Chariots of fire

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

Yesterday I went to hire out some DVDs as I've discovered that if chosen with care films can be a good way to relax. I chose Mean Machine and I am David both of which had been recommended to me. The nice lady at the counter informed that I could pick another film for free which I duely did, Cinderella Man also recommended to me by someo ne.

I watched all three films, two last night and the other this morning, and whilst they all had meritous points, my overall feeling at the end of it all was one of sadness as these films are ultimately in no way glorifying to God. A much better film is Chariots of Fire, newly released on DVD and a good watch as it tells the story of Eric Liddell and Harry Abrahams. In particularly, Liddell has a great story as he renounced his chances to win a gold medal in the 100 metres at the 1924 Paris Olympics, as the heats were on a Sunday and he felt that his running was eating away at his christian life and this would have been a final straw. Instead, he ran in the 400 metres and unexpectedly took Gold. This shows how that if we Honour God, he also honours us.

Anyway, this is an encouragment for me at the moment as I'm starting to feel sad at not having what you would call a full time job. IFES team style work is good for a short time but is not really something for the long term. I'm not sure what I can do for the long term but I must trust in God's provision. Also, as Richard Wurmbrand said, it would be worth going back to the prison if even one soul would be saved as a result. It's important thus to remember that rather than getting caught up in our own difficulties that we should focus on the important work of spreading God's word so that there would be many more people living God honouring lives.

Hope

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:3-5

Sometimes in life it's hard to retain hope for the future. Everything seems like like it's a dead end going nowhere and there doesn't seem to be any visible, plausible way out or through. These then are some wonderful verses that are to be found in Paul's letter to the Romans which address just such a situation. The christian life is not one of ease and relaxation, but it is one full of joy, not just regarding the good things in life, but also the hard. This may at first seem like some kind of masachism, but in fact the motive is something else. We read in these verses that the reason that we suffer is to develope endurance i.e. that we keep going in faith in spite of everything around us. This then in turn developes character which is an important goal in the christian life. It says else where in Romans that God is mouding those He's called into Christ likeness, that is to say we as human beings are naturally corupt in our natures (clear to see when you listen to the news or look at your own life) and thus need to be straightened out as it were as that in our nature's we begin to reflect God's character, as indeed we were originally intended to.

Finally, character produces hope. This means that we have something positive to look forward to. We have reason to be optimistic and to move forward in life, expecting that even if the current times are lonely and hard, there is something better lying in wait be it in this world or the next.

A Sovereign God

'May the God of peace..... equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to Him'. Hebrews 13:20-21

Romanians have many traditions, some positive, some less so (for example I'm sure honking one's car horn very aggressively when the person in front of you obviously has nowhere to go is not really of any great value). That's to say nothing of other great traditions such as chopping up a pig at Christmas and quite literally eating all of it, or the anual new year's firework throwing celebrations. On the more positive side, a tradition of sending someone a text message on their birthday, not dissimilar to how we give cards in England, has gradually established it's self.

As it happens, yesterday was my birthday and amongst a number of pleasant and encouraging phone greetings was one containing the above Bible verse. This helped me very much. I'd been feeling quite down, as is usually the case after just returning from an evangelistic camp and also at the moment I don't seem to have much to do plus I'm constantly harranged by painful memories from the past. However, firstly this verse reminds me that God is a God of peace and as such any feelings of turmoil and discontentment in me are not from Him, but rather the devil and my sinful human nature.

Secondly, I'm reminded that the object of life is doing His will, not that I should be feeling tip top everyday. In order to acheive this we need to be equipped by God, as we don't naturally do good things. this process of equipping seems to be to be somewhat arduous as it involves having our characters completely reshaped from what they instinctively are, due to our fallen natures, into what they should be.

Finally, what's important is that God works in us what is pleasing to Him, not that he works in me that which I quite fancy or that which would make my life easier, but rather that which makes me more into the person I should be.

To my shame, I have much in me which is warped and twisted and doesn't delight in God. I very much lament this. Part of the problem is that there is a battle in me to accept that God is sovereign and in control of all things as opposed to the thought that I'm merely the victim of my circumstances. I need very much to learn to let God work in me what is pleasing to Him and to somehow understand and accept more readily my circumstances in life, in particular that which I need to tolerate and get on with and that which is warped by sin and needs to be rectified.

Micheal Chang

....we also rejoice in our sufferings... Romans 5;3.

At the moment the students with whom I work are all beavering away at exams, so that leaves me somewhat in the lurch, as to how to fill my time. I've been here before in my life, and sometimes I feel like I'm going around in circles encountering the same old problems time and again. I can at least praise God for small mercies such as tabletennis (which I played for at least two hours 5 evenings last week - the old forhand and backhand are becoming potent weapons, but my trademark tendency to play an exquist, but rather wild 'scoop shot' every now and again tends to be my undoing when faced with good quality players).

Also, I see how God works through many different means, often when we least expect it. For example, I wasn't feeling so good on Tuesday evening, but someone had given me a sports Bible to pass on. Being an American addition most of the testimonies were from baseball players and the like who I'd never heard of. However, I noticed on the back that there was also a testimony from Micheal Chang, who I most certainly have heard of. I flicked through the pages of Sammy x who plays for Pittsburg whatstherenames until finally I found Micheal. It was most interesting to read him talking about how he and his family 'prayed' as it were through his career, especially when after having great success he felt the worldly temptations rising. Most encouraging for me was the Bible passage at the end of the article. It was Romans 5;3-5, which is where talks about how we should rejoice in sufferings not because christians are some kind of masacists, but rather
as it says further on sufferings produce perserverance i.e. faithfully going on even if things are tough, this then builds character i.e. conforms us to God's image in terms of how we are in ourselves and our dealings with others and finally this produces hope, which I guess refers to the fact that Christians are not ultimately living for benfits in this world but rather the joy of God's perfect world to come.

