On to a Good Thing

Alcohol and the Spirit

“It melts away fears and worries, and puts in their place a sense of security, warmth and calm. This can be a life-changing experience.”

That’s what drunkenness offers, as pointed out by this Telegraph article which picks up on the actor Charlie Sheen’s struggle with the bottle.

And let’s be honest: that’s what drunkenness delivers for many people.

Of course, there’s a downside. Andrew Brown continues: “life for heavy boozers tends to be punctuated with agonizing catastrophes, messes that need to be cleared up, phone calls, pleas for forgiveness.”

But still, alcohol offers us a chance to be the "me that I want to be". It gets rid of inhibitions and gives the confidence to be "yourself".

I wonder if that’s why the traditional line churches (and particularly youth groups) give doesn’t work for people who struggle with drunkenness, as I did for years. I regularly heard: “Don’t get drunk. It’s not good. God doesn’t like it”. And yet the thing is: in many ways, drunkenness is good. And in many ways, I like it!

So this article got me thinking about how I need to remember, and I need to encourage others to remember, the sentence which follows Paul’s famous “no” to getting drunk in Ephesians 5 v 18:

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery…

“Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

Why is the answer to the temptation of drunkenness to look at the Spirit? Because the Spirit “melts away fears and worries, and puts in their place a sense of security, warmth, and calm.”

To put it another way, people filled with the Spirit, who work to let the Spirit work in them, “are being transformed into [Christ’s] likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from … the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3 v 18).

The Spirit offers us the ability to become the me that I want to be: a Christ-like me. And there’s no downside, no morning after, no hangover. There's no need to get drunk because for the Christian, there is something better than the good things alcohol offers. I wonder if that’s why Paul finishes Ephesians 5 v 18 as he does.

Money doesn’t buy happiness

ITV's Daybreak had a revealing piece this morning on Michael Carroll, who won over £9 million on the National Lottery in 2002, spent it all, and found he was miserable and suspicious.

You can watch the video here.

Amazing to find at the end that he still buys lottery tickets: I’m trying to come up with an answer as to what’s going on in his mind that leads him to chase an idol he’s discovered is worthless.

Maybe Tim Keller’s insight in Counterfeit Gods sheds some light. He's talking about a famous US millionaire and writes: “[he] knew money was an idol in his heart, but he didn’t know how to root it out. It can’t be removed, only replaced. It must be supplanted by the one who, though rich, became poor, so that we might truly be rich.

Reform Statement on the registration of civil partnerships in churches

What is a home group for?

Been working on a seminar I'm running for home group leaders at CRE Peterborough next week, and keep coming back to a fundamental question: What exactly is a home group for?

When you ask a random selection of small group leaders, you get a huge range of responses:

• Reading and studying the Bible together
• Praying together
• Mutual support and encouragement
• Friendship/fellowship
• Food!
• Worship

But when you quiz people to find out how they actually spend their time in the small group, you often discover that many groups are given over to what we might call the human needs of the group, rather than on listening to God's word together. They eat, they talk, they laugh (a lot!), they share needs, they enjoy each other's company, they feel supported, loved, affirmed, prayed for.

I think I want to say (as gently as I'm able) that this surely has to be the tail wagging the dog.

In Acts 2 v 42, we read a familiar description of what the first Christian community did when they met together:

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (ESV)

They did a whole lot of stuff—but the first thing they did was devote themselves to the apostles' teaching. All the other stuff they did sprang out of this fundamental activity—they listened to the authoritative word of God, delivered to them through His chosen representatives.

And this is a pattern that persisted: In Colossians 3 v 16 we read:

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

The first Christians did many things when they met together, but the thing that was at the heart of each of them was that the word of Christ was there, giving shape to their songs, their prayers, even the way they told each other off!

People come to home groups for many reasons. They may be lonely and need company; they may be hungry and need feeding; they may be discouraged or struggling in their lives, and need support.

But what I think my main point at this seminar will be is: if you are the leader of a home group, you need to have firmly fixed in your mind that the way you will meet their real needs is to let the word of Christ from the Bible take centre stage in your time together.

Bacon sandwiches help with the physical hunger, but the hunger in our hearts will only be fed by allowing the words of Jesus, and the Bible's witness to Jesus, to be the menu for the evening.

Judging by not judging

Great quote in Tim Keller's new book, King's Cross, on the judgmentalism of not judging:

"The self-discovery person says 'The progressive, open-minded people are in and the judgmental bigots are out—and of course we're the open-minded ones.'

"In Western cosmopolitan culture there's an enormous amount of self-righteousness about self-righteousness. We progressive urbanites are so much better than people who think they're better than other people. We disdain those religious, moralistic types who look down on others…

"[This attitude] leads to as much superiority and self-righteousness as religion does."

What to do when you can’t sleep

It’s so frustrating, isn’t it?

You wake in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. Instead you toss and turn for hours. Or you can’t get to sleep in the first place. You just lie there worrying that you’ll be exhausted in the morning.

A long-term illness means I spend many night-time hours wide awake, my mind racing and my body aching. It’s infuriating!

Those small hours of the morning focus the mind—but the focus is you. Introspection reigns.

DON'T WASTE THE TIME

So what do you do if you’re awake when you don’t want to be? Naturally, I find my mind focuses on me. My worries, my busy-ness, my need to sleep! But that just makes things worse.

For me, the answer is to pray. Now that sounds dreadfully “holy” – but it grew from a pragmatic start. I needed to find a way to keep those night-time hours under control.

So now I ask my friends to tell me things I can pray for them. Nothing complicated—I don’t want to turn on a light to read a list. Short, simple requests that I can remember easily, and bring to mind when I’m awake.

All I do is think of a friend or colleague, and start to pray for them.

It’s a very simple idea (I’m ashamed it took me so long to think of it) but it’s made a huge difference. My focus is moved away from myself and towards others. I’m reminded that God, who also doesn’t sleep(!), is with me and hearing my prayers.

TIME WELL SPENT

And instead of those waking hours feeling like a waste of time, they become time well spent. That in turn reduces the frustration, which is sometimes enough to lull me back to sleep.

It’s a very simple idea, but for me it works. Next time you’re awake when you don’t want to be—why not try it?

And, if you’ve found times that can be well-spent praying for others instead of thinking about yourself—please put them in a comment below, so I can learn from them!

Complete the salvation sentence

Lurpak, the spreadable people, have just released this billboard ad. There's a huge one on Waterloo station that thousands walk past each day.

We've blanked out the ending, and my question is: if you could complete the sentence, and have thousands read it daily, what bubble of false hope would you like to burst?

I'd love to make first prize being able to use a large tub of paint to change the wording on the Waterloo station ad, but that'd probably get me into trouble…

PS You can find where Lurpak say salvation can't be found here and if you understand what they're talking about, please do let us know because we're slightly confused!