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Tag: #authenticjoy

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Dear Church Family

This moment in time in America is God-ordained. Not only is the ‘coming to a head’ of race relations God-ordained, but also the fact that it happened when the world is at home and paying attention is God-ordained. The fact that blacks and whites have taken to the streets regardless of the very real danger presented by Covid-19 tells us that for many this issue is so important that it is literally worth dying for…

I sit here in the island of Trinidad where brown people are the majority. While I share not only ancestry with African Americans but also a history stained by slavery, I cannot pretend to fully understand what it means to live in America. Yet… I feel the pain of my blood brothers. I cannot ignore it and I refuse to be silent about it.

I am a Christian. That means something to me. It means that I see myself especially connected to my brothers and sisters in Christ of all races. So, in the flesh I am connected with African Americans through our shared heritage and experience, AND at the same time, in the Spirit, I am one family with my sisters and brothers of faith in America. This means that I have loved ones on both sides of this divide. In the body, in the church, there is hate… there is division and worst of all there is silence… and it hurts. It is not only the pain that one part of the body feels when the other is wounded but also the add-insult-to-injury-pain that comes when one part of the body dismisses and devalues the pain of the other.

So, I have a few things to get off my chest today.

To my white church family:

DO NOT TURN AWAY. STOP AND LISTEN. As I said, this time is God-ordained. Today, there is an opportunity presented to you. Do not miss it. The parable of the good Samaritan was Jesus’ response to a question. The question was, “Who is my neighbour?” It was asked by a Jewish lawyer who wanted to argue himself out of the requirement to love your neighbour as yourself. I see the same attitude in my white church family today.

The history of the church and race relations in America is riddled with an attempt to define black people as some ‘thing’ other than our neighbour. First, they were sub-human. Then they were 3/5 human. Now they are criminals. That is one argument I hear in the church to deflect the commandment to love: “George Floyd was high.” “George Floyd was less than an upstanding citizen.” The other argument is that our outcry is rooted in a demonic or non-Christ agenda. “Have you seen the BLM agenda?” they say. So, we are either criminals or demonic. Neither worthy of compassion it seems.

Jesus gave no such qualifications to the definition of neighbour. In fact, the focus of the parable was not the worthiness of the wounded man to receive help (that was taken as fact). The focus was on who was ACTING like a neighbour to the wounded man. We too have to choose whether to keep walking like the priest and the Levite, or to stop and tend to the wounds of our black brothers and sisters like the Samaritan. Choose. Silence is not an option that Jesus gave. The church has been silent far too long. The reason Jesus scripted the Samaritan as the ‘hero’ in this parable was an indictment to the religious leaders. It was an indictment to the ones who should have taken care of their brother but didn’t. Let’s be different.

Listen, I get it. I have visited the USA on more than 10 occasions, and I have never felt victimized. Policemen have been helpful, and for the most part I have felt safe. For many years my personal experience caused me to be ambivalent to the cries of my black brothers and sisters. Over the years, I have had to have several conversations with my family and friends who either live in the USA or studied there, to truly understand their experience. It changed me. This is not about statistics. There is no answer in statistics. Talk to people on the other side. Listen to them. This is about listening to a family member that is suffering. Uncle John may be a wonderful man to me but if my daughter said that he was abusing her you better believe that I would take her seriously (even if the statistics said that most uncles do not abuse their nieces). My experience does not give me the right to ignore and invalidate someone else’s experience. And the love of Jesus compels me to stop and tend to the wounds of my family; to show compassion.

To my black church family:

DO NOT LOSE FOCUS. STAY THE COURSE. I know you are hurting. I know you are tired. I want to remind you that we (and I say we because of the trans-Atlantic slave journey that we share) are the people who believed in the Jesus that our slave masters told us about despite the fact that they did not act like Jesus. In fact, we believed it more than them and still do! https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/07/5-facts-about-the-religious-lives-of-african-americans/

Our faith has been integral to our survival. We have only made it this far because of Jesus. Do not forget that! Speak out. Protest if you feel led too. Take action where you are led to. Engage the issues vigorously. But do not for a second think that your victory will be by your power, not His. I repeat, this is a God-ordained moment. What I mean by that is this: God has brought this issue into world view and by so doing issued a demand on the church to change. God did that. In typical God style He did it through a plague and an oppressor who refused to take his knee off the neck of his victim.

