This week I've needed to review where I look for comfort when life gets me down.

I think that many of us look for comfort in a variety of ways – food (treating myself), TV (zoning out), computer games (opting out), books (entering another world) and shopping (retail therapy) might be the obvious examples. Or we take on more damaging pursuits – alcohol and other drugs (numbing the pain), porn or casual sex (a fantasy world), gambling (fake thrills), hedonism (making fun our god), materialism (making what we buy our god) and the like.

Or we might seek comfort in our relationships with family and friends. Obviously this is one part of God's design for us:

Genesis 2:18:

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Genesis 2:24-25:

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

(the third strand in the cord being God)

Or Paul's command in Galations 6:2:

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

(The 'law of Christ' presumably being that of loving God and your neighbour as retold in Matthew 22:34-40)

I think, however, there's a difference between receiving comfort from family and friends (which is clearly God's gift to us and our duty to others) and seeking this as our primary source of comfort.

Myself, I wanted to go to the bible for comfort last night (rather than watch television to zone out) and I found myself looking at Hebrews 11 – the roll call of faithful people who persevered in spite of "none of them [receiving] what was promised" – they died before seeing God's new kingdom being delivered by Christ. We are accordingly encouraged in chapter 12:

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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

This morning I read 1 Peter 1, starting with versus 3-9 which details our hope:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

From v13 onwards we are commanded to set our hope in that grace given by Jesus:

"… prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Also Jesus' words to his disciples in John 14:1-4:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

And finally Paul's encouragement to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

This from a man who in the same letter details the extent to which he has suffered (2 Cor 11:24-30):

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

This, therefore, is my challenge to myself – that I am to:

• avoid seeking comfort in things that do not provide it,
• be thankful for the comfort given me by family and friends (and to actively seek to comfort and encourage others) as God's gift to us all, but to
• seek comfort from and set my hope in Christ and the grace to be given us through him. 

And as this hope and God's unfailing love carried Paul and the roll call of the faithful through their incredible sufferings, they too will carry me.

A Christian friend commented that one of his new year’s resolutions will be to ‘work on humility’, prompting me to search the NIV bible for the words ‘humble’ (search results) and ‘humility’ (search results).

I was somewhat surprised to see it’s always command (of ‘be humble’) rather than a gift (of humility from the Holy Spirit). There appears to be two main types of humilty:

• being humble before God, and
• being humble before others

I believe the first is relatively easy if you have a clear perspective of God – reading about God’s visit to Elijah or God reminding Job of his place are just two of many examples showing our relative place before Him. And it’s difficult to accept God’s gift of salvation without first acknowledging your inability to save yourself and God’s ability to save – humility before God is essentially a prerequisite to a relationship with Him. 

I think it’s the second, of being humble before others, that’s the kicker. Paul’s letter to the Christian believers in Philippi speaks to this in detail that’s worth quoting in full:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2 (NIV)

So those of us already in a relationship with God (Christians) are to consider others better than ourselves and look to their interests. And our model for doing so is the God all mankind (for whom nothing is too difficult – Jer 32:27) who humbled Himself for us, taking the very nature of a servant and dying for us. Mind-blowing stuff.

This morning I didn’t feel much like reading, especially not the book of James that I’m go slowly through with the help of a study guide. Instead I opened my bible randomly at Ezekiel 33 and a few things jumped out at me:

 

Watchmen

In verses 1-6, the Lord explains a metaphor, that a watchman is charged with the security of fellow citizens. Should the watchman blow his trumpet to warn of approaching danger and others ignore him, those who die are responsible for their own deaths. But should the watchman see danger and not blow his trumpet, he is responsible for their blood, having prevented his fellow citizens from saving themselves. In verse 7 the Lord charges Ezekiel with this duty: 

 

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, the wicked man will die for his sin and you will be accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.”

For me this is a sober reminder to Christians to share the Gospel, God’s saving power for all people, or be responsible for the blood of the world.

I do, however, want us to remember the context here – that Israel was already God’s people and as God’s people they were called to a standard of behaviour (and sacrifice to cover where they had not) to remain inside his covenant relationship. No one in the world can today be saved by following the law given to Israel (and nor were the Israelites – they were saved first and told to obey second). As such God is not calling people to a standard of behaviour but to turn back to God and be in relationship with Him, enabled by Christ’s sacrifice paying for our sin.

 

No pleasure in death

Verse 11:

“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?”

I saw an atheist accuse God of ethnic cleansing on TV the other day. The God of the Old Testament is, in their view, barbaric, evil and arbitrary in His judgement and takes pleasure in smiting people. As such they view Him as having a lower standard of morality than their own. And as Christians we often cringe, perhaps thinking they might be right. But here we see the God of the Old Testament saying what we see in the New Testament, in 2 Peter 3:9:

 

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

We can see that in the previous section about watchmen – the Lord provides a warning so that people can turn back to Him. If all He wanted to do was smite, He’d smite without warning. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New.

 

Then they will know

Ezekiel is written as Israel is in exile – Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonian empire.

