What do you mean by God...

What do I mean by God when I say God in my blogs?

This challenge came to me the other day when I asked people to pray for me that I get my work done which is going better by the way :).

I said 'pray to God for me' and this was made bold because I always did plan to follow it up.


Well............

Maybe I should start with what I don't mean.

I don't mean myself. This may sound strange to some but some people I know do think they are God or a part of him. I don't. I believe in a God who loves his creation, and who made us in his own image but yet is distinct from his creation. He created all things. We can only create from what he has already created.

I don't mean a multi-faceted, multi named, multi faith God, known as Buddha in some cultures, Allah in others, The Great Architect of the Universe in others still and the Don Quixote in the ones that just don't have a clue. I believe in every culture God has revealed his unchanging character through the things he has made and the things we see everyday around and above us. The day and the night faithfully interchanging. The sun shining on us even when we may have done wrong the day before, showing he is merciful and ready to forgive. The rain falling on us all, showing  he is no respector of persons. Life comes with good and bad times for those who follow God and those who don't. His character doesn't change with the customs of each culture. He is one person with one character and one name, which he reveals to his friends and those who have begun to know him.

I don't mean my God or a God out of many options, or the one I like to call God. There is one God who made the heavens, the planets, the solar system and all we see upon the earth, the trees, the rivers and lakes. He is God (with a big G), there is no other.

I don't mean a distant or impersonal God. I believe in a God who is closer to me now then the keyboard I'm typing on. I believe in one who loves me as a Father loves his child. I believe I am loved by him, yes I believe I am loved. I believe in a God that doesn't stay on the outside to try and change within a person. I believe in a God who comes in, who inhabits those who believe and want to follow him and works to change them from the inside out, making them into new people with new hearts. Into people he sees worthy of him and his presence.

When I say the word God I mean someone who doesn't leave us wondering what he's like but someone who shows us, if only we'd believe it! Someone who shows us in the face of his son, a perfect reflection of his perfect character. Someone unafraid to be restricted by what we're restricted by, even for a time. A body which brings sleep to a God who doesn't sleep, hunger to a God who doesn't need to be sustained and death to a God who doesn't die, just to show us what perfection lives, breathes, and acts like in situations we all find ourselves in. An incarnational God unafraid to step into our shoes because though these human restrictions affected his body, he knew they could never affect his spirit.

When I speak of God, I mean a real Father who loves us and never leaves us.
I mean one who is a Spirit who will live on beyond all restrictions we place on him, and seeks to work deeply in the hearts of those who believe in him.
And I mean one who comes as a Son just to show us in the mask of imperfection what perfection looks like.

This is what I mean by God when I speak of him in my blogs......

Worldviews, nods and signals.....

I found it interesting lately how in the midst of darkness God shines his light through people, sometimes ever so dimly, but it still with intensity. I know God is gonna do great things with this generation Soli Deo gloria!

It's crazy to see how many nods and signalling goes on in today's society, especially among the well known and highly influential. We have the masonic handshakes going around and the illuminati triangle. In the 70's it was the fist which represented black power, and years before that Churchill flipped the V at us (supposedly representing victory in the second world war, which later was adopted by anti-war campaigners as a sign of peace). For years people have seemed to send subliminal nods to the philosophies, organisations and spiritual entities they serve, while most people either scratch their heads, think it's cool so they join in, or simply bypass it through ignorance.

During Wimbledon last year, after each win we saw Andy Murray signal the sky. Some people speculated it points towards a personal faith or an event which marked his life when he was young but the real meaning behind the gesture has stayed secret, because he has kept it so. Some things are more obvious like athletes who wear the cross such as Alyson Felix, someone with no qualms in discussing who she attributes her success to. There was also that athlete who didn't shake Kate Middleton's hand which also strangely enough was an allusion to his own beliefs. Our signals often point to our ideologies and in other words lay down a foundation so that even if everyone else doesn't know, we make it clear to ourselves and our masters, who we serve and what we represent.

I say masters because everyone serves something, be it money and houses, a particular philosophy or God and his glory. This week I was listening to a very well known British singer and her songs cried out to me of something more. With an album dedicated to 'my river' she journeyed through songs of a contemplative mood while pointing to something or someone bigger than it all. When questioned about these allusions she affirmed she 'definitely believed in God and heaven' but in the song Next to me 'I wanted to speak of love and loyalty, and to celebrate good men. This is about God... or your man'. In other words, she was leaving the song open to interpretation.

