Easter Workshop 1981
OUR EXPECTATIONS OF GOD
Topic Summary
1. “Faith or Presumption” – Charles Farah
2. “Relax, I already know you” – Roland Buck
3. “I am among you as one who serves” – John Skinner
4. “If That’s Not Love” – Children of the Day
5. “If I were a king” – Alex Simons
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1. Faith or Presumption – Charles Farah
Bad theology is a cruel taskmaster. It is like Procrustes, a cruel giant of ancient mythology. Procrustes was a highwayman from Attica who used to bed strangers down for the night by attaching them to an iron bed. Of they were too short, he stretched then until they fit. If they were too long he cut off their legs. Bad theology, like Procrustes, tends to say, “If the facts don’t fit, then stretch them. If there are more facts than the case allows, then cut off the excess facts.”
One stronghold of popular bad theology is in the area of faith (“Name it and claim it”) Real faith is a fine line between unbelief and presumption. It is strange we do not hear more about the sin of presumption, because it is one of the most prevalent problems in the body of Christ. Many of the difficulties arise out of a quite simple misunderstanding. In the Greek of the New Testament two quite distinct words, ‘rayma’ and ‘Logos’ are often used, and have usually been translated identically in English bibles as ‘the word’ of God. We must learn to distinguish between the ‘logos’ which is universal, eternal and objective; and the ‘rayma’ which is particular, temporal and subjective. (= the word of God to you.) Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the rayma of God. Unless God speaks to your heart it remains only as principle. When we tell people, “You are healed,”
we had better be sure that we have a word from God. Many times people are healed because they exercise faith in God, but Mark 11:22 tells us that there is such a thing as the faith of God. When God speaks a “rayma” it is from His own mountain-moving faith and it is unshakable, no matter what the circumstances are. Christians also sometimes think that if a project is a good idea it must be God’s work and He will pay for it. An all-inclusive “logos.” There is a principle, however, which says: What God orders He pays for. What God does not order, He does not pay for, even if that something is for Him.
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2. “Relax, I already know you.” Roland Buck
Many of us have absorbed wrong ideas about God that make us strained and un-natural in our attitude to Him. Pastor Roland Buck of Illinois was blessed with a series of wonderful experiences, and in ‘Angels on Assignment’ by Charles and Frances Hunter he describes how these encounters with God changed his thinking…..
‘I discovered He wants to be treated like a friend. His words to me… “Relax I already know you,” have changed my life. When He said (as a word to His people,) “I don’t record failure,” He opened a door of hope for all mankind.’
‘We don’t have to worry and fret trying to live a Christian life. When we are walking with Him in His light, we have complete freedom from fear and we never have to be afraid! His heart is beating twenty-four hours a day, and as long as it beats, which is for all eternity, we are totally and completely protected while we are serving Him.’
‘This does not mean, however, that the way ahead will be easy. We are to follow after Jesus…..’
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3. “I am among you as one who serves” – John Skinner
(31st May 1980, Lincoln)
John 13: 3 Jesus was fully aware that the Father had put all things into hands. Jesus expected God to express Himself in his experience. Jesus had had to learn to expect. Jesus was growing in a love-relationship with His Father, paving the way for us. Jesus prayed, and expected – because He knew God and His character, that He, wanted to express Himself in physical concrete answers. Look at Jesus’ reply to John the Baptist through John’s disciples (Luke 7:19-23)- he wasn’t boasting, nor was he embarrassed. But sometimes he counseled folk not to tell of the miracles, lest people build just on experiences.
John 13: 3 Jesus was also fully aware that he had come from God. The nearer he got to God the further away God seemed. What he saw couldn’t keep him going, only the knowledge of God’s character. The signs we see are to show us God’s character, then He’ll often lead us into perplexity to prove our knowledge of His character. Had he been right? Jesus wondered – What had he to look to but the Fatherhood of God?
John 13: 4, Jesus laid aside his garments to take the towel and basin. By doing this he was saying, ‘This is who I am; this is a glimpse into my heart. I don’t NEED to be God.’ (cf. Philippians 2:5-8 – preferably Amplified Version.) The test of whether our image of God is true: Does the God we worship NEED to be God? Satan does. Jesus doesn’t. There are too many people who NEED to be….to be charismatic or Catholic, or Evangelicals. Jesus Crucified says, ‘Either stand behind Me or stand with Me – but don’t try and defend Me.’
