Christmas Blues

I love Christmas. I expect most of you do too. Sometimes I think it's the only thing that keeps us going as we head full-speed into Winter! But do you ever get that niggling feeling around Christmas-time that something just isn't right?

I'm not talking about the commercialisation of Christmas (I could do, but who can argue with those coke adverts anyway?), I'm talking about that sinking feeling that maybe you're not quite as happy as you should be...

We do generally expect to be happy at Christmas. We're off work, we've spent a lot of time and money making everything festive and pleasant and we're looking forward to a celebration. But for whatever reason, that expectation or that pressure to 'be joyful' can sometimes get to you.

I wonder what your reasons might be for having that niggling, low feeling this year. Maybe it's the absence of a loved one, or having Christmas in a different place. Maybe it's that a few days of Christmas can't quite block out the difficulty in the rest of your life. Or maybe it's just the fact that as an adult, it's never quite as euphoric as you remember it in your childhood!

Really Christmas is a celebration of God coming to Earth. So if Christmas is difficult for you, then perhaps you can just pick out 1 or 2 things in all the Christmassy chaos as a reminder that, because you will always be loved by God, you still have hope and you can still carry on. A candle in the dark – a small but definite symbol of hope in dark times. Children enjoying their presents - a sure reminder that there is still happiness and innocence and good in life.

We believe there will always be hope and goodness in the world because Jesus came to Earth and his spirit is still with us, a spirit of good, if we care to listen to it. When life is hard, remember God, the one constant good, the one person who the world can never take away from you.

Even if everything else seems to offer small consolation or cheer at Christmas, the one hope you can depend on forever, is Christ.

Thought Police

What are you thinking right now?

Whatever it is, is it any of my business? And can you help how you feel anyway?

In films and on TV we get told a lot, “You can't help how you feel,” particularly when it comes to falling in and out of love. But if that were true, why did Jesus make the following statement?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5: 27-28).

Jesus seems to say, thinking about sinning is tantamount to actually doing it. Now, let me be careful here, some thoughts are very difficult to control, and not acting on sinful thoughts is better than acting on them! But what Jesus was saying was, sin starts in the mind, and we are not powerless to prevent it.

All too often we are saying to God ,“Lord, I feel like this... help me.” When perhaps we should be saying to ourselves, “Was this really inevitable? Do I need to be a bit more proactive in stopping this happening instead of just expecting God to take it away?”

• “I'm feeling unsatisfied with my life,” (Spending too much time thinking about what other people have and you don't?)

• “I'm feeling rebellious,” (Spending too much time wishing life was more exciting but never actually planning anything fun?)

• “I'm feeling unsatisfied in my marriage,” (How many romantic movies/lingerie adverts/unrealistic sex scenes have you ingested in the last week? Now compare that to how much quality time you've spent just investing in your partner...)

These are just a couple of very simple examples, but there is an important principle at stake here. Sometimes we all have to analyse the causes of our feelings and consider prayerfully how we should address them.

Jesus goes on to say, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

He's deadly serious about not indulging the things that cause us to have sinful, wandering thoughts. Beware, sometimes (like our eyes), our unhelpful trains of thought are things we are fond of or have got comfortable with, things we didn't realise were leading us astray. They could be old memories, 'harmless' dreams, unfulfilled aspirations - stop hankering after a life you don't have and protect the one that you do.

Remember: Unhelpful feelings are natural in a fallen world, but it doesn't mean you can't recognise them, pray through them, cut them off at the root and be free of them.

Just Joseph?

Last Sunday I talked a little bit about Joseph ( Mary's Joseph) and the magnanimous way he decided to treat Mary after she turned up preggers, even before the angel of the Lord told him what was going on.

It was a difficult talk about properly forgiving people, but what I didn't have time to go into was how super Joseph was in respect of his relationship with God! I was reading the beginning of the book of Matthew and Matthew spends a lot of time pointing out how God is working, how God has paved the way and showing God's plans being fulfilled. It's all very clever.

Joseph was very involved in this. His obedience to God fulfilled many of God's plans, for example Jesus being born in Bethlehem and being exiled into Egypt (Matthew includes old testament references to these events prophesied hundreds of years before!)

God spoke to Joseph in dreams and Joseph took these things seriously. Where most men would probably have discarded their future wife for unfaithfulness, (as proven clearly by this week's episode of Merlin – sort it out Arthur!), Joseph's strong trust in God saved both he and Mary a lot of pain, maybe even saved Mary's life. Later Joseph's continuing faith and relationship with God would save Jesus' life, as Herod plotted to kill him.

A studious friend of mine also points out that Joseph sets Jesus up with a good trade that is locally renowned and he is also the father of at least two early church leaders (James and Jude).

Oh boy, what a guy! Gentleman, how's that for an example of Godly manhood? Ladies, do we even expect as much from ourselves as the little-celebrated Joseph did?

When was the last time someone said to you, “Oh, I'm not quite sure what to do here,” and you were able to say with certainty “I know the answer to that! I'll take responsibility for that decision! I've prayed it through and I'm at peace with God about it. I know what we have to do...”?
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My blog is now available on our website.

Roars and in-laws: Getting away

Last week I took Sunday off and Chris and I went away for the weekend. After all there's nothing like being sicked on by a friend's baby, charged by a lion and hanging out with a large group of your in-laws to give you a relaxing break!

Actually all these things did happen, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a nice break! I'm really very fond of lions, babies and my in-laws, so we had a wonderful time.

