His Ways are Higher
2000 years ago there lived a man by the name of Saul. Saul came from Tarsus, a town in Turkey. He was a smart man, well educated. He knew the philosophy of the Greeks, politics of the Romans but most of all he knew the law of God.
He knew that there was only one God, who he worshipped with his native people, the Jews. He knew that true worshippers of God did not worship created things. They didnʼt bow down to statues and animals like the Greeks and they didnʼt bow down and worship the emperor like the Romans.
So when his Jewish brothers and sisters start to worship a man, a carpenter from Galilee, he is rightly offended, because God is not a man. Right? God isnʼt created. Saul was a zealous young man. Zealous for his people, zealous for his faith. He begins to stamp out this new cult. He stamps out Stephen, a public stoning, and arrests many of these new followers of Jesus.
Itʼs as heʼs going on another crusade, Damascus this time, when he sees it. Lights, burning bright, and a frightful voice. ʻSaul, why do you persecute meʼ. Saul is blinded. He had been blind all this time, yet with the loss of his sight he finally sees. Jesus, the man crucified and buried has risen and is the Lord of all creation.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
Isaiah 55:6-9
In the 17th century the UK was in the midst of a massive rise in itʼs power and influence. International trade and the conquest of America, cheaply growing crops which could be sold for a high profit. This trade survived because of the cheap, expendable labour harvested from Africa. Slavery was the fuel of the British Empire.
Now, imagine this scene. Dead and dying men, women and children loaded like sacks of grain onto a ship bound for America. Stench of faeces and blood mixed with rotting bodies and disease. Only the strong survived the journey. This was the progress of the British Empire. Abuse and inhumanity. It was disgraceful.
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What do you mean, ‘saved by grace’?
If you've been around church at all, you might have begun to pick up the language we use there. I like to call it 'Christianese', a strange tongue made of strange words and phrases no one else understands.
"Cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb"
"Washed by the Living Water"
etc
Preachers are the worst for it. Sometimes I think they just make things up. Even things which ought to be the simple, basic truths of our faith can sometimes become completely indecipherable.
Basic truths like 'God loves you', 'Jesus died for you', 'Nothing can make God love you any more, or any less'. These are some of the most basic parts of the faith. Yet these are the hardest truths to grasp.
These simple statements have become irritating clichés, the worst sort of Christianese.
It rings, loudly and unavoidably, like a fire alarm in my ears. The words of the the Apostle Paul:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
I don't know if you're anything like me. I mean, yes you have skin, a pulse and two eyes but I can't be sure if you're like me. When you read those words, you probably understand them. I, however, don't.
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Her Name was Veronica
Today I met an elderly lady at a church I was preaching at.
This is her story.
As a younger woman, she was in hospital, ill, near death. Her husband was in the process of leaving her with three children to take care of. Her illness led to her becoming isolated, alone. After years of poor living, bad choices and hurting this woman, a struggling mother, she was left scared and desperate in the house.
Her husband threatened to take her children from her, as she was emotionally and mentally ruined. Veronica was a wreck of a person, and this is the wreck Jesus met.
One day when out of the house, accompanied by a nurse, a kind lady spoke to her. She asked, would you like for the minister to visit you?
"I'd like that" she replied
"Where is it that you live"
"I... I don't know where I live"
The nurse confirmed this, and proceeded to give this kind lady Veronica's address.
This brief... almost insignificant exchange was revolutionary.
The pastoral visit was straightforward. They came and shared the message of Jesus, that all our sins could be forgiven through him.
'What, even me?"
"Most certainly, you can be accepted by God too, through Jesus"
"Well, it can't mess my life up any more than it is already"
And with that, the Lord took Veronica by the hand, loving, guiding, comforting. She was baptised at a local church, and the Lord worked through her to see 37 more people baptised in the next 2 years.
A little old lady named Veronica spoke to me, a month after her husband had departed this world. Jesus Christ had become her treasure and her great reward. This woman, closer than I to the veil of eternity, knew what it meant to be captivated by Jesus in all things.
She blessed me in more ways than I could ever put into words here.
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