God's Revelation Through Nature

In the first chapter of his letter to the Romans (vv 18 - 20) Paul speaks powerfully of the way in which God has revealed himself to man. Paul argues that, since the beginning of creation, the power and divine nature of God have been clearly evident through God's own work of creation.
Exceptions
This is not advanced by Paul as a proof of God's existence since in v 21 he makes clear that he is speaking of people who do accept God's existence.
Indeed, it could well be argued that for those without belief in God there is nothing in existence that is likely to convince them that there is a God for as Jesus has implied, to find him one needs first to seek him (Luke 11. 9, 10)
What such people need is a personal revelation of God himself. Of course, that revelation of God might come in a multitude of ways, including through nature. But that is then an explicit act of God compared with a realisation which comes from a conclusion arising from the observation of nature.
In fact, I was for over twenty years without any real belief in God and neither the beauty nor the grandeur in nature made any difference to that. It was simply there.
Creation And Believers
For those who do know God the situation is entirely different. At least, it should be different and should make an obvious and direct difference to our lives.
This is probably why Paul becomes so annoyed in the first chapter of Romans with those who are living outside the will of God. One can argue, in fact, that the greater is one's conviction about God, the more one can see of his nature in nature, so to speak. Nature does not reflect everything of God, for nothing could do that.But what it does reflect is highly significant.
Paul speaks of divine power and grandeur. One can see this in everything from a rainbow to a violent storm; from the natural scars which typify many parts of the landscape in Yorkshire, England, to the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA; to the towering redwoods of Canada, to the tiny golden lady's finger flowers in Ireland, and so forth.
The reader will be able to think of many other examples and comparisons, whether from the world above or below sea, from the tropics to ice zones, or from the multitude of creatures alive on this planet - to say nothing of what might be found on other planets, or what can be observed by this generation in the depths of the universe
Deeper Revelations?
Do all these things reveal anything deeper about God than their obvious grandeur and the fact (for most of us except some physicists who struggle against such conclusions) of divine power behind it all?
As Christians, we ought, perhaps, to be aware that on the whole, God leaves his creation "to get on with it" according to the laws of physics, chemistry and so forth which he has established. If something of a catastrophic kind is set to happen in nature, God allows it to happen: earthquakes, volcanic erruptions, astronomic collisions. He does not, so far as our observations and judgements tell us, interfer to stop such things. People who know God can accept that; those who do not know God find in it a further reason for their disbelief.
We might then also draw the conclusion that the same is true for the human side of his creation. That is, for those sections of humanity which either do not recognise God's existence or choose to ignore it. In all essentials they are no different to the inanimate parts of our world.
But if the Bible tells us anything at all, it tells us repeatedly that God is ready and prepared to intervene when his people request it in faith.
The Bible is full such instances and examples, whether concerning man himself or the forces of nature. And these contrast clearly with those who ignore the Creator and with (�unavoidable�)events in the natural world.
Faith leads to faith since those who have faith have that faith increased and developed by its exercise, by how they perceive God to act and by what they see around them of God's power and divinity. They recognise that what God has made he can also change, if he so desires - and if his people ask in faith and for the right reasons.
When this is set alongside those experiences of God's people which are recorded in the Bible, faith leads to even more faith. The grandeur, power, resourcefulness and beauty of God are intensified by the faith which beholds them.

