The sound of His footsteps

Then the man and his wife (Adam and Eve) heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day ……….…(Genesis 3:8).


God walked in the Garden of Eden. He was accessible; He could be heard, probably seen. In the cool of the day He took a stroll, no doubt taking great pleasure in all that He had made. Adam and Eve were used to these walks; they were familiar with the sound of His footsteps.


The Bible tells us how various individuals over the years have walked with God.  Enoch in the early dawn of Biblical times walked with God so closely that one day they were walking together and he just left the earth behind and walked into heaven with God (metaphorically speaking). Walking with anyone implies companionship, togetherness, friendship, keeping in step, walking abreast. God’s presence is here, in the church; He walks and talks and shares His heart with us.


Hang on. God can’t keep up with me.. too fast, too busy, head speeding. But He is here ..walking … walking …. relaxed and enjoying … but I’m not sure He can always have, or even enjoy, my company.


Another thing: when we walk with a friend there is never a monologue. One talks and then the other.  There is listening; there is talking; there is understanding and feeling, a sighing together; friendship grows. Next time we meet something solid between us has already been built.


Our toil can become so fruitless. Only by walking, talking and listening do we enjoy God’s company. When He walks with us and we hang upon His arm, we have His anointing, things happen, lives are changed. Yes Lord, I think I better walk a little slower, then we can walk together. I could practise a trifle more listening too ... I’m not always too good at that …


Hey, I want to hear the sound of those footsteps ….

Jerusalam Telegraph AD 29: Another loser becomes a winner

                                        Jerusalem Telegraph: AD 29

        Shock entry: prostitute steals uninvited 
                               into city house
 
  Distinguished city guests appalled  by woman and rabbi’s 
                       behaviour as rabbi allows woman to kiss his feet

Jerusalem was in shock today when a city woman slipped in by the back gate of Simon the Pharisee’s house where he was holding a dinner. The uninvited guest appeared to be seeking an audience with self-appointed rabbi, Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. 
       The women, veiled and dressed in tight black clothes, slipped in, unseen and uninvited. To the embarrassment of many of the guests, she began sobbing loudly as she sat at the rabbi’s feet; she then touched him, wiping the tears from his feet with her hair. To add to her unseemly behaviour, she unashamedly kissed his feet and, in the most unrestrained manner, poured perfume on them. The mess made by the woman’s actions was, according to bystanders, ‘truly dreadful’ and servants attending the dinner said they’d never seen anything like it before and were lost as to how to deal appropriately with the situation. They also said the woman’s actions were a shocking waste and, if Jesus was a respectable rabbi, he would have rejected the women’s actions outright and called on them to remove her without delay. They suspected the woman must have stolen the ointment as it was a very expensive brand.
       Jesus, rather than reproaching her for her inappropriate behaviour and seeking her removal, seemed thoroughly pleased with the proceedings and began to praise her in front of all the shocked guests as though she had done something right… . 
       Our reporters were quick on the scene. Simon declined to comment except to say she was an uninvited guest and he didn’t know her.
       A guest, who wishes to remain anonymous, described it as, “A most embarrassing and vulgar affair.”
       The woman lives in the downtown area of Jerusalem; when interviewed, neighbours told reporters that she is a well known 'woman of the night.’
       The self-styled rabbi was reportedly somewhere outside the city with two more women and their brother but could not be located for comment. 
                                                  *  *  *
Jesus was unperturbed at the woman’s actions which flew in the face of acceptable behaviour towards the opposite sex BIG TIME in the first century. On the contrary, He praised the woman to his host for her lavish expression of love towards Him:

·    “she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her  
       hair”
·    “from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet”
·    “she has anointed my feet with ointment.”
·    “she loved much”

Jesus turned round and told her that her sins, (which He acknowledged were many) were forgiven. He said, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” In other words, she needn’t feel ashamed anymore.  The past was over and He was giving her a new start. What had set her on the road of prostitution no one knows but one thing was for sure: a loser had become a winner. She had been rescued from a guilty past, loved, affirmed and undoubtedly would never be the same again.

Losing 4 - nil? Losers become winners

One Sunday morning, a little while ago, my friend, Andy, told me about a dream he had recently had. He was watching a game of football. The two teams were not well matched and one was losing badly (4 – nil). Suddenly, in the middle of the game, the manager of the losing team raced onto the pitch and enthusiastically encouraged each member of his team in turn with the words: ‘You’re great!’  The game turned and the losers played so well that they thrashed the winning team 5-4!

