Response to Christmas

Over several decades now we have witnessed Christ slowly being taken out of Christmas, so that this glorious festival has become Xmas. X being the unknown factor, Xmas has become the season when anything goes. Muppets and meercats, Star Wars and soccer all themed to Xmas!

Finding Christ at Christmas in our  highly commercial world is difficult, it has always been thus as this Christmas study shows. But to those who will seek Him with heart and soul He promises - you will find Me.

1. The Commercial Response. LUKE 2:7 'And she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn' .

Room in the stable, but not the inn!! Among cattle, but not among the people!! Why? Was there really 'no room', or does the innkeeper have a more pragmatic reason for refusing room in the inn? Mary is obviously heavily pregnant. Should she give birth in the Inn, Mary would, according to Jewish law, be unclean for seven days, and the room itself. Thus the innkeeper would suffer financial loss. Commerce has no room for Christ unless the coffers are filled.

In the recent past some of the major stores have stood against Sunday opening but now Christmas has become Xmas, Christ relegated to the unknown. You may not be a businessman, but are financial considerations more important to you than giving room to Christ in your life? Not just at Christmas time, but throughout the year. Is increasing your income more important to you than the means of grace?  

2. The Ideological Response. MATT 2:3 King Herod was 'troubled' at the news concerning Jesus.          v8 Feigns friendship 'That I may come and worship Him also'. Herod’s true purpose revealed when he ordered all males two year old and under to be killed. There is no room at the stable for Herod as King, for there is but one King - Jesus. Although Herod rebuilt the Temple, the Jews never trusted him, his massacre of the Jews revealed his true character.

Communism is presents itself as the friend of the people. But in Russia, Cuba, China and other communist regimes any perceived threat to the power and position of the dictatorship is dealt with in Herodian style death, imprisonment, torture. Ideology and Christ are not compatible, as Richard Wurmbrand so cruelly learned.

Notice the feigned interest of Herod ‘that I may come and worship Him also’. Today we are faced with a plethora of legislation, supposedly to protect the rights of individuals yet the state becomes more involved in ordering the Church. The ideological response ultimately is to get rid of Christ and His Church, powerful forces are working to that end in Britain today.

3. The Intellectual or Considered Response.  MATT 2:2 Wise men ask 'Where is He that is born King of the Jews' Their interest arose from much study of the sacred books and learning. For these wise men learning and wisdom was to be acted upon. Thus they sought Him of whom they had read and learned. Their seeking lead to disappointment at the court of Herod, but as they resumed their journey disappointment turned to ‘exceeding great joy’ as they again saw HIS star. Finally they found Him - They came v11 - They humbled themselves 'fell down' - They worshipped Him - presenting gifts.

Intellect or wisdom need not be a bar to finding and worshipping Christ - those who having found Him, worship Him, are truly wise.   They found one of the great promises of scripture fulfilled -  If you seek Me with all of your heart and with all of your soul you will find Me. In JOHN 5:39 Jesus declares that the Scriptures testify of Him. Therefore be like the wise men who through reading and searching the scriptures found Christ.

4. The Response of the Common People. The shepherds, working men, representative of the common people. LUKE 2:8 'There were shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over their flock  by night'. Here we note the very ordinariness of their lives - the common people, the very lowest. Living out in the fields watching/tending their flocks, going about their daily business. Into this scene the messengers of heaven came with startling suddenness and a world stunning message. 'For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord'.

Note how they responded: 'Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.'  Thus an immediate response, even their responsibilities for their flocks did not hold them back. So what holds you back from coming to Christ?

v17,18  They spread the news to everybody. v20 They  glorified / praised God for all they had seen. Their response can be summed up thus - worship and witness. Likewise our response to Him should be that of worship and witness.

5. The Religious Response.  We find two groups here, albeit a short time after the birth.

•  Those who were waiting and watching (the remnant).
• Those who were not watching (the Pharisees and Sadducees).

The first group represented by Simeon and Anna. LUKE 2:29,30 'Lord now You are letting your servant depart in peace according to Your word For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared...' Anna praised God, spreading the news in Jerusalem '..to all who looked for redemption..'

                  

The second group, the religious leaders of the day, Pharisees and Sadducees are conspicuous by their absence. Formal dead religion has no room for a living Saviour, or ritual good works with the fruit of the Spirit.

6. Heaven's Response. LUKE 2:9 as God’s messenger announced to the shepherds the good news: ' suddenly -- there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men'.

