Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 17. Chosen

Eph 1:4 “ he chose us in him before the creation of the world.”

It is not uncommon for children to question their parents, “I wasn't adopted was I?” It is a question that underlies our insecurity and need to feel we belong. It is also quite likely that it is the motivating force that energises some of us to ‘do' things to earn God's love. Perhaps it is the biggest challenge that the enemy whispers to us, “Oh he doesn't really love you, you're not worthy of his attention.” Or maybe it is, “See he's paying no attention to you, you're on your own, he doesn't care about you.” Lies.

When God wants us to pay attention to something He says it a number of times. This verse above is just one of seven references in the New Testament to God's plan involving Christ, that was conceived by the Godhead BEFORE Creation (Jn 17:24, 1 Pet 1:20, Rev 17:8, Rev 13:8, 2 Tim 1:9, Tit 1:2).

The life we are living out today was conceived by God before He made anything. He knew sin would come to Eden and His world, He knew the only way for justice to deal with it was through the Cross and, as He looked into the future, He knew that you would be a responder, and in that sense, even right back then He ‘chose' you. Today you are walking a path that was planned before anything else came into being. Nothing about your life is an accident, it was known, it's ‘in the Plan'. Live it secure in that knowledge and rejoice in it.

Now here's something else about the plan which, as you personally are concerned, kicked into being when you were born again: not only did God conceive it and see you in it, He didn't just start it off in you, He's going to do all He can to ensure you finish it and ‘get the goods' at the end as you enter heaven to a fanfare of angelic trumpets. “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6)

But not only has He got the end in mind for you, He's actively working day by day right through to that end: “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” (Rom 8:28) That's all things EVERY day, He there watching over your life.

Check out Psa 121 again. Five times (v.3,4,5,7,8) it says He watches over you. He didn't choose you to abandon you and leave you on your own. Being chosen means much more than that; it means He is there for you providing you with protection (v.5-7) and he will do it, “both now and forevermore.” (v.8)

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 18. Process

1 Pet 1:9  “you ARE RECEIVING the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

We continue to ponder some of the fundamentals of living for those of us who call ourselves Christians, some of the basics we tend to forget along the way, the things that help establish us in our daily walk, regardless of how the external circumstances of life may be playing out. I want today to go right back to something I heard many years ago as a young Christian but which holds true as clearly today as it did back then.

It is an old analogy that will help us along the way in the coming few days of meditations. A ship at sea was starting to sink. A lifeboat came and took the people off it; they were saved. It started back to the shore through the mountainous waves; they were being saved. When it got to the shore those rescued, gratefully stepped off onto land; they were well and truly saved. When we turned to Christ, we WERE saved. Living out our days, we ARE BEING saved. When we get to heaven we WILL BE well and truly saved. Do we see today as the middle process – we are being saved. Oh yes, the most important thing: Jesus is the lifeboat. ‘In him' we are safe, ‘in Christ' we have security, protection and direction, decided from before the world began. Be secure in him is what the analogy says.

So let's reiterate the basic message here. A number of the things we will consider became true at the moment of our coming to Christ. They are still true today and will be worked through every day we have left on this planet. And then we will enter into the fulness of them as we enter into God's presence where nothing can shake us from that salvation and we ‘are well and truly saved'.

But I want to go back and take the middle part of this analogy, the lifeboat taking us to shore through the choppy waves. Jumping off the sinking ship into the lifeboat was a momentary thing. One moment we were doomed on a sinking ship, the next we were safely in the lifeboat.

Some time back we were revisiting where I grew up and there was a lifeboat station there and because it was a quiet day and we were the only people around, a lifeboatman seeing us wandering around outside, invited us into the very modern lifeboat station with hi-tec stuff that told of the history of the lifeboat station and all about the modern lifeboat – and then he showed us the lifeboat. We had already seen it on video but as we walked around the outside of this multi-million boat and its multimillion carriage that carried it right into the sea and then later back to the lifeboat station, we marvelled at this incredible boat that could take a dozen or more survivors, could capsize, be turned upside down and then right itself, bounce off rocks, while all the occupants are safe and secure, strapped into seats inside, utterly safe as it would make its way back to shore with the people it had rescued. It was amazing. Safe and secure are really understatements to describe this incredible machine.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 19. Being Saved

