Dragon Lake Books

The home of great stories

Jesus

Acts of Random Kindness

by Leave a Comment

Evan Almighty is now available on Netflix! (In the UK at least)

Can I admit this is one of my favourite family movies?

We watched it again, for the fourth or fifth time, last week. It has classic slapstick comedy, Steve Carell at his best as the neat-freak who is forced to walk, talk and even eat with the animals: Giraffes, Alpacas, and of course… Sheeeeep!

But what gets me every time is the Acts of Random Kindness message layered into the movie.

I don’t think God does random, but then I don’t believe that God forces us either. From our perspective life can seem random at times. Events happening outwith our control, accidents or situations arising that we’d rather have avoided.

I choose to believe that God does have a plan, that our father in heaven cares deeply about our lives. If we listen to God, then we’ll find he directs us. It might be subtle, may at times be overt. I don’t believe God directs us like puppets, or causes war or suffering. No, we’re arrogant and greedy and selfish enough to do all that ourselves.

Somehow though, God knows what we’re going to do, before we do it. Whether he is just outside time and so sees the whole picture, or something equally difficult for me to understand, I guess doesn’t really matter. I get a sense sometimes, that if I were to act, that would be appropriate. If I do, usually, I’m glad I did. If I don’t, often I have a feeling of regret that I’ve missed out on an opportunity.

And perhaps we could expand on the A.R.K. acronym to include a few more acts that we could randomly do:

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control…

Or maybe not so randomly?

Paul wrote to the Galatians that these things were the fruit of the Spirit.

I link this back to Jesus teaching on the vine and the branches. If we remain in Jesus and he remains in us, we will bear much fruit.

It is quite a challenge. But also a promise. And of course an opportunity…

What do you think of Evan Almighty?

Are you on the highway to hell?

by Leave a Comment

photo of the stage before Bill Bailey's Larks in Transit tour

Would you feel comfortable singing: “We’re on the highway to hell!”

Back in the 1980s, a lot of my classmates probably did. I was never into AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden or any of the popular heavy metal bands. I didn’t like the demonic imagery or lyrics and still don’t.

I get that not all of heavy metal music is focused on demons or hell, but that is the perception I had as a teenager and when last night, some 2,000 people around me burst out singing: “We’re on the highway to hell!” it really shocked me.

Maybe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn’t supposed to be though. It was supposed to be a fun evening, and mostly it was. Bill Bailey live at The Caird Hall in Dundee for his Larks in Transit tour.

I’d been a bit apprehensive, after all Bill Bailey enjoys taking a pot shot a Christians and sure enough, there were a few shots fired. But okay, I knew that was a risk going in.

He’d got us to sing a couple of songs already, I won’t spoil that part of his act, but then, right at the end, he starts playing the guitar riff for AC/DC’s Highway to Hell.

I didn’t even know what the riff was from. I didn’t listen to the music as a child and still don’t, but I’ve heard the words being sung often enough.

The highway to hell…

Do you know what that means?

The broad way, the fast way to destruction. Jesus spoke about it, recorded by Matthew: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

I believe Hell is real. I know some Christians have doubts about whether God would condemn people to an eternity of suffering, but I’m not claiming that’s what Hell is.

Destruction could mean literal destruction. The reward for a lifetime of rejecting God might mean that God will ultimately reject you. That interpretation fits in with other parables Jesus told which described Hell as a rubbish dump. A place to throw out the garbage.

I find that interpretation problematic though. It means that you can be as cruel as you want. You can hurt as many people as you want. You can steal and kill and destroy and at the end of the day, there are no real consequences. Your life is snuffed out and that’s it. Where’s the justice in that?

I believe our creator is a just God. It doesn’t seem likely that we just get off the hook.

Unless…

I also believe in Heaven. I don’t subscribe to the wings and clouds fantasy. Instead I believe the prophecy in Revelation that talks about heaven coming down to earth, the earth being healed and renewed. A new heaven and a new earth. That sounds amazing. Awesome! I want to be a part of that.

Jesus spoke several times about eternal life. Life after death, abundant life, abundant eternal life. I want to have that.

Can you imagine being raised from death to face judgement and finding out how wonderful life after death is going to be, that it will be far better than our lives now can ever have been, then only to find that because you chose the highway to hell, you don’t get eternal life…

How awful would that be?

It doesn’t have to be that way for you. The highway to hell has an off ramp. You can leave it right now and exit to the narrow way, following Jesus, seeking God.

Of course, maybe destruction does mean a lake of fire. Maybe all the Stalins and Hitlers and others that we can all agree would deserve punishment will be punished. Justice. Except, who decides what justice is? You? Me? God?

It will be God.

And broad is the way that leads to destruction. And no matter what Angus or Malcolm Young or Ronald Scott wrote about your friends being there too, Hell isn’t the promised land you want to end up in.

So maybe finding out what God thinks about justice is a good idea. And what God thinks about life and death and what our purpose in life is.

If Bill Bailey is to be believed, there is no Hell so why should we worry. But what does Bill Bailey know? I like him, mostly, as a comedian. I do not put my trust in him. Instead I choose to put my trust in Jesus Christ, a name Bill Bailey mentioned at least once during his two hour act.

Jesus died and rose from death to life to prove that we will have eternal life. I put my trust in Jesus.

I encourage you to do the same, or at the very least, to look into the claims of Jesus and test them. Otherwise you might join Bill Bailey on an easy road that takes you where you didn’t really want to go.

When a good man does something utterly stupid

by Leave a Comment

Do you have what it takes to be a king or queen? How about president or prime minister?

Since Donald Trump took office in America, I’ve heard a lot of criticism of him. I was extremely critical of David Cameron during his tenure as prime minister in the UK. It is quite easy to criticise when our decisions and actions are not being scrutinised to the same extent.