The Christmas message, that the Saviour has been born draws forth from the angelic ranks great rolling waves of praise. If heaven rejoices that earth now has a Saviour, how much more should men who have been redeemed, worship and praise the Saviour.

What is your response to Christ this Christmas?

Do you like the innkeeper find no room for Him?

Are you like Herod really an enemy of God and His people?

                                        Or

Will you seek Him for yourself as the wise men and the shepherds did?

Will you humble yourself and bow before Him acknowledging His Lordship like the Wise men, and worship Him like the Shepherds. 

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery...

...so wrote Charles Caleb Cotton in his work ‘Many Things in Few Words.’, circa 1820. Many others have expressed similar sentiments. Imitation can however have both good and negative results.

Take commerce for example, a product may be so good that other manufacturers will seek to copy it in order to capture a share of the market. That imitation often extends to the way a product is packaged and marketed, even the position it occupies on the supermarket shelves. One of our leading brands of breakfast cereal has countered such tricks with the slogan ‘If it doesn’t say Kellogg on the box, it’s not Kellogg in the box’. What a challenge for all who label themselves Christian - is Christ dwelling within?

What does the Bible say about imitation? Paul writing to the Corinthian church urged them to imitate him 1COR 4:16. A brave almost arrogant call, but Paul himself was also imitating someone else and reveals who in 1COR 11:1 where again he calls on the Corinthians to imitate him, in the same manner that he imitates Christ. Then in HEB 6:12 we find we are to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. That is those who have persevered, those who have finished the course 2TIM 4:7. Theirs has been a successful life, their imitation of Christ complete.

To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus,

All I ask, to be like Him,

All through life's journey, from earth to glory.

All I ask, to be like Him

Eastern Valley Foodbank

For anyone who's in South Wales:

The Trussel Trust is a Christian organisation operating a number of emergency foodbanks across the country.  They are planning to open such a foodbank in Torfaen early next year.  The foodbanks help individuals and families in crisis, through the provision of emergency food supplies.  A network of distributors, consisting of health visitors, social workers and other community based support services work closely with the foodbanks to supply much needed food in these times of need, and the Trussel Trust see this as a great opportunity to demonstrate the love of Jesus in a practical way in a broken world.  Across the country the Trust’s foodbank network fed over 100,000 people in the first six months of 2012, and each month the numbers needing help are increasing.  The need in Torfaen is likely to be equally high.

If you would like to be involved as a volunteer with this venture, or would like more details about how you can donate, you can find out more by telephoning 07766 791441 or go to www.trusselltrust.org or www.easternvalley.foodbank.org.uk

Looking Skywards

How would you feel if you got up on Christmas morning to find that your loved ones had bought you a parachute jump as a present this year?  Apparently, for not much more than £100, you can learn to jump from a plane and land safely at a local airfield!  Suddenly socks and jumpers don’t seem that bad a gift after all!

          However scary such a jump might be, it would pale in comparison with that accomplished by Felix Baumgartner just a few weeks back.  Did you see it on the news?  He broke the world record for the highest ever jump, having leapt out of his capsule some 24 miles up.  The whole event was screened live over the internet and people around the world held their breath as they watched him tumbling over 128,000 feet to the earth. Though there were many dangers to be considered, and indeed at times during the jump there were real fears at ‘mission control’ that he might have died, we were able to see him land safely to the adulation of the world’s media.  Since then he has appeared on chat shows all around the globe.

          One of the things that became obvious as I watched the film of that jump was what a long way down it was.  There is a long way between the heavens and the earth.  King David, the Psalmist, had no idea just how far it was, but it did not stop him writing “As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His [God’s] mercy toward those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:11)

          That is particularly worth remembering as we come to the Christmas season. This month we celebrate again the coming of another man who left heaven for earth.  But he didn’t jump out of a capsule to return to the earth he had left moments earlier.  He left the heaven of heavens, the dwelling place of the triune God, where He had enjoyed perfect companionship with His Father for all eternity.  His arrival on the planet wasn’t watched by the world like Baumgartners was.  It was hidden from view, in the rural backwater of Bethlehem, an insignificant town in a despised part of the Roman Empire.  And He didn’t just take a risk when He came to earth, but came knowing, indeed planning, to die a cruel death on a cross.  Nor did He enjoy the adulation of the world for his coming.  He was “despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” (Isaiah 53:3).  Whereas the name of Felix Baumgartner is praised today, the name of Jesus Christ is still used as a swear word across the globe, 2000 years later.

