Month: May 2022

Those who know me well would recognise the signs.

A patient smile, voice painfully polite, pleasant on the outside but the lava of frustration was gurgling within.

”Why didn’t you say something?” you may ask. Sometimes we should but there are times and places, such as brief conversations with passing acquaintances whose opinions are fixed, when it feels pointless.

I went for a walk, laying my angst out in prayer before Wisdom itself.

What provoked such a reaction, you may wonder? It was actually a ‘testimony to God’s goodness’.

Blessed

This is what was said: “God has been good to me. Everyone around me has become sick, but God has kept me healthy. Praise his name!”

At this point, you probably think that I am an oversensitive soul who needs to ‘get a grip’. And you are probably right.

There are two aspects of this ’testimony’ that bug me. Really bug me. Like a mosquito that comes at you in the dark from all angles, viciously buzzing.

The first is the inference that God cares more about this individual’s well-being than he does about that of those around her. It sounded like she was bragging that she is one of God’s favourites.

The second is the expectation that if I am a Christian, life will be a bed of roses, minus the thorns. Which implies, then, that when life is tough, the fault lies with me.

No thinking Bible-literate Christian would agree with these two inferences, obviously.

But we don’t always think.

Causes and effects

The Bible is full of teaching about how blessings and curses follow obedience and rebellion respectively.

But just the same, quite apart from blessings and curses, sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Actions and even attitudes have consequences. Daily choices like wearing a seatbelt (or not), eating healthily (or not) and … dare I say it … availing oneself of all that modern medicine has to offer (or not) can sometimes directly affect one’s quality of life.

But just the same, quite apart from actions and consequences, sometimes bad things happen to good people.

In contrast to the Scriptures about blessings and curses, there are also Scriptures promising persecution and suffering for those who follow God wholeheartedly. Followers of Jesus whose lives resemble the great men and women of old, some of whom were stoned, sawn in half, homeless or harassed, but all of whom stood firm in their faith, are praised.

But I’m actually not talking about persecution which comes for following Jesus either. Sometimes, quite apart from that, bad things just happen to good people.

Why such a strong reaction?

The comment made by that well-meaning person who just wanted to give glory to God for keeping her healthy hit a nerve in me.

You see, all around me, people are getting sick. Not so long ago, we buried a godly woman who was just three years my senior. A few months earlier, it was another peer who was also a beautiful Christian lady. Others in my circle of family and friends are currently facing their own health challenges. Covid has also impacted many people dear to me, not just in terms of the disease itself but also the isolation imposed in an effort to control its spread. Friends in another part of the world are still enduring that now. And, of course, covid continues to create chaos in our communities here too.

Why should God be kind to one individual and keep that person well when he is apparently unwilling to intervene in the lives of other struggling brothers and sisters in Christ? Does he like some people more than others?

Consider the birds

”It’s not fair,” I stormed at God as I stomped around the wetlands behind the supermarket not far from home. Bad things sometimes happen to good people, despite their faith in God. Others, however, seem to sail through life with barely a hiccup.

As I stomped and stewed, the sun sank lower in the sky. Birds of all sizes soared and swooped down to their roosts, singing lustily.

Was that a still, small voice whispering beneath the cacophany of bird calls? Or was it a combination of two memorised verses surfacing? Or was it both?

“Consider the birds.… Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they?“

Matthew 6:26 TPT

…. not even one sparrow falls from its nest without the knowledge of your Father. Aren’t you worth much more to God than many sparrows?

Matthew 10:29 TPT

God does not always supernaturally intervene in the lives of his children, but that does not mean that he does not care. He knows what we are enduring.

And, of course, sometimes he does heal or relieve or rescue us. And so I keep asking for that, until the ’no’ is final or circumstances change.

God knows

I sincerely hope that the well-meaning lady whose comments sparked this blog post stays healthy even while everyone around her crashes. But I don’t think that any of us can expect life to be hunky dory simply because we trust in God.

Oh yes, God is good to us. I have stories of my own about how God has stepped in with extra special blessings at times. I am grateful and usually quick to give God due credit. But when he doesn’t intervene, he is no less present or concerned.

Consider the birds. God knows and cares about each of them. How much more does he know all that is going on for us and care about us, his children?

I began this blog post with the question, ’Does God like you more than other people?’ God certainly shows us grace, mercy and kindness at different times, but favouritism? Theologies of election and foreknowledge are complicated but this I know: our degree of well being in life does not reflect how much God loves us.

