Mutual Submission

As a new convert in an authoritarian cult like church, I learnt that submission to Christ meant that a Christian must have no freedom of choice, no personal preferences and no unique personality.

The death of the self was strongly emphasised. Love for anything other than God was idolatry.

But then I read in Genesis that God gave Adam the freedom to choose names for all the animals. God submitted to Adam's choices regarding the names of the animals.

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. Ge 2:19 NIVUK84

When a husband loves his wife, he respects and honours her wisdom, gifts and abilities. The Apostle Paul writes that each of us should esteem others more highly than ourselves.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Php 2:3 NIVUK84

A husband who loves his wife will submit to her in those areas where she is wiser or more capable than he is. If a wife is much more spiritually mature than her husband, which is very often the case, he should be willing to value her spiritual guidance.

This leads my thoughts back to Ephesians 5:21.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIVUK84

I also learned to question the rigid hierarchical culture of some churches.

Mutual submission means that the Senior Pastor should give children’s church leaders freedom to make decisions. 

A good pastor will also seek the advice of the elders, computer specialists, financial experts and prophetic people. 

A good pastor will also be willing to release church members into missions, and not only missions under his direction. 

A healthy marriage is a partnership. A healthy church is a team.

Why are we here?

So many people consider themselves wise because they are sceptical. They believe in a scientifically confirmed reality.

The achievements of modern science and technology are truly amazing. 

We know so much now that was completely unknown a hundred or two hundred years ago.
But there are still many mysteries that the best scientists do not understand.

What is dark matter? There is a lot of matter in space that no instrument can identify, but scientists tell us that this invisible matter must be there because otherwise many gravitational phenomena are inexplicable.

We know that matter is made of atoms, that atoms are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons, and many other things that I don't understand because I'm not a scientist. 

We fly from Europe to Australia in 20 hours and use laptops on the plane.

The achievements of scientists have seduced us into thinking we are amazingly intelligent, even though we understand so little.

Educated scientists and technicians can explain a lot. They understand how things work, but when confronted with existential fears, we are in the dark. In the end, even scientists are only mortal human beings.

What happens when we die? Doctors can explain how our bodies shut down when we die, but what comes after that?

We imagine that we understand things that we don't understand at all, but we have a kind of religious faith in the supposed omniscience of scientists.

For many people, science is the new religion. Even if we don't understand this alleged reality, we trust our high priests, the scientists.

Why does anything exist at all? The best scientists have no better answers than toddlers.

Albert Einstein was led to believe in God through his studies. Without God, everything makes no sense.

But if we understand everything as God's creation, how can we explain the existence of evil?

How can God be good if he is the creator and allows so much evil? I can find the answer only in the Bible.

Have you read the Bible with an open heart? I find that the Bible is the only remedy that can save us from hopelessness.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV84

The Touch of God

 God is love. He wants to touch you with his love. His touch is gentle. He does not want to hurt you. He wants to touch every part of you with his love.

God touches your spirit and your soul, your thoughts, and your feelings, but not only that. He also wants to touch your body. His touch is a healing touch. His love is a comforting love.

About 50 years ago there was a stirring of the Spirit of God among all kinds of people. Traditional Catholics and Protestants experienced the touch of God. Many drug addicts and hippies had amazing experiences and became followers of Jesus. I believe we are about to see something even bigger very soon.

At that time I was a young man and a newly converted Christian. We loved to sing this song.

God’s not dead, He is alive. God’s not dead, He is alive. God’s not dead, He is alive. 

I feel him all over me.
I can feel Him in my hands
I can feel Him in my feet
I can feel Him in the Church
I can feel Him in the street
I can feel him in the air.
I feel him everywhere.

It was literally true. We really did feel the Spirit of God in our bodies and all around us. 

I am now 74, and I still often feel the presence and the touch of God, but the glory has faded a little. I want a refreshing. I believe it is coming.

Many conservative Christians are nervous about dramatic or emotional experiences of God.

There are even many Pentecostal believers who see their bodies as something not entirely spiritual.

According to a popular doctrine, you are a spirit, you have a soul and you live in a body.

Many people have died, or nearly died, and come back to life. They report that they have left their bodies and had amazing experiences. Outside their bodies they could see, hear and think with even greater clarity than their natural physical senses permitted.

We are spiritual beings. When your body dies, you don’t cease to exist. 

But is your body only an unimportant housing for your soul?
We can overvalue our bodies. We can be obsessed with feeling good and looking good. 

We can be obsessed with sex and sensual satisfaction.

But God made your body, and he loves every part of you. God wants to awaken your spiritual senses but also bless your natural human self, including your body.

Everywhere Jesus went, he healed physical ailments and disabilities.

In the Old Testament, the prophet David wrote.

