We live in a time that people say: well, that is your truth, my truth is different.

A booklet by Dr. N. T. Wright:  “PAUL FOR TOMORROW´S WORLD,” notes:

“acceptable differences and unacceptable differences.” 

That idea helped me to get a bit more clarity in the cacophony of different, often conflicting faith statements among the current 30.000+ different protestant denominations. In IPSICC as an Institue based on Christian values we have a statement of faith, that makes us agree on the major points of our faith-statements, there other denominations that differ in these values, but in IPSICC we classify this under acceptable differences.

Many Biblical themes have been essential for us to come to salvation in Christ Jesus. The most important one being: God is love, that is His nature, his essence.

In his love, God shows us our need for Faith, Hope, and Love.
He wants to give this to us, if we ask and if we exercise that faith according to His Manual: the Word of God.

 

Let us consider faith

 

I am so thankful that God has faith for us, that He had hope for me, that I would persist in following Him, even when he knew how many problems I had in my character or rather lack of it as I grew up without the needed discipline from my parents. There was love: yes, but they had their problems. I just never caused them any problems, so they didn´t bother me in my ways.
Now I feel that I fell through the cracks. They should have exercised more their authority.
By Gods Grace, I developed a strong will. The ruling thought in my life was: I will get there, one way or another, I will never give up.
That is something that Vibeke and I have in common. That combined with the gift of faith, can be a tremendous force. I have grandparents and parents who believed in the Lord. That heritage I sense has a profound impact on me, even today.

Let us stop for a moment and think of the people who had faith in us, people who encouraged us. 

You are here because someone believed in you, someone shared his or her faith with you. Let us have a quiet moment, reflecting on these people, thanking God for them. Take one or two in mind, remember how they looked like, thank the Lord for them now.

Silence

 

GRACE AND PEACE

 

I would like to return to two foundational Truths in IPSICC:

Grace and Peace.

Both represent thoughts of God at work in this world. Let us read 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3

“Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This phrase is one of the evident signs that what we are reading are Paul´s words. We usually set a signature under a letter, Paul states up front: this is me, this is my writing.

To understand Grace and Peace better we need to go back to the world where these concepts developed. I came to these two concepts when I read Philippians 4:7:

 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Thinking about this protection, I discovered that the word guard was a military term. Then it became for me like an encampment, a wall. It is here where the phrase: “The Wall of Peace was born” How did he translate this concept of peace in Greek?

Paul the missionary is still steeped in Jewish thoughts. He grew up in a multicultural environment in Tarsus. He studied their thought-world and knew of glimpses of Truths found in philosophers, poets, and even prophets in different religious streams who lived centuries before him. He worked from the principle that Truth is Truth wherever one finds it.

We also read what non-believers in Jesus Christ have written, including atheists who write psychology texts. How do you handle the conflicts one faces as you read some stuff that you say: this opinion is nonsense!

I still remember that I was translating for a famous Dutch lady, Mrs. Heyink when she was teaching in the WYAM school in Cyprus. There was some free time, and I read a book by a Dr. Shapiro as a part of my studies into psychology. At one moment I threw the book away when I read some statements that were in my eyes blasphemous. I said: “Lord, do I have to read such nonsense”?  The Lord answered at once: “Téo, you are my ambassador in a strange world. Ambassadors have a task to represent their King. What they observe and hear, they report back to their King. They need to be diplomatic, and they can only share their personal opinion with the King. Just stay polite Téo. Just say:” Lord, look at what he writes, this is such nonsense.”

This thought helped me to read a lot of things that I disagreed. You too might come across ideas that are at odds with your most profound convictions. At least we know then what they think. Even when you have to take an exam, you can say: well this person has this opinion and that person has that opinion. We don´t have to agree with them.

Many of clients who finally come to us, were affected by secular values. We can help them to sort out what their beliefs are and why they are troubled.

 

SHALOM

 

Paul lived in Jewish culture, and there was the word SHALOM so important, as a general greeting but also as a term with had a great theological content. He faced the problem any missionary has when they want to translate a biblical concept into a local language. That takes much thinking and studying. Paul´s cross-cultural experience was ideal to translate Biblical thoughts expressed in Hebrew into Greek.

