"I will"

On the happy news of two great friends getting engaged, and some inspiration about something to say, I thought that I would write my first blog in a while on the subject of marriage.

"I do".

These two little words are so often seen as the defining moment of a marriage service. As the bride and groom say these words the credits roll and you have your perfect Hollywood happy-ever-after moment. And yet we know that isn't how it works in real life. The idea that Prince Charming and Cinderella's story could end with their marriage is ridiculous. We all too often see marriage as an ending rather than a beginning. We see it as saying "our relationship has reached its most advanced level" rather than realising that the marriage marks the beginning of a whole new adventure together which will be one of continual learning and adapting.


This seems to be reflected in the language which our culture uses to speak about marriage, most significantly, the "I do" concept. In the UK at any rate, the wedding service does not include these words at all. The question is never "Do you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her?" but rather, "Will you". And it seems like a fairly minor thing, but it really isn't. There is a huge difference between saying that I currently do love my wife and saying that, in spite of anything else, forsaking all others, in sickness and in health, for as long as I live, I will love her. The commitment is not saying "as long as X" or "unless she does Y" I will love her. It is a no holds barred promise to love one another, not based on the fleeting emotions and passions of the wedding day but, rather, a commitment to stand together in the struggles of life relying on God's strength.


"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Ephesians 5:25


This might be the most frightening verse for an engaged man to read. (It still frightens me that I am going to promise to emulate Christ even to the point of death out of love for my fiancée!) But, more than that, I think it reveals something about our relationship with God. There are numerous times in scripture when the relationship between God and his people is likened to that of a husband to a wife and that gives me reassurance. Because God isn't saying "I do". He isn't promising to love us as long as we are good enough. He doesn't promise to love us so long as we obey certain rules.


God's commitment is "I will". He promises to love us in sickness and in health. He promises to love us in spite of the times we fail. And He promises to love us until the point where he himself died upon a cross for us.

That is better than any Hollywood "I do" and it is a love which human words can never hope to fully capture and I hope that on my wedding day it will be in this mode that I will truly be able to emulate my saviour and say "I will".

What I learned at University

Two days ago I completed my degree. As you would hope, I learnt a lot from university but the things which I will take away from my time in Exeter are nothing to do with Shakespeare or Joyce or any of the things I was meant to be learning about. No. On reflection on my three years the most life altering thing I learnt was what it means to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And this is what I have learnt: that far from being a religion with a set of rules you have to follow and which makes you give up your Sunday mornings to go to a dusty old church to say boring prayers; being a Christian is honestly the most engaging and exciting thing it is possible to be. It is about having a genuine, personal relationship with the living God who created the world and everything in it and yet cares for you personally. The great commission and the object of telling people about Jesus is that they will come to know Jesus themselves and enter into a life altering, an eternally life altering knowledge of God as he truly is. 

I am going to begin working for a Church as an apprentice in August and I can't think of anything I would rather do than spend the rest of my life working for and living for Jesus. He is totally worth whatever sacrifices I have to make in terms of wealth and lifestyle because he paid the ultimate cost for me and what can I give in return but my humble service?

The message that I received time and time again is that undertaking a degree was a step towards finding a graduate job, earning more money and settling into the middle class intellectual bubble. That, to me, sounds like the biggest waste of time it is possible to conceive of. If your sole aim in life is to make money for your company and for yourself then what will be left when you are gone? I would rather be remembered as the man who blessed others and changed their life with the news of Jesus Christ that to live my days in ease and comfort moving up the career ladder.

Of course, working for a company is not wrong in itself. But when the purpose of what you do is to chase after money, after things which perish then I cannot understand what fulfillment that will bring. In the words of a wise friend, "money is a good servant, but a poor master".

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19-20)

This is how my life has been altered at university, and the greatest piece of advice I would want to pass on.  I came to university seeking a degree, a job and a comfortable life. I leave with a loving saviour and a message that brings life wherever it goes.

Seeing the Invisible Church

The 'invisible Church' is the Church as God sees it, the united body of believers which stretches beyond all boundaries of class, race, nationality, gender, denomination because we are all united in the person of Christ.

And yet when we look around today the one true Church, united in the body of Jesus, lies in tatters- divided into more than thirty thousand separate denominations. We have perverted the wonderful image of a united church defined by a shared love of Christ and turned it into a collection of organisations characterised by an idolatrous love of doctrine.

