Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Jun/2021]

Robert, Vicki and I have just finished running the 6-week online Alpha course and recently we hosted the Holy Spirit ‘day’ in our home. As we watched the Alpha videos, talked and prayed we were aware of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence with us. It felt very special to be able to recognise The One, true and living God in our meeting together.

I was later reminded of the questions that Martin and the leadership have been mulling over for some months now –what will ‘church’ look like when we are able to meet properly again at HBC? Should it be the same as it was pre-Covid or is this the time to consider what, if anything, needs to be different when we come back together as church? What will attract the ‘un-churched’ to HBC and in doing so give them the opportunity to hear the Good News & meet with Jesus Christ in a personal way? If we need and want to ‘do church’ differently how can we achieve this? What are the challenges to us as we seek to do God’s will? These are important questions and we continue to look for the answers.

What struck me following Alpha is that what we need and have always needed when ‘doing church’ is to be in relationship with the Holy Spirit. Then we will see great signs and wonders and people will come to HBC because they want to know and encounter the power, life and wisdom that only the Lord God Almighty gives. I believe He wants us to seek Him more and more and ask Him in. Not just to our services and meetings but to our homes, and to our frontlines. He is here anyway, present whether we realise it or not. What He asks is that we continue to be prayerful, open and obedient. And to trust in His power.

We need to dare to believe that the Holy Spirit will come. We need to ask, to expect, to wait for Him. Then He will come to us and our gatherings will be transformed. I confess that I never really believed or trusted that this could be so. But I do now.

So what stops us from asking to be filled? Perhaps we doubt that we will receive if we ask (Luke 11:10-13) Perhaps we are fearful and not sure we actually want to receive the power of the Spirit and how that might change things. It’s easier to remain comfortable in what and how we’ve always done things. Perhaps we feel inadequate and think we’re not worthy or good enough. I believe it gives the Father such joy when we seek Him and open up ourselves to Him, ready to receive His breath of life.

If we look back at the early church we see the sort of people that God called & we can be encouraged. They were ordinary and unlikely people who were ready to be filled and re-filled with the Holy Spirit. In doing so they did extra-ordinary things in the name of Jesus and many believed and followed Him.

So my question to you is… do we need to further nurture an attitude of openness, expectation, excitement, welcome?

Our vision statement says that we are to be a beacon of hope – a light that cannot be hidden or contained. I know that the Holy Spirit can transform and fill us if we ask Him and only by His power will we be able to be that beacon for Horley and see lives transformed. Amen.

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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.

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during June 2021]

A church where I was previously a member has recently published online a series of interviews with retired ministers, pastors and preachers who have been instrumental in furthering the work of the Holy Spirit, both locally and further afield^[1]. It has been interesting to listen to them recounting their experiences and sharing their wisdom.

What is wisdom? Just as data^[2] are not information until they are analysed so knowledge is not wisdom until it has been affirmed by experience. There is an old adage: “Knowledge is being aware that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that it is not used in fruit salad”. Of course, it is not necessary for everyone to make their own tomato-flavoured fruit salad in order to verify this piece of wisdom; wisdom can be acquired via someone else’s experiences.

Surely most of us have gone through at least one stage of thinking: “I wish I’d known then what I know now”. Maybe we could have ‘known it then’ if we had had the wisdom and humility to listen. One translation of the book of Hebrews starts with these words: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets …” but we know from the Old Testament account that the fathers did not listen. The words of the prophets were diluted, derided and discarded, in a way that seems not so different from today.

The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom. King Solomon wrote a book of proverbs based on his own experiences in the hope that his children would be wiser than him and not make the same mistakes. (It didn’t work, but that’s another story.)

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. [Proverbs 1 v8-9 NIVUK]

The same chapter tells us:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. [Proverbs 1 v7 NIVUK]

William Mountford, the nineteenth century English preacher and author wrote:

For knowledge to become wisdom, and for the soul to grow, the soul must be rooted in God: and it is through prayer that there comes to us that which is the strength of our strength, and the virtue of our virtue, the Holy Spirit.

