Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 18/Nov/2018]

Last Sunday’s service was very moving as we thought of the Armistice 100 years ago to end the First World War, and remembered the sacrifice of those who died in that war and subsequent wars to give us peace today.

We shall soon have our thoughts on Advent and the coming of Jesus. One Old Testament prophecy that is often quoted is Isaiah 9:6 – 7 and is relevant to our thoughts of war in the past. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus came 2000 years ago and yet our world is still full of wars and death but He is still the Prince of Peace.

The Old Testament has two sets of promises about the coming Messiah, Jesus. First as a Suffering Servant and then as a powerful, worldwide king. He fulfilled the first prophecies when he died on the cross and as we believe in Him He gives us forgiveness and cleansing, and peace with God. But after He came back to life and went to be with His Father in heaven, there are many prophecies in the Bible that He will come again. Then He will fulfil the other prophecies about His coming to be King of Kings when we shall see Him as truly the Prince of Peace.

At the Ascension two men in white said to the disciples, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) Jesus himself said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:3)

Paul describes this momentous event in 1 Thess. 4:16 – 17.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Following this, Jesus will again stand on this earth and begin His reign of peace over all those remaining in the world who had not been raised. If taken literally, this will last for a thousand years as we see in Revelation 20:1 – 6 and by His grace we shall reign with Him. He will restore creation and there will be no wars, no poverty, no famine and not even global warming nor plastic pollution. In fact, He will show us how we should have been caring for this world for the past few thousand years. Here are some of the prophecies in the Bible that point to what it will be like in His coming kingdom.

“In his days the righteous will flourish: prosperity will abound till the moon is no more. He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.” “All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him.” (Psalm 72:7 – 8, 11)

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.” (Isaiah 11:6 – 7)

“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)

I haven’t room for more verses about His kingdom, or even to talk about the new heavens and a new earth which follow after.

As we remember the past let’s also look forward to the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus, coming again to reign. At the end of the Bible, Jesus says
“Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 04/Nov/2018]

It is perhaps to be expected, on the eve of Bonfire Night, that our thoughts would turn to those events that took place on 5th November. There have been some notable English births on this date: Pete Noone, the Herman in Herman’s Hermits; Tilda Swinton who played the White Witch in the Narnia Chronicles and Jonny Greenwood from the rock band Radiohead – he has the middle name Guy, I wonder why!

The 5th November 1688 saw what was possibly the last occasion in which England was invaded by force of arms (to date, at least). William III of Orange landed at Brixham with a large army, intent on preventing the majority Protestant population from being forcibly converted to Catholicism. He was successful.

Of course, the most prominent ‘memory’ of 5th November is that of Guy Fawkes and his role in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In another example of a dispute when both sides claim to be Christians, Guy Fawkes was one of a group of conspirators who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and replace the reigning monarch with one more sympathetic to the Catholic minority. He was not successful.

Actually, the obsession with Guys goes back a lot further than that. Consider the scene on 5th November in the year 0000: the Lord God was walking in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening but it was unusually quiet so He called out “Where is that guy?” (Genesis 3 v9) Adam’s answer “with a bird in the bush” was far from satisfactory and human history went downhill from there. Not a great success.

A long time later a glimmer of hope appeared when Jesus Christ was walking beside the Sea of Galilee. He called out to some fishermen “Be my guys” and that was the beginning of a global movement which is still proclaiming a message of hope for all who will believe in Him. Successful or not, sooner or later we must all face the choice that Joshua put before the Israelites – “choose you this day whom you will serve” or, in the parlance of these thoughts, “Whose guy are you?”.

Does that trigger your thoughts? A penny for them then.
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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, October 2018]

Every now and then, along this pilgrim journey, it is possible to get so used to where you are now, that you forget where you’ve come from. I’ll expand on this …

Paul says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Paul also says we shouldn’t forget who we were before we were called. Left to our own devices, we soon begin to look down on those who don’t quite meet a standard we have set. We become proud. It is important to ask for God’s grace not to do this. As CS Lewis says, “as long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

While I was working at Benenden hospital in Kent, a patient shared this with me:

“I dreamt that death came to me the other night,
Heaven’s gate swung open wide,
An angel with halo bright,
Ushered me inside. 
And there to my astonishment
Stood people whom I had judged and labelled,
As quite unfit and spiritually disabled. 
Harsh words rose to my lips, but never were set free,
For much to my surprise,
No one it seemed, expected me!”

