His comment reminded me of the work of God in creating everything that exists, through the explosive moment of the Big Bang. God perfectly brought together the materials, the power, and the timing that were necessary to bring into existence the universe as we know it.

God at work in creation and re-creation. God’s work of creation is a helpful metaphor for his work of re-creation, or salvation. As we have been seeing, God has done everything necessary to address our deepest human need – namely, to rescue us from death, the consequence of our failure to love him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

God’s Spirit. As Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:5-8) and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, God’s Spirit needs to be at work opening blind eyes and softening hard hearts to the truth of the gospel. But there is something else: God wants to involve us in this work of salvation, not just by telling his words of forgiveness and hope to others, but by speaking to him about others. God wants us to pray. In fact, effective outreach always begins with prayer.

Prayer. The French philosopher, Pascal observed,

“God instituted prayer in order to allow his creatures the dignity of causality.”

And C.S. Lewis commented, 

“It is probably truer to say that God invented both prayer and work for that purpose. God gave us, small creatures that we are, the dignity of being able to contribute to the course of events in two different ways.”

God made the universe in such a way that we can do things to it – within certain limits, of course. This is both an amazing and perplexing idea. But the Bible shows us that God has given himself the discretion to be able to act within his overall plan according to our prayers. Prayer is not just a means of keeping the lines of communication open with God, or even bringing our minds and hearts into line with his will. Yes, that is part of its purpose, but not the whole. God listens to our prayers and, when he considers something is for the best, he will act on it. Prayer to the Almighty Lord is a very powerful tool, a potent force.

‘Never give up’. We often lose sight of this truth when it comes to outreach.  In Colossians 4:2, Paul urged his readers to be steadfast in prayer. He understood that effective outreach begins with persevering prayer. Both Paul and Epaphras, the evangelist in Colossae, prayed.

The first Christians were committed and enthusiastic in their prayers; it is one of the reasons for their terrific evangelistic success. It may have been that the Christians in Colossae had become apathetic – they didn’t see the urgency or the need for prayer. And that’s why Paul insists, Continue steadfastly in prayer… ‘Don’t give up’.

Will you join me on Wednesdays in praying for people who do not yet know God’s good news – friends and family, work colleagues and fellow students. In particular pray that in his great mercy, God’s Spirit will be powerfully at work in their lives.

God’s joy. Jesus tells us that heaven rejoices when people turn to the Lord. It is one of the prayers that we can be assured God will answer.

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“Paul suggests that the relentless negativity of our contemporary conversation, the culture of entitlement that he thinks has sprung up over the last decade or so, means that good government has become difficult, perhaps impossible…”

Reporting the launch in The Australian last month, Rosie Lewis noted, ‘Mr Abbott said his government’s challenge was to “lift ourselves” so that the nation could see the political system at its best.’

It is not my purpose here to discuss the merits or otherwise of Paul Kelly’s remarks, nor the Prime Minister’s response. What I do want to focus on is Kelly’s phrase, ‘the relentless negativity of our contemporary conversation…’ For what may or may not be true of the Australian political scene, is certainly true of the ‘contemporary conversation’ about religion, especially about Christianity, where there is a ‘relentless negativity’.

We see it in the media and on the street. An important part in communicating God’s good news is to be aware of the negativity and to take on the challenge to “lift ourselves”, to use Tony Abbott’s words, so that people everywhere can see Christianity at its best.

Let’s encourage one another to practise Paul the Apostle’s words:

Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone (Colossians 4:5-6).

Paul’s advice to the Colossians has two parts – life-style and speech. We are all obliged to act wisely and graciously towards people we live and work with. So, if you hold a position of responsibility, ensure that no one can accuse you of unfairness, exploitation or harshness.

Blaise Pascal in his Pensées, wrote, ‘Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show them that it is.’

Furthermore, we are all obliged to answer questions people have about matters of faith. We are to cultivate conversations that are kind and gracious, yet seasoned with salt. ‘Salt’ implies sparkling and interesting conversations that can open up opportunities to discuss the gospel.

Questions. Paul anticipates we will encounter people who have genuine questions about the faith. In our day, the questions may relate to differences between Christianity and, say, Islam. It’s helpful to show others the clear differences between Mohammed and Jesus. The former led an army of 10,000 against Mecca; and in 637, after two years of raids in the countryside, his followers laid a siege against Jerusalem, starving its population into surrender.

