“The way of God’s precepts! Does not that mean that we ought to be acquainted with the relative position which the precepts occupy, for it is very easy brethren, unless God gives us understanding, to preach up one precept to the neglect of another. It is possible for a ministry and a teaching to be lopsided, and those who follow it may become rather the caricatures of Christianity than Christians harmoniously proportioned.
O Lord, what foolish creatures we are! When you do exhort us one way, we run to such an extreme therein that we forget that you have given us any other counsel than that which is just now ringing in our ears….
Is fidelity to the truth your cardinal virtue? Take heed of being unloving.
Is love to God and man your highest aspiration? Beware lest you become the dupe of false apostles and foul hypocrites…
Oh how easy it is to exaggerate a virtue until it becomes a vice.
There is a way about the precepts: there is a chime about them in which every bell gives out its note and makes up a tune. There is a mixture, so much of this and that and the other; and, if any ingredient were left out, the oil would have lost its perfect aroma.
So is there an anointing of the holy life in which there is precept upon precept skillfully mingled, delicately infused, gratefully blended, and grace given to keep each of these precepts, and so the life becomes sweet like an ointment most precious unto the Lord…” (emphasis mine)
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, aka The Prince of Preachers
From “The Student’s Prayer” sermon, delivered 1877 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“You tell me this”, said Shaz* as we sat over coffee, “You tell me: if there was a homeless person lying in the gutter, would it be a Christian or a druggie that stopped and helped him? It would be the druggie every time.”
The parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. And I knew she was right.
I said “I agree with you Shaz.”
That stopped her for a second.
We had met for a coffee, but when we got there she refused to have one. Said she’s not paying that amount for a coffee. I offered to buy her one but she refused that as well. So I drank my coffee and she sat opposite me with nothing. Instead she had the sugar bowl. With a spoon she stirred and stirred as she spoke. The constant stirring was mesmerising and I had to tear my eyes away from it. Also it was easier than looking in to her tormented eyes the whole time.
But when I agreed with her, she stopped stirring for a second and said,
“Ha – we agree on something. What do we do now?”
Shaz’s and my relationship isn’t an easy one. To be honest, I have no idea how to handle her. And that’s something I constantly say to the Lord, believe me.
Before Shaz, I thought I was pretty experienced with all sorts of people. When we had our home church for the outcasts there were times where we had seven heroin addicts sitting around our table at once for lunch. We have had neo-nazi’s in our home, murderers, profoundly mentally disturbed people, lonely people, homeless ones, ice addicts, people I met while street preaching, whoever God sent. They were difficult and God always gave us grace for each one.
I first met Shaz in March. I preached at the homeless mission in the city and she was there. Full of anger, bitterness, hard, cold as anything, she told me what her father had done to her from a terribly young age. She asked me how God could forgive someone like that if he repented. And why would she want to go to a place (heaven) where that animal might possibly be? She spat at me that nobody has been able to help her, even Christians.
As I listened to her story my heart broke. And she was right too, I didn’t know how to help her. What the heck do I say to this woman who had been so wounded by the one who should have protected her? ‘Oh God’, I cried out in my heart, ‘help me! I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what to say to her.’
I didn’t know what to do, so I just put my arms around her little body, my head on her shoulder and cried. I sobbed. I said I am so, so sorry that this happened to you and I was. I cried and cried as she stood there silent, as stiff as a board while I wet her shoulder with my tears.
Then she moved away from me and I heard her swearing and cursing as she left. I said to God that I am sorry I failed. I couldn’t get through to her and I had no idea how to help her.
Two weeks later she was back at the mission.
She came over to me and said roughly, “the compassion you showed me that other night saved my life. I was going to go home and neck myself but after I met you I didn’t want to anymore.”
Then she swore and cursed Christians and left.
And pretty much that has been our relationship since. She clings to me, she pushes me away. She seeks me out, she runs and hides. Like a puppy who’s been abused and is scared of being hurt again. One time she came up behind me at the mission and hugged me. She literally clung to me. The anointing and love of the Holy Spirit came upon me so strongly that I just cried and prayed in tongues while I hugged her back. And she clung and clung. Then she ran out of the building.
As we sat at coffee that morning she cursed and called me a hypocrite. Everything I said to her was wrong, and she told me off the whole time. It was exhausting.
I left feeling like I had failed, yet there was an inexplicable joy in my spirit.
Two days later in the mail I got a card from Shaz in child-like, painstakingly neat handwriting saying that she can’t tell me this to my face but I am the only true friend she has ever had and that she loves me.
She said she doesn’t know how to be with “normal” people and that is why she hangs out with the street-people.
I cry for these ones. These ones who haven’t known love.
Not long after this we visited a local Baptist church, a good and decent church we sometimes go to. The pastor explained that they want to build a bigger auditorium to be able to seat more people at once to cut down on the number of services over weekends. To do this they are raising $2 million to replace the perfectly good auditorium they already have. I looked around and I knew that they would get that $2 million.
While I was preaching at the homeless mission on Saturday night my mobile phone was stolen.