1 Pet 1:9 “ you are receiving the end result of your faith, the SALVATION of your souls.”

It is very easy to forget both what has happened to us and the state we are in today. I came to the Lord over fifty years ago and I therefore need to remind myself what I was like before I met the Lord and, indeed, how I met the Lord and what the change was like initially. When your conversion was a long time back, not only is it easy to forget those things but it is easy to forget how different you are today from your neighbour who hasn't had that experience and hasn't had years of change taking place in them at the direction of God. We all go through changes as we grow older, but my changes are unique because they involve experiences with the Lord. Yes, it is easy to forget or take for granted just what salvation means.

Awareness. In the analogy yesterday we are receiving this salvation. The ship was sinking, we were going to die. Then, at his bidding, we stepped ‘into' Jesus. Paul taught (Eph 2:1-) that, in one version, we were ‘under God's judgment, doomed forever for our sins'.

The truth was we were helpless (we couldn't get off the ship) and hopeless (we were doomed, it was sinking) and then Jesus came and saved us and we are now BEING saved. I often wonder if we fully appreciate the wonder of being saved, or have we forgotten (or perhaps never realised the desperate nature of our plight) the reality of the old life we were saved from?

Of course these things are affected by the nature of our old life and the nature of the changes that have taken place. My wife asked Jesus to be her friend when she was five. It was a real experience, one that was reinforced, as such childhood conversions are, by a major encounter with the Lord in her teenage years. She, like others I've heard who made childhood professions of faith, often rue the fact that they didn't have a major conversion experience from ‘a life of big sins'. Such people have a very precious privilege of having Jesus build things into them at such a young age that I observe their foundations are often much more stable and stronger than the ‘sinner' with their big conversion experience later in life.

So yes, there will be some who have big stories of dramatic changes, we're all different. Jesus told a parable about two debtors and asked, “Now which of them will love him more?” to which the reply was given, “the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” (Lk 7:42,43) The truth is that each Christian's ‘salvation story' is different but none is more worthy than another.

Yes, the child hasn't got into prostitution, committed adultery, been a criminal or whatever other ‘bigger sin' we can envisage but when we define ‘sin' as self-centred godlessness, then anyone at any age and any experience needs saving from that. The self-centred, godless, utterly spoilt (not my wife!!!) brat of a child needs saving as much as any older person because of ‘what might be', what they might become, apart from their present obnoxiousness!

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 20. Being Redeemed?

Gal 3:13,14 “Christ REDEEMED us.”

We continue to ponder on the ongoing nature of so many aspects of the Christian faith, of the life we are called to live. We used the lifeboat illustration to see the three phases of this. We come now to consider this concept of having been redeemed by Christ.

This word only occurs about eight times in the New Testament but 99 times in the Old. The concept was one of buying back something that had been sold or lost.

Job in the middle of his dark experience hit rock bottom but declared, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.” (Job 19:25) What an amazing confession of faith, that he believed in one who somehow, someday, would rescue him from this pit of hopelessness. The book of Ruth has a lot about the concept of a kinsman-redeemer, someone who would come to the aid of a widow and rescue her from a life of loneliness and poverty.

In both instances there is the picture of being rescued from one place and taken to another, from a place of need and anguish to a place of blessing. The apostle Paul wrote, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” (Col 1:13,14) a transference from darkness to light, from wrath to forgiveness.

The reference to forgiveness of sins reminds us that before we came to Christ we were guilty sinners lined up for the court of the Final Judgement, doomed to be condemned and sentenced to destruction, but Christ stepped in and, as we turned to God in surrender, spoke up: “I have died for them. My death was their punishment, the price for their release has been paid. They are free to be transferred from death and destruction to eternal life and blessing.”

The reality of this wonderful truth comes through in everyday life when we are attacked by the enemy. Satan stands in the throne room of heaven (see Job 1 & 2) and, pointing at you, challenges and says, “Why shouldn't they die for what they have done, they deserve that punishment?” This accuser (Rev 12:10) has that right. And Jesus simply smiles and says, “Yes, but I have taken their punishment and that's why they have been able to ‘jump ship' so I am taking them to land.”

