Beautiful mettle

They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; - Psalm 107:26a

You are at the mercy of a storm on the water. You have nothing solid to hang on to. Your strength is worthless. There is nothing to do but to ride out the storm and hope your anchor holds.

Some people use concrete anchors. Concrete is heavy and cheap. This is called a dead weight anchor and it has two weaknesses; First, concrete loses 43% of it’s weight in seawater so as soon as it’s dropped into the water it has less holding power. The second problem is design. Concrete anchors are just big blocks of weight and if you apply enough force to them, they will slide. So the best plan if you’re going to use concrete anchors is to use lots of them, big and heavy and ugly with rough edges and maybe pieces of steel embedded through them… and hope that it’s enough when the storm hits and hope you never have to pull them out again.

Mechanical anchors are the opposite of dead weight anchors. They are comparatively light and made of steel. The beauty of mechanical anchors is that what they don’t have in bulk they more than make up for in design. First of all steel is much more dense than concrete so a 1000kg steel mechanical anchor in seawater is equal to a 1500kg concrete block but the real value is in it’s design. It has a shovel and this shovel is designed to dig and the harder you pull on it the harder it digs. Like a shovel on a plow or even a kite in the air it grabs mud, sand, gravel even rock and digs in and won’t let go it just goes deeper into the seafloor. Each anchor, depending on it’s design and the bottom composition has a different rating usually 5-20 times it’s weight in holding power. This means the 1000kg anchor is now equal to a 7.5 – 30 metric tonne dead weight anchor.

Our faith needs to be like the mechanical anchor, when the wind and waves come they'll test our mettle and our faith.

Few have had their faith tested more than Daniel's friends...

Daniel 3:15-28

Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.

So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?"

They replied, "Certainly, O king."

He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!"

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

Money, power and technology, the heavy things we sometimes trust are useless. Whatever happens don't lose faith. God is there, good, bad whatever happens, dig in and trust Him.

Smoke is to fire as sin is to...

I hate smoke.

Sure I like fire. I like it bright and hot but hold the wood smoke please. I like my gas fireplace. Pure, uncorrupted fire without the dirty smoke. Dangerous? How dangerous could flammable gas piped under our feet and into our homes be? What could go wrong? Anyhow it's way more convenient than wood cutting.

Of course in the summer, we turn down the gas, grab up the kids and head to the beach. Which usually leads to roasting hot dogs and s'mores. To do that you need a fire, and where there's a fire there's usually smoke. When they finally invent a gas beach fire I'll probably buy one.

"Hey kids who wants to help dad set up the fire?"

"Son don't wave that burning marshmallow NEAR THE PROPANE TAN..."

I don't want the smell of smoke on my clothes and wherever I sit the wind blows the smoke in my face. Not to mention, breathing the stuff will probably give you cancer.

Even though we're imperfect and full of smoke.
Jesus is full of gentleness and grace.
When He sees a tiny spark of fire in our lives
He doesn't put it out.

A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. - Isaiah 42:3

Deconstructing a life spent chasing the wind

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house.
I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.
I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man.
I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

Ecclesiastes is a strange book. Sometimes I have even wondered why it's in the Bible. And then my wife told me it's like Solomon's mid life crisis and then it all seemed to make a little more sense to me. Here's this guy who's basically got everything the world has to offer; success, slaves, possessions, money, women and fame. And then he comes to the realisation that it's all meaningless.

I recently watched Jean-Claude Van Damme's latest movie. "JCVD". Hold on, I know what you're thinking, don't roll your eyes, trust me it's not the usual muscles from Brussels fare.

It's Jean-Claude in real life. Gone is the invincible martial artist. He's aging, broke, very mortal and caught in the middle of a post office heist. It's actually quite odd to see him in this situation. Afraid for his life and unable to disarm the 50-something, overweight robbers.

At one point in the movie he breaks into this introspective soliloquy where he looks back on his life. A Belgian nobody who learned karate, got a break in Hollywood, became a star and had the world by the tail. Money, fame, wives, drugs, etcetera. Now he wonders what the point of it all was? Everything he's done, everything he is, everything he had is nothing. An elusive vapour.

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. - Ecclesiastes 2:17

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Distaff and spindle

Do you tire of hearing Proverbs 31 on Mother's Day?

Thankfully the congregation I attend was not subjected to that microscope today. I always found it strange to hear that impossibly perfect woman described on Mother's Day while all the men just have to "sit around at the gate".

I'm here to take a huge burden off mothers everywhere... I don't believe this passage is meant to put pressure on you, or at least it's not yours to bear alone.

I believe this scripture is about the bride of Christ. So to all you men smiling and nodding your heads, silently hoping all the women are listening, better listen up as well.

Without question, Christ has completed the most difficult part of the equation in our relationship. He is worthy to receive all honour and praise. He contracts His business at the gate and signed the cheques in His blood. Our lot is to attend to the work He has given us. Stretch out our hands and take hold of the distaff and spindle. The whole passage is an important challenge for the church and I'll highlight what I believe is the material point;

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. - Proverbs 31:30

Jesus doesn't want to marry some snake oil saleswoman or a Barbie beauty queen he wants a bride of true character; wise, diligent and strong.

Windstorm

“For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.” – Psalm 107:25

“Lord Jesus if there is anything in my life that I am placing before You I pray that you would bring it crumbing down just like You did to the false God Dagon.”

Some years ago I prayed this prayer and went to bed with no idea how quickly God would answer this prayer.

