God is Moving in Nepal

Some friends of mine from church here in Edinburgh were part of a mission trip to Nepal a few weeks ago. They helped make a very special Pastor’s Conference happen and, among other things, also began looking into the possibility of helping with the great and grave issue of human trafficking there. This is especially a problem among young Nepali women who are often lured to India with the promise of work, and tricked into forced labour in the continually burgeoning sex industry there. They also visited a wonderful native of Nepal named Nima who was a classmate of mine at the University of Edinburgh. He studying in Edinburgh, but doing field research back in his home country, because he has a heart to see the Gospel effectively spread in Nepal through church planting. Through Nima (whose family currently resides here in Edinburgh) these connections between our local church and the people of Nepal have begun to form. Exciting stuff!

A friend of mine named David was among those on the trip — some of you may remember the story of how he was my first letting agent in Edinburgh, (translation for the Americans: he rented me my first flat/apartment) and was a great blessing to me as my life started here. David shared the following story with me. It is both inspiring and challenging. I hope it touches your heart, too.

One Day a beggar woman that lived in a temple was going down to the river when she saw in the distance a man throwing a sack into the river. He noticed her and ran away. She thought he may have stolen something and so she began to walk over to investigate. The dogs beat her there and were dragging the bag and trying to open it. She arrived and scared them off. Slowly she opened the bag to find a small baby inside, only a few days old. She gathered the baby up and took her back to the temple where she lived and begged for money to survive. She cared for this child for 9 years until she died.

A woman from a church heard about the child (called Didi) and contacted Shanta (pronounced “Santa,” this woman runs the Peace Rehabilitation Centre the team visited) to ask her if she would take the child in. Shanta of course said yes. Sadly the day that the beggar woman died the gurus at the temple raped the girl. Shanta went the next day to see the little girl and asked her if she would like to come with her. She said yes and PRC would become her home and family where she would be educated, find healing and love.

Fast forward many years. Didi had many offers to marry as she grew to be a beautiful young woman, but she turned them all down. One day another man came to ask her if she would marry him. He had been stricken with tuberculosis of the spine as a child, which left him very disabled. To everyone’s surprise, Didi said yes. Shanta asked her why she would choose to marry this man, and this was her reply. “Mommy if I do not marry him who will? You took me in when no one else would, and showed me love. Jesus sacrificed his life for me when he did not have to. I will sacrifice all I have to care for and love this man.”

We had the privilege to meet this couple in our last few days in Nepal. They have two children and you can see the love in their eyes for one another.

Wow. We have so much to be thankful for. And so much work to do. Lord help us to remember, despite how much so many of us have, how BIG, how great, how amazing, and how magnificent a gift the sacrifice of Jesus is, to those of us who have received Him and for those who still need to know.

An Investment with Exponential Potential for Return

Weddings are awesome! This past weekend, I celebrated my sister’s wedding. I had the privilege of serving as her matron of honour (can I say maid though? — that just sounds old!) and of organising her bachelorette party, and there were lots of other special moments, where I just rejoiced that God had answered our prayers by bringing an awesome and godly gentleman into her life. I have long long awaited this special moment, and am overjoyed that it has come to pass!  Praise the Lord! Yay for Dodi and Andy!

The funny thing about a special weekend like this is that afterwards, as life begins to get back to normal, and you begin to remember all the little things on your plate, concerns for your future, perhaps even financial concerns, you can sort of get some post-wedding (or post-anything-you’ve-been-long-waiting-for) blues. Totally common I suppose. So by Tuesday morning, I was still happy to be in North Carolina (even though there were thunderstorms and I really wanted to enjoy some warm weather and sunshine) but at the same time, I was feeling a little “blah” considering what’s ahead for us when we return to Scotland — financial challenges, spiritual challenges, relational challenges, etc. The first thing I should do when I’m in a funk like that? Open my Bible and get out of it. Monday morning I did dwell in Psalm 91 for a bit, but I must admit it was a half-hearted effort that ended in a nap.

