Category: Gospel

Calling all conscripts to the secret army of His love in action      

I have set for myself a number of New Decade, New Year resolutions. I won’t bore you with the whole list, but I wondered if I might just share one of them with you. I felt convicted to resolve to do some kind of act of service for a stranger every day. I offered this to the Lord in prayer and of course, He has rather taken me at my word!

The very next day I set off for Florida for the annual College of Bishops gathering. Between connecting flights (in the very nicely renewed airport of Charlotte) a young woman armed with a cell phone and no English pleadingly asked me for directions to her gate. I pointed the way… whereupon she tucked her arm in mine and it was clear that I was to be her escort. I did wonder whether we might end up at the College of Bishops together but when she was confident that I had served her with accuracy she disengaged arms, enthusiastically thanked me, and disappeared. I then got some much-needed exercise in running to my gate! It was only that evening as I pondered the absence of my resolved “act of service to a stranger” that I realized that my traveling companion was the answer to my prayers.

Dr. Tony Campolo is a sociologist, pastor, author, public speaker and former spiritual advisor to a U.S. President. He once shared a true story that made a great impression on me.

Tony had flown from the continental United States to Honolulu and because of the jet lag, he had awoken at 3:00 a.m. His body thought it was about 9 a.m. and was asking for breakfast. He got up and wandered down the street from the hotel into a down-at-the-heel restaurant. He ordered a cup of coffee and a donut. The man behind the counter was an unkempt man named Harry. Harry poured him a cup and handed Tony a donut. Not long after, the front door burst open and eight or nine women entered, having ended their working night in the brothels that crowded the back streets. They sat down at the counter next to Tony. One of the women was heard to say, “Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ll be 39.” Her friend said, “So what do you want from me? I suppose you want a party or something. Maybe you want me to bake you a cake?” The first woman (whom Tony later found out was named Agnes) said, “Why are you so mean? I don’t want nothing from you. I’ve never had a birthday party and no one has ever baked me a cake. So be quiet!”

At that point, Tony had an idea. When the ladies had left he asked Harry, “Do these women come in here every night?” “Yes, they do.” “This one next to me—Agnes?” Harry nodded, “Same time, just like clockwork.” So Tony said, “What about if we throw a party for Agnes, a birthday party?” Harry smiled and called out to his wife in the kitchen. She thought it was a great idea.

The next night Tony came back at the same time and the place was decorated with crepe paper and a sign on the wall which said, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” They sat and waited. Soon others began to trickle in. Word had gotten ’round on the streets.

At the regular time, Agnes and her friends burst through the door and everyone shouted, “Happy birthday, Agnes!” Her knees buckled. Her friends caught her. She was stunned. They led her to the counter and she sat down. Harry brought the cake out and her mouth fell open and her eyes filled with tears. They put the cake down in front of her and sang “Happy birthday.” Harry said, “Blow the candles out so we can all have some.” But Agnes just stared at the cake. Finally, they convinced her to blow out the candles.

Harry handed her a knife and told her to cut the cake. She sat looking at the cake lovingly, as if it was the most precious thing she had ever seen. Then she asked, “Do I have to cut it?” Harry said kindly, “No, you don’t have to cut it.” Then she said something even more strange: “I would like to keep it for a while. I don’t live far from here. Can I take it home? I’ll be right back.” Everybody looked at her with puzzled faces and he said, “Sure, you can take it.” She got off the stool, picked up the cake, and walked slowly toward the door. Everyone just stood there motionless as she left.

When the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what else to do, Tony broke the silence by saying, “What do you say we pray?” Later Tony remarked that it just felt like “the right thing to do.” He prayed for Agnes. He prayed that her life would be changed and that she would encounter the fullness of God’s love for her. As he laid an “Amen” at the end of his prayer, Harry leaned over the counter and said to him, “Hey, I didn’t know you were a preacher!” Tony answered, “I’m not a preacher. I’m a sociologist.” Harry asked, “Well, what kind of church do you come from anyway?” Tony said, “I guess I come from a church that throws a birthday party for a woman called Agnes at 3 o’clock in the morning.” And Harry said, “No, you don’t. There’s no such church like that ‘cause if there was,” he said, “I’d join it.”

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least… you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40). We are all God’s children. We are all made in God’s image. God is tenacious in love, all pursuing, ever persevering and He refuses to give any of us up. If we will heed His call, Jesus will lead us into the extraordinary adventure of His love—an adventure that will bring us to the most unlikely places to restore all those who, beneath the dust and debris of disappointment and battered dreams, still bear His image. Many times, we will be wearied and soiled in His great love as we seek to be His hands and feet, but it will be life to us, and it will be life to all those for whom He would have us serve and celebrate.

Would you join me in being part of a secret army of His love to the stranger in our midst? Is it possible that our discreet actions might so display His love that we might hear a stranger say, “If that was the church, I’d join it!”

At the turn of the 20^th century, the one-eyed son of former slaves was receiving tuition from a Methodist-trained minister from Topeka, Kansas in order to attend Bible school in Texas. Because this student was African-American, he was segregated from the white students. From his place seated in the hall outside the classroom, his heart (to use John Wesley’s expression) was strangely warmed by God’s Spirit. 

