Cartographer for Christ

A New Vision

I've had this blog, entitled Alive with Christ for a long time now, and I have posted very infrequently on a range of topics over the last few years. Today I have decided that I would repurpose this blog a little, to tie it in with my current employment, as a Cartographer (i.e. a map-maker), and to talk about how my faith in Jesus affects all areas of my life including my job.

Cartography is an art-form with a very specific use, to aid people to navigate the world around them. I would argue that Jesus plays a very similar role in the life of a Christian, guiding them by His Spirit and helping them to navigate the world around them, in particular the spiritual dimension that is not visible to us, but that we can sense through our own realisation of our sin and the problems with the world. Therefore, I feel there is a nice link between Cartography (with its aim of helping to navigate the physical world) with a relationship with Christ (His aim to help navigate the spiritual world).

I am sitting here in my living room at 20 minutes past ten in the evening on Tuesday 12th April 2022 thinking about the state of the world right now. As if the world hasn’t gone through a lot of horrible things in the last couple of years due to the global pandemic of Covid-19, in the last month and a half we have seen Russian forces invade the Ukraine, with millions of Ukrainians fleeing the country and looking for refuge in neighbouring countries and further afield as well. 

This is not to mention the other conflicts going on around the world in: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, Somalia, Kenya, Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Iraq, Colombia, Venezuela, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, Tunisia, Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Egypt, Bangladesh, North Korea, South Korea, Peru, Artsakh, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Angola, Morocco, Saharawi Republic, Thailand, Senegal and Paraguay.

Looking at that list I am staggered. The capacity of man’s inhumanity towards his fellow man is vast, and it may cause me to be hopeless. And this is just the list of nations with armed conflict taking place, there are countless other crimes and acts of unspeakable violence and depravity carried out across our globe on a daily basis. Stories that I saw on the news today included: the sentencing of the man who murdered the MP for Southend, Sir David Amess,; the horrifying statistics of rapes and sexual offences in England and Wales for 2021 and a mass shooting on a Brooklyn subway station. 

Of course there have always been natural disasters like the landslides in the Blue Mountains that devastated one family last week, or the storm in the Philippines causing floods and landslides. The world is not a place of hope right now, no it feels very much a place of despair.

But, this was not how it was meant to be. God created the world and He declared it to be good, but after mankind turned away from God and rejected his plan for us, the world was cursed by the bad things that we do against one another and against God. Sin entered the world, and even if we don’t care to admit it to ourselves very often, we know that in our deepest innermost feelings we feel something is not right within our very being. We have a conscience. We can grieve and mourn with those who have lost loved ones, and we want to see justice done when people hurt us. We are made to hope for what is good, what is true and what is right. 

The story of the first Easter is how God sent His son Jesus to die in our place to take away the wrong things in our lives and hearts, and to make us new again, to restore us to who he wanted us to be in the first place. Jesus came to bring us hope, and as it says in John’s Gospel, He is the light of the world, and darkness can not overcome Him. 

The darkness we see around us, the pain and suffering, all of it has a cost. And Jesus came to pay that cost, by taking all the wickedness of man upon Himself, and giving us His freedom. Jesus came not only to shine a light into the darkness, but to pull us out of darkness and to restore us back to the light. So the Easter message is a message of Hope, that even in the darkest of times, we can look to what Jesus has done for us on the Cross and find hope that one day all things will be put to rights. All evil will be undone, justice shall be carried out, and there will be no more weeping, pain, sorrow, loss, mourning or suffering again, for the old order of things will have passed away for good.

I am probably as surprised as you that I am writing on this blog so soon after the last entry, but I have been thinking about what the new year of 2021 means, and instead of allowing the thoughts to simply percolate in my head, I want to pour them out in what will hopefully be a cherry warm message of hope.

As I was sitting last night waiting for 2020 to be over and for 2021 to begin it was blindingly obvious to me that so much had gone wrong in the world since we said goodbye to the (now dim and distant) 2019. The biggest of those has been COVID-19, but there have been a number of rising issues that have been building for a while now, and as I usually see the world with a glass-half-empty, it has been difficult to see past these issues. But, the sufferings of 2020 are not new, they are as old as the world. Humanity has fought off many worse and more deadlier diseases/pandemics and continued to live on, but there will always be casualties. There will always be pain, suffering, mourning and death. 