It was an iPhone and contained my life on it – emails, access to this blog, photos, contacts etc. I saw the young lady touch my phone and I knew in my spirit that she was going to take it, but while I preached it didn’t even concern me, it simply left my mind.
But when I had finished it hit me that she had disappeared and so had my phone. And then I got annoyed, frustrated and concerned. Identity-theft, violation of privacy, indignation at her audacity all these thoughts and emotions were swirling around in my mind while I searched for her within the building and outside, all in vain.
And the other thing in my mind: that I was already being tested on the very thing I had just finished preaching about. I had spoken about broken-ness being the qualification in God’s kingdom for ministry. God’s breaking of the power of the flesh, the crucifixion of it. How He wants us to no longer react from the soulish realm, the realm of emotion and intellect, but instead to walk in the Spirit and live in His kingdom of love, forgiveness and mercy.
So we traced my phone by GPS and saw that she had walked down the road about 10 minutes and got onto a train. After that we lost trace of her.
I was mad, I won’t deny it. How dare she steal my phone? I was also mad at myself. Why didn’t I retrieve my phone when I saw her touching it?
I tried to call my stolen phone three times and she ignored it. She sent a message to one of my contacts telling them to tell me that I am not getting my phone back. I began to imagine all sorts of revenge scenarios. What I would say to her had I the chance! Thank God He didn’t let me talk to her then.
One of the things I had just preached about was how the natural man wants revenge and to “get his own back”.
I went home and changed all my passwords on everything. Then I sent her a message. A message to my own phone which was now hers. I knew her name because we had chatted before she stole my phone.
I told her that I forgave her for breaking my trust and stealing my phone. I told her I prayed she would find peace and blessed her and I shared the gospel with her over text. I prayed that God would convict her and bring her into His kingdom.
The next day we disabled the stolen phone and I got a new phone. Because the old phone was disabled I was now able to re-use my old number. That’s when the phone calls began.
A blocked number rang the first time and I answered. It was a guy asking who I am? I wouldn’t tell him but asked who he was. Then cursing and obscenities down the phone from him and a female in the background. I hung up. They rang back, my husband answered this time.
“Tell Belinda she’s not getting her phone back….” Then he told me husband all sorts of lies about me. Cursing and obscenities again.
They proceeded to ring all through the evening and even through the night. We obviously stopped answering the phone and rang the police. They advised me to change my number, which I have now done.
All I can say is that the devil was obviously very stirred up and was trying to provoke a fleshly reaction from me. If I had given in to it surely it would have been a defeat. But if we react in the kingdom way, of love and forgiveness, of blessing those who curse us, of praying for those who spitefully use us, then we will always have the victory over the works of darkness!
It began pretty much the same as usual, but at some point I noticed the Hare Krishna’s dancing their noisy way towards us.
Great
With their colourful clothes, tambourines and dancing they make it all but impossible to preach the gospel. They usually pull up in a wide circle in front of where we are preaching and dance and sing for sometimes 10-15 minutes.
Usually we get pushed to the sidelines amongst all the colourful chaos and the tourists bustling to take photos of them. Standing on the sidelines politely waiting for them to finish their worship ceremony to their false god is absolutely frustrating. It feels like Satan has got one over on us.
Something I’ve learnt: if you give Satan an inch – he will take a mile.
We are in a spiritual battle and being on the city streets you cannot forget it.
So tonight as they approached I grabbed the microphone and began preaching. As they came up to us I kept going. They waved to me, I waved back. I was polite, but not polite enough to stop. I preached:
“Jesus said ‘I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me”.
They kept going. I kept going: “There is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved, than the Name of Jesus!” Sometimes I just called out “Jesus! Jesus!” over their noise.
They stayed for maybe two minutes then gave up and left.
But then it happened…
As I was preaching, I began weeping.
Yes, weeping. In front of lots of people. It was weird. I couldn’t stop it. I felt God’s heart breaking for these lost sinners. I felt Him yearning for them to come home. It wasn’t me being emotional or sad – it was Him calling to them through me. I wept as I preached to them His heart.
But then I stopped preaching because I began to think. That can be a problem whilst preaching. The anointing lifts off when you start to really think, especially if you wonder what people are thinking of you. Now I kind of wish I kept going because that’s never happened to me before and I think I probably stopped it before God was done. Sorry Lord.
Important point: I believe God wants to raise up preachers who are broken for the sins of the people.
You see, there are preachers who preach the cold, hard truth of the gospel. They want the authority that gives them, but they don’t take any responsibility for the people.
Then there are preachers who in response to the above have taken out most of the truth of the gospel and replaced it with psychology or self-help or something else human. They want to take responsibility for the people, yet they have no God-given authority to do so.
God is raising up those who will “speak the truth in love”. We can get rid of neither love nor truth, and that is what so many have done.
God gives authority to those who will take responsibility. And being willing to take responsibility for others brings authority.
We need to speak the whole truth of the gospel – yes, including sin, the law, hell and judgment. BUT we need to speak the truth from a heart that has been broken for the people’s sins. We have no right to be preaching to people about whom we couldn’t care less. That is not God’s heart. That has never been His way. Think of Moses, Samuel, Jesus, Paul… We need to be willing to take responsibility for them by standing in the gap and interceding.
