Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during August 2023]

Towards the end of last month, NASA lost communications with the Voyager 2 inter-space probe. The BBC reported that “Voyager 2 is more than 12.3 billion miles from Earth, where it is hurtling at an estimated 34,390mph through interstellar space – the space between the stars”.^[1]

Apparently, someone sent an erroneous command which caused the craft to venture off-course. This resulted in the antenna being misaligned and not tuned to the commands from Earth. Obviously, the probe was not acquainted with the advice that Moses gave to the Israelites:

So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Deuteronomy 5 v32 [NIVUK]

The earlier verses of this chapter include a restatement of the Ten Commandments. Why did God instruct Moses to repeat them here? Did he know that we would be likely to veer off onto our own course?

Do you send up prayers only to get no response? All your words seem to disappear into empty space. Is all you hear just white noise and static? Do you wonder, “Is anybody listening, is anybody there?”

Do you get the feeling that God is like the probe – miles out into space and looking the other way? Perhaps another part of his creation is occupying his attention. Maybe Eliphaz the Temanite was on the right track when he said “Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars … Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us as he goes about in the vaulted heavens”.^[2]

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NASA has not abandoned the spacecraft even though it does not respond to the messages that have been sent to it. Voyager 2 is not dead; it continues to send out signals some 46 years after it was launched. There is a hope that it will soon resume full contact and can be brought back on course.

Have we abandoned God? Does he seem too remote and no longer on the same wavelength? Why is he not communicating with us? Have we given up listening?

God has not abandoned us even though we do not respond to the messages that we have been sent. He is waiting patiently for us to get in touch so that he can steer us in the right direction.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3 v9 [NIVUK]

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Just as I finished writing these thoughts the news came through that contact with Voyager 2 has been re-established. It was achieved using a technique known as an interstellar shout – a powerful signal that demands attention. Will God have to use an ‘interstellar shout’ to get through to you?

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ Isaiah 30 v21 [NIVUK]

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Resources:
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66371569
[2] Job 22 v12,14

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.

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Horley Baptist Church online
HBC main site
Confidential prayer link

Link to Recent Reflections

Link to Index of Bible Passages

Last week’s reflection: Missing the Message
 

[This reflection by Brian Alton was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Aug/2023]

‘What is standing between us and a sweeping move of God, is not us proving to God that we want it bad enough, as if we’ve got to talk God into our agenda … of course, God wants Awakening far more than we do. Every great move of God throughout history has occurred when a community perceived what God was up to and got in on it.’ Tyler Staton.

For the last couple of months our homegroup has been reading through ‘Praying like Monks, Living like Fools’ (PLMLLF) by Tyler Staton, a pastor in America, heavily involved in 24/7 Prayer. The book has had a profound affect on my prayer life, and quiet time discipline.

Staton suggests that recognising God’s voice when He speaks helps us perceive God’s plan (1 Samuel 3); and that we learn to recognise this by practising listening in stillness as a spiritual discipline.

‘Many confuse stillness with waiting for revelation… But that’s not the purpose of stillness. The purpose is consent. It is the daily practice of consenting to the work of God’s Spirit, which is deeper than understanding or words.’ (PLMLLF, ch2)

Pete Grieg says in The Prayer Course (session 7) ‘It’s important we build time for quiet, reflection, retreat and contemplation into our daily, weekly, and annual rhythms. Because those are the times when we can hear God’s still small voice a bit better’.

Staton says ‘Resist the urge to decide if this practice of silent prayer is ‘working’. Don’t evaluate if you’re getting anything out of it … Practice silence as a sacrificial offering to God … It’s about giving something of yourself to God, not getting something from God’. (PLMLLF ch2). Trying to do this has transformed my experience of prayer.

I’m soon going to start wearing hearing aids, to the relief of many! Regaining lost capacity to hear will hopefully make me less distracted, and more involved in the things going on around me. Similarly, I’m praying that I also get better at hearing when God is speaking to me – with the spiritual hearing aids of stillness and quiet.

One scholar has said ‘everything God speaks to you until your sixties is preparation – if there’s fruit that’s a bonus’. There’s still time!

So, what is God saying to me, and you? How can we join in and partner with Jesus? Where will the next Great Awakening be? Why not in Horley? Why not at HBC?

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10

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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.

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

Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
 
Last week’s reflection: Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us? by David Makanjuola
 

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during August 2023]

During the past week I heard a television interviewee referring to “fires of Biblical proportions”. This seemed unusual – as a general rule when people talk of cataclysmic events of ‘Biblical proportions’ they are thinking about floods, in some vague recollection of the story of Noah. The epithet is not commonly used for fires but those people who are experiencing the current wildfires first-hand can, quite understandably, feel that the end of the world is near.

The impacts of earthquakes, floods and fires are not limited to the moments of their passing. These events are not only life-threatening but, for those who survive, the outcome can be life-changing – in my case, a flood in 1980 led to me moving to a different country. For many people, the aftermath can be more severe; the lost of family members, treasured possessions, livestock, homes; everything that perhaps several generations have worked for.

We would do well to pay attention to the words of Jesus:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, … but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, … . For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6 v19-21 [NIVUK]

Where is your treasure? Will it survive fire, flood or earthquake? Can you repeat the words of Job after he had lost family and fortune:

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. Job 1 v21 [NIVUK]

With the exception of the first three chapters, the book of Revelation is not an easy book to understand; it can make for confusing and uncomfortable reading. In previous years it provided the basis for many hell-fire sermons but preaching from it seems to have become unpopular in our times. Parts of the book are describing events that are, many believe, still at a safe distance in the future but in doing so it has to use the vocabulary of many years ago. Does this combination of confusion and complacency justify our ignoring it?