Tuesday, instead of Bible time, I opted for shower time. Slack! However, in the shower, I looked up and saw a Scripture I’d put on the wall some time ago — an encouragement about the goodness of God. In that moment, I was so encouraged in being reminded of the goodness and faithfulness of God — those who look to Him are radiant, and they are never put to shame. This simple reminder of God’s goodness brought a flood of encouragement, and I felt the Lord simply remind me of the principle of compound interest.

I’ve heard that Albert Einstein once said, “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” If you’ve studied finance at any stage, you’ll find that it is truly an incredible principle. Simple interest is only calculated on the original investment. But with compound interest, a one-time investment of £10,000 with 12% interest, compounded yearly, will amount to £299,599.22 after 30 years. If the interest is compounded quarterly, you’ll have a whopping £347,109.87 in the same amount of time!

What I felt like I was to understand from the Lord regarding that moment was that just as the solid investments we make in the natural world will generally pay off in the long term, the spiritual investments we make will definitely have long term rewards and returns — with great interest. I’d previously invested time and effort into my relationship with the Lord — in studying and thinking about His Word regularly, in prayer and fellowship with Him, and in a moment when I simply needed to be reminded of His goodness, those investments brought a return — the reminder was there, just when I needed it.

The greater picture, I think, is that investments in a relationship with God will bring exponential compound interest over time. The Scripture actually promises blessing for your children’s children if you love God and obey His commands. (Psalm 103:17) And when times are hard, the efforts you make to learn God’s Truth, and put it into your heart will pay off. God’s Word in Your heart will keep you from disobeying Him when temptation rears its ugly head in a tough moment — I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:11) If you make room for God (see this post for more thoughts about that) and for His Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart, He will help you find joy in times of sorrow. If you deeply endeavour to believe God is good in every circumstance, when you’re not in the middle of a battle, then it will be easier to hold on to the Truth when the battle rages all around you. If you don’t have that Truth firmly implanted in your heart, then your faith is likely to be rocked whenever your world is.

Amazing fruits will be present in your life if you allow the Holy Spirit to be present and at work in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If you walk by the Spirit, you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. Even if the investment is as simple as deciding to begin reading a chapter or two of Scripture a day, and then committing to obey what the Word says, you can expect exponential returns on your investments with God. You’ll never out-give Him, out-bless Him, or out-do Him. His Peace, His Truth, and His Presence will mark your life in ways you never expected — and you might just think to yourself, “Wow, that investment of ten minutes a day has brought a return I never expected! I’m gonna bump it up to twenty!”

The Sermon in a Nutshell: Spend more time thinking about the investments you’re making towards eternity. It’ll put the cares in this life into perspective. Whether the economy you’re living under booms or busts in this lifetime, your investments in God’s eternal economy will always bring incredible return — in this life, and the next.

Are YOU cool enough for the Pagans?

I have come across this way way too often lately to overlook it and not give it some thought. A church somewhere puts on a conference, or a worship service, and somehow, the video of that service gets on youtube. Oh no. The people are worshiping by spinning their socks or shoes in the air to a Christianese remake of a secular song, or they’re dancing to some random song about victory with these out-of-date 80s moves, or heaven forbid, the name of their band is “Sonseed” and they’re kicking “Jesus is a friend of mine” like it’s the hippest tune to hit the airwaves since kumbaya. And then…the real ‘Christianity’ starts coming out.

Christians, one after another — including myself — start passing the link to the video on to each other, and commenting on the site: “Check out these idiots.” or “Seriously, this is the worst worship service I’ve ever seen.” or “I am so embarrassed to even be a Christian right now.” And these posts turn into arguments even — back and forth one kid saying “I go to a Christian school and my teacher says this is the worst worship service ever and we watched it in class.” Meanwhile another is saying “Go, you guys!  That was really cool. Praise God!”  Odds are if you have been on the internet anytime in the last two years, you’ve seen some of these videos, commented on them, passed them along, or at least laughed at them.

