Your life - steward or owner?

I’m in the process of reading a book on Bioethics which I’ve been asked to review for a Christian magazine.*  I thought I would just share one striking point he makes, and some of its corollaries.

The Bible describes a God who is always giving generously and sets forth human life as a precious  gift from God, of which we are stewards. The modern world, however, has rejected this concept of ‘stewardship’ in favour of ‘ownership’. Hence, we hear cries of ‘it’s my life, my body, I’ll do as I please with it’. Women, therefore, should be able to do as they choose with what is growing in their body, even to the point of full-term abortion. People should be able to choose when to end their lives. People can cut or harm their bodies in different ways. For Christians, however, the principle is ‘You are not your own, you were bought at a price.’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

This writer suggests that the ‘ownership’ concept is dangerous for a number of reasons.

·         It encourages people to live lives of unrestraint and self-determination

·         It encourages a quest for absolute autonomy, with potential for cruel indifference to others especially the vulnerable

·         It engenders an insistence on ‘my rights’, again to the detriment of others

We are already seeing the out-working of this attitude in many areas of life, not just in decisions about the beginning and end of life. ‘Stewardship’ on the other hand

·         encourages people to be circumspect

·         encourages people to be mindful of the wishes of the Owner

·         encourages people to be careful with what God has entrusted to them

·         thinks about a fulfilment of duty and care to others

·         never returns a gift early or prematurely terminates stewardship

The author acknowledges that, in a post-Fall world, this stewardship can be hard and painful at times. But the giving, blessing God who bestows this gift of human life in the first place will also give grace to sustain us in the those difficulties. Abortion and euthanasia both imply that either that God’s judgment is defective and that we know better than he does when enough is enough, or that God does not exist altogether. So, by taking decisions about the beginning or end of life into our own hands, we not only abrogate a responsibility that does not belong to us but we also make God out to be either inept or uncaring.

One phrase which stood out for me was the author’s description of the ownership mentality as ‘predatory’ -  grabbing what is ‘mine’ at the expense of others – and there is a distinctly Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’  tone to modern bioethics.  This is unsurprising, though tragic, in a post-Christian culture. But many Christians are in danger of unthinkingly swallowing this ideology too. We need to be very careful that this thinking with its outward veneer of ‘compassion’ and ‘dignity’ does not seep into our mindset and erode our faith and trust in God, our confidence in his  sovereignty and benevolence or allow it inflate our impressions of our own flawed judgment.

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* Bioethical Issues by Dr John Ling, Day One Publications, 2014

Is God on an ego trip? God's glory and our good.

'I am the LORD, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another...' Isaiah 42:8

When the Bible says that God does all things for his glory and commands us to glorify him,  doesn't that make God egotistical? How can God forbid pride and self-glorification in us, while at the same time being so consumed with seeking his own honour? How can that glory-seeking fit with a God being good and loving? These questions really troubled me as a young person. I once asked one of our church deacons about it in a question and answer session.Unhelpfully, I was just told it was sinful even to think such thoughts or ask such questions,, so I never spoke about it again. But just trying to suppress these sorts of questions doesn't help. I knew it was undermining my relationship with God. I wanted to love God, but struggled to love a God who seemed both egotistical and hypocritical. I didn't want to think of God that way, and I wanted someone to explain things to me so I could love and respect God wholeheartedly.
Thank God that his deals with our intellectual struggles more graciously than our fellow Christians often do! Patiently God led me through these difficulties to a point where I could reconcile God's glory with his goodness. As I am sure I am not the only person to have been troubled by these questions I thought I would share my thoughts here.
First, we need to think what is the essence of the character which God is commanding us to glorify? God's most fundamental characteristic, I would suggest, is goodness;He is the very embodiment or personification of goodness. He has other traits, like being powerful, all-knowing, etc but those traits are, I believe, subservient to this one central characteristic. What does that 'goodness' mean in more detail, however? It means a sacrificial, self-giving love for others, showing mercy, forgiving, being gentle, treating one's enemies with undeserved love and kindness, going after the prodigal - all the characteristics of God's essence revealed to us in human person of Jesus, the 'exact representation' of God's nature. (Col 1:15)
On the other hand, what of us when we are proud and self-glorifying? We are seeking attention for gifts that we did not bestow on ourselves, on behaviours that are at best flawed and sinful, we want to build ourselves up in people's opinions by denigrating others, and get things we want at other people's expense. In truth there is very little in us truly worthy of honour, yet we crave glory for our shabby little selves.
My first point is, then, that God's character is wholly deserving of glory whilst we, essentially, are trying to appropriate something we do not deserve and therefore God condemns this. But this still did not fully quell my fears. God's constant commands to glorify him still seemed egotistical. Then I realised that, by commanding us to glorify him and proclaim his glory, God was in a sense asking us to glorify goodness and spread the appreciation of goodness abroad. He knows that our highest good and greatest benefit are to be found in having the highest appreciation of goodness and living it out in our lives - I.e. we will be most blessed when we are emulating that sacrificial love, forgiveness, mercy, gentleness etc which I mentioned earlier. By commanding us to glorify him, God is therefore commanding us to be blessed! But the trouble is that the Fall left us with permanently twisted thinking that refuses to believe that our greatest good can be found in a life of self-forgetful service, and Satan continues to insinuate that God only cares about his own interest as he has been ever since his fateful conversation with Adam and Eve. However, experience shows that self-gratification yields a bitter harvest but the most self-less, God-centred people are the happiest too.
Our self-glorification is a destructive thing that tramples others down while it builds us up. God's glory is something organic that grows, builds up and blesses those who enter into it. There is room in it for everyone to be blessed. It causes goodness and joy to spring up wherever it goes. God guards his glory jealously, not because he is an ego maniac, but because his will not suffer goodness, his essential quality, to be devalued and, by implication, thst wickedness be honoured. He knows that he is unique and that there is no other source for goodness and blessing to be found. He knows that if he is devalued in our eyes we will go after fakes - empty shams. That will only harm and hurt us and therefore he commands us to keep himself and the qualities that make up his being at the centre of our mind and and hearts. In the Old Testament God taking away his glory from his people (as in the book of Ezekiel) was his ultimate sanction to try to bring his wayward people back and blessing is restored when the Glory moves back into the temple.
God's insistence on his glory and jealous protection of this is the flip side of his unrelenting love for us and his jealous commitment to our blessing. It represents his passion for spreading goodness to all corners of the earth and defeating wickedness wherever it lurks. That is certainly a God I feel able to praise with my whole heart!