As I’ve been reading through the books of first and second Kings I’ve noticed a large number of the kings of Israel and Judah are recorded as having done “evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

There are others who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord”, but often there is a caveat: “but not as his father David had done.”

David is held up as the High Standard of what God was looking for in the kings that ruled over Israel and Judah.

Then along comes Hezekiah, a man who “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” 2 Kings 18 NIV

In fact Hezekiah may even have been a better king than David. Right up to the point where he did something so utterly stupid that I almost can’t believe anyone could have done that.

Can you imagine the leader of Iran inviting foreign diplomats to tour their nuclear research facilities? How about the leader of North Korea?

Can you imagine the tour guide: “Here’s where we enrich uranium. We discovered that if we tweak the process just so, we get a ten percent increase in yield. Now tomorrow we’ll go and look at the mobile launch unit factory. That’s in a secret factory in the town of … Is there anything else you’d like to see?”

It’s debatable whether those diplomats would even make it back to their embassies before the call went out: “Send in the drones!”

If there is one thing you do not do as the leader of any country, is reveal your state secrets to an unknown envoy. Yet that’s precisely what Hezekiah did.

Hezekiah showed these foreign diplomats all the treasure, answered all their questions, gave them everything they needed to make a report as to whether invading Jerusalem would be worthwhile.

He didn’t pay the price, but his country did, years later when Babylon invaded and sacked Jerusalem.

Occasionally I do dumb things, make stupid decisions. Many of us do. But many of us aren’t kings or presidents or prime ministers. We might say we would never have done something as rash as Hezekiah, perhaps even say we would never behave like Donald Trump, yet I find it a sobering thought that a ruler who in many regards was to be respected, could have made such an foolish mistake.

Parallels between old and new

by Leave a Comment

I’ve continued reading from the books of Samuel, through into 2 Kings. There are so many passages that have stood out to me over the past few weeks, from disturbing stories to shocking ones to inspiring ones.

This morning I was struck by how so many of Jesus miracles are foreshadowed by the prophets. In 2 Kings 4 v 42 to 44 we’re told a man brings twenty loaves of barley bread and some ears of new corn to Elisha. Elisha tells his servant to give it to the hundred assembled prophets. The servant questions him saying, in effect, there’s no way this is going to feed so many men.

Elisha insists, saying “they will eat and have some left over.”

And they do.

A parallel story can be found in Matthew 14 where Jesus sees the need for 5,000 men to be fed. He gets by with just five loaves of bread and two fish and again there is food left over.

Both Elijah and Elisha raised people from the dead as did Jesus. Both Elijah and Elisha commanded the Jordan to dry up so they could walk through on dry land. Jesus simply walked on the water…

Elijah caused a drought, Jesus commanded a storm to calm.

Maybe there are more parallels, but these are a few that occurred to me after reading the initial passage today. What parallels do you see between the old and the new?

All that we can achieve

by Leave a Comment

I was pulled up short this morning. I’ve continued reading past the two books of Samuel and am now half way through the first book of Kings.

The last few chapters have been quite a slog, king after king who did evil in the eyes of the Lord, each one failing to learn from the mistakes of those who went before them. Israel divided in two and for a time it seems like the new nations of Israel and Judah are being led by leaders who are as evil as each other.

Then I read this: “As for the other events of Baasha’s reign, what he did and his achievements…” 1 Kings 16 v 5

I generally consider achievements to be a positive. I have 100 goals and as I make progress towards achieving them I feel good about that. Yet if I gained the whole world and lost my soul…

All we can achieve may be worth recording in a book some day, may be worth people remembering, but if those achievements are side by side with a legacy of disobedience to God, of a life spent following whatever evil our hearts find to do, then what ultimately was the point?

What if none of it was fiction?

by Leave a Comment

I published last Sunday’s post knowing that a good many people consider Genesis to be a work of fiction. I don’t. I believe it all happened as recorded, witnessed by the one doing the creating – God.

There are other portions of the bible I’m less sure of. I think that most people believe that Jesus was comfortable sharing made up stories, parables we call them about shepherds and muggings and lost coins and farmers. There is the book of Job which I suspect most people dismiss simply because it starts in a place no human observer has ever been – Heaven.

The Psalms are simply songs, there are a few books that simply contain words of wisdom: Proverbs, The Song of Songs, and potentially one of the most depressing books of all: Ecclesseasties… So, neither fiction, nor history. Perhaps you could even class them as the first Dummies Guides To… Well, The Song of Songs would be the first Dummies Guide to Sex. I really should re-read that…

There are a lot of books of prophecy in the Bible. Kind of hard to classify that using the Dewey method. Non-Fiction that hasn’t happened yet? Alternative Future History? Actually, that might be exactly the right classification as the impression given throughout the Bible is that whatever the blessing promised through the prophecy, it can be lost if we insist on rebelling against God and whatever destruction is warned against could potentially be avoided if we seek our creator, turn from evil, start showing love and kindness to those around us, especially the poor and the weak.

Back to the original question though. What if none of the Bible was fiction?

Genesis and Job share one common factor, they both begin from God’s perspective. Recorded outside of human experience. It shouldn’t really surprise us that the God who is so involved throughout the rest of the Bible would share a little of events outside of our experience, especially since the entire direction of our history seems to involve God trying to lead us back to a place where he can walk and talk with us as he did in Eden.

I wonder sometimes if even Jesus, when he told those parables, was actually using illustrations he’d witnessed. It’s not hard to imagine him turning real events into generalised stories in order to make a point.

Regardless, the Bible remains the most powerful book available to us today. Are you reading it?