But seriously. Is that what this Christian thing is about?  Why are we, as Christians, so frustrated when we come across videos like this? Why do we make fun of them, and feel it’s important to let the ‘world’ know that we don’t approve and that real Christians are way cooler than that? The question I’m getting to: WHY do we feel the need to be cool enough for the pagans? (And forgive this terminology — we can discuss it in another post.) Is anyone flocking to your church because the people dress cool and the worship is well-stylized and it’s, like, the happening place to be seen? If so, then they’re flocking for the wrong reasons.

It seems to me that this generation will be more impressed by seeing people so passionate about their faith that they don’t care what anyone thinks. And if that means (even though this isn’t really my personal favourite) grabbing a contemporary song and turning it into a song about Jesus, and worshiping to it, jumping up and down with your socks in the air, then by all means. If that means doing a totally random 70s-80s style dance in front of this weird backdrop with the weirdest choreographed solo ever, then so be it.  The point is — these people are doing their best with the talents they’ve got to bring honour and glory to God. Who are we to decide what might or might not be pleasing to Him?

If they’re preaching that Jesus is not the Son of God and that He didn’t die for the sins of the world — okay, here’s where we do our best to step in and say “Wait, wait, that’s not what Christians believe!” But if they’re doing the funky chicken to a faith-filled rendition of a Destiny’s Child song, maybe we should just let it be. The more ‘together’ the body of Christ is, in saying, hey, we worship this One, Amazing God, the better.

This spills over into some other areas as well — being critical of certain pastors and their preaching “The tallest trees catch the most wind” — and someone, obviously a Christian, takes the time to post a preacher’s sermon on youtube, and put verses over top of it that demonstrate how it disagrees with Scripture.  Where does this stuff come from?

Here are my thoughts, if you’re interested.

1. John 13 — Jesus said “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” I don’t think I need to explain that.

2. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 12: 24 – 30) — Yes, the enemy is constantly sowing “weeds among the wheat” but we are not instructed to try to go out and pull up weeds right now. Jesus (the farmer) said we shouldn’t go out and try to pull up the weeds, because in doing so, we might accidentally pull up the wheat at the same time. Instead, both the weeds and wheat will grow up together, and at the harvest — at the judgement — the reapers will separate out the weeds from the wheat. Understand this — God will judge the thoughts and deeds of each of us, because while we can only look at outer appearances, He can look at the heart. Let God separate the weed from the wheat — we should go about the business of studying the Scriptures so that we can be faithful to do what He has told us to do, for example, go back to number 1.

3. Paul’s Example (Philippians 1:15-18) People were preaching Christ for selfish reasons in Paul’s day, and perhaps they are doing the same thing today. Some were preaching in hopes of adding affliction to Paul, others out of love, knowing that Paul was truly a disciple. His response: “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

The Sermon in a Nutshell: I am absolutely preaching to myself here. I am quick to criticize a brother or sister with whom I disagree, a sermon that I’m uncertain of, or, especially, some goofy Christians worshiping in a way that doesn’t seem cool. But my conviction is that if we say we are Christians, we need to love each other. We get enough persecution from the world without adding to it by beating each other up. Yes, we will often disagree, but let’s rejoice in the common ground — Christ is being preached and glorified — and that’s the business we’re here to be about.

xCC

Top Ten For A Crackin’ Proper Scottish Wedding

We attended a wonderful wedding in the highlands this weekend, on Easter Sunday, where our friend Claire got married. It was absolutely stunning.

There were some delightful moments along the way that made me think… there are many folks around the world who would like to plan a destination wedding in Scotland. With my experience of uh… two Scottish weddings…perhaps I’ll clue them in on how to make it a proper Scotsman’s event!

10. Choose a delightfully gorgeous venue, preferably in the Scottish highlands, where out-of-town guests will pass a few castles and half a dozen lochs to get there.

