Pitiful NGO or the Bride of Christ? It's all about the Cross

In his first public mass after accepting the Ring of the Fisherman, Francis I is reported to have said:

"What happens when children build sand castles on the beach? It all comes down."
"If we don't proclaim Jesus, we become a pitiful NGO, not the bride of the Lord," he said.
"When we walk without the cross, and when we preach about Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are mundane. We are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but we are not disciples of the Lord."
http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_6776/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=qlsj3cbN

I think I am going to like this Papacy!

Clam the way and the truth and the life

I'm sure it's not deliberate, but the electronic version of Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life" that I read on my phone has a thought provoking typo.  This morning I read that

Jesus said 'clam the way and the truth and the life."

...which makes an interesting mental image anyway you open it.

I first read this as "Claim the way".

Now, in a society (indeed, a continent) where various flavours of miracle focused prosperity teachings are endemic, the thought of whether Jesus could have meant us to "claim the way and the truth and the life" caused me to stop and think. 
What if this wasn't a typo? 
What if it was a paraphrase or even an alternative translation? 
Could there be another light here on man's (minuscule) part in the great salvation plan? 
What if God has provided the way, and like Nemo's seagulls, we just had to call "Mine!"?

The thought of naming and claiming not just material goods and "blessings" but the ultimate blessing of Salvation was disturbing but intriguing
But it was not a thought that came to a conclusion - mainly because I started writing it up for this blog and saw that in fact the word was "clam", not "claim".

'clam the way and the truth and the life".

How do I clam something?
Take the truth of who Jesus is. 
Crack it open, dig it out, savour it, remember it, never be satisfied, keep going back for more.

He's back!

Well, Harold Camping may have got it wrong when he told us that it was all over on May 21.  But I'm not sure that he has learnt much from the experience.


Driving home last night, I flicked my radio to the AM band, and along with the amazing plethora of stations from Gabarone to Zanzibar (and a few others like VoA which is relayed through Selebi-Phikwe), there was Family Radio again.


Not an exact quote but "if we study the Scriptures hard enough we will be able to determine exactly when the Lord will return" doesn't yet tell me that Mr Camping has learned to interpret "no one knows the day or the hour" the way I do.
He still believes that the Generation of the End began in 1948 and that the Church ended then.  To get around the obvious problem with this, he says that a "generation" is nothing to do with human lifespans, but rather a period in the history of the chosen People.  Nice footwork, but it therefore follows that, so long as Israel exists as a nation-state, we are in Camping's Last Days.


He's wrong about the Church, but you know, so far as the End coming while Israel is here, I think he may be right.
We do not know when.  We cannot know when.  It is not given for us to know when.
But soon and very soon....

May 21

So what IS going to happen on Saturday?
We don't know. We cannot know.

We can do some clever maths, we can build in some stunning assumptions, we can create a hypothesis, but we cannot know.

Or can we?

When Jesus himself said that NO-ONE knows the day or the hour, but the Father alone, did he mean no-one at that time? Or did he mean no-one ever.

Because, when we start down the road of "well that is no longer true", where do we stop?
Those who are telling us that we are going Home on Saturday have already crossed the heresy line by saying that "the Church Age" is finished. Leaving aside the nonsense that is pedalled as "Dispensationalism", any idea that the Church is ever over is directly contrary to what Jesus taught. "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it".
Ever.
Period.

These folk (who Jesus loves enough to have died for, by the way - just before we deride them unnecessarily), they also tell us that we have in recent years been living in the Great Tribulation.
Really?

True, there have been more Christians martyred for their faith in the last hundred years than in the previous 19 centuries together. But can we really say that things are so bad that, were He not to cut the time short, none of us would survive?
No, we can't. Not yet.

And has there been persecution on a greater scale than we can imagine?
Happily not.

Sorry, Brother Camping. The Great Tribulation is coming, and probably soon. But, with mixed emotions, it is not yet.

Bottom line, we cannot, and will not know the day or the hour of Jesus' return, our departure or "Judgement Day".
But that does not mean it won't be on Saturday. And if it is, there are a good number of Christians who will find their joy mixed with a little embarassment when they are raptured.
"No, it's not May 21. It's... Er, um, Hello Lord, I wasn't expecting you just yet".
He told us to be ready, precisely because we do not know the day or the hour.

And as I contemplate if it is on Saturday, or tonight, what a wonderful excitement I feel. Tinged with pain, yes. I have so many good friends who I don't honestly believe are yet ready.

But I know that He is still Sovereign.
He is still in control.
He will set the timing perfectly.

And I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day.

Bonhoeffer, LoveZim and me

Earlier this year, Eric Metaxas published a remarkable book "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy".
(Dear Santa, I wouldn't mind a copy....!)
 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's story is remarkable, and beyond the scope of this post.  His commitment to God and to his country led to a quite remarkable series of choices and to his involvement in events that would change the passage of world history.

To quote from Metaxas' website:

As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a pastor and author, known as much for such spiritual classics as The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, as for his 1945 execution in a concentration camp for his part in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

(Aside:  Valkyrie is an excellent movie dramatising the events of that fateful assassination attempt.)
(Dear Santa, I wouldn't mind a DVD of this either!)

LoveZim is "a network of churches and organisations, established with a vision to invite the diaspora and the global church to support Zimbabwe in prayer and practical action."

Next Sunday, 26 September, there is a worldwide call to "The International Prayer Day for Zimbabwe".

A full description of LoveZim's vision and activities is also beyond the scope of this post.  The commitment to our country and the move of God in it are wonderful, and challenging.

Now, let me be clear to say that my intention is not in any way to try and equate Adolf Hitler with Robert Mugabe.  Nor would I presume to say that the Holocaust in anyway parallels the fact that so many Zimbabweans are in dire straits when it comes to health and food security.
I'm not saying that!

But what if...?

When Bonhoeffer arrived in New York in June 1939, he knew he was in the wrong place.

He wrote to Reinhold Niebuhr: "I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security."  He returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer to cross the Atlantic.  (en.wikipedia.org)

Am I content to "just pray", or is God calling me to "share the trials of this time with my people"?

When will God call me to take treasonous activities to act against the Powers that He has placed in authority over me?
And when does "Thou shalt not kill" conflict with my ability to serve God?
I don't pretend to understand the immensity of the decision Bonhoeffer took.  But the attempt to assassinate Hitler was planned and executed, and this mighty man of God was part of it.

Now again, I am not saying that such action would be appropriate, necessary or justifiable in Zimbabwe in the 21st century.

But what if...?
Am I content to "just pray", or is God calling me to actions that mean I must be ready to be stripped naked and hung with thin wire?

Oh, I hope not.
Prayer is good.  There is no "just pray" when we realise that our prayers are direct petitions to Almighty God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
But forgive me if I start my prayers for Zimbabwe by asking that He accept my prayer and spare me the path He called Bonhoeffer to.

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”  — DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

What would Paul do?

I had thought of doing a brief "2009 in retrospect" (if I had time) today. But driving back from the shops (buying lunch for today, dog food for the time I'm away and Zimbo groceries to take with me as pressies), I had Acts playing in the car.
And this struck me...

• Act 20:24 I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 

So what would Paul have done with 2009?

1. Finished what he was given to do.  (That counts towards the retrospect if I get that far)
2. Recognise that it was not only because it was such fun and so fulfilling
3. Acknowledge Who the commission (along with provision, opportunity and nudge) came from
4. Acknowledge that it is all about His Name and Glory

And what a neat, compact summary of what we are to talk about!

• to testify to the gospel of the grace of God

 Four words we take for granted, and on the back of which, even 2009 Zimbabwe makes sense!