          But the coming of Jesus Christ into the world all those years ago is still celebrated all these years later, and will continue to be long after Baumgartner’s achievement is forgotten.  All across the world are men and women who have found salvation and eternal life through this Jesus.  His death on the cross means their sins are forgiven and, though sinners, they can be accepted by God.  That can be true for you too, this Christmas, if you will believe in Him!

Getting Away With It?

It was one of those moments when I wanted to pull over to the side of the road and make a note of what had been said.  Listening to the phone-in on the car radio doesn’t always make me do that, but I couldn’t help feeling just how perceptive this particular contribution had been.

          “I can’t believe he’s got away with this by dying” the angry lady had said.  She was of course, referring to the news story that has dominated the headlines over the last few weeks.  A major television personality, someone noted for his prolific charity fund-raising, and for people of my generation a weekly fixture in our childhood television watching, has turned out to be a very different person than we had known until now.  A year after his death, it seems, hundreds of people are feeling able to tell of what happened to them at his hands, and the scandal it has caused seems to be involving well-known hospitals and particularly the BBC.  No-one knows what revelations are yet to come, but none of it is going to make pleasant reading.

          That woman’s reaction as she phoned the radio programme summed up the sense that many have, one of frustration mixed with anger.  To all intents and purposes, whatever he did he has got away with.  It is impossible to put him on trial, and so not only will his victims not get their day of vindication in court, but neither will he serve the sentence that it appears he deserves.  He has got away with by dying!

          Or has he?  The exclamation of the woman on the radio hints at something deep within the human soul.  Men and women are not just highly evolved animals, but are made in the image of God.  Because of that we have a sense of right and wrong.  If we were just evolved apes, the ‘law of the jungle’ means we could do as we pleased, but deep down we know that this can’t be right.  We are also created not only with a sense of justice but a sense of the eternal too, and so the idea that in some way this man will still have to pay for his crimes comes naturally to us.  Some years ago the then Prime Minister spoke about an awareness of having to answer to a higher authority, and though he was mocked for it, it ‘rang a bell’ with a lot of people.  We can’t, indeed won’t, believe that he has got away with it by dying!

          Both in Old and New Testament, God tells us clearly that Jimmy Savile will have to account for his life.  “God requires an account of what is past … God shall judge the righteous and the wicked” (Ecclesiastes 3:15,17).  “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). I am sure the lady on the phone will be glad about that!  So will you be perhaps.  But what is true about him, must be true about you too!  Though you feel your sins are not as vile as his, in God’s sight they call for judgment! He hates pride, temper, envy, lies and selfishness too.  But he also provided someone to take the punishment for all sin – Jesus Christ, His only Son.  By trusting in Him we can find forgiveness, whatever our sins, and find peace with the Judge of all.   

Mountains and Righteousness

          The news of the plane accident in Kathmandu at the end of last month, an accident in which a number of British climbers on their way to the Himalayas died, brought sadness to the whole country.  Having recently enjoyed listening to John Rajiah tell of the work of Eternal Light Ministries in Nepal at the weekly church  fellowship meeting, it was sad to focus on that country in a different way.

          Every year thousands of climbers head for that part of the world, and even though it’s now sixty years since Hilary and Tensing scaled the world’s highest peak, it seems to have lost none of its pulling power.  Here in Wales we too have a fascination with our mountains, even though they are perhaps on a slightly smaller scale!  I remember hearing a lady speaking on Radio Wales once, not long after she had been forced to relocate to Norfolk.  What did she miss the most?  Well, I’m sure you can guess what her reply was.

          The mountains, according to the Bible, provide us with a great picture of spiritual truths.  Just a few Sunday evenings ago we were looking at Psalm 36, and we saw that there David, as he speaks to God, tells us;

“Your mercy O LORD, is in the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  Your righteousness is like the great mountains.” (Psalm 36:5,6)

          Jerusalem, where David’s throne was, was surrounded by the mountains, and as he looked at them he was reminded of God’s righteousness.  Mountains are large, substantial and weighty, unchanging and impenetrable.  They are not things to be taken lightly or dismissed as being irrelevant.  Do that even if you are climbing Mount Snowdon, and you’d soon be in trouble.

