Four bad reasons to be kind to other people

Why are you kind? Why do you serve and demonstrate love to other people? Of course, the 'right' answer – certainly if you're a Christian – is that as follower of Christ you simply want to replicate his example. And even if you're not, there are definitely times when you decide to act kindly just because you want to be kind – because you're a nice person.

If we're really honest though, that's not always the case. Sometimes, our motives for being kind to other people are a little more mixed than that. It seems to me that there are a number of other possible reasons behind our desire to serve others. And while none of these reasons prevent good works from being accomplished, or people from benefiting from kind acts, they're not actually the type of kindness that Jesus calls us to in the gospels.

In Mark 9 v 35, Jesus invites us to become 'the very last... and the servant to all'. The kindness that he models (through washing the feet of his disciples and more) is one of submission and service to everyone around us - from our closest friends to the people we find most difficult. Jesus asks that we love one another for no other reason except that he is calling us to do it. So here are four other reasons why we might choose to be kind which – while they still might result in good being done – aren't directly following that example.

Kindness... because of how it makes me feel

Sometimes we decide to do a good thing for someone else because of how it makes us feel inside. We enjoy the warm fuzzy feelings of helping another person who is less fortunate than ourselves, whether that's by donating something we no longer need, giving a bit of money away, or helping an old lady to cross the road. There's nothing wrong with those things per se, or even the feelings of warmth and pleasure we get from serving another person. Sometimes though what we're really doing here is assuaging our own guilt about the privileges we enjoy. If you're wealthy, giving a bit of money away doesn't really involve any sacrifice; if you've finished with your old baby clothes, then handing them to a new mum comes at no cost to you. Again, none of these things are bad things to do – but if we're using them as a way of feeling better about ourselves, then that's not pure, Christ-like kindness.

Kindness... because other people are watching

I was once walking along with a well-known worship leader near to where I worked at the time. Ahead of us, slumped in the doorway of a cafe, I saw the figure of a homeless man who I had passed hundreds of times before. In all those occasions, I may have stopped to buy him a coffee twice. This time however, I knew the well-known worship leader was watching. I stopped us in front of the man, engaged him in warm conversation, and bought him a sandwich from the cafe. I hoped the well-known worship leader would be impressed, and tell other famous worship leaders of this extraordinary Christ-like kindness that he had witnessed. Perhaps on some level I hoped he would write a song about me, or at the very least add me to the sleeve notes of his next album. Neither of these things happened.

In Matthew 6 v 1, Jesus says, 'Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.' He knew what he was talking about, and I had totally failed that test. We all have an innate desire to impress others, to be thought of as good and moral people. Yet if this becomes the motivation for our kind acts, then we're not truly kind, but a bit manipulative.

Kindness... because of what we might get in return

Then sometimes, we actually have quite selfish motives for being kind. There are situations and occasions where we know that if we do something, we'll get something in return. We basically put ourselves in someone else's debt, so that at some point they'll pay us back. As a child, I learned that it was much more profitable for me to be helpful around the house, or to offer to wash the car or mow the lawn in the week directly after my father had been paid. A week earlier, and all I'd get was a word of thanks and a ruffle of the hair. If I was 'kind' when my dad was flush with cash, I might get a couple of pounds for my trouble.

Yes, I was an abhorrent child, and was subsequently washed in the redeeming blood of Christ in order that I might slowly become transformed into the bastion of virtue you now see before you. But my hunch is that lots of us still do this sort of thing, if in slightly less machiavellian ways. Offering to babysit for someone so that they'll feel obliged to return the favour, or even – and let's be honest, we've all done this – buying a round early so that it won't be your turn when more people arrive. This isn't kindness for its own sake, but for ours.

Kindness... for strategic reasons

Then as Christians, known as we are for our fabulous do-gooding (a double-edged insult if ever there was one), we even theologise our mixed motives. Sometimes we behave kindly for strategic reasons, serving others in order that they might realise there is something different about us, and begin to ask questions. In fact, there have been a number of huge social action missions in the UK over the last 15 years which all had this central idea at their heart. Young Christians descend on a town or city, and begin clearing gardens, painting walls and putting on 'fun days' for the local community. None of these things are bad, and all offer an opportunity to love and serve others. The problem is when our kindness is only offered because we're hoping for a particular response from those who receive it. Strategic kindness is still loving others on our terms.

I also realise that quite often, we just do kind things because we're kind people. But I use these examples to illustrate what Christian service ISN'T.