We spent a relaxed Friday evening with some friends, hit the Woburn safari park hard on the Saturday and had a lovely Sunday lunch with Chris' family. Leaving did cause a little bit of havoc, as select members of my congregation will attest, but it didn't affect our Sunday service, which I hear went really well. Thanks to everyone who stepped in!

Sometimes it can be difficult to get away from your usual duties and responsibilities. But resting is really important (even God rested on the 7th day of creation!) Sometimes upping and going is the only way to properly stop working and rest.

Beyonce once tunefully told a man “Don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable!”.... Whilst I suspect there are only certain circumstances in which that line is useful and productive in your lovelife, I think it IS useful as a reminder that we CAN stop and rest. Are you really irreplaceable, just for a day or two? God can manage without you, life will go on. Even if your ministry stops for a week, even if you feel a bit guilty. You really are likely to be less useful to God and to others when you are run-down and shattered.

Consider this, a few more people get to use and develop their gifts if you hand over the reigns for a week. If you go with a partner or a friend a proper break is normally a really nourishing time for a relationship. And it doesn't have to be expensive either, borrow a tent or a room, take the mega bus for a pound, get a dinner deal from Top Table.com (no I'm not on commission...) Just take a rest sometime.

Don't let 'em get you down

Today I've been thinking about the problem of constantly being asked to prove yourself. It seems to be all around us. Pop stars are only as good as their last performance or their last haircut. Schools are only as good as their last Ofsted report. Businessmen are only as good as the profits they made last quarter.

Of course we know in our minds that this can't be right. These judgements are all a matter of opinion, and aren't representative of everything you are and do. But it can be very demoralising to be told that you “could do better” when you are trying hard. It is easier to criticise than recognise in our culture, especially when there are targets to be met.

We have so much unnecessary, unhelpful criticism in our lives, who do we go to to get a clearer picture of ourselves? Who can we trust to tell us what we're really worth?

The bible teaches us we are children of God, loved by Him. All the good things about you, God loves, God sees and He values. All the other stuff, the things you'd rather no one else knew about, He knows about but He loves you just the same.

Nobody else on this earth has the capacity to love you without ever letting you down. No human can ever be as reliable and as loving as God. Why not try taking your sense of self worth from Him? Then you can believe in all the good things about you and know that they are important, because even if no one else ever says so, God says they are.

God knows that you are (delete as applicable):

sporty/clever/caring/strong/cultured/attractive/domestic/generous/practical/trusting/patient/conscientious/hard-working/talented/gentle/outgoing/friendly/fun/musical/faithful etc etc

And He loves and appreciates that. You don't have to be good at everything, you don't have to better than everyone else, you only have to be you. You are known to God and you are special to Him, you are an individual and God loves you.

“We love, because He first loved us”. (1 John 4: 19)

Remember that, when you're up against it. God thinks you're brill. So you can believe it too!

Trusting Anyway

I preached a sermon recently on how the Israelites had an 11 day journey to get through in the wilderness, to start claiming their promised land. But they lost faith, and through their complaints and mistrust in God their 11 days of difficulty turned into 40 years of waiting.

So when things at church seem slow or difficult, I keep saying to myself “11 days, just 11 days”. I know it won't (in all likelihood) be literally 11 days until big changes occur, I don't even know if it is big, sudden change God has planned, but He is planning the growth of His kingdom. And God's plan is not slow, it is timely.

Someone said to me, it is like Noah waiting to come out of the ark. If it took 40 days for the rain to stop, why was Noah in there all year? He was getting on with the job in hand (taking care of the animals and his family), while elsewhere, God moved. Outside, drying the land, growing the trees in readiness, God was working in the background.

Let's review God's faithfulness recently at Bures: we have four youth outreaches and a coffee morning, which all continue to be well attended, we have a new ceiling and lights in the hall, we have a lovely band of faithful workers who tend the garden, work the admin, manage the sound equipment, clean and maintain the building, play the music week in week out, we regularly have folks turn out to worship God on a Sunday and God has faith in us to do more. Let's have faith in Him to do the same.

After all, it may turn out that we're at the afternoon of day 11, just about to start claiming some serious promised land. Or it might be that we're just be coming up to coffee break on day 1. We don't know. But we can survive, if we just remember to trust. Because real faith develops when it's most difficult to trust and you do it anyway.

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You can check out past sermons on our website. The one mentioned above should be added soon.

The Prayer Scare

Hands up if the words “prayer” and “meeting” too close together make you shudder. Guilty? You are not alone in this I suspect.

Why is it prayer has become more of a “yikes” than “wahoo” for people these days? Even for people who like to pray, a prayer meeting can sometimes feel like a laborious experience. It strikes me, perhaps we have fenced prayer in too much.

Let's think about it for a second:

In order to pray you don't have to be anywhere specific.
You don't have to have any qualifications.
You don't have to have time spare, you can do it on the go.
You don't have to have anybody with you, but you can if you like.
You don't have to do it out loud.
Nobody even has to know!
You don't have to feel any response from God to know that your prayer was valid.
It doesn't cost you anything.
You don't have to say anything particular.

Prayer is your ultimate flexible friend!

Some of the most important prayers for our church are said by folks at home, by themselves, at their convenience, because they have committed to pray regularly for a ministry. Their prayers are so important. When there are good discussions at Friday Club, when we meet new faces at toddler group, when we survive another night at youth club, we know it's because people are praying.

Let's face it. If you believe in an all powerful God, it's worth having a word with Him now and again.

We've all got room for improvement, so why don't we try just offering up once sentence to Him this week, “Lord, motivate me to pray”.