          But many people treat God and His righteousness in exactly that casual manner.  They think that breaking God’s law is a matter of little importance.  Perhaps you are like that. Maybe you never think about the fact that God is righteous – always right in everything He says, thinks and does.  Maybe you put to the back of your mind the truth that if you are to stand before Him on the Day of Judgement you will need to be righteous too!

          The good news of the Bible is that God has done something to make that righteousness yours.  He has sent Jesus Christ – Jeremiah calls Him “the LORD our righteousness” ­– and promises that if we trust in this Saviour God’s righteousness becomes ours, indeed we become God’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). So, when God looks at our lives, He doesn’t see the evil things we have done, but sees the perfections of the Lord Jesus.

          In one of the other psalms we read something else that follows, if we have trusted in Jesus Christ, and that too is related to the mountains;

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and even forever.” (Psalm 125:2)  How wonderful is that!

What a Summer!

What a summer it has been!  As I write this, the last few events of the Paralympic Games are taking place, and that, following the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, have made it a golden few months in all sorts of ways.  Suddenly being British seems to be popular again.  Even the sun is shining at the moment!

After weeks of watching the medals stack up at the Olympic Park, lots of people are wondering how they are going to get back to normal.  The politicians and sports officials who brought the Games to the country are hoping that they will have a long term effect which lasts well past this summer.  All along they have hoped that it will encourage us to be more athletic and to get involved in sport of some sort.  With obesity such a problem to the health of the nation, and the finances of the NHS, anything that encourages people to exercise more will be grasped at with both hands.  However young or old we are, regular exercise is important for a healthy body and mind.

 Over July and August we saw how the Apostle Paul drew on the athletics event of his day to illustrate truths about the Christian living.  We read about ‘running a race’ and ‘winning a crown’, and were reminded about how we need to dedicate ourselves to Christian living, with a single-mindedness like that which we have seen in the sporting heroes of this summer.  The Apostle also speaks about ‘exercise’ in one of his letters.  In 1 Timothy 4:7,8 we read this;

“ … exercise yourself toward godliness.  For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

 Physical exercise is good for us.  Even if we are old, and all we can manage is to walk around the living room once or twice a day, it gets the blood circulating and keeps the muscles active.  Younger people jog, swim, walk, cycle, lift weights and do all manner of other things in the hope that the day they ‘get old’ will be delayed as a result.  But the Bible reminds us that physical exercise only has limited benefit.  At best, it may only delay the day of our departure from this world, and it has no effect in eternity. 

Instead, Paul points to a more worthwhile type of exercise.  We should aim to be godly!  That, he confidently asserts, has benefits in this life and in the life to come.  We are created in God’s image and for fellowship with him.  That must mean that the more ‘godly’ we are the more we are reaching our human potential.  Godliness – being like God in our attitudes, actions, thoughts and deeds – is, of course, as alien to us as physical exercise to a ‘couch potato’, but without it we cannot enjoy God or true life.  And whereas the benefits of physical exercise stop at death, the godly man or woman has the promise of life eternal where God will be enjoyed forever. 

What sort of exercise have you done today?  Physically and spiritually? 

Life's Two Certainties

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  So said Benjamin Franklin over two hundred years ago, and his famous saying still holds true today.  Though preachers speak very often about the first of 'life’s two certainties', it is good to remind ourselves that the Bible has something to say about the other too.

          Taxes have been in the news rather a lot this month.  Quite a storm broke when it was revealed that some of the entertainers who had performed in the Jubilee concert outside Buckingham Palace, men who were already fabulously wealthy, were using a scheme which enabled them to pay just 1% income tax.  Although the scheme was perfectly legal, it did nothing to improve these stars’ popularity.  One of the jokes that went around was that the OBE that was recently awarded to one of the organizers of that concert stood for ‘Offshore Banking Expert!’

          The Prime Minister even weighed into the debate, talking about the questionable morality of what was happening.  Though it might be asked whether he was in a position to throw stones, leading a party financed largely by people who avoid tax in the same way, and leading a government that is set on further undermining Biblical moral standards, especially those relating to marriage, is of course another matter.

          What does the Bible say?  As we saw in our recent studies on Abraham, the Bible always calls upon Christians to be the best of citizens, and as far as it is possible before God to obey the laws of the land.  The Lord Jesus told his hearers to “Render to Caesar (the earthly authority of His day) the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.” (Matthew 22:21).  The Apostle Paul repeated that in Romans that command in Romans 13, reminding us that the earthly authorities are God's ministers.  That is particularly striking when we remember the way that the government of Paul's day mistreated the Christian church.  We should pay our taxes whatever we think of the way they are used.

