Strength will rise as we wait

Psalm 23 can have many faces. I read it at my granddad's funeral some 14 years ago, and for a long time I associated it with sadness. There's a lot of talk of death, lying down & enemies...that's not so good.

Coming back to it with fresh eyes as a 'baby Christian' some 7 years ago, it soon became one of my favourite passages in the bible.

The biggy here - and something I want to share almost as much as a warning as anything - is that God WILL make you lie down. v2: "he makes me lie down in green pastures."

In my first term at uni, I did a lot of things - one of them wasn't becoming a Christian, that happened in my second term. Consequently, I ended up with glandular fever, and spent 5 weeks of my first term (which was only 10 weeks long) in bed. There's a lot of ways in which God can MAKE us lie down - exhaustion is a good one.

More important is what happens in that place - he restores our soul.

So how much greater will the blessing be if we choose to come to that place - a thought that leads me nicely on to the title & the first line of a well known song.

Just as our strength can be sapped by the things we do, God can take it away (1 Samuel 2:31) or restore it - so this exam season, be sure to take the time to look to God, to rest in Him, and to intentionally make space for Him.

He will reward you with peace, with renewed strength, and you will find that by taking time off (going on facebook doesn't count), you will end up getting more done - if you don't allow God into your revision & exams until the last minute, don't be surprised if you can't hear Him when it's too late.

Ps. 121:1-2 says "I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."

Lift your eyes to the hills in the coming weeks, and be still for the presence of the Lord.

Talk without works is...

Well the election was a bit of a funny one, wasn't it?

5 days on, and there's nothing doing in terms of a new Government. All talk and no action.

Some might say that's a good thing. Some might say they didn't vote for party X so they shouldn't be in Government. Unfortunately, the headline answer to this one is "shut up!" We've had our say, and the results came out as they did...we didn't vote for the Prime Minister, just 649 individual MPs.

Now 640-ish of those MPs get to choose what the next Government will look like (the Speaker doesn't have a say, and Sinn Fein MPs refuse to take the oath of loyalty to the Queen, so can't come to Westminster).

In times of uncertainty in life, it can be tempting to witter on about this, that an' t'other, but really, what shows up as being worthwhile and constructive is getting stuck in.

I would encourage you all to get to the HBC website, and listen to Sunday morning's sermon by Mike Chesterton of Tearfund [here]. Or even better, stick the link there into your iTunes, and get it to download them automatically every week.

Mike talked about faith without works being dead - a great quote from the Book of James (I won't tell you where, because it's such a good read, you should read it all) - "But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."

Now you can write to your new MP, congratulate him/her on his/her (re-)election, and say what you expect him to prioritise. Even better if you've heard him/her promise something good...remind him/her of that.

But even more, you can live the life Jesus would want you to live - following his example, his teaching, and the example of other who strove to be like him in the early Church and beyond [Try Paul, Peter, St. Augustine, Mother Teresa & Tony Campolo out for starters].

Abraham (had many sons) was justified not by faith, but by his actions - let that be a challenge to you and to me in the coming months.

As an action point from this, why not encourage & build each other up by targeting one or two things you want to do to show your faith (wearing a WWJD bracelet doesn't count), telling a friend / mentor, and asking to be held accountable to that over the next three months?

Election...schmelection?

So the election is almost upon us!

Having watched the final debate, I must confess to getting bored halfway through, and switching over to BBC2, even though I passionately care about the outcome of this election!

So here's my potted guide to who you're voting for:

Local elections - much more say in how local things are run, but local councils have no control over a lot of the bigger decisions. Local councillors are often less hardcore party supporters (less Steve Wilkinson, more Jessica...), and generally do a great job for their local area and care about the concerns of people.

National elections - with around 100,000 people in each constituency, an MP won't know everyone by name. Some MPs, however, do fantastic things for their constituency, and often raise issues of concern affecting their area in Parliament, or direct to the government. This often goes unseen, but good MPs will listen to you and respond. Better MPs will also have voted against the 'party line' a lot more if a vote will disadvantage their constituency.

And how would Jesus vote?

He probably wouldn't, but it's good to think about it. Remember that Jesus is someone who loved everyone, and that God views all sin as equal.

So the main three parties do quite well - voting for any of them is not 'un-Christian'. All are trying to do the best for everyone in the country; the main difference is left-wing policies believe the state needs to intervene more to do this, right-wing policies believe the state should keep its nose out, and people do it for themselves.

UKIP - borderline...they aren't great, as they're a bit too narrow-minded - a lot of people would get left out of their vision.

BNP, English Democrats - nooooooo way! Jesus would be denouncing these hypocrites (although he would still love them as part of God's creation, so no assassinations please). There's no love in the BNP for the majority of the world, plus they believe climate change is made-up, so they'd kill the planet too.

Greens - as with the main parties, the Greens do wish to benefit everyone through their policies, although they have a pretty narrow view of how to do that. It is also a fairly secular vision, and doesn't tolerate disagreement with it that well.

SNP, Plaid Cymru - not as mentally nationalistic as the BNP et al., but still pretty inward-looking. Granted, neither party will win many seats in the overall Parliament, but they are pretty myopic, and don't seem to suggest their countries have a role (as rich, developed nations) in helping others.

Independents - assess them on their own merits. Relationship is important as it was to Jesus - find out what they're about, and why they're standing. Perhaps also find out some more about what they think on issues that aren't their headline issue. In Boston, my hometown, a party called the 'Boston Bypass Independents Party' won control of the council with 24 of 28 seats 3 years ago. Needless to say, they don't know how to run a council, and the town is now pretty much broke and in a right mess!

Enjoy election day / night - I'll be up to the wee hours I think, and might well blog a little as I do. Jessica might also put together a post on who each disciple would vote for, and why.