Looking Beyond Traditions

[This reflection by Martin Shorey was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 18/Feb/2024]

Did you manage to have pancakes this Shrove Tuesday? As a family we enjoyed savoury pancakes followed by American style blueberry pancakes. Now, growing up we of course had pancakes, always with lemon juice and sugar, but there was never really any mention of Lent; the period of 40 days of abstinence leading up to Easter.

This was probably due to me being raised in a traditional Baptist church, where anything that whiffed of Catholicism was strictly avoided (during the 80s ecumenicalism was still a dirty word for many), therefore Lent got thrown out along with Mary worship and the papacy.

Now, my Baptist upbringing gave me a strong biblical foundation that I am very grateful for, but just maybe it wasn’t the well-rounded Christianity we thought it was. In some ways it lacked the heart and the heat of the Charismatic expressions of our faith that I was to experience in my late teens, nor did it have the Christ-centred mysticism found in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

Perhaps the smorgasbord of churches we can experience in the UK gives us a much richer experience of Jesus, and yet too many of us view other denominations with suspense and disdain. I have known Christians who see Catholicism as the work of the devil, and do not believe there were any proper Christians before the advent of evangelicalism. I still remember whilst on a church trip to a Romanian Orthodox Church in Luton, the shocked and appalled members of the Baptist church who refused to join the queue of worshippers lining up to revere the beautiful life-sized icons of Christ and his saints.

Now, there are many faults in each expression of Christianity, and we shouldn’t shy away from pointing out errors where we see them, but too often we hide in our own churches and reject those who are different to us, even questioning whether or not their faith is real.

In last Sunday’s sermon we looked at the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well.[1] Samaritans claimed to be the true descendants of Abraham, but the Jews believed that only they were truly God’s people, and had the monopoly on God worship. Interestingly Jesus tells the woman that a time was coming when worship was much more about the ‘Who’ than the ‘How’ and ‘Where’.

If this truly is the case, is it possible for us to look beyond our traditions and listen openly to other Jesus worshippers, recognising that just maybe they might have something to offer that our particular tradition does not. By listening perhaps we can produce a fuller, rounder, and more attractive faith that will point more towards Jesus, than the necessity of any particular tradition?

Resources:
[1] Martin Shorey, Sermon, 11/Feb/2024

Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.

Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.

~~~~~~~~~
HBC logo Horley Baptist Church online
HBC main site
Confidential prayer link

Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
 
Last week’s reflection: Sometimes ‘No’ To What We Want,
But Always ‘Yes’ To What We Need by David Makanjuola
 

: 67
Contributor: Martin Shorey
Read full article ~ Leave a comment

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Yours on Sunday ~ Tags: No tags

It’s a Nightmare

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during February 2024]

Can you recall the feeling of relief that comes when you realise that the horrific events that you have just witnessed were only a nightmare? Perhaps ‘only’ is not an appropriate word to describe the impact of what you have experienced; those moments just before we wake up can be very distressing. (more…)

: 130
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ Leave a comment

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Tuesday Challenge ~ Tags: , ,

Sometimes ‘No’ To What We Want, But Always ‘Yes’ To What We Need

[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 11/Feb/2024]

A close relative of mine is going through a very difficult time. It has involved a lot of prayer and fasting on their part and growing despondency as the situation did not appear to be getting any better. There were times when doubts and confusion set in and she asked “does God not care? Surely He sees what I am going through…”.

She recently sent me a message saying that she had a prompting to pray and after an hour of doing this, she said she ended up telling God that she felt He wasn’t answering her prayers. She then got a phone call. It was from her daughter. She had been on public transport in Nigeria, heading home, when it became clear that the mini-bus driver and a couple of other passengers were up to no good. Kidnapping is rife in parts of the country, and she feared the worst. They then got caught up in a traffic jam and she managed to persuade them to drop her, saying she needed to deliver medication to an ailing relative. It turned out that she was within minutes of her house, and she ran the remaining distance and got home safely. When my sister heard this, she said “God, I was accusing you of not answering my prayers. I had no idea that you were answering the most important ones”.

You may be going through a testing period at the moment, and it might seem that your prayers are hitting a brick wall and can’t get through. I would like to reassure you that God may not grant our wants, but He will meet all our needs.

Christ’s death on the cross was for people like me, people who did not realise that what they needed the most was a way to be reconciled with God, people who did not realise what it would cost Him to make this happen.

Paul the apostle, tries to bring things home to us when in his letter to the Romans, he says about God, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things”.[1] In essence, if God would do that for you, what can there be that you need that He won’t provide for you?

So, however difficult things may seem, don’t stop praying. God’s got your back.

I often quote from songs in my articles in ‘Yours’, and the one that comes to mind are lines from ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’,[2] which say:

Oh what peace we often forfeit,
Oh what needless pains we bear,
All because we do not carry,
Everything to God in prayer.

Resources:
[1] Romans 8 v32 [NIVUK]
[2] Joseph Scriven (1855)

Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.

Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.

~~~~~~~~~
HBC logo Horley Baptist Church online
HBC main site
Confidential prayer link

Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
 
Last week’s reflection: The God Who Sees by Dennis Ginter
 

: 82
Contributor: David Makanjuola
Read full article ~ Leave a comment

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Yours on Sunday ~ Tags: No tags

Whose Image is That?

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during January 2024]

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

In the pre-Disney version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White is the step-daughter of a queen who has a magic mirror, to which she addresses the question above. The mirror assures her that she, the queen, is the most beautiful person in the land. However, as Snow White matures, the mirror starts to answer differently. This drives the queen into a rage of jealousy.

