Hard Times but Life Is Beautiful

The Murray in Drought

'Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad - for these trials make you partners with Christ in His suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when it is revealed to the world.'  1 Peter 4:12-13

The Murray Valley is one of Australia's bread baskets. Fed by waters from the Murray river, this basin is lush with vineyards, olive groves and fruit orchards. From 10-16 Oct 2008, all 6 of us, Pat, Becky and I, John, Debbie and James, shared the rural pastoral experience of a town named Yarrawonga. It is located at the dam across the Murray River and Lake Mulwara. We swam, kayaked down the river, golfed, visited farms and wineries. The perceptive visitor will sense that there is a certain dryness, a land hardened by drought in this particular part of Australia. 

The shop-owner who rented to us two kayaks informed that the drought had so far lasted 10+ years. He had stopped taking tourist for kayaking tours because the interesting creeks along the river had all dried up. A farmer's wife at the Uniting Church where we worshipped, that Sunday informed Pat that the smaller farms had to burn their crops if there was insufficient rain. The church members are all senior citizens. They were so pleased to see us and to hear baby James cry in church. The younger people had long left the area to seek their fortunes in Melbourne or Sydney.

 

Droughts are hard times especially for a farming community but the week we were at Yarrawonga, coincided with the global financial crisis making it worse. Banks failed, the stock markets crashed and a global recession loomed. Many governments had to step in and underwrite their national banks. Australia was no exception. We can expect many people to suffer huge financial losses.

 

Kevin Rudd, then Prime Minister of Australia, rallied the Australians to tide over the global financial crisis with these words. "Anyone who grew up on the land knows that you can't control the weather," he declared. "Sunshine every day and rainy nights. That's what you dream of. But life's not like that. There are good years and there are hard years. And you don't choose the order in which they come. But the hard years teach you never to give up." Kevin Rudd was not just politicising but referring to character building; hard times whether in farms or in corporate rooms can bring out the best in character provided one learns life's lessons humbly.

Through these times, we learnt the bitter lesson that life wasn't meant to be easy. Christians despite our special relationships with God can fall on hard times too. Our faithfulness and the promised blessings do not shelter us from the hard knocks of life. Chapter 12 of the Book of Hebrews writes of discipline imposed on God's children and encourages us to withstand and overcome it,

'No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been through it.' Hebrews 12:11

We admire people who can go through very trying periods and still retain their sense of humour and sanity. The character, Guido in the film 'Life Is Beautiful' is a case study. Guido, goes to extraordinary lengths to convince his son that navigating life under the Nazis in the concentration camp is actually all an elaborate game. His behaviour in times of great suffering is comical and amuses his son, the narrator in the film who described his Dad's ruse as 'his gift to me.'   

Roger Ebert the film critic noted that in the real death camps there would be no role for, the comic, Guido. Ebert wrote, "But Life Is Beautiful is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future." The critic Tom Dawson wrote "the film is presumably intended as a tribute to the powers of imagination, innocence, and love in the most harrowing of circumstances," 

St Augustine, in his book the 'City of God' spoke of suffering and opined that what matters is not the nature of the suffering, what matters is the nature of the sufferer. Bishop (Dr) Robert Solomon wrote in his book, The Race(Ref 1), “In suffering, we need to find meaning. We need to also find love. It is difficult to suffer alone and many people feel they do. But we are not really alone when we suffer. God offers us His loving presence.” Bishop wrote on, “And when we allow Him to walk with us, we will find that suffering is redemptive. It changes us and makes us like Him. It gives depth and brings new life.”

St Paul wrote in Romans Chapter 8,

'I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the the glory that will be revealed in us...For we all know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purposes... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."  Romans 8:18,28,35 and 37

Matt Redman wrote a song, 'It is Well with My Soul' which is describes the relationship of Christians with suffering and the grace and blessing it can bring.

Our scars are a sign

Of grace in our lives

Oh Father, how you brought us through

 

When deep were the wounds

And dark was the night

The promise of your love you proved

 

Now every battle still to come

Let this be our song

 

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

 

Weeping may come

Remain for a night

But joy will paint the morning sky

 

You're there in the fast

You're there in the feast

Your faithfulness will always shine

 

Now every blessing still to come

Let this be our song

 

It is well (it is well)

With my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

I trust your ways (trust your ways)

I trust your name (trust your name)

It is well, it is well with my soul

 

You lead us through battles

(You lead us through battles)

You lead us to blessing

(you lead us to blessing)

And you make us fruitful

(and you make us fruitful)

In the land of our suffering, God

 

Lionel

Ref 1. Robert M Solomon, The Race – Finding the Real Journey in Life. Genesis Books 2008

Updated 1st Published Nov 2008

Crisis, Calamities and Challenges

 

'For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.' Psalm 103:14   

The book of Job is a study of crisis, calamities and challenges. It also lays out a simple message, life is difficult and not the airy-fairy success stories that the modern multi-media like to spin for us. 

Furthermore, life can be unfair, What can we say to someone who at the pinnacle of life is struck down by severe cancer? Or how can we console parents who have just delivered a child with multiple congenital defects?