It's not about feeling good about ourselves

It's not about looking good in front of other people

It's not about what you might get in return

It's not even about being strategically kind so that people might respond.

Christian service is simply enacting the Big Idea of the Kingdom of God – where everyone looks out for and cares for everyone else – and an act of worship and obedience to Jesus. In fact, in some way it's also an act of service to Jesus himself. In Matthew 25, he famously says, 'truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me.' As Graham Kendrick once wrote in his song The Servant King: 'Let us learn how to serve... each other's needs to prefer, for it is Christ we're serving.'

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How to pray in your darkest times

On one of the worst days of my life I strode out of the house and over the hills.

It was summer. The sun was warm and pleasant, the sky was a pleasingly deep shade of blue and there was a gentle breeze.

But although it was such a beautiful day, I felt shrouded in darkness as I walked. The relentless pressure from seemingly impossible circumstances was taking its toll. I felt like the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins who once wrote: 'O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall – frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.'

The agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as he faced the imminent prospect of his own crucifixion must have been far worse of course. And yet – somehow – in that valley of the shadow of death, Jesus managed to pray.

As we continue our fortnightly pilgrimage through Mark's gospel we stand upon holy ground as we see Jesus throwing himself on the earth (Mark 14:35) and praying in agony. What can we ourselves learn from how he prayed?

1. He asked his friends to support him. Mark notes that Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John (v33) – no doubt because he wished for their company and their help. But he quickly found out – when his friends fell asleep – that they could not be relied upon. And we, too, may rightly seek help from others. But we also may do well to remember that even the best-intentioned human friends may let us down in our greatest time of need.

2. He spoke intimately with God. 'Abba, Father,' Jesus begins his prayer (v36), using the Aramaic word which always denotes intimate affection and devotion. Jesus remembered that however painful his situation was, he could speak to God not as some distant impersonal force and still less as a hostile, uncaring deity – but rather as his heavenly father. And so can we.

3. He remembered God's sovereignty. The first thing he says to God is, 'For you all things are possible'. We can only pray because God is sovereign – God is the King who reigns. Ultimately God is in control – even when evil seems to have the upper hand, we don't understand what he is doing and it is incredibly painful. It is the recognition that with God all things are possible that drives us to prayer in the first place.

4. He said what he wanted. 'Remove this cup from me' is what Jesus boldly asks. That's quite a request. On one level it is perfectly understandable: no-one would want to go through the excruciating pain of crucifixion. On another level, it is the salvation of the world about which we are talking here and yet – extraordinarily – Jesus is able to say clearly that he would like the cup to be removed. I can see no reason why we cannot be completely open and honest with God about exactly what we would like too.

5. He submitted himself to God's will. Having stated what he wants, Jesus then adds: 'Yet not what I want, but what you want,' (v36). True prayer always seeks to align itself with the will of God, recognising that, 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts,' (Isaiah 55:9).

It's sobering to realise that the answer to Jesus' prayer was 'no'. The cup was not removed from him. Our agonies will never approach his, for none of us will have to bear the sins of the world. And yet as Tom Wright comments: 'If even Jesus received that answer – no – to one of his most heartfelt prayers, we should not be surprised if sometimes it's that way for us too.'

My prayers on the hills on that bleakest, darkest sunlit day were not answered with a 'yes' at once either. And yet, looking back, I can see God was doing things I could never have imagined at the time. Moreover there have been times since when I have seen God answer prayer with breath-taking specificity in wildly improbable ways. Prayer is not about putting money in a slot machine and getting chocolate out of the bottom. It's about a relationship with a God who may well take us through pain to accomplish things well beyond our mental horizon.

As Robert Velarde has written: 'When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, "Yet not as I will, but as You will," He offered a tremendous but seemingly simple insight into prayer: God is in charge.' And so as I go through my day today I pray simply: 'Lord, keep me in the centre of your will – even when I don't know what it is.' Amen.

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Pope Francis to world leaders: 'listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor'

Pope Francis has called for world leaders to 'listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor', ahead of tomorrow's World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which will feature a joint statement with Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Bartholomew I.

On Friday Pope Francis will release an ecumenical statement with the Orthodox Church about caring for the environment.

Pope Francis said yesterday that a full message about the importance of environmental care, from both him and 'our dear brother Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople', would be released Friday, according to Vatican Radio.

'In [the message],' the pontiff said, 'we invite all to assume a respectful and responsible attitude towards Creation.'

He added that they 'also appeal, to all who occupy influential roles, to listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, who suffer most from ecological imbalances.'