Advertisers And Our Children

Some of the most important Christian principles which we try to pass on to and establish in our children are under threat of being very effectively destroyed by advertisers and their paid assistants, advertising agencies. The latter design, implement and propagate the products of their clients.
And it is we as parents and grandparents who are to blame for their success and for the inroads made into the protecting cover of our principles.
Although this must inevitably be a brief discussion, a wide consideration of these and related matters can be found in "The Path To Freedom" at http://www.christianword.co.uk
Advertising Objectives
The objectives of virtually all advertisers is to dominate the minds of we the consumers. That sounds somewhat extreme. But it is not that each individual advertiser seeks total control of all minds. Any given advertiser is only interested in that part of our separate minds to which his products or services seek to appeal. Individual advertisers would "throw up their arms in protest" at the suggestion of their seeking total influence. And quite rightly.
But there are thousands of them - and each one is seeking to control a part of our behaviour i.e. that part which relates to the sales of his product. Of course, some are much more powerful and effective at it than others. But collectively the sum that adds up to a highly significant realm of influence.
Common Philosophies
Moreover, virtually all advertisers have the same basic, underlying, or even overt materialistic philosophy. This is endemic to the way they approach their marketing activity. Hence thousands of individual organisations are ALL effectively propagating the same anti-Christian philosophy to all of us.
Objective Children
Companies which are new and strapped for cash often find themselves taking crude and short term approaches to advertising. But the large corporations, flooded with financial resources and often operating in many different markets, and selling a multiplicity of products and services, can afford to take long term views and adopt highly sophisticated approaches.
"Get 'em while they're young" has been modified slightly but significantly into "Get at 'em while they're young".
Again, the individual corporation/advertiser would feign horror at the suggestion that it was corrupting the Christian values of our young children. One advertising campaign does not a cesspool make, no doubt.
But it is not the influence of the one which matters. It is the combined influence of the many. That accumulated influence is very considerable - and especially in its influence on young minds.
Indeed, there are two important aspects here. One is that young minds are unformed minds. So when we as parents allow advertisers access to them, we inevitably and unavoidably allow them to bring a considerable power to influence their young minds and on their formation.
What is the essence of that formation? It is to inculcate a process of the acquisition of materialistic attitudes and systems of thought. In short: to promote values which are commonly at variance with those taught us by Jesus.
>From a very early age we are allowing our kids to have their choices determined for them by people we ourselves, confronted by a specific situation, would never allow near us. They are people whose principle objective in life is to make profit by convincing our children that they cannot possibly be happy in life without their product - whether it is a particular kind of cereal, footwear, coat or whatever.
In fact, most parents are aware that the influence of advertising has gone so far that their children are likely to be subject to ridicule at school if they do not have the brand which is "acceptable" this season. Some will be aware that their children will be "rubbished" for parents shopping at down market stores.
All this brings us to the second important aspect. Children themselves do not usually have significant personal spending power. In this sense they are "secondary consumers": they consume only through their parents spending potential.
So advertisers work on this. Crudely or sophisticatedly, their objective is to bring a not inconsiderable persuasive power on kids to determine their parents preferences.
Parent Gullibility
Are parents so gullible? Of course. For at least two reasons. Firstly, we have ourselves been persuaded so successfully by the direct influence of advertisers that we really expect our children to succumb to the same and to want the same as other people are buying.
Secondly, and with a direct link to the first reason, we really do consider, at least at a subconscious level, that what our children have been made to believe by the advertisers is actually the best for them!
When we look at this in the cold light of reason it is clear and obvious nonsense. But we rarely use the cold light of reason. Advertisers don't like it at all - let alone the instructive light of the Christian's Spirit.
We sometimes take a perverse sense of superiority in what our children are led by advertisers to demand: "Oh, our John/Mary will simply not have a coat/jumper/cereal/shoes without such-and-such a brand on them". We think they are developing so marvelously when they exhibit such "adult" attitudes and values which we, however unrealisingly, have ourselves come to regard as important.

Who Lives Your Life?