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul informs us that the world has been “subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope” (Romans 8:20) 2020 has been a difficult year for many - losing loved ones; losing jobs; losing security, but even though this may feel like we are lost alone in the darkness, I believe that there is always Hope. And that hope is the son of God and son of man, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrated just a week ago. 

Paul tells us that Jesus, and therefore, God, subjected creation to futility - i,e, the world was cursed to not be as it was made to be. Something went wrong (and we see that in Genesis chapter 3) and the world became a place of death, destruction, disease, famine, war, plague, hatred, greed, because that was what was in the hearts of men. The true darkness of 2020 lies in the actions, thoughts and deeds of men, as we have mistreated our fellow brothers and sisters through selfish desires, wrong thoughts or blatant tyranny. What hope is there for anyone when we cannot fix the hopelessness of the human heart?

The answer is of course, that we need the hope that Jesus offers. He is the light to those in the darkness, He is the way to those who are lost and He is the truth to those who are misguided. Paul also writes in that same chapter of Romans that “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (vs, 18). Yes 2020 has been a year of hurt, yes undoubtedly 2021 will bring more pain and hurt to many, but if you are truly lost in the darkness of despair, then the only step you need to make is to turn towards the light. 

Throughout 2020 we have seen that hope is always present, whether in the hard-work of our medical professionals, or in the dedication of many to do their part to help out, the darkness has never overcome the light. Jesus offers to be our light in the darkness, to help us walk along a dark path, and to take the steps of faith that we need to, in order to get to where we need to be. And Jesus offers his Hope to all in the world who are ready and willing to accept Him as Lord and Saviour.

For all those who are trusting as Jesus already, then I want you to accept that 2020 may have been a difficult year, and that there may well me more troubles to come in 2021, and let this go. Because Jesus promises to set us free from worry and anxiety, that doesn’t mean we will never worry or that we will never be anxious, but it does mean that we don’t have to choose to allow our fears to have power over us any more. Instead, we can offer these up to Jesus, in prayer and petition, and surrender our troubles to the one who is able to do immeasurably more that we can ask or imagine.  

And for those who may not be a Christian, or perhaps have been shaken in their faith, especially in light of the difficult year that 2020 has been, I don’t have a cure for what you may be feeling right now, but I do know someone who can help. His name is Jesus, and if you do one thing in 2021, then asking Him to draw close to you so that you may begin to know Him is the best thing you can do right now.

For me personally, 2020 has been a mixed year of blessings (safe arrival of my second nephew, and my two sisters’ weddings) and sadness (minimal time with family, especially at Christmas/working from home - missing work colleagues, etc.) So as I think about the words of Paul in Philippians 1:20, “according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” 

Or in the words of the hymn: 

Jesus, all for Jesus All I am and have and ever hope to be 

2020 has been a very difficult year for us all for a variety of reasons, but it would be remiss of me to not mention that Covid-19 is the root cause of most of these. And as we are now in the final run-up to the Christmas season and the hopeful bright future a 2021 will bring, I want to pause and think about what Christmas really is.

The word Christmas is derived from the term Christ’s Mass, and refers to the coming together of the people of God to celebrate and remember the Christ (Messiah/Saviour), Jesus. Therefore, for Christmas to be properly observed there must be a coming together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Masses in various Christian traditions were held for a lot of the Saints throughout history, and they would usually involve a church service where people could come and remember the works and life of the Saint. Christmas, therefore, is a time when Christians come together to remember the great gift of Jesus, the Christ, who came as a man to save us from ourselves.

The beginning of John’s Gospel chooses not to focus on the traditional Nativity story that the world still has a great familiarity for (even if the message is perhaps lost on them). Instead, John begins by talking about the Word becoming flesh and making his dwelling among us (John 1:14a). To clarify what John means, we need to look back at the beginning of the Gospel. In vs. 1 he writes, “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is another name for Jesus, primarily because Jesus is how God chose to communicate with the world. Jesus is literally how God speaks to us, so he is embodied as the “Word”. But, notice Jesus is at the same time both with God, and God. How can this be? Well, the Trinity of God is a core Christian belief that there is one God, with three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and they are all God, but they all have their own personhood.

