God, the dollar and the gospel

Don’t let the next sentence stop you reading.  The New Zealand dollar is about a third stronger than it was when we moved to New Zealand.

So what? Well it’s a big factor in our ministry here.

Student ministry is not about the money – it never was, never will be.  I’m not in this for cash – in fact money interests me very little.  But money is a significant part of the provision of God for this ministry.

So the hard figures: it costs about $75000 Kiwi dollars to keep me on the road each year: salary, office, expenses, conferences, training and study.  5 years ago that was the equivalent of £25000 today it’s the equivalent of £35000.  The majority of our financial support comes from the UK and the exchange rate has had an impact on our finances.

This has presented a significant challenge and has at times been a real concern/worry: especially at a time of global financial struggle and personal financial change and hardship for many.  I’ve worried about money running out, about not having enough, about what would happen, about absolute bank balance and about how things work out on a month by month basis.

But the verse of Scripture that God imposed on my heart at the beginning of our time here has been a greater challenge to me: a challenge to look to God, rather than the dollar, for my security.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:5-8

The dollar waxes and wanes, history changes, global institutions rise and fall but God remains unchanging:

Students are responding to the gospel. I recently chatted to someone who had come to faith in Jesus. I asked him what had made the critical difference in bringing him to knowing God in Christ. He spoke warmly, smiling broadly, about how he had seen something intangible in the way the Christians he had met lived and the way in which they spoke about Jesus.  He had felt compelled to come to Christ by the power of His Word and the offer of His saving love.

Students are being changed by the gospel. I sat with a group of student leaders and they spoke of how the reality of Jesus was changing the way in which they thought about their lives on campus – one spoke of how God had challenged them about their socialising. They had been challenged about the attitudes they had toward alcohol and relationships.  It was plain to see that this wasn’t an attempt at ‘being good’ but rather a response to God’s work in their lives.

Students are sharing the gospel. I had breakfast with a student last week who’s real concern is how to reach his non-Christian friends with the truth about Jesus and how to help his Christian friends become more firmly grounded in the hope and life that Jesus brings.  This student is a shining example of living an undivided life – bringing the hope of Jesus to bear in all the friendships he finds himself in.

God does not change.

God’s work continues to grow.

God’s provision is not lacking.

In and through the changing economic climate (and despite the stupidity of my worry) God has continued to provide for our needs.  Twenty people here in NZ recently stepped up and have joined the support team in prayer and finance.  People in the UK, Europe, Canada and America continue to give and pray.

I’m thankful to God that He is the Lord of the dollar and the gospel: thankful too that He is the Lord over my life.  This work feels more and more like a privilege and, as I look to the years ahead, I’m confident that I NEED not worry (though there will be times I will) and that as He has provided so He will provide – not because of who I am or what I do, but because of His great faithfulness and glory!

If you’d be interested in supporting my work in prayer or finances please do send me an email by clicking here

Heart Disease

It shows itself gradually, unveiling it’s presence in the midst of the everyday with hints before making a dramatic and sometimes fatal entrance.

Heart disease kills thousands everyday. Some say it is a product of out of control consumerism, some put it down to diet, others genetics.  Many turn to regular exercise to keep it at bay – good living sorts out a bad heart.

I’m not talking about physical heart disease (though the above is also true there) but the heart of the heart – the centre of the human self.  People talk about being sick at heart – what’s the cure for it?  Is there one?

God’s word is unequivocal (Jer 17:5-10)

This is what the LORD says:
       "Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
       who depends on flesh for his strength
       and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶ He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
       he will not see prosperity when it comes.
       He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
       in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
       whose confidence is in him.

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
       that sends out its roots by the stream.
       It does not fear when heat comes;
       its leaves are always green.
       It has no worries in a year of drought
       and never fails to bear fruit."

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
       Who can understand it?

¹⁰ "I the LORD search the heart
       and examine the mind,
       to reward a man according to his conduct,
       according to what his deeds deserve."

God alone sees and knows the human heart: God alone can heal it.  Is there a cure on offer?  Maybe religion? 

NO! Religion is nothing more than the attempt of a sick heart to pull down God’s blessing.  Religion begins in the sickness of the heart – it is a symptom of it rather than a cure for it.

