Filled with the Holy Spirit from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students shared a story of what had happened to his son. Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?” Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, “We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.”

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Our Secure Refuge from Evil from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy was in London on Friday.  He came to make a programme for the BBC. It was to mark the 70^th anniversary of another BBC programme made for France by Charles de Gaulle on the 18^th June 1940. The general had fled his country the day before as a new administration, headed by Philippe Petain, sought an armistice with Hitler. In the stirring radio appeal Gen de Gaulle declared himself leader of the “Free French”, spawning the French Resistance, which went on to play a crucial role in defeating the Germans. He told his nation that “the flame of the French resistance must not and will not be extinguished”.  Posters displaying his words were put up all over London in the days that followed the broadcast, to galvanise French exiles.

Although it may seem hard at times to believe it, we are at war.

We are part of the resistance against the evil powers at work in our world. That is one of the reasons we meet every Sunday – to train and prepare ourselves for battle. This morning Archbishop Edmund from Kebbi in Nigeria described the very real war going on there between the Christian south and Muslim north. It is a conflict being played out in a number of African countries. But we make a profound error of the first order if we equate this as a war between religions or peoples. In Toronto recently I gave a presentation on the Christian Jihad at a conference of evangelical and Muslim leaders. Jihad is translated in English as “Holy War”. It literally means “struggle”.  In the New Testament, the language of conflict and warfare is used to describe the struggle Christians face in living the holy life as God intends.  In the first instance, the ‘Holy War” or struggle faced is internal not external. It is personal and not political.  The apostle Paul’s two letters to a young disciple called Timothy provide a fascinating insight into Christian jihad as Paul employs the metaphor of the ‘soldier’ to describe the Christ follower. Here are the verses:

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

“Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs; rather, they try to please their commanding officer.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

Toward the end of his life the apostle Paul couple look back confidently and say, past tense,

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:8)

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You were created to become like Jesus Christ from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

When you were young, who were your heroes? Who did you want to become? Who did you pretend to be? Whose posters did you have on your bedroom wall? My first recollection was wanting to be the Lone Ranger. Then it was Scott Tracy of Thunderbirds.

Then it was David McCullum as the Man from UNCLE. Then I finally grew up, and simply wanted to be James Bond.  What about pop stars? Who did you idolise? While my mother probably wanted me to grow up to be like Cliff Richard, I wanted to be Paul McCartney of the Beatles. But, strumming a tennis racket and growing my hair long didn’t make me a rock star. In the 1970’s I graduated to the Beach Boys and made myself a full sized surfboard at school.

The problem was it didn’t float… In the 1980’s when Steve Ovette and Sebastian Coe were competing for an Olympic place, I bought myself a tracksuit and went through a jogging phase but it didn’t last more than a fortnight. In the 1990’s when Tiger Wood was winning every golf tournament, I bought myself a new cap and putter to try and improve my game, but it hasn’t worked, yet. Aspiring to be like someone else is natural. Whether it’s a positive or negative role model seems to depend on whether you are a parent or a child.

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