Letters to a friend(part 4)

I call it a sermon, but it's more of a short talk really. Guess maybe I could expand upon it, but hey. You don't prepare, you run out of steam...
This final letter was sent to a slightly modified group. The friend mentioned earlier was not included. Actually, if memory serves part of the reason for sending this one was because of the similarities between "Claire" and her. I guess I was trying to encourage the recipients.

Date: 15/01/2008
Subject: Some musings on the parables

So I wrote this sermon on the train this afternoon, full of clarity and detail, and by the time I got home it was gone. However, I managed to dredge it up again, for the most part, and here it is. Enjoy. My original plan was to make a recording, and maybe I will, but right now it's late and it's too short anyway. before reading it, I suggest reading the parables in question: Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:11-32 even though if your churches are anything like the ones I attend you've probably learned them by heart!

As always, feedback is encouraged, welcomed, demanded even. particularly if you disagree with my theology! Also, it goes without saying that you should feel free to do what you like with this - it's creative commons licensed.

- -Stephen

===============================================
I want to start today by telling you a true story, about a friend of mine - let's call her Claire. Now, Claire and I went to school together for five years and I suppose it could be said that we where good friends. Claire became a Christian when we where both in p6, although looking back now I can safely say that I doubt the sincerity of her conviction. In the same way however I could easily say the same of my own - I think we both had some rather daft ideas. Claire was not from a Christian background, and her peers where predominantly unsaved, as where most of her family. By the age of 15 she was definately headed off the rails, and when she started at university at the relatively young age of 17, problems started to show. She took up with an atheist boyfriend, ceased attending church, and generally headed off in the wrong direction entirely.
To end on a higher note, Claire is now regularly attending church again and is a member of the CU. To the best of my knowledge she's also no longer in that particular relationship. However, hers is a story which is by no means unusual in this modern day.

The parable of the prodigal son tells us of an interestingly paralel story. We see the son goes to his father, and demands his inheritance - in other words he states that he wishes his father was dead! As I'm sure some of the more alert amongst you have noticed, this was a rather diret breaking of the 5th commandment - a fact which would not be lost on the Pharises to whom the Lord was speaking. The son set off to squander his money on wild living - he made money his god, breaking the first two commandments and quite likely the tenth. When he was done, his friends deserted him and he was left poor and hungry, living with pigs - animals concidered by Jewish law to be unclean. He'd hit rock bottom, well and truly.

So how does his father react to this? He waits for the son to come to his senses and return to him! And when he does, he's forgiven entirely for his transgresions and reinstated. His father holds no grudges, his son was lost and is now found, was dead to him and is alive again.
Let me repeat that: He waits for his son to come to his senses and return to him. And when he does, he forgives him entirely for his transgressions and reinstates him as his son and heir. He holds no grudges: his son was lost and now is found, was dead to him and is alive again. He waits for him to come to his senses. He doesn't care what his son did, what matters is that he realises he was mistaken.

The parable of the lost sheep has an interesting difference: the shepherd doesn't wait for the sheep to come to its senses and return, oh no. He goes and he looks for it. This is where I start complicating things, so bear with me. The Lord both reaches out to the lost and actively sets out to find them, and at the same time waits patiently, knowing they'll come to their senses and return. This isn't a contradiction in the slightest. the doctrine of iresistable grace states, quite rightly, that while we are bound to sin and totally incapable of turning from it of our own free will, for those of us that God calls it is impossible to resist. God looks for the lost, and they turn to him. He wills that they be saved, and it is so. As such, God knows that those whom he elects will come to their senses, and for them he waits. And it is through God's great grace alone that we are saved. If the shepherd chose to wait with the 99 sheep on the hill rather than search for the one lost sheep, then surely that sheep would have no chance. If the father had chosen, he could have forgotten about his son, refused to acknowledge him on his return. But she shepherd went to look for the stray, and the father waited patiently for his son to come to his senses. This is what God's love for humanity means.

Letters to a friend (part 3)

Not much I can really say about this one.

So you've all no doubt got a bit sick of me talking about the youth
assembly, but bare with me here. This one could be interesting.

So anywho, it actually amazes me to think it was such a short time ago.
Seems like ages. Been thinking a lot about the Sunday morning, actually.
and I'd like to share with you folk what happened, from my point of
view. This might no be the most legible account, I admit, and I'm not
promising I'm going to be completely honest about everything, if only
because I'm likely to get choked up with emotion and not be able to
continue typing at some points.

So we got up in the morning, sat around and had a chat before breakfast.
After breakfast, we all gathered around and we where given a reading.
Hebrews 11:1-3, to be precise. From about that moment on, Hebrews 11:1
became something of a favourite of mine.

/Now Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do
not see. This is what the ancients where commended for. By faith we
understand that the universe was formed at god's command, so that what
is seen was not made out of what was visible.

