Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 02/May/2021]

We are all familiar with the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. After demanding his inheritance from his father and then going off and spending it all, he finds himself in desperate need and decides to return home. The father comes running to meet him, embraces him and throws a party in his honour.

Jesus doesn’t tell us how the son responded to his father’s forgiveness, although I think we are meant to assume that he gladly accepted it. But let us suppose that he reacted differently. After hearing his father’s speech he says: “Please don’t make me join the party. I can’t face all these people after everything I have done. I can hardly face you, as I’m so ashamed. Just let me work in the kitchen out of sight. I will gladly spend the rest of my life working for you as a servant to make up for what I have done.” How do you think the father would have felt? I think he would have been deeply hurt that his son was unable to accept his love and forgiveness. He didn’t want another servant; he just wanted his son back.

I often find myself haunted by memories of things I have said and done in the past, which bring back feelings of shame and self-hatred. I know that God has forgiven me and wants me to forgive myself, but this is easier said than done. One thing that helps me is to say out loud verses of scripture, like Romans 8 v 1 … “There is no condemnation for those who are united in Christ Jesus” or Psalm 103 v 12 “As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” or Philippians 3 v 13, 14 “Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” Singing worship songs also helps turn my focus from my failings to God’s love.

I like to think that the prodigal son went into the party by his father’s side with his head held high and told all the guests what a wonderful father he had and how much he loved him.

Let us do the same.

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Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
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[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube^[1], April 2021]

Is There a Spirit Realm and Should I Be Scared of It?

Spirituality and spirits are fairly accepted within our culture, in fact you could say we’re obsessed with it! But what does the Bible say about it, and should we be scared?

On Sunday morning, in our final part of the ‘Alternative Facts’ teaching series, I shared with you the idea of there being a spiritual realm, that there’s actually something more to this world that we saw see and measure, that science can teach us about.

I guess that for the majority of us we’re kind of ok with the idea of spirituality and a spiritual realm. Our culture is obsessed with it; with horoscopes in newspapers and horror films, and the interest in new age and ghosts and stuff like that. But the Bible tells us something quite different to maybe what we accept culturally about spirituality and the spiritual world.

For a start, it’s quite clear that it’s not something that we should dabble with; that there is not a passive spirituality that is neither good or evil, but that there is a war going on between good and evil, between God and Satan. That’s a pretty scary concept.

Possibly the reason that we don’t want to accept that is because it’s scary enough watching a horror film, let alone believing that you are living in one. So most of the time we just shut our eyes to any thought that there’s something more out there. There’s enough, I guess, to deal with in this material world without putting on top of it the problems of a spiritual one. Actually we can get just scared. There’s things out there; things that go bump in the night, that make life scary and I’d rather not know about it, thank you very much. Ignorance is bliss.

There is a story told in 2 Kings about the prophet Elisha. Elisha through his prophetic words was giving Israel an edge over the armies of the king of Aram, and the king of Aram got word of this, that Elisha knew what was happening in their secret meetings and war councils. He sends out a task force of heavily armed and trained soldiers to capture Elisha. Elisha with his servant was in the city of Dothan and they went to bed one night and little did they know that during the night this task force, this army, turned up and surrounded the city.

When Elisha’s servant got up in the morning and looked out of the window he got somewhat of a shock and he went to Elisha and reported this terrible sight and the fact that they were about to be captured and killed. Elisha says these words: “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are against us”. Then he prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened, that he might see the reality around them.

After Elisha prayed that prayer his servant’s eyes were opened and he saw on all the hills horses and chariots and soldiers of fire – God’s army surrounding this force of the king of Aram. Elisha wanted his servant to know that with God on their side it didn’t really matter who was against them. In the spiritual realm there was an army backing them up and supporting them.

John, one of the disciples of Jesus, in one of his latter letters wrote these words when talking about the dark spiritual forces in this world. He said: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”.

The idea of spirituality and spiritual realms and forces of darkness and this warfare is really a scary thing to contemplate. Yet, if you are a child of God, not only do you have authority because of what Jesus has done on the cross, defeating those powers and principalities that we talked about on Sunday, but also you have God within you, you have God surrounding you, you have God before you and behind you, walking beside you, hemming you in. God is far more powerful and far greater than anything that Satan can throw at us.

So do not fear.