Picture a bunch of Christians in a graveyard, shouting about “what we’ve got.” Then they started digging up bodies and shouting at them, and got no response. So they dropped those bodies and each tried shouting at another body. Again no response, so they decided to leave the graveyard, but as they tried an angel with a shiny sword stopped them. So they sat down, prayed and began to adore God, then, reflecting His character, they began to weep, and God breathed life into some of the corpses they’d messed about, and they were sorry they’d hurt them, but together they began to praise God and re-make the spoiled graveyard, which somehow was not a dead place any longer. We don’t want to make people threatened, we must love them into liberty.
Some of the things that are important to us, our tradition or experience, we tend to shout about. Don’t assert these things – nor deny them. Don’t pretend what’s happened hasn’t. If you don’t need to be what God’s making you, you can relax. You’re not trying to make your brother like you, so you can feel secure. You’re seeking for him to be more like Jesus. Assertion leads to division. Laying aside leads to unity. God gives us a specific commitment, but we can only have that when we don’t need to be what He’s already getting us to be. Peter was saying, ‘I need you to be the sort of God who doesn’t wash feet, the sort who needs to be God, not the sort who comes as a servant.’ Beware lest we need God to be God! Jesus’ words on returning to the table stated ‘I am who I am, but I don’t need to assert that.’
The foot washing was more than an object-lesson. It showed the heart of God. So the nakedness of God on the Cross showed the suffering in God’s heart exposed before the world. Jesus didn’t die on the Cross so He could bash people over the head with it. The Cross in the glory. This is what God is like. God is saying in the Cross: ‘You can’t make Me anyone else but this. God will be no other than who He is.
The only person who can judge is the One who has given everything – He is a broken-hearted God. People themselves choose Hell, but eternally God weeps, yet can rest in having given all.
“Blessed in the man who can sing when the audience is gone.”
(‘The Singer’- Calvin Miller)
Everyone fled, or betrayed or denied Him. Jesus’ throne was and is a Cross. The Bride will meet Him and it’ll be on the Cross. Anything less is Simon Peter’s counsel and needs ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’ saying to it.
“He walks the streets of the world today, His scarred hands open’
(‘Hands’ – Graeme Moore)
We shouldn’t be sneaking out of a corner to grab another convert and sneak back, but should be walking like Him, vulnerable, giving ourselves in costly caring. But it’s no use being exhorted to suffer for God if we don’t know Him. We mustn’t suffer out of fear, but out of love. We need to be honest – perhaps at times we’ll say, ‘How can I suffer for You, God – I don’t even like You?’
God isn’t the legalistic, pain-in-the-neck God of the Pharisees, but the one who sits in the pubs and talks with prostitutes. CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND!!!!
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4. ‘IF THAT’S NOT LOVE…!!!’ (from the ‘Children of the Day’ Christmas Album)
“I’m glad to have been chosen to be here tonight,
Singing to these shepherds of their coming King,
But I know when they look at me, they only see an angel;
They can’t see the wonder of the mysteries I’ve seen today….
I thought I’d seen love in all God’s creation, in His mighty works,
But I saw true love today, perfect love….I saw my King,
The King above all High Kings, remove His crown for love,
Take off His robe, bring off His shoes,
And leave all His Kingdom to find His bride.
In all His heavenly wisdom He sees her beauty.
I look and see only the humility He must suffer.
The very day of His coming they will find no room for Him.
And as He sees ahead coming He sees His death,
In blackness removing Himself from all touch of Heaven
He will remove Himself from the reach of my help,
And, finally, even from His Father’s.
Even now He sees them passing by without a second glance.
And finally He sees their total rejection.
It’s not just tonight – they never will make room for Him.
He sees all this as He lays His crown at His Father’s feet.
But somewhere down there in their very midst He sees her,
And His hope for His bride makes everything worthwhile.
If that’s not love…!!!”
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if I were king…….
by Alex Simons
If I were King
I’d sit on a throne
And have lots of nice ladies
Who’d serve me high tea
With crumpets in winter
All hot from the fire.
I’d laze in an armchair
And chat to my friends
Who’d sit with their feet up
Smoking their pipes.
We’d go for long walks
With our great coats and hounds
Striding through long grass
Boots wet with dew.
I’d hold great state meetings
With very long tables,
We’d all speak quite cleverly
And go home for tea.
I’d attend church on Sunday
And pray for my government
Who’d earn jolly good wages
For running my Kingdom.
I would never be born in a cold,
darkened stable
With beasts all around me
And smells dark and strong.
I’d never be hungry, or lonely,
or weary,
Or sit with you talking long into
the night.
I wouldn’t be friends with the sea
or fishermen,
Nor talk of tides, of catches
and bait.
I’d not cry or be wounded by
friends or by enemies.
I would hate to be mocked,
abused or scorned.
I would just be a king
On a throne
In a Kingdom
I’d never be hurt or broken at all
Copy write: Celebration Services (International) Ltd., 1978