This means that Jesus when he came as a man on earth, was God incarnate – he chose to limit himself by becoming as we are – frail bodies of flesh that ultimately die. And if you are familiar with the rest of Jesus’ story he grew up and was rejected by the masses (as John also writes), and was executed on a cross. That was precisely why Jesus came, as a sacrifice for the whole world that they may be reconciled to God: “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)

The Christmas story then, I believe, has a relevant message of hope for the dark times of today. John spoke of Jesus coming as the true light to give light to everyone in the world (John 1:9) and that darkness could not overcome this light (John 1:5) I think that so often the world has removed Christ from Christmas – it becomes all about the celebration of some half-remembered story of long ago. A virgin birth (seems unlikely), some shepherds looking after sheep, gifts of Gold, incense (and something else), a stable full of farmyard animals, a star shining in the sky, wise men from the East and maybe just maybe a small infant lying in a manger.

This year then is perhaps a bit different what with the new regulations that will have affected so many people’s plans for Christmas. The “mass” part may no longer be a reality, i.e., we may not be able to be with the ones we love to celebrate together, but perhaps this year the more significant part of the word “Christmas”, aka Christ – the anointed Saviour in the personhood of Jesus, may become more of the focus – I truly pray that this is indeed the case. There is a verse in Cliff Richard’s song Mistletoe and Wine, that I think encapsulates the true meaning of Christmas perfectly, and it is thus:

“It's a time for giving, a time for getting

A time for forgiving, and for forgetting

Christmas is love, Christmas is peace

A time for hating and fighting to cease”

Looking back to August 2009, I turned 18 at the start of it with a phenomenal surprise Doctor Who-themed birthday party. A week later I saw my brother Pete marry Stacey! A couple of weeks after that I remember getting my A-Level results, and finding out on a French or Italian motorway that I had not got into Southampton University (my 1st choice). This was not what I wanted. And yet, looking back the following year was a really valuable one to me, because it prepared me for a lot of changes that were going to come my way. And I think it was a bit like wandering around in the wilderness with no real idea what was to come, but on looking back God always had a clear path for me to make it out of their and into the life he had for me.

A year later after reapplying, I did get in to Southampton, and so in Autumn 2010 I came, saw and immediately got panicked about the idea of being left alone. Thankfully I met the CU, and had a number of good friends in my Hall group. One of which, Matt, I met the first week of term, and we have remained really good friends to this day (In fact I saw him just last week (almost 9 years on from our first meeting). 

The following year I joined the Navigator student group, who I would later go on to serve with after Uni to the Present day. Getting involved in things like the planning of events, doing talks, designing publicity and even attempting the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for a trip to Norway and Latvia. (That is a very funny story that I will have to tell you about another time). 

The summer of 2013 was most definitely mixed. I was due to Graduate and start working for the NAVS as an intern for a year. And I was going to Norway and Latvia on a missions trip. Sadly, in the first few days we lost one of our team in a hiking accident. Amidst this great sadness and despair, came a real sense of the peace and Love of God, and during that week in Norway with a great number of friends, I felt closest to God than I have ever experienced before or since. 

5 years ago, I remember coming back to Southampton with no job, and no real idea what I wanted to do. I soon found a voluntary job writing CVs, and found that I was very good at it. I then got baptised that December. My voluntary job became, part-time and then full-time, but by the following Autumn (2015) I was out of work again. 

In the summer of 2015 I had been on holiday with my family to a French house (and we just returned there 4 years on 2 weeks ago) I then had 4 months of unemployment, which was no easy thing. Remember that friend Matt I told you about, well he came to see me at the end of that four months, and would you know, the next day I answered a phone call (something I usually thing at least twice about doing) which was about a temporary admin job. I then went to see them and they found me an Agency job working at the OS for 3-4 months.

Well that job ended up lasting just over 2 years, and eventually led to me being hired full-time by the OS last August (1 year ago), after I had made my third trip to Norway with the NAVS. Within the last 2 months, I have now been made a permanent member of staff at the OS! Isn’t God Amazing.

And if I cast the net wider to what's happened in my family. Well just 3 days ago my youngest sister Anna got engaged to Ben, a couple of months back my older sister Laura got engaged to Patrick, and last October my middle sister Lydia got married to James. And I also have a wonderful nephew Caleb and a beautiful niece Grace, children of my brother Dave and his wife Vicky. I was also given the great honour of being made a Godfather to a good friend's youngest child! (quite a feat as I am a 5th child, and so is he)

So as I think back on 10 years ago, and look at all the amazing things God has done in my life and the lives of those around me, I want to reassure you that God is in everything. It may not seem so at the time, but I can honestly say that over the last 10 years, God has been with me every step of the way, through the highs and the lows. In the darkest storms of life, to the calm meadows of existence. And my life has been all the better for it. 

