I WAS THINKING 1
SHOULD WE THINK – AND WRITE?
Think? Should we? Isn't Scripture enough? Well, the Bible recommends it. "Whatever things are beautiful ... think on these things". I had combative letters signed "Yours sincerely in the name of Jesus", scorning my writing as 'Man's word not God's Word'. How penetrating! I can't write God's Word. Could he? Were my critic's own words 'God's Word?'
Should we only quote Scripture, like animated tape recorders? Well, thinking is a weakness to which some of us are prone. The Bible itself tends to bring it on!
Today Christians have to meet 'the thinking man', when we stand up for Jesus. The thinking man thinks he thinks anyway, even if he only swims along with the stream of popular agnosticism. Newspaper writers, unabashed, proclaim their brilliant achievement of unbelief looking down upon us believers like H.G. Well's giant-brain Martians looked upon mere earthlings.
It is very clever how unbelievers attain religious conclusions lacking any basic knowledge either of God, Scripture or what Christians say. Watch TV's 'Do you want to be a millionaire?' with contestants firmly 'not into religion'! One puzzled man had to ask the audience which garden Adam and Eve lived in, and some said it was the Garden of Kent.
Scripture commands "Preach the Word" and surely doesn't mean 'recite it'? Reading a verse or passage is like looking through a telescope, or a microscope, to see new things, living things. Naturally then we want to say what we see, like having a companion in Switzerland to talk about the majesty of the scenery.
That is what Christian songs are for – just our exclamation in the face of the wonders of Christ in God. They excite us, especially when articulated by gifted poets and composers. 'Singing, and making melody in our hearts to the Lord' we can savour the great Bible truths.'
The Gospel is compacted of the most exalted themes on earth. The glory of the Son of God! The mystery of His incarnation! His incredible life! The fathomless depths opened at Calvary and the awesome vistas of His Resurrection! Such transcendent themes make, and need, more than jingles.
Worship may be about God's greatness, but Christian worship extols what Jesus was, what Jesus is, Jesus did, and what Jesus does. He is the reason we worship. Acts 2 says the Spirit gave the disciples utterance. That is our experience also. It is a distinction possessed by no other faith on earth, echoed by the redeemed myriads in heaven and earth like the sound of many waters. Sing! Make His praise glorious!
THINKING ABOUT FASTING
It is Lent, "the period including forty weekdays extending from Ash-Wednesday to Easter-eve, kept as a time of fasting and penitence in commemoration of Our Lord's fasting in the wilderness". So the Oxford Dictionary informs us and that Ramadam is "The ninth month of the Muslim year, rigidly observed as a thirty days' fast during the hours of day ". It is a strict obligation.
Fasting has always been a fairly universal religious custom but not strikingly Christian except in the Roman Catholic church. Ancient idolaters, pagans, and Greeks consulting their Oracles fasted. The Roman centurion Cornelius fasted, following Jewish custom, before his conversion. So do shaman spirit worshippers, Eastern and mystical cults seeking transcendent experiences. Aboard a doomed ship the non-Christians fasted but Paul encouraged them to eat.
The importance of fasting in the early church is measured by only two references in Acts, at special times. Religious leaders complained to Jesus that His disciples did not fast, He defended them. Devout Jews fasted Mondays and Thursdays but only till the afternoon. Jewish Christians kept up the practice, voluntarily, not by compulsion. Under persecution by Rome, Christians believed martyrdom was a sure way to heaven until Christianity became the religion of the empire and deprived them of martyrdom. Severe self-affliction and asceticism was then substituted as a way to heaven. An early two-day Lenten fast was extended on the fourth century to forty days self-denial. Ember days were added. The Vatican modified this recently, ruling that what was saved by missing meals should go to the Third World hungry. Other Christians also do that. Fasting is slimming, quite a good thing for couch potatoes!
Out of some 200 positive references to prayer in the New Testament only five to fasting and prayer, and that merely incidental and no mandatory significance.