In spring 1906, he was invited to speak in a Nazarene church in Los Angeles where he preached that it really had been the Lord’s intention to pour out His Spirit on all people – even the poor, black ones. He was locked out of the church. Not to be dissuaded, he continued to speak to the poor on front porches and in any home that would receive him. Interest swelled and an abandoned warehouse at 312 Azusa Street was commandeered to be a place of gathering for the revival that was now underway. 

The Los Angeles Times reported on April 18, 1906: “Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and the night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of the worshippers who spend hours swaying back and forth…”

This itinerant preacher was William Joseph Seymour and he opened the door to a move of God that Los Angeles Times readers could never have imagined. That movement placed the Word, the Spirit and the mission of the Church into the hands of poor, multi-racial people. Seymour let loose what was deemed to be an entire underclass of men and women to reach out with the love of God. 

From these beginnings, the Pentecostal church increased steadily throughout the world until by 1991 it took its place as the largest family of Protestant denominations in the world. In January 1999 it was recorded that more than 450 million people were involved in Pentecostalism, with an annual increase of 19 million per annum. Sixty-six percent of this movement is found in the developing world. 

As he obediently put down his small, shabby suitcase in downtown Los Angeles, did William Seymour have any idea what the Lord was planning? When we faithfully do what the Lord has asked of us, when the people of God are mobilized in His love and work together to complete the task, beyond our comprehension, beyond anything we could ask or imagine, the world is transformed. 

God has set a passion in our hearts that the family of churches across New England that is the growing ADNE, would play its part in the re-evangelization of New England; to turn the spiritual tide; to be relevant in the face of cultural change while remaining Biblically faithful; to be a church of His Word and His Spirit, expressed in gracious and loving evangelism and justice, distinguished by radical generosity and compassion. This will require a movement of God’s Spirit. But this does not mean that we get to sit back and watch God do all the work. There has been no significant move of God in the whole history of salvation that did not embrace, did not mobilize, all of us ordinary people in the hands of an extraordinary God. 

We are all called, each one of us. In the hands of an extraordinary God, we all have something unique and essential to contribute to the advance of God’s Kingdom. The apostle Peter wrote to followers of Jesus (and that includes us today): “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10).  

Bishop N.T. Wright put it this way: “The long story of God’s plan to put things right, starting with Abraham, climaxing in Jesus and the Spirit, and looking ahead to the new heavens and new earth, is not the story of guilty humans being forgiven so they could go to heaven, but of guilty humans being rescued in order to be worshippers and workers in God’s restoration movement, God’s kingdom-project.” 

How do you know what your ministry is? Look at your talents, gifts and abilities. When you use those talents and gifts to help other people, that’s called ministry. You may be at home, at work, at a sporting event, in the aisle of a grocery store, at a committee meeting, at an exercise class, on the train — anytime you’re obediently helping other people in God’s name, you’re ministering. And when take our small step of obedience, we can be sure that God will take it and bless it in ways beyond anything we could have imagined.

In the book of Daniel, we are told that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (three Hebrew slaves) disobeyed the King of Babylon in their refusal to worship the golden statue. This was a capital offense, and the three men were pitched into the furnace. Miraculously, they came out unscathed. What was it that made these three friends spiritually as well as physically fireproof?

Friendship

I want to tackle the answer to that question in three parts — beginning with the men’s friendship. In Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NLT) we read, “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back­to­back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple­braided cord is not easily broken.”

Long before this current trial, God had united these men in the fellowship of His Spirit. And in their daily shared worship and prayer they drew strength in God from and for each other.  Where did we get the idea that we can take care of ourselves spiritually without true fellowship? 

Courage

Before inflicting such a violent punishment on the three friends, the king asks them, “And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” With one heart, they give their answer. “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16­18). 

Their courage is grounded upon the Word of God. Here is the Lord’s promise to which they are holding fast: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not pass over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…do not be afraid, for I am with you.” (Isaiah 43:2­3a, 5a). And upon the fullness of that promise their response to the king — which really is a kind of prayer — could be summarized in three parts: 

• The prayer begins in first gear with the declaration, “We know that God can deliver us.”

• Then the prayer picks up more speed and moves into second gear: “We pray that He will deliver us.”

• Both of these gears are faithful pleas. But then the prayer enters third gear: Their confidence in God remains unshaken, and yet their prayer is not bound by their limited understanding of what they hope God would do for them. In this third gear there is surrender to God’s perfect will. 

When I let God lead me to this third gear, this place of surrender, here I literally feel the temperature drop and His peace enter. 

Faith

Looking on, the King of Babylon exclaims, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25.) 

Within the fire they walked free, and out the fire they walked unscathed. So who was the fourth figure? Was it an angelic form? Was He the pre­incarnate Jesus? We are left to make up our own minds. The vital thing is that God fulfilled His promise. It was the promise given to Moses. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…I will certainly be with you.” (Exodus 3:6, 12a). 