By this I mean when our zeal for right doctrine (which, of course, is a wonderful thing), leads us to forget that we are called first to “love our neighbour as ourselves”. It is idolatry if we place a desire for knowledge about God in front of knowing and obeying God. We were taught that it is love that is to define the Christian's life and that it is the love of one another that will mark us out as different in the world (John 13:35). If we love a brother in Christ then we should be able to look to what unites us, ignoring that which divides us. If we only love those who agree with us, what credit is it to us? Jesus says as much in Luke 6:32- “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them”; on the contrary, we are called to “walk in love as Christ loved us”(Eph 5:2). If our desire for correctness blinds us to our primary calling- to love each other, I think there is the very real possibility that we may end up be wrong in our hearts while being right in our doctrine.

This blog, though, is not designed to criticise the global church as it stands today but to encourage us to look beyond the labels we place on people and the signs which stand in front of churches to see, within them all, the invisible Church, the way God sees it.

We do not follow Appollos, or Paul, Peter or Pope Benedict, Luther or Calvin, John Piper, J.I. Packer, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll or anyone else we care to mention. We follow Christ. When we do that rightly we will begin to view our brothers and sisters in the Church around us differently. When we realise that what hurts one part of the body, hurts the whole (see 1 Cor 12:26), and that Jesus loves each and every individual in the Church so much that he was willing to die for them, that shouldn't leave us unchanged.

The Church is not a building or an organisation; but the united body of believers in Christ. This is the so called invisible church. We should strive to make the invisible, visible. Because the love we have for one another stands as the ultimate testimony about what Christ has done in this world. This church is more permanent and more beautiful than bricks and mortar could ever be- so let's start showing it to the world.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John13:35)

Too good to be true?

Jesus came to preach the good news. That is the literal meaning of 'gospel' and I, for one, forget this far too often. We speak about "the gospel of Matthew" and think of it as just the story of Jesus' life when it is so much more. It is good news, in fact it is more than that. If true, the message of Jesus is the best news that has ever been reported in the history of humanity.


But, what is the gospel? The good news is summed up beautifully in the famous words of John 3:16-17 and it is far better than I could ever hope to do!
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."


I know that I forget this far too often. The message of Christianity is one of salvation, it is always looking forward to the eternal life that will one day be enjoyed. That is the promise and the focus- not the relationship we can have now, but the perfection of a future spent with God. The picture of heaven is fleshed out in many places in the New Testament but the description of Revelation 21:4 that God "will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" is certainly a wonderful image and fantastic good news, but is it 'too good to be true'?


That was the accusation made by this question which I received having spoken on the end of the world last Sunday and repeated here in full: 


We all know the saying "If it sounds too good to be true, it is." Why do Christians believe that heaven and the end of the world is exempt from this rule that in every other area of life consistently proves itself to be true? 


This really got me thinking but I think the reason we don't (and shouldn't) simply dismiss heaven as wishful thinking is because actually it so directly matches the internal picture we have of how the world 'should' be. Every time we react to suffering by saying 'that isn't fair', or 'it shouldn't be like this' we are longing for this Revelation 21 version of the world. When we see the wreckage of a natural disaster we don't say "oh well, those people weren't well adapted enough for their environment", on the contrary we are grieved as we watch their sufferings. We have a sense that this world isn't as it should be and the Bible tells us that, actually, we're right. We were made to live in the paradise of Eden and will ultimately be returned to a world which is no longer marred by human sin.


But many of us still cling to this life. We care so much about what car we drive, what job we have, what house we live in. We forget the promise of heaven, of an eternity spent in a perfect relationship with God, in a world without pain or suffering in everlasting life. We forget that the sufferings of this world are but a drop in the ocean compared to the future glory of heaven. Why do we continue to lie awake worrying about the small things of this life when we know that the big picture is so vastly different?


We've heard people talk about heaven thousands of times. But when was the last time we stopped and actually thought about the implications in our own lives? Because this is why Jesus came to this world, to initiate His kingdom and to provide us a way back to Him. And if we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then we must believe that we who know Him will follow Him into eternal life. And this should alter our attitude to our lives here on Earth which are just so so short. Not one person wishes they had spent more time at the office on their death beds. Similarly, no Christian will wish they had spent less time serving God in this life.


But if we turn our attention back to heaven then we see that the Bible goes even further than the promise of eternal life. Looking to 2 Tim 2:11-12: 
"If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him" 

It is not just that we are raised to eternal life with Christ but we are rulers with him. We are God's children "and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ"(Rom 8:17).  Stop and think about this for a moment. Christ's sacrifice didn't merely get you into heaven, it turned you into God's beloved child, on an equal footing with Jesus. If that doesn't make your head spin, I don't know what will because I am clearly nothing like Jesus, my actions don't even come close to resembling his and yet I will share in the ultimate reward by the Grace of God. 