Yes, it's true, “ we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One ,” (1 Jn 2:1) and that's why we can be in the lifeboat today. So when the enemy whispers to you, “You're not worthy of this!” whisper back, “No but he is!” (Rev 5:9,12) and then Google or look on YouTube for that song “Is he worthy?” and worship.

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain,   and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev 4:9) “it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Pet 1:18,19) You could claim that the moment you turned to Christ but you need to remind yourself that because it is true, it is being worked out every day of your life and will be the sole reason you will be welcomed into heaven when you pass on from this life. Be secure in that and daily, praise and thank him for it.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 21. Called

Rom 8:28b  “who have been CALLED according to his purpose.”

A reminder. ‘Salvation' is what God has planned for us. ‘Redeemed' is what Christ has done for us on the Cross. But for it to become operable God CALLED us, yes literally called us. We probably weren't aware at the time that that was what was happening, but when the Holy Spirit started convicting us of our need and we started hearing about Jesus (however long ago it was) that was God on our case, calling.

Very often Christians say, “I found Christ,” but the truth is somewhat different – he found us and called us: “Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” ( Jn 1:43) and “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (Mk 1:17)

It is so common in Scripture we almost take it for granted. God found Moses looking after sheep in the wilderness and called him to come with Him and deliver Israel from Egypt. (Ex 3,4). The most famous case of calling is, of course, Samuel being called by God (1 Sam 3). God sent Samuel out to find David and anoint him (call him) to be the next king of Israel (1 Sam 16). Then Elijah was sent to find and call Elisha (1 Kings 19). In every case it was God taking the initiative.

We've seen it before in these studies, that from before the foundation of the world the Lord saw us in the future, saw that we would be responders to the good news of Jesus. “those he predestined, he also called ; those he called, he also justified.” (Rom 8:30) Do you see the order: predestined (seen from before the world began), called (to come and respond, believe and submit), and justified (what is then applied to our lives). The predestining was about God knowing us before it all happened, the justifying was what He was thus able to do as a result of the work of Christ on the Cross, but the ‘calling' was the practical bit in the middle that brought about our response and opened the door for the rest to follow.

But when He called it wasn't just to deliver you out of the dominion of darkness (Col 1:13), it was to start you off on a whole new adventure that still continues today. He had a purpose in mind. Can we rejoice afresh today in a life that is full of purpose for us – God's purpose. When my wife is cooking a big dinner, I am off somewhere else in the house doing something until I get ‘the call'. The call comes, “I'm dishing up!” which means I'm actually putting the food on the plates and I know it is time to get in there to receive the meal.

When I turn up in the kitchen in response to the call, it is with a purpose, to collect the food and sit down at the table for a feast. If I ignore the call, I fail to eat!

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 22. Pre-planned

Eph 2:10 “we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us”

We reminded ourselves yesterday that we have been called for a purpose. It has many facets and ‘doing good' is certainly one of them but the thing I want us to rejoice in today is the fact that God has this all thought out beforehand: ‘prepared in advance'.

We will look in the days immediately ahead at some more of these aspects about God's awareness and purpose but I believe it is helpful to our faith, to anchor our faith more firmly, if we can see some of these things spelled out in more detail, what we see as the future for us, but which God has had in His heart and mind from eternity.

So often, I suspect, we see prophecy as something that has only just arrived, only just come into God's thoughts at this moment, but I believe the bigger truth is that it has always been there in God's consciousness but He is only releasing this particular part at this particular moment.

Consider, for example, in 2 Sam 7, Nathan the prophet brings a word from the Lord in response to David's desire to build a house for the Lord, a temple. The whole prophecy deserves reading but the big point is that within it the Lord spells out His intentions about David's son, Solomon, but it has definite eternal feelings about it, that put it in the context of His own plans made from before the foundation of the world about His own son and the kingdom he will rule over.