We only come out of this better as a church if we refuse to hate. If we refuse to shame. If we remain committed to relationship with our white brothers and sisters, many of whom have good intentions. Celebrate those who are willing to take a stand, and there are many (this too is from God.) There are many making safe space for black church members to be vulnerable about their experience and we in turn have to make it safe for white church members to be vulnerable about their perceptions. This cannot be done without the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need Him now more than ever! But I know we can do it… because we have done it… Listen to the prayer of a slave woman in 1816 quoted in the book ‘Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans’.

“Oh Lord, bless my master. When he calls upon Thee to damn his soul, do not hear him. Do not hear him but hear me. Save him. Make him know he is wicked and he will pray to Thee. I am afraid, O Lord. I have wished him bad wishes in my heart. Keep me from wishing him bad though he whips me and beats me sore. Tell me of my own sins instead and make me pray more to Thee. Make me more glad for what Thou has done for me a poor slave.”

Only God can so work in the heart of a human to truly live Jesus’ call to bless our enemies. I believe that few have lived this to the degree that African Americans and women have, and that is more precious than freedom. If African Americans were to gain equality and lose this love in our hearts we would have lost all. I say this not to manipulate into submission but to exhort you as a brother in flesh and Spirit to treasure and guard the love of God that lives so richly in your heart.

Finally, to all my church family. Let us come together to heal and be the Body of Christ like we never have before.

Here are three videos that demonstrate those safe spaces that I spoke about:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1P6AXjXnXc
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL83Wqlmffc
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYku4vlwnTQ

Be blessed,

Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Dissonance

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.
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Connection vs. Separation

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:

  1. Contamination – the other person/church with the ‘bad’ belief system or lifestyle will cause us or our flock to go astray.
  2. 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.
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The Real Pandemic

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.
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A Love That Fights

A couple of weeks ago I spent an afternoon at the beach bodyboarding with my eldest son. I have not gone bodyboarding since maybe I was in my twenties and it’s been a while since he and I have done something like that together, without the rest of the family. We had so much fun racing down the waves together. Just the two of us, carefree sea-buddies. I will remember that day forever.

Afterward, I dropped him home. We parted with our usual little goodbye ritual and I started the journey home. It was night by this time and as I cruised along the highway with my thoughts for company a strange feeling came over me that started with a sudden epiphany.

“He’s eighteen now! He’s an adult!”

In my mind I saw the little one-and-a-half-year-old baby the last day that I held him before the events that led to his mom and I getting divorced. I had done it. I had stayed alongside him all the way to adulthood and now here we were; father and son and more than that – buddies. I had stayed true to the commitment I made to that little baby boy to be the best father I could be to him even though I lived in a different house.

Tears ran down my face as the streetlights blurred past. But I could not understand why I was crying… Some emotion filled my soul, but I had no idea what its name was. Was it, relief? No. Was it some sort of pride at my paternal accomplishment? No, it wasn’t that either. Even as I was overcome with emotion, I struggled to understand what I was feeling.

Memories flashed through my head. It had not been easy to be the type of father I wanted to be to my son. Many times, I had to fight tooth and nail to be a part of his life while trying not to fracture the tenuous relationship with his mother which would defeat the very purpose of my effort. In truth it has been a constant battle-dance. Without God I would have failed miserably.

When I left the marriage, I became untrustworthy and when I left her church, I became a bad influence. Those two demon-labels were hell to wrestle against while I was trying to be a significant part of my son’s life. But I fought. Sometimes I lost. I did not get much say in the schools he attended. But I fought. I was not allowed to be there for his baptism. But I fought.

It was in his early teens when he had an assessment with a psychologist, and she unearthed that he had a fear of me leaving him. I was heartbroken. How could he not know that I would never leave him?? I had fought so hard to be there for him in every way I knew how. I learned that day just how insidious the enemy is and how fragile the human heart is. The enemy magnifies every event, thought and conversation that would perpetuate his nasty lies and destabilize our lives with fear. Well I was not going to let the enemy win! At the earliest opportunity I let my baby boy know in no uncertain terms that I would NEVER leave him no matter what. I know it made a difference in his heart. My only regret is not knowing sooner that I needed to say it.

As I write this, it is only now that I understand what I was feeling; what I can feel even now. It’s the feeling that you have after years of hard battle when you look back at the sacrifices, the wounds, the scars and you can say that it was worth it. The prize of the fight was worth the years of hardship on the battlefield. The love I share with my son was worth it all. This was what it was all for. There may still be many a skirmish to come and I won’t be backing down, but I can see the victory.

