Star Gazing

The article in the daily newspaper caught my attention immediately; “Want to be more selfless? Try gazing at the stars” read the headline. It concerned some research carried out by a Dr. Piff of the University of California (I know – I nearly gave up when I read that, but stick with it!) which showed that when people looked at something amazing in the natural world, they became more considerate of others and altogether nicer. Those who were awe-inspired reacted more altruistically in a series of tests than those who weren’t. Interesting, that, isn’t it?
For those who know their Bibles of course, the research results shouldn’t come as a surprise. Whereas unbelievers look up their stars in the newspaper, for Christians, looking up at the stars of the heavens is a biblical discipline. Recently in our study of Galatians we reminded ourselves of that covenant-establishing moment recorded in Genesis 15 when God told Abraham to look at the night-time sky. According to Galatians 3, you and I are part of the fulfillment of that great promise.
A thousand years or more later, David was doing the same thing, and Psalm 8 was the result. If you have a Bible to hand, find the psalm and remind yourself of its glorious poetry. When David looked at the stars he recalled the amazing grandeur of God and his creative power. It led him to worship the God whose name is excellent in all the earth. It made him think too of how insignificant man was by comparison, and of how remarkable it was that God should care about him and even visit him with salvation. That too led him to praise God even more! As we look at the same stars three thousand years later, we should feel the same.
In Hebrews chapter 2, the writer quotes from Psalm 8, and leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He, of course, is the one who ‘flung stars into space’, carefully speaking them into their exact orbit on the fourth day of creation! Five little words in Genesis 1, “He made the stars also”, comprise the most astonishing understatement ever made! There are, we are told, 18 billion planets in our solar system alone! Even more remarkably, this same Lord Jesus chose to become man, to lay aside the presence and praise of angels and make Himself a little lower than the angels. Listen to verse 9 which tells us why; “But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
However kind we are to others as a result of looking into the heavens, our life on this planet one day must come to an end. We have to face not space - the final frontier, but death - the final enemy. How can we do that with any hope? Only if we are trusting in the Lord Jesus who tasted death and conquered it! He died for the sins of his people, and rose again that they might have eternal life. Are you trusting in Him?

Back from the Dead

The death of Sir Terry Pratchett, author of many best-selling fantasy novels, was one of the most-reported stories of recent weeks. Whether or not you had read any of his books – I must admit I hadn’t – you are probably familiar with his face and seen him on television. That was because as well as being a novelist, he had, in his last years, become a well-known campaigner about the Alzheimer’s Disease which eventually took his life. After being diagnosed with the early onset of the disease, he also filmed a television programme about his experiences of suffering with it, and gave and raised a lot of money towards research relating to it.
 I was interested to read how different people responded to the event. Quoting from one of his books, after Pratchett's death, his assistant wrote from the official Terry Pratchett Twitter account: “At last, Sir Terry, we must walk together. Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under endless night. The End.” 
Perhaps you read too, about the fact that several of his fans began a petition which urged death to ‘bring back Terry Pratchett’. According to some press reports, over 5000 of his fans signed the online petition. The petition needless to say has been unsuccessful.
Death doesn’t ‘give people back’. That is why we rightly respect it and do so much to fight against it. There was a time, of course, when it had to give people back. When the Lord Jesus walked on earth we read of three cases where dead people did come back to life. A widow’s son in Nain (Luke 7), Jairus’s daughter in Capernaum (Matthew 9) and a man called Lazarus from a village called Bethany (John 11) all came back from the dead. This was not because death willingly gave them up, but because Someone more powerful than death overpowered it! He went on to prove that in His own life.
It’s Easter time again, and on Easter Day we will be remembering the Lord Jesus Christ, Victor over death and the grave. We will examine the overwhelming evidence for the truth of the resurrection and find it convincing! We will also rejoice in the great significance and meaning that the resurrection of the Saviour carries with it. The sacrifice for sin that He had made on the cross has been accepted by a holy God. We can know forgiveness, peace with God, and, what is more, eternal life as a result, because the resurrection of Christ means that the locked door of death has been opened from the inside. Heaven, shut to us because of our sin, can be ours through Him.
Look again at those final words on Sir Terry Pratchett’s twitter account. “Black desert … endless night … the End”. He never wrote anything more powerful or profound. But when the Risen Lord Jesus is real to us, dwelling in our hearts by faith, they could not be further from the truth. If we know Christ, death to us will be gain! We won’t go to endless night, but to eternal day! Death won’t be the end, but a new beginning that will never end! Do you have the hope of Easter Day?

