A Determined God of Love

Recently we attended the funeral of a friend who loved Jesus. Held in a local Uniting Church, we were impressed as the minister, Tony Johnson, shared from his heart. 

Space doesn’t permit us to detail all that this soft-speaking Geelongite said but we’ll always recall the following– truths that are relevant to every Christian in their understanding of God, their following Jesus and living as he did. And in honouring God’s word and reaching out to everyone.

Tony’s welcome to the mixed gatherers - family, friends and those who were strangers to each other but had known the deceased through her lifetime daily exhibition of love, is a classic. Quietly and simply but meaningfully, he said: ‘Welcome to all of you – to those who believe, those who do not believe, those who do not know what to believe and those who have been too hurt to believe anything.’

In his eulogy, Tony made it clear that God is the God of determination – that through Christ he showed that he is the God of reconciliation.

Love reconciles
We were reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Message, ‘God … settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing.’  

Every Christian has had his or her sins – wrongdoings to God, others and even self – forgiven. It’s now our calling - conveying God’s message of reconciliation - to reach out to those who don’t know Christ as Saviour, friend and Lord and share the love of a determined God. 

Christmas, the Christian good news story of God’s Son, Jesus, coming to earth to begin his journey among us to reveal a determined God’s love, will soon be here. But we should take every God-given opportunity now as they arise and not wait until then.

Love demonstrated
Tony, reminding attenders that the departed was a Christian who shared much love to all, then made it clear that love determines a Christian’s status. ‘One doesn’t have to be in church every week to be a Christian. One has to be a follower of Jesus Christ to be a Christian. Some of you may be thinking, “Yeah, that all nice but I can’t believe in the fairy stories you guys talk about.” Well, I don’t believe in fairy tales either!’

He went on, ‘I know what the scientists say – but scientists cannot speak of love, cannot describe what love is. Scientists can tell me about biological revolution, about the particles in an atom but cannot tell me what love is. And that’s why I am a Christian – I see in the Christian story a God who is a determined God, a God who could give up on humanity but chooses not to. The Christian way of understanding God is that, as with the apostle John, we see a God who is love (1John 4:8). He reconciled the world to himself through Christ.’ 

Then he added, ‘You can argue with me about various things but you cannot prove to me that God doesn’t exist - because I know love. The greatest proof for God is not in a test-tube in a laboratory – it’s his gift of love that proves him a reality!’

Love overcomes
Celebrating the life of the deceased, he pointed out that she loved God and was determined to love others because she was loved by God. She loved her husband, family, friends, even the unlovable in private life and in her public career.

‘Every human being, Christians believe,’ Tony added, ‘is an image bearer of God – something divine lives in each life. I believe that in this lady we saw the divine through her endless determination to love. 1 Corinthians 13: 8 says that love never fails. Verse13 talks about faith, hope and love and that the greatest thing is love.’

He challenged, ‘As you walk away today: ‘Love one another! Love the unlovable. Remember and honour this lady by the way you live, in the way you follow the determined God – even as she did. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”’

Love is simple
We came away rejoicing in our spirits that all had heard a message free of religiosity, one that had touched many hearts, whether they knew Christ as Saviour or not. That we all had been challenged in a very simple but clear manner. 

We’re confident that Tony Johnson’s words were Holy Spirit-given seed that will stir within and the truth about our determined God to reconcile people to himself will dawn at some point, if not at Christmas. That people will want to know God personally as our departed friend did and lived her life truly following Jesus.

Our own concluding thoughts were these: 

Ministers - When welcoming attenders on Sunday, don’t take it for granted that everyone there is a full-on believer or fully committed dedicated follower of Jesus; that messed-up, mixed-up and hurt people can be present too.

Believers - Are we all demonstrating that God is real and that he is love? Do we love others, especially the unlovable, the forgotten, the ignored, the hurt and those who don’t know God personally through his Son Jesus and his personal sacrifice on Calvary?

Churches – Many are talking about reaching their communities. Surely being image bearers of a determined God of love and demonstrating godly love determinately is a major key.

God still loves everyone! © 2013.10 

The Importance of Connecting

Taking a break recently, we were wandering along a nearby beach when unexpectedly we met an old friend. In the ensuing chitchat she expressed how difficult it was to connect with people in her church, that she had done her best in reaching out to various ones but, despite promising, they hadn’t got back to her.

The result is that no meaningful contact has been established and this friendly lady is thinking about finding a more amicable church.

Then, last week, when I was in our local library a lady from another church recognised me and shared something similar: ‘There are so many lonely women in church that can’t seem to make a close relationship. It is so hard.’

We’ve also come across men who haven’t been able to connect in church life and be able to share their feelings. Then there are ministers of busy churches who do not have real friends to confide with. Some wrongly feel they can’t even share with their denominational leaders in case the ‘upper echelon’ thinks they aren’t spiritual enough.

