Ascension Day

It's Ascension Day today and Jonny Woodrow and Tim Chester's little book, "The Ascension: Humanity in the Presence of God" has really inspired me to pay much greater attention to this much neglected doctrine.   

Here's a great quote.....

The Ascension reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven, our inheritance is in heaven, our treasure is in heaven and our saviour is in heaven. Everything we have of real value is in heaven. Why would we lay up treasure on earth when we can lay up eternal treasure in heaven? 

The Ascension, therefore, impacts our lifestyle decisions: the things we buy, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the holidays we take.   All will be shaped by the Ascension. 

What's more, our heavenly treasure is secure. So we can take risks with our property, our salary and pensions - not because God guarantees to prevent bad things happening in our lives on earth, but because everything we have of real value is in heaven and it is there fore secure.   

Toxic Religion

On Sunday we looked at how Jesus, in Luke 20 and 21, once again deconstructed religion showing it to be dangerous and damaging.  

The gospel of grace is about what God in Christ has DONE for us whereas religion is about what we DO to gain a right standing before God.
Gospel is about the NEWS of what God has graciously DONE for us, it's about what has happened that we then get to respond to.  
Religion is more about responding to ADVICE through which we can DO things to make ourselves okay.  

And deep within all of us is the desire to earn, to deserve.  The natural inclination of our heart is religion - to do rather than to receive, to earn rather than accept.  

It's dangerous because we become our own saviour through what we do.  Our confidence, significance, peace, joy and sense of acceptance is located in what we make happen.   Consequently we look down on those who don't do what we do and we get pretty cross or frightened when what we do isn't appreciated or affirmed.  When it's all going well for us we feel confident but when it's not we feel crushed.

The answer is the gospel.   When we see what Jesus has done for us and all we are in God because of His work for us, everything changes including our deep desires.  No longer is it about outward action to "tick a box" but it's about a changed heart that becomes the source of a whole new motivation.

Tim Chester in his book The Everyday Gospel uses the analogy of washing the dishes to show the difference between law and grace.  He asks the question: "How can you tell if a religious person has washed the dishes?"   The answer: "They leave the pans in to soak"  Ouch!  Are there any dirty dishes?  No.  Box ticked.  Job done.  You get the points for doing the dishes because technically it's been done.  But you're motivated by law not grace.  The gospel oriented person does the dishes because they want to serve or because they're grateful or because they want to create a place where others can flourish or because they want to model something to others for whom they have a responsibility.

Religion causes damage but the gospel....the Good News of God's loving kindness....creates life.

Distracted by Petty Things

The other day I read an article (Barnabus Fund magazine, March/April 2014) about a little 7 year old boy called Anmol Gemethi.  He went missing on 17 November 2013 after setting off for Sunday school in his village in India.  He was later found having been tortured and murdered.  Anmol’s father said that during the 10 years since he had become a Christian he and his family had received numerous death threats from Hindu extremists.  He had told the police but they appeared to take no notice.  

I share this because it put the rather petty things that distract me from discipleship into context.  I have to be honest and say that compared to a small child who had his toes broken, his body burned and his life taken simply for being a Christian my own reasons for not being more wholehearted in living for Christ seem somewhat pathetic.  

Lord, teach me more about what it means to follow you as I listen to the voices of those persecuted for their love of you.