Vicky: What would Jesus do?

May 2014 be full of hope, joy and peace! 

In the ’90s if you were around the Christian world you may remember there was a craze that started: wristbands with the letters WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? It was big and in the end it became a cheesy sentiment. And yet it is so profound. 

After Jesus’ death and resurrection He hung out with His friends before ascending to heaven. His final words are important to us today. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus said “All authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

So what is key in these verses?

1. Jesus, as a human, through the cross, took back the authority to steward the earth well, to be all that it was be, that we as humanity had given to the devil in the Garden of Eden. 
2. We are asked to be proactive, to Go! In the original Greek this means, “As you go”. Therefore as you are going about your day-to-day life, you should… 
3. make disciples. A disciple is a learner, a follower. Jesus is looking for learners and followers of Him. Where Jesus was at that time, the concept of disciple was part of the culture. Someone would learn from their teacher and put it into practice. 
4. We make these disciples in every people-group on earth. 
5. We baptise them into a Trinitarian God. 
6. We teach them to observe ALL that Jesus taught. 
7. Jesus is with us! 

When we consider this commission, WWJD is very relevant! But it’s not just what would Jesus do – it’s what would Jesus think, what were His ways? My biggest prayer is, “Lord, show me Your ways.” In Psalm 103:7 it says about God “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.” 

Moses had a close friendship with God. He took the time to build this closeness and didn’t observe God’s miracles from afar as the Israelites did. We all know many things about the Queen, but most of us do not know her personally. Therefore we don’t know what she thinks, what her motivations are, how she handles people. We don’t know the Queen’s ways! It is the same with God. We can be a follower of Jesus, and - just like the Israelites - know His acts but not His ways. 

Our God, who is love, wants us to know Him intimately. That is why Jesus came. Jesus not only went to the cross and enabled us to have a close personal relationship with God, but He became human, so we could relate to God. In the gospels we have stories of Jesus that are so precious in enabling us to know the ways of God, and lead us into greater friendship with Him, showing us how to live on earth. 

As Christians we may unintentionally add stuff to what it means to follow Jesus and be His disciple. I encourage us all in 2014 to determine to know Jesus and His ways. That in every interaction, every circumstance, every place, we ask ourselves the question – WWJD and WWJT (What Would Jesus Think?) and WWJF (What Would Jesus Feel?) until our friendship with Jesus and our intimate knowledge of Him becomes such that we don’t need to ask the question, we just know in our core how He would feel, what He would think and what He would do. And as lovers, friends and followers of Him we will say, “Ok Jesus, I’ll do that for you!”

afterTHOUGHT (Jan '14)

2014 by Andy Oxley.  

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised but there seems to be more and more anti-Christian feeling around these days.

I often hear disparaging remarks, even on some of my favourite TV programmes, about the Bible or faith in general. These usually take the form of derision about recorded miracles or Biblical stories. Of course some well-known scientific figures have set themselves above any form of faith, espousing atheism as something desirable. 

Some may say the wider Church has only itself to blame, having been a poor witness. There are never ending scandals involving priests and child abuse, ministers proving corrupt in various ways and so on. Whilst this is true, the immense impact for good of Christianity in the world is usually ignored. A huge majority of the faithful go largely un-noticed.

None of this is new of course. The Romans tried to hush up the resurrection immediately after it happened, with little real success. Unscrupulous people have been attaching themselves to the Church ever since, with self motivations as varied as can be imagined. The Church has been persecuted with zeal and enthusiasm ever since. If you doubt that we are in a spiritual battle, perhaps you might think again?

I have been wondering what all the above has done to my faith; that's the thinking behind this article (see, there is some). I'm sure I'm not alone that over the years my faith has taken a big battering. I listen to all the gainsayers - and how can one help it as they are SO vocal? I cringe when various scandals involving Christians are revealed. I stoop under the battering of personal life events. The list of negatives is long.

I still believe though! I believe in the authenticity of the Bible, I not only believe in God, but in Jesus as His son and I believe in all the Biblical miracles and all the Biblical stories. I believe God created the whole THANG (thang is what young people say, innit?) Yes, I believe the whole shebang, and I don't care what anyone thinks about that, either. I have considered the negatives and the alternatives (hard not to, when they are rammed down one’s throat) but I still believe. Possibly I’m a bit thick?

