This is almost a year later – life, work, exams and daily and weekly routines took over for a while… So now, as I write this, the first assembly of GSFA (Global South Fellowship of Anglicans) is about to start in Cairo. We need to be praying most ardently for this…. Lord you promise to build your Church and that the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Lord thank you for all those who will be at GSFA – that each of them are called by name for such a time as this. Lord I am praying for your presence, protection, preservation, guidance and precious unity. Please Lord pour out your Holy Spirit – bring refreshment and vision and purpose – that your Kingdom would come and your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. In Jesus name Amen.

Reflections can be close up – or from a distance – this one is now at a year’s distance…

Apart from the extraordinary privilege of being able to go to Gafcon IV, and the sheer gratefulness and excitement I felt at being back in Africa after so many years, the overriding thing that has stayed with me from last April, is what a wonderful and extraordinary blessing it is to be a part of the worldwide body of Christ and to have such amazing and inspiring brothers and sisters all around the world. It was the hugest privilege to meet bishops, clergy and lay people from parts of the world where they genuinely face the prospect and possibility of death for the sake of Christ on a daily basis. In our Wednesday prayer group, we have been praying for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, particularly those in central and north Nigeria, where Christians are targeted by Islamic militants – it was a great honour to meet and speak to some of those priests who live and minister in these areas. We have prayed for some of our brothers at the Holy Cross Theological seminary in Myanmar – seeing those for whom we have prayed and hearing how the Lord has answered prayers was such a blessing.

There was one talk in particular that I found very helpful – ‘Renewing the Power to Love: The Heart of Historic Anglicanism’ by Rev Canon Dr John Ashley Null…. Summarised from what I can read of my notes, as follows…

• In times of lawlessness, the church faces a triple temptation:
  • To preach law without the Gospel
  • Christian leaders fight over who has the best solution to prevent darkness (it is easier to agree on the problem than how to fix it)
  • Christians are tempted to see sins of others but not our own.
• Human nature is ruled by whatever rules the human heart – on its own it naturally loves self… The heart often rules the mind.
  • The only way out of the closed circle of sin and selfishness is to discover a love for God rather than the love of self. There is a relationship between love and forgiveness – Luke 7:47 ‘he who is forgiven little, loves little’.
  • The power of love can change us, even as it completes us.
• The enemy in wanting to separate us from the Lord, tries to make us doubt that God really loves us – so we are left, either hidden in shame, or trying to earn God’s favour….. Helpful to recognise some of the strategies the enemy employs…
  • Step 1 – Genesis 3 – the serpent tries to concentrate on what we don’t have. Overstates the restriction God has put on humanity. The serpent now manages to switch Eve’s focus from all the good things God has given, to the one thing God withheld. The enemy tries to get us to focus on the negatives in life: what you don’t have, the difficulties etc.. Tries to get you feeling that you are missing out – the seed of a negative attitude.
  • Step 2 – Make you think God doesn’t love you – make God look unfair for not giving you what you want. The serpent wanted Eve to feel cheated – point at the pruning that God promises in John 15:2 – but says that if God really loved you, he would give you a better deal.
  • Step 3 – Undermines self esteem for who you are now – compares you to others. No matter how many good and wonderful things in your life, God has something you don’t have, eg why hasn’t God given you that ministry, or those funds? So you ask ‘what’s wrong with me that I don’t have what they have?’ And you conclude either God has cheated us or we are not good enough for Him… But either way we end up saying ‘prove you deserve/prove you are good enough’. The enemy is always pointing out the strength of others, and that you are not good enough. And without confidence in God’s unconditional love for us, its hard not to agree.
  • Step 4 – Work for self worth – its now up to us to find a way to feel good about ourselves… The most depressing day of an Olympic gold medallist’s life is the day after winning the gold medal, when they realise that they are not good enough. The enemy says: if we do ‘x’ we won’t need to depend on anyone and not risk being hurt again.
  • Step 5 – The lie that success brings lasting satisfaction. Without God’s unconditional love, Adam and Eve discovered what it was really like to be naked. They had no ability to fend off the enemy’s attacks, so they tried to cover up their emptiness and separation from God.
  • Step 6 – The enemy makes us his slave. When you base your worth on your performance, you become a slave to always having to perform.
• Horses shouldn’t push carts – but in Christianity we get it wrong so often…
  • Does God initiate and we respond? Or do we initiate and God responds?
  • Do our actions earn God’s blessing? Or are our actions the fruit of God’s work in us?
  • Do we long for God to lead us? Or do we expect God will get behind us and push?
  • Is repentance the basis on which God accepts us? Or is it the inevitable base of knowing we are accepted?
• Archbishop Cranmer’s thinking on these questions…
  • For the medieval church, repentance is what sinners did to get right with God – flagellation and punishment ‘penitence’ – voluntary self punishment was required by God as a sacrifice for sin.. But where does the love of God come from?
  • What is the bait of sin? Feeling good… Sin becomes more alluring when we feel bad, because we want to feel good.
  • But only LOVE produces LOVE; fear, condemnation and shame don’t produce love.
  • Cranmer put into our communion service ‘the comfortable words’: “come unto me all who travail and are heavily laden, and I will refresh you” (starting with felt human need) and then “Almighty and merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep… and there is no health in us” – we long to be rescued from the misery we experience in the strain and fight of human existence.
  • The glory of God is to love the unworthy and to relieve the burdens we bear even when we don’t understand why we bear them.
  • Human’s are longing to be rescued. The Divine is longing to rescue… what does this look like from a human point of view?
    • Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
  • And from God’s point of view?
    • He is the propitiation for our sins. God’s justice requires propitiation – God loves the world and wants to redeem it… The cross was a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of the whole world.
  • He is now our Advocate – Jesus is our defence lawyer, not our judge… The Cross is the only possible defence on our behalf.
  • Without renewing the heart, there is the snare of legalism, eg we may first come into God’s presence by God’s free gift, but we stay there by our own efforts, and consequently in our hearts we love ourselves when we think we are being good. Legalism is so persuasive because it lies so close to the truth: blessing accompanies obedience, disobedience brings about discipline.
  • But love cannot be earned, if it is earned, its not love. Our power to do right is God himself graciously working in us. In the end, holiness is ever increasing dependence on God’s power to change us… You have promised to complete the work you began in me – thank you Lord. ‘No health in us’ – we have no capacity to stay free on our own.
• Conservative answer to sin is to try to shame people into righteousness.. But shame doesn’t do that.. The acceptance of sin also doesn’t lead people to God… Only God’s love for sinners inspires sinners to love God more than sin.

AMEN