Jesus spoke of his kingdom being not of this world (John 18:36). He neither took up the sword of battle nor called for an army. Rather, he allowed the power of Rome to put him to death. Yet, through it he won the greatest victory of all, for through it he conquered once and for all the power of sin and death. His resurrection from the dead guarantees it.

In this age of negativity, let’s heed Jesus’ words,

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

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Psalm 139 tells us of another powerful source that looks into our lives – not just our activities, but into our very thoughts. In his psalm, sometimes described as the crown of Hebrew poetry, David speaks of a Watcher who is not a mere passive, receptor of information, like the prying of cyberspace, but someone who knows and understands every detail of our existence. ‘You have searched me, you know me, God,’ David says.  ‘I have no privacy, no place from which I can exclude you. There is no corner of my mind where I can shut the door against you. Everything I do, everything I say, everything I think, is wide open to your gaze.’

‘You hem me in behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me’, he continues. At first it seems that David is saying, everywhere I go, every step I take, I feel you breathing down my neck. But the larger context indicates that he doesn’t see it this way at all. The words you hem me in can also be translated, ‘you guard me’ or ‘you encircle me for my protection.’ He doesn’t view God’s all-embracing knowledge as a threat, but rather as a refuge. He is not at all resentful of God’s all-seeing intelligence.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? he asks. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast, we read in verses 9 and 10. David’s imagery of taking the wings of the morning is that of traveling at the speed of light to a far place. Even there he will still find God. The instant the thought enters his head that he might escape God, he realizes how impossible it is.

Many of us have felt the same as David, but we have a note of frustration in our voice: ‘God, I want to get away from you.’ But, surprisingly to us, David isn’t trying to run away. His reaction to God’s all-embracing knowledge is one of deep-felt gratitude. For, unlike human prying eyes, God’s eyes are pure and he is just in all his ways. For when we truly turn to God, his presence is not a threat or a cause for anxiety, but rather a joy. David understood that God’s presence means guidance and protection.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”  even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you (vv.11-12). David was anticipating the possibility that in a moment of panic he might find himself saying, ‘God has left me and forgotten me.’ Rather David was saying, no matter how dark the situation seems, God has infra-red vision – he sees in the night just as well as he sees in the day. God’s reassuring hand is there as much in the tough times as in the good times. In another psalm (Psalm 23) David could say: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

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Some people have a greater tendency to depression than others. This is just as true for professing Christians. Some of the great ones of the Bible, such as Elijah and Jeremiah, and later Christian leaders, such as the poet William Cowper, or the English preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, suffered with depression at times. It is simply wrong to dismiss a believer who experiences mood swings as having a spiritual problem. In fact, the reality of their faith is seen in the way they persevere despite their mood swings.

Psalms 42 and 43 illustrate this well. The writer(s), had been forcibly taken from his home city of Jerusalem into exile, either at the time of the Babylonian exile or, more likely, when king Jehoash of the northern kingdom of Israel, defeated king Amaziah of the southern kingdom, Judah (2 Kings 14:14).

Far from home, and from the temple in Jerusalem where he led the worship, the writer asks: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me? (42:5, 11; 43:5). He was depressed and disturbed. Any talk of joy and peace would have been empty and false. God seemed remote as we see in his cry: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God (42:1-2).

Many of us today know what it is like to move away from the comfort and security of family and friends. A good part of how we respond will depend on our underlying temperament. And this can all combine to affect our spiritual awareness – as was happening in these two psalms.

The Psalm writer points us to the solution. When he says: I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? (42:9), we see that we should admit our feelings to God, even asking him questions. This takes courage. Further, we learn that we need to address our inner self, our soul. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a great English preacher wrote: ‘The main trouble in this whole matter of depression is that we allow our Self to talk to us instead of us talking to our Self.’ The psalm-writer’s soul has been depressing him, crushing him, so he stands up and says, ‘Soul, listen! I will speak to you: “Hope in God; I shall again praise him, my help and my God”.’ Don’t let your feelings dominate.

Throughout these two psalms we see the movement from depression, to admission, to self-exhortation, and then to prayer: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, the writer says; Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me… (43:1, 3).

Confident in God’s grace, he is assured of the day when, again filled with joy, he will sings songs of praise to God. Psalms 42-43 urge us to move beyond believing things about God, to actually sensing the living presence of God, whoever we are, and whatever our situation in life.

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Was he right? Is there real joy in our lives?

I am not talking about a manufactured, false kind of joy – putting on a brave face when we are anxious or when things go wrong in life. I am talking about, and I am sure Lewis was talking about, the deep joy that springs from a clear conscience.

