The bible opens with a bold statement: “In the beginning God…” God is not introduced, explained or described, it is simply assumed that the audience to whom these words are written would know who this God is. It is usual when writing about a person that there would be some attempt to provide details of them, what do they look like, where do they live, where did they come from, who are they. None of this detail is provided. God is just announced.

There have been many attempts to describe God and to provide a form or shape to him that would make him recognizable but that has proved impossible. There are no symbols or pictures that can adequately describe him and our language, whichever it is, English, Mandarin, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Latin or any of the other estimated 7117 languages that exist in the world are unable to make him fully known. The bible is an unfolding revelation of God. Its pages contain history, poetry, songs, rules about living written into the law and letters to individuals and communities. There are visions which provide glimpses of the majesty and power of God, metaphors that describe his care and compassion and stories that describe his plans and purpose for the world he created and the people who inhabit it. But there is no picture or illustration of what this God looks like.

Other ancient civilizations had their gods and usually they were portrayed as figures or characters, later history also produced gods and goddesses to whom temples and idols were built. Our God did not need nor want these inanimate and inadequate representations of himself. He is the God who was, and who is and who always will be, he cannot be contained in our imagination or our intelligence. Our God is neither bound by time nor space he is infinite, indescribable, invisible. He existed when there was nothing else and it is he who called all created life into being. Sometimes the question is asked ‘who created God?’ as if he needs to be limited to our understanding of how things work, the answer is no one and nothing created God, he is eternal. The beginning of creation is not the beginning of God, without God nothing that we understand or experience would exist. It all starts with him and he already is.

This God who stands outside of our world and experience, who called in to being life with a command, a spoken word, the God who upholds the universe and all it contains has chosen to create human life, man and woman in his image and invites them to share his creation with him. The bible is the record of God’s creative act and the plan he has to share his heavenly home with those that love and worship him. It is also a record of how those same men and women that he created rejected and tried to displace him and yet he continued to extend opportunities to return to him and honour him as the one true God.

Our God is a compassionate God, who loves and cares for his children. The God who reaches down from heaven to extend his hand to draw people to himself. A God of love, but also a God of justice, a God of mercy and a God of righteousness. A God we cannot adequately describe nor understand, who is holy and cannot abide sin, but a God who in infinite love excuses our failure and offers forgiveness and peace. Our God is greater than our understanding, he is infinite while we are finite; we are located in time and space, he stands outside both of those dimensions. He is bigger than our imagination and yet knows each of us by name intimately and personally. This God invites us into a personal, intimate relationship with him. One in which he will reveal himself without idols and figures, temples or pictures but through his own son who came and lived among us as Jesus, the Christ and now lives within us as the Holy Spirit. This God will make himself known to us if we invite him to, then he will be not just this God, but our God.

I wrote this on New Years Eve 2016 – seems I still have a way to go!

Its that time of the year again, when the mind turns to making good resolutions for the year to come. Generally, I try to make one resolution, which is ‘don’t make resolutions’. Otherwise I think I am just setting myself up for failure. I always start well but the initial enthusiasm doesn’t sustain me and then I feel guilty that I haven’t followed through.

However, it is a good idea to reflect and think about those core values that I want to commit to and give evidence of in the next chapter of my life. You never know, that may result in changed behaviour, almost resolution by stealth!

In a letter to a bunch of Hebrew Christians a couple of thousand years ago, the writer gave a list of ten behaviours that seem to me to be a pretty good pattern to follow:
· Love each other vs1
· Show hospitality to strangers vs2
· Identify with prisoners, the persecuted and the ill treated vs3
· Be faithful in your marriage and make it work vs 4
· Let your character be free from the love of money, be content with what you have vs 5
· Remember those people that got you where you are and copy them vs 7
· Don’t get carried away by wacky ideas and strange teaching vs 9
· Keep doing good to others and share what you have with them vs 16
· Obey your leaders and submit to them vs 17
· Pray for those who established you vs 18

As I look at this list I find that in every case there is room for improvement and I can certainly address myself to them. Maybe a strategy or a SMART goal or two, or even a KPI might help to keep me on track (just joking).But the reality, for me at least, is that unless the Jesus Christ who is the same today as he was in the past and will be in the future is not the one who guides and motivates me then it is just another set of resolutions that probably won’t get past February.