Strangely, some Pentecostals and charismatics have treated it necessary and vital. The Voice of Healing gave great publicity to some who fasted for forty days or more Their purpose was not explained, and it had no theology. It was simply assumed it would bring great spirituality and healing power. Looked at impartially the idea seemed to be to impress God, gain His special esteem, and oblige Him to act. It was no different from the practices of self-affliction of the medieval 'saints' denying themselves food and comfort as a means of grace and to curry Divine favour.
I think that fasting is more an instinctive reaction than a religious invention. In a prolonged spiritual crisis years ago I became so desperate that continued fasting seemed natural. But all it did was weaken me until I could not walk. On another occasion, going a month with one meal a day, I became very irritable. It proved far more a distraction than a help, my hunger forcing itself upon my attention. Yet actually, I've never been that fond of food. I have two meals but consume practically nothing during 18 hours each day. So without these minimal calories I soon become too faint to concentrate.
Christ and the apostles make little of fasting. The New Testament seems to me ambivalent on the subject, but the Lord does not forbid it. He does warn us about its abuse and mistaken motives. He emphasised fasting as personal and private. We are not to fast and tell or even look as if we fasted. No doubt we can fast to impress friends with our spirituality.
Fasting having been strongly advocated by some Pentecostal-charismatics, one wishes their theology and purpose was clearer. Practised as a physical act to draw near to God, it becomes a sacrament, but Pentecostals are not sacramental believers.
Fasting can never pressurise God. It is an excellent way of expression and emphasis in prayer, the same as calling loudly, or weeping. Physical conditions do apply to prayer. Some kneel, or walk about, are silent, or shout, prefer to be alone, or in company, use aids, the Bible, prayer books. I heard of a young man who always prayed naked to be utterly real. Fasting is in the same category, useful to some, but not to others. If people eat and do not fast they should not feel guilty or unspiritual. We read of only one occasion when Jesus fasted, and that was probably involuntary, food not being available in the wilderness. Otherwise He was criticised for indulging in food and wine. But He is the One who has given us all things to enjoy. 'The Lord satisfies the desire of every living creature". To refuse His rich provision and goodness it is hardly a way to please Him.
Fasting is self-denial. But there are other greater forms of self-denial spoken of in the Word of God and with more actual practical effect and purpose. For the Gospel's sake millions constantly embrace real denial, sacrificing careers, money, time, fame, pleasure, home, fellowship. That kind of fasting renders us more useful and able to do God's will. In summary, miss meals to serve God if necessary, but we had better have a pure motive and articulate reason.
THE BIG BANG 'EXPLAINED' ?
How did everything start? The cosmologists say it began 15 thousand million years ago with a tremendous explosion, the Big Bang. But what made it explode and what stuff was there to go bang? The boffins wanted a theory of everything.
Stephen Hawking of Cambridge the now famous cosmologist worked on 'Black Holes'. They are thought to be a mass of condensed matter, so dense that their gravity draws in everything, nothing escapes the pull, not even light, so it is a black hole in space. As matter is compressed, the size of the mass gets smaller. If it shrinks to no size at all, it goes out of existence and that would mean infinity. This state is a "Singularity." Stephen Hawking speculated that a Singularity might reverse and everything that was compacted to nothingness would burst open. Such a happening could have formed the universe.
One question was left – what triggered off the reverse? Even scientists, including Stephen Hawking himself, mentioned God as a possibility. Some scientists were convinced that the incredible beauty of the universe, formed with such delicate balance, indicated an intelligent Creator.
In February BBC 2 ran a programme to tell us the answer. They said everything in the programme was 'fact'. (Actually it was all theory). The ultimate long-sought theory of existence emerged from cosmologists talking together on a train journey. They visualised many other universes, an infinity of them like ours, but with every possible variation of events. These universes are completely separated by an invisible membrane, only one particle thick. But the membranes move or wave.
Then, two membranes collided, the universes shattered and there was an explosion, the Big Bang, and everything came to exist. The great answer to the quest of Einstein, Hawking and company.
The BBC failed to bring up the obvious problem. If the crash of membranes caused the Big Bang, where did the membranes come from and all the other universes?
If we are ingenious enough, and we are it seems, we can explain anything, in theory, God, miracles, the universe. All we want is imagination and the riddle of Creation is solved. So ... ? Except ... we still want to know how anything anywhere exists. Unless we say God, there is no answer.
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