Perhaps us Christians should learn to apologise for our obvious stupidity in holding onto belief in stuff which is patently daft. I have started to practice an apologetic look in the mirror, it's a sort of sideways look with downward pointing eyes and a slight stoop. I'm getting quite good at it but it's not genuine - probably because I don't feel apologetic about my faith. I'm actually rather proud of it, and even more proud of the person on which it is grounded. I call Him my father. Sorry, I really am (not).

Maybe Christians should begin a defence of our beliefs and faith. We could gather long lists of historical evidence, scientific theory, miraculous events, biographies of Christians, etc, to 'prove' we are not so stupid after all. But you know, speaking for myself, I really can't be bothered. I've got this (obviously distorted) view that my faith does not need to be defended. It's more than capable of defending itself.

If anyone needs to duck under the barricades of their defences it's actually the folk who choose not to believe. If you consider the energy and tirelessness with which some of them pursue their unbelief, it does seem very like defensive behaviour, after all. Why bother defending yourself against something or someone who does not exist? Surely that's daft. 

As for me, I believe as above. All of it, too.

A River of Gold (Nov '13)

(Dave Jones)

I've been thinking around our GOLD values recently. Hats off to Colin, they are a stroke of genius. GOLD describes the way we as a church think about the character and nature of God. 

G – Good   He only ever does thoroughly goooooood things. He only ever acts in ways which are wonderful, beautiful, creative, restorative; cleansing and healing. 

O – Open   Our Father is not controlling. He has given humanity complete freedom to do whatever we want - throughout every layer of creation. He has chosen to be open handed with His dealings with us, primarily because of… 

L – Love   Love is the very core of God’s nature. It’s impossible to force someone to love you and for it to be real. God is Open and will not control us, but instead treats us as who we are – free people, free to love Him back if we want to. God’s love was demonstrated and pushed to the absolute limits for you on the cross when Jesus cried ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ God is love (1 John 4:8). 

D - Dynamic (Dunamis) power   This describes the way He still operates and the means by which He is fixing all the brokenness in this world. Jesus’ mandate in Luke 4 was to ‘Preach the gospel to the poor…proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ He did just this – demonstrating miraculously that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. and then commissioned and empowered the church to do the same, and the Kingdom is still at hand for us today. 

So what does all this have to do with us? Here’s the hit. CHRIST IN YOU!!! (Gal 2:20) When you became a Christian you became a brand new creation. (2 Cor 5:17). Your Spirit was mystically joined with Christ’s Spirit (1 Cor 6:17), and, like it or not, there’s no going back. 

This does however have implications on how we see the GOLD values. They now become descriptors and guideline for our nature, our behavior, and our dealings with the world, not just God’s. 

That means we too are to stand for everything GOOD in this world – honesty, integrity, kindness, fun, laughter, creativity, health, care, gentleness, peacefulness…We’re to be OPEN handed with our dealings with one another. Like God, we must not control people, all we can do is control the way we are with people and the options we are able to offer them. But the reality is, control happens sometimes without even noticing - through manipulating our social subtleties and expectations – it’s always good to keep a check on this. 

LOVE is the way in which we should act, and is the filter through which we are to make our day to day, and larger ethical, decisions. I have a simple mental process: I go through 1 Cor 13 and ask myself ‘Is this the way of patience? The humble way? The posture of kindness towards this person? The road of forgiveness..? and so on. DYNAMIC POWER – yep, you’ve guessed it, is the way we are to be. We must mentally fight until we are in right alignment with God on this one. For me this is a daily thing. We must not settle until we really believe that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Dynamic power is not just about miracles though, it’s about seeing the world Hope-full-y. Knowing that the God who created the universe is with you, and loves (and likes) you, which changes the game completely. It now means there is always a way through, a solution, so you can keep your hope alive – in your family, business, school or wherever God has placed you. 

To conclude, GOLD isn’t just about what God’s like, it’s a call to us, to a radical way of thinking and living.