Blind Eyes and Muddy Waters

Jesus is pretty amazing. I mean, he does a lot of really cool things. Every year when I go to Soul Survivor, Focus, Momentum, or other such places, I come back with all these amazing and crazy stories of the things that he did. Miracles, healings, salvation, transformation, the list goes on. I’m always astounded by what he does and what he lets me experience and see. And it makes me want to bring all my friends there, and let them experience it too. I want everyone to experience God and meet with him like I have, and so if they come to those places too they’ll see it.

So far in my look at the "7 Signs of the Messiah" in John, we’ve seen Jesus do some pretty amazing things; healings, salvation, miracles and transformation, and number 6 is no different;

"As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”” (John 9:1-12, ESV)

So Jesus has just met this blind man and healed him in an unorthodox way. Not only is it on the Sabbath, which was very controversial, but he puts mud in the man’s eyes, and tells him to wash it off in a pool (pretty unorthodox I think). Once the man washes his eyes, he is totally healed, and he can see for the first time in his life! And what is the first thing people ask when they see this transformation? “Where is he?”, "Where is this man who has healed you and transformed your life?". This question is both extremely stupid, (he has only just got the ability to see things. He has no idea what anything looks like, let alone Jesus to point him out to them!) and it is extremely challenging to us.

People were asking the man who was blind, "who did this to you and where can I meet him?". There was evidence in his life of a transformation and people wanted a part of that. And what is challenging for us is how often does the change in our lives make others want to know Jesus? How often do our friends and family see the effect Jesus is having on our lives and see it as something they want or need?

I think most of the time they don’t. I think most of the time they see us arguing about equality, sexuality or theology, which are of course important conversations to have. But when we’re talking about Jesus, and arguing about these things and not living lives that display the transforming power of Jesus. We are completely missing the point.

When I come back from a festival, I’m really excited about what God has done and what I’ve seen, and I want everyone to experience that. Often the way I think they need to experience that is by making them come to Focus or Momentum or Soul Survivor, which is amazing and they get to see God move in powerful ways. But if I’m taking people to an event to meet God then that isn’t going to transform their life unless God is in day to day life as well.

The exciting thing for us is that God is with us wherever we go. Psalm 139:7 says “Where can I go from your spirit” there’s nowhere we can go where God’s spirit is not with us, guiding us, speaking to us, transforming us. We just need to let him in and let him be a part of our day to day lives. Then not only will people see our lives being transformed by Jesus, but we can introduce them to him as well!

Let’s stop living lives where we limit God to Soul Survivor, Focus, or occasionally even church, and live lives where God is in everything we do.

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.

Seeing is believing but believing isn't seeing

There's a lot of things in life that I won't believe until I see it happen, and even if I see it, sometimes that isn't enough! I'm a bit of a Doctor Who fan, so if you're not bare with me. A couple of seasons ago we saw the Doctor shot dead in the first episode of the season by a mystery astronaut next to a lake somewhere in America. We then proceeded to see the events leading up to that death with everyone apart from the doctor knowing it was coming (that's time travel for you, dangerous!!). Anyway, for the whole season, right up until the final moments of the last episode we were told the doctor is dead, the doctor is dead, but something in me didn't believe it. I couldn't believe the doctor could be dead.

Of course he wasn't, but the point I am making is that I'm a natural skeptic, I find it really difficult believing things unless I see them or experience them myself, and I think part of that comes down to trust.

We've all been let down, some more than others, and that leads us to lose faith in people, and to stop trusting anything that isn't straight in front of us, and even then we may not be convinced!

In the book of John we are given 7 signs of Jesus throughout the book, all pointing to who Jesus was and the purpose of his ministry. The first one I talked about in my last post here, and the second is found in John 4 and addresses this issue of trust and faith in things we can't see.

"So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee." (John 4:46-54 ESV)

Here we see not only an incredible healing, but an incredible act of faith. This official, probably a roman guard or something, asks Jesus to come and heal his son in a nearby town. Jesus essentially says, "no, why do you need to see me do it, it's done, go home". OK, maybe not that bluntly, but I like to be dramatic! Anyway, the official's son was healed and because of that, the whole of his household believed, that's pretty good work for a healing Jesus wasn't even present at!

The official decided to choose to trust, and because he did, because he believed even though he couldn't see, Jesus healed his son. I know in my life, there are situations where I ask God to do something and can't see any evidence that he's doing it. Whether that's when praying for somebody to get healed, or praying that I'll get that job, choosing to trust is when, in the midst of our doubt we choose to place our faith in something greater.

It's interesting to note that the official asks Jesus to come with him and heal his son, but Jesus doesn't. Jesus chose to work from a distance. Just because you ask God to do something doesn't mean he'll do it in the way you're used to or expect him too, God is not bound by our preconceptions.

It's also important to point out that sometimes God doesn't answer our prayer at all in the way we expected. Sometimes people aren't healed, sometimes we won't get that job. That doesn't mean we shouldn't pray, and doesn't mean we shouldn't choose to trust, it means that we live in a broken world, but God is working to bring his kingdom through and in us.

Choosing to trust is about letting God bring his kingdom into that situation. Whether it's a healing or a job, we can be rest assured that choosing to trust even when we can't see what's happening WILL lead to change. Romans 8 reminds us that God has our best interests at heart and will always work for our good, however sometimes that's not in the ways we expect it.

Whatever our situation, the exciting thing about this passage is that if we choose to trust, God can bring his kingdom into any situation. Small or big, visible or invisible, we can know that our prayers will make a difference because we know that, seeing is believing, but believing is not always seeing. However when we choose to trust, we will see change in our situations because God is for us and working all things for our good!

Come As You Are

I’m quite a self conscious person, I always feel like I’m not good enough for the thing I’m doing, the people I’m with, or the environment I’m in. I’m constantly trying to change who I am so that I’ll fit in better, or be accepted by people.

Through social media we’re able to portray ourselves as these perfect individuals, post the bits of our lives that we think will help us be accepted more and untag the bits that embarrass us. We’re constantly living an edited, superficial life, trying our best to make sure that people don’t see us for who we truly are, for fear of them rejecting us.

And sometimes, we do it with God.

We think, in order that God can accept us, let alone use us, we need to be something other than ourselves. We think God only accepts perfect people, that God can only use people who have it all together, people who don’t make mistakes, swear or watch Eastenders. We think that the amount God loves us and the extent he can use us matters on what we have to offer him. But that’s totally missing the point…

In the book of John, Jesus is at a wedding party, and they run out of wine. I’m sure we’ve all heard the story, but here it is anyway:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. (John 2:1-12, ESV)

So they've run out of wine, and Jesus' mum comes and asks Jesus to do something about it. What does Jesus do? He asks the servants to run him a bath, and then take some of that bath water and give it to the master of feasts. This bath water has suddenly transformed into the best wine of the party.

Somehow what was water becomes wine.

Like I said, often we feel like we need to be something special before God will accept us or use us. We think that we need to become some kind of super human before we can ever be good enough to be used by God.

But all he wants is bath water, because he can do the rest.

All he wants is for us to be ourselves, without putting on a front, without untagging the messy bits, just out plain imperfect selves, because it's not about us it's about him. 2 Corinthians 4:7 tells us that we are just simple, cracked jars of clay, which Jesus puts his treasure in!

Jesus is calling us to come as we are, warts and all and let him use us and change us into what we need to be.

Let's stop trying to live edited, superficial lives that project an image of who we think we should be. And let's let Jesus into our broken, messy lives and let him make something beautiful.