Christmas day cannot be a holiday for everyone, but it can be Christmas! While many among us have to work or face circumstances that prevent a ‘holiday’, we can all share the wonder that God would give the greatest gift imaginable on the first Christmas day. The two words that perhaps best reflect what Christmas is are hope and joy. Hope in a future that is certain because the King, the real King, has come and joy that he walks with us as Immanuel, God is with us. May this Christmas day for you be one of joy and confident expectation that God is in control and that nothing can separate you from the love of God revealed in his son. Have a blessed Christmas!

Karibu Neno is a network of pastors, mainly from Kenya, who are connected through a daily BIble study in English and Swahili. This study is freely available through email or a WhatsApp group. If you are interested in knowing more you can respond to this post or contact rwfoster53@gmail.com

There are three things (at least) that all of us need, the first is to be significant, then it is to be safe and finally to be loved. Much of our life is spent trying to satisfy these needs, often in the wrong way! Starting from the end, we all want to belong, to know that someone cares for us, loves us and will accept us despite our faults. We want that love to be unconditional but often fear that it won’t be so that we behave in a particular way to achieve those things that will make people love us. We want to be safe, physically, emotionally and socially. It is important to know that we won’t be harmed especially by those we care about and that we hope care for us. We may feel physically unsafe because we are in a place of risk, or emotionally vulnerable because we are teased or bullied, put down or rejected and we will try to find ways to cope or avoid those situations.

The third of this trio of needs is to be significant, to have value or worth. To mean something to somebody, and hopefully more than just one person. To be missed when we are not there, to be important enough to be included. These three things are obviously inter-related and consume much of our energy and resources. We may think that we can find them in one person who will become our partner for life, or in  our vocation or hobby or social network, we may seek them in the church or some dream that we pursue. Deep down we may know that God offers all of them through a relationship with Jesus, but we may still feel unfulfilled.

The writer of Ecclesiastes struggled with these thoughts and concluded that whatever he did, it was pointless, a striving after the wind. He tried chasing wisdom but the smarter he got the less he understood, so he thought he would try just filling his life with what made him happy, but even though he said that there was no pleasure that he deprived himself of it was all meaningless. So, he thought he would try to live wisely and that was no good, so maybe he would become a workaholic but again that left him empty. He was wealthy, powerful and had everything he could ever want but it was all vanity. Other people saw him as being important and they wanted his friendship, but only for the advantage they could gain. He saw himself as insignificant, of no importance and toward the end of his book in chapter 12 he writes: ‘Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; … the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity’.

Many of things we turn to, or encourage our children to seek in which to find significance are like those of the writer of Ecclesiastes. Get a good job, buy a nice house, earn a lot of money, win a medal, drive a good car. Go to the gym and bulk up, or slim down. Change your hairstyle or your clothes, find the right person to marry, get a job title that makes you sound important, have the best garden in the street. None of those things are wrong in themselves but they will not give you the significance that you seek. At best they will go some way to fill the emptiness for a while, but only for a while.

You are significant, God created you for a purpose and loves you unconditionally. He calls you to trust him and cast your anxieties on his shoulders, because he cares for you. He has promised to never leave you, nor forsake you and to present you spotless when he comes again. He has trusted you with the Holy Spirit to live with and guide you and even when you don’t have the words, he prays for you. He promised that nothing would separate you from his love and in all of these things you are more than a conqueror. You are the child of the king, the inheritor of eternal life and you will reign with him. It doesn’t get more significant than that!

If you want to get your teenagers to turn their eyes heavenward, then when you are sharing a difference of opinion start your next sentence with ‘when I was your age…’ It usually works, and if you time it right you can almost get them to get their eyes to roll over completely in their head. It seems that no matter our age we can always hark back to a time when things were better, and of course when we were better as well.

