My novel Authentic Joy is now available on Amazon for $0.99 USD on Kindle or $0.00 Kindle Unlimited. Click here to read it now.
Authentic Joy is about dissonance. Dissonance in music theory occurs when there is a clash between two notes or tones. As a Christian, for many years I experienced an internal dissonance. There was the person that I wanted to be and then there was the person I actually was on the inside where nobody could see. I believe many believers have experienced this internal incongruity at one time or another. In a sense, there will always be a gap between what we espouse as Christians and where we are on the journey toward that Christlike ideal. That is normal. What I am talking about is something deeper. It is a deep sense that our internal reality does not accord with who we believe we are supposed to be right now.
I grew up in Trinidad, the home of carnival and bacchanal (drunken revelry and licentiousness). This was the culture that shaped my youth. Added to that, I was naturally a free-spirited person. I was a pleasure-seeker. As far as I knew, the aim of life was to experience and enjoy everything that it had to offer to the fullest.
Then, at the age of twenty, I made the decision to give my life to Jesus and started attending church regularly. I’m sure you can see the impending clash. I changed my external lifestyle rather suddenly but inside I was experiencing increasing levels of torment. Nobody else in my church seemed to be having this issue so I kept up the appearance of ‘normalcy’ for a few years until one day I cracked, and all hell broke loose. I unceremoniously exited my fake Christian life, followed my hedonistic tendencies full throttle and wrecked my life spectacularly.
Authentic Joy, is an autobiographical novel that chronicles twenty years of my life from discord to internal harmony. (Spoiler alert) God found me amidst the wreckage of my life. He pulled me out. I made a few discoveries along the way. I discovered that external behaviour modification is a dead end. I discovered that all men are flawed. I discovered that nothing less than a real encounter with Jesus can change those internal parts of our personality that are as familiar as our skin. I discovered that there is no greater joy than the fellowship of Jesus Christ. I discovered authentic joy in Christ.
To read more about my story get Authentic Joy now on Amazon for $0.99 USD on Kindle or $0.00 Kindle Unlimited. I promise you won’t be able to put it down 🙂.
Joyfully,
Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
The issue of connection versus separation continues to resonate with me so much that I decided to continue the topic this week. I have repeatedly had to be coached by the Spirit to build bridges that nurture relationship with friends, co-workers and neighbours rather than say things that destroy the relationship simply because I felt I had a just cause.
We will always have points of disagreement with others. That is just a fact of life. Even (especially?) in the church. Different denominations will have different doctrines. Different churches within the same denomination will have variations in interpretation or practice. Even members within the same congregation can have very distinct beliefs.
How does our Father and the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, want us to address this reality? Especially when it comes to disagreement on issues of morality or our faith?
I believe the first thing that God wants is humility. We don’t get to decide who is worthy of our love or our relationship. God does. We also do not get to decide who is part of the Body of Christ and we are not the foremost authority on church doctrine. We have to be able to genuinely admit that we may ourselves believe some things that are not accurate. This should be easier for any Christian who has been walking with Christ for some time. Any Christian with a decade or more of growth under his belt I am sure can look back and say, “Boy did I have a wrong view of that particular issue or of life in general.”
The second step is a determination to choose love over fear. Most people choose separation rather than connection because we are afraid of one or both of two things:
Contamination – the other person/church with the ‘bad’ belief system or lifestyle will cause us or our flock to go astray.
Defamation – if other people see us with this ‘bad’ person or at that ‘bad’ church, they will think we believe or condone what they do.
Both paradigms are based on fear and fear is from the enemy. Perfect love casts out all fear. Jesus modelled God’s love when dealing with people with different beliefs or sinful lifestyles. He ate with sinners and talked with Samaritans. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation and peace-making not division.
I am confident that God wants us to connect with others in humility and love because that is what He did. God could have stayed in heaven, separate from our filth, but He didn’t. Instead he chose to become vulnerable, connecting with us in physical form, in our filth. He came and viewed the world from our viewpoint even though we were sinners and heretics.