The next morning as I travelled to work in a crew boat to the salmon farm I worked at, I heard Adam, one of my crew members, calling us on radio. After a quick conversation over the radio we learned that, while it was calm where we were, my farm site was in the middle of a storm. One of our work boats was breaking free of her moorings and Adam needed to learn quickly how to start this vessel to keep her from being thrown up on the beach. None of us could understand how it could be rough at the site, while only twenty minutes away where we were it was calm.

Later, when the site came into view, I’ll never forget what I saw. The channel is about five kilometers across but everything was calm except for the area immediately surrounding my farm site. The water and air around the site was white. It was as if a storm like a small hurricane touched down and whipped up the waves into white froth. I’ve seen a lot of storms in my years on the water but I have never seen a storm set itself up like this in such a small area before.

I spent that morning with my crew securing our boats and equipment and afterwards assessing the damage. We saved the work boat thanks mostly to Adam’s quick thinking but the other damage was pretty extensive. A wooden float in behind the farm was broken and ripped in two. A feed shed broke loose when a shackle was stretched open and a metal bracket was torn from it’s side. During the storm it was heaved up onto a six foot diameter steel mooring buoy and the main beams were broken and half of the building collapsed. One inch metal stanchions that the work boat had been tied to were pulled out straight. I’ve never seen a storm concentrate itself like that and I’d never seen a storm in inside waters that destructive, I knew God had answered my prayer.

God had given me this job. He had allowed me to work my way up into management and I thanked Him by pouring my heart into my job. I was putting it ahead of my family and my relationship with God. I’ve never forgotten this lesson and I’m so thankful that He is a jealous God.

There is another lesson that I learned from this storm that I think is just as important. I look back on what was destroyed in that storm and it was all wood hay and stubble. The floats were old wooden floats that were aging and undersized. The house the staff lived in, the steel cages and nets that held our fish and our boats all safely rode out the storm. What God showed me was that as we go through storms, whether they are of the meteorological sort or not He will remove everything that is not profitable. He doesn’t promise that it will be a painless process. In fact it probably will hurt and more than that it may even test the hardness of our faith.

Gethsemane

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest; So shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man. - Proverbs 24:33-34

The night before Jesus was crucified He went into the garden of Gethsemane to pray.

"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak", He said to His disciples, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with me".

Do you ever wonder if you would've stayed up through the night and prayed with Him or would you have dozed off to sleep and your comfortable dreams. I've been awake all night before, under high stress and unable to rein in my myriad of anxieties. That happened to me once and I realised then how long a night actually is. I've also dozed off when I should've stayed awake that's the story I'm going to relate now.

Fifteen years ago my wife and I were backpacking across Europe and we had arrived in the town of Dieppe. It was "Bastille Day"

Bastille Day was not in our otherwise handy travel guide and it's the biggest holiday of the year in France. No banks open and every hostel and hotel full. We actually had a room in a hostel from the night before but they couldn't tell us if they had room for us until 5pm the next day.

We waited around until 5 to let them tell us they had no room. Perfect, so we now started on a pointless journey walking from hotel to hotel only to hear how every place was full.

At some point we came to the realisation that we would be sleeping outside that night. Only problem was, and I'm not sure why, but people in Dieppe don't like you crashing in random places in their town and we didn't want to spend the night outside the relative safety of the streetlights. We decided we would buy a dinner we could eat late on the beach, stay up as late as possible and then take turns sleeping on a bench at the train station.

Dinner was good, we hung out and wandered around town as long as possible and then we walked over to the train station and sat down under the pretense that we were waiting for a train.

The attendant would come over as each train arrived and ask us if this was our train and we'd shake our heads no.

I gallantly took the first turn sleeping.

My wife woke me up when it was her turn to sleep and I groggily came to. I started my watch with the best of intentions but I was so tired. My eyes were heavy, I was constantly rubber-necking and there was nothing to do. I guess I kept waking her up by doing the little things that probably seemed innocuous to a person who's awake but make it difficult for a person to sleep. Or worse, I would ask, "Is it my turn to sleep yet".

She finally woke up and let me sleep. I didn't argue.

Dr Phil says "history is the best predictor of future performance" so I guess if I was in the situation Jesus' disciples were in I'd probably sleep too. My wife thinks if Jesus' disciples were women they would've stayed up and prayed with Him. We'll never know but it's probably a strong hypothesis.

Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. - Mark 14:41

The face of love

What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention - Job 7:17

LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow. - Psalm 144:3-4

I started reading a book called "Crazy Love" it's about how amazing God's love for us is. The first chapter highlights the reality of how infinitely small we are even in terms of a physical universe. Some scientists say the universe is finite but unbounded . In other words there is an absolute limit to the amount of stars, planets and matter in existence but the universe is expanding into a unlimited space-time continuum. Expanding or not it's massive and we're small.

Click on this link and then videos and then "Awe factor" http://crazylovebook.com/ to see a video demonstrating just how small we are.

Let's assume for a moment that the universe is only as big as our telescopes can see, hundreds of millions of light years. Even if we assume it's limited to that size, we are so incredibly small in comparison. If we were to try to put that in relative terms on earth, we would be like a microvirus, on a bacteria, on a flea, on a dog, on a continent, on the earth. I can't imagine even the nicest, most sympathetic PETA card-carrying individual even caring for a flea let alone the microvirus. That would be crazy. And yet that's kind of similar to God caring for us.

I've seen Your face on stained glass, in coloured lights
In pictures of You looking to the sky
You've been portrayed a thousand different ways
But my heart can see You better than my eyes
'Cause it's love that paints the portrait of Your life
- The face of love