Peace at Christmas

Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? The countdown to the big day is well under way, and to the delight of the retailers, we are constantly reminded how many shopping days there are still to go. Those same retailers have been enticing us with their special Christmas television adverts too. This year’s offering from John Lewis has drawn lots of attention with its cute little boy and even cuter penguin, but if anything, perhaps the Sainsbury’s commercial has caused more conversation, marking as it does the centenary of the Christmas Day truce in the beginning of World War I.

Made in conjunction with the Royal British Legion it is based upon the football match that took place between British and German soldiers in ‘no-man’s land’ on Christmas Day in 1914. Though there would be a far more important football match between the English and the Germans fifty years later, the Christmas Day game has gone down in history. Amidst all the carnage of war, especially that particular war, the idea that men could put down their guns and share an hour in their common humanity has always been inspirational. This retailer is hoping the story inspires us to part with our cash!

The first Christmas, the real Christmas story, is also about peace breaking into war. The incarnation of the Son of God took place in a time of military upheaval too, as the Roman Empire sought to establish its stranglehold on the known world by imposing the tax and census which took Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. There, amidst poverty and squalor, a baby was born, a real helpless baby, but One who was also ‘Mighty God’ (Isa 9:6). With his birth, and with his life, death and resurrection, human history changes completely. Two millennia later we are still celebrating His birth.

One of the other titles given to the baby Jesus by Isaiah seven centuries before was ‘Prince of Peace’. That reflects the reason why He came into the world. The Bible tells us that you and I are enemies of a holy God. That is because of our sin – the things that we say, think and do that are not perfect in God’s evaluation. Because we are sinners, a state of enmity exists between God and us. That enmity has consequences far worse than those when countries fall out with each other. It means we will be eternally separated from God, and shut out of Heaven.

Jesus came into this war-torn world to reconcile God to man. He brought peace by living a life of perfect obedience to God’s law, the life that we cannot live. That life, which was spent preaching the good news of the Kingdom, healing the sick, and transforming the lives of individuals, was snuffed out as He was taken by wicked hands and crucified on a cross outside of Jerusalem. But that death was God’s plan. It was Christ’s innocent blood which pays the price for our redemption. God’s charge on us is paid in full by Him. We can now be at peace with God. That peace doesn’t just last for a day, as it did in 1914, but for eternity.

Lesson from a Spider

It’s that time of the year again when our homes play host to some of God’s most interesting creatures. With the colder autumn evenings, they are attracted by the warmth of our houses and so we find them in the bath or, worse still, the bed. Spiders! Love them or hate them they’re here again. This year’s weather, the experts are telling us, has been ideal for these arachnids, and so not only are they more numerous than normal, but also larger! Thanks to ‘global warming’, we are told, one or two ‘foreign spiders’ are taking root in the UK, and although they are not venomous like the ones you might find in Australia, one or two people have been hospitalised following a nasty bite. Something to think about as you clobber the next big one you see with your slipper!

But, hang on a minute! The Bible speaks to us about spiders in more than one place, so perhaps we should learn from them before we remove them, by fair means or foul, from our houses. In Job, a book that is very rich in its descriptions of the animal kingdom, we are warned that the “hope of the hypocrite”, and “the paths of all who forget God” are like “a spider’s web” (Job 8:14). There are few things more beautiful on an autumn morning than seeing a spider’s web in the garden, particularly with frosty dew on it. But put your hand on it and it will collapse. Beautiful but fragile! How right the book of Job is. And yet many people are just like that. They live their lives as though God doesn’t exist, and even if they pay lip-service to God, their lives show that it is just hypocrisy. Though their lives might have an outward beauty, on the Day of Judgement they will be lost. Is that how it is with you?