There is really no answer we can provide that will satisfy nor comfort the anguished soul suffering such calamities. The biblical Job suffered untold miseries and his struggle to find some sanity to all that he experienced have been used by Christians to try to survive unexpected and unsought crisis. Many a Christian will cling on to the lessons in this Bible book to withstand the challenges of an unfair hand.  

Job was a man, loved by God for his uprightness and envied by Satan. God was proud of Job, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him, he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." Job 1:8. In order to prove God wrong and thinking that Job's faith would buckle under pressure, Satan asked God's permission to inflict extreme suffering and misfortune on Job. And God allowed it.

Throughout the ordeal, Job searched for answers including listening to opinions of four friends and his wife. They blamed Job or blamed God for this predicament. There are no easy answers.

The apostle Peter was also acquainted with suffering. He wrote, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed." 1 Peter 4:12-13 

Gradually Job understood although he could not fully explain his misfortunes fully. Timothy Keller surmised (Ref 1), "Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire? But how do we actually walk with God in such times? How do we orient ourselves toward him so that suffering changes us for the better rather than for the worse? Keller too left some questions unanswered. 

John Piper observed that suffering cannot be explained by the simple principle of retributive justice, where each person gets what he deserves: suffering for the evil and prosperity for the good. Often in life, it is the righteous who suffer and the wicked who prosper. But suffering is not dispensed willy-nilly among the people of God. It is apportioned to us as individually designed so that our faith might be refined, our holiness might be enlarged, our soul might be saved, and our God might be glorified.

Throughout Job's ordeal, God was ever present although Job may not even have realised this because for a long time, God was silent. Yet, in the end Job's fortunes were restored twice over. Despite crisis, calamities and challenges Job did not blame God. The Job Suite by Michael Card explained: 

Blameless and upright, a fearer of God

A man truly righteous, no pious façade

One about whom God was accustomed to boast

And so one whom Satan desired the most

One day the accuser came breathing out lies

"It's Your holy handouts, his faithfulness buys"

In one desperate day his possessions were lost

His children all killed in one raw holocaust

His children all killed in one raw holocaust

And yet through it all

Through the tears and pain

He worshiped his God

Found no reason to blame

Once more the Deceiver denounced and decried

"It's skin for skin, and hide for hide,

Strike down his flesh and he'll surely deny

And confess that his praying has all been a lie."

"Very well, take him, " the Holy One sighed

But you must spare his life, my son shall not die

So Job was afflicted with terrible sores

Sat down in the ashes to wait for the Lord

Sat down in the ashes to wait for the Lord

And yet through it all

Through the tears and pain

He worshiped his God

Found no reason to blame

Rev (Dr) Leonard Wee, Registrar Trinity Theological College of Singapore wrote a Lent meditation (Ref 2), "In the midst of life's challenges, it is sometimes easy to forget that we have a God who loves us deeply, and whose mercy and compassion would never fail. When situations become discouraging, we wonder if the Lord is going to withhold His mercy. Yet it is also in life's most difficult challenges that we often experience the lovingkindness of God." 

Lionel

Ref 1: Timothy Keller. Walking with God through Pain and suffering. Hodder and Stoughton 2013

Ref 2: The Bible Society of Singapore. From Fear to Faith, Daily Devotions for Lent 2021. Sower Publishers, 2021.

Updated 1st Published 7 Mar 2021 

The Grace of God's Presence

The Burning Bush         Credits: Grace for the Race

'You make known to me the paths of life;  in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.' Psalm 16:11 (NKJV)

Christian meditation is well described in a poem by Stephen Levine (1927-2016),  'Millennium Blessing' introduced to a group of meditators by Dr Noel Keating from Ireland. The poem opens with these phrases, 

'There is a grace approaching that does not come in time but in timelessness.... when the mind sinks into the heart and we remember' 

In Christian meditation we seek to become aware of the presence of God. This is like feeling a 'sense sublime' described by another poet William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) in the poem 'Tintern Abbey.' Wordsworth described this presence as

 'A sense sublime, of something far more deeply interfused, 

Whose dwelling is in the light of setting suns.

A motion and a spirit, that impels, 

All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 

And rolls through all things.

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, 

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul

Of all my moral being.' 

Steven Levine described three aspects, I think, occur during Christian meditation:

• God's Grace. This awareness, and with it the awakening in us, comes only by the God's grace and His favour. It cannot be conjured nor contrived through any technique and practice.

• Timelessness. We should become unaware of the passage of time. When we meditate, we should become oblivious to time and enter into the timelessness of God's presence. We are not trapped into a 20 or 30 minutes time bubble during meditation, waiting for it to end with the sounding of the bells. Instead we are comfortable with the sense that time is not ticking away and remain, as meditators would described it, in the present moment. 

• Communion. The mind becomes silent and sinks, almost unaware and gently, into the heart. That is when we commune with God from the heart not the mind, in prayer without words. This is when our spirits are released and interfused with the Holy Spirit. St Paul described this communion, as being filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is not every time when we meditate that we will be in God's presence. These happenings are few and far between for most of us. Many of us have, with discipline, meditated two or more times a day for many years without ever experiencing it. But when it comes, it is a gift.

