We’re all Family

Young People Make a Scene for the Unseen
Mass-scale National Mime

Share your food with the hungry, take the poor and homeless into your house, and cover them with clothes when you see them naked. Don’t refuse to help your relatives.” Isaiah 58

Amidst the chaos of peak hour traffic, on Saturday the 26th of May, hundreds of young people representing a large number of regions in Queensland are uniting in the centre of Brisbane City to protest in deafening silence.

Members of the World Vision school programme, Vision Generation are coverging on King George Square, clad in black and holding newspapers with messages of justice, to demand that the Government keep its promise to the Millennium Development Goals- increasing Foreign Aid to .5% of the GDP by the 2015-2016.

Other nations across the world are campaigning for this international cause, called Child Health Now, with an aim to raise awareness by speaking up for the 8.1 million children who die before the age of five- invisibly and unheard of. And the remnants that are left become the next year’s statistic.

This post is just a challenge: don’t forget about the oppressed in this world. “But what about the people in country that are poor?” God answers that: “Share your food with the hungry, take the poor and homeless into your house, and cover them with clothes when you see them naked. Don’t refuse to help your relatives.” Scripture says that we are all family. No matter what the circumstance. Geography. Mindset. Just raise awareness. It’s kinda a command from God…

Glory

“My dear Jesus, my Saviour, is so deeply written on my heart, that I feel confident that if my heart were to be cut open and chopped into pieces, the name of Jesus would be found written on every piece.”  Ignatius, a scholar devoured by wild animals in Rome AD111

That is the cry of every martyr, just, I guess, not in such a gory way. And I think, in a sense, though many declare that they would surrender their lives for the gospel, it can only be held valid by the fruit they produce. Or, in Paul’s eyes, the bright ambiance that their life brings to the Kingdom- “…nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of His face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.” 2 Corinthians 3:18, MSG (Written by Paul who was killed in Rome AD65)

Isn’t that great picture? As God engraves His everlasting love within the depths of our hearts, a supernatural outworking manifests itself, in the unstoppable explosion of God’s glorious splendour and majesty. When God writes, it must become reality. When God moves, in His wake is left a trail of Glory. Of Divine movement. The billow of His righteous, white robes. And in His death, then resurrection, He paid the price that we may share and reflect that same light. The same hope. Glory.

Do You Think He Knew?

Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As He crafted the trees, in all sorts and shapes, do you think He knew that from their base would be cut a Roman cross? As He threaded the stars across the night sky, do you think He knew that His Son, the Morning Star, would fade into immateriality? Do you think He knew, as He moulded mankind, in His image and in unique complexity, that they would one day fall apart, and in doing so, murder His Son? Of course. Yet in His all-seeing love, He knew that there was no other way that He could make His compassion known. He created the world, in all its wonder and glory. But unless you are led by the light of faith in Him, His fingerprint is unapparent. So if all that you created cannot show your passion enough, there is only one thing you can do. Show the passion in its fullness. And that’s what God did. The fullness of His passion came at a moment, as He hung on a wooden cross, marred and disfigured beyond recognition of His humanity, during which He chose to surrender all His glory, and riches and in the end, His life. And as He gave His life, do you think He knew that there would be many who would deny Him. Yeah, He did. But He knew that if He did not sacrifice it all, then all those whom He loved had no chance of rescue whatsoever.  God knew. God still knows.

God knows that you have had a tough life. God knows what a dysfunctional family is like- His father was killed when He was only a teenager, leaving the already poor family in a position of collapse. God knows the power of addiction- but He also knows the power of grace. He knows the ability that love has to conquer your addiction. Drugs. Alcohol. Lying. Pornography. He knows the pain you are feeling. He knows what it feels like to be unloved. Ugly. He knows what it is like to be abandoned by everyone. But He knows mercy. He knows peace. He knows hope. These things never fade, even as everything around you crumbles. He knows that you are broken. That you are living a life of confusion, desperate for purpose. He knows where you can find the answer. He knows where you can find a purpose. He knows truth. He knows life. He knows the way. And you can too.