If you had told me ten years ago today, that I would be working as a Cartographer for the OS, that I would have given numerous Bible talks to small/medium groups of people and that i would have been on three trips to Norway, I would never have believed you. All I can say is that I hope the next 10 years will be as interesting, if not more so, and that God would continue to guide me for all of my days. 

Tonight is a night that I have never celebrated, and have always avoided as much as possible. The reason being that it is not merely childish fun to dress up as the denizens of the night, but actually represents something darker and more twisted than we can imagine. 

As Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 6 vs.12:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

You see, there are evil forces at work in our world that we night to stand firm against and resist. Paul encourages the Church as a whole to put on the armour of God to stand against them. Also in one of his letters, Peter encourages us to resist the Devil who he describes as prowling around like a lion waiting for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5 vs. 8-9)

Coming back to the subject of Halloween, why do I hold such a strong opinion that it is not good to be involved in this so-called holiday? Well the answer being that it is all too REAL. I have no problem with enjoying fiction and fantasy, but where I make the distinction is that by dressing up as evil figures, you are effectively accepting them as false, because they become a mockery.

However, as I have already stated, there is evil in this world, and it is not always evident where it comes from. Yes, humans are capable of committing terrible acts of hatred and violence, but worse is the enemy we don’t see. By allowing our Children to dress up as evil creatures, demons, witches etc. we fool ourselves into thinking they are fake and that we are safe from them. But, that is not the case. 

I don’t want to come across as preachy, so I will end my post there. I thought I would share why I've always had a great issue with this day, and perhaps my insights will speak to others. 

Good Night and God Bless,

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘hope’? The Oxford English dictionary defines Hope in the following ways:

“A feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen:”

“A person or thing that may help or save someone”

“Grounds for believing that something good may happen“

“A feeling of trust”

“Want something to happen or be the case”

Hope is the idea that we desire something to happen to change the situation we’re in for the better. Either we need saving from something, or we want something good to happen to us, but there is an inherent need in the human heart to hope in something.

Why is this? I believe that we hope for a perfect world where bad things no longer happen, because that is what we were originally created for. God, in his great love, made us to dwell with Him in perfect peace and love. But, we rebelled, we rejected this freedom and instead bound ourselves up in selfish desires. We put our Hope in something other than God, and that is why we now find ourselves in a horrible world full of pain, desperation and misery. 

Yet, hope remains. Against all odds, we still look for the light to swallow up the darkness. And we can have Hope for the future in the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

But what about now? Pain and suffering are still with us. Very recently I lost a close member of my family, suddenly and sadly. How can we have hope in this day and age, surely Faith is an outdated crutch that needs to be thrown away and we need to forget about God...Not so. 

The Hope we have in Jesus is not just for the future, it is for the here and now. God never promises that we will have an easy life if we choose to follow Him, instead He promises quite the opposite, but that does not mean that we are without hope. 

When Jesus left the Disciples before going up into heaven he promised them his Spirit:

“If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

John 14 vs. 15-17

Yes we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, guiding us in our thoughts, words and actions. But, how does this give us hope? Well, Jesus promises that He will be with the Disciples forever (Matthew 28) and the Spirit is the living proof of this. God dwells inside of all of those who Love Him and who keep His commands. 

Hope does not give us all the answers, that is not the purpose of Hope. Instead it gives us a focus, something to look towards, something to build our lives around, in the good times and the bad. Our hope is in Jesus, the eternal Saviour who has come to restore and redeem the world to Himself. That is what the Cross is about. Not segregation, but inclusion. Not judgement, but mercy & forgiveness. Not death, but LIFE. And life to the FULL.

If we take the idea that our universe happened by chance, either by the Big Bang or some other chaotic “miracle”. Then ultimately, what value can we put on Life? And more troubling, what value can we ascribe to hardship, to pain and suffering and loss? If the human race is nothing more than an accident, why is suffering a bad thing? 

We know as humans what actions are good and bad, and why different hardships and suffering is painful. We know there must be meaning to this pain, because we feel it so deeply. My answer would be that because we are aware on some base level that the world is not all it’s cracked up to be, that there must be something more meaningful out there.