As sons of God we must choose love. When I see the amount of content posted online by Christians dedicated to discrediting and pulling down other Christians it makes me smad (sad and mad at the same time 😉). It’s perfectly normal to disagree with others. It’s healthy to have dialogue directly with that person to exchange viewpoints. But to cut off relationship with that person is a step that should not be taken lightly (I don’t mean that you have to become friends or partners. Just relate.) And, it is a whole next level to defame/slander that person to others.
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Let us please change this paradigm of separation. Let us mature in our ability to disagree with others while simultaneously remaining committed to relationship and love. You cannot influence anything that you are not connected to. Believers are described by Jesus as the salt of the world. Do you think that we can live this identity by staying separate, keeping our salt nice and clean in our holy saltshakers?
We also cannot influence anything if we are not willing to be ourselves influenced. We must embrace vulnerability because connecting with people who we disagree with means that we must be open to the possibility that we could actually learn something from them that makes us see a different view of life and adjusts our understanding of reality. I believe this is exactly what God intended. The complexity of God cannot be contained in just one person’s viewpoint. And therefore, we will never mature and come to the fullness of Christ unless we are equipped by that which each part of the body supplies. And this is what I believe is ultimately at stake – the maturity of the church. Let us choose to mature. Let us choose to connect.
Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
The spread of the Covid-19 virus has been described as a pandemic because of the extent of the spread of the disease. Currently, it has affected every major continent and many countries around the world. However, there is a more deadly and pervasive pandemic threatening the church – idolatry. We have been worshiping a god fashioned by our own hands. A god that is primarily concerned with keeping us rich and happy. A god that keeps us from suffering once we are good, obedient children.
Ironically, what is most insidious about the idolatry pandemic is the same factor that makes Covid-19 particularly dangerous – their victims can appear asymptomatic. Hence, the number of ‘believers’ living in idolatry is much greater than we think. We look healthy, but we are not. The good news is that crises like the current Covid-19 pandemic may be exactly what we need to bring to light our true condition and allow us to take the necessary steps to a healthy faith.
What do I mean? To explain, let’s turn to one of the oldest books in the bible – Job. The bible, especially the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, contains many instances of plagues that decimate the population of Israel. Typically, these have been sent by God in response to disobedience and rebellion. However, Job is the only book that documents in detail an instance of tragedy poured out on an upright and blameless man.
Job faces the death of his children, loss of his wealth and serious illness, all at the same time. So, it’s not surprising that bubbling up from his heart we near this cry, “I am a righteous man before God so this should not have happened to me!” This same cry is being heard in many quarters today as Corona touches the lives of Christians around the globe. The faith of many are being shaken as more and more bad things are happening to good people. Why is God allowing this? Why did God allow Corona in the first place?
Job’s friends reacted in the same way many Christians are tempted to react today. They call for repentance as this virus must have been sent by God because of something bad that we did. In contrast, there is a popular sentiment right now that God does not judge like this anymore and to ascribe this pandemic to God would be a grave mistake. Frankly, I stay away from any statements that claim to know exactly what God would and wouldn’t do, and the reason for that is because of what I have learned from Job.
As a younger man studying Job and Romans 9 one of the questions I had to wrestle with was, ‘Does God send bad things our way?”. I came down firmly on the side of YES. Some argue the semantics of God doing evil versus allowing evil. I won’t. I think we can agree due to the overwhelming evidence that He at least allows it. The second question I had to wrestle with was, “Does He allow evil as a consequence of free will? Has He given up sovereign control over the affairs of men and thus, our bad choices are the real cause of evil being prevalent on the earth?” After pouring over the evidence in Job and Romans I had to concede that this was not the case. God is still sovereign, and He sovereignly allows evil in our lives. This is clear from the story of Job. Job was righteous not by his standards but by God’s standards; he did nothing to warrant the tribulations that was meted out against him. In addition, satan was clearly operating under the authority of God. Romans 9:14-18 also makes the compelling argument:
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
The ground-breaking truth here is that God was in control of Pharoah and in fact raised him up for the specific purpose of persecuting Israel so that God could show His might and power as he brought out the Israelites, Wow. If you have never considered this, you may need a moment here to take it all in.
