Why I don't "Wish it could be Christmas every day"

Christmas is a time of food and drink, manic shopping and maxing out credit cards, Santa and office parties, entertainment and enduring relatives your happy you only have to see once a year. Christmas is big business and for many high street stores the season to be jolly is measured by the happiness and satisfaction of their extended profit margins. To that end Christmas starts earlier and earlier each year. After all, it's all about them, as retailers and us, the CONSUMER.

 I can think of nothing that has become so utterly detached from it's foundation as this. Even if you don't have a religious bone in your body you've probably had your own gripe over the pointlessness of the circus it has all become. As someone who has been on both the atheistic and Christian side of the fence I can understand both sides yet in fairness it's hard to credibly criticise something unless you have respect to and understand it's true foundation and it's hard to expect people to stay true to the foundation if they don't really believe in or follow. It's a bit like a Marxist who wants to live in America but doesn't buy into it's constitution. The truth is he doesn't really get what America is and although he technically lives there, it doesn't live in him. So we are either left with a dissatisfaction of the shallow consumerist merry go round it has become or we make do with our own tradition of the festive season {which, in my childhood, was actually really enjoyable}. However, even if we enjoy the tradition and the things we do every year we are left with a fundamental problem.

Christmas without Christ at the centre is like celebrating the birthday of someone we either don't like or don't believe in. How weird is that when you think of it? The bottom line for us as human beings is that we usually gravitate toward those things we actually like and enjoy so trying to encourage people to be more religious when they have no genuine love for Jesus really is a case of pushing a boulder up a never ending hill. Sure, you can do it {to an extent}but you will soon tire of it and even if you continue out of a sense of duty there must eventually come the question of "what is the point?" So if you are interested enough to wonder at a race of people who insist on throwing a huge birthday party for someone whom they won't acknowledge as the birthday boy then allow me {as a former atheist} to fill you in on why this is so important and why it really does make a difference.

Firstly, it's about the one who had an incredible idea. An idea to create everything that exists and everything we enjoy and the pinnacle of his idea is to create us. Human beings. Creatures so special we are able to reflect our creator in ways no other created thing does or can. Now throw into that heady and inspiring mix one of the most agonizing things it is possible to witness. The very pinnacle of God's creation make a concious choice to live their lives independantly of the one upon whom their very existence as well as their eternal destination is dependent on. This is, in a nutshell, what we call sin. I know we all have our own idea of what sin is. Usually things that other people do that we ourselves don't but sin is defined by the one who made us and made us for his purpose and that purpose is hugely dependent on our being in a trusting relationship with him.

 Now let me stop for a moment. God wants a RELATIONSHIP with us? Lets be real here. When most of us think of religion we think of rules, regulations and rituals to appease a divine master and hopefully in that being able to do enough to qualify for a place in heaven, paradise, nirvana or a better incarnation or whatever view of the afterlife you subscribe to but God is more concerned about you not just knowing about him but knowing and experiencing him PERSONALLY. This is where Jesus comes in. Jesus was sent to do what we as humans have utterly failed to do. He lived the life we could not and in many cases {if we are truly honest about it} would not live. He was also sent to pay the ultimate price for all we had done wrong. You see, sin really is a big deal with God. It's a huge deal. Even the stuff we see as insignificant is significant with God because every choice to sin is a rejection of God's purpose for you and in a real sense is a rejection of him and a statement of rejection of his rightful authority over our lives. Because of God's perfect moral character this HAS TO BE DEALT WITH.

I know this may make God sound harsh and exacting but consider this. The same God who holds unyeildingly to perfect moral standards is the same God who was prepared to get his own hands dirty to help us out of the mess we are in. A mess of our own making and a mess that most of us are blissfully unaware that we are in. Jesus was sent to die. He died for every lie, every lust, every adultery and moment of hatred. He died for every act of dishonestly and selfishness. He died for every act of immorality. In fact everything you have ever done wrong in God's eyes he has paid for IN FULL by himself. The truth is that no religion or good works could ever pay this debt we owe to God. That's the great deception of most religion. The idea that sin against an infinite holy deity could be paid by finite sinful human beings is as bankrupt an idea as sub prime lending or building an economy on an artificially inflated stock market bubble. In God's economy the price could only ever be paid the hard way by God's own sinless Son. A price God was completely committed to paying in full.

