Richard Dawson, 21 October 2014

Sunday for most Kiwis means something other than church in the morning and empty space in the afternoon. For most Kiwis it means a day when I don’t have to work so I can do something enjoyable or at least important like having a BBQ or going
surfing or even doing the garden. But for we who desire to have a relationship with God we persist in coming at least semi-regularly to church and frankly sometimes it’s not easy. We’d rather be doing something else if we’re honest. So why persist against a cultural tide which is reaching storm proportions? Wouldn’t it be easier and, in some ways, more honest just to join the rest, and bag church? Can’t we still believe in God and not be so tied to a congregation? Well, frankly, no… You see as soon as we start down this line of thinking we are saying something about belief which is not true for our faith. We are saying that belief is largely a personal thing which belongs to me and me only and which does not owe anyone else anything. It’s a personal possession. This is, however, to forget that belief isn’t the result of a simple personal choice. Rather it is the fruit of an interaction with the God of the universe. Belief is the evidence of God at work, not the ticket we produce to get into heaven. You believe because already the Holy Spirit has been at work in your heart helping you to know God and to know that God is totally committed to you and God has shown this through the Cross by which everything that once stood between God and You was removed. That love comes before belief and it’s what leads us to God… to believe!

Richard Dawson, 1 October 2014

On Thursday of this week Helen, Ivan and I will head to Auckland to the biannual meeting of the PCANZ called the General Assembly. This meeting consists of a 50/50 split of elders and Ministers from churches all around the country. About 500 people meet for a 5 day long festival of resourcing, refreshing and debate. Debate used to be the main thing but the meeting is now swinging towards celebration and seminars designed to resource elders and encourage all who would come. In fact, you don’t even have to be an elder to go to the seminars. One of our members who is an elder, is going to the resourcing part of the meeting and we will get him to report when he returns. We three are largely going for the debate side of it and so that I can take up the role of Moderator Designate which will happen early on the Wednesday morning 8th October.
The main thing I want to pass on to you about Assembly is that it needs our prayer. We do not generally discern the will of God via debate though God can and does work through ‘much council’ as the Good Word says (Proverbs 24:6). But as a part of the Church the Assembly is simply a spiritual body trying to bless the community of Christ and this can never happen without concerted prayer. Pray then, that we might find Christ’s counsel in every decision; that his Name would be raised up in worship and praise every day; that people would meet in love and that our new Moderator Andrew Norton would know the Spirit’s infilling and wisdom for every moment and every decision throughout. Thanks so much!

Richard Dawson, 23 September 2014

I hope all of you who could, did vote on Saturday. We live in a country where democracy allows people to make some sort of choice about who governs them and therefore what those people think. If we don’t like what they think we don’t have to vote for them. I sense, however, a deep malaise in New Zealand around politics. Many feel that politicians don’t listen and don’t do what is best for the country. Politicians are labelled as heartless, calculating, self-promoting, lying, megalomaniacs. This is not true. Many have hearts… just joking!! Frankly I believe a politicians life is not easy. Charged with fulfilling the dreams of most voters politicians must, at the same time as managing the country responsibly also deliver everybody’s dream of what New Zealand should be like. So they have to balance the job of helping the country perform to its best economically whilst protecting the environment; delivering health, education, police and transport solutions for all comers and doing a myriad of other things all of which have built-in conflicts with other portfolios. Put this together with their 3 yearly accountability cycle (the elections) and you get a difficult job. Yes there may be some perks but the pay rates are not great and the sacrifices their families make to have them all in Wellington for long periods of time are considerable. And, frankly, how often do we pray for our government and for our leaders? Once a year? Once every three years? By all means, vote for who you think will do the best job but don’t just vote and forget. Remember these people are human. They need us to think well of them.