In other words, the words about David's desires and Solomon's future are merged into the bigger plan of God that has existed from before the Creation. This is the context for today's verse, that we are God's creative work brought onto the earth at this time, created in Christ as part of his ‘body' to do good things, which God had on His heart and mind for us from long ago.

Two things come to the surface here: first the fact that He looked into the future ‘back then' and saw all things, every detail of how His plans and purposes could be worked through and then, second, how the beings that we would be, would fit into that.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 23. Foreknown

Rom 8:29a “those God FOREKNEW.”

“Haven't we met somewhere before?” Have you ever heard that, perhaps from a stranger at some gathering? For humans, we know someone when we have met them before, but with God it is different. When we came to Christ, we converted, were born again, call it what you will, we started off on a pilgrimage of learning about God. We perhaps had presuppositions about God that were wrong and needed relearning. We were embarking on a walk with One we knew so little about and so it was a life of learning, but from God's side it was completely different – He already knew everything there is to know about us, everything!

We see it in Jeremiah when the Lord says to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (Jer 1:5) The apostle Paul had the same sense when he spoke of God “who set me apart from my mother's womb.” (Gal 1:15) When the angel came to Gideon he addressed him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” (Judg 6:12) Gideon struggled with that and when you look at the context you see why, but the truth was that the Lord knew him, knew everything about him, way before this conversation started, knew his background, knew what he was feeling and knew what he felt about himself – he was no mighty warrior, that was just not him!

We're looking at the same thing we've been considering in recent studies, but from a slightly different angle. When Moses argued with God (Ex 3 & 4) he maintained that he wasn't up to the calling. What he didn't realise was that God knew all about him, knew he was a failed prince of Egypt, a long-term shepherd and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) what He could achieve through him. At that was the same truth about Gideon, the Lord knew he had the potential, with God's help, to be a mighty warrior.

That's an encouragement isn't it. It doesn't matter how big a failure we feel (or if we have points of past history when guilt and failure lurk, just waiting to bound out and devour our faith), it doesn't matter if we feel recent years have been a waste of time, is it possible that our time is about to come, that you have been lined up by God “for such a time as this” ? (Esth 4:14) Maybe we didn't see this year coming but are we game to stop arguing and let God do His thing through us?

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 24. Predestined

Rom 8:29b “he also PREDESTINED.”

So He called you because He knew all about you long before you came on the scene. That's what we've just been considering in the previous study, so now let's see some more about that with these three words in our starter verse.

Now a simple synonym for ‘predestined' is ‘predetermined' which is made up of two parts: ‘pre' meaning before, and ‘determined' which means resolutely and definitely decided. Now don't feel that God is a bully who is going to make you conform to His total perfection because if that was so, every one of us would be superman or superwoman by the time we died – but we aren't.

No, it just means that God knows everything there is to know about you and me and knows how He can weave His good and wonderful purposes into our lives without overriding our free will, so that together we can achieve more than we could on our own. Let that sink in – and then worship! Let's think some more of that in the light of one particular famous person in Scripture.

The person I have in mind is Abraham, the father of faith, God's friend (Jas 2:23). That latter word is quite remarkable when you consider his history. Yes, he was called by God and arrived in Canaan but as soon as difficulty came (a famine) he quickly moved on to Egypt where he tells his wife to pretend to be his sister – and then lets her be taken to the kings palace (Gen 12:13,15). Fortunately the Lord intervened on her behalf (12:17). He goes back to Canaan and not long after he is complaining to God that he is still childless (15:2). The Lord reassures him and his belief is famously credited to him as righteousness.

Excellent! But when the Lord speaks of the Promised Land, Abram is questioning again (15:8) so the Lord instigates a serious covenant to reassure him. A while later Sarai, his wife gets fed up waiting and presses him to have a child via her servant, which he does. Human endeavour with negative results. Sarai is upset that Hagar is pregnant, Abram washes his hands of it and she is driven out (16:6) and the Lord has to rescue and reassure her. When God again reassures Abraham that Sarai will have a child, he is doubting again (16:17,18), and so it goes on. What is so surprising when you work through Abraham's story is, despite his initial belief (=righteousness) it is a story of bumbling faith that is full of doubts, questions and thoughtless acts.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 25. Facing Impossibilities

Mt 19:26 “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This month we have been considering some of the basics of who and what God wants us to understand as we seek to live for Him. In this last week we return to remember again the very nature of this life – it is impossible without God.