John, the recorder of the book of Revelation, included a vision of the future:

A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone Revelation 9 v18 [NKJV]

Many people have attempted to give a modern interpretation to the ancient terminology, with varying degrees of success. Perhaps we can understand smoke as including the sandstorms that have spread beyond their usual location in desert areas whilst brimstone reminds us of the impact of volcanic eruptions.

This particular chapter comes to a conclusion with an observation that is depressing yet unsurprising:

The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands Revelation 9 v20 [NIVUK]

We are called to be messengers but if people will not heed the messages from natural events how can we get our message heard? Perhaps there is another way:

Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire
thou still small voice of calm.^[1]

In a world that is mesmerised by the pyrotechnic display around us there is still a place for a quiet whisper.^[2]

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Resources:
[1] John Greenleaf Whittier (1872)
[2] 1 Kings 19 v11-12

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.

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

Link to Recent Reflections

Link to Index of Bible Passages

Last week’s reflection: Missing Ewe
 

[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 30/Jul/2023]

Very soon after Jesus’ resurrection, two of His disciples were walking on the road to a place called Emmaus. You can read the details in Luke’s gospel.^[1] They were feeling very downcast and sullen as they walked. A stranger asked to walk with them and after finding out that the reason they were so glum was because they were grieving about Jesus’ death, the stranger explained, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself”. They later realised, after he had left, that the stranger was actually Jesus. They then said “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Dennis, in his ‘Yours’ article last week, (worth reading if you missed it) talked about a ‘Holy Spirit picture’ and how it brought him peace when thinking about a friend who was very unwell. When this sort of insight, or revelation if you like, is backed up by what is written in scripture, it makes me think about the disciples’ comment about their hearts burning within them. We would call it a ‘light bulb’ moment nowadays.

We go through periods in life when worry, doubt, fear, insecurity and other negative situations drain us of peace. At times like this, we need to remember God’s word, and we also need for this to be put into context for us. The Holy Spirit does that.

Jesus said to His disciples that “….when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth”. Later in that chapter in John’s gospel,^[2] Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace”.

Dennis’s article raised the question as to whether it was a choice between his feelings or the scriptural passages; in essence, a choice of either one, or the other. An old friend once told me that sometimes, it is not “either or”, but rather, “both and” – in this case, both scripture and the enlightenment that the Holy Spirit brings.

You could say that the disciples on the road to Emmaus knew the scriptures in their minds, but it was Jesus, explanation that brought into their hearts. May the Holy Spirit do the same for us each and every day.

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References:
[1] Luke 24 v13-35
[2] John 16 v13

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.

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

Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
 
Last week’s reflection: Whom Do I Trust? by Dennis Ginter
 

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during July 2023]

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold.
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.^[1]

These are the opening lines of one of many such hymns that were popular in a previous generation but have largely been superseded by more recent compositions. It is based on the parable of the lost sheep, as recorded in Luke 15.

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Luke 15 v4-6

We started last week’s reflection considering the plight of a lonely sheep, and here we return to a similar image.

I have a certain sympathy with the solo sheep. Was she too tired or weak to keep up with the rest of the flock? Was she exploring the potential of greener grass further afield? Had she found a particularly lush area of grass that she did not want to share with the others? Did the rest of the flock move on without consulting her? Perhaps she was tired of their company and wanted to be recognised as an individual in her own right?

We too can identify with some of those feelings. Are there times when we don’t feel like going to church or we think that some other congregation might be better? Have we received a special blessing but don’t want to share it? Do we feel left out when the church tries new ideas without asking our opinion? Do we want to do our own thing for a while?

The subsequent verses of the hymn give a picture of how the shepherd searched for the sheep, eventually found her and brought her back to the fold. The writer describes the deep waters, the dark night and the mountainous terrain that the shepherd traversed in order to recover the sheep.^[2] Was it worth the effort just for one sheep?

Parables are intended to illustrate one, usually simple, point; it is not appropriate for them to be extrapolated in a quest for interpretations or implications beyond that originally intended. In the parable of the lost sheep the illustration is simple – a good shepherd cares for his sheep, both collectively and individually, and he is willing to put considerable effort into their well-being.

A flock where sheep are missing cannot achieve its full potential. Have you noticed anybody who doesn’t seem to be enjoying church life as perhaps they once did? Is someone in danger of wandering off? Are you willing to act as shepherd to them?

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Resources:
[1] Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane, 1868
[2] https://hymnary.org/text/there_were_ninety_and_nine_that_safely

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.

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

Link to Recent Reflections

Link to Index of Bible Passages

Last week’s reflection: Whatever the Weather
 

[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 23/Jul/2023]

Very recently someone cautioned me, “You can’t trust your feelings. The only reliable truth is found in the Bible!”

I hadn’t been expressing a ‘feeling’. I’d been exploring something very important: I’d just had what I thought was a Holy Spirit inspired insight into the question of life beyond death. And I was quite sure I’d found scriptural support for my understanding. Very quickly my friend spoke the words above.

What do you make of this? A good friend of mine is right now at death’s door. He has vehemently protested throughout almost all of his very long life that he can’t believe in God. As my wife and I visited him in hospital yesterday, I recalled a vivid picture I’ve had several times: a child, on his dad’s lap, is punching his father in the chest. “I hate you! I HATE you!” The father just hugs him closer and closer until finally, utterly exhausted, the boy sobs and flings his arms around his dad’s neck.

That picture settled for me, any unease I’d been feeling about my old friend’s ‘eternal destiny’. Certainly many scripture passages could be found that might unsettle my peace of mind. Or can I trust what I sensed was God’s word to me through a powerful ‘Holy Spirit picture’?

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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.

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

Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
 
Last week’s reflection: Doctrine v Love by Chris Ginter