 

v24: “Son of man, the people living in those ruins of the land of Israel are saying ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the [promised] land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’

In other words, ‘we shouldn’t be in exile – we should be in our land because we have the strength (in numbers) to defend it’. In v25-28 the Lord details their rejection of Him (not keeping the law, worshipping idols, relying on their strength rather than the Lord’s, infidelity) and his punishment for that sin:

 

” … those who are left by the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured and those in the strongholds and caves will die of a plague. I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end …”

Why? v29:

 

“Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of the detestable things they have done.”

Again, the LORD’s punishment is not for his pleasure, it’s for Israel’s instruction, that they would repent and come back to Him. For the world we see is not all there is – it’s better to endure correction, training and suffering in this world and turn to the LORD than to live in pleasure but ignorance of God.

The other thing that struck me was a thought – ‘How can they not know that the LORD is the LORD?’. After all, this is the same God who took them out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land. Then I remembered the time difference and checked the dates – the exodus from Egypt was in around 1440 BC and Ezekiel is written during the exile in 593BC – it’s almost 1,000 years between these events. And it pays to remember that not even the Israelites who were personally saved in the exodus from Egypt remembered and honoured the Lord – they made a golden calf and worshipped it, and didn’t trust the Lord that they would safely enter the promised land (hence their 40 years in the desert). And so this is a reminder for me – just as the Israelites of Ezekiel’s day were to remember what the Lord had done for them, so are we to remember what Christ has done for us. For 2,000 years is not long in biblical history and as Peter says:

 

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

2009 has been the year that God has begun waking me up from my Christian stupor, something for which I am very grateful.

Let me give you some background – I grew up in a Christian family to loving and faithful parents who taught me well. Throughout school I read my bible regularly, had a heart for God and expected to find myself in full time ministry one day. But from university I didn’t. Life – stuff, sin, selfishness – took over. I never walked away from God, I was just focused mostly on me rather than Him, in subtle but significant ways.

Fast forwarding 15 years to late 2008, I knew things weren’t right. I knew that God commanded more of me than I was giving and that if I was to be a Christian I had to give him more – everything. At the same time, however, I had been listening to many talks on design, science, business and the like which often had a subtle (and sometimes not at all subtle) humanist and atheistic bent that began to wear me down. And evolution (which I had ‘dealt with’ previously by ignoring it) could no longer be ignored. I knew a crunch was coming – either Jesus was who he claimed to be and demanded my all, or he was not and I was free to live my life as I saw fit – this half-baked self-centred, comfort-seeking and problem-avoiding Christian walk wasn’t going to cut it.

I spoke to a wise Christian leader and he recommended Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God which reminded me that there was no intellectual shame in our faith. I watched the Life of Jesus DVD and took advantage of other Centre for Public Christianity resources which reminded me of the historical integrity of the bible (helped by knowing the integrity of John Dickson and his work). I learned more about Darwin and emailed a well-known Christian scientist and asked him about evolution and faith. I listened to sermons on my iPod, looking for anything topic I could find that might help me work out if my faith was solid. But most importantly, I think, I prayed. I prayed that God would reveal Himself and give me a fresh love for Him, for His word and for being in relationship with Him. 

The big breakthrough for me was reading John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life (which is available freely online as a PDF). From page 30 in the book he talks about ‘The great coming together for me’ in which John explains that we don’t need to decide whether to chase our own happiness (which feels inevitable) or to follow the Lord. Because of the way God is glorified (in our delight of Him) they are one and the same thing – God does not want us to begrudgingly serve Him, He wants us to delight in Him. That’s what we’re called to – joy, peace, fulfilment and satisfaction in Him – how could I want something else?

From there I went from strength to strength, listening to John Piper (web, iTunes) and more recently Matt Chandler (web, iTunes) speaking about Christ. And in doing so I started taking Jesus seriously. That bit about not loving money? He means it. And taking up your cross to follow Him? He means that too. As a result, a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders – I feel peace that I have not felt for many years. And now I want to share that with people who want to read it. 

At this point I should point out the gospel, so that no one thinks I’m talking about earning our way to heaven or saying how much better I am than anyone else. The gospel is this, that while were God’s enemies Christ humbled himself, lived among us and died for us, paying for our sins so that if we apologise (repent) and trust Him (= faith) we can have a relationship with Him, enjoy life to the full (this doesn’t mean we become rich) and Christ’s sacrifice takes the place of the punishment that our rebellion (sin) against God has earned us. A few bible passages on this:

• 1 Corinthians 15 (a summary as a reminder to readers who have already believed and trusted in Jesus)
• John 8:12-29 (a conversation between Jesus and the Jewish Pharisees who typically loved the law but not God)
• John 3:1-21
• Luke 24:44-48 (Jesus summarising his purpose for the disciples after his resurrection)

So welcome to my new blog on my journey in following Christ – I hope it will be an encouragement to you. I don’t yet know what frequency with which I’ll post – inspiration will come first and the words will follow.