The Magnificent 1

I've really been challenged by one of my own sermons......Sunday's specifically......so at least I've reached one person!

Just like the bandits in the Magnificent 7 (Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn....an awesome lineup!) who raided the little Mexican village, stealing their freshly harvested wheat and generally being pretty unpleasant; the Midianites were oppressing the Israelites....stealing their freshly harvested wheat and generally being pretty unpleasant (Judges 6). They cry out to God for some help and he sends them a prophet.

How devastatingly disappointing.

As Dale Ralph Davis (my favourite Older Testament scholar), points out, it's like breaking down on the motorway and the garage sending you a philosopher rather than a mechanic. They could really have done with some hired guns (as in The M.7) - preferably a few AK47's and an Apache Helicopter Gunship. Instead they just ended up with God's Word. "Well thanks!"

They wanted to escape their circumstances. God wanted to interpret them.

I need to get this. The Word of God does the work of God and it leads to freedom. I might want whatever the equivalent of an AK47 is for my situation but perhaps, maybe, God just wants me to hear his voice concerning what's going on....why it's happening and what it's all about.

In the end of course God does provide a hired gun to bring deliverance - Gideon. And Gideon, like all the Judges, just points forward to the ultimate Judge who rescues and delivers us from everything that robs us of the blessing God has purposed for us. The magnificent 1.

Fast Cars and Pampering

Louise is at Radiant 09, the national women's conference, this weekend. She'd be the first to admit that it's not really "her thing" so as a wind up before she left I read to her the pre-conference blurb that describes it as "3 days of heaven by the sea" including a pamper room and a fashion show. How different from the men's conference I was at last weekend which had the strap line "Stand Up and Fight!" (to which all are encouraged to respond with a macho "Huuuuhhhh!") No pamper room for us men - just sport and a fleet of fast cars to play with.

Don't get me wrong I think gender-specific stuff like these conferences is really important and I'd be the first to say that the biggest flag wavers for Radiant 09 should be the men (certainly any husband worth his salt should massively encourage his wife to go anywhere where she can be renewed in her faith and passion for Jesus....what else does Ephesians 5:25-29 mean.....). But it does highlight the obvious, yet often ignored fact, that generally speaking, your average man and your average women are different and need to be reached in different ways.

I can't help thinking that given the fact that the Church generally communicates in a way that is attractive to women (which is strange since it's run by men....maybe it's the long dresses some of them wear....) and that it is haemorrhaging men at a shocking rate then maybe, just maybe, we need to be less apologetic about intentionally doing the stuff that will get connect with blokes.

"Give Em Hell!"

At a recent Leadership Team meeting we shared what we were each doing in our personal Bible reading. One of our number said they were in the Psalms and were challenged about how to approach what are called the imprecatory Psalms - you know, the ones that demand that God reduces all our enemies to dust and dashes the heads of their babies against the rocks, those ones.

John Piper's sermon on Psalm 69 is really helpful as he goes beyond the rather lame excuses/reasons that are often put forward for these Psalms ("the Old Testament was the time before God became a Christian so he liked those kinds of prayers." etc)...

Satisfaction in Justice?
When you are watching a film, and great evil and injustice are portrayed, and you bristle with anger at what they seem to get away with, and some noble, humble, sacrificial person risks his life, and captures the villains and brings them to justice, is it good to feel a deep satisfaction that justice was done?
And in your own real life, how should you feel about those who have wronged you—perhaps terribly wronged you? How should you feel, and how should you think? And what should you do?
Psalms That Curse
There are a group of psalms that are called imprecatory psalms because they include imprecations, that is curses, judgments against God’s enemies. These psalms are usually considered problems for Christians because Jesus taught us, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27–28). And Jesus prayed for his enemies on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). So it sounds like these psalms are doing the opposite of what Jesus said and did.

Let’s take Psalm 69 as one of the most extended imprecatory psalms and try to understand it and how it should shape how we think and feel with God.

Here are the links if you want to have a read, a listen or a watch:

Pour Out Your Indignation Upon ThemPsalms: Thinking and Feeling with God, Part 5
Listen Watch Download Podcast
Excerpts: Listen Watch