Sometimes we're so eager to get everything out in one sentence for that 'on the spot conversion', we can miss what God is trying to do.

It isn't bad to preach the gospel in this way but sometimes God is seeking us to work another way. The truth is that the devil is a master of subtlety. He doesn't come up to you with a gun and say shoot yourself. He doesn't tell you that the thing he is leading you to will have detrimental effects on your whole being and for those around you. He tells you 'come have a taste' or 'it's not so bad and you will gain so much through it'. Be the reward a high, money, fame or acceptance, he seeks to draw you into it by hook or crook. Through propogating his worldviews very subtlely, people in the world after checking their natural desires and what they have to gain roll with them almost immediately, even though some need more persuading. Even many Christians who profess to have left the world behind, still carry his ideals in their dreams, their focuses, the things which drive them and what they live for.

The devil will not preach to you come to hell, but will take you there through a succession of planned and calculated steps. As Christians our goal is to lead people to Jesus because he is the only one who can give true life to a dying world. But this same Jesus is the one who said we have to be as wise as serpents, while harmless as doves. When first asked by his disciples about where he lived, he did not make it a full gospel conversation. He said 'come and see', taking them on a journey.

Fools rush in, and times we must be slower, planting what seems like the lesser seeds, and what seems to just be a part of the gospel. God can work on these seeds if we refuse to compromise, and move towards the goal of opening blind eyes and setting the captive free with the wisdom and subtlety of the Spirit. A wise farmer knows what to plant at what time for the ultimate harvest.

Identifiable differences....

I-dent-if-i-a-ble

Diff-er-en-ces

Like when you eye something in your mind

That settles the charisma in ya

This man knew the same culture

Same sculpted lens

But his worldview screams

That he's an individual

We grew up in the same ends

Same friends

Asian rule was blatant up in Sparkhill 

Where we saw the same things

Same park swings

Same corner shops, same sins,

Same robbing chocolate bars

Cus of decayed spends

Saw some brothers had pay

So the gain they'd sport

Others living on scraps 

Man they were greatly poor

We saw Tupacs

Single moms lacing up the bootstraps

And round the corner Will Smiths

Gaze and yawn

Some on the housing

Some with the graceful doors

Some with graffiti on their walls 

Didn't care at all

And some of our hearts were openly depraved

Open to the raise

We got drawn in

Through smoking sim'lar haze

And we would bar it madly

No worries

Just to slap on a new era cap

And fake like in heart we're yankees

But my mind is on the pea

His is on the family

And I be checking out the mama's

While he clings to Daddy

It wasn't always so

But there was a switch in purpose

The same life change that

Known to make a bredrin nervous

Cus he's a different person

And it bears a mark on me

He is a different version

From them one's with hearts of greed

Know I'm a heartless feen

And I got the scars to prove it

He tell me comes to church

But I say my heart's on music

And I will try one day

He doesn't half pursue it

In the end he lets up

Cus I ain't on the pastor movements

But in my heart I'm dying

And this is the biggest difference

You walked right to the altar

I can't even grace the building

My worst fear of all in life

Is the Lord's rejection

But I can't come to him at all

Because I know I'm sinnin'

...............
...................
......................
.............................
.......................................
................................................
........................................................
.................................................
........................................
..............................
........................
....................
................


My child wisdom's what you need

Through the misconceptions

Seems like a maze at times

And that voice is real and pressin'

'Rejection is your portion

You got a dad who never wanted you

And others told your mom

She should accept abortion'


That voice echoes and

You bargain with deceitful lies

That you have to swallow up

The harsh realities of life

And 'cus your uncles run the street

You have to be that guy,

That got a few babymothers

But you'll never see the wife,


And when you speak, if they don't accept you

Then that will wreck you,

Cus you're yet to see

You're a chosen vessel my hand assembled

A vessel's just a cup

But when they drink from you

These men don't know your worth

But still they see in you there's something special


Brother don't run from me,

Just because my peeps imperfect

Because it's sinful men the King expects

To fill the churches

I'm talking mystical

But I will be a father to you

And don't believe the lie

I made you and will give you purpose