Whose agenda?

I was surprised by the behaviour of our first Labrador pup. We had decided it would be allowed into the house, but only the kitchen. When we first brought her home, she set off on a journey, sniffing the house as if to see whether it would do. We had a hard time teaching her that everywhere other than the kitchen was out of bounds.

Human beings have an even greater propensity for autonomy. From the day of its birth a child has a craving for its needs to be met. The most wonderful thing is how children can talk with supposed authority on a topic they have no clue about. This I have seen on a TV program in which kids were interviewed.

Not each of the billions of people on earth can act out his/her own preference. Some agendas have to be scrapped in favour of others. We learn early in life that there are many conventions which are best accepted without "kicking against the pricks". It is for instance hardly worth while to rebel against the qwerty keyboard or the twelve month calendar.

Preferences become critical in the way which we spend our time. The book "The Epidemic" gives examples of how a child can manipulate its parents if they are willing to be co-opted onto the child's agenda.

One of my pet peeves concerns the way in which people fit me into their schedule. They have an hour or so to kill and decide to kill my ability to do what I had planned for that hour. Sometimes people who are bored and have nothing to do want to come and do it with me.

Some leaders say they have an "open door policy". That cannot possibly mean that their time can be absorbed by whomsoever wants to. Leaders cannot afford to be driven, influenced or informed by the wishes of all who clamour for their attention.

People have a tendency to draw those with power and authority into their little world. Leaders who don't put up boundaries against such interactions become ineffective. Followers need to be cared for but not indulged.

True followers want their leaders to make their agenda public and not to chop and change it too often. In that way they can organise their own lives to fit in with the leader's time table. This helps them to be effective with their time and minimise disruption of their own program.

Two questions to ponder arise out of the above:
1. How do companies with a "flat hierarchy" operate?
2. Am I on God's agenda or my own?

Cost of the Good News

"Freely you have received, freely give", Jesus told his followers. Based on this, some have coined the slogan "the Gospel is free". An uncritical application of this slogan can lead to the belief that Christians ought to keep their involvement with money to a minimum.

However, if the Good News is to be free for its recipients, it certainly costs those who dispense it. At some stage in the life of a new believer, he/she should be changing from a beneficiary to a provider of the Good News. Then the Gospel will cost this person, in Jesus' words, everything.

The mind-set which upholds the idea that Christians must have as little as possible to do with money, was criticised by Jesus. He said we must use the "ungodly Mammon". He went so far as to say that the people of this world are cleverer in this respect than the children of light.

Speculations on Good and Evil

Most of us have some negative feelings about laws, rules and regulations. The law of God (ten commandments) consists of two tables, the first God-directed and the second man-directed. They can respectively be summed up in the statements: (1) Love God and (2) Love your fellow man. Jesus said these were equal. John claimed that it was impossible for a person who hated a brother, to love God. It is equally impossible for someone who hates God to truly love another human being.

If we analyse the second table (laws relating to our behaviour towards humans) it is not hard to draw the conclusion that if all were to abide by them, the world would be a better place. They are there for OUR good.

What about the first table, loving God? This leads to another question, namely: How do angels commit evil deeds? The Bible seems to indicate that angels existed before human beings were ever created. The word most commonly used for sin means to miss one's aim. It can be likened to shooting at something but missing it. God created everything for a purpose. Some angels craved to be "like God", to become the centre of attention of the rest of creation. They missed their aim.

When God created Adam and Eve he wanted "the good life" for them. But they were infected by the poisonous desire to be "like gods, knowing good and evil". They were driven from Eden which had been "heaven on earth". The ultimate destination of man is the new heaven and new earth. (Hell was created for the devil and his angels.)

The nation and land of Israel serve, amongst others, as an experiment in creating something close to heaven on earth. God wanted to bless them with all the good things they could ever desire. He knew they would appreciate it more if they actually obtained those by hard work. Hence there were giants to conquer. By observing the nations who first lived in Canaan they could see where those who forgot God ended up: The Canaanites served idols to whom they made human sacrifices, and their communities were marked by oppression and cruelty.

God's purpose for his children has never changed: He wants us to be blessed. Probably the biggest lesson we can learn from the history of Israel is that if we love God we will experience "the good life". Probably the most prevailing lie of the devil is that God is not concerned in our well-being. This lie is backed up by the argument: "If he cared about human beings, why is there so much suffering in the world?"

Someone who believes this lie ends up doubting God's love and is tempted in two opposite directions: (1) Testing God by getting into trouble and arrogantly presuming to be saved by him; (2) Working hard at establishing heaven on earth without referring to him.

I chose to believe

When I was about 10 years old, the story of Good Friday was told us at school. My sense of justice and aversion to pain caused me to put those events out of my mind. What did I have to do with how people mistreated a good man 2000 years ago?

At the age of 20 I was going through a really hard time. Was I just unlucky, at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was there meaning to my suffering?

I chose to believe that my hardship had a purpose. If that were not the case, I would not want to live. In fact, I did not believe anything in this world could make up for the pain I had endured. Pleasures are fleeting and in the end we all die. I wanted the promise of something beyond the grave. Someone once accused me of being a "time glutton".

