love. We ought to love all that we possibly can. After all, it is God’s love that is within us, so it is not for us to retain. God’s love can be like the manna that we read about in Exodus 16. God provides enough for each day. If we try to hold on to what we are given in an attempt to sustain ourselves, our effort will be in vain for we will be trusting in our own strength more than God’s promised provision.
So love. Love extravagantly!
1 John 4:7- 21 says it clearly and powerfully. The greatest commandment is to love.
“7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
“If you make a compromise with surrender, you can remain interested in the abundant life, all the riches of freedom, love, and peace, but it is the same as looking at a display in a shop window. You look through the window but do not go in and buy. You will not pay the price – Surrender”
– E. Stanley Jones.
“I lift my hands just as I am, I’m letting go of false control
I lift my voice, I have no choice
My life is Yours, use me for Your fame.”
– Rush of Fools (Fame Lyrics)
I need to stop trying to hold on. Let go of this idea that is really ‘false control’. Stop thinking I actually have any power over what is happening. In those weak times, that is when I become dependent on him.
It is so important to remember to take time out and remember who God is. I’ve had some hectic assignments due in the last few days and I have felt so lost and helpless. All that kept me sane was my daily trip to the beach. I got some exercise to take the edge of unusual anxiety off, but most of all, I saw that the world kept spinning round. Life goes on and it is bigger than our tight-knit list of priorities. People were laughing and smiling. The sun was glowing glorious hues as it bid goodbye for the evening.
I had this thought that I needed to do the absolute best that I could at Uni to bring glory and honour to God. I was all wrapped up in doing well and scared of failing in case I let him down. When I took time out and saw the crescent-shaped beach, the waves brushing against the shore, the cumulus clouds radiating vibrant colour and the rays bursting forth from the heavens, I realised that God doesn’t need me to bring glory to himself. He has invited me to, but God’s image shall never be tainted and his glory will forever be shone. I had to let go of the idea that God’s glory was all in my hands. Only then, could I truly reflect the King of Peace.
I felt so much better for surrendering. I know it is only the beginning. I am very strong-willed, controlling and bossy, often causing me to get agitated and aggressive. I know I need to exchange these things for the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) but I am aware that as long as I realise this and do nothing about it, I am merely window shopping.
One Road Less Travelled 