Another Old Testament book that constantly encourages us to learn lessons from God’s creatures is Proverbs. That’s not surprising because we know that not only was its author, Solomon, blessed with the gift of great wisdom (1 Kings 3:1-15), but he was an expert on all living creatures (1 Kings 4:32-34). In Proverbs 30:24-28, he points us to four things “which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise”. One of those is the spider, about which Solomon says “The spider skillfully grasps with his hand, and it is in kings’ palaces” (Prov. 30:28).

The great J C Ryle, writing to children more than a hundred years ago, said this about that verse; “The spider creeps into grand houses. And there she spins her web. There seems no keeping her out. Your mother comes and brushes the web away. The spider sets to work at once, and makes it again new. No insect is so persevering as the spider. She does her work over and over again. She will not give up! Now I want you to make the spider your pattern about your souls. I want you, like the spider, to persevere in sticking to what is good. I would like you to determine that you will never give up. I want you to keep on trying not to do what is evil—and trying always to do what is good, and pleasing to God.”

So put that slipper down and think again!

Floral Display

People often remark about how attractive the chapel looks when you turn into Lancaster Road on a winter Sunday evening. The lights in the windows of the church building stand out against the darkness in an inviting way that is very pleasing on the eye. But now the view of the chapel in the day time has been improved too. The large area of wild flowers, on the green next to the chapel, has suddenly become a blaze of colour, enhancing the bare patch that was there before. What we thought was just a ruse to give the council less grass to mow (!) looks like a great idea after all. The hope is that in time they will also attract butterflies and bees. There, and all over New Inn, these wild flower beds have come to life and look beautiful.

They are a good thing to have in our mind as we enter the chapel for worship too. There are some Bible verses that should come to our mind as we approach the chapel, see them, and prepare for the great privilege ahead of us. The one that came first to my mind was what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field … will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith” (Matt. 6:28-30).

Sometimes, on a Sunday, our thoughts can be filled with the concerns of the week that has just ended, or our minds can be distracted by worries relating to the week just beginning. As we come to church we are reminded that we are coming to a Heavenly Father to whom we are precious, and to whom we can bring all our cares and worries. He will provide all our needs, and our trust should be fully in Him.

But perhaps there is another part of the Bible which is even more helpful to remember as we see those wild flowers on the way to worship. Isaiah tells us; “All flesh is as grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8).

As beautiful as these flowers are, we know that they will not be there for long. They will eventually fade and fall away. That was even truer in Israel where the fierce Mediterranean sun meant they had a short life expectancy. Here they are more likely to be spoilt by the rain! But either way, we have to enjoy them while we can. Whether we like it or not, those flowers should remind us of our own mortality. We are like the wild flowers - here for just a short time. But there are some things that are eternal and one of those is the word of God that we come to chapel to hear. It offers us eternal life through the same Jesus who preached about the lilies of the field. We can trust Him not just for the worries of this life, but for eternity. Have you done that?

Against the Law

Thirty five miles an hour in a thirty mile per hour zone! The evidence apparently was there, on film, in the possession of the South Wales Constabulary. And so I found myself, one Friday afternoon a few weeks back, on a Speed Awareness Course at the YMCA in Newport. Four hours of watching videos, group exercises and listening to the professionals, rather than three points on my license and a hefty fine. But I don’t need to say much more, because quite a few of you reading this have been on a course like this too, haven’t you? Some of you have even admitted to it!

I wasn’t on my own that afternoon. There were almost thirty others, from a seventeen year old to a chap in his seventies. They were male and female, of all shapes and sizes. The only thing we had in common was that we were all in the wrong. Our driving had broken the law. We were guilty. I was reminded of what the Bible says about our lives on a far greater scale. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

The afternoon started with us giving a list of reasons why we might occasionally (!) break the speed limit. They ranged from the understandable – to get someone to the doctors because they were ill, to the farcical – ‘I needed to get to the petrol station before I ran out of petrol’, but our instructor reminded us that there was no good reason to break the law and that the consequences of speeding and illegal driving were serious. Sometimes it leads even to death, either of the driver or of another motorist or a pedestrian. I thought again of sin and how we can always think of an excuse to justify our breaking of God’s law, but there is no excuse. What is more, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).

