Category: ‘Tuesday Challenge’

Rules OK

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

As is the case in society at large, at school there were various rules that we had to follow. There were rules intended to encourage a certain standard of behaviour, some rules to help preserve the sanity of the staff and other rules that seemed to have no logical purpose. There were even some rules intended for our benefit although we did not always see them that way.

Perhaps the most controversial were those rules which applied outside the school premises. These were often resented as we considered them to be outside the school’s remit, both geographically and socially. However, the reasoning was that even outside the school premises our uniform identified us and any misdemeanours would adversely affect the school’s reputation.

King David was aware of the potential effects of his behaviour. He wrote:

Don’t let me bring shame on those who trust in you, Sovereign Lord Almighty! Don’t let me bring disgrace to those who worship you, O God of Israel! Psalm 69 v6 [GNT]

We liked to think that we were free from those rules when we discarded the school uniform and behaved incognito. Can we apply the same logic in our spiritual lives? Most of us do not wear a uniform which proclaims our church affiliation but nevertheless we can often be identified as Christians. Our actions can attract outsiders or bring the church into disrepute and repel those who might otherwise be open to the Gospel. There is a well-known quotation attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Is there a risk that our ‘out of uniform’ actions might reinforce that opinion? Can our behaviour become a stumbling block to people around us? The apostle Paul set out his own rule:

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities. Colossians 4 v5 [NET]

In practice we are never ‘out of uniform’. We cannot assume that nobody is watching, that nobody will notice. Early Christians were distinguished by their behaviour.[1] and surely that is something that we should try to emulate. Can you echo David’s prayer?

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! Psalm 139 v23 [ESV]

References:
[1] Tertullian of Carthage, 160-225AD, see also John 13 v5

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: Are You Missing Something?
 

: 190
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ 1 Comment

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

Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?

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

Well, as it happens, today it is mine. One wintry December day sometime in the middle of the previous century the ambient noise level of a north London suburb was suddenly raised by several decibels. Actually I am speculating there as I have no memory of the event myself but I understand that it is normal for a new baby to announce his arrival. (more…)

: 231
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ 2 Comments

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

Advent or Advert?

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

In the more-established western denominations of the Church the period of approximately four weeks prior to Christmas is called ‘Advent’. Essentially, Advent means ‘coming’ and it is a time during which the Church’s adherents are encouraged to think about the coming of Jesus into the world. Many Churches organise special events, such as carol services, during this season. (more…)

: 250
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ 1 Comment

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

The Same Old Story

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

Summer holidays, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Black Friday – what’s next on the advertising agencies’ calendar?

Ah, yes! Christmas is coming, as indeed it has for the past 2000 years. Every year those with responsibility for Christmas activities face the same question: “What can we do to make Christmas different this year?” Advertising agents and TV producers have been working on it for months; now window dressers, stationers, choir-masters, caterers and preachers are all looking for something to add a new slant on a story that we have all heard before.

Maybe it’s easier if we just leave Christ out of Christmas altogether.

?⛄????❄

This search for something new is not, itself, new. The apostle Paul encountered something similar in Greece in 49AD:[1]

Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas. Acts 17 v21 [BSB]

Are we tempted to join the Athenians and the other groups mentioned above in speculating about aspects of Christmas beyond those recorded in the Gospel accounts?

… Surely Mary did not walk all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Maybe Joseph possessed a donkey – we often see one portrayed in the stable scene. And why didn’t they go back to Nazareth after the census?

… Did anyone else see the choir of angels who sang to the shepherds? Such a spectacular event would certainly have attracted the attention of other people who were out and about that evening. And who looked after the sheep whilst the shepherds went for a night on the town?

… Perhaps the Wise Men were descendents of the Jewish nobles exiled to Babylon and whose ancestors chose not to return with Ezra or Nehemiah. And did their gifts pay for the flight to Egypt?

?

As we have seen in Ecclesiastes, seeking for something new is futile:

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1 v9 [NIVUK]

Surely we should not expend so much effort on seeking something new when the answer lies with something old.

Tell me the old, old story Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, Of Jesus and His love.
Tell me the story simply, As to a little child;
For I am weak and weary, And helpless and defiled.

Tell me the story slowly, That I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin.
Tell me the story often For I forget so soon!
The “early dew” of morning Has passed away at noon.
– Arabella Katherine Hankey (1866)[2]

†

References:
[1] timeline at Biblehub.com
[2] full text at Hymnary.org

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: Into the Unknown
 

: 244
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ 2 Comments

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

Pret a Manger

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during December 2022]

Once in royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed [1]

What sort of picture do these words invoke? Have years of familiarity with the Christmas story created a sanitised image of a delicate wooden cot lined with clean hay and surrounded by some well-behaved cattle?
Nativity scene
There is a cattle shed alongside our garden; we are familiar with its distinctive characteristics. A cow can be likened to a food processor into which you feed green grass and from which you obtain white milk. There is a by-product to this process, brown in colour and malodorous to the senses. Even in modern times, ‘mucking-out’ is a regular activity for those who keep dairy cattle and it is fair to assume that first-century animals were similarly behaved.