Believe it or not, it is very difficult to not put your hope in/on something. The easiest place to base our hope is in other people, our partners, family or friends. They, however, will not be able to sustain your hope in them, because inevitably they will let you down. 

Perhaps you put your hope in your Work, Study, Qualifications, Wealth, Status or whatever. But this hope is fragile. All of these things will fail in the end, or become utterly meaningless. 

The only true sustainer of our Hope is Jesus. He can live up to the Hope that we place in Him, because He has been in our place on this earth, been tempted and resisted, and been risen after death into Glory. 

As Paul writes in his letter to the Church in Rome:

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  Romans 5 vs. 2-5

We place our Hope in Jesus because of His great work, and because of this we can rejoice in our sufferings, because He has poured His love into our hearts. He is transforming in us even amidst the pain and suffering of this world. God is Sovereign. And He loves us, and allows us to endure pain and hardship because it develops our character and causes us to grow into who He has made us to be. 

Paul also writes: “Who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” 

Romans 8 vs. 24-25

What Paul communicates here is that it is foolish to hope for things that are visible to us now. A simple example of this point might be saying “I hope it’s not raining” after looking out on a perfectly sunny day, where it is clear that it is not raining. But, if you say “I hope its’ not going to rain tomorrow,” you are looking forward to something yet to come. This is a simplification of what Paul is getting at here, but ultimately what Paul hopes in is the LORD Jesus Christ, and He is worth waiting for with patience, and we can have certainty that He will return, because God never goes back on a promise.

As it says in Hebrews 12 vs. 1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of our Faith, and He is also the Hope that sustains as as we run the race marked out for us. We are running to Him.

God Bless, and thanks for reading.

Over the last couple of weeks the study group I'm part of has been looking at the theme of grace. Particularly the totally undeserved Grace that God pours out on us through the sacrifice of His Son on the Cross.

In the last study something really stood out to me about what God's Grace really means for those who believe and follow Him. We are free to identify as God's heirs and children and therefore are HOLY in his eyes, like Christ. 

How is this possible? Well, if we look at one of the books of the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel tells us that God promises to give us a new heart, one that will be able to obey his teachings.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."  Ezekiel 36 vs. 26-27

The Holy Spirit, God's gift that inhabits those who believe in His Son Jesus and choose to repent of their sin and turn to follow Him, is the one who fulfils the outworking of the Grace of God in our lives. Our blind and ignorant hearts are removed and replaced with hearts that are able to feel more deeply the pain and corruption of our sin and the conviction of the Spirit in order that we might be redeemed, to be what God intended us to be. 

The true gift of Grace then, is that we can declare ourselves to be Holy in the sight of God, because that is how God sees us. As the author of Hebrews writes:

"And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all [...] For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy." Hebrews 10 vs 10 & 14

This seems to be a paradoxical statement, how can we have been made holy (vs. 10) if we are still being made holy (vs. 14)? The answer is not straightforward, but perhaps is one of the fundamental truths of Christianity. We are both holy and being made holy. I.e. our holiness is a work in progress, but has most definitely been completed on the Cross.

I have a theory on how we might understand this more easily. From our point of view time progresses in a linear direction, from A to B, the past into the present into the future. However, if we are to understand that God is outside of the universe, then He must be outside of Time as well. In that case A does not necessarily lead to B, A and B may be concurrently true at the same point in time, i.e. a paradox. In this case, God sees us as Holy because of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, but at the same time is able to see our depravity, our sin. The incredibleness of this is that for us we often choose to see ourselves as sinners instead of Saints, but what we forget is that God actively chooses to see us as Saints, as the author of Hebrews puts it:

"Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." Hebrews 10 vs. 17

God does not forget our sin, it still causes Him pain when we sin, but he chooses to not remember it. If we are in His Son, when He looks at us He sees the great work and sacrifice of Jesus at the Cross in place of our sin.

As a result of this Gift of Holiness, we are called to obey God's laws. Taking our focus on the New Testament, we see that we are called to follow Jesus and obey his teachings. As Jesus Himself said: 

"Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me." John 14 vs. 21

Before our Salvation at the hands of Jesus we were all under the law. None of us were able to declare ourselves righteous because the law condemned us for our sin. 