The concluding verses of Psalm 32 read:

 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.
 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Why should we be glad and rejoice? What might motivate us to shout for joy?

David wrote Psalm 32 following the humiliating exposure of his affair with Bathsheba. While he wrote it about himself we too can benefit, for if we are going to find the kind of joy that he is speaking about we need to attend to his words. Verses 1 and 2 read:

Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Misdemeanors?

Freud told us that guilt is a psychological hang-up. But King David tells us that it is something objective, something real that stands between each one of us and our Maker. The God who rules the universe is not simply an impersonal force. He is a moral being, a holy judge.

However, we do not naturally lead godly lives, pray, trust God, and generally delight in honoring him. Our natural inclination is to try to cover up our sin, thinking of our failures as foibles and misdemeanors. So, we often compromise on issues we know are wrong, calling it tolerance; we slide into godlessness, thinking we are free.

In Psalm 32 King David is telling us that when we ignore God we offend him. This is one of the tough words of Christianity. Malcolm Muggeridge, a former editor of the English Punch magazine put it this way: The depravity of man is at once the most unpopular of all dogmas, but the most empirically verifiable.

Forgiveness. The only safe way, the only permanent way, to deal with guilt is to have it washed away. And there is only one person in the world with the cleansing power needed to erase such stains – the Lord himself. David knew this: Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

We have a far better knowledge of the truth of David’s words because we live on the other side of the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ died for our sins, the apostle Paul wrote. And it is Psalm 32 that he quotes in Romans 4:6-8 where he argues that God, in his mercy, declares an amnesty for sinners who turn to him in faith. We are saved by grace alone, not by any intrinsic good within us or by any good works we have done.

Reason for joy. Too often our lack of joy comes because we have not been honest with God and opened our hearts to him. We have not truly grasped that in Christ our sins are washed away and that each day we can enjoy a fresh start in life.

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Whatever happened to the intellectual depth of the serious atheists, the forcefulness of Hobbes, the passion of Spinoza, the wit of Voltaire, the world-shattering profundity of Nietzsche?”

I want to add, ‘And where is the serious attention that previous generations paid to the account of the most remarkable man in history – the man who, as HG Wells put is, dominates history?’

Luke the physician begins his account by setting out his own credentials as a reliable narrator. He tells us that he not only checked out current documents about Jesus, but that he verified the accuracy of his account with eyewitnesses and ministers of the word (Luke 1:1-2). This is important for us to know: otherwise Luke was himself either deceived or deliberately deceiving us.

Luke 9 begins with Jesus’ commission to his twelve disciples to go and announce the coming of God’s kingdom. The outcome brought large crowds to Jesus who welcomed them. However, there was no food to feed them all and the disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowds away.

However, they had forgotten part of Jesus’ commission when he sent them on their mission: they were to take no bread (provisions) or money with them. God would provide what they needed. It was yet another indication they had not really grasped who Jesus is, nor what he could do. Like us today, they were slow to understand and slow to trust.

Significantly, Jesus involved the disciples in what followed: they were to have the crowd of five thousand sit down in groups of fifty. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish…, Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd (Luke 9:16). He was not reciting magic: he was simply doing what God’s people have always done before eating – took the bread and blessed it. He then had the disciples work with him in the distribution.

In looking up to heaven Jesus indicated that God provided the food. The miracle looked back to the time of Moses and God’s provision of manna for his people (Exodus 16:4-36). This feeding of the crowd also looked forward to the greatest of all banquets that God will one day give his people (Luke 14:15ff; Revelation 19:9).  The crowds had done nothing to deserve this kindness and they had no way of reciprocating. It was an act of God’s extraordinary generosity.

The meal not only satisfied everyone, but an abundance was left over: twelve baskets of broken pieces (9:17).  God in Jesus, had provided more food than was needed. The leftovers pointed to the trustworthiness of Jesus earlier charge the twelve not to take food or money on their mission. It is a significant lesson for us. Can we trust Jesus as the Lord who is committed to provide for our needs for as long as we need them? Don’t be anxious about what your life, what you will eat or your body, what you will put on, Jesus went on to say (Luke 12:22f); Your Father knows that you need them. 

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‘If God is great and good why is there so much suffering?’ is a question we often hear, especially when the topic of Christianity comes up. Certainly this is one of life’s tough questions that we all want answered. The reality of pain and suffering is probably one of the biggest reasons people give for rejecting the existence of God.