Because it is impossible, we often forget these realities and stumble in our faith, but He is there constantly encouraging us and reminding us that this life is Him in us, Him through us, Him for us. It's not good behaviour that makes us what we are, it is Him in us, Him energizing us, Him doing in and through us what is so often otherwise impossible.

Let's let this truth sink in. We will consider some impossibilities in the days to come but for the moment let's just consider how the ‘impossible' became possible in our own lives. This is going to be more easy to understand if we came to the Lord post-teenage years. If we came to him before that we perhaps never realised what an ‘impossible case' we were.

I came to the Lord in my early twenties. I had settled into life as a professional person with qualifications with an exceptionally good job (which was more by accident [all right, divine providence] than by my planning) and starting to feel more secure in life. No, I wasn't a thief or a drug addicts or alcoholic (although some of the early signs were there) or anything else that put me in the category of ‘hardened sinner'. In other words I was pretty ordinary, what the majority are like. But I had heard the gospel through a friend at work, I had even attended a Billy Graham Crusade in London and left intrigued but otherwise unmoved. I was set in my thinking. Humanly speaking, all the contributing factors in my life suggested this is how I would stay – and isn't that how it is for so many pre-believers, not-yet-believers, people who appear set in their course through, naturally speaking ‘impossibilities', doomed to remain like that throughout life.

My mother was another set-in-her-ways elderly person, an absolute impossibility. My father was an even harder case who, in later years when I was a Christian had the temerity to say, “You are of the devil!” I think heaven laughed over that one! So three clear impossibilities, but what happened? To keep it short, at different times we all came to the Lord and were transformed. No such thing as an impossibility with God.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 26. Laying down ‘Possible'

Mt 26:39 “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Submitting the ‘possible' to His will is vital. Yes, Jesus could have fled from Jerusalem and the impending cross; that was quite possible for he had free will. Lots of things are possible but “not everything is beneficial, not everything is constructive.” (1 Cor 10:23) Why? Because God doesn't work on just what is possible, but what fits the Plan, His will that decrees goodness that sometimes comes through tough ways, paths that involve self-discipline and submitting to the “good, pleasing and perfect will” of God. (Rom 12:2) And when that happens? Life always flows!

But can we see this in a bigger context now. Let's start from my reference to ‘the Plan' that was originated within the Godhead before the foundation of the world. Can we dare to go behind the scenes, so to speak, and think what the Godhead must have thought.

First we will create a world into which we can release our love, a planet fit for sentient beings who can be sensitive to us, who will be blessed by our love for them.

Second, let's make them in our image so that they will have certain characteristics that we have, limited certainly but nevertheless reflecting something of us so that they can think and feel in the same ways we think and feel, but in the limited sphere of their earth. To be like us they must have free will like us, free to exercise their wills, free to love and receive our love.

Third, because they are not us and are distinct from us, created beings, they will only be able to have limited vision and will therefore make choices that are less than perfect. We see they will certainly make wrong choices and so part of our goal must be to win them back to lives of right choices, lives of love, but we recognise that first they must be allowed to walk that wrong path.

Fourth, that will bring a conflict with the concept of justice and so as much as they will demand it in respect of others, there will be a question of their own guilt to be dealt with. We must provide a way for that guilt to be dealt with and it can only be as justice is seen to be done, and that means one of us paying for their guilt. This will necessitate us stepping into their world, participating in it, and then taking all the punishment that justice demands will be due to them, for only one of us is big enough to cover all that justice demands. It will require us allowing them to ‘punish' that one, although they will never realise the enormity of what we are doing.

Finally, we must give them space to exercise this free will and we must refrain from constantly imposing our will on theirs. The awful cost is that we must hold back and let them have their way, harming themselves, others, and the world we give them. We could make them automatons but that would deny free will, deny the reality of giving and receiving love. It would be possible to do that but that would never achieve the wonders of what we hope to achieve – beings who gladly receive our love and live lives of good and right choices.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 27. Impossible thinking

Acts 26:9 “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.”