Salvation’s Symphony

I think when we take the communion it’s one of the most important ways we worship Him, who worshipped until death. He led a worship team of His sacrifices and gifts in a way that left the audience- even the ones that killed Him, in awe. I like to think that the last moments of Jesus’ life went something like this:

The rhythms of grace were beating like the waves that wash the shore in strength unmatchable. The melody of hope echoed parallel to the angelic cries of those birds that flew overhead, a warble mirrored in the powerful harmony of truth, that reverberated within the depths of the skies; captured in a rumble of thunderous declaration- the roar of a quaking earth. The bass choir of love was complementing, foundational; announcing the everlasting; the metronome it followed being the very heartbeat of God. The conductor? Arms spread. A victorious finale. Arms spread. On a tree that He crafted. Arms spread in eternal love. Open in embrace. Arms spread, breath faded, so that God’s song may resonate in the light of His glory and through our lives in His presence.

And when the song appeared ended, the disciples panicked. Why? They didn’t understand the saviour’s run sheet. The truth is that when silence deafeningly pierces our faith, it’s Jesus preparing to conduct the second movement. The final symphony. He died for us, bringing the song to a standstill. Why? So the curtains- thick and heavy, could part for the end of the performance. Isaiah 54:7 says, “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion [with everlasting love] I will come for you.”

This week we have all lived life in chaos and in joy, in pain and in healing. Some of us felt that God had left us. Some of us still do. But I’d like to encourage you that He’s just readying to orchestrate the next song.

God is Gracious, Praiseworthy, Courageous and Strong

Jak Antony Hardy = God is Gracious/Praiseworthy/Courageous and Strong

An equation of truth that I felt the moment I realised this. My name is not important if it about me. What good is a name unless it if the name of Christ whom it glorifies. I came to the conclusion that sometimes, names tell a lot about a person. My name revealed a lot to me about God. It should be the same from the unsaved as they look upon our titles. Do they see just Jak, or do they see Jak who God favours and loves and cherishes. If not, I must be failing as a Christian. What about you?

 

Jesus, The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that does not produce fruit, and he cleanses every branch that does produce fruit so that it might produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. “Abide in me, and I will abide in you. Just as the branch cannot produce fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who abides in me while I abide in him produces much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Unless a person abides in me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up. People gather such branches and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask for anything you want, and it will be yours. This is how my Father is glorified, when you produce a lot of fruit and prove to be my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. So abide in my love.”

These words were spoken just prior to Jesus’ underserved and  brutally painful betrayal and arrest. It is a speech- a discourse to Jesus’ disciples that recognises God as the highest authority and bringer of life; Jesus, or the true vine is the core of the church and we- the branches are given life and liberty through His selfless sacrifice; alive to sow seeds in the hearts of others and bear the fruit of faith and love for others to consume. But as the branches and vines, what do we need to sustain healthy life? What roles does Jesus play as the true vine and his father as the vinedresser?

As the True Vine, four significant roles sit at His hand, named so through the linguistic interpretation of His title. The first of these, like the subsequent two, are drawn from the Macquarie Integrated Dictionary. The term ‘true’ can mean ‘a representation of what has happened, or what exists.’ Jesus is the representation of what God has done for all, and what He is doing today. Jesus represents His ministry- the church, and His Father in heaven. He is the ever fruiting central vine and the foundation on which Christianity was formed and now stands.

The second role derives from the fact that Jesus is the genuine vine. His everlasting life is real (Today’s English Version says He is ’The Real Vine’) and accurately righteous. The Bible- the Living Word of God, the Father is undeniable proof of Divine life and with so much evidence for this, disproof is unrealistic. 

The third is that He is a ‘true friend.’ He is loyal and kind and faithful, undeniably selfless. “Greater love has none than this than to lay down his life for his friends.‘ He serves us generously, in love and is loyal and faithful to his Divine father. He is not just man’s best friend but in truth, only real friend.

The final role  is that He is the core of all of the branches. He is the central provider of life and the crux and core of the church. He brings to life the branches of the church, and through Him, we have the ability to grow to our full, God-given, celestially predestined futures and potentials. We have an ability to produce fruit as fed by the life-giving blood of Jesus Christ.

The Way of Blessing (Part Two)

“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually. Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” (Psalm 35:27: King James Version)

God finds joy in our prosperity- obviously. Otherwise, why on earth would He bless us so faithfully and so exceedingly. But He desires that we ask Him for blessing as well. “We have not because we ask not.” It seems that this scripture has been discarded in the contempraneous church community. We talk about not making God materialistic, but we take it to a point where we forget that He is our Father, and that He wants us to ask Him. I mean, what do I do when I want something. I ask my parents. And if I need it, or I deserve it, or even if I will need it (though I do not know it yet), it will be given unto me. The same is with God. Communicating with Him for gifts, for resource, for blessing is what He truly wants, as our father. It makes us joyous, and not superficially happy. This pleases Dad.