Child in the manger, infant of Mary [2]

A manger is a food trough for livestock of various kinds. It is a functional item, probably rough hewn, certainly not a piece of fine furniture. Fodder would be dumped into it;, it might contain insects or dead mice, the animals would slobber over it. Shepherds might be used to such conditions; wealthy astrologers certainly not.

Both these Christmas carols were written by devout women with strong clerical connections. They were both prolific writers of devotional songs and poetry. Did they have some special inspiration or did they succumb to artistic licence? Isaiah certainly had some inspiration when he wrote:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Isaiah 54 v2-3 [NIVUK]

The Biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus are primarily those in the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke. Neither of those accounts mentions a ‘lowly cattle shed’ with ‘the oxen standing by’; furthermore, Matthew tells us that the unspecified number of wise men came some time later, after the family had moved into a house. Whatever the actual details, being born into such circumstances was just the first of many indignities that this baby would endure during his time on earth, and throughout the years since.

Child who inherits all our transgressions, all our demerits on Him fall.

But Christmas is not the end of the story.

And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love,
for that child, so dear and gentle, is our Lord in heaven above,
and he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.

Is that child in the manger still an outcast and stranger or do you recognise him as Lord of all??

Resources:
[1] Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848
[2] Mary MacDonald & Lachlan McBean, 1888

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

 

: 312
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ 4 Comments

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

It’s in The Star

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during December 2022]

At this time of the year the words that Phillips Brooks wrote in 1868 become part of our seasonal repertoire:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by

Does familiarity with these words mean that we lose some of their impact? Where is Bethlehem, what is its significance? Bethlehem is an administrative centre some 6 miles south of Jerusalem and dates from around 1340BC. A number of prophecies and contemporary reports give Bethlehem as the location for the birth of Jesus Christ.

Imagine if we could access the archives of one of the local newspapers in first century Israel, the Bethlehem Daily Star. As we leaf through the pages there would be some headlines that would cause us to pause and explore further.

In the obituaries section in 1903BC is a record of the death in childbirth of Rachel, the wife of Jacob. Her tomb became a local landmark; it was there that Saul learnt that his lost donkeys had been found.

In 1140BC a local reporter noted the return of a well-known local family. Some ten years earlier, Elimelek and his wife Naomi, with their two sons, had left Bethlehem to live in the country of Moab. Now Naomi returned, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Ruth, both widows. In due course Ruth married a prominent local landowner named Boaz. Soon, the Births, Marriages and Deaths section records the birth of a son to Boaz and Ruth, named Obed.

Obed’s grandson grew up as a young shepherd boy in the area around Bethlehem. In the pasturelands near the town he learned to care for his sheep and ward off their predators. Later, David the local shepherd boy became a musician in the royal court.

In 1024BC the archives record the visit of Samuel, the nation’s spiritual leader, to Bethlehem. Samuel anointed David to be the future king of Israel. However, his succession to the throne was not easy; he had to contend with family, friends and foes but no doubt his prior experience with sheep proved valuable.

In 6BC there was a public announcement that Caesar Augustus commanded all his subjects in the Roman Empire to return to their ancestral city for a census. Many families descended from David came to Bethlehem, to the point that there was not enough room to accommodate them all.

Around about the same time the archives record the scandalous story of a young woman, obviously pregnant yet claiming to still be a virgin – it aroused much scepticism and gossip. Other unusual events surrounded the eventual birth of her son; shepherds left their flocks in the countryside and came into town to see the baby, there was a strange resonance in the sky that some described as being like angels’ voices and then some wealthy foreigners turned up with a caravan of camels.

After 4BC the town receives no further mention in the Bible but the town still exists. Its principal economic focus is that of catering for visitors wanting the see the place of Christ’s birth. Surely a question of much greater importance is ‘where is he now?’

Now that we know a bit more about Bethlehem we can return to the words of the carol and sing them with more meaning:

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray,
cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel!

Resources:
[1] www.biblegateway.com search ‘Bethlehem’
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem
[3] https://biblehub.com/timeline/

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

 

: 232
Contributor: Steve Humphreys
Read full article ~ 3 Comments

Click on a category or tag to view corresponding reflections ...
Categories: Christmas Contemplations, Tuesday Challenge ~ Tags:
« Older Reflections

Newer Reflections »