It has got to the stage that when I try to regale younger persons with my sporting triumphs they don’t even bother to comment, just a fleeting glance that says ‘yeah, right’. The shambling figure before them seems completely at odds with the myth of the toned athlete I once was, at least in my mind. Like fishing stories, the more I seek to impress the more the exaggeration.

In my teaching, pastoring and parenting younger people I try to avoid ‘when I was your age’, and others of phrases of similar impact like, ‘back in my day…’ I am not always successful in that challenge and often have reason to give myself a mental smack on the back of the head. Having said that… in my day, life seemed a little simpler; there were only two generations: young and old, and there seemed to be a fairly clear line of division between them. We even wrote and sung about it. The Who came out with ‘My Generation’ and the Lovin Spoonful sang about a younger generation that challenged the dreams and hopes of their parents. And of course the Animals insisted that it was their life and they would do what they liked. Choices were simple, whatever our parents liked, we didn’t; whatever they were for, we were against. Now of course there are many ‘generations’. Ignoring what came before them, we have baby-boomers, Postmoderns, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, Millennials and who knows what else. Each has a set of defining characteristics that in some way separates them from those that came before, but that line is increasingly blurred.

In the work place we have seen a change from a prevailing ethic of loyalty to the company to that of loyalty to self. On the sporting field athletes are more likely to offer their services to the highest bidder than to commit to their team of origin. Commitment to a traditional practice of faith is being replaced by commitment to consumerism. In almost every sphere of life the rise of the individual is evident and the decline of community follows.

 I was recently asked to speak on the issue of ‘mateship’. In Australia it is often seen as the quintessential characteristic of what it means to be an Australian. A character that was forged in adversity and while championing equality rages against rank and privilege. The common greeting ‘G’day, mate’ is universally recognized as being unmistakably Australian. The word ‘mate’ of course predates Australian colonization and was understood in as many cultures then as it is now. Some have suggested that it entered the Australian vernacular through the use of ‘ship-mate’ on the vessels that brought convicts to these shores. The use of a term which refused to acknowledge any rank and to consider all as equal ‘mates’ on board the boat. But others have suggested that the phrase is almost always masculine and excludes more than it accepts.

The likely origin of the word is from the German ‘gemate’ which means to eat at the same table and which gave rise to ‘mess-mate’. A word with similar history is ‘companion’. The idea of companionship and dependence on others almost seems at odds with the sense of rugged individuality that some would say typifies Australians and yet this paradox remains. Geert Hofstede and others that followed him has identified a number of dimensions that define a country’s culture. According to his index Australia scores very high on the dimension of individualism. This suggests that persons are likely to form their own associations based on personal choice rather than belong to lifelong, cohesive groups. Yet on certain days of the year Australians will point to the notion of mateship that was birthed in historical events as being the highest of society’s values.

So on the one hand we want the right to make our own decisions about morality and individual preferences but we want to remain part of the group that demands we share similar ideals and virtues. We are happy to share a meal at the same table as long as we can all choose our own food and have it cooked the way we want. Perhaps the old days were simpler after all. There was a clear sense of, or at least the illusion of, right or wrong, a morality derived from our forebears and generally endorsed by the majority which held society together. Now we live in this poly-generational morass in which there are no clear definitions, were everyone is left to find their own sense of virtue.

A song that was significant in my turbulent journey through youth contained the lines ‘all we need is something to believe in, something to depend on, not to change’. It was not a Christian or even religious song and yet it helped lead me in the direction of something bigger than me that could makes sense of my life and give me a map to live by. I suspect there are many in this present generation, whichever one it is, who are similarly looking for that same sense of dependability and certainty. I found my way in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it hasn’t been without its pitfalls and obstacles, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

‘According to recognized aerotechnical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to the total wing area. The bumblebee does not know this, so he goes ahead and flies anyway’ (Igor Sikorsky builder of the first helicopter). If you have a dream, or a plan to do something different, or even something great, it won’t be long before someone tells you that you won’t succeed.

