'GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD' John 3.16.
'DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD' 1 John 2:15
John talks about the world more than anybody else in Scripture, and it is always the same word - 'kosmos', the inhabited world, people, he does not talk about the physical earth. This is a rare subject in Scripture - just that God made heaven and earth. The biblical writers had no idea about the globe.
Love, even love for your enemies, is a great theme in Scripture. So if God loved people – the world, why should we not love the world? Obviously the nuances differ.
Psalm 7 says that God is angry with sinners every day (v.11). From that angle it is the rebel world that is the world not to love – the rebellious order.
I confess I DO love this world, the Earth. The longer I live the more I want to be alive in God's world, not half dead in it! "Thou has made everything beautiful in its time" (Ecc 3:11) – the earth is miraculously lovely. Poets fail to convey the music of our fascinated wonder. Even my humble garden borders are pageant streams of prismatic splendour. Every petal is a flake of sunshine. Abroad are tumbled rocks, stormy skies, rocking oceans and unsculpted mountains yet so awesome they catch our breath and moisten our eyes to shine with speechless pleasure. Words are too crude.
John said "love not the things of this world", and yet we read: "God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good." The Psalms also rejoice in God's good world. He waters the furrows and puts gold in the hills. Why should we not love what He has done? We must remember that John's writings contain many ambiguities and double meanings. By the love of the things of the world he means covetousness and falling in with godless aims. John writes "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1John 5:19). Paul also explains this to the Ephesians - "You followed the way of the world, and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are children of disobedience… by nature the children of wrath dead in transgressions." (Eph 2:2-3)
I am baffled that apparently decent people are so prejudiced and uncomfortable with 'God talk'. While house calling for my church, I received bitter looks from householders who knew nothing of me or my church. It is startling that many who tolerate the most objectionable rubbish on television can't be quick enough to switch off anything Christian. It is as Paul says, 'the spirit of the devil'.
Our church talk is of separation from worldliness, usually referring to a church-made category of forbidden pleasures. I wrote in IWT 2 of my own early 'holiness' which hung like a chafing yoke around my neck. From this distance I can see now how hopeless were our outreach struggles when we were erecting walls of separation for converts to climb over into our religious ghetto. I was challenged but never found much justification for my self-denials and constricted lifestyle and church culture of taboos and scruples.
We can fit the 'un-worldliness' pattern of a church and yet be far from spiritual. A woman whose tongue did me enormous and lasting harm was very strict on 'worldliness'. One of the most 'worldly' items is money - we need it but to love it is rank with the world, like Lot living in Sodom. Jesus coined a word for money 'mammon', the god of gold. It is the pivot on which the world's interest swings and we are not to join that merry-go-round. Jesus showed total indifference to wealth. He suggested that we should not hold on too tight fisted even to what we have. God gives for us to live and then to give. He does not give because we give, for He is a giver already and needs no prompting or motivating.
We must distinguish between culture and command. Cultural standards change. It had startled me recently when several excellent and sacrificing Pentecostal friends told me they go to the pictures and to pop concerts - but I concluded that I was too fossilised. The Beatles were different from Elim choruses in the 1960's!
Standards are written across the pages of Scripture, but not in express commands. Issues of music, dress, hair, jewellery, entertainment are peripheral matters decided by the major principles of wisdom and love. Our rule book is love. The New Testament is not a law book like the Koran, nor does it give us the right legislate. Christianity is not routine religious performances but action and love to please God, that is the God who sets us free.
God planted a garden, and the devil led Adam out of it. A young Scottish minister one morning found the roads too frozen so he skated to church. Afterward, called by the kirk elders to give account of his Sabbath sin, they were in a dilemma. If he skated he broke the Sabbath and if he did not turn up at church it was worse. Then clarity inspired one leader. He demanded of the young man "It amounts to this – did you enjoy it or not?" Well, I've known people refuse ice-cream because they might 'enjoy it'. I have no such conscience. I hope there is ice-cream in heaven!
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ARE WE UNDER THE LAW?
This question annoys me. Why ask it? If we are born-again and really Christian we wouldn't want to be lawless. If we don't want to be under the law, that is the Ten Commandments, then we are not Christian anyway. Also, if anyone thinks that keeping the Ten Commandments will qualify them for heaven, they have no idea what it means.
For the rest of the legal code of Scripture, that is the Old Testament, much does not fit modern life. I can't build a parapet to my house, nor do I gather birds from their nests. I keep no slaves or cattle, nor can I offer burnt sacrifices. The Lord commanded all men to keep three of the Feasts, but it is not possible in the twenty-first century. We can't pitch temporary shelters of tree branches outside Jerusalem or plough with an ox and a horse and leprosy does not appear on our house walls for any priest to pronounce upon. God forbade garments of wool and cotton, but we dress with synthetic fibres. Such rules are not applicable today but were only for Israel's primitive circumstances. We are told that we must "rightly divide the Word of God", that is, divide between the absolutes and the local and temporary, but we must discern the underlying principles.
Jesus said that the principle laws were love. Rigid rules are not practical. Early attempts to bring great blessings and success by strict ideas of un-worldliness actually defeated the purpose and alienated the people we wanted to win. Do I discern a new approach in 2005?
