Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, March 2018]

Finding Jesus shouldn’t be like running through an obstacle course.

Being on the rota for writing the article in ‘Yours’ helps you realise that time flies. You blink and it’s your turn again! I realised with one day to go to the deadline that I still hadn’t done the article.

While I’m waiting for inspiration, let me tell you about a meeting we had in the Church this last weekend. It was meant to start with breakfast – much anticipated. The eggs, sausages, bread, coffee and tea were all ready. Just the bacon left to be done, so we went to turn on the hob. Except we couldn’t. There were instructions on the wall in the kitchen. 4 or 5 different steps. We followed them, but no joy. We tried and tried again and even ‘phoned a friend’, but still no joy… We gave up on the hob.

Picture a hypothetical scene:
A man walks into Church seeking Jesus. He is met by welcoming people, and after they hear his request, they tell him he needs to follow certain steps in order to see Jesus. They hand him the manual. He follows these steps as best he knows how. After many unfruitful attempts at trying to complete the steps, he gives up and walks out.

We gave up on the hob, he gives up on finding Jesus!

It is worth asking ourselves what obstacles we inadvertently put in the way of those who want to meet with Christ? Do we feel people need to be dressed in a certain way, speak in a certain way, behave in a certain way…? I remember my father telling me about how in one of the churches he used to attend when growing up, the men were not allowed to have beards. The ironical thing was that on the wall of the church hung a painting of Jesus – with a beard!

The song ‘Come just as you are to worship’ reminds us that God wants us to come with boldness, with confidence to him. Bold and confident, not in what we have done, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf. As the apostle Paul puts it, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We did nothing to earn His love. We mustn’t put barriers in the way of others coming to know him. If there is any transforming to be done, the Holy Spirit will do this, not us.

Oh, about the breakfast last weekend, we did get the bacon done – in the oven! I’m sure there was a switch we didn’t flick which would have made the hob work and now that I think of it, who knows – it might have been God’s way of providing something for me to share in ‘Yours’ this week.

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