So, there I was having to hold in tension that God is good, yet He allows bad things to befall good people. This was a watershed moment in my faith. I had to let go of the god I wanted and embrace the God who is. I had to destroy my idol. I had to relinquish my definition of what good is and let the One who is good be the standard. This was strangely empowering. The strength of my faith increased exponentially. I could genuinely meet trials knowing that God was in control and would make it all work for good in the end because he was in ultimate control. Further, I had to conclude that bad things, even death, served a higher good that I could not see or comprehend. I had to see things from God’s vantage to accept that suffering and even death were smaller matters than they appeared to me. They were not outside of God’s scope and ability. In fact, they were part and parcel of the tools of creation that He used to craft a bigger, better picture and bring glory to His name!
Essentially, I learned what Job learned without having to go through the Job experience. For some, who refuse to learn from Job it may take tragedy to wake them up and this is the good news in the Covid-19 pandemic. I know it doesn’t sound good, but it is exceedingly so! The revelation that Job received out of tragic circumstances was, I believe, the treasure that God thought was worth more than all that Job had lost. To be able to stand in the face of horrific tragedy and trust that God has a purpose in that; to elevate His purpose and love as truer and bigger than your pain; is priceless! It is the mountain of faith from which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were emboldened to say, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”If you think about it, a Christian afraid of dying and meeting Jesus is an absurdity and a Christ-follower who expects to follow Christ in everything except suffering is an oxymoron.
Who is the God that you believe in? Job found out that He was different than who he thought He was:
Job 38:1-7
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment.
15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
Job 42:1-6
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said:
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Are you serving the true God or an idol of your own design? Have your eyes seen Him?
Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
I often ask myself, “Have I missed it? Did God’s ultimate purpose for my life pass me by while I was distracted with earthly pleasures or ‘normal life’?” I’m going to be 47 this year and you know… I have a good job and a great marriage and awesome kids but…. But have I really hit on a life spent in the glorification of Jesus? I don’t think so. It’s not that I’ve done nothing… I’ve written books, I’ve been involved in ministry, but such score-carding is so pathetic compared to that knowing deep down in my soul. It’s hard to describe. It’s like a smouldering fire in my gut that yearns to be turned loose. Like I’ve tasted a little bit of God, like a faint scent that comes and goes, but my heart longs to be completely subsumed in His Presence.
Sometimes,
especially when the weight of sin overwhelms me, I feel like giving up. I feel
like throwing in the towel on the fight for a life that Paul described this way
in Galatians 2:20 (ESV) “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Selah.
But… every time
I consider giving up, God whispers in my ear, “The best is yet to come.”
Recently, two people have given me great hope. The first is Francis Chan. I love this guy. I watched this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmKqD2FlFds) yesterday and I was filled with such a renewed desire for more. At 52 years old Francis, is packing up his family (including married children with their spouses) and heading to Burma to spread the good news. He talks about the decision to go and how it was birthed as he was preaching the gospel on a trip to Burma and he was so happy, so fulfilled, so thrilled as people believed and made the decision to serve this God that he knew, that he was like, “This is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing! What better thing could we do with our lives? This is why I’m alive!” So, he says to his wife, “What if we move?” and she says, “Let’s do it.” Wow. He also talks about experiencing miraculous healing first-hand on a massive scale for the first time! As he speaks, I’m tearing up and my heart is doing somersaults because he finally saw what he read in the bible come to pass in his life. Oh God, me too! If you did it for Francis you can do it for me!
Then He talks about the fear and the fight to follow his convictions… how he is discussing the move with his wife about how nice church people can talk us out of our convictions and somehow convince us to play it safe… things like, it’s our Christian duty to keep our kids safe and give them a good Christian education.. I felt the tension… I feel it in my soul every day. But if Francis, at 52, can break past the fear of losing his life, maybe it’s not too late for me?
The second reason for great hope is Jesus. It hit me earlier this year: The Son of God took 30 years to prepare for ministry… The Son of God! 30 years! Think about it. I get so discouraged when I see this preacher who started preaching at 18 and that one who started a ministry at 22 and, and, and…. I’m like what am I doing with my life?!?! Then God said, “Consider Jesus.” The fact that between Jesus’ birth and His entrance into ministry there is little recorded in the bible and nothing recorded in secular history until His rabble-rousing days means this: He did nothing remarkable during that time! The Son of God lived a life so ordinary that there was nothing of note worth mentioning. Now this may sound bad but that gives me hope! If Jesus took 30 years to mature and prepare before healing a single person, making a single public sermon or working a single miracle then who am I to complain about how long it’s taking me? (Secretly, I’m comforting myself with the thought that preparation time is correlated to greatness of impact… but don’t tell anybody.)