          But though you may pay your taxes honestly and on time, indeed though you may be the best citizen of an earthly kingdom in every way, there is something more that is required to be a citizen of God's Kingdom.  That is the eternal Kingdom that entered this world with the first coming of Christ and will come in power at His second coming.  We need to be rendering to God what is His due.  That is a life of worship and thanksgiving.  It is the awareness of His holiness and of our sinfulness. It is a continual cry of repentance and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent into the world as an answer to our selfishness and pride, and who has died to give us eternal life if we come to Him.  All the tax-paying morality in the world cannot save us.  Only He can!

The Year of Jubilee

The year of Jubilee is a God given time to reflect upon the blessings of the past. To bring our thanks to God for His providence in a Queen who has enabled us to enjoy relative peace, social stability and freedom of worship. It is truly a time of celebration and we have much to celebrate. Around us in the world, we see many nations being torn apart by wars and religious hatred. Although, in this country we have seen the rise of secularism and a decline in religion, religion still remains a source of influence in many areas of our lives. God willing we may yet see a revival of godly living and practice, with celebrations of thankfulness to God for His continuing mercies, as happened in Israel of old when she returned from her period of captivity in Babylon. 

The institution of the sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilee was important in the life of God’s ancient people Israel as scripture records.  The sabbatical year was celebrated every seventh year by allowing the land to rest (EX 23:10; LEV 25:1-7). It would be a constant reminder of creation when God rested from His work on the seventh day, so the land would be rested in the seventh year. It was to remind Israel that God was Lord over all things, especially in the land of Canaan, the land He had given them. In the seventh year the fruit of the fields and vineyards were for the poor and needy to glean. 

In celebration of the event a great gathering of the people, all Israel, was held during the Feast of Tabernacles. There the Law of God was read publicly in order to promote the fear of the Lord among the people (DEUT 31:9-13). Sadly this great event, the sabbatical year and its celebration, became neglected prior to the captivity, just as Moses had predicted it would, even in their own land (LEV 26:34-35), despite the specific command to keep My Sabbaths found in (LEV 26:2). However it seems it was restored to some extent in Nehemiah’s day (NEH 9:13-18) after the captivity.

The year of Jubilee, the year after seven Sabbatic years, the fiftieth year was the year of Jubilee (LEV 25:8-55). The year of Jubilee was cause for even greater celebration, as debts were remitted, houses and lands that had been mortgaged were returned to the sellers, inheritances restored to their rightful owners, and slaves set free (LEV 25:39-46). Providing in type a glorious picture of the gospel age to come, prophesied by Isaiah (ISA 61:1), and inaugurated by Jesus (LUKE 4:18), gloriously foreshadowing that day when the final trumpet blast will herald His coming again (MATT 24:31) ushering in His eternal kingdom. It will, like the year of Jubilee, be a time when wrongs are righted, when redeemed man will be restored to the full image of His maker, and enters into his eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus.

Jubilee was celebrated in the seventh month, all Israel were called to a holy convocation by the blowing of trumpets on the first day of the month (NUM 29:1; LEV 23:27). The tenth day of the month was the day of atonement, a very important day for Israel nationally, when the sins of the past year were atoned for. The Feast of Tabernacles was kept from the 15th to the 21st of the month. 

These festivals had both a moral and spiritual purpose for Israel, in that they served to unite all Israel under God marking them as His special people thus separating them from the heathen nations around them. They reminded the people of the holiness of their God, for only the High Priest could enter the holiest place, and then only with the blood of the sin offering.

Releasing of debts helped relieve poverty in the land among widows and orphans for whom God had special concern (DEUT 10:18). Jubilee provided a check against covetousness and oppression, as restoring lands and houses ensured no inheritance was lost to a particular family as allocated to their ancestors. Thus none would become rich at the expense of the poor.

What do these festivals have to say to us today? Well first we can say that all the truths they teach are fully realised in Jesus Christ. On the question of atonement, when Jesus died upon the cross, He became the final and only sacrifice for sin (HEB 7:27). In Christ all are equal, rich and poor, bondservants and freemen (GAL 3:28), all are heirs and joint heirs with Christ. In Christ we gain more than Adam lost when he succumbed to sin in the garden of Eden. Whilst in one sense the Gospel age has brought a spiritual Jubilee, we look forward to that greater Jubilee yet to come. That is the age when all tears will be wiped away as the former things pass away, when sin will be no more, where justice and equity reign and we shall be forever with the Lord.    