So, yes, it all does sound too good to be true. But then, would you expect any thing less from an all loving, all powerful God? Heaven is not the best thing the human mind could invent, but the greatest blessing that God could bestow.

To die is gain.

Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani sits on death row today having been found guilty of apostasy and evangelising Muslims. He is a husband,father to two boys and leader of a network of house churches. He has been imprisoned for two years and has been given the three opportunities to recant his Christianity as required under Iranian law. He has refused to do so each time.


My heart truly goes out to his family, but whilst I deplore the actions of the Iranian courts, the breach of my brother's human rights and fully understand the outcry from both political and religious communities internationally, this is not the matter I wish to address. While I do remember him in my prayers every night, it is not for his release I ask- God will act in that way if it is His will- but rather, I pray that Pastor Nadarkhani will continue to stand strong in his faith and continue to be such a striking witness of the importance of Christ in his life. I do this because if I believe what the Bible says (and I do) this man has nothing whatsoever to fear. Paul says as much in Philippians 1:21, "To live is Christ and to die is gain". This is a man who sat in a very similar position to Pastor Nadarkhani, persecuted for his faith, frequently imprisoned and ultimately killed for the message he preached. He did not see death as a thing to be feared or run away from but rather as "gain". Our concern for Pastor Nadarkhani's life, whilst right and natural, reveals, I fear, a worldly view of death as the ultimate end of everything and a heart which forgets God's promise of a future where "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Rev 21:4).


This point came home to me as I reflected on what a joy it was to see two people take a first tentative step into faith in Jesus last night. Those people, I realised, were the ones who had really sat on death row, rightly condemned by their own sins. And it was these people who had needed the power of the cross to release them. The joy I found last night was in seeing two souls freed from their sins and discovering in Jesus the one whose sacrifice wipes away all our sin and declares each of us not guilty despite our obvious failures.


That is the truth of the matter. Youcef stands with his body trapped but his soul freed by the author of creation, his sins paid for on the cross. So many millions around the world today stand in the reverse situation and it is for them that my heart breaks.


I merely ask the question, which is a higher priority: freeing man who is free already or releasing one who is bound? I do not wish to sound cold, I do not wish to take away from the appalling evil which is taking place but I honestly believe that there is a danger here of looking at the situation with worldy eyes rather than those God gave us.


The Church thrives under persecution. 11 of the 12 apostles were murdered for their faith as they watched the Church explode in the first century. Christianity in China is growing so fast today where it was once outlawed and where international missionaries remain illegal. At the same time there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in the previous 19 before that. The tender words to those "slain for the word of God and for the witness they has borne" to "rest a little longer"(Rev 6:9,11) in anticipation of the final glory should act as a reassurance to all those facing the dangerous persecution so alien to us in the west. If it is God's will that Pastor Nadarkhani is to join these ranks then he has simply returned to his loving father sooner and his death, I pray, will stand as a testament to the power and strength of his faith.


Remember, everyone, the words of Jesus: "whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses of forfeits himself?"(Luke9:24-5).


To return to my friends from last night. When I asked Fredrick if he believed that Christ had been resurrected he paused and thought about it for a long time. He decided that yes, he did believe it. The reason that swung the evidence for him was the way in which the apostles, in a unique position in history to categorically know the truth of what they were saying, were prepared to die for what they knew. Killing the body of a man of God or even the Son of God, is easy. Killing their soul is impossible and the irresistible force of the Gospel will never be stopped.

"love your neighbor as yourself." (Lev 19:18)

I believe that every Christian is called to care for the lowest and the least in our societies.  More than just through a mirroring of Christ's actions, which are so often concerned with those deemed unclean by the society of his day, but through his direct commands. Luke 6 speaks so powerfully on this matter and I have just cherry picked some quotes from what is really a beautiful section describing what the heart of the Christian for the poor should look like:
 "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."(v.20)

"Give to everyone who begs from you" (v.30)

" Judge not, and you will not be judged "(v.37)

And, most famously,  "as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them"(v.31).

It is this core based around compassion for the weak that Nietzsche found so abhorrent: "Christianity is called the religion of pity. [...] Pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection. It preserves whatever is ripe for destruction; it fights on the side of those disinherited and condemned by life; by maintaining life in so many of the botched of all kinds, it gives life itself a gloomy and dubious aspect"(The Antichrist. 7). A sense that we should care for the weakest members is entirely opposed to a purely evolutionary view of the world and entirely aligned with the teachings of Christ.

And yet our Churches continue to be middle class bubbles. Yes, there are many wonderful charities with fantastic Christian hearts and values working with the homeless people in our societies but I think our actual attitudes towards these people is revealed more in this anecdote I once heard.

