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COMMUNICATING COMMANDMENTS
The Ten Commandments are back in fashion. J John has encountered considerable enthusiasm amongst non-Christians who have come along to his ten week long Mission explaining the Ten Commandments. Their fashionability has, initially, little to do with their contents - rather with the concept that commandments even exist!
New parents are understandably bewildered by the responsibilities of parenthood. They are a generation trapped between the post-war rejection of absolute standards and the Nineties insistence on high quality standards. Having grown up with, "You can believe anything", they are left with a dilemma because they don't know what to believe.
A few years ago, any serious suggestion was either considered to be a personal opinion to be ignored or an overt attempt to manipulate. Today anybody who speaks with any degree of authority is given a hearing. Advertisers, City analysts and holiday tour companies have not been slow to catch on. Nor do the cults find much difficulty in capitalising. The credulity of the 20-40's generation (who are the movers and shapers of our society) has led us to believe in the power of many "complementary products and therapies" without even questioning the credibility of the evidence on which they are based.
Our current culture, despite its technological sophistication, is all set to be taken for a ride by anybody who speaks with authority. Some of the most authoritative voices don't even exist! They are the actors who speak the scripts of unreal people in the television soap operas which effectively condition the societal judgement of normality, right and wrong.
So what is the Church doing? As Howard Mellor said recently, "...all across the country we have churches that are equipped, trained and ready ... for 1953. If it ever comes around again, we'll be waiting"! In 1953 England was not Christian nor did everybody want to do what was right - but at least they knew what was right according to God. The Billy Graham Crusade at Haringey the following year harvested thousands for the Kingdom because they knew they had "erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep".
Today, most people do not have a clue about what God thinks or why He thinks it. Having lived their lives without absolutes (except that nobody should get hurt - but everybody does seem to get hurt!) they don't think that there are any. However, when the evangelist speaks out the commandments of God, they make such stunning sense to the unbeliever, they can't imagine why they hadn't cottoned on before.
Today is a day to be quietly authoritative about what God says. You will be surprised how Billy Graham's formula, "the Bible says ..." will be far better received by those whom God is seeking than ever you could imagine.
Adequacy or Excellence
There is no reference in the Bible to God doing anything half-heartedly or merely adequately. The nature of our God is to provide abundantly, lavishly and He does all things well. Ephesians 3:20 says that God is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine". Jesus says that God's standard of giving is "good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over"!
In the same way the apostle Paul urges that "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Colossians 3.23). Philippians 4:8 states that excellence is a fine and praiseworthy attitude: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things." The pursuit of excellence is a Christian virtue.
If this is true, and it patently is true, then how is it that some Christians have developed the cult of adequacy? It was never known by the craftsmen who built the great cathedrals in England. Their workmanship on stone and wood was immaculately carved even if it was unlikely that the result on some surfaces was unlikely to be seen. Their understanding of the privilege of working on such a construction was that only the best would do for God.
This was Hezekiah's approach in building the temple - "In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered" (2 Chronicles 31:21).
What then is the derivation of the sloppy attitude that could not care, that is satisfied with 51% whereas hard work could produce 88%? Who stimulates contentment with the least work done and the result that will get by? What is the driving force behind the cult of adequacy rather than excellence - the attitude that declines to spend time, effort or money because 'nobody will notice'? Whatever the answer it is not God, nor is it the Spirit filled heart. At best it is born of the flesh and at worst it is the seduction of demons.
Even secular industry has realised that quality pays. Far from the built-in obsolescence of the motor industry in the 70s, they now vie with each other for corrosion resistance and reduced need for expensive servicing. Whey then does the church in this country often project an dejected image of tired complacency?
Those Christians who live the twilight of grey tones, wearied ambition, 'balance' that reeks of compromise, and sloppiness that betrays defeated zeal - have they stopped giving themselves to God with all of their heart and soul and mind and strength? What kind of advertisement are they to attract those who are seeking Christ?
Let us learn to excel in all things for the sake of our most excellent Master - and most of all to excel in our serving, our giving and in love.
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