Contemplating my miserable state, my thoughts inevitably turned to Jesus. If my pain had a purpose, what about his?

Co-dependency

Why does a woman who just divorced herself from an abusive husband so often get herself into another abusive relationship?

One of the factors could be that the woman does not feel herself worthy of a better partner. "I don't deserve to be loved because I'm a bad girl", she says to herself.

Even if she meets a nice guy he will be tempted to treat her with less respect than is proper because of her attitude and behaviour. The way she feels about herself does not go unnoticed.

Much more can be said about these kinds of relationships. The people who are best at analising them are, in my opinion, members of the Arbinger Institute.

Helping God financially

All the pentecostal churches can trace their origin to a world wide revival which broke out more than a century ago. Since then many people who have never seen God act in any significant way, have entered these churches. They are puzzled by some practices instituted by old timers who knew the power of God.

Article 38.6 of the 1997 constitution of the Assemblies of God in South Africa reads as follows:

"The financial needs of Recognised Assemblies are normally supplied by the tithes and offerings contributed by the congregations of such Recognised Assemblies. Worldly activities for the accumulation of funds are deprecated."

Many are of the opinion that cake sales, bazaars and craft markets are needed to collect funds for the propagation of the Good News. This mindset subtly undermines our concept of a powerful God. It facilitates the creation of an image in our minds of a God who needs our help. The general effect is that we treat the church very similarly to the way we treat a beggar and the church often acts like a beggar.

Suppose someone in the church, who is a plumber, is asked to quote on a plumbing job. He may feel he should do it cheaply or gratis. In fact, the pastor may expect him to charge a minimal fee, if anything. But the plumber may not be cash flush at the moment and so other jobs get priority over the church's.

We need to be careful how we treat and speak of God's Church. Is he poor? Should jobs for his Bride be put on the back burner? Will he not supply the funds necessary for his work?

My experience has been the opposite. We have not had any "worldly" fund raising activity in our church for more than a year and our financial position has never been better.

The Curse

When God breathed into Adam he became a spiritual being. Breath is air or wind and the Hebrew word "ruach" can be translated "spirit" or "wind".

The devil tempted Eve and Adam to become "like God", although they already bore his image. When they sinned God told them "You are dust and to dust you will return". They tried to reach for the stars, independently from their source, but ended up below the earth.

What was God to do? He had told them they would die if they ate of that tree. Could he go back on his word? He could come down and throttle them to death but we know he did not. So he cursed the world they lived in. This world would then bring about the death they deserved. Sickness and the ageing process entered the planet and eventually takes its toll on every human who does not die violently. God made sure that we could not live forever in this sinful state by keeping us away from the tree of life which was also in the Garden of Eden.

Is it God who makes us sick? He put things in place that bring about disease. He also helps us to overcome disease by science as well as prayer. But we all know we shall ultimately be overtaken by the curse.

One man did not have to die. He could forever live on earth but did better than that by dying and rising again. He expects us to
(1) not regard this world as all there is, wonderful as it may be;
(2) have faith that he will help us with how to live in a cursed world and
(3) call on him regularly to overcome the negative effects of the curse.

On This Rock

Peter got a revelation that Jesus was the promised Messiah who was also the Son of God (Matthew 16:16-18). "This rock" refers to the revelation Peter received. All who get it are built into the church like "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5).

The church of God was no longer to be built according to the system of animal sacrifices and the law of Moses. No-one would enter the Kingdom of Heaven by following the tenets of Judaism. That fig tree will never bear fruit again.

This does not mean God has abandoned the Jews or Israel. People who lived before 1948 could be excused for holding that view. Today the very existence of the state of Israel is one of the strongest arguments one can use in favour of our belief in the Almighty.

John declares that those who deny that the Christ (Messiah) has come in the flesh, are anti-christs (1 John 2:22). This is another way of saying that the revelation Peter got from the Father is a prerequisite for becoming a member of the Body of Christ, which is the same as being born again.

Just after Peter was commended for hearing from the Father he received a rebuke from Jesus for being mindful of the "things of men". That was because he attempted to persuade Jesus not to submit himself to the suffering he had been destined to.

In the same way the Church which was built on the rock soon got it wrong by setting up an earthly kingdom. They did not understand what "this rock" meant and took it to be the man Peter. This faulty interpretation may also elicit from God: "Get behind me satan".

Unbelief

If faith can also be described as trust, then unbelief must be related to mistrust. It is scary to think that our prayers are not answered because we mistrust God.

How can that make sense? Jesus said that if we ask anything in his name, he will do it for us. But I can only ask in his name if I ask according to his will. He will reveal his will to me if I am committed to do his will, whatever it may be.

So if I fully trust him, he can reveal to me what he wants done. I can then pray for that thing and it will certainly happen.

We spend our lives as Christians learning to fully trust our heavenly Father. Why are we so scared to trust him? The most obvious answer is that we fear he might ask us to do or experience something we absolutely dread.