Anyway, this is for me a good thought which helps to make sense of this world and give me vision for the future.

The things of this world

those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. 1 Cor. 7:31

Recently, I've been thinking about getting a laptop computer. At first it was an innocent idea, but as I started to look at what was available and talk to a few people who know abit about this subject, I realised that I was slowly becoming confused and immersed in a situation more complicated and encompssing that I'd really wanted. There are innumerable models of laptops available and not only that, but it seemed each person I talked to had a slightly different opinion about what was best. On top of all this, here in Romanian everybody says that it's best to buy outside of the country, i.e. get someone in England to buy the laptop and bring it here, but that then raises other issues, such as getting someone to do this and also about the custom proceed.

Before I knew it, I was suddenly finding myself completly obessesed thinking about all the ins and outs and trying to figure out what was right and best. I realise that this is a tatic the devil uses to try and draw us away from God, subtilely (Heb. 12:1) getting us involved in something which seems innocent enough at the start, but which gradually starts to take over our thinking and take God's place as the number one in our lives. This has happened to me more the once and I know that I need to be on my guard ( 1 pet 5:8).

Anyhow, I'd still like very much to get a laptop. Through these various shananigans I've become quite an expert and hopefully I get one soon without too much fuss as at the end of the day even a very basic one should do what I need and that's what counts.

Ceausescu

It was both interesting, sad and thought provoking to watch on saturday evening a film showing video footage taken during the Romanian revolution in December 1989. It was quite hard to follow exactly what was happening as everything was pretty chaotic and most people were shouting, but the general points came across.

The heart of the matter was that there had be some tensions in other parts of the country so Caeausescu organised a mass rally in Bucharest so that he could reestablish control. However, it backfired as dissidants in the crowd stired feeling up against him. At first, the army was ordered to use violence to quel this disturbance, however than the army chief ordered them to stop. (A disobedience to Ceausescu for which he was apparently shot). Without the army to stop them the crowd was able to force it's way into the communist party headquarters and ransack it. They nearly got Ceausescu and his wife, but there is video footage of them fleeing to a helicopter which whisked them away in the nick of time. This was only a very brief reprieve and three days later they were executed.

The story of Ceausescu is an example of what happens when Human beings live outside of the bounds which God intends for us. The communists were undoubtedly evil and greatly persecuted Christians (Richard Wurmbrand being a prime example). However, while the remanants of the communists slowly whither into nothing, God's church goes on. A fitting testament is that apparently the building where there is now a christian book shop, was a place where Richard Wurmbrand was tortured for being a christian. As it says in 1 Peter 1:24:

For, "All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands forever."

A particularly sobering thought that hadn't occurred to me before was the way in which Romania was reconstituted after Ceausescu fled. Basically, as we saw in the videos, some men (most of whom from the communist party) sat in a room discussing and talking on the telephone and then their decisions were relayed to a hugh crowd on the streets outside. In effect, Ceausescu took the can for communism, and the blokes leftover got away with carrying on by opening the country to a more liberal society. No wonder it has taken so long for things to change here, but last year the last of the communist remnants were ousted. Now, the challenge for the future is how to deal with another type of evil, materialism. This just goes to show that no matter what we do in this world we are constantly confronted with evil and can only overcome it in God's power.

p.s. one comic, but equally tragic moment, was the footage of a TV announcer shortly after all this chaos politely requests on a TV slot for people to stop firing guns in the streets, in particularly in the direction of the Television centre.

Priorities

I've been thinking alot recently about the future., what to do, in what circumstances and how. In the short term I'm very greatful for the place that God has given me here in Bucharest. I have here the community that I lacked before and have been therefor able to start to make friends and find work. This is, however, only short term work and I need to think about what and can and should be doing in the future.

To this end, I was browsing through a book (about courting, if you will) this morning and came acrossd a section on the three most important decisions in life. These were listed as (in order of priority), What is my stance with regard to religion?, what profession will I chose? and who should I marry? (I guess if anyone at all). For me, the answer to the first question is clear. Whilst at university, I felt strongly called to get involved in the christian union and through responding to that call I was able to discover the truth of Christian and decide that this was the right way and the way I wanted to follow in my life. The other two questions aren't yet resolved though for me.

Regarding profession, I need to spend time praying and seeking God's will. In theory there are many opportunities, but it's hard to find the correct thing. At the moment, I really don't know. I feel at least clear that I should spend the time from now until next summer working with the students here and indeed am very grateful for that opportunity. I guess after that I need to find some opportunity for appropriate training which would led to career opportunities. Some sort of teaching english moght be a possibility, but somehow I donm't feel like this is my life's calling. I'd rather find something more specifically christian. I heard amn Austrian guy speak at a church recently about Bible translation. There are aparently still 2,600 languages in which there is no adequate translation of the Bible. Maybe this is something into which I could channel my linguistic energies. It'd take a lot of preparation though and finding the right oppportunity.

As for marriage, well I don't feel like I have the gift of singleness, however my efforts to find someone in my life have been tragdically comic (incidently, I saw a very funny film, which featured a sequence in which a guy tries to date a girl who speaks a different language, very funny, but not a good idea). I've been maturing thought through this misdeameanours and do know some nice girls. I guess I just and have to wait and pray and if it's God's will, he'll provide me with someone at the right time.

The key then seems to be patienceand prayer!