If you are like me and struggling with the smallness of your life compared to the great examples we have in scripture (Peter, Paul, Stephen et al) and even in church history (Smith Wigglesworth, John G. lake, William Seymour and the like)… don’t despair. If you are wondering if it’s too late for you… don’t give up on your dreams. It’s not too late! It’s never too late!
Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Oh to live wild and free! There is
a desire deep in my spirit to live wild and free before God. When religious
people hear that phrase they think that it means living with carnal desires
unchecked; a life abandoned to pleasure-seeking. But that is far far beneath what
I mean. I mean truly free. I mean to soar so far above the noisy world as to
render it mute. I mean to exist where the sin issue is so irrelevant that one
does not have to live with the constant hesitancy and censure indicative of the
fear of impure motives. I mean to exist in a place of such oneness with Christ
that the fire of one’s soul blazes unfettered and the life of Christ is
unleashed from one’s life like gushing rivers of living water! Oh to live wild
and free!
I imagine what living wild and free
looks like…
Proverbs 30:18-19 ESV
Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not
understand:
the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a virgin.
It looks like something doing exactly what it was created to do! I can imagine that eagle soaring on the wind… It is not thinking in the least about glorifying God or serving God or trying to be righteous or trying to be anything! It is completely present to the moment! Its wings adjust to the wind without a thought. Feathers ruffling in the wind. Eyes scanning far below. It is majestic without a thought about majesty. It is beautiful without pursuing beauty. God spoke it into being and therefore it manifests that creative word in every moment. It was born to fly!
I believe this is what Christ died
for. John 8:35-36 says:
Jesus
answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a
slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains
forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Christ came so that we could be
free…forever. Forever unfettered from sin and free to be united with Christ in
eternal life! You can choose emancipation today and leave the slave-house of
sin. In contrast, if you take up the offer of freedom in Christ, you become a
son not a slave… and a son is always a son… free forever. Some say that since
the fall of Adam, man’s natural inclination is toward sin. I am not sure that
what happened in the Garden of Eden is that simple but I am sure that Christ
came to birth in us a natural inclination toward righteous. We were not born again to merely have victory
over our sinful desires but to completely conquer the very desire to sin! We
are born again with the spiritual DNA of our Heavenly Father. That means righteousness
is in our genes! This I believe, is the truth that the enemy does not want
us to know. He wants us to live a life of constant strife. That is not freedom.
We were made for more! Still don’t believe me? Listen to the prelude to John
8:36 as Christ teaches in the temple:
John 8:28-30
So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the
Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own
authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with
me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to
him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
Jesus says some interesting things
here. He says that He does nothing of His own authority and that He always
does the things that are pleasing to His Father. Then He goes on:
John 8:31-32
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If
you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
First of all, Jesus says that
everything He does flows from His Father’s will and therefore He always pleases
Him. Secondly, He tells the Jews that if they continually obey His word, they
will know Him (the truth) and He will set them free. I believe the connection
between those two thoughts is inescapable. They would be free to do what? Free
to please the Father, always, just like Jesus!
Oh to be wild and free! Oh that my
every thought, word and deed would be pleasing to Thee oh God! My Father, I
have your genes. Let me manifest my true identity as Your son! Holy Spirit
guide me into the abiding oneness with Christ; into complete and eternal
freedom!
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Well 2020 is off to an awesome start! I was nominated by Rest & Chaos for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Please check out Rest & Chaos for a healthy dose of inspiration. And I’m not just saying that because they nominated me. The Rest & Chaos blog is truly refreshing, genuine and insightful. You won’t be disappointed!
The Sunshine
Blogger award is given by bloggers to bloggers who inspire positivity and creativity
in the blogging community. The rules are:
Thank blogger(s) who nominated you
for a blog post and link back to their blog.
Answer the 11 questions the blogger
asked you.
Nominate up to 11 new blogs to
receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
List the rules and display the
Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.
So, here are the answers to the questions that Rest & Chaos asked me:
1, If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? And why?
