I was so glad to hear that Sie Yan, Naomi and Jennie had chosen the subject of friendship for the women’s day tomorrow. I’m slightly jealous as it sounds like they have a great day planned. I’ve been thinking recently about the essentialness of deep and committed friendships in my own life and wanted to write to you all to provoke us to think about being more intentional in this regard.
Religion causes so many of humanity's greatest problems. Division. Intolerance. Conflict. We no longer think that faith is a harmless choice; it is now seen as a dangerous delusion. And yet, religious people report higher levels of personal satisfaction and meaning. How can both be true? Is Christianity part of the problem or is it the solution?
When Peter is preaching in the book of Acts he uses this striking phrase, times of refreshing, to capture the promise of the gospel.
Your soul is not capable of surviving outside of God’s sustaining grace. It is vulnerable and will shrivel and dry out. You will have experienced this in different seasons of life.
Dealing with pride and ambition can be unbelievably difficult. We live in a sin-soaked world in which glory hunting is the norm, and humility is somewhat passé. We barely blink when we hear people boast about their talents, or preen and pose on social media displaying some aspect of their enviable life. This atmosphere we breath can make ambition seem totally normal and acceptable. Who would even question whether it’s okay or not to be driven by ambition?
Last Sunday, I preached three times on conflict and then got home and had an argument with Jen (my wife). As you no doubt will be, I was immediately struck by the irony of the situation! It was over pretty quickly (neither of us enjoys conflict very much to want it to go on very long), but like many conflicts, it stemmed from the problem of ego (mine in this case).
We had a sweet time at Upper Room this week. I particularly enjoyed praying together for our city. One person shared a beautiful poem that resonated with me. It began, ‘The Lord reigns over London. Mercy, justice and righteousness flow from his throne’. It reminded me of the prophetic picture of the river of life that Ezekiel describes in Ezekiel 47. He describes a river that flows from the altar of the temple, where ‘everything will live where the river goes’ (47.9). It is literally the river of life! It’s a prefiguring of the Holy Spirit, the living water that will come from Christ and, of course, bring true life to all who receive Him!
If we focus excessively on what God can do through us, we might miss another important emphasis, of what God wants to do in us. For those of us more drawn towards activism in the name of Christ, we must remember God’s overarching purpose to form Christlikeness in us, quite apart from any impact that we might hope to have on the world. When churches or Christians focus excessively on impact and mission, they risk ignoring the vital work that God wants to do in each of us, on our character and personal holiness.