However, as Paul himself wrote to the Church in Rome:

"What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead." Romans 7 vs. 7-8

What Paul is saying here is that sin took advantage of God's law, giving us the desire to do the evil things that God clearly expressed us not to do. Paul argues that if he had not known what coveting was, he could not have been guilty of it, but that the Law, by making these crimes known to us, allows us to have knowledge of our guilt and wrong-doing. Sin corrupts everything that God intended for Good. 

However, now that we see that we are no longer under the law because we are not the ones who have made ourselves righteous, instead Christ has elevated us to that position, sin can no longer corrupt us in the same way. Yes, we will still sin because our human nature is sinful, but we can see that this is the case, because we see the Law as it was designed to be, not a stronghold, but actually as a good thing.

In the Garden of Eden, the Serpent tests Eve over whether God said that she couldn't eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Eve's downfall occurs because they doubt God's command, and instead seek to be in control. What Jesus did by dying on the Cross, was to fulfil the Law, to make it WORK not to condemn us, but to free us. As the law is not sinful, and we are no longer sinful in the eyes of God, we can now choose to obey the Law knowing that it does not hold the power of life and death over us, because Christ has already paid the punishment for our sin, and granted us eternal salvation. 

The True Freedom that Grace brings is that we have the choice to obey God, because even if when get things wrong, the final presiding of our lives has been made. We have been made holy by Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross, and the fact that we know that we cannot do anything more or less to earn this salvation, truly makes us free to live for God, because it becomes a joy and not a burden to serve Him with our everything. 

Thanks for reading,

Hi,

The following is something I posted on Facebook on Valentine's day, but I thought I would repost it here to collect my thoughts under one blog:

______________________________________________________________

It's been a long time since I've written one of these, but as today is Valentine's Day, the so-called Celebration of Love, I thought I would write a post on what Real Love is, instead of all the pomp and ceremony that occurs around about now each year.

What is Love?

I think all of us, as humans, have a deep longing to be loved by other individuals, either family, friends or partners. But, why is this the case? Well as a Christian I believe that God created us in His image, and as it says in 1 John 4 vs. 7-8:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Yes, Love comes from God, because God is Love. And we can require love as human beings because God gave us that desire out of His own Love. We were made to love one another in the way that each member of the Trinity loves the other two (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in a perfect union of Love.

What is Wrong?

In today's world there is so much evil and suffering amongst us, so much pain and so much hurt. If God is love, then why do people suffer? This is one of the most fundamental questions people ask around the world at one time or another.

The reason why there is pain and suffering in the world, is of our our making. Yes we humans have within us the capacity to love each other, but because of Sin our hearts are tainted, and instead of offering the self-sacrifice that Real Love is based on, we abuse others by focusing on our desires and pleasures, often with the result that others are hurt or made to suffer. Sin entered the world because of our disobedience to God, because we thought we knew best.

Love today is perverted. Take for eg. the film (and novel) 50 Shades of Grey that has recently come out in cinemas for the occasion of Valentine's day. This is what our world things love is - abusive, self-gratifying and ultimately about control. Sadly, it seems that as Society becomes more and more corrupted by its own evil desires, the true meaning of Love is becoming more and more lost to the deep dark pursuits of sinfulness.

What does the World Need?

"What the world needs now, is love sweet love..." These lyrics date from 1967, around the time of the Summer of Love at the height of 60s culture. Although I disagree with the song's premise about what love is, I cannot argue about what the world needs, although I would perhaps rephrase the song something like this.

"What the world needs now, is love REAL Love..." And where can we find real Love? Only in the arms of Jesus Christ, who came to die upon the Cross to save us from our own evil desires, and to restore us in a loving relationship with God and with each other.

As Paul the apostle wrote in Romans 5 vs. 8:

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Yes, even though we were sinful, Christ took it upon Himself to come down to us, to become a human being, to live and die in our place, and as such, Christ endured our suffering with the nails driven into his hands and feet, the spear thrust into his side and the crown of thorns placed upon his head.

John writes in 1 John 4 vs. 10:

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Yes, Christ died for us to set us free from our evil desires, our sinful thoughts and are selfish actions. This IS LOVE. Christ's sacrifice was totally undeserved and completely unmerited. His GRACE flowed out in His blood that was spilled. And His resurrection Guranteed our Salvation if we trust and seek Him, following in His ways.