Preaching and intercessory prayer go hand-in-hand
Just as:
Authority and responsibility go hand-in-hand
May our mighty God bless you!
“If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one GO there UNWARNED and UNPRAYED for.” Charles Spurgeon
You go along fine for a while. And then all of a sudden…another wave descends, and you are plunged beneath the depths of it. It encompasses you and you have no choice but to let it carry you along for a while.
Then after you’ve been thrown around for a bit, after you’re soaked through with tears and your heart pierced with pain and memories, the grief sets you down and rolls away again.
Until the next wave….
Last August my friend Jenny went to be with the Lord. It was sudden, unexpected.
Four days after Jenny went, my Grandma also went to be Jesus.
I went into shock when my Grandma went.
Jenny called me “her angel”….Jenny was “my Jenny”.
Grandma called me “dearest”…..I called her my “Granny Apple-Bee”, or GAB for short.
I miss them so much.
I don’t understand why they had to go at the same time.
But I know Jesus. And even though it was terrible and painful and incomprehensible, and sometimes still is, yet will I trust Him. He is my life. Without Him I am undone.
My Grandma’s favourite hymn was “I am weak, but thou art strong”. OH Lord help me.
My Jenny’s favourite song was “The Song of Moses”. I still haven’t been able to listen to it since she went home but I am putting the link here for you to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF-Ald7IPfA in honour of her and my Granny-Apple-Bee. It is one of the most beautiful songs in the world, straight from Revelation 15.
I love knowing that they are with Him in heaven singing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb.
I woke up one morning with this in my head, and wrote it in my journal:
The cross is ugly,
The cross is beautiful.
The cross kills,
The cross gives life.
The cross is God’s hatred towards sin,
The cross is God’s love towards us.
On the one hand, the cross deals a death blow to pride, vanity and selfishness
On the other hand it’s beauty is evident by the suffering of a sinless Saviour
Who can say whether it is one or the other?
It is both.
For Jesus is meant death, pain and suffering,
If we follow Him, it will for us too.
But this is the only way to life and hope
You can’t have the life of the Saviour
Without first, having the death of the Saviour
You can’t take a short-cut
First the pain, then the relief,
First the sorrow, then the joy,
First the death, then the life
“Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it stays alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)
I used to think that God has a special place in His heart for the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless – and He does. But actually it is more than that. When God says to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the outcast to your home, to spend yourself on behalf of the poor (Isaiah 58) it is not just that He is being kind, it is because this is the very essence of WHO He is. This is God Himself, reaching down to us in our poverty, our need and our sin. When God came to earth as the man, Jesus, this was the ultimate act of sharing with the poor, serving the needy and clothing the naked. He could have stayed where He was, in the light and worship of glory, but He didn’t. He spent Himself on behalf of the poor, by coming to this dark, sin-sick, broken world. He not only identified with humanity by becoming clothed with human flesh, He went further. By His death on the cross He was numbered amongst the transgressors and although He never sinned, He took the punishment in the place of the transgressors of His divine law – you and me. This was the ultimate act of intercession. This was the ultimate act of giving.
Even a cursory reading of the Bible will show God’s heart towards the widows and fatherless, the oppressed and needy. Although we can never atone for the sin of humanity, that was His work alone, He does call us to share the burden of those who have been forsaken, trampled and broken. To allow ourselves to see suffering and need and not to walk on by. As Jackie Pullinger says “love looks like something”. Love can be sharing your food with the hungry, helping out a single mother, even inviting someone in for a coffee.
God is not interested in self-serving religion or religious activities that are devoid of His heart. In Isaiah 58 He condemns those who fast because “in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your labourers…Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?” (verses 3-7)
Of course it’s not easy. It’s not easy and it’s rather uncomfortable to allow yourself to see and identify with human need. It wars against our fleshly nature which is constantly crying out to us “Comfort! Convenience!”
It’s been hard for me. I am not going to pretend that I have found it easy. The hardest part for me has been the intrusion upon my own time. I am naturally a bit of a hermit at heart. I like my own time and space, and my own company. But because we have a food
pantry that is operated from our garage we do often have people turn up unexpectedly and at inconvenient times. In particular God has used one lady with serious mental health issues to crucify my flesh. It has been painful. From the start the Holy Spirit told me to never reject her, even in my heart. That has been hard and I admit, I have not always been able to do it.
But today again she came. I invited her in for a coffee. We spent a lovely time together and she ministered to me by singing songs the Holy Ghost had given her.
“I refuse to give up
I refuse to give in
I keep hanging on to the King of Kings
The Lord of Lords…”
As she was leaving my home she turned to me and said “Thank you for always making me feel welcome. Don’t’ ever lose that. It is so important to people who have been rejected.”
OH God, help us to hear the cry of your heart and to do it! To become people of action, rather than just of words! To do something, anything!
Hosea 6:5: "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."
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precepts occupy, for it is very easy brethren, unless God gives us understanding, to preach up one precept to the neglect of another. It is possible for a ministry and a teaching to be lopsided, and those who follow it may become rather the caricatures of Christianity than Christians harmoniously proportioned.
Grace and Truth 