O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. Ps 63:1 NKJV

God loves you, not just your spirit. God loves you, every part of you, just as you are. 

 God wants to heal, refresh and bless your spirit, your mind, your soul and your body.
 

Cancel Culture

 Traditional conservatives in Western Countries want us to believe that Cancel Culture is an evil revolutionary movement invented by angry black people and left wing activists.

Sometimes cancel culture can go too far. Some very significant men in history did very bad things. If we no longer celebrate their positive achievements, our understanding of history will suffer.

• King David had too many wives, and he was not always a good father.

• George Washington was the first president of the USA, but he owned a lot of slaves.

• Martin Luther persecuted Jews and Anabaptists.

• Johannes Brahms was a misogynist.

But wait a minute. Is Cancel Culture really a new thing? 

I am a lover of classical music. Over 100 years ago there were no women playing in some elite symphony orchestras. Now there are numerous wonderful composers and conductors who are women.

I am 74, and I have loved classical music all my life, but only in recent years I have heard a lot of music by female composers, which was previously ignored.

Very recently I heard of a woman who worked closely with Einstein. She was a genius and her ideas had a big influence on Einstein, but he got all the credit while she was forgotten.

When Spanish conquistadors took over Mexico and South America, they systematically set out to suppress indigenous languages and culture. Cancel Culture.

When European colonists invaded North America and Australia, they committed genocide and suppressed indigenous languages and culture. Cancel Culture.

I once met an African preacher who migrated to Australia. He told me that dancing was not permitted for Christians. For Africans, dancing is like breathing. Cancel Culture.

When I was a child in Australia, I went to a Church of England Grammar school. We learned about British heroes and colonial pioneers. 

We learned that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but we were not told that an Australian professor and a German Jewish refugee shared the Nobel Prize for penicillin, when they took Fleming’s discovery and turned it into a life-saving medicine. Cancel Culture.

As a Christian, I had heard a lot about the Welsh Revival in 1904.

Some years ago some Welsh preachers visited our church in Australia.

 We learned that one of the most powerful ministries in the Welsh revival was the preaching of a 15-year-old girl. When she preached in city streets, crowds came to be blessed: politicians, business leaders, prostitutes, and everyone in between. 

She is ignored in most Christian history books. Cancel Culture.

Cancel Culture has been practised for centuries by conservative white Christians.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Ga 3:28 NIVUK84

The Never Ending Love of Jesus

• Have you been trying hard to do what God has called you to do?

• Have you sacrificed your time and strength for the people you help?

• Have you prayed with a sincere heart for the people God has given you to care for?

Yet you feel dry inside. The heavenly music that used to encourage you no longer stirs your heart as before. You no longer feel the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit as at other times.

You are fighting an ongoing  battle with problems in your family, in your job, with your health or your finances.

One or two problems would already be a challenge, but in so many areas of life you don't see a clear path, but messes on every side.

As if that wasn't enough, you see a world around you that is overwhelmed by crisis after crisis.  

And you see this not only in the daily news, but also in the high prices at the petrol station, in the supermarket and in the never ending pandemic.  

Sometimes you feel so weighed down that your fresh enthusiasm for God is compromised, though you never give up in your dedication and caring for others.

Jesus sees your daily struggle and his compassion is still a blazing fire. Jesus loves you and his grace is new every morning.

Jesus has a word for you today.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. La 3:22–25 NRSV

The Future will be Different

 We are in a kind of no man's land, a waiting time.

We are waiting, but we don't know what lies ahead. The future will be different from the past, but we don't know what will come and when it will come. We have promises from God. We may expect revival, but what will revival look like in the unknown future?

The revivals of the past often appeared unexpectedly. We read history, but we know the world of yesterday is never coming back.

We are like Abraham in the Bible who set out on a pilgrimage not knowing where God would lead him. Abraham went from his homeland to a completely different destination. We stay where we are, but the world is changing around us.

Abraham and Sarah had to trust God for their unknown future, just like we do today. 

Abraham really had to trust God because he was 75 years old when God promised to give him a son. He had to wait about 25 more years until Isaac was born.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. Rom 4:19 NRSV

We often get tired of waiting and with many trials. I am sure that Abraham and Sarah were sometimes tired and discouraged.

But God wants to encourage us. He gives us his word and his loving promises.

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
 
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isa 40:29–31 NRSV

We are in an unprecedented global crisis. In such times can expect God's miraculous intervention. Millions are sick and yet millions are cowed in the shadow of death. So many are dying.

The Second World War was also a terrible crisis. Millions died and but millions were sick, injured and traumatised.

Shortly after the war, God was at work with great mercy. Great revivals appeared in different countries. Evangelists appeared in America and thousands of seriously ill people experienced miraculous healings.

In Solingen in Germany, a German evangelist emerged who exercised amazing healing gifts. 