Ten reasons why I never wash...

To highlight the illogicality of some of the reasons people give for rejecting the Christian gospel, someone wrote the following thought-provoking lines that some friends of ours have displayed on the wall of their bathroom:

'Ten reasons why I never wash'

• I was made to wash as a child
• People who wash are hypocrites - they reckon they are cleaner than other people
• There are so many different kinds of soap I could never decide which one was right.
• I used to wash but it got boring so I stopped
• I still wash on special occasions like Christmas and  Easter
• None of my friends wash
• I'm still young. When I'm older and have got a bit dirtier I might start washing.
• I really don't have time.
• The bathroom's never warm enough
• People who make soap are only after your money

Exams and the Sabbath

Last week an expert on Womans Hour was asked how parents could help teens cope with the psychological pressures of study and exams. Her top recommendation was always having at least one day a week free of any study or exam work, and instead just being together and doing enjoyable things. She said this helps the brain process what teenagers have taken in the rest of the week, so it is actually beneficial academically as well as being good for wider well-being.

She talked about this as if it was a new idea of which the benefits were only now being appreciated but the Bible teaches that this has been part of God's guidance to mankind since the dawn of time. The command to keep one day in seven holy, by resting from work, demonstrates perhaps more vividly than any other command how the service of God and the wellbeing of human beings are inextricably intertwinned. It is the Evil One who insinuates that God's commands are burdensome, and designed to serve some divine self-interest at the expense of our own.

The command to observe the Sabbath is not only contained in the rules and regulation of Leviticus but is so foundational to a life of holiness that it stands alongside the most fundamental moral principles in the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. We should therefore take extreme caution before discarding the observation of the Sabbath along with aspects of the ceremonial law as some people are wont to do. As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man and for his spiritual, physical and mental good. I can testify that this principle has proved good in personal experience, right through from my earliest exams at school to high-pressure postgraduate medical qualifications.

'Test me in this' says the LORD Almighty 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it' Mal 3:10

As I am, Lord Jesus, take me - a translation of 'Cymer Iesu' by William Williams, Pantycelin

Here, as promised, is a translation of the Welsh hymn 'Cymer Iesu' by William Williams (1717 – 1791). The original words are set out below. The tune, Bryn Calfaria, is in most hymn books.

As I am, Lord Jesus, take me,

Better I shall never be.

You have power to keep me faithful

When my faithless heart would flee.

There is wholeness

Through the wounds of Calvary.

 

Exiled to long weary wandering

Through a wasteland parched and dry,

All alone, I could not triumph

O’er the least of enemies.

But the name of

Jesus bids the mighty flee!