God’s care and knowledge over his creation is infinite. He follows the movements of each duck, cockatoo, magpie, swamp hen, ibis, darter, swallow and many more besides. How much more does he care about us, his children?!

I am still not quite sure if or how I will respond next time old cranky pants (me) perceives that somebody is bragging that God has been kinder to them than to others. Even worse, it may even be me that brags, mindless of the plight of others.

A testimony to God’s goodness is always appropriate. But an attitude that God likes me better than he does you, even if it is unspoken and the speaker unaware of it, is just not on.

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PS Please don’t hesitate to share testimonies of God’s goodness to you. Super sensitive Suzanne is getting off her soapbox now 😉.

I don’t approve of plucking a verse out of context and ‘claiming it’ for a specific purpose. It seems almost irresponsible.

But that is what I did earlier this week.

And it was exactly what I needed in my position as a member of a church which was about to welcome a new pastor.

I was visiting a local Bible college. Another visitor there was speaking at chapel. He had worked overseas for years and had now been asked to impart his wisdom to us. I was sitting at the end of the second row from the back of the room, near the door, trying to be inconspicuous. I planned to slip away when the students and staff broke into prayer groups.

I had another meeting to get to, you see. In that meeting, a few of us would meet our new pastor. I admit that even though I was physically present in the college chapel service, my thoughts were focused on the following commitment. How can we support this new pastor, and what is ahead for our church in this ‘new season’?

A ‘life verse’

I dragged my attention back to the present. The speaker was wrapping up his talk and it was now ‘Question and Answer’ time.

A student asked, ‘How do you keep going during discouraging and difficult times?’

“Ask the Lord for a ‘life verse’,” the speaker said. “Then when times get tough, you can look back on it and be encouraged to persevere.”

I shot up a prayer. Despite my reticence to take a verse out of context and apply it to my life here and now without at least considering the original context, I prayed. “If there is anything you would point me to, Lord, please do show me.”

And somehow, imperceptibly, I felt drawn to 1 Thessalonians 5:12. Deep in the recesses of my mind, I guessed it would say something about ‘Rejoice, give thanks and pray always.” (See 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.) That would be an eminently suitable ‘life verse’ … or ‘life verses’ to be strictly accurate.

It did not say that.

A verse (and a half) for this season

I punched the reference into the electronic Bible on my iPad, my mind still on the topic of our new pastor and this new season for our church.

I could hardly believe my eyes. This was the ‘perfect verse’ for me to meditate upon on this first day we officially came under our new pastor’s watch. I am including the first part of the following verse as well. I hope that fellow members of our church will spend time in this verse-and-a-half too, because I sense that this is God’s Word for us just now. I am writing this blog post in part so that I can share it with fellow church members.

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. 

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13a NIV

Yet although this verse may be spot on for our situation, I still can’t quite bring myself to apply it to a 21st century Australian church in Melbourne’s outer east without considering its original context.

1 Thessalonians – the authors

“We ask you…,” the verse begins. Who is the ‘we’?

Going back to the beginning of 1 Thessalonians, we see that the letter is written by Paul, Silas and Timothy.

Paul was a great first century missionary to the Gentiles, we know. He had once been known as Saul, a pious Pharisee, passionate for what he perceived as the purity of their people. Then the risen Lord Jesus had powerfully convinced him of his divinity and Paul’s life direction changed.

At one point, Silas had been a senior leader of the Christian community in Jerusalem and a prophet (Acts 15:22, 32). Leaders of the community there sent him to Antioch to clearly convey their decisions about Gentiles and the gospel (Acts 15:22). Some time later, Paul invited him to join him in his missionary endeavours after parting ways with his former co-worker, Barnabas (Acts 15:40).

Timothy was an emerging leader whose mother was Jewish and his father Greek. It wasn’t until he was an adult and about to embark on the missionary journey during which Paul wrote the letter to the Thessalonians that Paul circumcised him (Acts 16:3). Ouch.

Almost 2000 years ago, God specifically called Paul, Silas and Timothy to Macedonia through a vision, as well as keeping them time and again from travelling elsewhere. (See Acts 16:5-10.) The leading was SO clear, yet plenty of trouble followed them as they travelled throughout Macedonia. (See Acts 16 and 17.) God’s crystal clear leading doesn’t necessarily guarantee a smooth ministry experience.