This may sound cliché but I really want to have lunch face to face with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I imagine that it would be the most wonderful, inspiring, loving and edifying meal I would ever have! I imagine the tangible love that would flow between them! I imagine the playful banter and the mysteries of the universe explained! I imagine I would understand more fully what it means to be a member of the family of God! I believe it would change me forever.
2. If you had an hour to yourself what would you do?
I would take a nap, catch up with the wifey, spend time with God, write, read a book, or watch Netflix… it really depends on my mood.
3. What made you decide to start writing?
I was just coming out of a dark season in my life but a season where I had found Jesus in a whole new and much more tangible way and I had this burning desire to share my story. So, I decided to write a book. Then I felt that I should complement the book with a blog and thus Authentic Joy the blog and the book were both born. The book was actually published about nine months after I started the blog.
4. Who has inspired you the most in your life?
This is without a doubt Jesus. He inspired me for most of my life in a far-off kinda way. He was the God-Man from the bible who walked this earth with such gloriously absolute perfection. In the scriptures I beheld Him as authoritative and gentle, just and merciful, always working yet at perfect rest, sitting with the sinners and then shining like the sun at the right hand of the Father. On those pages I saw love personified. But in more recent years He has inspired me up close and personal! I have encountered His love and His glory. I have wept as he has touched my brokenness with His love and mercy. He causes my heart to burn and exult with every word He whispers in my ear and every touch of His Spirit deep in my heart. I have met love personified.
5. What is the one character trait you want to be remembered for?
Authenticity. For me, this is not just a nice character trait that I want to have, this is my calling. I was created to be authentic like a bird was created to fly. Sometimes I feel pressured to be less than that… to be politically correct or diplomatic or superficial… And I don’t wear it well. I am most inspired, fulfilled and at peace when I am truthful to who I am. Many times, that means being vulnerable about my failures, weaknesses and sins. Sometimes it means saying the unpopular thing or swimming against the prevailing current and dealing with the consequences. But it is for me a small price to pay for living wild and free before God.
6. What is your fondest memory of your childhood?
I think my fondest memories are of the days when my dad, my mom, my sister and I would spend the day at the beach. My parents would be up before sunrise cooking lunch and packing the car. Then we would be bundled in the back seat for the hour and a half drive into the sunrise; to Manzanilla (a beach on the East coast of Trinidad). As the cold morning air blew through the windows, we would slowly wake up to the brightening sky and the anticipation of a day frolicking in the sea and sleeping under coconut trees. We would take walks along the miles of beach, dig for chip-chip (miniature clam-like shellfish) and try to catch the fish that always seemed just out of reach. We would jump waves and swim underwater until our fingers crinkled. But I think what really makes these memories the fondest for me is that on those days my parents were always happy and carefree and even playful.
7. What is your greatest strength?
I think my greatest strength is my weaknesses. To be very honest, I think if I did not have such huge weaknesses (and reaped the fruit of them) then I would be much too full of myself for God to reach me. Thank God for my weaknesses!
8. What is your greatest weakness?
If I had to pick one, I would say my lack of self-control. I can be described as a ‘free spirit’. I want to experience everything, and I don’t want to be controlled by anyone. This sort of recklessness is an asset in my ‘no holds barred’ pursuit of Christ but a liability when it comes to resisting sin. Especially, when one comes from a country like mine that celebrates revelry, sexuality and licentiousness. ‘Free up yuhself!’ is a stereotypical Trini credo.
9. If there is one thing you could change about your life what would it be? And why?
This is a tough one. There have been many negative choices and experiences in my life but I’m not sure I would change anything because each one contributed to the person I am today and where I stand in Christ. So, I will give a lighter answer – my voice. I’ve always wanted the baritone singing voice of Barry White. In reality let’s just say that my wife jokes that her voice is deeper than mine 😑.
10. If someone gave you a million dollars what would be the first thing you would do with the money?
Invest it! Immediately! And take time to really think about what would be the best way to leverage God’s purpose with it (while it collects interest of course 😊)
11. Do you have goals for 2020?
Yes!
I am a big planner. My wife and I did a review of 2019 and set our goals for 2020
a couple weeks ago. We do this every year and we have found it to be very
effective. We have four categories – physical, spiritual, vocational and
relationships.