Mockers will come to fill you with doubts, some may even belittle your plan and you along with it. Some will be inspired by envy, their own sense of disappointment or even just because they are mean spirited. Those voices may even be from within you own head – you can’t do it, you failed last time you tried something different, no one will support you, you’re just not good enough.

History is littered with men and women who ignored those voices and followed their dreams. They discovered new lands, formed new companies and invented the things we take for granted today.  Some ran for office and succeeded after many failures, others became champion athletes despite previously not making the grade, musicians and artists became overnight successes after year of rejection.

These people had something in common. They believed in themselves, they ignored the doubters and they got in the game. In the 2002 Winter Olympics Stephen Bradbury, competing for Australia, made the finals of the 1000 metres short track speed skating event. He got there due to a series of race falls and disqualifications in the heats and had no real expectation of beating his faster opponents. However, he got in the race and he competed. As it turned out all of his opponents fell at the last turn and Bradbury claimed the Gold medal. After the race he said, “Obviously I wasn’t the fastest skater. I don’t think I’ll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I’ll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.” Nobody expected Bradbury to win, there were plenty of doubters and critics, but he got in the race, and the rest, as they say is history.

About 500 years BCE Nehemiah, an official in court of the Persian King received some news that upset him. He was exiled from his own country and while he was in a responsible position and lived comfortably his heart was still in his home. His brother and others had come to him and told him that the walls of his city were broken down and the people who remained there were in trouble and lived with shame so Nehemiah formed a plan to return home and rebuild the walls of his city, Jerusalem. After obtaining permission from the king he set about the task. Nehemiah was not a builder, while comfortable he was not wealthy nor a man of particular influence, but he had a dream. As he committed himself to the task he was mocked, conspired against, attacked, falsely accused, his own supporters doubted him and believed his opponents and his reputation was attacked. But he persisted and the walls were rebuilt. The story is told in the book of his name in the Bible.

Nehemiah could have listened to those who doubted him, that thought the task too big, after all it had been tried before and others had failed. Who did Nehemiah think he was any way? He had no authority or any particular skills, the challenge is too big, best to just walk away.

You may have a dream or just a vague idea forming in your mind, but all the problems come to the surface and the doubters and mockers are quick to pour cold water on your passion. You are too old, too young, too unqualified, you’re a nobody, you don’t have the resources, you’ve failed before. The idea is no good any way, no one will want it, or follow you. Remember the bumblebee. Trust your instincts, believe in yourself and fly. Remember, if you want to win the prize, you have to get in the game.

The statement that tomorrow never comes first appeared in English literature (as far as anyone knows) in the writing of Jean Froissart in 1523, since then it has been the theme of many books, songs and even films. The original thought was that you should never put off until tomorrow what can be done today, because when it is tomorrow it will in fact be today – there is no such day as tomorrow! The poet Carl Sandberg wrote: ‘Yesterday is done. Tomorrow never comes. Today is here. If you don’t know what to do, sit still and listen. You may hear something. Nobody knows.’ When Jesus said “Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.” (CEV) He had a different idea in mind.

The practice of living one day at a day is spoken of throughout the scripture. In the very beginning God spoke of his creative work being undertaken one day at a time and when he fed the people in the wilderness they were to go out each day to gather food. The oil that kept the lamps lit in the temple was to be collected each day, the only exception being on the Sabbath because that was a day on which no work could be done. When the labourers in Jesus parable worked in the Vinyard they expected to be paid at the end of each day (Matthew 20:1-16), and of course in the prayer he taught his disciple and recorded in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told them to ask for their daily bread. In a world almost obsessed with plans and schemes well into the future it is good to be reminded to focus on what needs to be done today.

Jesus is of course reinforcing his message that God will provide but that our focus should be on his kingdom and not be anxious or worry about what will happen in the future. Someone wrote: the average person’s worry and anxiety focuses on

• 40% of things that will never happen

• 30% of things about the past that can’t be changed

• 12% of things about criticism by others, mostly untrue

• 10% about health, which gets worse with stress

• 8% about real problems that will be faced

And another said: Leave tomorrow’s trouble to tomorrow’s strength; tomorrow’s work to tomorrow’s time; tomorrow’s trial to tomorrow’s grace and to tomorrow’s God.