No; the only - and I do mean ONLY – cure for the heart sickness that pervades humanity across languages and cultures and times and continents: is wrapped up in Jesus.  Jesus you see is the God who knows the human heart and provides healing for it’s woes and weakness. Jesus teaches in Matthew 11 and (excuse the pun) gets to the heart of the matter…

¹⁶"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
¹⁷" 'We played the flute for you,
      and you did not dance;
   we sang a dirge
      and you did not mourn.' ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions.”…   ²⁵At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

²⁷"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Feeling the sickness of your heart? Don’t turn to religion, to being good, to living well – turn to Jesus in repentance, trust and faithful hope. Turn and be healed!

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:1-11)

PRODIGAL

My sons do not know my prodigal love. The elder works and earns his place. He earns that which is freely given. He has never known, never trusted, my love. His heart is weary: he chooses enslavement and calls it duty.

The younger squandered his privilege: resenting the security of my embrace. He chose enslavement and dubbed it liberty: he freely sat mired in his freedom from my love.

I am a prodigal father: my love knows no bounds. Come once-dead son, come on home from the death of profligate liberty. Come long-weary one, come in from the fields of religious duty.

Come on home. Come on in. Come through and to the depths of my prodigal love. I’ll run, embrace, re-dress, dance, sing, rejoice – even sacrifice.

Oh come, oh come all you faithless; repentant and trembling. Oh come, oh come you all to my prodigal love. Come on home. Come on in. Discover how prodigal this prodigal is.

POOR TRAIT

Responsibility is mine. The work is mine. My father’s work. My father’s house. The duty is mine. He knows my work: day in day out. I know this land: it is mine. I earn my keep. I keep my own earnings.  I live by the sweat of my brow. I take pride in what I do. What I do is good enough. Good for nothing brother, self seeking, not earning, halves the land and squanders it on self and whores and so-called friends. No brother of mine, no son of my father: no place in this world, no part in this life.

I work this land. My fathers land: my place, my home. Year in, year out. Seasonable and unseasonable graft. This is my home. This is my heart. My sweat watered these crops. My toil has fed this stock. Earning my inheritance I live.

Father runs one day and grasps a good-as-dead beggar on the road. Kisses, embraces, cleans and honours: sacrifices the best for him. This beggar is my long-forgotten, long-dead ‘brother’. This land does not know him. I do not want him. My father celebrates his return.

The house is warmed by celebration. Sickened I wait outside for my place, my party, my recognition, my celebration, my homecoming, my embrace and sacrifice. All these years of service and I get nothing: what has this been for?

QUADTYCH

DISCONTENT

Everything needed to hand but nothing wanted within his grasp. Sitting resentful and restless. His gaze beyond the horizon, his heart far from home.  He wants. He waits. He shifts and speaks. “All to me, all to me that shall be mine hereafter”. Released to his own desire, pared and set free. Setting off. Far from home. Full of opportunity and riches.

DISSOLUTE

Another night. Another drink. Another friend. Another night. Another woman. Another friend. Another party. Another want. Another need. Another day. Another pleasure. Another friend. Another drink. Another woman. Another dream. Another place. Another party. Another woman. Another drink. Another night. Another place. Another friend. Another fight. Another party. Another hope. Another friend. Another disappointment. Another place. Another dream. Another drink. Another friend. Another woman. Another drink. Another want. Another need. Another hope. Another fight. Another place. Another night.

DISPIRITED

another day of hunger, loneliness, drudgery and despair. the stench of the yard. the filth, the noise, the regret: the shame. the companionship of pigs came long before the work on the farm; animals in the night, frenzied feeding, lifestyle that drove him to the mud and the mire of life before the squalor of this sty. the least content of the servants in his father’s home knows greater dignity and more solid hope. hunger drives him up and back as discontent drove him away and out.

DELIVERED

Prepared words ready for the gateway to make the pathway back: confession of need and pleading just a corner of life. Bowed head knocked back by the running embrace. Welcomed Home. Welcomed In. Honoured Son. Treasured Child. Celebrated returnee: cleansed, forgiven, humbled, repentant, restored, delivered, alive: content.