Do we want His ways or His deeds?

There was a time when Moses asked God to teach him his ways. In fact Moses' request went further than that; he goes on, in Exodus 33:13, to say "that I may know know you and continue to find favour in your sight". In his heart, Moses wanted to know God. He did not just want to know what God did, he wanted to know why he did it. He did not want to know about him, he actually wanted to know him, intimately.

This was something that marked Moses out from the other Israelites. He longed for God's presence. In Exodus 20:18-21 the people were afraid to get too near to God, instead they asked Moses to speak to them on God's behalf. Moses, however, did not hesitate to go right into the presence of God.

Over the past few days I have been meditating on this verse:

"He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel" Psalm 103:7 (NIV)

There is a difference between knowing God's ways and knowing his deeds. Fear stopped the Israelites approaching their Father; they were content to settle for seeing all the amazing things God did.

As wonderful as God's deeds are there is more. There is a door open for us to go through and experience who God is. Like Moses we can say "teach me your ways". As I have thought about this verse in Psalm 103 I have been asking the Father to show me his ways and not just his deeds. I don't want anything to stand in the way of me finding him and I hope as I find him, I will see more of his amazing deeds!

Fragile Heart

Fragile heart - don't shy away from me
I provided a place for you to stay
Fragile heart - don't turn your eyes off me
Come find your rest in me today

I will be your perfect father
I will love you like no other
I will love you like a mother
Still your thirst and meet your deepest need

I heal your heart
Restore the broken parts
Nothing you will miss
Receive the father's kiss

© 2010 Susi Haselhoff

Susi wrote this song a couple of weeks ago and sent it to me. To be honest for the first day or so I struggled to receive it as I did not think my heart was fragile nor in need of restoration. But as I have thought about these words and meditated on them I have begun to realise how true it is.

Just as we care for our physical heart so too, we need to look after our spiritual heart. It is easily wounded or hurt and can take a long time to recover from damage it has suffered. Tina Turner sang a song ‘What’s love got to do with it’ which contains the line “who needs a heart when a heart can be broken”. Our hearts break easily!

Our hearts are the source of our life and they need to be protected, healed and restored. There is a safe place where these things can take place and that is when we trust our hearts to our Father. His love will keep our fragile hearts safe and bring that restoration and healing we long for. God has promised to cleanse our hearts and give us a new heart (Ezekiel 39: 26), a new heart filled with his life and Spirit.

This morning I read Psalm 37 v4-5: "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do this."

Since receiving Susi's song I have sought to turn and gaze on him and let my heart find the place of rest he offers.

Workers or Sons?

Today I went to church. It's the church that our daughter goes to and the one I went to Sunday School at forty years ago!

During the worship I enjoyed the presence of the Father. The leader led with an openness of heart which drew us along with him. As a result we stopped being followers and became participators.

As a church they are about to start a building project and the pastor's sermon was about that. Though not about raising money, nor about all the wonderful work they might do from their new building. No, the pastor spoke to people's hearts and used Psalm 127 as his text. "Unless the Lord builds the house its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain."

His central theme was that anything we do in our own strength can be hard work, will lack rest and will not have the Father's blessing on it. His encouragement was that doing the Father's work will bring blessing and rest.

The Psalm contrasts those working on their own with sons. It is so easy to drift into doing things in our own strength and becoming weary and burdened. We can start labouring on our own and lose the rest and peace that comes from walking with the Father. Sons, on the other hand, can live in the promises and inheritance of the Father. Yes, they work and maybe they work hard but the fruit of what they do is a result of the Father's blessing and not their own hard work!

Ask for the Ancient Paths

This is what the Lord says: “‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’ But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16 NIV)

For a moment, consider the lives of Abraham, Moses, Noah and David.

Abraham was chosen by God to be the father of the nation of Israel. He was given a promise that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the heavens. Moses is referred to as the ‘friend of God’. He would go into his tent outside of the camp and talk face to face with God. Noah was found to be blameless and, in a time of great wickedness, was a man who walked with God. David, a man after God’s heart, was a worshipper and loved intimacy with God.

What they all had in common was that they walked closely with God. They knew about intimacy, worship and devotion. They knew who God was and were prepared to follow him, often at great personal cost. Their obedience to God did not come from a sense of subservience, but came out of a strong relationship. They knew God personally and intimately.

Of course, we know they weren’t perfect and some our favourite Bible stories are of occasions when they got things wrong.

In the book of Jeremiah we see God yearning for his people to know who he is and to return to him. In chapter 3 verse 19 he pours out his heart to them:

I myself said, “How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.”

As their Father he wants them to know that they are his sons and daughters.

In chapter 6 verse 16 he encourages them to look for something they have lost - the ‘ancient paths’ or the ‘good ways’. He is calling them to consider the ways of their forefathers and realise what they have lost by choosing to go their own way. He is calling them back to relationship with him, to walk in his ways, to intimacy with him and to find rest for their souls.

In this verse there are some pointers which may help us as we seek to find the ancient paths, or the good old ways.

