When the worst place to be is the best place to be.

It's nearly the end of January now, and the joys and thrills of Christmas are but a distant memory. The tinsel is away in the cupboard, the Christmas chocolates are long since gone and the glees of December have been overshadowed by the glooms of January.

We are back to real life, and real life can be hard.

I think as a Christian, I get a similar feeling to this whenever I come back from an amazing time with God. Whether it's Momentum, an Alpha weekend or an amazing encounter at church, I come back on fire! But then sooner or later real life kicks in and I seem to lose the joy, lose the passion, lose the fire.  I come down from the mountain and into the valley of real life and it is HARD.

In John 6 the disciples saw Jesus do an amazing miracle, turning a boy's packed lunch into enough food for 5,000 men plus women and children. (You can read about it in the previous post in my John's 7 signs series thing here.) After this happens, Jesus withdraws to pray, and the disciples head across the river in a boat...

"When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going." (John 6:16-21)

It's amazing to see how quickly the disciples go from being excited and amazed at the power of Jesus, to being scared of Jesus. It's crazy to think that that very afternoon they'd seen Jesus do miracles, and then by evening they've already let "real life" take over.

But the amazing thing is, Jesus meets them in that place.

Jesus meets us in the good times and the hard times, he walks out across the storm and comes towards us, and when we get scared he says to us “It’s me. It’s all right. Don’t be afraid.” (The Message). He is with us!

So often in situations I feel like God is far away, or now I've left the mountain top somehow I've lost God. But what is amazing and what I need to remember more and more is that God has not left me! He's not forgotten me. He's walking out into the stormy mess of my life and is saying to me "It's all right, it's me, don't be scared, I'm WITH you."

The other amazing thing in this passage is that as soon as Jesus gets into the boat with them, they arrive at their destination. Now I'm not saying here that as soon as we let Jesus into our tough situations the tough situations will stop, our lives will suddenly be back on the mountain and everything will be fandabydozy.

When we let Jesus into our lives he doesn't take away our storms, but as we let him in suddenly we aren't focussing on the storm anymore. We realise that he is with us and that means we are in the safest place we could possibly be.

Whether we're in an amazing place with God, or struggling to find him in the storm, let's know that the same Jesus is with us and alongside us no matter what! And because of that what seems like the worst place to be is the best place we could possibly be!

When not enough is more than enough.

I've got a friend who's mum is amazing at parties. Every time I go to their house for a party, there is always a never ending spread of mouthwatering delicious food on offer. And there is always enough, she will make sure of it. What's even more amazing is that often we've all been told to bring a dish with us, so everyone will turn up with their sausage rolls, breaded chicken, cous cous and breadsticks and somehow she's divinely arranged it that there's still a balanced spread of food and just an entire table of chocolate gateaux, (although I personally wouldn't complain). I've never been to a party there and gone hungry, or thought there was something missing from the meal, every time she manages to crack it and orchestrate the best spread possible! It's amazing!

As you know I've been going through the book of John here, and I'm specifically looking at 7 events in the book which are signs of why Jesus came to earth and what his ministry was about. The first was Jesus turning water into wine, the second Jesus healing the official's son, then came him healing the invalid and now we are onto the forth. And here we see Jesus do something very similar to my friend's mum, except on a much bigger scale with much less food to begin with...

"After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself." (John 6:1-15 ESV)

Here we see that when we bring stuff to Jesus, not enough is more than enough.

Imagine being there, on the mountain with Jesus, feeling absolutely starving, and seeing a young boy bringing Jesus his packed lunch. I can imagine being impressed by the sacrifice the boy made, giving up his packed lunch for Jesus, and it would probably also reinforce my hunger a lot more as well no doubt. But then we'd see Jesus taking these 5 loaves and 2 fish and breaking them up amongst his disciples, giving them some food as well, that's good leadership, making sure your team are fed, great job Jesus!

Then something amazing happens, we see Jesus' disciples start handing the food out, and we get our portion and there's enough to fill us up and it manages to feed 5,000 men and their families with 12 baskets left over! How has this Jesus done it? Made not enough, more than enough?

This miracle is exciting! It's exciting because when we come to Jesus so often we feel like we don't have much to offer, like we can't do anything because our contribution is so tiny, so insignificant, so unimpressive that we think how is that going to make any kind of difference in this situation. But this sign shows us that when we let Jesus take it, not enough is more than enough. Because when we give it to Jesus he transforms it.