That is God's Christmas gift to you.

In a world that is straining under the burden of unpayable debt we have good news. There is an even greater debt that has already been paid. The celebration of Christmas is, for us, a celebration of Christ's coming to earth. A celebration of the fact that this same God we criticise and question whether he cares and cry 'where is God' when things go wrong is the one who got involved in a way that few of us would even dare to ask of him. The coming of Christ to this earth is God's radical commitment to redeem and help those for whom he had great plans but who have let him down. It is God showing his commitment to us and nailing his colours to the mast knowing that 33 years later they would also be nailed to a cross. It is the launch of the worlds greatest rescue mission.

Seen in this light it changes EVERYTHING. Christmas is about Christ. The birthday boy is now the centre of the party as he always should have been. The giving of gifts reminds us that God gave the gift of his son so that we could live with him forever and have eternal life. Christmas now becomes a meaningful celebration that inspires thankfulness and the deepest appreciation. It becomes an inspiring agent of change that more than overshadows and overrules the empty new years resolutions that many of us make and break. Christmas is a reminder of just how much God wants us back and that he was prepared to make the first move even though the fault for the break was entirely ours. It is a reminder that he makes a way for us to get to him by first coming to us. A encouragement to know God because of his commitment to not only knowing us but actually becoming one of us.

Christians around the world declare Jesus as God in human form. The one who is fully God who in becoming fully man showed he was fully committed to winning us back. It never really was about gluttony and drunkenness. It's actually about celebrating the one who provides all good things and the thing we all really need. The forgiveness of sins and a relationship with our creator restored. It's not about manic shopping but STOPPING to remember and appreciate the one who purchased our salvation and sent his son as the ultimate gift. It's not about maxing out the credit cards and overdraft facilities. It's about the one who was sent to pay the humanly unpayable debt so we could stand free and justified before a perfect and holy God. When I have children I won't be telling them about some fictional red suited character. Why should I when I can tell them the true story of a far more dramatic visitation? The visit of God to this earth to bring the ultimate gift and the real significance the giving of gifts can have in this context. Who needs drunken and debauched office parties that have absolutely nothing to do with the person this time of year is supposed to be about. It's not about being entertained to death but being enthralled to life by the one who came to give life in all it's fullness. A life that cannot be attained by the things we attain in this world that will break, rust and fade away. Christmas isn't about retail profits but a rural prophet who started two millenia ago and whose words have been proven beyond ANY reasonable doubt. It's not about extending profit margins but extending a hand of unconditional love and grace to a fallen and broken world.

God's not in it for profit anyway. He already owns everything. Instead he committed to pay the ultimate painful price out of love for the people he so wanted to help. To God, we are not consumers. We are his creation, made in his image, fallen, fallible but redeemable and to that end God sent his son into the world so that whosoever would put their trust in him would never perish but have everlasting life and become a christian, a child of God. Christmas really does mean something because Christ means something to me. He means everything to me and he can mean to same to you. Every year I hear the same old songs on the radio including the line " I wish it could be Christmas every day". Oh but it is. In a very real sense it is. Christmas is a celebration of the coming of Christ into our world. When he comes into your life as he did mine 18 year ago it is Christ-mass every day. It is so much more than a tradition. It is the experience of a living relationship with the risen and living Christ.

 That's why I DON'T wish it could be Christmas every day. In the truest and most meaningful sense of the word, for this former atheist, it already is.

 Shalom....steve

Will a Just and Holy God help the unworthy?