Life's Olympics

What a memorable afternoon it was in the centre of Pontypool last month!  Thousands celebrated the visit of the Olympic torch in the warm sunshine!  Quite a few church members were there, and though I didn’t see it, I’m reliably informed that one of our very senior members was seen hanging on to a gate to get a better view!  No names, but you know who you are!

It was a ‘once in a lifetime’ event, not just for those of us who packed the pavements.  It was especially so for those who had the honour of taking part in the relay.  Male and female, young and old, famous and ‘ordinary’, they had been chosen to play a part in this great procession that leads ultimately to the Olympic Stadium in London next month.  300 meters or so had been allotted to each of them, and it was their job, as thousands looked on, to get the torch to the next runner.  I saw some of them interviewed on the television, and they spoke about the advice they had been given by family and friends, most of which it seems had revolved around not falling over and keeping looking forward.

There is, of course, a sense in which we, as Christians, are part of a great relay race.  As the old hymn reminds us;

          “We bear the torch that flaming, fell from the hands of those,
           Who gave their lives proclaiming that Jesus died and rose”

And it was a similar thought that came to mind the following Sunday, as we were reminded at the Communion table of those words of the Apostle;

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The Apostle Paul, who was familiar with Greek athletic competitions like the ancient Olympics, often used the picture of a race to remind us of our Christian lives.  Just as the runners in the torch relay, and in the Games themselves next month, wear nothing that holds them back, so you and I need to be ruthless with the sin that traps us and drags us down.  Just as each torchbearer had an allotted section that was their responsibility to run, so God has given each of us a time and a place where we must serve Him with endurance.  Just as each of them had to look for the next person, the one who would take the flame from them, so we, as God’s chosen ones, have to keep our eye on a Person, the greatest person – the Lord Jesus Christ!
What was the reward for each of those participants we saw running in the Eastern Valley sunshine that day?  The fame, the glory, and the chance to buy for £200 or so the torch that they had carried.  Those who run in the Games themselves will get a medal – at least if they finish in the first three, that is!  For those of us who run this race with perseverance, there is “laid up for me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:8).  What a reward!  So keep running! 

A Hundred and Fifty Years Ago

          There is an hour when I must part
          With all I hold most dear
         And life with its best hopes will then
          As nothingness appear.


         For the hymnist, Congregationalist Andrew Reed, that hour came one hundred and fifty years ago, and when he died the church lost not only a fine hymn writer but also a writer of repute and the city of London an exemplary worker amongst the poor.
         He was born in London in November 1787.  The fact that his mother had been an orphan had a lifelong effect on him.  His father was a watchmaker and a Congregational lay preacher.  Andrew grew up to work alongside his father and used his wages to buy classical and theological books, studying first in his home, and then in that of the Rev Matthew Wilks.  In 1811, Reed was ordained and became the first pastor of the New Road Chapel in the Stepney, London, where he labored for twenty years.  In 1831, he became the minister of the Wycliffe Church, Commercial Road, London, which had been built through his untiring efforts to replace the New Road Chapel, whose congregation had grown from one hundred to over two thousand by his death.
         Reed wrote a number of hymns, although there are only two in our main hymnbook, the other being another which we regularly sing;


         Spirit divine, attend our prayers,
         And make our hearts Thy home;
         Descend with all Thy gracious powers,
         O come, great Spirit come!


         Dr Reed was best known however, for his work amongst the less fortunate, underprivileged and sick members of society.  During his lifetime he established five national benevolent institutions – the London Orphan Asylum, the Asylum for Fatherless Children, the Asylum for Idiots, the Infant Orphan Asylum and the Hospital for Incurables.  All this philanthropic work was inspired by his experience of life through his mother who gave shelter to orphans, remembering how it had been for her.
         He died in 1862, leaving the epitaph: “I was born yesterday, I shall die tomorrow, and I must not spend today telling what I have done, but in doing what I may for Him who has done all for me.  I sprang from the people, I have lived for the people, the most for the most unhappy.”

We will meet in Heaven

An article advertising a forthcoming programme on BBC Radio 4 about letters sent to their loved ones by soldiers from the front line, contained the following moving example from a soldier who obviously knew his Lord.  It was written by Private George Henry Davies, born in Montgomery in 1889 who was a missionary in Australia before joining up in January 1916.  He was killed eighteen months later;

"This will be the last time I shall write in this diary before the 'Great Push'. It may be the last time I shall ever write.