/We where given a talk on the subject of faith, and then we where told
to go for half an hour to be alone, and to pray to God about what we'd
heard over the weekend. Actually, the first thing I did while everyone
else got up and left was to go speak to the minister. "Hi, ah, I just
wanted to say thanks. Ahm, the girl who gave me this bible put these
bookmarks in with bible verses on them, and if you look, this one has
Hebrews 11:1 written on it. So like, I'd not really understood why that
particular verse at the time, but it makes a lot more sense now.
Thanks." I speak so eloquently!

So anyway, at that point I went outside. I can't remember exactly what I
did, but I know I read some bible verses, I think a few psalms, and then
sat next to the church across the road from the hall we where at, and
prayed for several minutes. Shortly after that, folk started arriving
for church and there where some kids running around so I went indoors
and sat down on a chair in the hall. I did some more bible reading, and
again I can't remember what any of it was now, except for one. I was
basically flicking through the bible somewhat at random. I was looking
through the index, when I suddenly came across Stephen. The index
described him as being "full of faith, wisdom, grace and spiritual
power". For some reason I was drawn to read through Acts chapters 6 and
7 at this point, and after doing so I was filled with shame. Shame that
I share a name with one such as him. I made a prayer at that point,
"Lord, help me to be more like Stephen." Actually it was a lot more
complicated than that, but there's the just of the message. I went on to
pray again that the Lord would send me to do his will, and asked that he
reveal what he wanted me to do.

And God replied. In his cryptic way, he replied. It would be a while
before I'd actually begin to properly understand what I'd actually
gotten myself into, I admit. And that's saying something.

The rest of the morning was a bit of a blur. We did a bible study before
lunch, after lunch we sat and discussed what we want to see changed in
the church, as far as activities for youths go. I was told that I'd be
contacted and never was, exchanged mobile numbers with a couple of folk,
went home.  The experience of the time between breakfast and that bible
study, though, remains as strong as ever in my memory.

Well, I've said it. That was easier than I expected. I'd appreciate any
thoughts you might have.

Thanks for reading.

-Stephen

Letters to a friend(part 2)

I wroted a parable! :3

Date: 20/11/2007
Subject:baaaaah! 

So a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away. He
leaves the other 99 on the hill and he goes to look for that one stray
sheep.
Meanwhile, back on the hill, there are 99 scared little sheep left on
their own. Sheep being sheep, most of them stay right where they are.
However, one or two of them do wander off. Not too far for the most
part, but they do move further away from the flock and thus find
themselves at more of a danger to wolves. Indeed the wolves pick off a
couple.
They even come in close to the pen, and go right up to the sheep,
tempting them away from the flock. Some of the sheep follow them,
despite what sense they have telling them that it's safer amongst the
other sheep. Indeed the other sheep try to tell them this also. Of
course some of the sheep that the wolves try and pick off manage to
escape, back to the safety of then pen, and when the shepherd returns
the wolves
aren't going to be a problem any longer.

When I was at the youth assembly a few weeks back, one of the speakers
commented that nowadays the church seems to be more interested in
finding the lost sheep than in what's happening to the sheep that are
left behind on the hill. I doubt he was referring to the same subject
I just wrote that illustration on, admittedly: the subject of the
conference was all about being called to work within the church, but
nevertheless it did spark off an interesting point there.
So what about them? The fact of the matter is that sheep are in
danger, mainly from an outside influence. Now, I'm not saying by any
means that separation from the world's the answer. That's just stupid,
and Paul warned against it when he wrote to the Corinthians (although
he did say not to associate with Christians who follow an immoral
lifestyle. Sheep are known to be influenced by other sheep, you know).
But at the same time, the rest of the church is something that we have
to stay close to. The closer the sheep are to the wolves, the more
danger they're in. And the wolves can come in sheep's clothing, oh yes.


I'm gonna avoid rambling for the sake of rambling here, so this isn't
gonna be the massive huge essay a lot of my emails are. As always, I'd
be overjoyed to get at least one reply with an interesting discussion
of the points raised, and if anyone agrees, disagrees, thinks they can
expand upon, whatever, they should do.  God bless.

-Stephen

Letters to a friend (Part 1)

Between somewhere in the region of November 07 and January 08, I sent out
a number of emails to a few friends. In particular, most of them where aimed at one friend, who was at the time going through a destinct decline in her faith. She's since turned her back on Christ entirely. While a lot of the emails where either personal or of little interest, there's some stuff here that I felt was worth sharing. It should be pointed out that most of these where off-the-cuff and not properly planned out. Also that they where all originally sent to the same three or four people.
So here's the first of a few copies. Enjoy.


Date: 17/11/2007
Subject: A Few Thoughts on Ephesians

    So I met my dad on the landing jsut now as he was getting ready to
start writing his sermon for tommorow, and I asked what he was doing it
on. Ephesians 4:1-16, aparently, on the subject of unity in the church.
So anywho, I went and looked it up, and here it is;


       Ephesians 4

1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love;

3Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope
of your calling;

5One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all.