I have a deep and abiding appreciation for the names God uses of Himself in the scriptures. I have very good reason for this which find's itself rooted in my own experiences. A number of years ago I went through what our country's monarch once described as an 'annus horibilis' A horrible year. It was a time when I was barely keeping my head above water. I had problems in the workplace, a serious lack of job security, costs were mounting up and life was perpetually difficult. This just built up and built up over the year until I reached a point of just wanting to give up and walk away. I won't go into the detail of all the other issues which were heaped on top of that but nearing the end of a year where my relationship with God was in existance but not much more could be said of it I was about ready to cave in. This is all the more significant because I am naturally a person who will stubbornly refuse to give up. In desperation I decided to pray. {something I only did from time to time in that year.} All that time I was trusting in my own ways to solve my own problems and nothing went right. That day I prayed I told God how I felt. I told him I felt like giving up. I told Him I was sorry and I needed His help. I said a lot of things and I meant every one and for the first time in ages I genuinely listened for His voice. I didn't care what He said. I was at an end of myself. I had nothing to lose. God could say what He wanted and I would listen. This was the time I got a very clear word from the Lord. A time that started a pattern in my life that continues to this day. He said "The things that have pursued you so far will not pursue you into the new year. I will turn it around." When I recieved that from God it was with such a sense of assurance that I knew that I knew it would happen. It is hard to explain how someone could so clearly and emphatically believe something when there was absolutely no material evidence for it. In fact all the evidence was pointing in exactly the opposite direction but I believed it. I has no doubt that I had heard from God and no doubt things were going to change and that is exactly what happened. The company I worked for went from a position of deep insecurity to finding a buyer/investor. The serious fundamental problems with the cleaning company I worked for part time suddenly turned round and I had job security and no worries about whether I would have enough money coming in. Furthermore, while previously I was living almost week to week trying to keep my head above water, now it all changed. I had overtime thrown at me hand over fist. It was almost too much to do but it dug me out of a very big hole. The previous year has financial reverse after reverse. Every time I thought I was on top of things something would come up. An unexpected bill or I would be ripped off by somebody. It was one long nightmare. All of that just stopped dead in it's tracks. Before, I tried to sort everything out myself and lived in an almost constant state of insecurity. Now I felt it was easy to trust God. Now I'm not saying that if you trust God everything in life is easy and goes your way but if you relinquish control and trust Him and do what He tells you then you will be in His will which is the safest place to be. Even in the midst of a storm you will walk through that storm with your head held high because you don't walk alone. {and this has far more significance and truth spiritually than the words of a football anthem.} I will share a bit more about this. I received this word from God at the end of 2005. During that year my wife and I had gone to her home country, Ghana. She needed to go to the British consulate to renew her visa which had expired. Now those in the know about immigration issues will be aware that the number of people from the west coast African countries who are here legally are in the minority. The British officials are well aware of this so you can be expected as a matter of course to be made to jump through many hoops so to speak and to be given a hard time. {and that's if you have done nothing wrong} We had a big, big problem. My wife had overstayed on her visa by some months. They could quite easily have just point blank refused to renew it. There are many stories in Ghana of how the immigration authorities make it very difficult to get into the U.K and there are many people who try to get here, usually by dishonest means. What transpired was the one {very big} bright point in a dreadful year. Although I was only praying occassionally I had prayed for help on this one. I had met many African people in the past and was well aware of the nightmare scenario of visa difficulties so it was one of those things in which I knew I was helpless. I prayed for help. Was this it? Would I ever see my wife again? O.K, God is good but will he help us? Did we deserve His help? I was certain we did not. It was then {on probably the only occasion I stopped to listen} he spoke and told me to trust in His grace. Just like the time I described earlier in this blog, it was accompanied with a sense of assurance and faith. It was difficult though. There was no sense of submission to God which explains why I was a lot more unsteady in my faith than I was at the end of the year when God spoke to me. Anyway, we got into the consulate and sat down outside under a metal roof shelter with a crowd of around 100 people and as we sat {expecting to wait for hours to be seen} we all watched as a Ghanaian security official pulled a man out and began to berate him. It seems this man was suspected of bringing a fraudulent identity with him. The man was told to wait in the corner of the yard and not move and to stand with his hands on the back of his head while the security official berated him. He left that man there in the 30 degree centigrade heat. When he put his hands down the security man got angry and kept hitting him with his baton across his legs until his hands stayed on his head. {naturally he brought his hands down to protect himself which only aggrivate the security person.