And yet, when Jesus entered the supreme furnace of affliction that was the Cross, He went alone. Why? Why would God be with these three Jewish exiles but not His only begotten Son? The answer is that on the Cross Jesus was suffering not only with us but also for us. Jesus went through the fire of punishment that my sins deserve so that I could walk free and know His presence today and eternally.

And the same mercy and love that He poured out for us on the cross now distinguishes His living presence in the furnace of our lives today. His promise is secure, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5b). I pray that whatever furnace of affliction you find yourself in today, you would feel the temperature decrease as you encounter afresh the promise of His peace and His presence.

“Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to my salvation.” – John Bunyan

As we make our way through the “Experiencing Grace” series, I would like to return our attention to the discipline of confession and, in particular, to that part of God’s mercy that must include our forgiving ourselves. There is only one small snag in my master plan: I am horrible at forgiving myself. If I should I feel just a little out of sorts when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think is “who do I need to apologize to?” So, I am going to give you three solid points on how to apply the Lord’s forgiveness to ourselves, with a necessary caveat. Let’s begin with the three practical tools that follow our sincerely confessing to God what we did wrong (or didn’t do what we should have done): 

1. Don’t accept guilt over what you have confessed to God. Show Him you accept His forgiveness by refusing to feel the slightest bit guilty for what is now forgiven. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12, NIV) Imposing guilt on ourselves has a strange way of trying to atone for our past—which is actually competing with Jesus’ work on the Cross. 

2. Hold your head up high, as if you never sinned and therefore have nothing to be ashamed of. We are commanded to enjoy His friendship and forgiveness. “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14, NIV). In the goodness of that relationship, He will make your past work together for good as if the whole thing—including your failure—were His own idea. That is the way that the Lord lets us save face. 

3. Boldly and unashamedly ask God to bless you even though you know you don’t deserve it.

You ask, “How can I ask God to bless me? I have been so awful.” Why would He bless you? Because He wants to! “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them…” (Jeremiah 32:40, NIV). It does not bless Him when you let your unworthiness govern your prayer life. We are all unworthy.

These are three good principles and I commend them to you. I have applied these practical tools and they work… except when they don’t. And when they don’t, it’s because there is something “more” going on that these three points cannot touch: shame. There is, if you like, an appropriate remorse or “shame” that carries a Godly quality. This would be the sort of shame that actually moves us closer to God so that we can receive His forgiveness. The sort of “shame” I am talking about, however, is highly toxic and highly destructive, and it will always move us further away from God. 

Toxic shame will fasten itself to us over something we once got wrong, over something that someone did to us or even over something someone said to us. This sort of shame is like a stain on the soul. It leaves us with the haunting notion that deep, deep down we are somehow defective. We try to ignore it. We attempt to board it up. We move to another city…another country, hoping to shake it. We try waiting around for some sense of “perfection” to come to us—that somehow we will acquire a general sense of our own “good enough-ness” but actually that won’t happen because we cannot self-generate that. This sense of “good enough” comes only from the Father—and we are not about to let Him see our mess! 

The key to God unlocking your soul from toxic shame is not forgiveness. You can’t forgive shame. Those three magnificent principles won’t touch it. Toxic shame needs something else; toxic shame needs to be healed. How is that going to happen? 

1. Mercy: Shame is mercy-less. The enemy takes the worst images, cherry picks the moments that degrade and defile us, and then repeatedly thrashes us with them. And so we imagine that the Lord feels the same way about us that we do. We imagine that if all this really came into the light, He would throw up His arms in disgust and reject us—because that is our response to ourselves. The truth is that He does throw open His arms—but not to reject us, to embrace us. He sees our shame and He has mercy for us. Of the Cross, Paul reminds us, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14, NIV). The Lord’s desire is to embrace, cover and cleanse us from our shame.

2. Compassion: And as Jesus embraces us and covers our shame, we begin to apprehend His compassion. We suddenly understand that He knows the pain of our fear. We think, “The truth is worse than what they know…” That is true for all of us. We all have skeletons in the closet. But God has no joy in exposing our past secrets. He has no desire to embarrass you.

3. We are able to see ourselves as Jesus sees us: Fairly recently, I came across a photograph from my childhood. What I saw so clearly was a small boy who still felt (decades later) that if he had been a “better kid” his Dad might have stuck around. This was the place that I was not about to let anybody into—least of all God. As I gazed at much younger me, it felt like a lot of light suddenly rushed into a very dark and lonely place, and in that moment I protested a little, “Don’t you see me?”. It was as if the Lord responded, “Yes, I see you, Drew. But not as you see you. Tell me, am I ashamed of you?” I looked at that old photograph for a long time but finally had to say, “No…I am astonished by this but, no, Lord, I can’t find it in my heart that you are ashamed of me.”

I suspect that I am not alone in living with a shame filled space in my soul. The good news is that we don’t have to. The Cross was most certainly for our forgiveness but, in His mercy, the Cross was also to heal our shame. Jesus went to the place of shame—outside of the city, crucified naked as an outcast—the ultimate public shaming. “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV) And the completeness of joy set before Him was in our full redemption, forgiveness, restoration and healing; “bringing many sons and daughters to glory” (Hebrews 2:10, NIV).