Hebrews 13:7 NLT

Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.

In times past I have expressed anger towards Christian leaders and influencers. I confused disagreement with denunciation and assumed a right to defame another, in part to massage my own self-esteem. This betrayed my narrow-minded, sectarian spirit for failing to give thanks for the wisdom and blessings I had received from Christian leaders. This failure is not mine alone. It is one reason why Church has experienced so many separations since the Reformation. Quoting scripture and my understanding of what the Bible means to confirm Church doctrine, at its worst, offers up spurious reasons to separate from the family of God.

I remember with fondness many of my teachers down the years. A good number were essential for my growth and development in Christ for a season. Some I now hold different perspectives to. Where once I wanted to debate and demolish some of what I was taught, I now want to stand and give thanks for the different perspectives that have shaped my journey.

Your approach to those whose leadership you have experienced in your Christian discipleship will ultimately harden or soften your heart. It may well be you feel mislead, but in the majority of cases this was not such leaders’ intention. A few may have been malign or even abusive but in most instances the majority of Christian leaders then and now are trying to do their best.

Looking back, it is more creative to treat their input over the years as contributing to where you are in God today. And where you are in confusion or sensing a measure of alienation from God’s love, as with everything in your walk with God, it will be the choice you make now that will determine how much further you journey towards God’s heart.

QUESTION: What Christian leaders have had a largely positive impact on your life?

PRAYER: Sovereign God, thank you for the blessings and help I have received from those leaders who have sacrificed their own comfort and time to help me grow.

Hebrews 13:6 NLT

So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”

At the core of our faith lies the credibility of Jesus Christ and our conviction in his reliability. We have moments of deep assurance punctuated by agonies of doubt, disbelief and despair. I’ve learned not to become intense during those seasons of faith when I lose sight of Christ. It is part of the ebb and flow of my confidence, at times in Christ and perhaps most often in myself.

For years I assumed discipleship was a process of perfecting the Christian persona I imagined was me, as my offering to please God. I’ve recognised this is a nonsense. Offerings ended with the cross. For God loved and accepted me completely when I knew least about God and was most full of myself. All counsel to perfection is fruitless. Perfection is spoken of by Jesus as an invitation to love God, our neighbour and ourselves (see Matthew 5:48; Matthew 22:37-39). Our life stories unfold and we learn the implications and challenges from choosing this discipleship road. That learning is what challenges our perspectives, tears down our assumptions and opens us to our continuous need for God.

As I write this I rest within the truth of these words. My stress level is low and my affection for God is high. However, when life turns again, as it will, in a direction I don’t desire, fear is awakened and what then do I draw upon? Initially it’s my normative stress reactions. But what then? Have I discovered how to pause, reflect and reframe my situation in the light of God’s continuing revelation? Having acknowledged the fear do I surrender its source, and the wild imaginings such fear awakens, or do I draw down on God’s role as “my helper”?

QUESTION: Have you found God to be your helper?

PRAYER: Jesus, I acknowledge my weakness and tendency to fear. Help me now to pause and then surrender my life to you my Lord and saviour. Please reframe my perspective on life with your lens.

Hebrews 13:4 NLT

'Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.'

The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre famously said, “Commitment is an act, not a word.” The same might be said of faithfulness, which itself is an expression of commitment.

The clearest picture of commitment is God’s faithfulness towards humanity. We struggle to conceive of God being able to love us, knowing as we do our own fickleness and fractured humanity. It’s why Jesus speaks of the need to love myself before I can love anyone else with any authenticity (see Matthew 22:39). And I can only love myself through discovering God’s love for me personally.

With marriages failing all around us, many Christians fight to maintain their commitment to the institution of marriage, fearful of the sense of failure and congregational disgrace were their marriage to be seen to disintegrate. As a result there have been, and are, many unhappy marriages. Their reality lies far distant from the love, nurture and respect that underpins meaningful relationships. I’ve been married twice. My first wife died and I remarried. I discovered marriage, while having a legal framework, is unique to each couple. Whatever I thought I knew after 30 years of what I feel was a happy and fulfilling marriage offered little basis upon which to build a new marriage.

With Jayne, my second wife, we had to find and then build the framework that would address the wounds, insecurities and loss of self-respect that divorce had deposited in her life. Jayne has the biggest and most generous heart I have ever met in another. Yet, I reacted to her insecurities, she to my assumptions and lack of sensitivity. Together we had to acknowledge these relational realities, choose to weather the storms that erupted and determine that we were motivated to build a committed marriage based upon mutual love, nurture and respect. Without commitment, all we have are promises and hopes that swiftly turn to ashes.

QUESTION: How has marriage, or not being married, affected you?

PRAYER: Thank you for your unconditional love for me. Help me to be faithful, loving and committed to those I am in relationship with.

