Thoughts on persecution and suffering

It really has been a long time since I posted here. I actually forgot that I had this blog! Last Friday I went to Elevate, a combined youth service run by Crossroads church. It was a great chance to gather with people and worship God, and I love the songs that they played. Worship is definitely not limited to music, but there is something special about connecting our heart to God's through song.

The last time I went to Elevate, the talk was mainly focused on evangelism, telling the gospel message and imploring people who haven't already to receive the gift of this message. It was a heartfelt message that really touched on the amazing love that God has for us. This time, the talk was about the persecuted church, about people who follow Christ in countries where Christianity is illegal. The speaker was from Voice of the Martyrs, a group that seeks to raise awareness of these persecuted brothers and sisters, and to support them in prayer. Honestly, I can't say that I liked the talk. It was incredibly challenging to hear about the suffering these people endure for Christ, and to think about the possibility of that ever happening to me. But whether I like that message or not doesn't really matter. It did make me feel uncomfortable. But, then, that is the point. I'm not supposed to like the fact that Christians are suffering. I suppose the aim of these kind of talks are to wake us up from our comfort and to feel empathy for our brothers and sisters, to stir us into action, whether that is through prayer, through financial support or through actually physically going to support them. I have been challenged to pray regularly for the countries that outlaw Christianity. I will pray that they become more open to the gospel, and that the Christians in these countries will remain strong for Christ even if they do endure suffering.

One of the reasons I felt uncomfortable, and this may be a testimony to the selfish nature of humanity, is that I kept questioning my ability to handle persecution like that of which I was hearing. I heard stories of people being put in prison, of people being physically tortured and killed because of their faith in Christ. I heard stories of people who were constantly in danger who still kept faithfully preaching the gospel to the people around them. I don't know if I could deal with the extreme persecution they were speaking of. Honestly, I would hate that to happen to me. Honestly, I don't want to suffer. I'm not really scared of being killed quickly, because I know I would go straight to heaven. I'm scared of having to endure through persecution and suffering.

The speaker reminded us that we, as Christians, believe that after death there will be everlasting glory that be far greater than any suffering we endure on earth, therefore we should live with that eternity in mind. Really challenging teaching. Something I believe in, though I don't know if I'm completely there yet. I don't know if anyone can truly live for eternity, not fearing suffering or death, without the strength of Christ within them. I am always growing, and I know that the Spirit of God is always transforming me. At the end of the talk the speaker encouraged people to live life fully for Christ, expecting the suffering that Jesus speaks of, but not counting the cost. I couldn't shout out my agreement like some other people. All I could do was agree quietly and ask God to help me want that life more and more. To help me live that life. I do believe, help my unbelief.

Sometimes when we hear stories of how Christians are being persecuted in our world, we can get worried that we wouldn't be ready if it happened to us. We do need to be ready. Maybe we will be sent by God to those same countries, or maybe the same kind of persecution will one day come to our country. But, ultimately, living for Christ is about serving him in whatever circumstance you are in. We have so much freedom to be Christian in Australia, but I know that I do not make the most of this freedom. To be ready for persecution, I need to learn how to proclaim Christ and serve him in the freedom. Of course, there is persecution and suffering for Christ even in countries where Christianity is not illegal. Serving Christ might mean derision by family and friends, it might mean missing out on a job opportunity, it might mean forgoing material possessions. I pray that God will help me to serve him ever more whole-heartedly, not counting the cost of suffering, in the circumstances he has placed me in.

Hebrews 2 and the temptation of Christ

At church we have started a series on the book of Hebrews. This book is so focused on the nature of Christ, and how he is the ultimate fulfilment of all of God's Old Testament promises. It speaks of not only who Christ is, but of who he is to us, and what he has done for us, once for all.

This week we looked at Hebrews 2. It is a wonderful passage that speaks of how Jesus was made human, to become like us, his brothers and sisters. Jesus suffered death for us, in order that we might be brought to glory. Although he suffered on earth, he has now been crowned with glory and honour, with everything subject to him. This same Jesus is the one who is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. The fact that the glorious king and judge unashamedly calls me sister is an amazing thing to think of.