Hermann Zaiss was a very gifted German evangelist at the end of the war. Already in 1945 thousands and thousands from all regions of Germany and also from other countries came to his meetings. Many seriously ill people were miraculously healed, but these were not the greatest miracles.  

There was a young soldier in the British occupation force. He burned with a terrible hatred against the German people. His commander was a Canadian officer who regarded this young man with Christian compassion because his uncontrollable bitterness was poisoning his own soul.

This young man was not a monster. As a Jewish child from Germany, he had found refuge in England, but his entire family was murdered by the Nazis.

The Canadian officer brought the traumatised young soldier to the meeting to hear the German evangelist.

Also in the audience was another badly injured man. He was a hard-core Nazi from the Waffen-SS, a devoted disciple of the Führer.

In the last days of the war, he was hit by the explosion of an artillery shell. When he awoke from a coma, he saw a black American nurse smiling at him with Christian Mercy. He no longer understood the world. One of his legs had been torn apart and he was permanently crippled.

The bewildered SS officer and the bitter young Jew listened to the sermon, saw the healings and felt the presence of God with His love and mercy. Then their hearts became warm and soft. They converted to Jesus and testified of their experience.

Then the most amazing miracle of all occurred. They became firm friends.

In dark times we can expect amazing miracles.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
God's love never changes. God is love. 1 Cor 13:7 NLT

Complete Gender Equality before God

 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” Ro 8:15 NRSV

If as an adult man or woman you are obliged to always fulfil the expectations of your parents, your spouse or your pastor, you are enslaved, because you are not free to follow the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In the Roman Empire, sons and daughters were by no means equal. The son was the heir of the father. The wife always had to obey her father or husband.

In Romans 8, Paul says all believers are adopted as children and heirs of God. In Roman law, an adopted son became the heir of the adopting father, equal in status with a natural born son.

Only sons were heirs, not daughters

In Romans and Galatians, Paul taught that as Christians we are all have the status of adopted sons and heirs, not only men but also women. It means that she is equal with the brothers in the faith. 

This is not only an indication of the value of her soul, but also a clear teaching that she is equal in everything, because in Roman law, sonship was primarily a legal status.

and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Ro 8:17 NRSV

Being an heir does not only mean being loved and valued, but also having the legal standing of an heir, which means complete gender equality in every sense of the word.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
 
Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Ga 4:4–7 NASB95

Doctrines of gender based Christian hierarchy are mainly based on dubiously interpreted proof texts, verses taken out of context.

Church: Caring or self destructing?

 Two years ago I needed urgent surgery to clean out a blocked carotid artery. It was a matter of life and death.

There are health freaks who don't fancy medication or surgery. Some thrive on a healthy diet, regular relaxation and exercise. Nevertheless, even healthy people are sometimes attacked by life-threatening diseases.

You don't need surgery until you need surgery.

But imagine having a family doctor who has one solution for every problem, surgery!

Many of his patients would die.

Once I was in a church where almost every sermon was judgemental and intimidating. 

Anyone who had problems was to receive intensive pastoral care with two pastors. One absolutely had to obey the directions of these pastors.

Anyone who expressed a different opinion from the pastor was excommunicated. The pastors claimed to be holy men of God. What they said was supposedly from God Himself.

We sometimes need a surgeon. We also sometimes need evangelists and guest preachers who speak strongly of holiness and obedience. When many Christians are involved in pornography, sometimes we need a warning.

The word pastor means shepherd. But pastors and elders need to be like good family doctors who encourage and help. A good shepherd does not punish his sheep with harsh blows.

A preacher or leader who rules with intimidation has no right to exercise authority.

Paul founded the church in Corinth, but later self-appointed authoritarian preachers emerged who bullied the believers. Paul said that such preachers should not be obeyed.

You put up with it when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:20 NLT

Are we then to despise all authority and all leadership, as some headstrong Christians do?

Paul taught mutual submission.

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21 NRSV

Christians should respect and take pastors seriously, but pastors must also respect and take all Christians seriously.

What did Jesus say about this?

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
The greatest among you will be your servant. Matthew 23:8–11 NIV84

Churches are often corrupted by arrogant leadership, but strife, rebellion and stubbornness are not the answer. When leaders rule with intimidation and bullying, you may leave. Just leave if you can.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Matthew 7:15–16 NIV84

Jesus warns not only against heretics with unbiblical doctrines, but also against preachers who rule without love and humility, even if their doctrine is correct.

Christian communities need order and respect, but where there is bullying and strife, the Body of Christ becomes like a sick person with an autoimmune disease. The body consumes itself.

As Christians and as congregations we are called to reach out to hurting and needy people, both inside the church and in the world outside. 

When our love grows cold and we just strive to build and maintain our ministries or congregations, we are in danger of developing spiritual autoimmune disease.