Joshua 2-4Hebrews 11
This is my second week back after my trip to Spain and Brittany in France.
Last week my Dad spoke on "Crossing the Rubicon". For those who weren't here, the idiom "Crossing the Rubicon" means to pass a point of no return, and refers to Julius Caesar's army's crossing of the Rubicon River (in the north of Italy) in 49 BC, which was considered an act of insurrection and treason. Julius Caesar uttered the famous phrase "alea iacta est"—the die is cast—as his army marched through the shallow river on it's way to Rome. Julius Caesar was governor of Gaul (includes Britain and France) at the time and was on the journey to becoming the Caesar in Rome. Incidentally, if you've ever read the stories of Asterix the Gaul, you will remember that there was one small village in Brittany that Julius Caesar could not conquer : )
Around this time 8 years ago, I felt that God was telling me to start a Soccer Academy in the local community. I approached Brent Davie, the director at PACT and we agreed that we would start in Term 4 at the Papatoetoe Central School. We went through the process of getting things ready, applying for a grant of $3000 for equipment, sending the invitations out to the local school and a couple of teams at the local club and planning the sessions. Everything went well, we had 33 registrations with about 22 turning up the first day.
Just over 1 week later it was Labour Weekend and disaster struck. I broke my leg playing football in an over 35 tournament down in Mt Maunganui holidaying with Bob and Tina McCoskrie and their family. As I lay on the Tauranga hospital bed depressed, I wondered if the thing that God had told me was real or whether I had just made it up.
In the weeks that followed, several people came to the party including Bob and Brent and a few people outside the Church and with their help we managed to finish the program in March 2009, me directing the sessions from a chair pointing with my crutches (not that I was really contributing).
It was a long recovery and when I returned to work I was still immobile and not able to complete the work they wanted me to do. For this reason, in April 2009, I was given an assistant for 2.5 months to help me complete my projects. Anaïs was an intern from a university in Vannes in Brittany, France.
That's when the French connection began. The following year 2010, her friend Galeb from the same university came once more to help me with some project work, the next year, Marie and in 2014 Galeb's sister Widaad who some of you will remember. At the same time I was surrounded by a number of other colleagues who happened to speak French - Nicté from Mexico, Anh from Vietnam and Chloé from Belgium.
The Soccer and the French pathways have been running parallel ever since. Towards the end of 2012, I felt that God was telling me to take the PACT Academy idea overseas, I was thinking Mexico at the time where Bob's brother Peter was helping run an orphanage in Tijuana. That Christmas, Tim Wills advised me to get in contact with Kim Beale who runs a Christian football ministry called Soccerplus who go on missions to South America. A few months later, I met Kim at Easter Camp down in Matamata in April 2013. Kim invited our boys Sean and Joshua to go to a trial for the NZ Crosswhites and Sean was selected to go to Sydney in 2013 and 2014. In 2015 I became the Assistant Director of the NZ Crosswhites and in 2016 there was the opportunity to go to Valencia Football Club in Spain - unique for New Zealand.
The 2 pathways have converged this year when I went to Spain and France during April and May. The Gospel stories of how Jesus called his disciples to leave everything and follow him have always stuck with me. I always felt that unless I did that I wasn't giving everything to follow Jesus. I don't want to arrive at the end of my life with regrets that I never answered that call when it was there. This time felt like the last opportunity and I didn't want to miss it. There were several other indications that the time was right that only a deaf and blind man would have failed to act! The terrorist acts in Paris in November 2015 were what finally pushed me over the line. I realised the time is very short and that I needed to act.
So I finished my job in March to work on on 2 short term projects which could develop into the long term;
⁃ A project involving Soccerplus NZ, Valencia CF and Vannes Olympique Club (VOC)
⁃ A church planting project by Chris and Fiona Lloyd in Auray about 20 km from Vannes
The work has started successfully;
1. VOC have welcomed Soccerplus to go next year for a match
2. Mhairi and I have met Chris and Fiona. Chris's mum died shortly after so it was not possible to continue in May but the relationship was started.
