Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during September 2020]

New rules have been introduced: Leave your shoes, outdoor clothes and bags at the door; no food or soft drinks to be brought in; make sure your hands are clean; do not move the furniture; sit only where indicated; no crisps, popcorn or chewing gum.

Is this the government panicking about COVID and trying to enforce social distancing? They may well be, but these particular rules have been imposed because someone splashed out on a new carpet. Maybe ‘splashed’ is not the most appropriate word since that is what the rules are intended to prevent.

How do we feel about rules? To what point can we justify exploiting the loopholes in the letter of the law? What should we do about rules that are obviously badly drafted and have unwanted consequences? In his letter to Christians in Rome, Paul suggests that we should obey temporal rules wholeheartedly, especially because those who make the rules have been placed in their positions by God’s authority.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. [Romans 13 v1-2, NIV]

By contrast, Douglas Bader once said “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”. Many of us whose consider ourselves to be more ‘in-touch’ than the rule makers might be inclined to agree!

Throughout history we can identify occasions when things have been improved because someone was willing to disobey the rules. Daniel and his three friends defied the laws that Nebuchadnezzar had made but the outcome was that the king himself came to recognise God. Obadiah defied the instructions of king Ahab and thereby saved over a hundred of God’s people. All over the world people are still rebelling against despots and unjust rules.

In the early books of the Old Testament, God goes to great lengths to set out the rules that He wanted the Israelites to follow, and much of the rest of the Old Testament recounts what happened when they didn’t. We know that following the rules cannot reconcile the difference but, as EH Swinstead reminds us,

“There’s a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, There’s a door that is open and you may go in, At Calvary’s cross is where you begin, When you come as a sinner to Jesus.”

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[This message was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 13/Sep/2020]

Heard of Hiroshima? Yes … or The Nanking Massacre in 1937? Maybe only recently. Up to 300,000 Chinese were killed by the Japanese Army.
It is estimated that 20 million Chinese were killed between 1931 and 1945.

The book ‘Two Pilgrims Meet –In search of Reconciliation between China and Japan’ by Minoru Kasai and Basil Scott looks at all the issues of the time from opposing perspectives. Minoru and Basil met at Banaras Hindu University, in India, in 1963. They discovered that both had spent their childhood in Shanghai. Minoru’s Japanese parents worked there in freedom, whilst Basil was interned with his missionary parents in a Japanese Prisoner Of War (POW) camp alongside Eric Liddell. Minoru was also a Christian and he and Basil regularly prayed together. Minoru moved to the USA and they then lost contact.

In 2005 amazingly through a mutual contact in Cambridge they were put in touch again. Basil now regularly visits Minoru in Japan. This book lists all the attempts for reconciliation and it is a concentrated read. If anyone would like to borrow the book please contact me. Andy P. has it at the moment as he knows Basil … whilst I met him many years ago on a plane to India!

Ed note: The book that Priscilla recommends is also available in Kindle format, at
Two Pilgrims Meet

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[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], September 2020]

In the messiness and upheaval in life is it possible to be in control? Can I really have certainty in my life?

We’ve had a fair amount of uncertainty this week. Not only are the Brexit negotiations going a little bit haywire but also COVID restrictions have been increased and there’s a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds. Is there going to be a lockdown? Is there going to be a second spike? How can we find some certainty in all this? How can we find some stability? How can we feel in control again?

^[00:44] Probably one of the things that we look forward the most in life is security, is control. We like to be in control because when we’re in control we feel less stressed, and it’s those situations in life where we feel that we’ve lost control that we find the most stressful. It could be a wedding, it could be a loss of a job, it could be the loss of a loved one, it could be sickness, it could be a house move. Those situations when no matter what you do, something comes up which makes things difficult, which makes things stressful. The only certainty that we can have in life is that there is no certainty.

^[01:34] So how do we respond to this lack of security, this lack of certainty, this lack of control in life? Is there any way of getting it? I’ve got a tattoo on my forearm, it’s a picture of an anchor with the words “Firm and Secure” and this comes from a passage in Hebrews, a book in the New Testament. It’s a book written to a bunch of Christians who were in a difficult situation, they in danger of giving up and the writer of Hebrews wants to encourage them and he tells them these words in chapter 6 and verse 19:

“we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain”

^[02:30] What the writer of Hebrews is talking about here is that because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, that we are held in place, in heaven basically. We’re anchored and our soul, our being is anchored in the heavenly realms and it’s firm and secure. That’s what an anchor does; in the storms it holds a boat in one place and likewise this anchor for the soul holds us firm and secure despite how the storms of life may rage, despite the uncertainties, despite the lack of control, we are firm and secure. Not because of anything that we have done, not because we’ve managed to control a situation. The reality is, we can’t. It’s a bit like when I remember our children having a toy steering wheel attached to their car seats so that they could feel like they’re driving the car and sometimes we can think that we’re in control, that we are steering our course through life. The reality is that we are not in the driver’s seat, that we have no control.

^[03:49] And yet we can find security in life because of Jesus. Not certainty in the here and now because we’re just not certain of what is going to be happening around the corner but we have got a sure and certain hope for our future. Because of Jesus Christ, my ultimate destination is secure. Jesus, God, is in control and what I need to learn, what I need to rely on is not so much certainty and control but trust in Jesus.