The biggest shock is when a precious child confides with you that he or she feels they cannot share their heart secrets with anyone, not even their dad or mum.

Uniting closely
The reality is that everyone needs a friend! We all need to connect meaningfully with someone or our lives, even as Christians, will indeed be very lonely.

Lonely…that’s a word meaning ‘sad because alone.’ Connect…that’s a word meaning ‘join together, unite.’

The words connect, connecting and connection are very scriptural. In particular the Message Bible uses connecting in the sense of closely uniting, especially in relation to Ezekiel’s vision of the temple (Eze. 40). 

For Christians, today’s temple is church with the understanding that we are the temple of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16). Therefore in church circles it’s so important that Christians relate by connecting with one another and building mutual and meaningful relationships.

Love is all-embracive
Jesus gave a clear direction on this important matter: ‘Let me give you a new (meaning fresh) command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another.’ He went on to explain why this is so important: ‘This is how everyone (the world, unsaved people) will recognise that you are my disciples – when they see the love you have for each other’ (John 13:34-35 [brackets mine])

He was talking about love that is open to everyone no matter what culture, nationality, colour, education, irritating habits, personal problems or faults! There are no excuses for not reaching out to Christian brethren even if we don’t fully understand them or even their language! We simply appreciate them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Recently we had the delight of ministering in a church where the brethren are from the Middle East and speak Arabic. What a joy to find them so open to the word of God, the moving of the Holy Spirit and so desirous of receiving our messages and the touch of the Spirit through our ministry.

We have connected with them, even by my (Robert) willingness to be embraced in their custom of hugging and ‘sacred triple kissing males on the cheeks.’ And what an unexpected blessing as a young Iranian, who so desires to be a prophet of God as well as seeing people come to Jesus, boldly gave me an encouraging word.

Yes, even we need encouragements from those who will make it a point to be our friends!

Involves responsibility
Connect is a great word. Dictionaries will explain that as well as uniting and joining it also means binding, fastening together, linking, establishing communication between, associating with, attaching.

To achieve a meaningful linking such as Jesus inferred means going out of our way to befriend people. Yes, it’s true that some people are hard to get on with and as God directs us to make friendships there’ll be times when we really have to make the effort and go the second mile. We may even find we are led to people we normally wouldn’t mix with but a beautiful relationship develops. And as we care for such people, we discover just how much they care for us.

Today a lot of churches use the word ‘connect’ to name their weekly home groups, such as Connect Group South. Funnily enough when we first church planted 30 years ago (way before church planting was a regular tag and few were really into such ventures), we called our five home groups connect groups.

Those were great days when we ensured that everyone in our growing church was connected, that no one would ever feel unwanted or lonely, even on Christmas Day if they lived on their own. We were strong on relationships as connecting means accepting responsibility and, like real love, it’s an action word!

Meaningful connecting
Normally Pentecostal churches have a spot when the leader encourages everyone to greet one another. But, sadly, it’s so often a shameful case of the briefest of greeting, with flimsy handshakes and eyes staring around elsewhere. No real connecting and reaching out and, abruptly shortened by the leader, it’s almost a case of ‘Let’s get on with the service – quick.’

Recently while ministering in Baptist churches we were delighted to observe how the Baptos really took time to greet one another, and with strangers such as ourselves as well, during what they obviously considered an important time of their gathering together.

It was more than merely a rushed few moments – we thought they’d go on and on! But we saw real love demonstrated, caring and sharing together. And after the service and ministry time they were so anxious to fellowship further around the traditional cuppa.

These were more than catch-up times – people were meaningfully caring for one another and asking warm-hearted, concerned questions. Paul’s directions of greeting [ie. embracing in the arms] with a holy kiss fulfilled scripture (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 The. 5:26). 

God’s heart
Back in the very beginning God’s heart was expressed as he recognised that his creation was lonely: ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper’ (Gen. 2:18).

That’s a principle of caring that blesses each gender, both male and female, children, teenagers, adults and seniors. And what God intends for us, we must extend in connecting with one another. It’s so easy to go beyond church services and ‘do coffee or lunch’ with people, including the unsaved.

In 1 Peter 2:5, the apostle urges us ‘Don’t lose a minute in building on…’ and lists characteristics including ‘warm friendliness and generous love’ (v 7). He confirms in verse 8 that these qualities bring their own daily reward as well as maturity in Christ and desires us to have them ‘down in black and white’ (v15).

Whether emails, visits, phone calls and whatever our differences may be… let’s all connect!

Adding zeroes or trusting a theocratic God?

The money crisis continues around the world and even many Christians are unsure where they stand financially. Tithing and donating to churches and genuine Christian ministries continue to be on a downturn unfortunately due a lack of trust in the dollar, governments and, sadly, the word of God.