I had a Facebook Messenger message the other day, from someone I knew many years ago. What a delight. As we communicated a few words each way, after a couple of days it appeared it was a scam leading me to talk about money. Deception. But deception is a mind thing, it's wrong thinking in the mind. At the time of writing deception is confusing millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic. On the US side it is belief in the integrity of a President who has said so many unrighteous things (I've seen him saying them!) and yet who millions of Christians are supporting.

On my side of the water there are people who still maintain in a sick manner that the whole Covid-19 thing is a hoax – despite the hospitals moving into chaos by the numbers of patients. The folly of conspiracy theories like this not only require politicians of all shades to be involved, but scientists of all shades AND media people of all shades (who are the most skeptical). As I said to a friend recently in respect of the media, don't listen to the opinions, but watch the footage of the people in question and judge them by what they say and the way they say it and the effect it has. We are living in a world of confusion over truth like we've never experienced before.

The impossibility of right thinking without God is seen in the example of the Apostle Paul, a man given over to what he thought was the will of God – until he encountered Jesus. Paul was the classic example of a conspiracy theory person. Everything in him screamed that this new cult called ‘the Way' (Acts 9:2) was a deception, something of the devil, a conspiracy to lead the chosen people astray. He determined that not only would he speak against it, he would act against it, and he got authority of the high priest to go hunting out these ‘Christians' as they came to be called (Acts 11:26) and put them in prison (the power of institutional religion!).

And then he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and was transformed. The trouble today is that, as that same friend from the States said to me, not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is a Christian and so the name ‘Christian' gets a bad press because in the climate of fake news gullibility reigns. But wrong thinking can extend not only into these sorts of issues but the very basic issues of what it means to be a believer.

So, no, it's not the rules and regulations, the ‘should' and ‘ought' life but the life that is lived in the environment of the living relationship with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, a saviour who has done the impossible and offers ‘impossible' resurrected lives to all who will follow him, lives ‘raised to new life' by his Spirit (Rom 8:11). Yes, not rules but relationship, branches joined to the vine (Jn 15) with the reminder, “ apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5) Another impossibility!

How do we ensure we don't get led astray? I've suggested some previously, but when it comes to basic belief, read His word more and more, ask the Spirit to teach you and open your eyes to see the wonder of the Christ-bought, Spirit-empowered life – and accept no substitutes.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 28. Impossible Salvation

1 Cor 9:22 “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”

For some the concept of being ‘saved' and ‘salvation' is a quaint, out of date religious term only used by the overzealous, but those who think like that fail to understand what ‘being saved' means.

Earlier in this series we used the analogy of a lifeboat. Without the lifeboat the people in the sinking ship were lost. The truth is that the world is ‘sinking' without God. On one hand we vaunt our mighty achievements whether in science or sport while on the other we still have the homeless and the hungry, we still have slaves, we still have the needy. Sometimes those things are the sign of sinful people who bring such things upon themselves, other times they are the sign of sinful people who fail to share and to act to help the less fortunate.

But these are merely the obvious failures of society. The next stage are those who live lives of self-pleasure and so the figures of teenage unwanted pregnancies, of abortions, of marriage breakups and divorces, often signs of adultery and lack of self-control, all these things continue to abound in modern western societies.

All of these things are signs of not only a decaying society but of individuals who have lost control. To know the proof of these things, ask any of those in the descriptions above if they wish they could turn the clock back and the answer will be in the affirmative. The increased numbers of both single men and women living alone in our societies are a testament to failed relationships, people who lost control and are now alone. Sinking lives, sinking society which we try to cover up by sounding so brave, so normal, but deep down acknowledging there must be a better way.

To speak of people needing to be saved, speaks of people who are lost on a sinking ship. But there is also the meaning of lost that speaks of having lost the way, wandering without meaning or purpose, full of fears and worries. All of these things are symptoms, symptoms of people who are ‘godless', i.e. they had little or no contact with God, little or no relationship with Him that might have prevented their present plight. How many ‘nice' people exist, in reality, in a grey world, just existing, lost? Oh yes, never say the language of salvation is outdated or unneeded.