[1] YouTube link: Can I Have Certainty in Life?
Bible references: Hebrews ch 6 v19

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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during September 2020]

It’s that time of year when, in much of the northern hemisphere, the harvests are gathered in. In Biblical times, when much of the known world was agrarian, the quantity and quality of the harvest was of major importance. There were no means for long-distance transport or long-term storage to cater for out-of-season needs – what you ate is what you grew. Maybe that is why so much of the Bible has a rural context. Even today, when supermarkets can supply a full range of produce year-round to a majority-urban population, we still need those people who are willing to have a hands-on experience of harvest.

As I write these reflections, I can look out onto an agricultural landscape. In some fields stooks of maize are drying. The sun and the rain have done their work, now it is the time for the farmer to bring in the harvest. The dried stooks will be loaded onto horse-drawn carts and taken home where the kernels are ground for flour or chicken feed, the stripped cobs are kept for winter kindling and the foliage becomes silage for winter feed for cattle. The roots are ploughed back into the ground to provide nourishment for next year’s crop, and thus no part of the crop is without its value.

Sheaves feature in several Bible accounts. Joseph had a dream about sheaves and that got him into a lot of trouble, Ruth gathered amongst the sheaves in Boaz’s field and that changed her life too. Psalm 126 tells us that “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” In 1874 Knowles Shaw penned these words with the same theme:

Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

His hymn draws parallels between agricultural harvest and the harvest of human souls. Gathering sheaves is hard work, they are dry, dusty and can be painful to handle, and that is not the end of the process. Are human souls any easier? Some are willing to go out into the field to bring in the harvest. Who is willing to invest the necessary time and effort to encourage and instruct the ‘new harvest’ so that they become a valuable resource in God’s storehouse?
Thank God for such people!

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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during September 2020]

Do some of the locations named in the Bible arouse your curiosity? We are told that names given to Biblical characters are often very significant, but what about the locations? We know about Jerusalem, Jericho and Joppa, and we can find maps of Abraham’s wanderings, the exodus from Egypt and Paul’s missionary journeys but what about the lesser-known places?

Some names are simply geographical locations. The fugitive David hid in the caves of Abdullam and in the desert area around En-gedi, both remote places where it would be difficult for his pursuers to find him. Other places such as Jehovahjireh, Bethel and Ebenezer bear names that remind us of particular events.

In Deuteronomy 32 Moses is told that he will die on Mount Nebo. For me, Mount Nebo is a popular tourist spot to the north of Brisbane yet nobody thinks that Moses died in Australia. Why does Revelation record letters to a small settlement in southeast Pembrokeshire and a large city on a continent that won’t be discovered for another 1,500 years? Both Sardis and Philadelphia are namesakes of those Biblical cities whilst the ‘original’ Mount Nebo is in Jordan.

Other names have a metaphorical significance. The book of Psalms has a number of examples, including “It is as the dew of Hermon” (Psalm 133) and “Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek, that I live among the tents of Kedar!” (Psalm 120). Hermon is a mountain that was a source of water for northern Israel, Meshek was one of the rudest nations at that time while to dwell in the tents of Kedar was to be cut off from the worship of the true God.

Returning to our previous examples, Jehovahjireh was the name that Abraham gave to the place where he had been about to sacrifice Isaac but God provided a substitute. Bethel was where Jacob had his dream of a stairway to heaven, a means of direct communication with God. Ebenezer means ‘Hitherto has the Lord helped us’.

Together these remind us that God provided a substitute who took the punishment for our sins, that we can have direct communication with God and that He will continue to be our refuge and strength.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Sep/2020]

Have you ever felt like an outsider? I suspect that most of us have felt this at one time and sadly one place where this is often experienced is in the church.

I remember feeling very isolated at a previous church, as the only single parent, the only adoptive parent and the only parent of children with special needs. One day I was talking with another woman who I assumed was at the centre of things, as a deacon, a long standing church member and having the ideal family with a Christian husband and a “normal” child. Yet before I mentioned my own feelings of isolation, she confided in me that she felt rejected and on the outside of the church.

Feelings of isolation can arise because we feel different from those around us, or because past experiences of rejection make us assume that others will reject us. The need to belong is fundamental and the feeling of being an outsider can be excruciatingly painful. Recently I had a dream in which I discovered that a number of things had been happening to people at church, like moving house or getting engaged, of which I had been unaware. The hurt of being excluded stayed with me even after waking up, but then I felt God was saying to me: “You need never be excluded from my church. If you listen to me, I will gladly tell you the things that I am doing in the church. These things are far more important than who has moved house, got engaged or who is having a baby.”

Many of us have felt isolated over the past few months. It must be particularly hard for those who do not have internet access, or who are unable to leave their homes. Yet we can draw comfort from the story in Numbers 11, in which Moses gathered 70 of the elders together and God poured his Spirit on them. For some reason 2 of the elders had not gone with the others, but God still poured out his Spirit on them where they were. Even if we are unable to meet together, God can still pour out his blessing on us wherever we are.

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