Hebrews 13:3 NLT

'Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.'

I was recently in my church small group when someone shared a story about a man in his 70s who, after years of keen Christian service, had been found guilty of a crime and imprisoned. This caused some consternation. I said that if I had acted out some of the thoughts that had passed through my mind during my life, I too would have broken the law and had to face the consequences.

Soon after I watched a Channel 4 news report from Libya showing the horrific torture and humiliation of refugees affected by the EU’s policy of aiding Libyan authorities to intercept migrants and return them to detention in Libya. The UN’s human rights chief accused European countries of ignoring warnings over the deal. UN monitors said they found sexual violence, torture and killings were widespread in Libyan detention centres.

Prisoners come in many forms, some paying for crimes committed, others themselves the victims of crime. My reaction is a rising sense of helplessness, with a tinge of guilt that my taxes support policies that can prove inhumane, far removed from the love and kindness commanded by Jesus. My response is to pray. Some say that we are to become the answer to our own prayer. I’m uneasy now with that statement. For many years, I campaigned and worked for the marginalised. My actions were prolific. I prayed, but from duty more than conviction. It’s taken years for me to recognise that all the action in the world, while alleviating some suffering somewhere, will not make up for humanity’s deficit. Only Jesus achieves that.

Some will see this as a dereliction of my human responsibility to change the world; however, my conviction is in the truth of God’s word that prayer is the source of change. I am schooled in the benefits of direct action, yet direct access to the creator is now where I am learning to invest my efforts.

QUESTION: What evil in our world today provokes you to prayer?

PRAYER: Creator of the universe, may “your kingdom come [and], your will be done” (Matthew 6:10, NIV) in me and in your world today. Bless and protect those who work for peace and against evil.

Hebrews 13:1-2a NLT

'Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!'

As my mum was unwell recently, I got to spend a lot of time with my younger brother. He holds a special place in my heart. Over the period of my mum’s illness, he would often use the words, “love and kindness” and I came to realise that these were the foundation stones on which he both built and observed life.

The writer to the Hebrews demands that we “keep on loving each other”. However, the multiplication of denominations suggests a different story. Loving and showing kindness to those within our family, regardless of our rich diversity, is anticipated by Jesus as the base norm of church life (John 17:11). How is it I, and you, have failed at this threshold of Christian life and witness? Is it partly because we are consumed with a need to criticise or to promote our personal well-being at the expense of another? Thankfully, Jesus didn’t take this attitude ahead of leaving heaven on his redemptive journey, or in the garden of Gethsemane when he considered if there might be a different path through which salvation might be realised.

Jesus could see beyond the immediate to the Godseed deposited within the heart of every person. Christ recognised that evil existed, and where it expressed itself and damaged the lives of others it must be challenged. Yet, there still lay the Godseed within each evil perpetrator, waiting for a possible awakening. The thief crucified next to the saviour making his appeal for forgiveness to Jesus minutes before death demonstrates how late that Godseed may germinate.

We must never condone evil, either explicit such as an act of violence, or implicit, like the passive spectators of an evil perpetrated on another, yet equally we should acknowledge the Godseed and seek to partner with the Holy Spirit to awaken it within the fallen heart of every fellow human. Love and kindness can lay the foundations for a richer and far more rewarding way of life for all.

QUESTION: What signs of God at work do you see in the lives of those you know?

PRAYER: May the love of Christ and the fruit of the Holy Spirit grow in me today.

1 John 2:28 NLT

'And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.'

Fellowship means “a body of companions”, and a companion is “someone I break bread with”. Can there be a better word to describe our ongoing friendship with God and with each other? In the Last Supper, we remember that Christ’s life and death are for the redemption of humanity. This meal continues until Christ returns as he has promised to do. Then the meal concludes in a heavenly banquet in which we each participate.

Life consumes every waking moment. I, and many others, I assume, give little thought to Jesus’ return. Yet, scripture encourages us to be ready, for none of us want to be taken by surprise. We cannot determine when that return will be as some have foolishly sought to do.

I seek to live with a sense of anticipation in God’s return. This offers me a healthy perspective on the rest of my life. I sometimes feel as though I’m drowning in deadlines and daily demands, but I do not want that noise to dull my senses to the presence of God. I want my life characterised by an attentiveness to the “now” presence of God. Then, I trust, I will have a heart that is ready for Christ’s return.

How sad if we know all about God, yet are so unprepared for Jesus’ return that we shrink back in fear, uncertain of this person and this event. We want to run into Jesus’ embrace and rest in the fulfilment of our responsibility of living the God life as if it mattered.

QUESTION: Do you think about the return of Jesus?

PRAYER: Come again, Lord Jesus, and return to claim your own.