For the professing Christian person it’s one of the toughest, if not the toughest question to have to answer and, I have to say, there are no complete answers. It would be wrong to say that there are. So what can we say about this profound and perplexing subject? Let me briefly raise a number of points we can consider.

REASONABLE LOGIC

To use a simple Philosophy 101 syllogism, one line of argument often goes like this:

A God who is all-powerful would be able to end suffering and pain;

A God who is all-loving would want suffering and pain to cease;

BUT suffering and pain exist;

Therefore a God who is all powerful and all loving does not exist.

At first sight it seems to make a lot of sense. But consider the response by the philosopher Alvin Plantinga: A God who is all-powerful would be able to end suffering and pain;

A God who is all-loving would want suffering and pain to cease;

BUT suffering and pain exist;

Therefore a God who is all powerful and all loving has a bigger plan.

So, what is the larger picture that God has in mind? Is there any evidence for it? To answer this question it is helpful to see what the records about the life of Jesus have to say on the subject.

Luke 8:40-56 tells us of two sets of people faced with suffering and anguish – the first, a woman who had an incurable haemorrhage for twelve years; the second, a man whose twelve year-old daughter was dying. Both turned to Jesus for help. In him, both found the help they needed.

MYSTERIOUSLY AWESOME

Jairus, a recognized synagogue ruler, was charged with ensuring that the law of Moses was taught and upheld. Yet, he made no claims to his position when he met with Jesus. Rather, he fell at Jesus’ feet, humbly asking for help. And when the sick woman interrupted Jesus’ progress to his house, Jairus did not object, despite his anxiety. He had a quiet confidence in Jesus.  During the delay, news came that his daughter had died. With breathtaking confidence, Jesus urged him not to fear. Rather ‘believe’. His words underline a major theme in Luke 8. With Jesus the fear that grips us can give way to the release which faith allows.

Arriving at Jairus’s house, Jesus passed by the mourning and disbelieving crowds. Going to the girl’s bedside and taking her hand he said, ‘Child, arise.’  At that she rose and was given food.

Jesus’ miracles point to his real nature – he is truly God in human form. Furthermore, they are mini-portraits of the deeper blessings he offers our suffering world. He invites us all to lean on him in our time of need. He will not always remove our suffering now, but he does promise to be with us. He is also committed to providing a future where there will be no crying or pain.

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I am an historian. I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.

Why would an unbeliever say that ‘Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history?’ What is it about Jesus of Nazareth that has captured the attention of great and lesser minds, from amongst all peoples? Is it the power of his words, the magnetism of his personality, the integrity of his life even in the face of the gross injustice perpetrated against him? Or is it his extraordinary feats, noted by contemporary historians such as Josephus?

There’s something we often overlook about the records about Jesus: they were not written by just one ‘recorder’ or even by Jesus himself. There are four distinct writers who tell us about him – Matthew and John, who were amongst the twelve, Mark who most likely obtained his information from Peter, another one of the twelve, and Luke, the physician, who assures us of his careful and thorough research. Given Jesus’ extraordinary power and compassion, his unique teaching and claims, this is important to know.

Consider the times when we feel helpless and alone. It may be that our job has gone or that there’s been an accident and a loved one has died. We are reminded of the times when men and women in Jesus’ life were afraid and utterly helpless.

On one occasion Jesus was crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat with his close followers (Luke 8:22-25). We are given a glimpse of the ‘private’ Jesus: he was so exhausted that he fell into a deep sleep. He had to be wakened when a massive storm threatened the lives of everyone on board.

Shallow and set between high hills, the Sea of Galilee is notorious for its sudden squalls. As every sailor knows, this can be extremely dangerous, for rapidly moving air streams can quickly cause the waters to rise, making them treacherous. Experienced fishermen though some of Jesus’ followers were, they were terrified of this major storm. They felt helpless. Afraid, they awoke the sleeping Jesus saying, “We are perishing.” Amazingly, at his command, the storm was stilled.

Luke wants us to feel the compelling reality of their cry for help: “We are perishing!” Yes, we too face times of fear and helplessness. But we have this assurance: whatever our situation is, Jesus, like the Good Shepherd he is, will hear us. Our helplessness can be changed into hopefulness. He is committed to using his vast resources to bring good out of the darkest moments of our life (Romans 8:28-30). We can be assured that we are never alone.

Luke would put to us the question that Jesus put to his disciples in the boat: “Where is your faith?”

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