I've just finished a subject at uni that looked at various heresies of the early church. The heresy of Docetism taught that Jesus only appeared to be human, and that he only appeared to suffer on the cross. But this passage clearly says that Jesus needed to be human in order to save his human brothers and sisters, to free us from the power of death and the devil. He was perfectly human, and perfectly divine. Verses 17 and 18 are such a reassurement when I am struggling with sin or weakness. Because Jesus lived as a human and experienced human frailty, he is a merciful and faithful high priest. Because he was tempted and because he suffered, he is able to sympathise with us, and is able to help us when we are tempted. This is such a wonderful God that we serve!

One question that came to my mind from this passage relates to verse 19, and the idea of Jesus being tempted. The gospels say that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13). If Jesus was tempted, that raises questions as to whether he had the capacity to sin. I have no doubt in my mind that Jesus did not sin. He lived a perfect life when we were unable to. Temptation, however, suggests the desire to sin. Jesus stood against this temptation, but does this mean that he could have sinned if he had chosen to?

I've talked to a few people about this and have got some differing responses. Some people have said that Jesus was capable of sinning because he was fully human and like us in every way.
I think I lean towards the side of the argument that says Jesus was incapable of sinning. Sin is not just bad things that we do. The biblical concept of sin is about an intrinsic problem with our souls. We are born inherently sinful and the bad things we choose to do are a result of this sinful nature. Because of this nature, we also sin unintentionally. If we say that Jesus was capable of sinning, does this mean that he had that same intrinsic problem? I can accept that Jesus possibly was capable of doing sinful things (although he didn't) but I can't accept the idea of Jesus being inherently sinful from birth. I suppose, therefore, your response to this question depends on your concept of what sin is.

But, if Jesus was incapable of sinning, how do we interpret the passages about him being tempted? I don't think these passages prove that Jesus was capable of sin. It may be possible to feel temptation without actually being able to follow through on that temptation. I heard one argument that said Jesus felt temptation, like he was holding the weight of temptation, but he was unable to drop that weight. That's a possibility but I don't know if we can prove it definitely. Sometimes I really want to do something I'm incapable of doing, and that can be really frustrating. I suppose the desire can be there even without the capability. I don't know how much of this to attribute to Jesus though. After all of this discussion and thought, it is still largely speculative. I think this might be one of those concepts that our human minds cannot fully grasp.

Psalmody conference and little emo thoughts

My thoughts get away with me sometimes. I can attend a conference and not have too many issues with it, but then, when I hear something related to it the next day, things get out of perspective and I focus only on the issues; the straw that broke the camel's back, if you will. Other times, I run marathons in my mind, trying to grapple with questions that go nowhere. I can actually get quite emo when I'm left to contend with my thoughts. It's not always bad, most of the time I enjoy thinking about things but sometimes it's weird.

On Thursday and Friday I attended a conference for Psalmody, which is a ministry that focuses on encouraging Christians to go deeper in worship (http://www.psalmody.org/). It's very charismatic, and the worship sessions reflect that. At my church, we've done one of the Psalmody courses, learning about the biblical basis for praise and worship, looking at the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as 'praise' and 'worship' in the English. The large majority of what I've heard in those talks is edifying and the course has really transformed the way I approach worship. I'll post a more detailed explanation of what I've learned about worship later, because there are some great things. Not everything's great, though. It does tend to lean sometimes towards prosperity teaching, although not in an extreme way, and infrequently.

I was initially hesitant going to the Psalmody conference. Although I tried not to, I focused on those things that I disagreed with in the teaching, rather than all the wonderful things that I had learned in the course. But generally, the teaching was good. Occasionally, little things that I wondered about, but nothing that caused me to walk out denouncing the preachers as heretics. I'm trying to think of them now, and I can't actually remember what they were, which is probably a good thing. But I do remember I had some interesting discussions with people afterwards! The main idea of the talks was making sure that God is the foundation of everythign that we do. That any ministry or initiative we take in any sphere of life is something that God wants us to do, that we keep coming back to God as the foundation of our life. So often we can go ahead with things in our lives, even with ministries, without remembering that it is God that builds his house and God that causes everything to grow. It's a challenge to get back to that place of dependency and humility before God. There was also a real focus on worship, and how important it is. Worship is not just singing, but is an attitude of adoration towards the Lord. It is moving towards him, responding to his presence. It is something that can involve our whole life.

