All My Desire
A few days ago, a very elderly man passed away. His name was Peter and he was 97. You will probably never have heard of him as he mostly worked in a country called the Yemen although he was Australian.
The thing about God’s saints is that when they pass from the world they often do so unnoticed. What our world considers important is very different from God’s considerations.
As a young man raised by his brother (as his father had died) Peter had gone to the oldest of the most prestigious schools in Australia and had been so successful that on graduation had gone to England to study literature at Oxford University.
But this did not eventuate. On arriving on England’s shores he had heard the news of the gospel of Christ, had become a Christian and had gone out to the Middle East as a missionary. There he met Margaret, a nurse who very much matched him in character and eminent qualities and they were married for many years.
We were remarkably blessed to have known him: on his return to Australia, he became a part of our house church. I often felt that it was like having one of Jesus’ disciples talking to us when he spoke, such was the profound depth of his relationship with God, accompanied with a knowledge of Scripture which was the equal of a Matthew Henry or an Alfred Edersheim (and as a side note, although they wrote centuries ago, their work is always worth the reading – especially Edersheim’s volume, Elisha.)
Why do I speak so much about this man? Well it is 40 years since I first heard him speak and I can still remember what he spoke about as can others who were present. I once calculated that I have sat through over 4000 sermons and many more since then. I remember none in detail – except Peter’s (although many were very good and worthy, including those of Billy Graham!) In fact, the only sermon of his that I don’t seem to recall well was the one he gave at my wedding:) – maybe I was distracted. As we reflected on this during the week, at least 2 others could remember individual sermons he gave and the passage of Scripture that he preached from. When Peter spoke, we listened to great wisdom.
We asked him on one occasion what it was like to mission in a country renowned for its hard-line adherence to a different faith. He smiled gently and said that he was one day driving along in the country side where all was cliffs and sand (think of the desert scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark) when he saw a wild flower high up on the cliffs all by itself. That was the nature of Christianity in that country. Where least expected, the wild flowers grew. When human structures would seem to completely mitigate against any possibility of Christian witness, God was entirely capable of making and growing a church – like the wildflower – in what seemed the most inhospitable of ground.
More recently I asked Peter how he could communicate the Bible when it was such a dangerous thing to do. He told me that he was sitting in a taxi and the driver turned to him and asked for a Bible. Peter gave him a Bible that he had ready, explaining it to me such that it seemed the most natural thing in the world for someone to do. I have been to a lot of countries and in my reality, no one has ever asked me for a copy of the scriptures in a language they could speak! The wisdom of this world would caution against carrying Bibles in a country that imprisons for this sort of activity but that is not God’s wisdom. This was the nature of Peter and Margaret’s ministry. They simply made themselves available and the Spirit did the rest, making Christians in a country where the consequences for proselytization and conversion were extreme. Later in life they returned year after year to visit those who had become their brothers and sisters, well into the time when this country had become one of the bleakest places of warfare on the planet.
Under his wisdom I think it was that I first really began to understand the Psalms and to realise how it was that David wrestled with his doubts in coming to God. As we wiped the dishes with tea towels after morning tea, I asked Peter (in my ignorance) why he had not become a minister, to which he replied (always with the hint of humour just below the surface) that he’d ‘rather be a man with the cloth than of the cloth.’ This was the humble servant in our midst, who could read complex volumes by Calvin and other theologians and who any Bible College on earth would have employed in a heartbeat I’m sure. While he was a man of outstanding intellect, that was never the impression that one took away – for myself and others we always came away having learnt something new about God and a deep awe for his boundless love.
Ours is a God who is brighter than 10,000 suns but from whom people cowered in the Old Testament. When Moses came down from Mt Sinai and the presence of God, the reflection of God’s glory alone was enough to require Moses to cover his face. Yet if we were to trust Him, we could be immediately with God (and to my mind, Peter and Margaret, who spent so much time in the presence of God also reflected God’s radiance but somewhat differently to Moses they reflected His character.) Such joy to know that now God doesn’t require special liturgies or ceremonies to be in His presence. He just requires us to come!
Peter understood and communicated so well through his actions and explanations that Christianity is actually quite straightforward: it is a simple trust in the only God who really ever existed and a desire to follow and meet with Him. How could we know about this? By looking at the relationship between Jesus and God which is so well described by John in his gospel (in Chapter 14) and the ones preceding it:
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love them and show myself to them.
When I looked at Peter and Margaret (who sadly had passed before my wedding day) I had a very clear insight of the special relationship which exists with God and His children and a further, beautiful insight into the special relationship that exists between Jesus the Son and the Father.
When we look at John’s description of Jesus, it as if God is right next to Him and He can simply turn and talk to God, quite naturally, as if God were sitting just there and Jesus clearly knows that God is listening. We see this oh-so-natural-state of affairs sustained throughout the gospel with Jesus constantly saying that He can chat to God in a way that any well-functioning family communicates. As Jesus constantly states in the gospel, it is because He is the Son and this continues the state of affairs that has always existed. (Jesus points out that He was around long before Abraham 8:58 and says ‘ Before Abraham I Am’). Jesus can do this for two reasons: firstly and quite obviously, He did nothing wrong. Therefore, there is no barrier between Him and God as there exists with all of us. More subtly, Jesus can do so because He is doing everything that God wants Him to do. Jesus and God are completely unified in desire – in their aims and goals. Sometimes this is called obedience (which it is) but it’s a lot more. Jesus wants what God wants. He sees that loving others; caring for them; helping them is a beautiful thing. (When someone shows love, it can force tears from the hardest rock and the most scarred heart.)
Which is the theme of this song, All My Desire.
Some songs can take years of crafting: others, under external inspiration can be much faster. I wrote the words for this song in 15 minutes as I listened to another Peter, a much younger but still insightful man, as he was speaking in our house church. His text was John 14 and he was talking about the intimate and unified relationship that existed between the father and the son. For me this was a revelation and John’s gospel suddenly came alive. Immediately after our gathering I went home: the tune, similarly came in a very brief time – not much longer than it took to write the words. God giving inspiration through His word.
The second image which accompanies the song (as seen above) and was the cover for the CD was taken by a friend, David Stowe, (from my Beach Mission team at Budgewoi); an extraordinary photographer – as we walked the Lakes’ Walk on Australia’s highest mountain. David is today one of Australia’s best photographers and his love of God’s natural world is seen in every one of his beautiful pictures.
The singer is Sharen Stevenson; the song was produced by her husband (also a Peter) at Turn Around Music Studio (and he contributed the Bridge.)
Here are some of the relevant Scriptures:
John 10: 30 I and the Father are one
John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. (to the Pharisees)
John 14: 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love them and show myself to them.”