If Paul had a ‘life verse’ to fall back on when times were tough, I expect that it would have been the words from God which he received in a vision in the Temple in Jerusalem following his conversion to Christ. (The words had been spoken by God to Paul, but the record not compiled until some time after he wrote the letter to the Thessalonians, most likely. So, strictly speaking, it wasn’t exactly a ‘verse’ at the time. But it was God’s Word.) Paul related the event to a crowd in Jerusalem after his arrest some time after sending that letter to the Thessalonians. He said, “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles’ ” (Acts 22:21 NIV).

That didn’t go down well with the crowd in Jerusalem. But remembering God’s call on his life surely kept Paul going when times got tough.

1 Thessalonians – the recipients

“We ask you….,” the verse begins. Who are the ‘you’?

This letter was written to Thessalonian Christians. The city we now call Thessaloniki is located in modern-day Greece, in a region still called ‘Macedonia’. Greek Macedonia, comprised of the regions of Western, Eastern and Central Macedonia, borders the neighbouring country known today as the ‘Republic of Macedonia’ or ‘North Macedonia’.

Despite dramas there, culminating in the new believers whisking Paul and his companions out of the region, a church was established. It was made up of “some of the Jews … a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women” (Acts 17:4 NIV).

It was to these followers of the risen Jesus – men and women, Jews and Gentiles – that Paul wrote. He urged them “… to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13a NIV). We are not given clues as to the identity of any specific individuals he had in mind, but clearly he was referring to leaders in that community.

To acknowledge

‘Acknowledge those who (1) work hard among you, (2) who care for you in the Lord, and (3) who admonish you,’ we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:12. I added the emphasis on the main verb and the numbering of the three clauses which describe those leaders whom the original recipients were to acknowledge – obviously.

It seems more than reasonable that this exhortation is as relevant for followers of Jesus in Mooroolbark in 2022 as it was for those in Europe back in perhaps about 50AD.

It is easy enough to acknowledge those who work hard among us and who care for us in the Lord. Especially when we benefit. We admire people who work hard. We like to feel cared for and valued.

Acknowledging those who admonish us isn’t comfortable though. How dare anyone admonish us?! It is easier to ignore them, at best, or react with hostility and perhaps even withdraw from the community.

At the moment, we are all just beginning a ‘honeymoon period’ with our new pastor. The time will come, though, when admonishment is appropriate. Perhaps the problem will be obvious to all and the need for correction will be clear. But perhaps it will be about something less obvious such as an ungodly attitude or a critical spirit.

When that day comes, may we … may I … remember this verse and acknowledge the one whom God has placed in leadership over us. He won’t be perfect anymore than any of us are perfect, but he is our God-given leader for this season of time.

To hold (someone) in the highest regard in love

‘To hold (someone) in the highest regard in love’ – what a convoluted concept. Those we admire, we hold in high regard. We love for a variety of reasons, and at times we love simply because we choose to and not even because our hearts feel fuzzy. Paul, Silas and Timothy urged Thessalonian Christians to hold their leaders in the highest regard in love, combining both concepts into one.

On what basis were those early Macedonian Christians to do this? It was because of the work of their leaders amongst them. “Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5:13a), we read.

That was then. This is now. May we hold our new pastor in the highest regard in love because of his work amongst us. May we speak well of him when with others even if we are tempted to slip into criticism or complaint. (Conflict may need to be dealt with at times, but appropriately and not behind backs.) May we always assume positive intent on his part, even when we don’t understand what is going on. And may we love him and his family well, in actions as well as words.

A new season

Paul, Silas and Timothy originally penned those words to first century believers on the other side of the world. Having considered the context back then, I am now satisfied that this passage of Scripture is as relevant for us today as it was for them. I’m not taking a passage out of context and applying it to my own situation willy-nilly.

And so, as we begin a new season in the life of the church, it is my hope and prayer that we will acknowledge the man God has sent to work hard among us, to care well for us … and to admonish us when necessary. May we hold him in the highest regard in love because of his work.

It won’t always be easy. He will struggle at times just as we fail here and there too.

When difficult times come, may I, for one, look back at the day God ‘gave me a verse’ there in the second back row of the space used as a chapel at the Bible College. May I respond in obedience when times are tough.

And may my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord do likewise.