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DO YOU HEAR FROM THE LORD?
Some do hear from the Lord, about ten times a day and vastly more often than Peter or Paul. Or so it seems. One hostess warned me I could have no pudding – the Lord had told her not to give me any. Lofty claims of elbow intimacy with the Almighty deter others who worry that God never speaks to them like that.
God does speak. God made us that way, in His own image, which means he talks. He made us for fellowship with Him and with one another. How can we have any relationship without speech, either with man or God? A neighbour told me that he and his wife had not spoken for months. The marriage is now at an end, of course.
The Bible begins with an emphasis on God speaking. In the first chapter half the verbs, 14, concern His utterances. Genesis seems to have been written as a polemic against the prevailing world-wide idolatry of gods that say nothing and do nothing. Right through the Pentateuch, Moses' five books, we have our most fundamental revelation of God and He is represented as communicating. Leviticus is a great display of God reaching out to us, not indirectly but in language. In Leviticus 1:1 where "the Lord called to Moses", the Hebrew suggests personal terms. By Genesis 12 we find God not only speaking but setting up a personal relationship and even becoming his friend. It is nothing less than that which Jesus had in mind when He called disciples His friends. He said "Everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." That is what friendship means.
John's Gospel uses 'Word' for the Christ, which would be grossly inappropriate if He were silent. The whole Bible presents us with a God who has things to say, and the whole Bible IS God saying things. In Genesis 3:8 God is the Voice walking in the garden.
God is not dumb, and He is not deaf. The Psalmist expected to be spoken to when he spoke to God. "To you I call, O LORD, my Rock. If you remain silent I will be like those who have gone down to the pit." It pictures for me the sea waves clawing stones and pebbles down the beach and into the depths. But I am not a pebble and God does hear me. Dr. R.T. Kendall once asked me across a meeting 'George Canty, does God hear all your prayers?' I replied that God did. How couldn't He? Psalm 139 says that He knows our thoughts before we even speak.
Hearing and speaking must proceed together. God commands us to hear Him. How can we do so unless He speaks? Like a herald commanding attention we read "Hear the Word of the Lord!" Jesus said He was the good shepherd and "They [the sheep] hear my voice." (John 10:4,16).
God speaks to us in various ways, and usually by Scripture, If we want God to speak to us, it is obviously sensible to read His Word. We are told to let His word 'dwell in us richly', and we should have the 'engrafted word'. It is in our word-consciousness that God can readily communicate with us.
God does not speak just to thrill us with a miracle. It is for fellowship. For myself, I certainly know when God says something specific, for guidance or special help. But it is unlikely that He has half a dozen instructions a day. He leaves me to exercise wisdom, but He still speaks. My daily experience is like the hymn says "He walks with me and He talks with me".
It is the moment by moment assurance that our company pleases Him, like the domestic relationship of a husband and wife. They speak to one another for the love of it, not just for him to give her instructions – which I hope he never does! I have two friends, one of whom I rarely see, who phone me two or three times a week, just for the sake of phoning. Why not? It is just the pleasure of life and of friendship. That is how I myself conduct my relationship with the Lord, to have His reassurance that He is there. Yes I have heard His audible voice, and felt His hand physically upon my shoulder, but more often it is His unmistakeable inner voice.
When Paul was heading for one port, we read "the Spirit forbade him." That was all. He waited a while before he felt God had given Him further guidance. One of my church folk told me that during pregnancy the doctor gave her tablets. God does not always explain why on such occasions, but somehow she felt she should not use them. Later she had a shock on discovering they were Thalidomide, the drug that caused children to be born limbless. Her child was perfect and is a friend of mine today. A lady wrote to me yesterday and said she had a Scripture for me. It was the same one that had been dancing in my mind for a day, one so good I hoped it wasn't just my wishful thinking, but her letter - the first like it she had ever written - confirmed it. It is so common – God does speak and does guide.
Now some believe in a 'rhema' word from God. That may be, though something here needs explanation. In Scripture 'rhema' and 'logos' are synonymous, and appear in texts meaning exactly the same thing, 'the word of God'. But rhema is more often used for single statements or words. The Ten Commandments in the Greek LXX version are rhema words, and the Bible as a whole is usually known as the Word, not the rhema. Jesus brought the 'words of God', 'rhemata' in John 3:34, and in Luke 24:44 His words are 'logoi'. But otherwise the different words mean the same thing exactly.
The Rhema Doctrine is that the Bible is the Logos but is not for us unless God gives us a 'rhema' word – and then we can claim it. That reduces the Word to only occasional value. But it is always the living word. I heard a preacher last Sunday say that once God speaks to us personally we can go ahead in absolute assurance. Well, yes, but only then? We can also go ahead when we have the open Bible. I would be MORE sure of the written Word than of any subjective prompting.
The greatest 20th century theologian, Karl Barth said something similarly faulty, that the Bible is not inspired but that God inspires the readers with words from it. The Bible does not say anything like that about itself: "ALL Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2Tim 3:16) and "ALL the promises of God are 'yes' and 'amen' in Christ Jesus" (2Cor 1:20), not just any that God graciously highlights for us in case we are a bit unsure.