} Needless to say this only heightened the sense of nervousness about our application when my wife had overstayed her welcome in the u.k. To cut a long story short we filed the application and a date was set for a formal meeting with a consulate official. The date was set for some weeks after I was due to return to the u.k so I waved goodbye at the airport unsure of whether I would ever see her again. This was my situation. On the one hand looking at our circumstances and knowing full well this was a very bad and difficult situation and on the other remembering God had told me to trust in His grace. In other words trust in His unmerited, undeserved and freely given favour. Our unworthiness was being trumped by God's gracious character. It was as if God was saying, "This is who I am, Trust me for who I am. I am the God of grace. My dealings with you are based on grace, not merit." Something kept me believing this but it was still a nervous time. One day, back in the u.k while I was speaking with my wife on the phone she told me she had been to a church for prayer and the pastor told her he had a 'special anointing' for getting people a visa. She would have to pay him though to recieve this 'anointed prayer' She assured me she didn't give him any money. There is something I detest about some of these money preachers whether they are found in a local church or on t.v. They prostitute faith and make a mockery of grace. During that call I felt very strongly that I must trust in God's grace. I personally believe that God hates this religious money racket. I had a sense that if I trusted His grace everything would be fine. Nothing we could give {and we didn't have anything to give anyway} would have made the slightest bit of diference. So here is what happened. On the day of the interview and expecting a full interrogation my wife turns up at the consulate and is called to the meeting. The official sat there with all the paperwork and asked,"So, when are you flying back to England? My wife replied, "Please, I don't have a ticket yet because I don't have a visa?" The official handed over the passport with a visa inside and concluded the meeting with. "Here is your passport, your visa is inside. Have a nice trip" Thats it. No argument, no interrogation, no hastle. No difficulty in 'why you were in England after your visa expired.' Just 'here is your passport. I mean how blatent an example of God's grace can you get. This is virtually unheard of. When I got back to England from Ghana I had to wait in the tunnel passage between the aeroplane doors and the airport building for the best part of an hour as several very serious looking British detectives and officials went through the passengers with a fine tooth comb. Can you believe that. She just walks into the consulate and they basically say "Here is your passport, have a nice trip" Anyone who knows the system will either think I am making this up, I am extremely lucky or you know something of the same God I know. God is truly a God of grace. You cannot earn His favour or reach his standard even if you tried. When we come before God in prayer He tells us to come with confidence before the throne of grace. In other words 'Come before the throne of the unworthy.' There is a place you can come to where the only qualification is that you are not qualified. If you are one of the 'unqualified'. If you are one of those who doesn't meet God's perfect standard. {and I have news for you. That is all of us} then you qualify. The throne of grace is a special place set up for you to approach God. How can a sinful unqualified person possibly come before an infinitely Holy God who is described as a consuming fire? It can happen because of the blood of his own Son that was shed for our sins. He has made a way when there was no way. Therefore we can come before the throne of grace with confidence, not in ourselves but in the shed blood of His Son Jesus whose blood atones for all our sins. To trust in the grace of God is to trust in God for who He is. He is by nature gracious. The Hebrew scriptures reveal that perfect government is intertwined with grace. Our world and everything in it was established by the free grace of God. We benefit every day from the grace of God. We are standing on grace. The steadfastness of the very ground beneath our feet testifies to God's creative grace. Unmerited, unearned and undeserved, freely given. Every breath we take is the result of grace. The world which God created and designed and sustains is ruled over by a God whose governmental nature is a grace nature. These were things I was only later to discover theologically but I experienced them by revelation and experience. Our God truly operates on the basic of grace because grace is a thread which runs right through the heart of His essential character. It is part of God's very identity. shalom...Steve Song link : YOU ARE THE PERFECT AND RIGHTEOUS GOD - by Steve + Vikki Cook {The song reflects some of what I have shared here. The link below can be pasted into your search bar - I hope this song will be as much a blessing and inspiration to you as it is to me.} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZnGHJMrui4

