Malcolm Potts April 2nd 2017 ~ God is good all the time

I live in a world that is desperate for good news among people who often feel blessed by their circumstance.Last week at St Philips we considered Jesus' final words, teaching his disciples to live and thrive in challenging, even desperate times.  Desperate times is the prevailing context for Christian growth and spiritual prosperity.  This is probably our biggest challenge.  My life, my lot, my circumstances dominate my world view.  To engage with others in greater need somehow recalibrates my world for the good.Nicky Gumbel travels a lot.  The Alpha movement has found its greatest growth in places and amongst people who are most desperate and needy.Nicky writes,  "Of all the prisons Pippa and I have visited around the world, this was the worst.  It is in Lusaka, Zambia.  The prison was built in 1950 for 250 men. Today it holds over 1,300. The cells, which were built to hold 50, are now home to over 150 men. They are locked in these cells from eight o’clock at night until eight o’clock in the morning. There isn’t enough room for all of them to lie down at the same time. They have to take it in turns. The stench and the heat in those cells must be almost unbearable. If the prisoners do not have AIDS or tuberculosis when they enter the prison, they are likely to become infected soon after.The cells surround a courtyard, which is at the centre of the prison. We held a service there. Maybe because there was nothing else to do, virtually every one of the inmates attended. The service was led by a man who had been awaiting trial for four years. He was a Christian pastor who was accused of some minor offence (for which the penalty in England would probably have been a small fine, had he been convicted). Though he may well have been innocent, this man had been languishing in a prison for four years, unconvicted, without trial, not knowing when he would be released – if ever.I will never forget his opening words as he began to lead the service: ‘God is good – all the time.’ Here was a man who had absolute confidence in the goodness of God, not because of his circumstances but in spite of them. He knew and had experienced the goodness of God in the midst of great suffering. As a result, even though he found himself in the appalling conditions of this prison, he followed Jesus’ example and ‘went around doing good’ (Acts 10:38)."Nicky quotes John Wesley who once said, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”I reflected on this at our blokes’ group the other night.  It is such a privilege to sit with blokes who focus, with Wesley, on doing all the good they can, by all the means they can, in all the ways they can, in all the places they are, at all the times they can, to all the people they can, as long as ever they can.How can I recalibrate my world?  I look and take courage in what I am doing, not what I am not doing or not able to do.  I fix on the source, who is Jesus.  I accept life's pruning hurts.  I thank Jesus that he remains with me.  I remember people in very short prayers and pray thankfully, asking for insight and break-through.  And I look for the light to shine [eventually] even in the darkest of places - as it does, since God is good all the time.BlessingsMalcolm