James put the same thought rather more succinctly:

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. [James 1 v5 NIVUK]

Are you facing a difficult situation or do you have decision to make? Remember how Joseph, Daniel and Nehemiah all paused to ask for God’s guidance before going on to achieve great things.

[1] For example: Interview with John Blanchard, author of ‘Essential Questions’.
 
[2] 01010111 01101001 01110011 01100100 01101111 01101101
‘Wisdom’ written in binary code as an illustration of the difference between data and information.

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.

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 30/May/2021]

The past year has certainly been like no other, both here and around the world. Living through a pandemic is something that most of us never considered would be our experience, and our hearts, thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those who have suffered with serious illness and lost dear loved ones. Finally, we are beginning to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel, with restrictions being lifted, and we’re even allowed to hug one another -yay!! I will never again take hugging for granted!

All of this hopefully means we can return to meeting in church soon too! It will be such a blessing to see and spend time with our church family again, to be community in every sense of the word. Community in a church setting is more than simply gathering together in the same building. It’s where we can bless each other, encourage and build up one another, grow our faith together, be Christ to our friends, show love and kindness, shine a light that says “welcome and come in”, where we can be candles that light up someone else, who lights up the next person, and the next person, and so on. A good friend shared the following piece written by Henri Nouwen, where he shares his thoughts on community, what it is and how it looks. It says it much better than I could:

Community is Heart Calling to Heart …
Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst.

Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. … The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father. (Henri J. M. Nouwen)

When we live in community in this way, we can’t help but be a light in our local community -we are blessed inside to become a blessing outside! We take that sense of community “out of the building” and bless our neighbours, friends, family, colleagues, and as we do so, we share Jesus with people and begin to build them up too.

“As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” [1 Peter 2:4-5]

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” [Proverbs 27:17]

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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.

[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], May 2021]

The world tells me that I need to be successful. I want to be successful. But what does that mean for a follower of Jesus. What are the dangers, and how can I be successful?

We live in a world that’s obsessed with success and fame and getting the most out of life. My question is, as a follower of Jesus what does it mean to be successful? Should I be successful? Are there dangers of trying to be successful? How can I be successful?

The other week I did a personality test. you’ve probably heard of the Myers Briggs test or stuff like that and this was called an Enneagram test, it’s quite big in America at the moment. The personality type that came up warned me that one of my biggest drives in life is to be successful. In fact one of my biggest fears in life is to not be successful.

I was thinking about it, It really concerned me and worried me a lot and it made me think. You know, if I’ve got that drive, if I’m living with that fear in my life, what are the possible repercussions? What’s the possible fruits of that drive for success. I guess there’s mental burnout, there’s moral failure, broken relationships, broken marriage and a poor inner life, a poor relationship with Jesus Christ.

To be perfectly honest, I’m my worst enemy. Often ministers are their own worst enemies and yet the church doesn’t particularly help the way we view church, the way we view success because the reality is, we want our churches to be successful, don’t we? We want to reach out to as many people as possible. After all, wasn’t that what Jesus commanded us, commissioned us to do?

So as churches we end up doing more stuff, we end up asking for more volunteers to work harder. Discipleship is around equipping people to work for the church and to work for Jesus. Then we try and measure success, and probably the easiest way to measure its success is to measure bums on seats. I am emotionally invested as a church leader in the number of people that come to church and at this current time of covid I’m emotionally invested in those viewing figures on YouTube. It affects me when I see those numbers drop, which they have been doing, so because how else am I supposed to measure my success?

See, when I look in the New Testament at Jesus’s life as told in the four gospels, we see that Jesus suffered from the same pressures in life. He had a busy successful ministry, he was followed by a crowd of people that were always demanding of him, he was hounded by Pharisees and teachers of the law that questioned his every move and motive, he had disciples – his closest friends – that tried to impose their idea of greatness and success upon him, and yet Jesus rejected all of those. In fact in earthly terms, he failed in the worst possible way – he was executed – and yet we know that actually Jesus was more successful than any other person because he lived up to the calling on his life. He followed his purposes exactly.

We can fall into the danger as people, as church leaders, as churches, to define success in earthly terms. Success is about doing more, being more, having more influence, more power being great. That’s not how Jesus viewed success. So how do I know that I am successful? how do I know that I am following the purposes, the calling that God has on my life? Well, just three things I want to leave with you.