7But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of
the gift of Christ.

8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men.

9(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth?

10He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, that he might fill all things.)

11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ:

13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ:

14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

15But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ:

16From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of
itself in love.


So two thoughts suddenly strike me. The first one's "yaknow, I think we
did a study on this at the youth assembly". I don't think we did,
actually. I think it's jsut that verse 11 happens to be similar to the
passage we did read, which if I had to guess I'd say was from
Corinthians. The second point was "I think I'll cross-reference the
first three verses with my NIV and see what comes up." So, lessee what
does come up.


       Ephesians 4


         Unity in the Body of Christ

1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of
the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be
patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep
the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.


Something tells me most of us could do with keeping that one in mind
more often, and I'm not even gonna bother pretending I'm not included
there. "Longsuffering,  forebearing one another in love"'s the bit I
like. Y'have to admit, longsuffering sounds much better than patient.
It's got a certain something to it. Much stronger word. Kinda sticks
with you, in its way, no? I think longsufferingness is something we
could all do with. I admit I find it a lot easier with some things than
others...

Then I noticed 25-32 (at this point I'm gonna stick to the NIV, because
I'm well aware you don't share my love of King James!);


     Ephesians 4:25-32 (New International Version)

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to
his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26"In your anger do
not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do
not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no
longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that
he may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only
what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it
may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of
all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every
form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving
each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.


Sure the NIV puts it down as being on a different subject to unity, but
I'm seeing a definite link here that needs explored. For the record, the
start of verse 26 is from Psalm 4. Verse 15 interests me more, tho.
Interesting one there. You ever find you sorta expect others to follow
that one, but at the same time you don't neccesarily feel the need to do
it yourself? Maybe that's just me. It's an unfortunate habbit I'd say.
Falsehood and unwholesome talk: do they neccesarily go together? If the
truth might be unwholesome, how do we deal with that? I guess 31-33
kinda cover that one!  :-)   "Only what is helpful for building others up
according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen", seems
to be a rather odd one. I'm curious what your thoughts are on it,
actually. Is Paul maybe referring specifically when talking to the
unsaved? It doesn't really seem that way to me, but otoh, hmms. I dunno.
I suppose you said it yourself tho, what you say can have the right
effect without you even realising you've said it. Ksh.

I'm aware you've not really got huge amounts of free time, so I assure
you I'm almost finished here. Just a couple comments on Ephesians 5.
I've highlighted a couple of points in the next passage, basically
ebcause they're the ones I want to draw attention to.

3But among you *there must not be even a hint* of sexual immorality, or
of *any kind of impurity*, or of greed, because these are *improper* for
*God's holy people*. 4*Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or
coarse joking*, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5For of
this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is
an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.^[a
]
6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things
*God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient*. 7Therefore do not be
partners with them.

It's interesting, at least to me, that Paul decided that sexual
immorality and greed needed singled out and everything else got bundled
down as "any kind of impurity". In a way it kinda makes a loss of focus
on said impurity, don't you think? Well it shouldn't! "Obscenity,
foolish talk or course joking" are out of place, and I guess come under
impurity. They're also unwholesome talk, which Paul warned against
earlier. He later in chapter 5 warns "Do not get drunk on wine, which
leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." Debauchery.
Love that word. It's interesting, the meaning we'd tend to use now would
refer to excess. Heavy drinking, indulging in pleasures of the flesh,
and the like. A more archaic meaning, and the one which I think's
intended in this case, would be "seduction from morality, allegiance, or
duty".  Wow. I'll refrain from making a joke about how surely spirits
are more likely to lead to debauchary than wine, but if you really think
about what he's saying here, and compare with the events in the old
testament it's quite interesting. The number of times folk ended up
sinning against God after getting exceedingly drunk is pretty
impressive. Suddenly it starts making sense. A lot of "impurities" can
lead to sexual immorality and greed, sorta like coveting is the first
step to breaking the other nine commandments. And God's wrath comes on
those who are disobediance. Oh yes! For some reason I can never say
something like that without simoultaenously being filled with fear and
just a bit gleeful. It's terrible really. But God's wrath's pretty
awesome, no?

The rest of the chapter's about wives and husbands, and that's a new
subject entirely, so I'll end here. So anyway, there's jsut a few
thoughts that kinda hit me just now whilst reading through Ephesians.
I'd be pretty interested to see if you'd disagree on any points there.
Fantastic how I managed to go bypass the whole unity thing too, eh?
Guess the bits about how we're supposed to conduct or lives at
christians tend to be a bigger draw for me.

Anywho, thanks for reading this. Send me a reply when ya have the time
will ya? God bless.

-Stephen


   Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

               ~Ephesians 5:17~