After the talks, there was generally a time of what can possibly be called 'free worship'. I don't know if that's the best way to describe it, but that was the terminology I heard. There was time at the beginning when we all sang, but this was more spontaneous. Some people were speaking in tongues, some people were singing, most people had their hands in the air, some people were dancing. My mum was getting right into it, dancing around at the back! I don't have a problem with any of that theologically, but I didn't quite know what to do. I didn't feel anything like the other people probably did. Which doesn't mean God isn't still there, so I just thought about God for a bit. But, seeing people getting into that free worship is a challenge. I probably won't speak in tongues, but it is a challenge, for me and many others (I don't know if it's a cultural thing or a denominational thing) to be freer and less inhibited in worship.

I actually received a few words for myself during the conference, both of which related not to jumping around crazy in worship but about being quiet and contemplative before the Lord. The first was Luke 2:19, in which Mary treasures and ponders things in her heart. The second was a phrase: 'quiet, unshakeable conviction in who Christ is and in what he has done.' So, when the pastor said during the last worship session to move in what God was leading, while everyone else was jumping around and cheering, I just stood completely still, just thinking about how infinitely good God is. Maybe I'm not supposed to jump around like everyone else, but maybe there is something to that aswell.

The conference also ran yesterday and today, but I felt a peace about not going. Although I found a lot of the conference helpful, it was hard work for me, so I needed a rest just to think about all I had experienced and heard. So, after going to church today, I started getting all emo in my thoughts again. It's not that I don't like the charismatic expression of worship, but it seems sometimes that's the only kind of conferences we go to, and I started stressing out about the need to find that balance between deeply worshipping God and deeply getting into his word, being passionate about being in the Lord's presence, and about declaring his gospel message to others. I know that my stress was most likely unfounded and out of perspective. In fact, even after spending about half an hour typing all this, I'm feeling better about all of it. God is good, anyway.

Outreach night

The last time I posted we were leading up to our youth outreach night, and I was feeling frustrated. But now, after the outreach night, I am so thankful to God, and know that I should have been trusting in him all along. Usually our youth outreach nights are for members of both our highschool group and young adult group to invite friends. Last night was nearly entirely made up of highschool kids, with even some primary school kids aswell. A much younger crowd than we were expecting. Our young adults leader, who was giving the talk, had to quickly adapt the talk for that audience, and did a fantastic job. It was such a relevant message for the kids, and really got them involved aswell. There was so much energy in the youth group, more than we're used to!!

After the talk was the opportunity for kids to pray and give their life to the Lord, or to rededicate their lives. Three kids gave their life to the Lord, two friends of youth group kids, and one youth group girl who's been coming to church her whole life. A few other kids rededicated their life. Best moment: one of the kids who had never been to church before asked his dad if he could come back to church on Sunday...and he was there this morning! Praise the Lord for his great faithfulness and his great power in drawing people to himself. Now the important work starts, the follow-up. Hopefully these kids can start coming to youth group regularly.

Outreach and discipleship

I've been thinking today about the need for discipleship. We are called as Christians to reach out to people who don't know Christ, and in our church we've started having outreach services once a month on Sundays, and youth outreach service once every few months. The gospel message is preached and people have the opportunity to pray 'the salvation prayer' at the end. In many of these services, we get some people who give their lives to the Lord, or rededicate their lives, or who at least show interest in finding out more about God. Praise the Lord for that! The really frustrating thing is, there never seems to be any lasting fruit. People come closer to God during that service, but we as a church are still working out how to go about growing these infants in Christ, or these seekers, through discipleship. It seems that we are always so busy in our church, with so many things that are intrinsically good: worship conferences, ACC meetings, not to mention our own work and study schedules. But, because of so many things happening, the welcome barbeque that has been planned a few times never seems to happen. Nothing is done with the contact details that we obtain during outreach services. I'm as much at fault here as anyone else. This is something that has been put on my heart today, as we prepare for our next outreach service tonight, that I really need to get involved in follow-up, to see people grow in Christ.

