[A devotional reflection originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during September 2024]
Prayer presents us with a wonderful opportunity, to acknowledge the magnitude of God, to glorify his name, to praise him for salvation, to thank him for all his blessings and to invite him to continue to help us.
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
Psalm 141 v2 [ESVUK]
[This reflection by Michael Goble was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 21/Jul/2024]
In the arid centre of Australia there is a river called Todd River which flows through Alice Springs. It is quite wide and there are big stone bridges for the traffic to drive across the river. Each year in the town they hold the Henley-on-Todd Regatta and about 20,000 people come to watch the boating races. There is only one problem. (more…)
[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during April 2024]
Recently I saw a photo of a billboard poster. Its message read:
Save 100%
↓
Don’t buy anything
[This reflection by Chris Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 17/Mar/2024]
In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
Isaiah 30 v15 [NKJV]
After spending 6 months trying to fathom out what on earth is going on with my body, fighting illness and not being able to fully participate in all sorts of activities that I’m used to, I have come to the conclusion that I really do need to trust Jesus more.
I can glibly say, I trust Jesus, but to be totally honest, if I’m truthful, it’s not that easy. Or it is easy when I’m feeling well and sickness hasn’t presented its head that day. So my attitude has become, Lord I really don’t understand what’s going on right now but I give it all to you, show me Lord how to handle the present circumstances over to you.
Even though it all looks like nothing seems to be going forward – it’s amazing when I cry out to you and ask for help and really surrender, God seems to break through with simple answers and doors open that no man can shut.
So as I move forward in the days ahead in whatever life style and activities God has for me, I’m learning to take one step at a time. I really don’t like cancelling plans and letting people down but in the process God seems to be bringing me face to face with new opportunities to have contact with folk that I would never have come close to before.
Romans 8 v28 has come to the forefront of my thinking again.
All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes.
So you could say, where I was floundering, I’m trying to leave all things in God’s hands.
Resources:
[1]
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[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…)
[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?
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.
Horley Baptist Church online