Unfortunately,
I do not subscribe to 11 blogs. I try to have a minimum number of things coming
into my feeds and email. I only subscribe to things that really contribute to my
growth. So, here are my 2 nominees:
We love formulas. Give us five
prayers that unleash the power of heaven or three steps to walking in victory and
we are all over it like a hog in mud! We approach the bible with this same mindset.
We read about Daniel and all of a sudden we have a new formula called the
Daniel fast! We read about the worshippers who circled Jericho and we have another
formula: leading spiritual warfare with praise! However, as I study the
scriptures I’m becoming more and more convinced that the only formula is that
there is no formula! I mean, if we made a list of all the different strategies
the people of Israel employed to win their battles, it would be quite a long
and diverse list. No two strategies seemed the same. It seems that God
emphasized not a formula-based faith but a God-dependent faith. The formula is to
hear from God all the time, every time.
This was brought home to me in a
fresh way as I studied Matthew chapter 2 yesterday. It is a really interesting
chapter in that it contains the fulfillment of three Messianic prophesies. It
starts with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Israel. Then Joseph has a dream by
which the Lord warns that Herod will seek to kill the child and directs Joseph
to take his family to Egypt. Finally, after Herod dies, Joseph takes his family
back to Israel (but to the town of Nazareth this time), again prompted by
divine direction. The author of Matthew is careful to point out that there is a
prophecy about the Messiah coming from each of these three cities; Bethlehem,
Egypt and Nazareth.
So I tried to put myself in Joseph’s
shoes but with a 21st century mindset… I know, quite a mind-twister
lol. Ok so here I am, I got the Saviour of Israel in my care… (no pressure). I’m
also a Jew so I know the scriptures pretty well (like by heart) and I know that
there are three prophesies about where this child comes from. So what’s the
formula for successfully raising God’s promised Messiah? Which city should the
child be born in? Do I plan a visit to each city? When? In what order? To
figure it out, I naturally pull out my Strong’s Concordance and study all the Hebrew
words in the prophecies and Google all the articles and YouTube videos on Messianic
prophecies. (By the way, this exercise kinda reminded me of the eschatological
gurus who keep getting the end of the world wrong… hmm.. whatever happened to
all the blood moon fanfare last year?… anyhoo, I digress…)
The thing is, that was not how
Joseph approached life…not at all. He simply did what God told him when God told
him. An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and told him to go to Egypt, so
he went. Another angel appeared in another dream and sent him back to Israel
when Herod died and he went to Nazareth. Simple. No formula. Just a simple
faith that totally trusted God to direct his path.
As I begin to think about my 2020
goals, I’m thinking in 2020 I want to get back to a simple yet powerful faith.
I want to grow in obedience to the Holy Spirit, step by step, day by day… there
are no formulas, only a life fully surrendered to Christ and completely led and
empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Many years ago,
I remember listening to a popular psychologist speaking on a radio programme and
she was saying that she never got into a relationship because she had a
daughter and she did not like the idea of having a step-parent in her daughter’s
life. I also remember thinking at that time that it sounded good, but something
wasn’t sitting right in my spirit.
Now, with a
lot more of life under my belt, I look back and I know what it was that
disturbed me. It was a lack of faith. A lack of a bigger view of Christ and His
ability to redeem the human condition. I understand her fears. There are many
horror stories involving stepparents but Christ is bigger.
It has been 6
months since my wife and I exchanged vows joining our lives and our families as
one, and these 6 months have not been without its challenges. (There were some
days I just felt completely overwhelmed.) As soon as we got back from the
honeymoon things got real pretty quick. Putting children with completely
different backgrounds, experiences and family cultures under one roof is not
something I would recommend for the faint of heart. There are issues of different
parenting styles, feelings of jealousy toward this new person taking my mother’s/father’s
time, issues of annoying new siblings and so on and so on…
Many times,
it is easy to see the negatives and what isn’t working but I am determined to
see the opportunity for Christ to be glorified in the midst of the chaos. The
scriptures say (Mat 5:43-48 ESV):
43
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is
in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who
love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47
And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do
not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This passage reveals a kingdom secret – Christ is glorified not by how we love the lovable when things are ideal but by how we love the unlovable in the midst of difficult circumstances. The opportunity in my family is for us to demonstrate love in the midst of a situation that is not simple or ideal. And it’s for this reason that I’m undaunted by the challenges of my blended family. In fact, I’m excited and I get more and more so every time I see a glimmer of that redemptive love of Christ at work.
