I'M NOT MOVING

I'm listening to news reports of a cabinet reshuffle not going to plan and the speculation about power struggles behind the scenes. 

Sometimes we dig our heels in and get our own way.  Sometimes we stand strong and find ourselves forcibly moved. 

When were thinking of making a stand, we need to make a judgement call whether we are willing to accept the possible consequences of our stance.  

Are you ready to lose your [job, friendship, advantage, stake - insert here] for the sake of principle, for the prospect of gain?  Is this important enough for you?

It's easy to understand why some (most?) take the path of least resistance.  Least risk. Least pain. Least soul-searching.

But some things are not negotiable.  Some things are worth fighting for.

Friends.
Family.
Faith.

Acts 4 sets out an account of A situation where Peter and John had to decide whether to obey the authorities and to stop speaking about Jesus or to continue to speak openly about what they knew to be true.  It was a no-brainer:
"Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

This was no easy thing - there were significant consequences for taking their stance.  

So ask yourself: what's important enough for you to take a stand?  How will you respond when it's put to the test?

Standing strong is easier with like-minded people to support you.  Find out more at Redeemer on any given Sunday morning at Ealing Town Hall. 

We'll stand with you. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE AB FAB FILM

Earlier this week, I had a great conversation at my meetup. The general message we were discussing was this: you can’t pick and choose what bits of Christianity you believe – take it all, or leave it all.

With that in mind, two headlines caught my eye. Both are attention-grabbing, and both are cinema-related:

1. New Emma Watson film makes £47 at UK box office

2. Audience members ejected from cinema for laughing at Absolutely Fabulous

Both of them look like ridiculous, out-of-the-ordinary stories…but in fact both are non-stories, for different reasons.

The Emma Watson film was never intended to make money through cinema screenings, aiming for the home streaming market instead. So the headline should really have read:

New Emma Watson film basically makes exactly what it hoped to through cinema screenings

Not quite as catchy, I’ll grant you.

How about the Ab Fab story? Well, four people were kicked out of a screening – rare, but not unheard of. Why were they kicked out? The four people say they were told to ‘laugh on the inside’, and the cinema says it was because they were annoying other cinema-goers by talking loudly. So the headline should really have read:

Audience members ejected from cinema, most likely for valid reasons. 

So neither story is really news, is it.

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Let’s agree on one thing. In a perfect world, there would be no need to make up news, but that’s not how the news business works.

Think about it. Newspapers, news websites, news TV channels and radio slots – all of them produce frequent news updates. They don’t publish news when there’s news, they publish news when there’s a publication deadline.

The net result of that is journalists tasked with filling space rather than finding the best news story – and so stories are written based on the angle rather than the truth.

And that’s much more fun, isn’t it? Take a tiny detail, one piece of the puzzle, and make up an interesting whole-picture story that fits that one detail.

Could we really build a new hospital every week if we left the EU? Of course not, but saying ‘an insignificant sum goes to the EU in exchange for tangible and intangible benefits’, while a fairer reflection of the truth, isn’t a good enough angle.

So how about Christianity?

The same is true. We are all tempted to embrace angles on Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, church life…

I invite you to regularly lose every misconception and filter that’s built up over time, and come back to the purity of Christianity.

And you can do that this coming Tuesday evening, in Ealing Broadway. Email hello@redeemerlondon.org to find out how you can get a free meal and an opportunity to properly explore Christianity!

WHAT EALING RESIDENTS CAN LEARN FROM ARGUING CYPRIOTS

I wonder if I could take you away from leafy Ealing for a moment - around 2,000 miles away to be exact, to Cyprus.

There's been some optimism in the news recently about Cyprus.

This Mediterranean island that's visited by many every year has been divided since 1974. The northern one-third of the land is inhabited by Turkish Cypriots and the rest of the country is inhabited by Greek Cypriots. This situation arose when Greece backed a coup to overthrow the island's leadership. Turkey responded by invading the island and occupying the northern third.

Over the years, several attempts have been made to achieve reconciliation, but none have succeeded.

But it was reported recently that the leaders of both Greek and Turkish Cyprus are making a go of it again, and there is optimism that a solution can be found within the year.

As you can imagine, there are a number of issues to be agreed upon and these issues are being worked through.

I was very impressed when I heard that between May 2015 and January 2016, the presidents of both sides had 20 rounds of talks!

Nobody has 20 rounds of talks if they are not committed to finding a solution.

This isn't the first separation Cyprus has seen

The Bible captures a story of another big separation that happened many centuries ago involving Cyprus.

Paul and Barnabas were great men who went together on a journey starting churches in a number of places - including Cyprus. They took a young man with them called John Mark, who was a relative of Barnabas.

Partway through the journey Mark dropped out, and the two men had to finish the mission without him.

After some time, they were considering another trip through Cyprus and other places, to visit the churches they had set up. Barnabas wanted to give Mark a second chance and bring him along, but Paul was totally against it.

He couldn't trust Mark after he'd left the team on the last journey.

The disagreement couldn't be resolved, and Paul and Barnabas eventually went their separate ways. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, while Paul recruited a man called Silas, and went on a journey through Syria.

Maybe this story resonates with you.

Can you recall a time in your life when you had a ‘Cyprus’ moment…a time of painful separation?

How did you manage it?

We live in a world where it's sometimes easier to walk away than find a way through conflict.

Not to dismiss how sensible walking away from conflict can sometimes be, how about when it's wiser to find a way through?

How about when everything suggests that staying and fighting is the better long-term solution, but the temptation to pull away is very strong?

Have you ever been in a situation like that? Have you ever walked away from a job or friendship or relationship where in hindsight, perhaps you should have stayed and resolved your differences with the other side instead of walking away?

And if you're given that same opportunity again, where will you find the strength to get through the rough patch?

Reconciling Turkish and Greek Cypriots is clearly a very difficult process to navigate - discussions on reunification are still ongoing after 20 rounds of talks. We will have to watch that space to see what the outcome will be.

But one man who has been through a very tough ‘Cyprus’ moment was Jesus.

After a night of unjustified arrest, interrogation, false accusations, severe physical chastisement and verbal abuse, he was sentenced to death, crucified on a cross, naked and in agony.

To add insult to injury, not only were the religious leaders and Roman soldiers taunting him as he hung apparently helpless on the cross, but one of the thieves who was crucified with him did the same.

In spite of all these provocations, Jesus stuck it out and stayed on the cross until the job was finished.

When I look closer into Jesus’ ordeal, I find that Jesus found strength to go through His ‘Cyprus’ moment by God’s strength.

The night before he was arrested, Jesus spent time praying, and was strengthened by God for the challenge he was about to face.

Are you facing a challenging period?

Do you feel that the right thing to do is to fight through rather than pull away?  You will do well to do what Jesus did in a similar situation…you will do well to pray.

And you don't have to pray alone

We love to pray at Redeemer.

Every Sunday we meet at 9:45am to pray before coffee at 10am.

Every Sunday our prayer team dedicate time to pray with anyone who wants it.

Three times a year we gather for a full evening devoted to prayer for the church and the Borough of Ealing.