I am just taking these last few minutes at my disposal to pen this letter to you, and even as I write I am expecting to be called away.
The time is now ripe for the moment when we 'go over the top' and advance on the enemy trenches; I am to go with the boys and am not sorry to be able to do so.
I am quite ready dear laddie, I have made my peace with God, and am trusting in Christ my Saviour to bring me to Eternal Light.
I am looking forward to this 'push' to bring me a happy release from further military life which I hate, and I hope to be wounded and sent home, or else be killed, either are preferable to this hell on earth.
Now Willie dear, you will see in this diary how I love you; you are my adopted brother, your sweet, beautiful 'boy' influence lingers with me as I write these last few lines, and I want to say that I shall think of you right to the end, and I shall pray to God to keep you in His Care.
You will remember our last words together on Melbourne station, 'We will meet in Heaven'. If I die I shall be looking for you Willie, I know I shall see you again with your mother and mine in the Fadeless Morning on the Eternal Shore. If I live Willie, I shall seek to do all I can to crush any military tendencies in my nation, I will make my name heard against money grabbing, and other evil things, and will uphold the highest and best socialism and I will try to make life more like Christ's life. If I die I would like you to do this for me. Set your heart against all greed, selfishness, lust, and dirt my laddie, and remember Jesus Christ IS a stronghold in Whom we can hide.

Good-bye,
Your ever loving brother,
George Davies.

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“Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead.  Don’t you believe a word of it!  At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now!”

                                                                                                      D.L Moody

The Best Samaritan

 The name of Clare Squires probably meant nothing to you until last month.  She was one of the tens of thousands who took part in the London Marathon the other Sunday morning, but sadly she did not reach the finish.  Just a mile from the end of the twenty six miles and 385 yards she tragically collapsed and died, the eleventh person to do so in the history of the event.

          What has happened since has been nothing short of amazing.  Clare was running in aid of The Samaritans, a worthwhile charity who had helped her family in the past.  By the time of the race she had already raised about £500, but in response to the tragedy that sum has, at the time I write this, already topped the million pound mark.  Television brings the reality of these distant events into our living rooms, and new technology like the internet and mobile phones enables people to give instantly.  When a young person is suddenly taken like this, particularly when they were busy doing something judged by people to be so commendable, people will respond generously.

          Though given the choice Clare’s family and friends would prefer to still have her with them, they are no doubt comforted by the great good that her death has done.  This would not have happened if she had crossed the finishing line like everyone else.  There are many more who will benefit from her passing than would have done otherwise, as the Samaritans put that finance to good use.

          The Samaritans of course, take their name from one of the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was Him that I thought of as I have followed the story.  The Good news of the Gospel is that we can benefit from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, but even more so from His death.  We are saved because He came to earth as man and lived amongst us.  He went about doing good to people, not raising money to help others heal people and help them with their problems, but actually doing that miraculously himself.  He healed the sick, gave eyesight to the blind, made disabled people fit and well and even raised the dead.  He taught about God and His kingdom showing us the only way to Heaven was through Him.  And most importantly, He lived a life of entire obedience to His Father in Heaven, whose will He lived to complete.

          But we could not be saved by His life alone, as perfect as it was.  As strange as it sounds, we benefit even more from His death.  Such is the holiness of God, and the deadly nature of our sinfulness and failure that a perfect sacrifice was needed.  Someone had to die in our place.  Only Jesus, the perfect man who is God, could do that.  The Bible tells us that if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ our sins are put to his account and paid for on the cross of Calvary.  In return we are credited with His righteousness, so that as God looks at us He does not see our sin but the perfection of Christ’s life.

          Our hearts go out to the family of Clare Squires, and trust that all that has been given in her memory will do much good.  But we need to be ready for the day when we are called from this world too.  Are you?                 

Fabrice, Fulfillment and Faith

The third weekend of March was a truly memorable one for sport in this part of South Wales.  75,000 people packed the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and many more sat on the edge of their barstools or sofas as Wales surged to their third Grand Slam in eight years.  National rejoicing followed! For some of us, though, this was only the second most important sporting achievement of the weekend.  Far more important in some eyes was the fact that Newport County Football Club, in their centenary year, had reached a Wembley final, and will grace the national stage with their particular brand of the beautiful game on May 12^th. Joy unconfined in the house of this writer!