9. Choose a proper wee, bonnie Church of Scotland church, in a wee highland village. Pure dead brilliant!

8. At least a third of the gentleman in attendance should be wearing kilts. This is very important. If there is a baby there dressed in a kilt, well then that’s just an added bonus.

7. Encourage a few of the congregants to have a wee dram of whisky while they’re sitting in the church pew, waiting for the bride’s arrival.

6. The bride should be piped in by a proper player of the bagpipes, dressed in full regalia.

5. As the bride arrives, she should shout something very Scottish, like “What am I like?!” from outside the church, as she’s preparing to come in, so that everyone inside will hear and have a giggle.

4. Following the ceremony, the bride and groom should be piped through the streets of the wee village to the reception venue. Congregation should follow.

3. The speeches will not be complete without a good bit of humour almost crossing the boundaries of propriety. They should most certainly be filled with cheeky cracks at the bride and groom, and hopefully also make a bash or two at England because, well, it’s England, and it’s not Scotland.

2. The event must end with a ceilidh (pronounced KAY-lee), which is for lack of a better explanation, kind of like a squaredance. This delightful moment should climax with the singing of Auld Lang Syne, with the bride and groom in the centre of the circle.

1. During the ceremony, the church should be filled with praises to God. The sound of the Scots – once a people so on fire for the Lord Jesus- worshiping their creator in such a lovely and worshipful venue, is unlike any other! I’ve yet to meet a more passionate people on the face of the Earth — and their passion is truly inspiring, when turned to Jesus.

Congratulations, Claire & Andy!  It was a privilege to be a part of your special day! We rejoice with you at what’s ahead!

xCC

God is good, but only on Tuesdays.

Does anybody else find that they sometimes struggle with this mindset? How often do you remind yourself “God is good. All the time.” (a la the Starbucks Church Marketing Video I previously posted) — but something rubbish happens — big or small — and you find yourself saying “Lord, what the deally, Yo?”

I’m suddenly more acutely aware of this mindset lately — when things are going so well, God is sooo good. Or maybe you just think, yay, life is good. And then you miss your bus, or a situation in your life goes from smooth to rough and tumble, and you think, “Hmm, Lord, are you trying to discipline me?” or “Are you mad at me?” or “Why hast thou forsaken me!?!” Yes, you believe God is good, whole-heartedly, but there is still some piece of you that questions what “goodness” looks like when things aren’t looking so good for you.

Our work here in Edinburgh has become increasingly difficult, especially over the last few weeks. To go into detail about this would not be appropriate, but suffice it to say things are tough spiritually, financially, and in our work situation. These life moments are the ones where the rubber hits the road, and praise God, you have the opportunity to (continuing with the fun idioms) put your money where your mouth is and live out what you believe. Is God still good if things aren’t going my way?

The goal: really finding the deep-rooted, whole-hearted mindset to believe that God is good all the time — I believe this comes from having the mind of Christ. In Romans 12:2, Paul encourages us not to be conformed to the image of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind — so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

So as we focus our minds not on earthly things, but on things above (Col. 3:2) and we destroy the strongholds and high things — the wrong thought patterns — that exalt themselves against the knowledge of Jesus (2 Cor. 10) our mind is renewed, and made more like Jesus’ mind. We think about things the way Jesus would, and we begin to recognise, number one, that God’s will is always good, and number two, what God’s will actually is.

Moments like these, which once seemed like trials, are starting to look more like opportunities to me. They are opportunities for me to walk through something challenging, and come out on the other side, with more of myself and my old ways chiseled away, looking more like Jesus.

Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing. If I have a better understanding of what the Father is doing, as my mind is renewed and I begin to better understand His nature and His will, then I have a better chance of following Jesus’ example, and doing the work here on earth that the Lord put me here to do. Praise God for moving me toward looking at this life through the lenses of eternity — where it won’t matter how much money I made or how my hair looked, but it will matter if I told other people about my good good God, so that we can spend eternity together.

xCC