El Shaddai - Almighty God

A religious education teacher asked her class if anybody knew what God's name was? One small boy put his hand up. "Miss,miss" he exclaimed. "Yes?" she replied."It's Harold!" he proclaimed confidently. The teacher looked perplexed. "and what makes you think God's name is Harold?" she quizzed. The little boy answered confidently,"Because every Sunday when we go to church I hear them pray, Our Father, who art in heaven. HAROLD be thy name."

 Firstly my apologies if you've heard that one before. There is a point though. God DOES actually have a name. In fact He has many names. You may well ask why many names? Why not just one? Well we need to understand that to us in this generation and culture, a name is just a name but for the people in bible times {and in fact today in many parts of the world} a name carried much with it. A name carries your prestige, your honour and reputation. Even in today's culture we talk about 'give a dog a bad name'. In the first book of the bible a name conveys even more. It has a deeply prophetic significance. When God reveals a name He wants to be known by He is letting us know something about His character. Something about who He is in the very centre of His being.
 So now we come to this term EL SHADDAI. Translated it means GOD ALMIGHTY. While some of us may be more used to such a term being used as an irreverent exclamation it is a term full of meaning and significance. Let me share just a few things here.

 # God often revealed something of His character as a result of a particular experience with someone -
 While an academic study or theological knowledge is of undoubted use it is worth noting that this deepest of religious teaching, that of actually knowing God himself, did not come through education. It was not obtainable only for those with a particularly high I.Q but was revealed to those who had a personal encounter with God. In other words it is relational rather than intellectual. God wants to do more than fill our heads with knowledge. He wants us to know Him and that's what this term EL SHADDAI is about.

 # EL SHADDAI is not limited the way we are limited -
In one particular and dramatic case in the scriptures a man called Abram had an encounter with God and God made a series of astonishing and seemingly impossible promises to him. You see Abram was a wealthy and successful man but for all his money the one thing he could not do was produce a son and heir. It really bothered him and so God told him {remember Abram is in his 90's} that not only will he have a son but that his descendants will form a nation. As if that wasn't enough there would be many kings that would come from this lineage and as if that wasn't enough God told him that every nation would be blessed as a result of it.I mean think about it. Abram is already old and can't even have one child and God is promising him a nation! God was telling Abram to look at the one making the promise and realise that there is no lack of power to achieve this thing with the one called ALMIGHTY.

# We are changed as a result of an encounter with God -
Abram has his name changed to Abraham which means 'a father of many nations'. When you enter into a covenant relationship with EL SHADDAI, The Almighty, you receive a new name, a new future and purpose. A new destiny.

# El Shaddai is the God of an ETERNAL COVENANT -
God promised Abram that He would make an ETERNAL COVENANT with him. In fact elsewhere God confirms His commitment to Abraham's descendants, the nation of Israel, by saying if the mountains are no more and the sun is quenched then my covenant with you is over. In other words God used the most permanent, powerful and immovable things they could think of to reinforce in their minds the permanency of His promises. Recently I was on holiday in the land of Israel. It was an amazing experience to stand in the middle of fulfilled prophecy. For the best part of 2,000 years the descendants of Abraham have been scattered throughout the earth. They have been derided and persecuted time and again like no other people in history yet against all the odds not only had they survived but they were back home in the land that God had promised them in His everlasting covenant. For generations many have dismissed the promises of Israel's return. Others have redefined or alegorised them or tried to claim that these promises were really speaking of the church. Many people, including Jews, have said such a thing is impossible but we have seen it here in this generation. Why? Because God is EL SHADDAI. He is all powerful and there is nothing He cannot do. Time and again we stand amazed at God's power to stand by His word. Even when we ourselves are unfaithful He remains faithful.

