How is freedom central to God’s love? Please join us as we welcome our guest speaker, Trent Martin, Assistant Youth Director of the Victorian Conference.
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Calvin & Hobbes
I don’t even like chocolate. Yet as I wiped away the angry tears I gnawed down the Snickers bar viciously.
It was one of those days. The parking ticket attendant had almost snickered as I ran to the car, saying as he walked away, “Too late.” $150. That’s 3 months of nappies, I thought. I was already having a down day, having had some bad news earlier. The ticket was just the last straw.
I had a long commute to Melton, and as the tears and rain refused to abate, I started my diatribe against God. He didn’t deserve it. I also called Roy and belted out my feelings. He didn’t deserve it either. Then I told God, “Ok, you know I don’t really mean it. And I know it’s really not that bad. But this is how I feel…”
Have you seen that trailer for the new Pixar movie, Inside Out? It’s all about the emotions (joy, fear, anger, disgust, sadness) living in our minds and determining our choices. I have no idea if it will be a good movie or not, but it poses interesting questions: Do our feelings dictate our decisions? Can we control them? How do we balance all our conflicting emotions?
By the time I got to Melton, God had given me peace about the day’s events, but I remained contemplative about how easily our moods can change. Our favourite sports team wins, and life is awesome. The same team loses, and life stinks. We find a free parking spot in the city, and it’s our lucky day. We get a parking ticket, and the world is against us.
It’s normal to feel a variety of emotions based on the circumstances. However, are our extreme reactions indicative of an imbalance of perspective?
For example, could our hopes be too set on earthly things, which can disappoint and fail us? [“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matt 6:19-21]
Have we forgotten that our first-world problems are just that – symptoms of lives that are focused on self and unthinking of the real needs and issues of others?
Because, at the end of the day, thank God I can afford the $150 parking ticket. I don’t have to go without food and Micah doesn’t have to forego nappies in order for us to pay that ticket (again, thank God). And, as a friend astutely observed, we pay a lot of money for courses and training. I paid $150 for a lesson in parking laws that I will never forget.
After all, it’s just money. What I lost in my reaction was peace, perspective, and almost people – I took out my grumpiness on God and Roy, who are very understanding and gracious. Not everyone who are unfortunate enough to be in our space during our emotional outbursts are as forgiving. What if the parking attendant saw my irate face and then walked into my church the next week? After all, he didn’t deserve my rage either. It was really my fault.
When there is real loss, it is appropriate to grieve. When there is real injustice, we should feel indignant. When others hurt, no matter the cause, we should offer support and sympathy. But we may also need to spend some quiet time with God and ask Him to re-anchor what we value, prioritise, and feel in Christ – and Christ alone.
Excerpt from In Step with Jesus: The Journey Begins p 43:
Much of human learning is like addition. We add to what we know about carpentry or cooking, about our careers or our hobbies, about being parents or grandparents. But some learning is like an explosion. When the debris settles, we realise the landscape has changed. This explosive kind of learning is called transformational learning. And it is the kind of learning that the disciples experienced from the fallout of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus….
Transformational learning changes your most deeply held beliefs or assumptions – sometimes your worldview. It changes the lens through which you see everything. Because of the importance of transformational learning, many people have studied it, trying to figure out how it happens. Here is the way one educator has described how we are changed by what we learn [James E. Loder, The Transforming Moment, 2nd e. (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Helmers and Howard, 1989), pp. 2-4]:
1. You experience a “crisis” or “disorienting dilemma,” for example, with a tragic of disappointing experience or with something you hear or read that your current persecutive cannot explain or help you endure.
2. During the search for an answer, you try to resolve the dilemma. Your mind attempts to find an explanation. This can last only minutes – or years.
3. The “aha moment” comes when you suddenly gain insight into the dilemma; you find a solution and experience a sense of relief or a sense that your world has been put back together again. In spiritual matters, this is when the Holy Spirit gives new understanding.
4. The final step is interpretation and verification. Now, with your new perspective, you interpret your life in a new way, looking differently at your experiences and beliefs, both current and past. You also look to others to affirm the truthfulness of your new understanding.
Have you had transforming learning that have changed your worldview? Did they follow this pattern?
Please join us as we welcome our guest speaker, Pastor Graeme Christian, President of the Victorian Conference
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It has been said that the two inescapable things in life are death and taxes. A third viable candidate that could be added is hardship. The endless disappointments. The drudgery of 9-5. The pain of loss. Is there an end, an answer, a hope?
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It is loud; it is subtle. It’s universal; it’s perpetual.
No matter where you are in the world, no matter your background, you would have heard the call of Baal – the god of rain. That is, the god of wealth – for rain in the agricultural culture of Canaan represented the promise of good crops and abundance.
The Israelites had heard the call of Yahweh, too – the Creator God, who called His people into a relationship with Him that meant self-sacrifice, surrender, and even suffering. He promised hope, eternal life, and meaning that would surpass the splendours of this world, but to many, the call of prosperity, peace, and popularity was far more appealing. Never mind that the pursuit and worship of Baal did not actually fulfil their desires. The illusion of it was enough.
So the nation, even the King, had succumbed to its allure. King Ahab married Jezebel, a Canaanite princess and priestess whose name meant, “Where is the prince Baal?” She sponsored 450 prophets of Baal to lead Israel to worship Baal and systematically executed the prophets of Yahweh.
But God would not stay silent at the persecution of the minority and the delusion of the majority. He manoeuvred nature to stir up thoughts and questions that would shake their worldview.
He caused a famine in the land that worshipped the god of rain. Day after day, when the children were thirsty and the crops withered away, the people would be confronted with the question, “Why is Baal not giving us rain? Is Baal god?” Some doubted, but many maintained that Baal was still god, that they just needed to work harder, worship better, to please him and get what they wanted.