It reminds me of the parable of the sower mentioned in the gospels (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:1-15). Jesus speaks of four kinds of seeds, which can be likened to four kinds of people who hear the gospel message. The first seed falls on the path, where birds eat it up. Sometimes the evil one snatches the message away before the person can hear it. The second and third seeds grow initially, but don't continue, either because the soil was shallow and the sun caused them to wither, or they were choked by the other plants around them. This is like some people, who can hear the gospel message and want it for their life, but fall away when they get back to living their old life, and do not grow because there was no opportunity. God is completely sovereign and he can work in people's lives in any circumstance. Sometimes people go later to other churches and grow, or sometimes a seed is planted that will grow much later. But, I believe that if we are praying for souls to come to the Lord, and if we are holding outreach services, then we need to be ready for follow-up, to disciple those people who are the answer to our prayers. There is a fourth type of seed mentioned in the parable: that which falls in good soil and produces a crop, a hundred times what was sown. These are the people who hear the word, who accept it and who continue to grow in maturity. I am still growing, and I'm praying that other people can too.

It's been a little while since I've posted here.

Over the last week, there has been some discussion, and some rather heated debate, about the issue of demon possession. Yeah, it's a heavy topic that a lot of people don't like to think about much (I'm probably included in that category) but it's something that is relevant to our church at the moment. One person who has attended our church for a while has received deliverance prayers because it is the opinion of some of our prayer team that this particular person has demons, due to their deep involvement with Hindu spirituality in the past. I don't want to speculate one way or the other whether this person is demon possessed, but I am really wanting to shape my view first from the Bible rather than what I am experiencing or seeing. I believe that the Bible is the standard by which I can interpret the experiental.

Demon possession is mentioned in Scripture. Throughout his ministry on earth, Jesus healed people who were sick and delivered people who were possessed by demons (eg. Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 17:14-23). I'm not sure how common demon possession is, but I can see from the Bible that it is possible for people who aren't Christian. Where I disagree with the guest preacher who visited my church last week, is that I don't believe a Christian can be possessed by demons. By 'Christian' I mean someone who trusts in Jesus' death and resurrection, and therefore has received the Holy Spirit, not just someone who goes to church. Every Christian still struggles with sin, and needs to keep putting the old self to death. Christians can definitely be tempted by the devil, or by demons. I do not believe, though, that a demon can dwell in the same place as the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, the presence of God was symbolised by the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. When sinful people tried to enter into the presence of God, they died. Evil cannot dwell in the same place as God's holiness. Corinthians 6:19 says that the physical body of a Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. As the presence of the Lord dwelt within the Tabernacle or the Temple in the Old Testament, the presence of the Lord dwells within Christians through the Holy Spirit.

I'm still thinking about this issue and talking about it with people. Most of the people at church I've talked to tend to agree with me, but a few don't. This is just a quick presentation on what is a really complicated topic.

Praise for answered prayers

Just a little example of how God is faithful and how he answers prayer. Yesterday was the first day of Sunday School for the new term. Sunday School generally runs smoothly but there are a few difficulties that occasionally arise. The first one is that there is hardly anyone in the girls' class, and often no-one to teach them when the girls actually do turn up. The second one is that the boys, who are in my class, can get really rowdy and distracted, and two of them in particular can get aggressive towards eachother. High energy and noise in Sunday School is fine...it's just when they're so distracted they don't actually learn anything then it's a problem.

So, it's always really important to pray before a lesson. I prayed that God would bring the kids in my class to church, and that they would be settled and able to learn. I also prayed that there would be some girls, and that the girls' teacher would turn up (she'd been very busy over the last few days with family commitments so I wasn't sure). The service started and there were very few kids. During the time of worship and singing at the start of the service, they arrived: about five boys (this is almost all the regulars) and one girl. The girls' teacher arrived about five minutes before Sunday School started! Praise the Lord for this answer to prayer!

The boys in my class were lovely, and were very attentive. We played some games to get them running around, but then when it was time for the lesson, they paid attention and showed they were actually learning the main concept. Of course there was some noise and some silliness but nothing that got out of control. We're looking at the book of Ephesians over the next few weeks, so yesterday the kids looked at the idea that God has adopted us as his children. The kids can now pronounce the word 'Ephesians' which is more than they could do at the beginning of the lesson! I am so thankful to God for how he answers our prayers in so many different ways.