# The promise is not always fulfilled overnight -
Before Abram received the promise of a son and heir he went through his own struggles with this. He agreed with his wife to father a child with one of the servant women. This was not God's plan yet God persevered with him and eventually he and his wife had a son, Isaac. How often do we cook up man made ideas to get things done rather than trust God and His timing?
I recall a time around 10 years ago I became very discouraged and frustrated. I believed I was doing what was right and submitted to the will of God yet it seemed I was getting nowhere. here were two things God showed me that night when I looked to Him for an answer and one of them was, "You have submitted yourself to my will but not to my timing". As soon as I heard it I knew full well it was true. I had reached the point where I had embraced the will of God for my life...as long as it's now!{or at least very soon} That's probably most of us at some point or another. We must remember that the God who promises is EL SHADDAI. He is not weak or slow or forgetful. He is the Almighty. The God of unlimited power. He is also the eternal God who sees everything from the perspective of eternity. He knows how best to answer your prayers and also WHEN to answer your prayers.

# Abram believed God could make him a father but not that God could make his wife a mother -
For some of us, trusting EL SHADDAI is easier for ourselves than it is for others. Why is that? I'm not sure but I've seen it numerous times. For some it's the other way round. They trust God to move in someone Else's life but not in their own. It seems some of us can believe for a miracle of healing in someone else's life but not our own.
We like to hide behind naturalistic, intellectual excuses. Perhaps God only heals certain types of ailment. You know the kind that could probably clear up by themselves anyway like a cough or cold. Some of us think that if a problem is genetic then it is an issue for science and that's beyond God's remit. After all doesn't the bible contain all that unscientific stuff about a young earth, Adam and Eve, a flood etc. Then we have the intellectual rationalisations such as 'I believe God uses science, doctors ect'. Well I have no doubt He does but why can't he circumvent all that? After all He is either EL SHADDAI or He is not. What was going through Abraham's mind when he made that decision? What was going through his wife's mind? Perhaps they had tried but then said, 'This is stupid. This isn't working.' Let me say this. If God has said something then it WILL come to pass. This is the same God who spoke the entire universe into being. Is anything too hard for him. Our problem is that our circumstances end up looking bigger than EL SHADDAI. How on earth is that possible?
 If you have ever seen an eclipse of the sun you will know the moon has the ability to entirely block out our vision of the sun yet we know the sun is THOUSANDS of times larger. The reason? We are many times closer to the moon than the sun. Abraham had allowed himself to get closer to his circumstances than to God. He allowed his focus to be centred on what was happening rather than on what God had said. Now before I start sounding harsh here it's worth saying that most of us would have struggled with the issue Abraham grappled with and that brings me to my next point.

# Circumstances can look bigger than God when they are issues very close to our hearts. -
A son and heir was the desperate cry of Abraham's heart. How easily some of us believe God for things which don't touch us but how we struggle when we feel the pain, sense the loss or focus on the sometimes serious consequences if God doesn't come through for us. This is exactly why, I believe, God revealed himself in such a way to Abram. When you go through the next trial of your faith and struggle to believe and act according to what God has told you then take a step back. Hand your circumstances back to God and you will find them, not necessarily small but the God you serve as much bigger. Seeing God as EL SHADDAI has a wonderful habit of putting every difficult situation into perspective.

# Finally, faith is really seen when we move out of the realm of the humanly possible -
 Now faith may well still exist INSIDE that realm. Don't get me wrong but it is most clearly seen OUTSIDE of it. Furthermore I believe God deliberately takes us to a place of the IMPOSSIBLE. He will take us to a place where we CANNOT do it ourselves. God wants us to know Him, not in an academic way but in an experiential way. He wants us to experience him.
The truth is, in this lost and fallen {and broken} world, if God took his restraining and gracious hand off completely we would all perish. Often people ask "If there is a God then why do so many bad things happen?" I think {To adapt a phrase coined by C.S Lewis} that these things are God's megaphone to a deaf world. They shout to us that there IS something wrong. Something very wrong and we cannot sort it all out ourselves. The root of man's trouble is his desire to live in autonomy, Independently of God. It is what has caused all of humanity's suffering pain and death during it's existence on the earth and it is when we come to the place where we realise than and realise that we cannot do everything we are one step closer to an experience of God as EL SHADDAI, God Almighty.

 Shalom...Steve