God spoke to me that night. He said, “I feel the same way about you. I will never leave you nor forsake you all the days of your life. My love is steadfast.” My Father knew that I also needed to hear it.

It was as if the fierce love that I felt for my son suddenly flew up out of my chest, multiplied a hundred-fold in the air and returned to encompass me – the warm embrace of my Heavenly Father. My tears also multiplied, as I understood in a new way that perfect love casts out all fear.

To receive more content like this in your inbox and to receive a free e-copy of my book, The Primacy of The Voice of God – Elevating the Word of God to Its Rightful Position, please subscribe to www.authenticjoy.org.

Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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What I Love About Covid-19

You are probably thinking that I’m an unsympathetic bastard to have such a headline. I did not mean to offend, but I did hope to catch your attention and to highlight a silver lining that you might not have seen before.

People have been dealing with this global outbreak in a variety of ways. Many have succumbed to fear and panic as their souls are being constantly inundated by hundreds of negative messages raging through their media feeds. The result? Paranoia, panic buying, anxiety and stress. Many have been countering this fear narrative by using statistics that compare Covid-19 with other diseases or by highlighting recovery rates. I remain uncommitted to both viewpoints. I don’t think panicking and fearmongering are useful, but I do think that the situation is a very serious one.

I’ve decided to adopt an attitude of cautious optimism. Actually, that’s not entirely true because apocalyptic events do get me a tad excited (hides face). Hear me out… I don’t mean excited in a doomsday prepper kinda way (ok maybe just a little bit) and I’m definitely not one of those judgment day/ end times/ Christ is coming soon kinda Christians. What I mean is that I believe there is an opportunity in every crisis to redefine yourself, to redefine what it means personally for you to be human. There is nothing like a crisis to show you who you really are and what you really value. Let me explain. I love how a crisis will even the playing field. Money can’t buy you an option to opt out of Corona. Your particular race won’t stop it. It isn’t fazed by your degree, pedigree, luxury car or over-priced fur coat. Disaster has the wonderfully scary effect of bursting the bubble of security that we may live in based on our wealth, social status, intelligence etc. In the face of calamity, we have the opportunity to see clearly, if even for an instant, the frailty and vulnerability of the human life. Many squander this opportunity. Don’t you miss it!

Why does this excite me? Because a sense of your own vulnerability often leads to a renewed value for life in general and other human lives in particular. And that is something the world desperately needs more of! It gives me great joy to see when people (solely or in corporations) respond to crises with heightened awareness, thankfulness, generosity, compassion, empathy and love. No posts have gotten me more excited than the ones where people in quarantine describe their renewed appreciation for green spaces, time with loved ones, sharing with community and time with God. Oh sing my soul, in the midst of Corona, how great Thou art!

For all of us, but perhaps more so for the believer, Covid-19 holds yet another test: What have we built our life on? You see, while crises like wildfires, floods, earthquakes and the Covid-19 pandemic reveal our human frailty they simultaneously reveal a dramatic contrast to eternal constancy of God. This verse illustrates:

Matthew 7:24-27

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

What is your life built on? This is not an issue of merely saying ‘My trust is in God.’ There is a vast divide between confession of the lips and faith of the heart. At times like these the true state of our heart is revealed. Are we caught in the turmoil of fear? What are we afraid of? Losing our job? Losing our home? Losing our loved ones? Losing our life? That fear reveals something about what we really believe. Will we remain standing at the end of this pandemic if everything we held dear was lost? Essentially, the question, the test of the storm is this: Are we standing on Christ? Is He our ultimate treasure and security?

This may be a test but it’s not the final exam and that is why every disaster that touches us is, in a sense, an act of God’s mercy; it is an opportunity to weigh our life in the scales and make changes now. It’s an opportunity to listen to what God has been saying to us personally and put it into practice… now. An opportunity to build your life (house) by His instructions. That’s why I said at the beginning that every crisis carries with it an opportunity – an opportunity to redefine what it means personally for us to be human.

So, as we walk forward in these uncertain times can you pray a bold prayer with me? “Lord, shake whatever can be shaken so that only that which cannot be shaken will remain.”

Copyright 2020, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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Is It Too Late For Me?

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.

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Wild & Free

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.