As followers of Christ we will go to heaven not because we’ve earned the right to be there, but rather, because for reasons we may never know, God decided that we were worthy of His love. Let us receive this free gift and be eternally thankful.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, Declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55: 7-8

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 23/Sep/2018]

I will instruct and teach you in the way you should go (Psalm 32:8)

During the past few weeks, satnavs have featured in Sunday sermons. David Makanjuola told us how he bought one to help him drive in the United States and was then disappointed when it didn’t work. Last Sunday, Laura Moncaster said that she put the wrong post code into a satnav and was then very upset when it took her and her relatives to the wrong place.

I have a feature on my satnav that chooses a route even if you don’t put one in. This is fine if you go out for the day and then it automatically takes you home when it’s time to return. But if we know where we are going we don’t bother to select a route. A few Sundays ago we came to church and were surprised that it guided us to church audibly, even though it wasn’t in view. This happened on the following Sundays and last Sunday the satnav was in view on the dashboard. I was amazed to see the question on the screen, “Are you going to church?” Before I could tap on “Yes” it selected the route for us. How great to have something to guide you even when you don’t expect it to.

This reminded me of the well known Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd…….He leads me beside quiet waters…….He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” I can certainly say that by believing in Jesus as my Saviour, I have found that guidance in my own life and one of my favourite hymns over the years confirms my belief.

All the way my Saviour leads me:
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell:
For I know whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

The last verse fills me with joyful trust that even at the end of my life Jesus will lead me to the home he has prepared for me. No need for a satnav to ask, “Are you going to heaven?” Jesus has already chosen the right route for me and He will tell me, “You have reached your destination!”

All the way my Saviour leads me;
Oh, the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages –
Jesus led me all the way.

Is Jesus your Satnav through life too?

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 09/Sep/2018]

In my previous contribution to these pages I hinted at an interest in the time periods included in many of the Bible stories. Maybe it has something to do with being born during the relatively short reign of George VI, or maybe it’s the fallout from having spent so long in a working environment where I had to account for every quarter-hour. Consider for example the account of Abraham’s visitors in Genesis 18. How long would it take to select a fatted calf, slaughter it, draw it, skin it, butcher it, cook it and then serve it? Maybe they had a sandwich whilst they were waiting!

Recently we have been delving into the story of Esther, courtesy of Neil, Paul, Martin and David. (I wonder if a woman’s perspective might have been different!) Those events occurred at a particular time in history (maybe around 480 BC) but did you notice the duration of the various stages of the story itself? The initial banquet lasted 180 days. I recently went to a wedding reception where five main courses were served in so many hours; most of the guests took the final two courses home in doggie-bags. What must have 180 days been like – not to mention the additional seven days for the staff? There was another six years whilst the King tried to force the Greeks into submission (the IMF tried the same 2,500 years later with rather more success). Then Esther took 12 months to prepare herself to meet the king – even by modern standards that is a bit much for a first date.

Our usual ‘take-away’ from the story of Esther is her guardian’s admonition that “Maybe you have come into your position for such a time as this”. Esther, Joseph, Moses, Mordecai and Nehemiah all attained positions to influence the affairs of state in alien cultures; the royal court was their ‘front line’. The front line is different for each one of us but the formula that defines our response is the same: “What can I do, here, now, where I’m at?”

Or, as Elsie Yale wrote …
There’s a work for Jesus, ready at your hand,
There’s a work for Jesus none but you can do.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, August 2018]
 
My wife and I decided to go for a walk down the path behind our house. We’ve been in Smallfield for 4 years now and we both wondered why this was the first time that we had walked down this path. It wound past houses, then open fields, then through an industrial estate, then down to Burstow Manor past some rather angry guard dogs (thank God for fences) and then down a country road and back to the main road. Some of the scenery looked so different to our neighbourhood and we noted that if we’d been shown photos of the path we’d walked, we would have said they were photos of somewhere else, but certainly not Smallfield.

It got me thinking that we have been attending Horley Baptist church since we moved here 4 years ago. In that time, we have met quite a few people in church, but I must confess that there are some I have only seen, but never had a chance (or gone out of my way to make the effort) to talk to. There might be all sorts of reasons (excuses) for this, but perhaps none that a determined effort on my part wouldn’t address.

Paul wrote to the Galatians and asked them to ‘Carry each other’s burdens’ and later on in the letter, he says ‘Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers’ (Galatians 6:2). It is unlikely that I will do either of these things if I don’t get to know the people around me.

There are many within our congregation and our neighbourhoods who could do with a listening ear, an encouraging word, or perhaps just a hug. I’d like to encourage you in the week ahead to make an effort to introduce yourself to that person you haven’t talked to yet and not just in church. You might be the one through whom God decides to pass His blessings on to them, or perhaps that they might be the one through whom God blesses you.

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