Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 21/Mar/2021]

I had a vision last week in which I was sitting on a bench on the banks of a river in spate. It was an exciting sight at first, but then I saw more and more church pews, chairs, a pulpit, even Bibles, being washed downstream past me. I am ashamed to admit my first feeling was one of delight. I’ve too long and too openly wanted to see the end of man-made trappings of church.

But then I recognised familiar furniture and other bits from our HBC building in the flotsam! There was a slight earth tremor and the bench beneath me began to slide down the river bank. I was no longer a bemused observer. This was real, I was part of it, and I was helpless!

It took me a few days to process this experience. It all felt terrible, devastating, until I looked upstream!

Upstream, from the source of the river, came a powerful flow of pure, clear, life-giving water! This vision had not only been about the end of things familiar, it was the beginning of something new. Something not to be regretted but welcomed!

God was doing a NEW THING!! Can we see It?

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