The Pope instituted September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in the Catholic calendar in 2015, in an ecumenical move that joined the Orthodox Church – which has marked the day since 1989.

Pope Francis has frequently made humanity's relationship to the environment a central theme of his pontificate. In 2015 he released the major encyclical Laudato Si, in which the pope called for a committed fight against global warming to protect 'our common home'. In 2016, Francis proposed adding care for the natural world to the seven 'works of mercy' Catholics are meant to perform.

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Is God angry? If so, why?

We don't like to think of God being angry, do we?

After all, the New Testament declares that 'God is love' – and that instinctively sounds rather appealing. The idea of the Lord being angry in some way is something from which we might well instinctively recoil. It also doesn't feel very appealing in terms of marketing God to your average spiritual sceptic in this day and age!

But when we read the teaching of Jesus we have to conclude that, yes, God indeed does experience anger – or 'wrath' to use the word that the Bible seems to prefer. And as we continue our fortnightly pilgrimage through Mark's gospel, Jesus helps us understand what that means – and what it doesn't mean too.

As he approaches his crucifixion, Jesus falls to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane and prays, 'Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want,' (Mark 14v36).

We might think that 'the cup' is simply a figure of speech relating to the suffering Jesus knows he will endure on the cross; after all, in contemporary English we use another piece of crockery as simple metaphor, saying we have a lot 'on our plate' – albeit in the rather less serious context of saying how busy we are.

But Jesus' disciples would have known 'the cup' was not just a colloquialism. For as Jeremy McQuoid writes, 'The cup was an Old Testament motif pointing to the wrath of God, used in the context of exiles when God poured His wrath out on decadent, sinful Jerusalem by allowing Babylonian invaders to tear the holy city apart.' And Donald English, former chair of the World Methodist Council, comments: 'The cup, in a number of Old Testament passages, is about suffering and punishment, usually at God's hand.'

For example, in Jeremiah 25 we find God saying, 'Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath.' And Isaiah 51 speaks of those who have 'who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath'.

Still not convinced? Think of it this way: there are three basic options when we consider the way the universe is. Perhaps there is no God – and so the cosmos is a place in which, ultimately, evil doesn't matter, and those who get away with wickedness in this life will never, ever be held accountable. Or maybe, secondly, there is a God – but he doesn't really care about right and wrong at all.

The third option is that there is a God and he does care about justice and injustice. And that's the Christian view of things. In fact, God cares so much about these things that when he sees oppression, injustice and violence his reaction is one of anger. The Church of England's funeral liturgy describes God as 'justly angered by our sins'.

The problem is that our anger is often rather hot-headed, cruel and unfair. Sometimes we are simply taking out our own failings on others. But God's wrath is not like that at all. The Anglican theologian J.I. Packer writes in his classic Knowing God: 'God's wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.' And another Anglican theologian, Ian Paul, cites Stephen Travis in Christ and the Judgement of God speaking of the wrath of God as 'an attitude rather than a feeling' and Michael Green describing it 'as God's settled opposition to all that is evil'.

Perhaps all this sounds rather abstract. But we need to be clear that God is justly angry about evil, oppression, injustice and sin – including mine and yours – and that 'the cup of God's wrath' is a motif the Bible uses to speak of his reaction.

And then perhaps we will just begin to understand the magnitude of what Jesus is struggling with in the Garden of Gethsemane. For he knows – with a wide-eyed clarity we can scarcely comprehend – that on the cross he is going to drink that cup himself, even though he has done nothing to deserve it, so that we don't have to.

Steven Lee, a pastor at College Church, Wheaton, Illinois, puts it so well: 'Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath for us so that he could extend the cup of God's fellowship to us... We don't get wrath anymore – now we get God. We get the sweet, satisfying reality of his eternal fellowship in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. This is the cup we drink now and forever. This is the cup that we offer to those who don't know him yet, imploring them in God's mercy: Come, drink this cup with us – because Jesus drank that cup for us.'

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Cameroon bishop was killed for opposing homosexual clergy, local priest alleges

A Cameroon bishop who was found dead in June was killed for his opposition to homosexual clergy, a local priest has alleged.

Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala of Bafia, Cameroon was found dead in mysterious circumstances in June.

Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala of Bafia was found dead on June 2, 2017, in mysterious circumstances – his body discovered in a river four miles from his abandoned car after he went missing on May 31.

Now it has been alleged that the 58-year-old bishop was killed for opposing homosexual priests, according to Crux.