Richard Dawson, 16 September 2014

The experience of being filled with the Spirit continues to be viewed with some suspicion by many Christians today and not, perhaps, without reason. The Reformed tradition has tended to view experience per se, as a necessary evil and something which shouldn't constitute a major part of the faith journey. After all, isn’t so much of what we experience subjective and so untrustworthy? It is then, so it is said, the drill and not the thrill that counts! If we think this we couldn’t be more wrong. The perceived disjunction between experience and truth so often trumpeted in theology and philosophy is just wrong if it means that one can have one without the other. There is no truth without experience because our very being is an ‘experiencing being.’ No one can separate their own knowledge of the world from their experience of it even if, at times, their interpretation of that experience is faulty. Knowing is experiencing. Perhaps the most poignant and clear expression of this in the Gospels comes in John 14 after Jesus has announced that He will leave the disciples. At this Philip decides that to be sure of what Jesus has said he will need to see the Father… “Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” What does Jesus point to as their source of knowledge of God? That He has been with them… in other words, experience. God has made us to experience Him.

Richard Dawson, 9 September 2014

If you’re worried about not having had the ‘right’ experience in regard to the Holy Spirit… don’t be! There is very little that can be said to be a normative experience of the Spirit in the New Testament. The disciples were first breathed on by Jesus and seemingly received the Spirit without any particular manifestation. They then heard a great wind and saw tongues of fire among them and resting on each one. This lead them to cry out in praise to God in a ‘tongue’ or language they didn’t understand. The gentile believers in Caesarea burst into tongues as well whereas the Corinthian believers who had been baptised into John’s Name didn’t receive the Baptism of the Spirit till they were prayed for and had hands laid upon them. Some speak, others don’t. Sometimes there is a feeling; sometimes there is a vision, sometimes there is a noise. There is little that can be said to be ‘normal.’ Having said this, however, we cannot just ignore the injunction to be ‘filled with the Spirit.’ This is, certainly, normative in the New Testament even if the experience of it is variable. The Church begins with an outpouring of the Spirit. It continues with a series of Holy Spirit actions and throughout, the Spirit is active in the giving of spiritual gifts and Words (prophecy) which are considered central to the church’s life. Indeed, Paul will say ‘Be filled and go on being filled with the
Spirit.” The key then is not to focus on the experience but to seek the Person of the Holy Spirit and all that God would have for us through the Spirit’s work. This was, and is, the normal thing to do in the Christian life.

Richard Dawson, 26 August 2014

Never judge by appearances. There is, I am sure, another inner dynamic which shows how deceptive appearances can be and it concerns the state of our hearts. Jeremiah famously says in chapter 17 these words… “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it?” This should give us great pause to think carefully about how we appear to ourselves inwardly for what Jeremiah indicates here is that not only can we not trust our eyes but we need also to question our motivations for they can appear to be much better than they are. Jesus knew this well and this is reflected in John where is says… “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need human testimony about them, for he knew what was in them.” Here we have many people coming to believe in Jesus and yet His reaction is one of deep suspicion—why? Because He knew the human heart and He knew that an act of good precipitated by an evil motivation will end up like a house built on sand. Though the house be sound, a single decent storm will destroy all the good of that house. God is not interested in a good appearance apart from a redeemed heart. The miracle of a redeemed heart is the first and most basic miracle and all else in the Christian life flows from this. The heart is the soil upon which our faith is built and it needs constant monitoring if we are to keep the building secure.

Richard Dawson, 19 August 2014

Never judge by appearances. We have a bias towards the physical and the visual. Why this is, I am not sure but that it is the case I am positive. Without at all wanting to dismiss people who are physically beautiful I can say without fear of contradiction that the people who’ve most impressed me in life have, without exception, been neither beautiful nor impressive in their physical stature. Don’t get me wrong, I am as impressed by beauty as the next man (or woman as the case may be!) But there is so much more to people than how they look and we Christians must begin to learn this from the earliest age because we, of all people, know the value of one’s spirit. We are, if nothing else, a ‘spiritual people,’ a people who focus on the Spirit and are aware of the importance of our own spirits for it is via our spirits that God’s Spirit speaks to us as Paul understands it… “When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” And it is towards that spirit that we should direct our attention as Christians for it is the state of our spirits which makes us truly who we are. I cannot tell you how much more attractive I find those who have a beautiful spirit. There is a purity and a transparency and a simplicity about those who’ve allowed their spirits to be touched and changed by the Spirit of God which simply cannot be ignored. And it is so much more significant that how we look.