Number one is, do not compare yourself to others. I do all the time. I compare myself to other church leaders, I compare Horley Baptist Church to other churches, and most of the time I find myself wanting so I push myself that little bit harder. Actually, we are incomparable because the calling and the purposes for our lives are completely based on us as an individual. God has designed us for an individual purpose that only you, only me, only a church can fulfil. Therefore, we’re not to compare ourselves with others or try and match their calling. We’re there to find out what God’s calling is on our lives.

Second thing is, are you learning to rest in Jesus? Are you spending time in prayer and quiet time in order to empower your success or to avoid failure, or are you spending time in prayer in order to build and deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ? As a church when we come to disciple people, are we discipling people to be more successful or are we discipling people to lean on Jesus and rest in his presence? I think we’d avoid a lot of those burnout issues, a lot of those moral failures if actually we spent time teaching people to spend time with Jesus.

Number three; learn to listen to your body and your friends. Ask questions, think about how your body is responding to the stresses and strains of life, and ask yourself and ask your friends “am I doing activities that actually my inner life and my health cannot cope with?” There is no point driving yourself into an early grave, either physically, spiritually or morally. Neil Young said in one of his song lyrics “I’d rather burn out than fade away” but do keep in mind that Kurt Cobain quoted those very lyrics in his suicide note. It’s a sobering thought. I think we are called to be successful as Christians. The problem is, the difficulty is that we can’t look to the world in order to define what those successes mean. Learn what your calling is, live your life for God’s purposes, learn to spend time with Jesus to deepen your relationship with him. Listen to your body and don’t push yourself beyond what it can bear.

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[1] YouTube link: How can I be successful?
Bible references: ~
 

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.

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 16/May/2021]

I was watching the Horley Baptist children’s Sunday ‘service’ (HB-K) on line and was quite struck by one of the sketches.

Suresh was sitting at his desk, working, and his daughter was making her way up to him. She looked like she needed help with something she was reading, but she wasn’t quite sure whether she could ask Suresh for help, as he looked like he was busy. After a bit of thinking aloud, she asked him for his help and he stopped what he was doing and said with a smile ‘of course I would be happy to help’.

Allow me to use some artistic license to describe alternative scenarios:
» His daughter does not realise that he can help, so she doesn’t ask him …
» His daughter knows he can help, but has always thought of him as a very important man and is scared to disturb him and so she doesn’t ask …
» His daughter knows he can help, but thinks he must have so much else to do and that there is no way he would be interested in her problem, so she doesn’t ask him …
» His daughter has heard someone say that God helps those who help themselves, so she might as well get on with sorting things out for herself and so she doesn’t ask …

There are probably a few more that you can think of, but let’s just look at these ones again:
» His daughter does not realise that he can help, so she doesn’t ask him.
This could be a picture of people who do not know about Christ. Especially in these challenging times we are living in, people need to know that there is someone who can help relieve their worries. Peter, the apostle, says “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”^[1]. It is a good reminder that those of us who do know Christ, need to let others know about Him. I am not very good at this, but by His grace, I will get better.

» His daughter knows he can help, but has heard that he is a very important man and is scared to disturb him and so she doesn’t ask.
This could be a picture of people who know of God, but don’t actually know him, so they have the wrong impression of who He is. That well-known poem ‘Footprints in the sand’ reminds us of the fact that God never leaves us, but carries us through our troubled times. He is happy to for us to disturb Him.

» His daughter knows he can help, but thinks he must have so much else to do, there is no way he would be interested in helping her, so she doesn’t ask him.
This could be a picture of us, when we feel that our problem is too trivial for God to deal with. We need reminding, as someone once said, that in fact, all our problems, are trivial to God. There is none too hard for him to deal with. He is interested in our problems. In Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…”^[2].

» His daughter has heard someone say that God helps those who help themselves, so she might as well get on with sorting things out for herself and so she doesn’t ask.

[1] Matthew 11 v28 NLT
[2] 1 Peter 5 v7 NLT
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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.