Speaking in a memorial Mass homily for the bishop on Thursday, Monsignor Joseph Akonga Essomba gestured towards government ministers and certain clergy present at the service and said: 'Shame to all those people in black suits and black spectacles always sitting in the front rows of the Church.

'Shame to all those priests who have come here, pretending to sympathise. These are the people who killed our bishop, because he said 'No" to the homosexuality perpetrated by those priests.'

Bishop George Nkuo of Kumbo, Cameroon said: 'The same reasons for which Christ was crucified apply to the killing of the bishop.

'He was killed because he stood for the truth. Any pastor, any bishop, any priest who stands for the truth should be ready to face the sword. It's a beautiful way to die.'

A police investigation into Bishop Bala's death concluded that he had drowned. However, Cameroon bishops rejected the report, insisting he was tortured and 'brutally assassinated', according to their evidence.

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Veteran Christian country star Glen Campbell dies at 81

The veteran country musician Glen Campbell died yesterday at age 81, after an ongoing battle with Alzheimer's disease. Campbell was a born-again Christian who had shared how his faith saved him from a cocaine addiction.

Glen Campbell was a American country icon and born-again Christian who was open about his faith.

 Glen Travis Campbell, who famously recorded hits such as Rhinestone Cowboy, Wichita Lineman and Gentle on My Mind died at an Nashville Alzheimer's facility surrounded by his family, his publicist announced.

His family wrote in a statement on the singer's website: 'It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease.'

Campbell announced he was suffering from the disease in June 2011, after which he embarked on a farewell tour across the US that concluded in November 2012.

The acclaimed singer-guitarist has won six Grammy Awards and had nine no 1 records in his five-decade career.

The artist's stardom also led to personal troubles, including drug abuse and alcoholism. However in 1981 Campbell became a born-again Christian and added hymns to his musical repertoire.

He said in 1990: 'Christ has delivered me from all the evil I was in. I'm happier now than ever in my life...I love singing gospel music and hymns. Being a Christian, I love to tell people about Christ and what he's done for me and can do for them.'

After three failed marriages, Campbell settled with his fourth wife, Kim Woolen in 1982.

He told the magazine Guideposts about how his faith enabled him to leave behind his cocaine addiction and his alcoholism. He said: 'When God lifted my obsession for alcohol it was as if he raised the curtain on a whole new life. He changed me in ways I never could have changed myself, and that is the key. Kim and I have a real marriage now, an honest marriage.

'Today I truly have a peace "which passeth all understanding". I really don't understand it. But I thank the Lord all the time. I am a man richly blessed, despite myself. For all that God has given me, there is nothing for which I am more thankful than Kim.'

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What are demons and how do they operate? Christian exorcist explains

An excorcist in Los Angeles has warned Christians about the things they must never, ever do if they are to avoid demonic possession.

Dabbling with the spiritual world can be seen as innocent fun and games by many people but the exorcist, identified only as Father Robert because of the sensitivies of his work, said they are anything but.

Not only are they going against God's commands, they are actually opening the door to demons, not good spirits.

It's this interaction with demons that makes him say that the Ouija board is an absolute no no for people.

'The Ouija board is something to be avoided at all cost. This is a direct invitation for a demon to move the object on the board,' he said in an interview with FaithWire. "God and angels have nothing to do with parlor games. These methods of conjuring spirits go against the first commandment. This is the reason why King Saul initially had all sorcery banned from Judah.'

Sadly, many Christian churches and seminaries do not teach in depth about the spiritual world and particularly the presence of demons and because of this, many people are ignorant about them.

That goes against Jesus' teaching practice as he openly spoke about demons and how to combat them during his earthly ministry.

In fact, it's because Jesus talked about them so much we can know they are real, explains Father Robert.

'Jesus talks about it. Therefore, they exist,' he told Faithwire.

Father Roberts, who is a priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, has learned a lot about demons and how they operate.  He explained that they actually have the 'nature of angels' because they were originally created by God as angels.  And because of that, they also have 'infused knowledge of creation.'

But they changed from being good to bad after rebelling against God.  They were expelled from Heaven because they refused to serve their Creator and His creation.

Father Robert revealed an interesting limitation, though.  While we can think demons are all-powerful and can do anything for us that we ask them to, the truth is they are limited by 'what God allows them to do.'

And he starkly warns that humans are deceived if they think demons or demonic power will benefit them or work on their behalf in any way.

'They will get us to believe that they will do things for us but they said from the beginning they will not serve God.  Do you think that they will serve us?' he said.

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