We often hear people make remarks like "I live my life to the full" or "No one tells me what to do" and so forth. Those who make such remarks are either worldly people or people whose attitudes are dominated by the world.
Following The World Things are, or should be, very different for the Christian. Why? Simply because someone who is imitating Jesus cannot at the same time be imitating the world. Revelation 12.9 tells us two interesting facts. The first is that, when the ancient serpent, or Satan was defeated he was not consigned to hell but was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Secondly, we are told that Satan leads the whole world astray. Consequently, those who follow the world follow Satan. Perhaps not knowingly, nor willingly. But then, Satan cares little about how much people know or whether they would do what they do willingly if they knew differently!
What is the alternative? How do we guard ourselves against being misled? How do we avoid being duped by Satan?
Following Jesus = Following The Spirit
Every Christian has been given Jesus as his/her model. His is the example we follow - in everything!
This is not easy but it is something we have to keep pursuing. Now, in John's gospel Jesus makes a particular principle of his very clear. On several separate occasions he tells us that he never does anything except that it is in the Father's will for him (e.g. John 5. 19; 5. 30, 77. 16;8. 29). It is therefore our task to live as nearly as possible in the Father's will. It is no more than Jesus has instructed us. How do we do it?
Living Through The Spirit
We are given the Holy Spirit to be our mentor. A mentor is someone who guides us. He is wise and trusted advisor. Someone we can rely on totally to give us the very best direction in whatever circumstance we might find ourselves in, whatever problems and decisions we are faced with.
The Bible uses the term "Paraclete". (Some bibles use the term "Counsellor" as in John 14. 26) This is a Greek word and can sound a bit off-putting to us. But the Greeks had a type of boat which was sent out to ships which were in difficulties. It was called a 'paracletos', which gives us another insight into the intended role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Yet we do not have to be in difficulties before we can turn to the Holy Spirit for assistance. The example of Jesus is that we should seek the Spirit's guidance at every turn of our lives.
Starting Small
On the whole, what we see of Jesus in the gospels is his handling of the big things in his life. Yet the letter to the Hebrews tell us in chapter 5.7 - 8 that, through his prayer, Jesus learned to submit to the Father's will. In fact, his obedience came only through suffering.
We suffer whenever we have to bend our own will to that of someone else. We seem to have an inbuilt desire to do our own thing. And that is something the world encourages in us. Just take notice to a few TV adverts to see that.
Now, where other people are concerned, we can often argue that we know as well as they do. But where God is concerned we can never say that. Got always knows best - and even more, God's love for us is so pure that he never acts except in our best interest. Hence we can never do better for ourselves than to do what God wants us to do!!!
It's not always easy to hear God. In fact, there are two general situations. The first is when God speaks, as it were, without prompting. He just says something - and there is always something about that which marks it out from the usual kind of thoughts. Secondly, there are those times when we are asking God about something. Then it can be more difficult to hear him. If you meditate regularly on Scripture, you will soon get used to discerning his communications. (This is discussed at some length in my book "The Keys To Christian Mediation", but is rather too involved to detail in a short article)
If we have not tried to discern God's will for us on a daily basis, we should start small. Ask him about the small things first: if the forthcoming weekend is free, ask how to spend it; if thinking about buying a book, ask the Spirit whether or not you should - or which one, if there are alternatives. Small things like this.
Leave the bigger things until some experience has been gained. But the objective is to gradually bring the whole of one's life under the domain of the Spirit. Then he lead our life. We do not lead it ourselves. And it is all the better for that!

Who Prays When You Pray?