The dream carried an important message: ‘Encourage and affirm people even when they are not doing well! Losers can become winners!’

Mmmm … I like that dream … it made me think. And, actually it’s been my job for the last 11 years, backing losers, but …... I believe in it anyway. (I’m an adult literacy teacher.)

A large group of Slovakians come to the ‘ESOL for work class’ at Coventry Jesus Centre; one of these is Viktor. (I never use real names.) Well, he’s got a slight learning difficulty and he sometimes just gets the wrong end of the stick and enthusiastically plunges in head first with a way off answer. Sadly I noticed some of his friends laugh at him: I find that a bit distressing; it pains me inside and, because of that, I always go out of my way to encourage him. Well, it’s bearing fruit because he’s so eager now about learning and is keen to work at his reading and writing as well as speaking, which we have mainly concentrated on up to now and, guess what? Do you know, he actually seems to have improved more than his friends. I feel, well, happy .. another loser become a winner.

Jesus backed losers: poor stinking Lazarus, lying at Dives’ gate, dogs licking his sores, begging for his living, his existence actually ….. somehow, Jesus saw something really good in him; perhaps within his destitution, he honoured and loved God and when he died - I don’t know …but wow! There he is, lying in Abraham’s lap, secure, comforted, loved, honoured… Women were generally losers in those days; after all, what about that prostitute who, uninvited, sneaked into a grand dinner at Simon’s house and won Jesus’ highest praise by, in the most undignified way, weeping on Him and then wiping up the splodgy mess she’d made with what?  - Her hair! And then, to add to it all, poured ointment over them (probably made a right mess on the floor too) … she was a loser who became a winner … see next blog.

Faced with a choice

In the tiny book, Ruth, wedged between books that tell us so much about the backsliding of God’s people, two widows, Orpah and Ruth, were faced with the same choice – whether to stay with their shared mother-in–law, Naomi, or return to their family homes where they could begin life again. As it turned out, Ruth stayed with Naomi and Orpah left. Orpah did no wrong; indeed her choice was a commonsensical one but Ruth made the better choice. Always, always, Lord, help me to choose not what is good but what is best. 

High aspirations? Being a friend will do

Mother Teresa said: “I was homeless – not for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understand, that covers, that loves ..” There are thousands of people wanting shelter and a home in these days in the UK .. but even more crave a friend .. and most of us can reach into being one of them.

Vows … Vows … I believe In Them Anyway (Celibacy)

Yes, I’ve made a vow of life-long celibacy and, believe me, it took me years to make. I am Mrs Slow (sorry …Miss Slow) herself. ‘Yes’, you say, ‘that all very good but what if you find ‘someone’ after making your vow? And anyway, didn’t Jesus tell us not to swear and make vows?’

 OK, let’s think about the swearing first: It seems to me that there is a difference between the careless swearing Jesus condemned in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 33-37) and serious, carefully considered vow making before God.

The type of oaths described by Jesus in Matthew 5 were supposedly serious declarations, made with an appeal to God (or something else) to support (or otherwise) the truth of what people said. The result of such a broken oath would be the returning of some sort of vengeance/punishment by the person or thing they had appealed to. It appears that the Jews of Jesus’ day were well into the bad habit of swearing by all sorts of things (but not God) and weren’t always too bothered about breaking their oaths. Jesus was correcting this as well as encouraging His disciples to speak in an honest, straightforward way.

A vow is a promise, often made before God and/or people or a person. As I understand it, a vow is not foremost a declaration of the truth of something present or past but rather the sealing, with a solemn promise, a chosen direction for the future.

I doubt very much if Jesus was repudiating serious, premeditated vow making in Matthew 5. After all, if He was, shall we no longer make or support marriage vows?

In Ecclesiastes Solomon warns us not to be hasty in our heart ‘to utter anything before God’ and tells us that if we make vows we certainly better keep them (Ecclesiastes 5:2, 5)   I have certainly found the very few vows I have made have held me to my resolutions and kept me ‘on track’ in difficult times and, for that, I have valued them. Vows of marriage, celibacy and commitment to God by nature close down some options for us. They also free us for the one person or the one thing that we value so much. Surely, that’s got to be good….