A church was due to have their first service from a new minister who was moving there from another church. That morning there happened to be a homeless man lying across the church steps having apparently slept there the night before. As the congregation moved in every one of them simply stepped over this man as they entered the church. The homeless man was actually the new minister who subsequently stood at the front of the church having been roundly ignored by every member of the church.

Now I don't know if there is any truth to this story or where it comes from but I think that it reveals an attitude which is all too often ingrained into our attitudes towards homeless people. That they are a problem to be dealt with and not individual people in need of Christ. This man should have been invited into the church, given a cup of coffee and asked to sit in the most prestigious seat since if "you say to the poor man, “You stand over there”, or, “Sit down at my feet”, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"(James 2:3-4). And yet how often do we see people who have come in off the street in church? 

We set up schemes to deal with homelessness as if it is some social ill that needs to be solved. We do not look at each individual homeless person as a beloved child of God, made in His image and in need of salvation/ continued Christian fellowship.

Many times I have been chatting to a homeless guy, mentioned that I am  Christian and have wanted to invite them to come along to church on a Sunday morning but I am honestly too frightened of what my friends will think, whether they would be comfortable there and whether there would be anything relevant to them going on to invite them. Now this speaks partly of my weakness and cowardliness but equally of the atmosphere and community we find in churches which if they are to follow the model of Jesus should be going straight to those whose lives are broken and already know they need the healing power of a saviour. 

What we need to realise is that we are no better than anyone else. We mustn't become like the Pharisees and mark out the clean and unclean members of society or determine who can and cannot come to know God. We are all filthy sinners in need of God's grace, we have all left our father and if we ever hope to return to his house it must be through relying on him alone. 

All this being said, there is actually a huge place for ministering to the physical needs of the weak and poor in our society. I will hope to be doing something to help this Saturday night when I take part in a sponsored event sleeping rough to raise money for the YMCA in Exeter to raise money for schemes which help get young people off the street. If you would like to donate to this then my page is at https://www.justgiving.com/simon-eves. Thank you.

Are you sitting comfortably?

What would Jesus say if he turned up in our church this weekend? Sadly, I don't know how impressed he would be. We sit in a nice, comfortable, middle-class bubble, go to church, attend prayer meetings and avoid ever really being dependent on God.

This is something that I have been convicted of over last weekend when I read Psalm 63 in preparation for talking about quiet times and my relationship with God. The initial prayer of David "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."(Ps 63:1) I was struck by how that wasn't a prayer that I could echo from my heart. My perception of my need for God has never been in any way equivalent to the need for water in a desert. My relationship with God is something I love, I cherish and would never want to lose, but I don't think I could ever describe it as feeling as if it is the absolute life line, the one thing between me and death. 

And yet, that is what it is.

I have been so busy trying to rely upon my own strength, to set up my own path in life that I have forgotten to rely on God's strength.

This, I would suggest, is the danger of living in a comfortable church environment. 

It is a sadly neglected fact that there are literally millions of my Christian brothers and sisters who are living under the threat of daily persecution. They rely upon God because they have no one else. I like to pretend I rely on God while I lean back on my friends and family. 

If we sit in a comfortable Christianity then I think the church becomes irrelevant and entirely fails to do what it is called to do because if the church is working effectively then we are to expect persecution. As Jesus himself says, if they took him and killed him, what can we, his followers, expect? The Gospel is powerful and wherever it is preached it should be shaking things up because it is, at its very core, counter cultural. Jesus didn't come to say 'carry on living how you are, you're doing a great job. It would be nice if you came and said hi on Sunday every so often.' No, Jesus came to demand a radical change of heart from His people that would inspire them to go out and just do what he did and lavish love upon the poor and the broken in society. Churches in this country have sadly become, in far too many cases, middle class bubbles where we meet with our friends. All too rarely are they seen as places where a cross section of the community can forget the things which divide them and simply unite around the God who loved every person enough to die for them regardless of class, race, gender or whatever other human category we try to split people up into.

I am challenging myself to get to that point where I am holding nothing back, where I feel like I need Jesus as much as I need water. When I can truly understand what Jesus meant when he says "whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). 

I am doing this because I have become (in only the two years I have been a Christian) far too comfortable. I want my life to count for the kingdom so I am going to take a lesson from the persecuted church (which happens to be a place where the church is also always growing) and try to rely on God more and me less. I want my life to matter, to be exciting and make a difference. I don't want it to be dull but comfortable. I don't want to stay in my comfy pew. I want to take up my cross and follow my Lord and Saviour wherever He would have me go.