We remember a couple of years back when the crisis burst on the world scene so many people were so unsure about their tomorrows.

We’re meant to trust the Lord!
Wherever we ministered, we would say: ‘Yes, things may seem bad here and in other nations. But the real truth for Christians is that we are not under our nation’s economy, nor the world’s economy... we’re under God’s economy. Let’s trust him and keep honouring his church and others with our finance and generosity, and he will look after us. Be generous to your church and other Christians and God, who is so generous himself, will look after us and bless us.’

We’ve operated this godly, biblical principle ourselves and we have never felt disadvantaged personally. Nor have others who did – and still do – what we recommended from the word!

Then, this month, another ‘big scare’ hit the world scene. We’ve just been shocked at the big American almost 15 trillion dollar one that is still having adverse effects. TV news talks of ‘further dipping’, ‘expanding downturn’, ‘return of the 30’s depression’ and ‘Is China going to become the new America, dollar power-wise?’ and so on.

Scary piles of $100 dollars bills images!
(See YouTube http://usdebt.kleptocracy.us/)


$1 million dollars ($1,000,000 of $100 dollar bills)

$1 trillion! ($1,000,000,000,000 of $100 dollar bills)




But the image below of $100 bills is really scary! It's said to represent the incredible figure that arose from America's August 'refinancing answer.'  Almost a staggering 15 trillion dollars! ($15,000,000,000,000)!

Someone has quipped, ‘Even the Statue of Liberty looks so worried at America’s incredible, unpayable debt.’



The proverbial ostrich in action?
Evidently if the American government doesn’t really fix its budget, then by Christmas this year the US national debt (credit card bill) will topple 15 trillion, passing 20% of the entire world’s combined GPD!

So what was America’s answer to its crisis? Extend its current loan! A sort of ostrich tactic of burying one’s head in the sand.

It was no wonder that as Maureen shared at a church recently on the August scare and how it is still affecting the whole world, she jokingly said, ‘Following America’s response, I have the answer to every debt owed. Simply add some more zeroes to any existing amount and forget about it for it’ll go away! Well...that is until in just a little while the crisis will become an even bigger one!’ She was applauded.

But, aware of not only people’s financial concerns, but also about terrorism, the recent London troubles, lack of trust in governments, people, certain church leaders, earthquakes and the big ‘Where is God? ‘question, Maureen went on to share from Habakkuk.

Where is out trust – really?
A prophet for our day, Habakkuk understood that God’s own people can’t see that he is still in charge in the midst of every world ‘apparent’ disaster! In an oracle (supernatural word) God says that he knows what his own people, never mind secular individuals, are thinking: ‘How long do I have to cry out for help before you listen?’ (Hab. 1:2). In other words, people love to blame God, not themselves.

An imminent and highly intelligent economist, a professor, recently said the financial trouble countries are in didn’t happen overnight. That it’s the result of ‘40 years of careless personal management!’

Maureen went on to say that God always knows what’s going down. That through Habakkuk he gives an unexpected answer to our questions when he proclaims: ‘Look at the nations and watch – be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told’ (Hab.1: 5).

And we surely live in such frightening days when people are wondering ‘What’s next? What about this nation and that one? Who or what can I trust? How long before the next big money crash?’

Habakkuk’s writings spell out that God has allowed things to go wrong (wrong in our eyes) so that he gets our attention. That today God is challenging Christians regarding where our trust really is – dubious financial gain, governments, so-called prophecies or in a theocratic God (government by God) and the promises of his word?

Today God is encouraging us to really do what we’re meant to...’Live by faith’ (Hab. 2:4). The Message Bible puts it this way: ‘The person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.’ Verse 5 lays it on the line regarding trusting false worldly financial security: ‘Note well: Money deceives.’

Habakkuk’s answer to troubled times
The prophet lived in a day of complaints, bewilderment, aggression and God being accused of everything that was ‘going wrong.’ But he refused to stay there. He waited, listened and prayed. And he was convinced that believing in God, and trusting him fully, is the only way to being at rest to enjoy a world under God’s sovereignty. That no matter what is going wrong; every detail of our life is worked into something good for us by the God because he loves us so much.

No wonder Habakkuk could wrap his book up by powerfully declaring: ‘Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen, though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields are stunted, though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns are empty, I’m singing joyful praise to God. I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Saviour God. Counting on God’s rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength’ (3:17-19).

The link with the Hebrews’ message of God’s rest
Maureen wrapped up her encouraging message this way...’But of course we have to want to enter into such a worriless, anxiety-free life of rest, such as the writer of Hebrews talks about (Heb. 4:9-10). Verse 16 urges us to “Approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”’

A timely word indeed for all Christians, in right standing before God through Christ’s Calvary sacrifice, and who wish to be at rest today under God’s loving theocratic government!