The writer of the book of Lamentations found himself in a desperate situation, he had been thrown in the bottom of a cistern, was ridiculed and abused all for giving the people God’s warning to change their ways: He wrote: “I cannot find peace or remember happiness. I tell myself, “I am finished! I can’t count on the LORD to do anything for me.” Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable. That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed. Then I remember something that fills me with hope. The LORD’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. The LORD can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. Deep in my heart I say, “The LORD is all I need; I can depend on him!”” (Lamentations 3:17-24 CEV). Other translations record that God’s mercies are fresh every morning.

We don’t need to rely on yesterday’s blessings. Or borrow from tomorrows. God blesses us daily with his presence and provision, as the song says

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me     (Thomas O. Chisholm 1923)

Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt through the wilderness on the one way to the land that God had promised them. They wandered in the desert for forty years and just as they reached point where they would cross the river into this promised land, Moses died. Joshua was appointed to take Moses’ place Joshua and led the people across the river, ready to take possession of it. However the land wasn’t empty and they not only needed to possess this land, but to fight to retain it.

They needed to drive out their enemies. As Joshua camped near Jericho contemplating his plans and strategies he looked up and saw a man facing him with sword drawn. Joshua confronted him and asked whose side he was on and in response the man told him that he was the Captain of the Lord’s army. Hearing this Joshua fell on his face and asked, “What do you want me to do?” He was told to take of his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.

Why did this man appear to Joshua? Joshua was about to undertake a major challenge for God and he needed a vision that would be sufficient to prepare him for the task. He was about to embark on a military campaign – he needed to know that Lord’s army was with him. Like Joshua before we take on any mission for God or new initiative, we too need a vision of him that is sufficient for the task he sends us on.

In Isaiah 6, God revealed himself to Isaiah, In Ezekiel 1 and 8, to Ezekiel and in Revelation1 and 4 to the apostle John. In each case the vision each person received was appropriate to the task they were to perform. Like these and other men and women God has called us in to the land of promise, the Kingdom of Heaven. He has given us a commission – go into the world making disciples, enter the harvest, share the good news. But we cannot hope to accomplish this mission without a revelation of God. We can plan, strategise and theorise, we may even see some success. We can adopt spiritual disciplines, pray, read, give, fellowship and serve. We can pump ourselves up with self-motivation, the 7 keys to success the be-happy attitudes and the power of positive thinking. But without a vision of God, our successes won’t be sustained and we will find ourselves once again in the wilderness hopping from hilltop to hilltop scanning the horizon for some way forward.

The only way Joshua could face his enemies was for God to reveal himself to him. The only way Isaiah and Ezekiel could preach was to see God first, the only way John could prophecy was to have a vision of Jesus. Unfortunately for many of us our only experience of God is hearsay. We have heard of the revivals, God’s blessing and miracles. We may even have seen them – but they are always someone else’s. Job had this same experience. He was a righteous man and suffered because of his righteousness, yet his experience of God was based on hearsay – until God spoke out of the whirlwind (Job 38). After God revealed himself Job could say “Before I had heard about you but now I have seen you for myself” (Job 42:5). Is your knowledge of God based on hearsay, or have you seen him for yourself? Have you delighted in the testimony of others as you go from hilltop to hilltop or have you had your own revelation of him?

When Joshua saw the Captain of the Lord’s army he fell down at his feet and asked ‘what do you want me to do?’ When Isaiah saw God he confessed his sin, when Ezekiel received his vision he fell down and worshiped, John fell down as though dead. In each case their response was recognition of God’s holiness and their uncleanness. All they could do was worship.

As you seek God, expect him to reveal his holiness and your need. Expect to recognize your inadequacy, and then rejoice that Jesus has reconciled you to him and that you can approach this Holy God. The vision we need today is a vision of a Holy God who allows us to approach him though Jesus and then to show us that aspect of his character that will prepare us for the mission he calls us to. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal God to you – then respond to him in worship.