How do we react when someone else gets the recognition that we think we deserve? Can we accept that times change, that there comes a time when we must all hand over to someone else? In this week’s ‘Yours’[1] Dennis described some of his feelings about being overlooked; no doubt many of us can identify with at least some of what he has written.

I was reminded of an illustration although I cannot recall its origin. A person looks into a mirror and sees a dirty mark on her face. She licks her finger and rubs the mirror, but the image only appears smudged. She wipes the mirror with a dry tissue but the mark is still there; she gets some glass clearer and polishes the mirror but the mark still shows. Finally she discards the mirror altogether, choosing to ignore what others can still see.

The point of the illustration was ask whether we behave in a similar way to the Word of God. If we do not like what we see, how do we react? We may be tempted to put the passage into a different context, look around for another version more to our liking or simply ignore the passage altogether.

Returning to Snow White, the queen ordered that her step-daughter should be taken into a local forest and killed. To cut a long story short, that did not happen. The Seven Dwarfs in the story protected Snow White and cared for her until she was able to return to society, thus showing that little people can achieve a lot when working together.

In its classical form, the story of Snow White dates from a collection of German folk tales compiled by the Grimm brothers in the early years of the 19th century. A somewhat older German hymn gives us the true answer to the queen’s question:

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing!

Charles Fry was an English building contractor who is credited with the forming the original Salvation Army band. In 1881 he wrote the lines of his final hymn:

I’ve found a friend in Jesus, He’s everything to me,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;

Approximately 160 years ago, the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon published a collection of reflections which are still popular today. In the passage for the evening of 10th June[2] he wrote:

“… we should consider the Word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see his face reflected as in a glass”

Have you gazed into that mirror today?

References:
[1] Dennis Ginter, HBC Yours, 04/Feb/2024
[2] Charles Spurgeon, ‘Morning and Evening’, p. 207

Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.

Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.

~~~~~~~~~
HBC logo Horley Baptist Church online
HBC main site
Confidential prayer link

Link to Recent Reflections

Link to Index of Bible Passages

Last week’s reflection: It Is Written
 

: 108
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ Leave a comment

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Tuesday Challenge ~ Tags: No tags

The God Who Sees

[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 04/Feb/2024]

Our home group has discovered an amazing worship song, The God Who Sees by Kathy Lee Gifford. She videoed it – appropriately- in the desert of Israel.

When we listened to it this morning, I found myself deeply moved, realising that all my life I’ve been living as though I’m not being seen. My very early childhood helps explain my avoidance of face-to-face relationships, but only now – as I approach 84 – am I becoming aware of how much I’ve missed!

Expecting to be passed over, I’ve preferred to look the other way whenever God or other people have wanted to know me intimately. Almost all the big mistakes I’ve made in life – and there have been many – have been those of a lonely little boy needing to be seen. Sometimes sabotaging relationships, retreating into himself so as to avoid pain.

If this rings a bell with you, just acknowledge it and let the Holy Spirit do what only he can do! I will do what I can to let myself be seen.

Are you joining us for the Essential Jesus reading plan? If you‘d like to you can do so here.

Resources:

Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.

Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.

~~~~~~~~~
HBC logo Horley Baptist Church online
HBC main site
Confidential prayer link

Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
 
Last week’s reflection: Stop Flapping and Soar with Jesus by Chris Ginter
 

: 67
Contributor: Dennis Ginter
Read full article ~ Leave a comment

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Yours on Sunday ~ Tags: No tags

It Is Written

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during January 2024]

What I have written, I have written.[1]

It may be that my poor performance in school exams was partly due to a reluctance to re-read what I had already written. Educators recommend that examinees reserve a little time to review their answers before submitting their answers. On the rare occasion when I actually did this I was able to reconfigure my answer to address the question as actually asked rather than as I thought it had been asked, thus demonstrating that re-reading the question before putting pen to paper has its own benefits.

How often do our initial reactions to what we see or hear change when we take a second look or listen more carefully? One of the apostles offered this advice:

Remember this, my beloved brethren: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to anger James 1 v19 [NCB]

Many of us will have been encouraged to memorise Bible verses during our earlier years and some churches still have a weekly memory verse. Nevertheless, for most of us now, our familiarity with Scripture comes from what we read, either on the printed page or on a screen.

Not everybody has ready access to these written resources but for those of us who do they are a great blessing. However this availability can make us lazy. When Jesus was tempted he responded each time with an answer beginning “It is written …”. He knew that, not because he had his scroll with him but because he had learnt the Scriptures beforehand. We need to ‘be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have’[2] but rarely will there be time to Google it.

As we read through the historical books of the Old Testament we see time after time that there are records of the activities of the various kings. Here is just one example:

… and his deeds from first to last, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 2 Chronicles 35 v7 [NKJV]

In the Old Testament books of Ezra and Esther we read of kings who consulted the records and made major policy decisions. In Exodus we read of a pharaoh was not aware of his nation’s history, with disastrous consequences.[3]

The distinguished English writer Samuel Johnson is credited with the observation that “What is written without effort is read without pleasure”. It goes without saying that compiling the words of Scripture involved a great deal of effort. The apostle John explained why he wrote the gospel that carries his name:

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20 v31 [NIVUK]

Does your response honour that effort?

Resources:
[1] John 19 v22
[2] 1 Peter 3 v15
[3] Ezra 6 v1, Esther 6 v1, Exodus 1 v8.

Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.

Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.

~~~~~~~~~
HBC logo Horley Baptist Church online
HBC main site
Confidential prayer link

Link to Recent Reflections

Link to Index of Bible Passages

Last week’s reflection: Rules OK
 

: 116
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ Leave a comment

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Tuesday Challenge ~ Tags: No tags
« Earlier Reflections

Later Reflections »