Richard Dawson, 12 August 2014

Have you ever said something and then realised that it could be taken completely the wrong way? I suspect it happens to us all but it’s so often a surprise that we’re hardly ever on guard for it. It’s especially galling in writing because one can hardly ever ’take it back!’ I was asked on Facebook the other day whether I was back (from overseas). In my haste I wrote ‘No home now’ whereupon I immediately got several responses asking me what had happened to my home (and other rather sarcastic things!) Still it showed me again how easily our communications can betray us. And this becomes all the more possible when we’re talking across several age ranges, genders and, of course, cultures. Add to that our propensity for believing the worst about ourselves, others and whoever else might enter the equation and you have a recipe for disaster. Whole wars have been fought, no doubt, on the misunderstood content of a few sentences. Take for example the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Japan. After calling for Japan’s surrender at the Potsdam conference the allies awaited a response. None came till reporters hounding Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki for an answer got one word—’mokusatsu’ which should have been translated ‘No comment’ Unfortunately it was translated ‘Not worthy of comment’ which then encouraged the worst single wartime tragedies in history. The Bible says ‘Guard your tongue’ which basically means be very very careful about what you say and never take for granted that there may be a difference between what you mean and what you’ve just said.

Richard Dawson, 9 August 2014

To live with Christ we must also learn to live with others. There is no Christ without others because Christ in giving His life for all humankind has assumed us into Himself. We are completely human only as we are ’in Him.’ My brother isn’t just my brother—he is Christ to me. My sister isn’t just my sister—she is Christ to me. One of the most fundamental signs of maturity as a Christian is to be able to see the Christ in others. Mother Theresa was a master at this for her whole life and predicated on seeing Christ in the poorest of the poor. One of her favourite sayings was this… “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” I am more and more aware these days of my underlying attitudes and judgements of others and they aren’t pretty. In my mind I find a defensiveness and a prejudice that colours all my relationships so that I have begun to judge even before I know another and in this state all my senses are looking, as it were, for signs that the person before me who should be a Christ-sign according to the Gospel is, in fact, the devil in disguise. In this continual state of ‘readiness for battle’ we cannot hear the Spirit’s whisper and we certainly cannot recognise the Christ in the other. The only safe option is one of separation which leads to further paranoiac suspicion of the other. The result is perhaps the most common illness in our society, loneliness. Of this Mother Teresa said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” Only the cleansing work of the Spirit can reunite us with one another but we have to be prepared to both die and be raised first.

Richard Dawson, 29 July 2014

Knowing ourselves is the best way to get our ‘doing’ right. We often mistake knowing the right for doing it. But we all know that most often the wrong thing is done despite knowing what the right thing was. Moral knowledge is not a
panacea for immorality. From the very beginning Adam and Eve knew where the boundaries in the garden were but that did not stop them breaking those boundaries. The great trap in Christian living these days is so often that we stop at the knowing and we refuse to go on in the doing. Hypocrisy was a word often on the lips of Jesus. But how does knowing our self, help with doing? In the first place when I know myself I cannot hide from my wrong thinking or from the knowledge that right thinking alone will keep me safe from wrong doing.
Knowing myself truly means knowing my propensity for wrong-doing and knowing this, is a first step towards repentance—toward changing one’s mind/heart. Positively, however, knowing oneself as God knows us allows us to determine what we are best suited to—literally what we were made for. God places within us certain proclivities which, in concert with the Holy Spirit, will bless His world. Our task is to discover these and to apply them to this work to the best of our ability. When we do this the Spirit is able to take our meagre offerings—our 5 fish and two small loaves—and feed thousands of people. Our gifts then take on their true spiritual identity providing shelter for many and hope for all. Press into self-knowledge.