Many say 'The Lord told me'. No reason why not, except that usually He hasn't, and the Bible doesn't encourage such familiarity, as if only certain people stand in the special confidentiality or counsel of God. It might have been with the Hebrew prophets but in Christ we are all equally close to God.
Nobody in the New Testament talked like that. Even the apostle Paul did not. On only a few occasions did he have special directives from the Holy Spirit. Usually he went ahead, not even asking guidance, having the Word of Christ to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. If we belong to Christ we ARE led of the Spirit, led gently by His hand as we develop our steady relationship with Him. God is not our managing director, but a Friend. He said He would never leave us and never ignores us, but He goes along with us and brings us back when we stray. That is, if we want to be led. Often we don't. We adopt the Nelson touch, read the message through a blind eye. That may mean not reading the Word, or only turning over the leaves when we want Him to say what we want Him to say. Some seek the Lord to speak and give them a new direction. How do they know He has a new direction in mind for them?
God is great company. I am daily so delighted with His care, His organising and His favouritism to us all. I am a convert to what I say in this article. In the beginning of my career I thought God guided saints, men better than me, and that only as a rare thing. It changed everything when I saw God wanted to walk and talk with me. I believed that He did, does, and will speak to anyone who has the open ear of faith.
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special article
THINKING ABOUT 'I WAS THINKING'
Why do I write IWT? It has cost me £20,000 so far less about £1000 spontaneously contributed by readers.
It is not, I hope, self-promotion. I say as little as possible about myself, and don't use a photo. I write ten times more than IWT without my name appearing at all. After a lifetime caring about souls, I can't get the pastor instinct out of my system, and to write is my main means of feeding the sheep and lambs. My thoughts appear in various magazines, books and sundry writings with readers girdling the globe, but I have a special concern for British Pentecostals and IWT is an outlet for the thoughts that stir in my mind.
After having written for Elim since I was 17, trends changed and an appropriate slot was not found in Direction for my personal 'I was Thinking' column. But the Holy Spirit continued to move me and the only answer was the independent publication of this IWT insertion.
My Pentecostal experience began when Elim had only three churches in Britain and I saw all the campaigns that opened churches including opening a score or so myself. Through travel both in this country and abroad for many years, I accumulated knowledge of the many changing forms of evangelism, organisation, 'fads' and means – some of them repeating over the years. My interest has always been that of a bookworm, curious about events and history, but I have participated in just about every form of church activity including the roles of administrator, President of Elim, children's evangelist and college lecturer. In 1988, evangelist Reinhard Bonnke gave me support to devote my full attention to Bible teaching and writing. I am also currently active as one of 6 pastors with 19 sub-pastors in a large and growing Pentecostal church.
In fact, it was certainly the pressure of the Holy Spirit that prompted IWT. The task as I saw it then was impossible. Then the Lord swept aside every impossibility in one week. Mainly the solution came from the Halesowen office volunteers of CfaN. The then manager Bernard Jones was 100 per cent helpful and so is his successor Mark Oates and also Nigel Marsh who looks after the mailing list and Lisa who prepare the printing format and designed my 'bubbles of thought' logo. Emma Carter, a university research engineer with her husband Jamys, an Elim pastor look after the website and editorship, both well qualified. I name them because I am so very grateful.
My conviction is that the Word and the Spirit are supremely important, but often only in theory, not in practice. I seek the anointing of God on every copy of IWT and on every reader, as much as when I preach. Un-anointed churches don't grow. They have everything neatly laid out, like Elijah's wood on the altar, but they have not believed and called down fire from heaven. People want God, not just sermons. They have all the regular meetings but no Holy Spirit meeting, and perhaps no Bible meeting either. The difference was shown to me by a shattering visitation of God when I was working in my church. I was in middle life, seeing nothing, but I began reading the Word twice or three times a year and God blessed me. He showed me Psalm 119, especially verse 50 "Thou has quickened me by thy word", which was precisely what happened with real and far reaching effect.
While I have, I hope, a few more years left I want to create through IWT a legacy of encouragement and faith to leave for the present and future generation.
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LEADERSHIP PASTORING
Words about leading are normal in Scripture, but leadership is not a New Testament subject. It has, however, become a universal in all churches. That does not matter as we all use lots of ideas and terms that are not Biblical. However, leadership in Scripture is always in the context of shepherding – pastoral leadership.
Visiting by permission a church leaders meeting, the pastor said that some pastors are not leaders and some leaders are not pastors. Too true, but somebody in the church must pastor or lead if the pastor does not. Leadership and pastoral concern are vital.
The great vision of Scripture is the Shepherd-King. You find it nowhere else. It is the unique and Divine concept of handling people. Church Growth has stressed the business principles of leadership but it needs the checks and balances of Scripture and its great theme of the Shepherd. The shepherd must lead, but leaders don't need to shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, not my leader. We have not yet scrapped the honorary title 'pastor' and nobody yet has called me 'Dear Leader'.
It is impossible not to talk about leadership, for it is needed, but to bring it under the covering of the pastoral is to bring it into Scriptural focus.
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