But from the Christian perspective, I can't save people, only God can. It sounds so simple - and it is true – but it is so easy to forget. I may have already sought to reach out to those who don't yet know God (hold on to that word ‘yet'!) and have been rebuffed, but that isn't necessarily be the end of the story. It may be for us because we may not be their next link in the chain that eventually brings them through to surrendering to Him. Our call is to be open to each and every person, putting aside prejudices and dislikes, and seeing them as those loved by God who could yet have a home in eternity. Maybe – if He decrees – we may be instrumental in that, maybe not. We rest in doing what He puts before us, for all else is doomed to frustration.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 29. Impossible Peace (1)

Rom 12:18 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

I feel we need to finish this months with some thoughts about peace – or its absence - as we conclude these thought about how to live the life we're called to live. Overall, this call to ‘live at peace' is humanly impossible, because Jesus warned of family divisions because of belief and unbelief existing under the same roof, but he still calls us to do what we can – be peacemakers.

There may be people who think ill of us, but that is their loss, that is their burden, for that is what it is, that mars their outlook on life. They may think wrongly but we are called not to write them off but to be at peace with them – and that is an impossibility unless the Lord intervenes. We can start it off as we pray for such people (Mt 5:44) and then be alert to take whatever opportunities He provides for us in some way to speak words of peace, act actions of love.

I write the above paragraph and then the news imposes itself on me. Nationally and Internationally I believe the last four years have been the most argumentative, aggressive, and viciously hostile years in the northern hemisphere West.

For two years in the UK the Houses of Parliament were scenes of ongoing hostile bickering over whether or not to leave Europe. We had never known anything like it. The final decision to leave and the arrival of the Pandemic brought all that bickering to an end.

In the United States shelves of books have been written on the ongoing upheavals, demolition of truth and demolition of democracy. It has been happening in increasing measure for a decade but has reached its peak at the beginning of 2021 where scenes of the very home of government being stormed by violent weapon-carrying protesters, brought recollections of the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille – except this was the legitimate government under siege.

What we have been witnessing in increasing measure is downright lawlessness, making one wonder about the apostle Paul's words about ‘the man of lawlessness'. We understand that for many their view of life and how a country should be run, is at stake, but the truth is democracy used to be about co-partnering with people you don't agree with until the ballot box can bring change again, and the balances tilt back the other way. What many seem to fail to realise is that unless the political will is handled righteously, lawless unrighteousness will draw us all in.

How many Christians, on both sides of the Atlantic have in the past four years been sucked into unrighteous, hostile divisiveness in the name of morality, fairness, justice and so on? (How the enemy is laughing!) How many who claim to hold his name, disregard Jesus' words, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”? (Mt 5:9) It is time to step back, get down on your knees, repent, and call on our God for His mercy. If we view ‘the others' as anything less than those made in the image of God who HE loves, we have got some rethinking to do. “ as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Rom 12:18)

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 30. Impossible Peace (2)

Phil 4:6 “ Have no anxiety about anything….”

If there is one thing in this past year of the 2020-21 Pandemic that has divided believer from unbeliever, it is anxiety. If there is one thing that should challenge us about the lives we live, it is anxiety. One well-known Christian leader wrote, “ Anxiety comes from unbelief.” We can seek lots of different things to help us through the days of Covid-19 but building up our faith, strengthening our belief, is the most important. I don't have space to spell out why beyond saying as I look around and listen, I see it is the people either without faith or with only weak faith who are the worriers. Paul's verse continued by speaking about prayer, an expression of a meaningful relationship with the living God. May that be us.

But there is something else we need to realise that stop what I have been saying from appearing legalistically hard. We would not need words of challenge and encouragement that we find in the Bible if we never had anxiety. We all suffer it from time to time, we all waver in our faith from time to time and have to re-establish our belief in Him and His ability to see us through. It may be momentarily or, when we are spiritually and physically exhausted, it may take time to recover and encounter the Lord as in Elijahs case, but the principle still stands, anxiety is an expression of (temporary) unbelief we have fight to overcome.” I would also suggest the formula, “When I am anxious about …abcd… I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ …. wxyz.” i.e. we choose to believe and declare Scripture. When I am anxious, I need to tell the Lord I rely on His promises and please will He now make good on them.