This is what the world needs to know. That Christ LOVES them. That He can offer them REAL LOVE, that will never fail, but will endure forever even when we mess up time and time again.

Thank you for reading,

It's been awhile since I posted on this blog. I have been busy working with the Navigators over the last few months. Check out my other blog to see more of what I've been upto recently (link at the top of the page).

I have been thinking about Love for a little while. Perhaps because I am preparing a Seminar on what it means to be "Free to Love" in Christ, but also perhaps because a couple of weeks ago (roughly) it was Valentines day.

Of course, I take no real interest in 14th February, for me it is just another day. But since then the "Verse of the Day" website that I look at, has posted a different verse on the topic of love. 

On Valentines day the verse shared was:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you , so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:34-35

This is a command for us, as Christians, to love each other as Jesus loves us, and to demonstrate this love for the whole world, so that people will ultimately see the love God has for them.

Today's verse particularly highlights how we are free to love in the first place:

"We love because He first loved us."

1 John 4:19

Wow, just wow. God loves us. And He chose to love us before we loved Him. He chose to love us while we still sinners:

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

I find this a tremendous encouragement. Love is not always an easy thing, especially as we are called to love our neighbour, and even those who curse us. But, one thing I do know, that is particularly amazing, God loves me. And that makes a difference. 

I hope that wherever you are in life, going through rough difficult times, or more happy times, that you know the peace and love that God has for you.

Never forget this wonderful truth, that God LOVES you.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis is an interesting book for both Christians and non-Christians alike. Lewis' main interest in compiling the book was to "expound 'mere' Christianity, which is what it is and what it was long before I was born and whether I like it or not." (ix) He wanted to try and find, as it were, the lowest common factors that Christians from all denominations could agree on, by looking at the Bible and the person of Jesus, and coming to a place of rest at the simplest layer of Christianity. 

The book is divided into four sections, and I shall address each in turn. Interestingly, much of what Lewis writes here is derived from several talks that he gave on the radio to boost morale during the London blitz of the second World War. 

In the first section, Lewis addresses the concepts of good and bad, or to put it in another way, moral values. His arguments stem from the fact that we, as humans, know when we hurt each other, or when we do bad things, and that this in turn proves that we get our sense of morals from something higher than man. because otherwise there can be no authority over what is considered good or bad. 

In the second section, Lewis outlines exactly what it is that Christians believe about God, compared to other faiths and atheists. He rounds off this by inferring that there is only one logical outcome for a supreme authority, and that is the loving God that Christians worship and follow.

In the third section, Lewis looks at how Christians should behave in lieu of the fact that they have a relationship with their Father, God. He explains that there are different types of virtues, some which can only be given to us by God, and that on our own we cannot do the things that God asks of us, but that is why it is a good thing that we have been given a helper in the form of the Holy Spirit.

In the final section, Lewis delves into theology, because he thinks that anyone who wants to know more of God, needs to study Him in a scientific manner. He looks at concepts of God being outside of time, and how we can be made perfect by giving up everything we have to God.

Now that the very basic summary of the book is done, I can talk about how I found the book, and whether I would recommend it to a friend. Firstly then, the ways that Lewis uses to engage with a potentially wide audience, by using simple analogies and easy-to-understand pictures, is a fascinating example of how he makes the difficult topics of Christianity come to life in new ways that I have never considered before.

Secondly, I love his honesty. He is very open about his own position on several manners, but he never tries to force them down your throat. Instead he offers them, and the alternatives, to hopefully give the reader a glimpse of the 'mere' Christianity that lies below all of our denominations and various beliefs about the nature of our religion.

Thirdly, he doesn't hold his punches back. Despite warning people off reading some chapters because he things that they would not find them relevant, he is very definite in presenting that Christianity is the only way that we can meet with God. This is challenging, and I have been encouraged to pursue in developing my relationship with God, especially during the times when it is easy not to.

Lastly, Lewis has such a childlike imagination when describing how we are when compared to God. In one particular image, he compares us to toy-soldiers made of tin, that would rather not be made into flesh, because we would rather remain as tin. This simple image is also profound, because it shows how some of us are ill-disposed in giving our all to Jesus, and letting us be transformed from man, a creation of God, into a Son of God.

Thanks for reading, any comments are welcome. Also, do check out this book, I do feel it is a must for any Christian. :)