This grace of God's presence is often described by theologians as the manifest presence of God. This is to be differentiated from God's omnipresence. When we say God is omnipresent we recognise that God is ever-present in the world, universe and in the whole of creation. He is always there and the Holy Spirit indwells believers at all times. But oftentimes we are unaware, even oblivious to His presence. God's manifest presence occurs when He chooses to allow us to experience Him during a specific personal and moment. 'God is everywhere' is different from 'God is here.'

The presence of God is a privilege and is described in the Bible as a sacred encounter

 

On Mount Horeb in the Sinai desert, Moses encountered the burning bush which though on fire did not burn up. God called to Moses from within the bush,

"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground." Exodus 3:5

This is holy ground

We're standing on holy ground

For the Lord is present

And where He is is holy

This is holy ground

We're standing on holy ground

For the Lord is present

And where He is is holy

We are standing on holy ground

And I know that there are angels all around

Let us praise Jesus now

We are standing in His presence

On holy Ground

Leaving Beersheba to Haran, Jacob stopped for the night and laid down to sleep, 

'He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord and He said: "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac."..."I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Genesis 28: 12-13a and 15 

Jacob thought 'Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place' 

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place,
I can feel His mighty power and His grace.
I can hear the brush of angel's wings
I see glory on each face;
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.

Moses understood the urgent need for God's presence during the wanderings in the Sinai desert. In Exodus Chapter 33, the Lord God was so angry over the incidence of the Golden Calf worship and idolatry in the desert, that God told the Moses that He will keep His promise to lead the people into the promised land but God, himself will not be present with them. Moses argued, 

'If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with Your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from other people on the face of the earth?' Exodus 33:15-16

This relationship between God's Promise and God's Presence was once again emphasised at the transition of leadership between Moses and Joshua.

"Be strong and courageous! For you will lead these people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors He will give to them (His Promise). Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you (His Presence)." Deuteronomy 31:7-8

Therefore it is important for Christians to find a quiet time every day to seek God's specifically by prayer or by meditation, hoping to be in God's presence.

In the quiet of this hour
As we kneel before You now
I believe Your promise to be faithful
I don't always understand
What Your perfect will demands
But I learned to trust You more
In Your presence, Lord

In Your presence, there is comfort
In Your presence, there is peace
When we seek to know Your heart
We will find such blessed assurance
In Your holy presence, Lord

Lionel

Updated 1st Published 12 May 2024

From Ritual to Relationship

Awe and Wonder - A Starry Night

 'Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear  my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.' Rev 3:20 (NLT)

Have you ever wondered in attending church services how leaders and congregation are more concerned about the conduct of worship than the experience of worship itself? Our Pastor in his opening sermon on the 1 Jan 2023, brought the congregation of Charis back to the basics when he encouraged us to experience worship as a meeting of God's people in God's presence. 

He asked two fundamental questions

1. What is worship?
2. What is needed in worship?

Let's ponder over these questions because many have become rather disillusioned with the way worship of God proceeds in our church worship services today. 

What is worship? Rev Lui stressed the point that worship happens when people encounter God. It happens when people meet God and vice versa. Rather than become distracted by the mechanics in the conduct of the service, we should experience the encounter. We should be cautious NOT to create the impression that God can be 'more present' when we use music, sermons, rituals to engender a more inspirational atmosphere. Rev Lui said, "Don't feel pressured to make God show up." The presence of God is entirely of God's doing. 

• God's Promised Presence. This is a gift of God's love for us individually and corporately. In the meeting between God, Moses and the people in the Sinai wilderness, God promised

'My presence will go with you and I will give you rest' Exodus 33:14

• God's Experienced Presence. There is no substitute for the manifested presence of God. Each time we enter a church or be called as a people of God to worship, we should feel or find the presence of God within us or around us, He is always present. How God would meet us is entirely up to Him, we cannot manipulate it. Moses understood this fundamental requirement when he rejected the suggestion to use angels to guide the people's journey in the wilderness

'If Your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and Your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people in the face of the earth?' Exodus 33:15-16

• God's Unveiled Presence. Cultivate a hunger for the Lord and not rely on methods and programmes. There is no substitute for God's presence. Over-polished, entertaining, professional atmospheres and environment  distract and detract from the raw presence of God. Anticipate that God will reveal himself to us as we enter into the worship relationship. Moses was bold when he asked the Lord to show His glory.

'Then Moses said, "Now show me Your glory" And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My name, The Lord, in your presence." Exodus 33:18 and 19a

What is needed in Worship? A hunger for God and an encounter with God. Moses asked God

"Teach me Your ways" Exodus 33:13.  

He was not asking for information or knowledge of God. Moses was not looking for facts but for the real experience of encountering God.

When we next come to Church for worship we should

1. Anticipate God's presence
2. Look for God's hand at work
3. Listen for God's voice
4. Open ourselves to God

Let's move from Duty to Devotion, from Ritual to Relationship. Come back to the 'Heart of Worship.'

Lionel

Ref: Sermon by Rev Lui Yuan Tze on the 1 January 2023 at Charis Methodist Church

Updated 1st published 8 Jan 2023