Yes, it can be tough .. there are temptations in marriage as we know. Your marriage partner will probably not be the last person you feel attracted to. Unless you become a celibate hermit, you’re bound to bump into someone you like …

Personally, I have found my vow of celibacy has brought freedom to serve within the church.  Everyone knows where I stand:  it’s not worth asking me out as I’m going to say ‘no.’ I’ll not want to be looking round at anyone with a ‘view’ – no, I just want to be a sister or mother or a friend. Also, I’m not suddenly going to have a new set of priorities as I’m going to get married and have children. Altogether, in a nutshell, in the complicated realm of human relationships, things can be a little more straightforward if you make a vow.  In any church where relationships are all important all these aspects of the vow are a huge plus.

 So … there are some good reasons for making vows of commitment here … but don’t forget … Solomon’s advice. He was a wise crack….

What if? Young women: what is your calling?

 Sometimes church is languishing because we don’t seek God and have forgotten to nag Him; sometimes it’s languishing because we’ve gone our own way (call it sin); sometimes it’s languishing because we‘ve lost our up and go to do the things that Jesus said. Mission, reaching out and telling people about Jesus, has all but slipped from our hearts. After all, church can be warm, cosy and secure, especially if we’ve got lots of good mates (nothing wrong with that.) The icy winds and chill, the anguished cries of this world’s lost and broken people may beckon us – but we choose to be dull to their cries – and leave them to others.
            Come on, let me inspire you .. this time  about the young women of the Chinese Inland Mission. Ready for a history lesson?

China was really only open to European missionaries for about a hundred years, between 1843 and 1949. In these years different missions operated, including the China Inland Mission, founded by Hudson Taylor in 1865. Yes, the mission’s ethos was pretty radical. Missionaries had to respect and follow Chinese customs, wear Chinese dress and eat Chinese style – but none of these was more radical than encouraging single women as well as men to go to China as equal members of the mission. This was an age when most unmarried women in Britain lived under the protection of their families until they were married. It was unthinkable for single women to go abroad alone. If women felt called to go abroad, they had to find someone to marry with the same vision! Missionaries were always men – and usually ordained. Hudson Taylor’s policy to recruit single women as missionaries shocked Victorian Britain and was bitterly criticised by some of his fellow missionaries. Hudson was undeterred: in 1866 he landed in China with the first group of missionaries and this included 8 single women. 

 The single women missionaries (many of whom were in their early twenties when they arrived) taught and evangelised, both in the churches and the many schools they founded. Unlike the male missionaries, they were able to enter the homes of Chinese women who spent most of the time in their homes as semi-invalids, following the centuries-old traditional foot-binding tradition. These missionaries brought many Chinese women to Jesus and enabled them to tell their neighbours and families about Jesus.

Hudson Taylor wanted to encourage the Chinese church to stand on its own two feet; single women missionaries were sent to support and encourage local Chinese pastors. When European male missionaries were around, the Chinese church leaders expected them to lead. The missionary women provided experience and wisdom that could be drawn on but the local Chinese leaders still led the churches.

At first the single women lived alongside married couples in the interior. Later, they were sent to distant places to work alongside Chinese colleagues. Often, they were left in charge of mission stations. Here they went from door to door evangelising and training the new converts both to read and to read the Bible.

Risking their lives, these women crossed the vast tracks of inland China, passing through the inhospitable Gobi Desert and Tibetan foothills, often visiting places where no European man – let alone a woman - had ever visited.  On the way they faced treacherous weather conditions, bandits, civil war, anti-western feeling, superstition and misunderstandings. Many died of cholera and dysentery and others suffered violent deaths. 

Think of the Chinese church today, by and large robust, missionary- minded and definitely multiplying. How much, I wonder, is the result of those intrepid women’s endeavours, risking all as they ventured into the unknown – for God and His kingdom?

So today, what if we could see a rising generation of holy, love-filled dare-devils (excuse the expression) with a passion for reaching out to others with the love of God and the gospel?  What if there should arise a group of adventurous and single-eyed young women who are as keen to win people in our nation for Jesus as those Chinese missionaries were? What if .. what if … could we make the same huge difference those women did in China? What if ….