I often hear about the injustices in the world, the fact that today 22,000 children will die due to poverty, the fact that there are still 27 million slaves in the world, the fact that nearly half the worlds population live on less than £1.50 per day. I hear about these TERRIBLE injustices and I'm compelled to do something, but I'm also discouraged because I think about how small I am and how insignificant my contribution would be. I know I'm not on my own in thinking that my contribution is pretty useless. But this miracle gives us hope.

It gives us hope because it shows us that when we bring our contribution to Jesus, he makes not enough more than enough! When come to Jesus with the little we have to offer, the little we can do in these situations, he can take something small and make a huge difference.

Time and time again through history we see people have an enormous impact on a situation simply because they offer the little they have to Jesus and he makes it more.

What little can we offer to Jesus today, that he can take, and make into something more? What is on your heart to make a difference in but you feel like your contribution won't make a difference? What's in your packed lunch that Jesus can use to feed the multitudes?

Let's go for it, because we know that if we give our little to Jesus, he can do an extraordinary miracle. With him, not enough is ALWAYS more than enough!

He found love in a hopeless place.

I think we all know what it feels like to feel rejected.

Most of my life at primary and secondary school I can remember being bullied. I can't remember when it started, I can't really remember why it started, but people always found a way to put me down and make me feel de-valued and alone. Why wouldn't they? I was small, I didn't fight back, I was an easy target.

I know I'm sadly not the only one who has very few good memories of school, and often the things that are said over us, and the labels people put on us, that have a nasty habit of sticking with us for years to come. They become ingrained in our identity, part of who we are and what makes us, us, good and bad.

In John 5 we find another of the signs that Jesus does to show us why he came to earth, and we hear a little bit about the kind of person Jesus came for.

'After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.  Now that day was the Sabbath.  So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”  But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well!  Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.  And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them,  “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”' (John 5:1-18 ESV) 

Here we see the story of a man who's been an outcast his whole life. This man, 38 years old, had spent most of his life at this pool in Bethseda, with no one to help him, no one to talk to him, and a label of being unclean, unvalued and unimportant.

But then he meets Jesus.

Then he encounters this unconditional, unending, unquenchable love that transforms his life. Jesus doesn't see him as the rest of the society saw him. Jesus doesn't judge him. He doesn't label him. He doesn't put him in a box and treat him differently to everyone else. He just loves him. And this man gets healed.

Total identity change. The man who was unclean is now clean. The man who was unvalued know feels valued again. The man who was unimportant now knows he is SO important to God. His life is transformed! But not only that but he then meets Jesus again in the temple and Jesus affirms to him "you're well, you don't need to live that sinful lifestyle anymore, you've been forgiven". He's not only changed on the outside but he's washed clean on the inside. How amazing is that?

But this didn't go down to well with the religious people at the time. Jesus had broken the rules, he'd worked on the Sabbath, he'd not done things the way they wanted to. You see they'd got so comfortable with their way of doing things, labelling people, preaching at people, telling people the law.. They'd forgotten the whole reason the law exists. They'd forgotten to love.

When Jesus was asked by a Pharisee to what the most important command was, he said it was to Love God with everything you have, and out of that love everyone else including yourself. And he said that all the law makes sense through this, that this is the point of the law, to help us do this.

And you know so often I think the church forgets this. So often we forget that we are first and foremost called to love people. We are called to love people with the same love that drove Jesus to the man in Bethseda. With no motives, no prerequisites, no catches. Just love them. That's it. We feel the need to place people in boxes, give people labels, if we love people it's to make them like us.

Why is it when you look at the news, the way the church, God's people comes across is for what we are against? The labels we put on people and the boxes we put them in, and the fact that we don't accept people because they are 'sinners'. Why is it that we have gone from setting people free to making them feel outcast and unaccepted?

This New Years I was at Shift, and we were challenged to stand up and say something we want to see shift in 2014, I said I wanted to see the church known for what are are for and not what we are against. I want to see us known for loving people unconditionally and not expecting anything back. For giving people value and acceptance and welcoming people no matter who they are.

Let's stop being a church that pushes people out and rejects them. Let's stop being a church that's only known for what we're against. And lets be a church that introduces people to Jesus, and loves people no matter what.

Because that's what Jesus would do.