Christ does not write off people. There is not a situation or person so badly wrecked that Christ cannot transform it or him/her into something beautiful and life-giving. We must never forget that. We must hold onto that standard and never let go.
Again, I
reminisce… many years ago, as a newbie in Christ, my pastor proclaimed from the
pulpit that the men in the church were so messed up that they were beyond help
and he had to start from scratch with a new generation. I cringed, but even so,
I still did not fully grasp the magnitude of ignorance of Christ revealed in
that statement. I pray I never lose sight of who Christ is to such a degree. I
pray all who read this would receive a fresh impartation of faith to believe God
for the resurrection of dead situations, dead relationships and rotten people.
Lazarus was rotting but he wasn’t too far gone for Jesus to turn death into
life!
Some Christians may see a blended family as an icon of failure; a second-rate Frankenstein assembled from the broken pieces of ‘real families’ but I see it as a place where the resurrection life of Christ can shine brightly. I see it as a place where second chances are redeemed by the blood of Christ. Second chances to exemplify the true love of husband and wife (Christ and the church) that children may have never seen before. Second chances for children to witness the centrality of Christ in the home as love is manifested in the down-n-dirty of long-suffering, patience, self-control, kindness, gentleness and compassion.
I see the first little green buds of that resurrection life in my family. I see it when the children all invade our bedroom just to sit on our bed while we pretend to protest about the invasion. I see it when the older ones show concern about the younger ones when they are sick or feeling down. I see it when my wife treats my children like they are her own (sometimes better!). Yes, there are big challenges, but Christ is bigger!
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
I love surfing. Riding a gigantic pulse of oceanic energy is a singular experience. It manages to somehow be both thrilling and calming at the same time. There is a peace in the zone where you become part of the wave; part of something so much bigger than you. I am pretty sure God created surfing. 😉
But surfing for
me, has also become a perfect analogy for how to journey well with Christ. I have
been prompted to share this with my friends on two occasions in the past couple
days so I thought I would share it with my e-family as well.
To ride a wave you have to put out effort to catch it but after that the wave provides all of the energy for your movement. To catch the wave, you have to paddle fast enough to be in sync with it as it is breaking. It requires positioning, timing and keen observation. You have to observe where the wave is breaking and which way it is breaking and how fast it is breaking and adjust your position and paddling speed to merge your path with that of the waves’.
The Holy Spirit moves in our lives not unlike the waves in the ocean. The Sprit is ‘breaking’ at some point in our lives, meaning that She is working on something, at some particular point where our flesh needs to yield to Her Spirit. The part we play is to get in sync with where the Spirit is at work in our lives. It requires effort, but the effort is mainly to recognize where that point is and get ourselves aligned with it.
There are two
ways in which we can be out of sync.
We can be sitting in the ocean just bobbing as waves pass us by, hoping that we will be supernaturally swept along without doing anything. This is carnal living. No awareness of, response to or alignment with the Spirit. Disengaged, lazy Christianity.
We can be expending great amounts of energy paddling and paddling out of step with the wave, all in our own effort. This is religious activity; works of the flesh. A lot of action but not by the power of the Spirit.
The entirety
of my Christian walk can be summarized in me trying to get this balance right.
Too little effort versus too much effort. The right kind of effort (relational
effort to be in sync with Him) versus the wrong kind of effort (religious
effort to achieve spiritual advancement). I’ve been on both ends of the
spectrum. I’ve also tasted catching the wave and what a joy that is! That place
of being smack plumb in His will. That place of rest in His arms in the midst
of activity. That place of being at peace with your imperfections, not trying
to be anything for anybody yet convicted daily to grieve when He is grieved and
changing day by day because we feel His grief so deeply at the core of our
soul. That place where our whole motive is to stay on the wave; to stay in sync
with Him because the disconnection from Him is like death. It is death.
So, stay in
sync with the Spirit my friends!
Surf’s up! 🤙
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