I've been corresponding with Chris since last year and he told me a number of things in relation to France, Church planting and the work he is doing in Auray. Firstly there are no known Christians in the town which has a population of 13,000. They have managed to attract 3 others from surrounding towns to help start the Church which after 2 years they hope will be in September. Secondly, French people only start seeking God when they have an absolute disaster in their lives. They come when they are desperate and they come with a lot of problems, making it difficult to pastor them. Thirdly, in French Society there is complete separation of the public and private domains. Faith is seen as private and therefore a Pastor has no status. The ground is so hard that to have a congregation of 150 is a megachurch in France. His expectation is that he won't reach 50 people by 2020 and there are 10 such churches in the Morbihan department (1 of 5 in the Brittany region). Morbihan has a population of 750,000, Brittany is about the same population as New Zealand. Based on those stats, there are 3000 Christians in Brittany. Now for me that is not good enough because it means that the people I know are highly unlikely to encounter true believers other than me and I am half a world away!
BUT...
I don't want to be like the 10 spies who came back with a bad report. I believe that God is going to do something amazing in Brittany and in fact I now believe in all of Europe.
The Breton culture is Celtic and it is very strong. The music is very spiritual and they have the Celtic symbols which originate with the Druids. There is a spirituality but it's not Jesus. The people have their way and it's going to take a great move of God to change it. But that's what I think is going to happen!
When Paul and Peter went to Rome they faced impossible odds. There was no way anyone but the faithful few would have believed that that culture with it's Caesar, it's army, it's gods, it's empire would ever change. Paul and Peter went and died there but eventually the Roman Empire collapsed and the Church took a hold.
Before I went I had felt that the key for France was house churches - very suitable for their culture with a meal, wine, friendship, singing.
But while I was there, God showed me something much greater!
I have a friend Simon Bate who we know from our days in Palmerston North. Simon is a car designer for Audi and has been living for about 15 years in Germany. He has in recent years got connected with Bethel Ministries in California. Some of you will know them if you have seen the Finger of God documentaries.
Well as it happened, Association Internationale des Ministères Guérison (AIMG) who are connected to Bethel were running a healing conference in early May in Lausanne and both Simon and Mhairi encouraged me to go so I thought it was a good opportunity especially since that part of Switzerland is French speaking. It was great to Simon in Lausanne after so many years! We both commented that it was a very unusual place to meet up but that made it special to me. I have good memories of when I went there with my brother in 1989. It was so encouraging for me to be in a large gathering worshiping God in French.
Some very well known people like Heidi Baker, Todd White and Ben Fitzgerald were speaking as well a number of other key figures from Catholic and Protestant churches in France and Switzerland.
AIMG have some key objectives;
1. 100 million people to be saved in Europe - this far exceeds any expectations of the local French churches
2. The unity of the church to move in the presence of God and believe for healings and miracles.
3. To do what Jesus did and live with the tension and not lower expectations to the current reality
⁃ Based on giving people an experience of God rather than words ⁃ All denominations working together; Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Charismatic - but all operating in God's presence "Europe will not be saved without the Catholic Church!"
AIMG are conducting healing meetings throughout Europe, often in Cathedrals and things are changing fast...
This has changed my thinking on the old Cathedrals somewhat - with some light and warmth and most importantly 1000 people singing to God, those places could be something else!!!
In Joshua 3-4 you can read how the Israelites stood on the banks of the River Jordan and Joshua gave the command for the people to cross over to the Promised Land. This was a big moment, the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham. The story they had heard for over 400 years was coming true!
When the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea 40 years before, it was a deliverance from slavery, the parallel is when God rescues us from our slavery to sin (addictions etc). The enemy chases after us to try and recapture us but God's Salvation is complete. We cross the Red Sea to freedom and the enemy is swept away.
But the Israelites still had to journey further through the wilderness to the border of the Promised Land at the Jordan River. That journey had taken 40 years because of their disobedience when it should have taken only a few days. But that disobedient generation had died and now a new generation was ready to take the land! Poor Moses, this should have been his moment. It wasn't his fault that the people were stubborn and disobedient.
When the new generation crossed the Jordan River, they entered into the Promised Land. There were still enemies in front of them but this time they were on the front foot because they were young, obedient and ready. God again parted the water so that they could walk across. The Jordan River is not very wide at the point where they crossed. It was not as spectacular as the Red Sea crossing, nevertheless it was a clear sign that God was with Joshua as he had been with Moses. The handing over of the leadership was complete. God confirmed Joshua's appointment in the eyes of the people.
When Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan River, the Spirit of God descended in the form of a dove and settled on him and a voice from Heaven said "You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased".
When God appoints his servant to a mission there is a public confirmation so that the people will know!
As with Joshua and Jesus, whether our enemies are physical or spiritual, before or behind us, above us or below us, it is God with us who will sweep them from our path. But we still have to do it, nothing happens if we remain where we are! We have to Cross the Rubicon!
But even when we move forward in faith, things don't happen as we expect. God's agenda is different to ours. The Israelites were in slavery for 400 years and then 40 years in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. And they didn't waltz in singing lovely happy tunes. They had to fight for it! It's easy to start asking ourselves - "Is this real?".
I really love the Hunger Games movies. There is a conversation that Peeta and Katniss have in Mockinjay where Peeta is looking for assurance that he isn't crazy, that she loves him. It's the same question we sometimes ask God;
“When they used the venom on me, they would show me pictures of my life. At first they all blurred together, but now, now I can sort them out a little,” he says. “Like the ones that they changed, they have this quality, it’s like they’re shiny. They’ve been glossed over.” Peeta then poses a question directly to Katniss: “You’re still trying to protect me. Real or not real?” “Real,” she assures him. “That’s what you and I do. We keep each other alive.”
Life does not follow a Hollywood script - it's not always shiny and glossed over. It can be messy and confusing for long periods. There is a tension between what we believe about God and the reality where people are healed but not all the time. I believe PCC have had a lot of success in praying for people to be healed. Sometimes we can feel discouraged though. You know when Heidi Baker first started praying for blind people in Mozambique to be healed she tried 1000 times where nothing happened but then there was a breakthrough.
We read the Bible for guidance, we look for signs, we listen for God's voice sometimes in the advice of others, sometimes when we're alone.
It's easy to have faith in our comfort zones, but when we move out to where God is calling us to as the Israelites did, that's when reality sets in and our faith is tested. Like Peeta in the Hunger Games, that's when we ask the question "Real or not real?".
The instruction Joshua gave to build a monument of 12 stones, each representing the 12 tribes, was intended to be a permanent reminder of the miracle God did at Gilgal in parting the Jordan River. I don't think the monument can be found today - well it was nearly 3500 years ago! Does that mean it didn't happen because there is no evidence?
At some point there is no more evidence to be found, no more signs to be had, it's time to move forward in faith. It's impossible to please God without faith.
When I went to Men's Group on Friday, Ken asked me a very good question. He said, if I go to Brittany but in the end, no-one believes would that be a failure? In Hebrews 11 - the chapter on faith - where the writer who I think was Paul recalls all the old testament heroes like Noah, Abraham, Moses and so on who had success in their missions, he concludes;
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Hebrews 11:29-30
When we read Hebrews 11, there are success stories and there are apparent failures too. But the success or failure doesn't matter to God, what counts is the person's faith! What matters far more to God than our achievements is our faith in him, in other words, how close is our relationship with him? Some of the biggest achievers in our world are total failures relationally leaving a string of hurt people behind them.
But when we search our hearts and ask God "Real or not real", you can hear the reply coming back with assurance... "Real"
I'm happy with how things went on my trip to Brittany but it feels like I've only just begun and there is so much more to do. Before I went to France I wrote a few messages from Joshua and Mark during Lent 2016 and I revisited them to see whether I was on the right track! I realised there was two messages from Joshua I had missed and that was unity of the people and the presence of God. These are what I will talk on in the next week.
I can't lay out exactly what God is going to do or when he's going to do it. I don't know the details of what lies in the future only what to do next. Before then, I'll pass on these simple 3 questions to ask ourselves that I learned at the healing conference in Lausanne;
1. What has God told me to do?
2. What am I doing about it?
3. Who am I getting to help me?
May God give us all the grace to do what we believe!
There is an old Maori Proverb;
"He aha te mea nui? He tangata. He tangata. He tangata."
- What is the most important thing? It is people. It is people. It is people.
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