But whether your ball is round or oval, it all seemed unimportant by the end of the evening.  For at a football ground in North London, a 23 year-old footballer, Fabrice Muamba, had suddenly collapsed during a game watched by 35,000 fans and live television cameras.  In a moment he had gone from being the fittest of athletes to fighting for his life.  The nation held its breath … and turned, it seems, to prayer!

As the TV cameras understandably gave the seriously ill footballer some privacy and turned their focus onto the crowd, people could be seen with their eyes closed and their hands together – school assembly like!  As the evening wore on, famous footballers, England captains amongst them, urged us by tweets to pray.  Why was this?  Has secular England found God?  Has the national game been gripped by a religious revival?

Probably not, I fear.  Maybe it was more a question of ‘if everything else fails, try prayer’.  But these events do show up, perhaps, the truth of what the Bible claims. The Word of God tells us that “God … has put eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  Deep down in all of us there is an awareness of the eternal; that there is something beyond this world.  Though we deny it with secularism, or drown it with the chase for fame, wealth and pleasure, it is still there.  It is a yawning chasm in our lives that only God can fill.  And when the crisis comes, that gap seems all the larger.

Maybe that is where you are in your life just now.  Perhaps you have tried everything but still can’t find fulfillment.  Or maybe there is a crisis in your life which has caused you to stop and evaluate things afresh.  Maybe something has reminded you too of the frailty and uncertainty of human life.

The good news of course is that God does here and answer prayer.  As I write this Fabrice Muamba is making a recovery that one of the doctors who treated him described as ‘miraculous’.  We pray that he continues to improve.  Another writer in the Bible said “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God: He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears” (Psalm 18:6).

Not only does God do that, but He has sent the answer to human frailty and failure. He gave us Jesus, His Son, who took frail human flesh Himself.  Jesus Christ came and willingly died, crucified on a cruel Roman cross.  Through Him we can know God, and knowing God have forgiveness, fulfillment and eternal life.  Never mind sport; that really is something to get excited about!     

From the Pastor... (12-02-28)

“What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”  Of all the searching questions that Jesus asked whilst he was on earth, that must be one of the most challenging.  I thought about it again last month, as the world marked the death of the singer Whitney Houston, aged 48.

          For some, many of her fans included, it was a terrible shock.  They had grown up with her singing as the ‘soundtrack of their lives’ as one commentator put it.  That she should die at such a young age was such a terrible waste.  But for those of us who were a little older, perhaps, it didn’t really come as a shock at all.  Some of us remember the death of Elvis Presley, six years younger than Whitney, or Karen Carpenter who died aged only 32.  And it is only a matter of months since Amy Winehouse was found dead at the age of 27.  All of these famous names were otherwise ordinary people blessed with a most extraordinary gift, a gift that made them millions.  But true happiness evaded them.  Instead, as another commentator, suveying this repeated pattern, said; “Amazing talent brings fame and fortune which then swallows up these artists in a whirlpool of sin, addiction, and death.”

          Though most people recognise that, we are so slow to truly learn the lesson.  The queues of hopefuls at every ‘X-Factor’ audition show us that.  We are a society which values and rewards ‘gifts’ as never before, but who care nothing for the Giver.  Satan has turned our hearts so that even what God gives us is twisted to drive us away from Him, rather than in thankfulness to Him.

          And yet, throughout this sad episode, God was still, it seems drawing men and women to Himself.  The BBC news channel gave over several hours of its Saturday evening schedule to show the funeral, where, amidst much theological confusion, the Word of God was read, quoted and explained.  And time and again that week, we were reminded of eternity, as we heard Houston’s most famous song, with its haunting refrain ‘and I … will always love you’.  How sad it was, that like many singers of this world, she sang about an endless love without ever finding one, or experiencing one.

           The message of the Bible, one that even came over in an imperfect way at her funeral service, is there is such a thing as an eternal love, and that it is possible for someone to hear those words of promise that Houston sang, said by Someone who means it and who has the capacity to truly do it.  God says to His people “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3).  The One who gives gifts to people, as part of the bounty of His creation, has given us His Son, the greatest gift of all, because He has an eternal love for His people.  Though we all get caught up in our own ‘whirlpool of sin’, the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross to rescue us, not just from sin, but death and hell too.  And He will always love us, because that is His very nature!  Have you come to love Him?