Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 28/Sep/2014]

During the Second World War my mum was travelling by train to Eastbourne to stay with my dad’s family for a few days. He was away in the army at the time and mum was expecting a baby – that was me. As the train arrived at Eastbourne station the town was bombed by the German air force. As bombs started exploding all around, my mum dived for cover under the seat and stayed there until the bombing stopped. When she climbed out she found the station badly damaged and the train was leaning against the platform, but at least she was safe and able to stay with the family. I was born a few months later to the south of London and at the time there was also an air raid, but again we were both kept safe and thankfully I am here today.

I was reminded of how by grace I survived the bombs, even when I was an unborn baby, as I read these words to a friend a few days ago. They are from the psalm that Katy Prior encouraged us to read in “Yours” last week.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (Symbolically “the womb”)
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139: 13 – 16 ESV.

King David, when he wrote that psalm, was saying that God could see the future. He knew and loved David before he was born and what was going to happen during his life. As a result he humbly realised that the knowledge of God was too wonderful for him, and us, to understand. Other writers in the Bible knew the same truth. Jeremiah was told by God, “Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work.” Jeremiah 1:5 NCV and Paul too in one of his letters said, “God had special plans for me and set me apart for his work even before I was born.” Galatians 1:15 NCV.

That same principle is true for each one of us. God knew us and loved us before our birth. He even knew beforehand the time when we would come to believe that Jesus is our Saviour God, and what we would do for him in our lives to help bring about his will on earth. I find that is a great encouragement to me and I hope to you. God in his love will not let anything happen to us that stops us fulfilling the plans he has for our lives. That’s why the bombs didn’t bring my life to an end when I was still in the womb. It’s also why we can trust him for the future, even beyond the end of time itself. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV. We may not know his future plans for us now, but we will. As David said in his psalm, God has already written them in his book.

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[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Jul/2014]

One of the many churches around Jerusalem is the Church of the Paternoster (which means “Our Father”) and is built above a grotto where Jesus is believed to have taught the Lord’s Prayer. The church is famous for the tiled panels in the cloisters which show the Lord’s Prayer in more than 60 different languages. When we visited there our guide, Amnon, who is fluent in several languages, read the Lord’s Prayer from a number of the panels and ended with the one in Hebrew. He then asked me to read the prayer from Matthew’s gospel and when I finished I said, “Shall we say the Lord’s Prayer together”. I hadn’t meant it as a question but the whole group enthusiastically called out “Yes!” For us to have had the experience of praying that prayer where Jesus first taught it to His followers was very moving.

I was reminded of this when Russell used the prayer as a basis for the service entitled “A Praying Community”. In pointing out the importance of praying together he emphasised that the prayer begins with “Our Father”, and so our church should take every opportunity to meet together in prayer, which is very true. But what about those times when we pray alone? I use a devotional prayer book which often includes the Lord’s Prayer and it didn’t seem completely correct to start the prayer with “Our” when I was praying on my own. It took a while for me to realise that every time I started the prayer that there would be others, perhaps thousands and thousands of Christians around the world, who were praying the Lord’s Prayer at the same time as me. To God who hears all these prayers at the same time this means that we are praying to OUR Father together even though we are miles apart and are praying the prayer in all the different languages and more that are displayed in the Church of the Paternoster. This makes the Lord’s Prayer, and all other prayers as well, so meaningful and powerful, whether we are seemingly praying alone or at those special times when we pray together as a church, because we are praying as part of a much larger community.

There is a time coming when the whole community of believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour will gather as one body and pray together in the heavenly realms. The apostle John saw a vision of this and described it in this way.

“After this I saw a vast crowd too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting in a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” (Rev 7:9-10 NLT)

A modern songwriter expressed a desire for this time in a way we can all relate to.
“I long to be where the praise is never ending, yearn to dwell where the glory never fades;
Where countless worshippers will share one song and cries of “worthy” will honour the Lamb!”

At that time there will be one community of countless worshippers, the whole Church, singing one song, a prayer of praise and worship to our Father who saves us.

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