Now I would suggest there are two levels or sorts of anxiety. First of all there is the anxiety that many people live with, an underlying concern that everything is going badly, or everything is running out of control and I have no say in it. Perhaps a scripture to counter that for the believer comes from Psa 121 that we touched on in Study No.17 where we noted that f ive times (v.3,4,5,7,8) the writer says God watches over us concluding, “The Lord will keep you from all harm.” (v.7) This we might call ‘general anxiety' which tends to focus on our general inability to cope with the ups and downs of life.

But then there is the ‘how to' anxiety, how to pass my exams, how to get my car repaired when I am short of money, or (as hit us the other day) how to stop an unknown source of a leaking roof, especially in the middle of winter when rain seems fairly continuous. These are the ‘concerns' of life which sometimes we can do something about but often which seem beyond our current capabilities of being dealt with. Yes, we can pray for wisdom (Jas 1:5) but sometime, beyond that, we can only pray that somehow the Lord will grant us peace to hold us while we wait for a resolution of the problem.

That much quoted Phil 4:6,7 shines on this: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” There is the answer: pray and wait. Wait for what? A peace which we cannot explain. The problem may not go away and we may still need wisdom to know how to proceed with it, but while we are waiting for that, there is this inexplicable, crazy peace. God's amazing provision.

Short Meds in ‘Living the Life': 31. Impossible Peace (3)

Rom 8:6 “ the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace”

In a world where peace is in short supply (and we are part of that world) it is only as we submit to the King of Kings and let his Spirit rule our thinking and our behaviour can we know true peace. That's what our thoughts about praying, that we saw yesterday, are about. It's about putting the problems of life into His hands. A number of times this month we have considered that we are called to live in a spiritually supernatural life, where God's provision goes beyond the ‘natural'.

Anxiety prevails where faith is subdued by the ways of sin, the work of the world and the wiles of the enemy – and just common or garden things going wrong! It's a ‘fallen world' and so things go wrong. Each of these things impacts our lives from time to time and the Bible speaks about them as ‘trials' or ‘testing's, things to be overcome and, again as we've noted before, that may take time.

I suspect we take for granted the fact that most of the letters of the apostle Paul start with “ grace and peace from God.” Grace, we've said, is the resourcing by God and it is only as He resources us that we can have peace. So when we pray about trials, testings and tribulations, big and small, we are asking for His resources to handle it. Abraham came up with the life logo or bumper sticker, “The LORD will Provide” (Gen 22:14) but basically it is what perhaps should summarise this whole series: living the life is ALL about receiving the provision of God. (We'll go on to consider this in depth in the next series on the ‘Wonders of Grace'.)

But there is another side to this particular coin. If one side of it is trusting God to provide, the other side is summed up by the instruction, “take every thought captive” (2 Cor 10:5) “to make it obedient to Christ.” It happened when we came to Christ and it has to happen on a daily basis. To go back to a recent study, faith or belief are built by grabbing hold of God's word and letting it prevail over the lies of the enemy.

When Paul said, “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus,” (Rom 6:11) he had to say it because we forget to do it. The Christian life is one of continual reminders. The reminder in the second part of that verse - and it is so easy to forget – is that we are “alive to God” or as one paraphrase adds, “alive and sensitive to God,” and another puts, “alive to God, alert to Him.” I am alive to my wife, aware of her, sensitive to her, listen to her, talk to her, and so much more. The same needs to be true of God.

Yes, we receive from Him His grace, we imbibe His word into our life to be transformed by it, and we remain constantly aware that this life is lived with Him, by Him, through Him, and for Him. It isn't always easy – and it's sometimes downright difficult – but the main point is that He is HERE for us – Emmanuel, God with us. The more we realise that, the more it evokes thanks, praise and worship in us and that sets up the environment within us for the Holy Spirit to act. Hallelujah! May it be so!