SATAN ATTACKS THROUGH THE INTERNET

Satan attacks through the internet! As soon as I undertake to blog more seriously (I mean frequently – after my last post I don’t want to get misunderstood here) my server chooses to ignore all of my attempts to log on and continues to refuse me access. It has taken a week of repeated phone calls to the server, the adjustment of a number of internet settings and the downloading of a different modem driver to effect any change in these circumstances. Now I can log on and stay there for up to ten minutes without getting knocked off. They are now telling me to move my computer close to the phone connection and use a very short cable. This will place my office computer in the kitchen! I use my computer to stay out of that place!!!

My wife encourages me by saying that it should enable me to multi-task better. “But I’m a bloke!” I exclaim, “I don’t handle multi-tasking well!”

It’s true! Like most men I don’t have the connective brain tissue (women apparently have ten times as much as men) to spontaneously cope with more than one task at a time. That’s why men need secretaries, stay at home wives, and mothers. That’s why I always burn the toast and present cold coffee when making breakfast for Julie while she relaxes in bed. That’s why I get stressed out to the max when I’m trying to work at home while the kids are crying out for lunch, chocolate milk, snacks and for me to manufacture the play-dough from scratch. I can’t spontaneously and effectively complete more than one task at a time! I can’t! Not spontaneously! I have to plan for it, develop a strategy that I can follow and implement in a linear fashion until all the tasks are complete.

But that’s never good enough!!

Why? Because it doesn’t account for the inevitable interruption, the spontaneous request, the unforeseen emergency.

It’s not that I can’t handle these events. It’s just that it stresses me incredibly to do it because it forces me to throw my carefully laid plans out the window. MY plans, MY designs, MY intentions are abandoned to deal with some other issue, someone else’s problem. Hang on! Am I starting to sound a tad selfish, a touch egocentric about these things? Have I touched on a fundamental flaw in the masculine character – we don’t like to abandon our ideas, our plans because planning is not just what we do, it’s how we think?

So when Christ asks us to abandon everything and follow him that’s a pretty big ask for us blokes isn’t it? He’s asking us to abandon the plans we have been carefully formulating for minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even years to obey Him. But we’re the head of the household, the ruler of the roost, the Lord of the Manor, the Lord and Master! Aren’t we?

Not any more, not when it comes to our faith. Christ is the head of the household, our Lord and Master. We are accountable to him but he is responsible for us so the burdens don’t have to rest on our shoulders alone. Furthermore, we don’t have to stress over the tasks that have been set us because we’ve been given someone to help us achieve them, and it’s not a secretary, a stay at home wife or a mother – it’s the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.

It’s tough being a bloke and a Christian at the same time, because we have to put our egos, our desire to control things, and our habitual way of thinking and responding in our back pocket. We have to trust in somebody other than ourselves – Christ - and, as the gender that struggles to ask for street directions after we’ve navigated ourselves into the motorist wilderness, that can be a challenging thing to do.

DON'T LOSE THE JOY

My wife and I took the opportunity last week to spend a fun day together. So putting both my ego and my personal safety in my back pocket I climbed on the back of her fifty cc motor scooter and allowed her to ferry me on a thirty kilometer trip to Hinze Dam (a picturesque, local picnic area). We haven’t laughed, joked and communicated so much in years. The fun, the joking and the laughter, in fact, enabled us to communicate in a way that the hectic, chaotic life of working parenting seldom (if ever) allows. It brought an even deeper level of appreciation and understanding to an already loving relationship.

I love my wife but now I realize how much I love to spend time with her, to have fun with her. I realised that this probably applies to my relationship with Christ. Do I have fun with Him? Is there enough joy in our relationship? Or is it a relationship determined by “busy”ness and problem solving ?

On reflection I realized that it’s largely the latter. My relationship with Christ is a serious thing, because I am a serious Christian. Serious? Yes, but Joyless? I hope not. Christ probably wouldn’t know that, however, by the way I relate to him. I tend to primarily share my problems with him as my self-imposed, hectic lifestyle allows.

I realize this is largely what I’ve been sharing with my wife – my problems, issues, and challenges. Last week we shared none of that. We just enjoyed each other’s company – and grew closer together.

I want that with Jesus.

In our time at the picnic area Julie and I shared something profound: our dreams and aspirations. We started to connect with each other’s vision for our lives. It is a shared vision, but we hadn’t taken the time to reaffirm that.

This gorgeous day has made me aware that I have lost touch with Christ’s vision for my life. I think I’ve drifted away from that by letting my faith be dictated by my life rather than my life by my faith. This was supported by a powerful, convicting meeting with my pastor only yesterday.

IT’S TIME-OUT TIME!

It’s time to grab some intimate, uninterrupted time with my Lord and listen to him. Stop whining and just LISTEN!!!!!

And then I might stop being busy and start being productive. Stop feeling tired, stretched and shredded and start feeling powerful and effective. See my relationship with Christ as an empowering, joyful thing and not just as a sounding board for my problems. Hey, I might even learn of Christ’s true vision for my life instead of trying to conveniently fit him into mine.

Precious Lord Jesus, forgive my hard heartedness. Forgive my determination to keep busy with “stuff” – good “stuff” though it may be – without taking the time to share and verify it with you. Give me the discernment to recognize the things that are drawing me away from your vision for my life and the strength to let them go. And return to me the passion, joy and intimacy I shared with you before I got too busy. Amen

DON'T LEAVE CHRIST OUT OF THE EQUATION

After watching a high profile televangelist’s programme the other night I was concerned to realise that in the whole of her half hour programme she only mentioned Jesus once, and that was as an example of Godly behaviour not his Godly identity. Christianity, in this programme, did not warrant a mention at all.

What did get mentioned was God and prayer. She constantly talked about being in right relationship with God, but Christ was not part of the equation. It seemed to me that in her preaching the role of Christ had been replaced by the lady herself. You can pay your money and join with her in petitioning God to have your prayer answered. The implication of this position is that we can have a healthy relationship with God without going through Christ.

To me this feels suspiciously like the position of Rev. Peter Carnley, the retiring (retired?) Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia when he said there are many ways to God, not just through Christ.

We have to be so careful not to leave Christ out of the equation of our lives, or our relationship with God.

The Bible is very clear on this point. In Matthew 7:13 Jesus says; "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it." Jesus did not claim to point the way or show one of many paths. Instead He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me."(John 14:6)

When influential, public, professed “Christians” start excluding Christ from their relationship with God, it is obvious that we are at a time of real danger. To either deliberately or inadvertently remove Christ from the equation of our faith is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. By removing Christ from the equation of our faith we remove ourselves from the equation of our salvation.

When Christ sacrificed himself on the cross he took on the punishment for our sins. In shedding his blood he forgave us.

His real sacrifice was a model for the spiritual sacrifice required of us in return – to sacrifice our sinful nature daily (especially our pride) and follow him. Without Christ we can never be worthy to stand in the presence of God. Let's keep Christ in the equation of our faith.

Heavenly Father, at this critical time in the history of mankind, perhaps even the “end of days”, strengthen us in our resolve to not get distracted by the things of the world or by the false teaching of inconstant preachers. Keep us focused on the goal: our Lord Jesus Christ. The only way that a loving, eternal relationship with you can be truly established. Amen.