When we pray, who does the praying? Almost any knowledgable Christian will give the same response to that question. In fact, it is a questions which separates the knowledgable from the less knowledgeable Christian.
The response, of course, ought to be that it is the Holy Spirit who does the praying, not us. For example, Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:18 that we should pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. So however we are praying and whatever we are praying for, it should be the Holy Spirit who is doing the praying.
This whole area is discussed in more detail in "The keys To Growing Through Christian Meditation" at http://www,christianword.co.uk
But is it?
Establishing Our Priorities
Sometimes we are so caught up in our own problems and difficulties that we perhaps miss-remember what Paul tells us in Romans 8. 26. We behave as if he said that, when we do not know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit will pray on our behalf.
In fact, when we think about it, that would be a contradiction of Ephesians 6. 18. Of course, what Paul actually says in Romans 8:26 is that the "Spirit helps us in our weakness." This weakness is a general condition, not a specific one! For Paul goes on to say that "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." (New International Version).
Again note that there is a general statement here: "We do not know...", He does not say "On those occasion when we do not know what to pray for..."
We often think we know what to pray for. Some of us may consider that we always know what to pray for. We either ignore what Paul says, or we do not know what he says, or we do not want to meet what he says "head on", as it were.
In effect, we establish our own priorities in prayer. Moreover, we establish in them preference to whatever the priorities of the Holy Spirit happen to be.
Some Of Our Problems
There are several important problems which we tend to have in allowing the Spirit to establish his own priorities in our prayers.
1. We lack faith. We do have faith, certainly, but do we use it? If we don't, it will not grow. Here, we need to have sufficient faith to know that the Spirit does hear us and responds to us.
2. We lack trust. This is certainly a strict concomitant of faith. If we do not have sufficient of the former, we shall certainly be deficient in the latter! Can we trust the Spirit to pray through us? and for what is most needed at this time?
3. We lack experience. If we don't exercise our faith, and if we don't trust, we shall never accumulate that essential experience of allowing the Spirit to pray through us. We shall never know whether he does or doesn't
Establishing the Priorities Of The Holy Spirit
So how do we accumulate that experience? Simply by doing what the New testament tells us to do. In chapter 14 of John's gospel Jesus gives us a whole list of what the Spirit will do for us as a consequence of his indwelling.
If we really do believe in that indwelling of the Spirit, we should know that he is always there for us to turn to. And not least in prayer. In fact, looking at what Jesus says in this passage, prayer is by far the easiest way to learn how the Spirit communicates with us.
So next time we come to pray, we do not arrive with a self- generated list of what we think we ought to be praying about. Instead, we:
1. Make a deliberate effort to come to an internal state of quietness. There are various ways of doing that. One pray-er used to stand before his chair and reflect that here he was going to meet God. Or try a very reflectively prayed formal prayer. Or spend time bringing before God all those sins through which you have offended him since the last time you prayed. These are just helps at the start.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead your pray. Then "listen". Not for some inner or external voice to speak, but for the Spirit to speak his thoughts into your mind. They will like as not simply come as thoughts.
Have the courage of faith to follow them. Have the courage not to pray anything if nothing comes. The pastor of the largest parish in the world, Paul Youngi Cho says that he never preaches on Sunday what the Spirit has not given him on Saturday. If he receives nothing, he simply does not preach.
It is as simple as that. If you practice Christian meditation on Scripture this will all be very easy for you because one cannot properly meditate on God's word by doing it one's self. The Spirit has to do it. We learn how to let him. In the process one learns how to recognise the different ways in which The Holy Spirit speaks to us.
Although it is easier through meditation, we can still learn to listen and hear and be guided by him through other forms of prayer.