Shalom means peaceful, that it goes well with us in spirit, soul, body and financial. He knew that in Greek there was the concept of peace carrying the meaning: the absence of war. One couldn´t just say: the absence of war is with you. So he linked another Biblical concept Grace to the Hebrew concept of Hesed: which carries the meaning “God smiles at us, in spite of our bad behavior.” God loves us so much, that He can accept our behavior. Thus Paul announced Gods Good News to the Greek: the war is over and God smiles at you. He called this: the peace of God.

We need to live in this grace and peace, to be able to share this with our clients. It protects us from evil influences in this world and keeps us like a medical doctor clean so that we won´t harm a patient. The Bible speaks about: “putting Jesus on,” I try to remind myself to do that rather literally: Good morning Lord, “I put you on” and then make these movements with my hands, like putting on a jacket. I have experienced that this peace is a gift that God can give as we minister, even when we have trouble inwardly, and don´t feel peaceful at all. It is rooted in the faith that God loves us continually. He is not a jo-jo who comes and goes. He is there with us, even when we are not aware of his Presence.

 

Blessing

 

The concept of Blessing is:

speaking good, true words, where the one who is asked to bless represent Jesus. We bless with faith that Jesus is there and comes in their situation: whatever that situation might be. We use words to which a person can respond to. When someone is grieving about something, don´t start speaking about the joy of the Lord at that time. A blessing is not buttering up a person, saying just some nice words to make them feel good. The words need to be true as well. A grieving person needs to know that they are seen, that God comes in their grief and is just quiet with them, without any positive thoughts to start out with. You might say an encouraging word if they react positively to you.

There are words that confirm us who we are in the loving Light of God. God loves everybody. He has always positive thoughts over us. God loves us unconditionally. Even when He decides he needs to hurt us, as this might be good for us in the long run. Be sure to ask first if it is O.K. that you bless them! You might decide that it would be wise to first take some time to let them become quiet. Or you could ask: did you experience a time of blessing before? If so, did you observe anything, any bodily reaction?

When you bless:

Give attention to what this blessing does to the body. Keep your eyes open: share with Gods authority positive thoughts and watch what happens. You can ask them: “what happens inside your body? Any positive feelings coming up? Where in your body do you feel that?” There are times that people say: “No, I don´t feel anything”. Then you might say:”That is O.K., we know that God´s Word is true and that He is with us, even when we don´t feel anything. There are many Scriptures that relate that a person was down but that they put their trust in the Lord. They praised the Lord, never mind what they felt. Mother Theresa from Calcutta was such a person.

When nothing seems to affect a person during your blessing

If you observe nothing in their body at all during a time of blessing, you could also start out by asking: Can you share something that you are now grateful for?  If they say yes, then as they do that, ask them to notice their body and ask: “where do you sense that gratefulness now”. If they say: “Nowhere” you can suggest that you can bless their ability to think positive thoughts, ask them if that is O.K. Usually they say yes to that, as you already started out with their permission to bless them. Whatever their reactions are, try to end always with a positive note. Thank God for their honesty, that they didn´t work up feelings that were not there or when they were there they didn´t notice them.

To Bless others is a school, as you bless you will learn a lot, just by doing it! If I make a mistake I usually ask for forgiveness. Once a lady said: “Téo, thank you that you are so honest, nobody ever asked me for forgiveness ever. Thank you for doing this”. God can even use our mistakes for his glory! I said: “Thank you, Jesus, that you didn´t step in and stop me!”

God is good and He is in me. He has faith that I can do what He calls me to do.  

We are allowed to feel good! Take some time to enjoy this perhaps quiet realization, for others at times a joyful awareness.

When one shows negative feelings, you could ask: Do you have any insight into what the cause might be. Be careful not to fall into the trap of telling them what your idea is. Give them time to think about it. Allow the tension of the question to “hang in the air.” There will come another time that you could share what your insight might be.

Share with your neighbor about your experiences:

• Question: 1 What are your positive experiences in applying this Peace of God when you meet clients?
• Question: 2 What are you some of your negative experiences yourself or with clients about not sensing anything? If yes, what happened?
• Question: 3 How did you or those who you asked for a blessing react then?