First of all we are encouraged to stand at the crossroads and look. I guess many of us live busy lives where we move quickly from one thing to another without taking time to stop and reflect. But if we take time we may discover, or re-discover, pathways of life or, as Jeremiah says in chapter 2:13, springs of living water. Some of the ancient paths may be covered over and we may therefore have to search carefully for them.

The prophet encourages us to ask where the paths are. There may be occasions when we need to ask for help in finding the paths that lead to life.

Having stopped and looked, hopefully, we will find the paths that lead to life. As we choose to walk in these ways we can grow in our intimacy with the Father. We will realise more and more that he is our Father and we are his sons and daughters. For each of us the ancient paths may be something different as we may find intimacy in many different ways. This is because our relationship with the Father is unique to us.

Sadly, God’s people in Jeremiah’s day made the wrong choice.

If we choose to stop, look and find those ways he promises us ‘rest for our souls’.

Back from Uganda

Well, John and I managed to get back from Uganda the day before the great cloud of dust descended on the UK and Europe!

We had a great time doing a Fatherheart Ministries A School in Uganda. The team was Trevor and Linda Galpin, Jane van der Merwe, Mark Johnson (who is still stuck in Uganda), Ingrid and Winette from Mto Moyoni and myself. We stayed at one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on the planet - the Mto Moyoni retreat centre on the banks of the Nile.

On the school there were about 30 people from four nations: Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. There was a wonderful openness and desire in them to go deeper into Father's love. Ingrid and Winette had laid a fantastic foundation through their Fatherheart Encounters and Transformation weeks. This meant people came on the school having had a lot of their hurts healed and they were ready to grow as sons and daughters of the Father.

The teaching was well received and in the ministry times we knew Father was doing good things. During the school we ate traditional Ugandan food which was an interesting experience for us - having said that the cook at Mto Moyoni was excellent. The staff there were also very good and made our stay comfortable and enjoyable.

In the evenings we enjoyed different people's testimonies and also some African worship. All in all it was great fun and there is a hunger and desire for more.

At the end of the week I went to one of the villages where Helping Hands in Uganda is working. I preached in the church there and enjoyed more of the people whose lives are being affected by the work done by Joy and her team. Then on the Monday the whole team visited the school in Nankandulo where we took an assembly. We taught the children some songs, spoke to them about being princes and princesses and gave them crowns. We then visited our land and saw the foundations being dug for the first house.

Little by little there is change coming in the health of the community by the work being done by the Helping Hands team.

Of course there was a visit to a nice restaurant and swimming pool and a walk by the Bujagali Falls - but such luxuries are part of any visit!

There are a number of photos on my Flickr page.

The God of Great Expenditure

I have just read a very good book - "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller. A new and fresh look at the story of the lost sons in Luke 15. First of all he highlights the fact that sinners and tax collectors felt at home and were welcomed in the presence of Jesus. It was the teachers of the law and the Pharisees that could not receive Jesus and it was therefore to them that Jesus told the story.

Jesus told the story to the elder brothers not because he wanted to condemn them but because he wanted them to experience the same homecoming that the younger brother experienced.

This story shows us that both brothers realise there is a debt to be paid. The younger brother feels he owes the father something - that he has to provide restitution for his sin, that through sorrow and repentance he can put it right again. The older brother thinks the father owes him something for his life of unfailing duty. He believes that his life of moral conformity will cause God to hand out blessings and favour. In fact, the truth is, it is the overwhelming love and grace of the father that welcomes them both home.

The key to us entering the feast is not a debt being settled but it is whether we can receive the unconditional and lavish love of the Father.

At the end of the story the 'bad' son enters the party but the 'good' one doesn't. Let me quote you something from the book:

".... the elder brother is not losing the father's love in spite of his goodness, but because of it. It is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it's the pride he has in his moral record; it's not his wrongdoing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing in the feast of the father....... ..... This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from him by either breaking his rules or by keeping all of them diligently"

But to enter the feast there is a debt to pay. There is a cost. An elder brother who truly had the heart of his father would have gone after the wayward younger brother, sought him out and brought him back home to the father. He would have gladly shared his portion of the inheritance with the younger brother. The elder brother in Luke 15 could not do that BUT there is another elder brother who has done it and his name is Jesus.

And so, once again, this familiar story has new and previously hidden truths.....

Faith is the key to unlocking grace

Over this weekend I have been reading a few verses from Romans 4 and in particular the first part of verse 16:

"Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace...."

The promise which is referred to is a specific one made to Abraham but the principle of what Paul is saying is true for us all.

Faith releases the grace of God.

Faith is the key to us entering into the grace of God which is freely available for us. In Ephesians 2:8 we are told that it is by grace that we are saved through faith. And the wonderful thing is that the faith we need is given to us - the very thing we need to enable us to believe is not something we can work up but it is a gift.

The opposite of faith is not being able to rely on the Father. It is trying to do it on our own and in our own strength. If we are not relying on him then we are relying on our own effort.

Abraham's faith was what gave him the certainty that God would fulfil his word and promise. In the same way our faith is the key to the grace of God being released into our life.