Why People Are Not Healed

Why are some people not healed when we pray with them?
This is one of the most recurrent questions in the Christian healing ministry. Everyone who has prayed with others for their healing has experience the apparent lack of response to their prayer. Yet the gospels lead us to believe that Jesus wishes everyone to be healed. Why, then, are some not healed?
In the book I wrote with my wife, "The Keys To Praying For Healing",(available at http://www.christianword.co.uk) we discuss this at some length. There is no simple answer to that question. A range of possible answers lies both with the pray-er and with the prayed-for. This article briefly considers the latter.
Investigating these sets of causes will greatly increase your effectiveness in praying with people for healing.
1. The Cause Can Lead To The Cure
This can often be closely related to the latter point. Find out all you can about how the condition came about. For example, were other people involved? Are they being blamed? Is God himself held to be blamed? The latter is not uncommon. Frequently the key to healing lies in the cause of the complaint.
Check-out as many possible factors like these as you can. Often time is very limited, of course. But some occasions do permit time for more thorough investigation. This is especially so if you hold healing sessions at home or through church facilities. There is no need to be crude about this. Just keep such possibilities in mind as you question the person.
2. Lack Of Belief By The Suffer
While this problem is most likely to arise in expected instances, there will also be unexpected ones. In the former case, one might expect "marginal" Christians to have little expectation of healing.Yet sometimes these people are remarkably open to the healing love of Jesus. They may seem to us to be on the fringes of Christianity, but there are sometimes quite, at least to them, valid reasons for their apparent lack of involvement in the Body of Christ.
Sometimes people whom we expect to be open are not. On occasions there are hidden reasons for this. If so, we need to try and discover them and, in difficult cases, tease them out. Sensitivity and a lack of judgementalism are extremely important in ministering. People will tend to close up in the face of crudeness and an apparent lack of real concern for them.
3. Lack Of Faith In The Pray-er
This is a problem almost always specific to lay people. It is perhaps of more concern in some denominations than in others. The problem is that some people can believe that God will heal, but through you ...? A minister, perhaps, but a lay person ...?
More often than not, this is a problem with people who have limited experience of the healing ministry. Be patient with them. As your reputation grows, the problem will go away. In the meantime try giving some witness to the way God has used you in the past to bring healing to people. Yes, there is a possibility of you sounding "big-headed", but that is a risk you have to take. Take it gentle, trying to bring such witnessing in almost casually, perhaps to illustrate a point or principle.
4. Unforgiveness
This is probably the best known cause for nonhealing occuring. Probably because it is at least one of the most frequently encountered! Surprisingly, it is also one of the most easy causes to deal with. Why?
People usually have a great instinct for self interest. If the person has some area of unforgiveness and are reluctant to forgive those who offended them, quote some such scripture as Matthew 6. 14, 15 to the effect that: if you will forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you will not forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins.
This usually works with considerable effect. That is partly because many people are are simply not aware of the conditions for receiving forgiveness. That kind of ignorance is one of the reasons why healing and teaching are complementary spiritual gifts.

Meeting Jesus In Meditation

There are many approaches to prayer. Not least because there are many different needs. But the greatest of all our needs is to get nearer to Jesus. The most powerful form of prayer for this purpose is arguably Christian meditation.
This article discusses some of the special aspects of Christian meditation
Sources Of The Benefits Of Christian Meditation Meditation has a very long history in Christianity and has taken various forms. But meditation on Scripture, and not least the gospels, is a kind which has great power.
How does the power come about?. From three sources: which work together to bring us closer to God:
1. From the Holy Spirit, of course. But this kind of prayer makes a very special kind of requirement on us and on the Spirit, and that is expressed in terms of
2. Faith. Obviously, the very act of prayer, any prayer, involves some kind of faith. But the degree of faith which this form of prayer demands can be quite different than in other forms of prayer.
3. Consistency. To really get into this kind of prayer one needs a daily commitment which is kept consistently. It is often said that "grace builds on nature" and that is very true. In this case it is true because we need to become habitually open to the way in which the Spirit works within us. We shall not achieve that unless we become habitual in our habits of prayer.
Essentials Of Christian Meditation
Christian meditation on the Bible is essentially straightforward in terms of what we do and the procedure we follow. However, there are many questions and issues which arise from the process. Too many to consider in a short article such as this. The subject receives an in-depth treatment in the book "The Keys To Meditation" by Keith & Iris Whitehead. But here we can indicate some of the essentials and some important benefits.
This kind of meditation should not be confused in any ways with types derived from Eastern religions, such as Hinduism. It is quite different and essentially Christian. Very often it is associated with Ignatius of Loyola because, after his conversion, he developed a particularly clear method of approach.
This involves reading Scripture in a particular way. At its essence is explicitly allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the nature and meaning of what, after all, he himself has written over the centuries.
The Subject Matter
For a Christian, the most important part of Scripture is the New Testament. While, we can meditate on the Old Testament, the former is, at least, the best place to start. Sometimes we meditate on the gospels; sometimes on the letters or Acts or Revelations. In the latter cases the approach is somewhat different in important respects to meditating on the gospels. However, it is meditation on the gospels which can bring us repeatedly face-to-face with Jesus in real and dynamic ways.
Some Of The Benefits Of Christian Meditation
The reality of meeting with Jesus in this way is a principle benefit. But it must not be either over-emphasised nor under-emphasised. The first is a danger because the actual experience of meditation will vary considerably from day-to-day or as between prayer periods on the same day. Few people with considerable experience in meditation would deny the reality of this meeting.
But some with limited experience may tend to overstress these encounters. They get carried away with what the Holy Spirit is providing for them over a particular period of time. But the Spirit deals with us in very different ways at different times.
On the other hand, these experiences are real, of great value and bring many blessings and should not be ignored. Certainly, we should avoid becoming "hucked" on them. That is a real possibility and must not be allowed to happen. People like John of the Cross have warned repeatedly about such dangers.
Allowing Freedom For The Holy Spirit To Work
Moreover, we need to allow the Spirit to balance the graces he is giving us. This requires mixing meditation periods on the gospels with other periods on, say, the letters of the New Testament, or the Psalms are a good source for beginning to meditate on the Old Testament.
One of the greatest benefits which a Christian has in his relationship with God is the very fact that God dwells within him. For example, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:12 that we have not received the spirit of the world, but we have received the Spirit who is from God. The reason for this is so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
When we do understand that, we understand that he needs to be given both the freedom and opportunity to work within us to the maximum possible degree. Only in that way shall we continue in the process of becoming like Jesus. That, after all, is what our lives are about.