So many today are still entrapped in this cognitive dissonance. We struggle to work, save, buy, sell, and build. When the job fails or circumstances deter us from that dream, facts point towards the mercilessness of the Market and the instability of the value of riches. We experience time and again that moths destroy and that thieves break in and steal, and yet we continue to work harder and give more homage (our time, efforts, and obsession) to the pursuit of worldly gain.
But God does not stay silent in this struggle of the masses. He cries out through messengers for us to come and see for ourselves who is God.
The prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel bled themselves into a fury trying to get Baal to send fire down on their altar. Finally, when evening came, Elijah poured water over the altar of Yahweh, three times. Then he prayed:
“Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” (1 Kings 18:36-39)
God has proven Himself in history. He has revealed Himself personally. He calls us to resist the call of Baal and to worship Him only:
“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” 1 Kings 18:20
The call is loud; it is subtle. It’s universal; it’s perpetual.
No matter where you are in the world, no matter your background, the Lord God calls you to worship Him who alone can fulfil the true desires of your heart.
How have miracles impacted people in the past? What role do they play in faith-building today?
Download the Discussion Questions here.
It’s been two weeks since the surgery, so I’m back at work full-time now.
One of the hardest things about the recovery has been not being able to hold Micah. I can hug him carefully, but I cannot carry him, because I am not supposed to lift anything heavier than 5 kg for the first six weeks.
One evening, he was very upset because he couldn’t eat his apples AND ride his bike (mean mommy does not let him eat anywhere but at his high chair). He cried like there was no tomorrow, no apples, no bikes in the world left to enjoy. Worst of all, he reached out for me in his sobs, clinging to my neck, begging me to pick him up, but I couldn’t.
My heart broke as I tried to explain, “Mommy’s stomach hurts. I want to hold you, but I can’t.” He tried to climb onto me, but I had to pull away and ask my dad to take him. That was so very difficult, not being able to comfort my child when he wanted me.
It made me think about the agony of the cross. Not just for Jesus, who was in unimaginable pain, but for the Father, when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” As the angels pleaded for the Father to commission them to go and rescue their beloved Lord, the Father, with a broken heart, had to hold them back. He knew what had to be done.
During the two days when Jesus was in the grave, the Father still had to constrain His omnipotent hand and His anxious heart. He had to wait for that morning when Jesus Himself would break the bonds of death and rise, triumphant.
While the disciples hung their heads in sorrow, the Father dispatched angels to share the good news. But they were too absorbed in their own heartaches to grasp the magnitude of the truth – Jesus was alive!
And so He waited for them to accept, believe, and delight in that revelation. Jesus Himself appeared among them, discoursed alongside them, and ascended amidst them.
And so He waits for us, still. While we feel forsaken in our short-sighted disappointments, while we wallow in our self-pity, God holds back in agony for what has to be done. It may feel like an eternity of silence, but He has a timeline for the end of pain. A day is coming when He will gather us in His arms and at last we’ll understand His piercing cry, “It is finished!”
“You number my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?”
Psalm 56:8, NIV
The third and fourth century Christians entered into an age of peace from persecution and the church began to develop in structure, in number, and in theology. We will be discussing how doctrine from the past has impacted the church in the present.
Download the Discussion Questions here.
Christmas Eve, I had a miscarriage.
Roy and I were looking forward to having another baby, and we were excited to find out in November that I was expecting. For a month, I bubbled with inward glee that it was perfect timing, since I wanted Micah and the younger one to be 2 years apart. A few of my close friends were also due around that time, so I was imagining play dates at the zoo and shared moments of maternal musings.
But Christmas Eve, the doctor confirmed that I had a miscarriage. I was devastated. Even though it was only the first trimester (1 in 4 pregnancies terminate in the first trimester, the doctor told me tritely), I had grown fond of my unborn child and already had a bub name picked out for her (I was convinced it was a girl). I had so many plans and expectations for 2015.
Thankfully, my family visited over the Christmas holidays, so in our travels to Sydney, Ballarat, and the Great Ocean Road, I didn’t have a chance to dwell on my disappointments. But when they left and month after month I wasn’t pregnant, I had many serious conversations with God.
“God, You gave us Micah at the perfect time, so I know You know best. But…. But Lord, I really want another baby… I really want to have another baby soon. I trust You, but … it’s still hard.”
The prayers helped, and I came to accept that the Life-Giver had me in His hands.
A week ago, when I suddenly collapsed in pain, unable to breathe, I knew something was seriously wrong. We ended up at the hospital the next day, and to our utter amazement heard the doctor say, “You have gallstones lodged in your bile duct, causing inflammation of your liver. Let’s do the surgery tomorrow.”
As they were wheeling me to the theatre, and the ceiling panels were passing by, I kept thinking, “I’m so glad I’m not pregnant…. I’m so glad I have medicare… I’m so glad I came to the hospital.” Five hours later, I woke up groggy and in pain, but still grateful that the surgery had gone well.
I don’t believe God caused my miscarriage. Pain and death are the results of living in a sinful world. But I do believe God heard my prayer for His will to be done in my life, and that He did not give me a baby while my body was not ready to host another living being. I also believe that this surgery is a gift, an opportunity to slow down and do what I’ve wanted to do for months – read the books piled next to the bed, do my US taxes, have longer FaceTime with my family, and catch the rhythm of grace – that breath in of God’s promises, that breath out of praise:
In His time, In His Time
He makes all things beautiful in His time.
Lord please show me every day
As You’re teaching me Your way
That You do just what You say
In Your time.
In Your time, In Your Time
You make all things beautiful in Your time.
Lord my life to You I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to you a lovely thing
In Your time.
– Diane Ball
He makes all things beautiful in His time. He makes all things beautiful in His hands.