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[1] YouTube link: Is There a Spirit Realm?
Bible references: 2Kings 6 v8-23, John 4 v4
 

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, 25/Apr/2021]

We have known for years that the Queen is a sincere believer in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God and her Saviour, but it is only since the death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, that we have heard anything about his own beliefs. Royal commentators have since described him as having a deep Christian faith and as a practising Christian, with a collection of hundreds of “religious” books. A number of bishops have recalled that after a church service he always loved to discuss their sermons to deepen his own faith. As a result he planned his own funeral, not only ceremonially but spiritually too.

It was interesting that the two readings at the funeral were one from scriptures written between the Old and New Testaments, Ecclesiasticus 43:11-26, which describes the power of God’s creation. This includes the sea, which as a naval officer in World War Two would have meant so much to the Duke. The other being John 11:21-27, where before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus teaches Martha that anyone who trusts in Him as the resurrection and the life, even though they die, will one day rise and never die again.

The reading in Ecclesiasticus starts by saying, “Look at the rainbow and praise its Maker, it shines with a supreme beauty …”. This reminded me of a time when we visited Tilgate Park in Crawley. We arrived in a shower of rain and as we waited for the rain to stop we saw a beautiful rainbow, but not only that, we saw a most remarkable sight –the end of the rainbow. It came down to the ground in front of a large tree and as a result the tree shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow. Since then the rainbow has always meant so much to me as I “praise its Maker”; just as it meant so much in Genesis 9:12-17 where God created the rainbow as a sign of His mercy to Noah and to us as his descendants.

But it also reminded me of when Ezekiel saw a vision of God in all his glory in Ezekiel 1:27,28, “Brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.” This again is a sign of God’s promise to show us mercy and preserve us, even in death, until Jesus comes again and raises our bodies in new and eternal life in Him.

Then we shall praise forever, the Maker of the rainbow.

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Bible dates: Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
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[This is one in a series of mid-week Reflections published by Horley Baptist Church during April 2021]

Once upon a time, more than half a century ago, my acting career began (and ended) in a school production of ‘The Stolen Prince’. My role was that of the executioner, a role that was without any dialogue and, because no executions actually occurred, it was also without any job satisfaction. In that way it was reminiscent of a better-known character who also was somewhat short on completed commissions. In ‘The Mikado’ the post of Lord High Executioner was a royal appointment and the Emperor himself was coming to find out why there had been no executions. It seemed that executioner himself might be the first victim of his own trade.

In Matthew 25 we read of a landowner who decided to review the work of various of his servants. He had left each one with a certain amount of resources and he was very satisfied to hear that several of them had doubled the value of those resources. However, one employee had simply put his allocation into safe storage and then returned the landowner’s assets exactly as he had received them.

Perhaps we should have a certain degree of sympathy with the unfortunate servant. He did at least retain the value of the assets and the owner did not suffer any actual loss, apart from perhaps a small amount of interest. How would the owner have reacted if the servant had made a poor investment and lost the lot? Of course, as with all parables, we must not push the story beyond its intended application but perhaps he was known to be lazy and this was a last opportunity to redeem himself. Anyway, he was dismissed, expelled from the household and left to lament his shortcomings.

Returning to the plight of the Lord High Executioner: a young man, being the losing party in a love triangle, had decided to commit suicide. The Lord High Executioner offered to perform the final dispatch for him and thus the lack of executions will be resolved before the Emperor arrives. However, the Emperor arrived before he was expected and then it transpired that the young man was actually the Emperor’s missing son. A certain amount of procrastination may have averted a disaster!

The music for The Mikado was composed by Arthur Sullivan, a gifted musician whose talents were not confined to entertaining theatre-goers. He also used his skills to become a prolific writer of hymn tunes. What are you doing with the talents and opportunities that God has given you? Are you willing to take risks to explore their potential? That unprofitable servant had two colleagues who should have been able to help him. Do you accept advice from Christian companions? Could you share your own experiences, for the benefit of others?

Like the Emperor and the landowner, Jesus Christ will return when he is not expected. Our relationship with Jesus is the foundation on which we build our faith, but heed the words of the apostle Paul:

If anyone’s work which he has built on [that foundation] endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. [1 Corinthians 3 v14-15 NKJV]

Will you receive the final assessment: “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

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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.