A Matter Of The End Being Nigh?

For years, decades even, we have been assailed by "prophets", conference speakers, writers and similar to the effect that "the end is nigh". In other words, that we are living in the end times, that is, the end end times. The Second Coming will be here before you can get home today!!
The Track Record
Should we believe these people? On a probability basis the answer must be resoundingly negative. Christian have been assailed for two thousand centuries by people who claimed that the end is imminent. They were all wrong! Even so outstanding a disciple as Paul of Tarsus was wrong. Look at (probably) the very first letter he wrote (or at least, the first letter of his of which we have a copy, the First Letter to the Thessalonians, commonly dated to AD 50). This reflects his current view that the Second Coming would probably happen before tea-time!But it did not.
Clearly someone, somewhere, sometime is going to be right. Eventually. But in the meantime...?
Which begs the question as to how long the meantime will be, and that simply puts the original question in a different form.
So what grounds are there for believing that people today know better that Paul did in his day - Paul who was so very, very near to God? Does someone, anyone have the answer?
Who Has The Answer?
Well, Jesus told us who has the answer. Not himself, in his humanity, walking the earth: "No-one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:36)
If Jesus himself did not know, and if he has told us quite clearly that no one else knows either, why do we become so preoccupied in trying to predict the Second Coming? In trying to do something which he has implied is both impossible for us and is not our concern? If it was our concern the Father would not have hidden it and kept it from us
Our Legitimate Preoccupations
Are we so preoccupied with this question because the version of Christianity which we have is so insufficiently exciting that we need to contunually embellish it? hype it up (because we do live in an age and culture of hype)? give it a bit more spin (because we seem to have more spin in our culture than we have simple truth)?
Some may quote Jesus that we should know the signs of the time: "You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times." (Matthew 16. 3). But Matthew 24. 36 clearly over-rides this. Indeed, Jesus immediately went on to warn that "A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." And, it says, Jesus then left them and went away. When we become preoccupied with looking for, trying to discern, expecting the end times in our day, are we not putting ourselves in the same category? ThePharisees and Sadducees wanted a sign because what they had before them was not enough. But in fact, had they been able to discern it, what they had was considereably more than enough.
Paul's case was different. He simply mistook the situation. We cannot claim that. We have his mistake and 2000 years of history as a basis for knowing differently. To know the date the Father has determined is simply not in our portfolio to be concerned with. In a sense, it does not, or at least should not, matter to us whether the Second Coming comes at tea time today or in another 2000 years.
In either case, there will be primarily one judgement for each of us. Surely, our concern is to be ready for that - whenever it comes. How and when and where it comes is of no consequence, if only we are ready for it.