From the cross flows blood that raises

Feeble saints to conquerors

That same blood assures of victory

Over hordes of mighty foes

So from Calvary

Breathes a peace that stills our fears

I will trust, then, in your power

Ever glorious are your deeds!

Trampling death and hell and Satan

Under your victorious feet

Peerless Calvary

Never from my thoughts depart.

Cymer, Iesu, fi fel ‘rydwyf

Fyth ni allaf fod yn well

D’allu di am gwna yn agos

F’ewyllys i yw mynd ymhell

Yn dy glwyfau, yn dy glwyfau

Bydda i’n unig fyth yn iach

Mi ddiffygiais deithior crastir

Dyrys anial wrthyf f’hun

Ac mi fethais â choncweirio

O’m gelynion lleiaf un

Mae dy enw, mae dy enw

‘N able i beri i’r cryfaf ffoi

Gwaed y Groes sy’n codi i fyny

‘Reiddil yn goncwerwr mawr

Gwaed dy Groes sydd darostwng

Cewri cedyrn fyrdd i lawr

Gad i’m deimlo, Gad i’m deilo

Awel o Galfaria fryn

Ymddiriedaf yn dy allu

Mawr yw’r gwaith a wnest erioed

Ti gest angau, Ti gest uffern

Ti gest Satan dan y droed

Pen Calfaria, Pen Calfaria

Nac aed  hwnnw byth o’m cof.

William Williams (1717 - 1791)

Translation © the author of Strangers and Pilgrims, 2010.

Could Bible knowledge destroy you? Matthew Henry on 1Cor 8:2

'Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know' 1 Corinthians 8:2

We think of intelligence as a blessing, and knowledge as something which builds people up spiritually, but for many clever people it is a snare and and a blind path that leads them away from God just as they appear to be knowing most about him. Those of us who are of a more intellectual bent need to guard very carefully against the pride that Biblical study and knowledgeability can so easily lead to. It is the trap that Satan particularly sets for those to whom God has given gifts of learning and wisdom. It is a tragic irony when knowledge of the book which should guide people to God leads to their spiritual death but we can all too easily stop studying it to know God better but instead are simply feeding our self esteem. Instead of nourishing the soul it bloats up.

The always-helpful Matthew Henry says:

'There is no proof of ignorance more common than conceit of knowledge. Much may be known, when nothing is known to good purpose. And those who think they know any thing, and grow vain thereon, are the least likely to make good use of their knowledge. Satan hurts some as much by tempting them to be proud of mental powers, as others, by alluring to sensuality.'

I was very struck by the last sentence. A wrongly-motivated acquisition of Biblical knowledge can be as dangerous for some people as the temptations of sex, money, ambition etc for other - and yet we warn Christians much about the latter but scarcely ever about the former. We particularly need to pray for well known ministers and bible teachers in this respect as it takes a great deal of grace to remain humble when large numbers follow you, read you and quote you. It has been the downfall of some great men.

Keeping it all together - The Armour of God Part 2

The Belt

The first item applied by the Roman soldier was the great belt which, along with the breastplate, formed the body armour. The tunic underneath would be gathered, or 'girded up', into it so that nothing was flapping about loose. Rugby enthusiasts will be familiar with the dangers of loose bits of clothing hanging down that can be grabbed hold of. When Paul speaks of being girded up, therefore, he speaks of being self-disciplined, concentrated on one objective, with nothing to impede or drag us down, nothing superfluous to get in the way. It is the same idea conveyed by the writer to the Hebrews when he instructs his hearers to ' throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles ...'

The belt is described in the NIV as being the Belt of Truth but 'truth' here is not a reference to the Word of God (which is represented by the sword) but to 'truthfulness' or 'sincerity' (integrity, where the nature matches the words, genuine, real). Whilst sincerity can be misplaced, as Matthew Henry comments 'there can certainly be no true religion without sincerity.' The Apostle Paul emphasises the importance of sincerity when we draw near to God (e.g. 1 Tim 1:5, also Heb 10:22); and approaching God with sincere repentence and singleminded seeking is often shown in scripture to be the starting point for finding salvation.

God has said that 'You will find me when you seek me, if you seek me with all your heart...' (Jeremiah 29:13 quoting Deuteronomy 4:29) We need to be whole hearted, singleminded and genuine in our seeking - whether that be when we are just setting out as Christians or are grappling with God after many years on the journey of faith. The Christian life requires the same kind of total focus on the objective, discipline and energy that elite athletes have to exhibit. If we are just drifting passively along, enjoying the occasional spiritual fix and living much like anyone else around us our Christianity may just be a sham.