By this point in the article, I know what you are beginning to wonder. Did he learn anything about driving, or did he spend the whole afternoon jotting down sermon illustrations? Well, yes, I hope I did learn a few things. Apparently wherever you are driving you are never more than 20 yards away from a clue to the speed limit on that road, particularly if you keep an eye on the lamp-posts. If they’re in a regular pattern, you should expect it to be thirty miles an hour. Otherwise there will be plate size signs on them declaring what the speed limit is. We are without excuse. But again I found myself thinking of spiritual realities. All around us; in creation, in our conscience, in the Bible, and ultimately through Jesus, God has spoken to us about our sin, and our need of His forgiveness. How good God is! How without excuse we are!

The best part of the afternoon was right at the end. The instructor told us that because we had completed the course, he could press a button on his laptop and send our details back to the office. That meant the slate was wiped clean. Our speeding transgression had been dealt with. No more punishment. No fine, no penalty points. Gone! Your sins and mine can be forgiven, dealt with in an instant too, but not by our doing a course, but by Jesus dying in our place, and giving us his righteousness. Are you still guilty … or forgiven?

A Christian Nation?

Is Britain still a Christian country? That is the question that was dominating the political agenda, and with it the television and news media, just a week or so ago. It followed some comments that the Prime Minister made at Easter, and which were seized upon by his opponents and then by those who oppose any sort of faith influence in public life. Though many saw David Cameron’s comments as little more than a pitch to get back potential voters ahead of the coming elections, voters angered by the Gay Marriage legislation, what he said certainly stirred up a debate.

The first problem with answering a question like that, of course, is the need to define what we mean by a ‘Christian country’. The number of people who define themselves as ‘Christian’ in surveys and censuses declines decade by decade, and even though this would still be a majority of the population, we are far from a position where we could say that the whole of the population is broadly ‘Christian’. Indeed the same politicians rejoice in the diversity of faiths and cultures that mark Britain in the twenty-first century. We are probably on safer ground when we recognize that Britain’s history and cultural heritage has been so immersed in the Christian faith that large areas of national life are still affected by it, and to that extent we might still be regarded as a ‘Christian nation’. Judging by the last few decades and the legislation that has been introduced, one wonders whether that level of influence will be maintained.

But in answering the question, we need to go back one step further and make our definitions even clearer. Before we can define a ‘Christian country’ we need to define what a Christian is. That’s a discussion that I haven’t seen taking place in the media in the last few weeks. But it is of ultimate importance that we get that definition correct. Whether or not Britain is ‘Christian’ is not of eternal significance to you and I as individuals, but that we understand what a Christian is, and that we have become one, certainly does matter in that way.

A Christian isn’t just somebody who is kind, moral, clean living, charitable and a good citizen. People of most religions would fall into that category. Nor is it one who has a high regard for the life and teachings of Jesus. Most Muslims would have that, and they wouldn’t regard themselves as Christians. On the authority of the Bible, we would have to say that a Christian isn’t even somebody who regularly goes to church, has been christened or who reads their Bible. We can all do that without being a true Christian.

No, a Christian is one who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation. They have been ‘born again’ by God’s Holy Spirit, have confessed and turned away from their sin, and are now consciously living under His lordship. Though there are many things that they now ‘do’ as response to God, they do not trust in those things, but in what Christ did on the cross at Calvary.

Never mind Britain, what about you?

Counterfeit Christianity?

Shopping!  Whether that one single word brings a smile to your face, or a feeling of terror to your heart will depend on many things, not just whether you are male or female!  For some, a Saturday afternoon’s ‘retail therapy’ is the ideal form of relaxation, but for others there are a thousand other places they would rather be.  But for all of us, there’s one moment at the shops which is always a little bit unnerving … and I don’t just mean paying.
    How many times have you handed over a ten or twenty pound note to the cashier, only for them to put the note under the ultra-violet light they have attached to the till?  Maybe as they do that you feel a little annoyed.  ‘Do I look like a counterfeiter?’ you ask yourself!   Maybe in annoyance you have similarly held the £5 note you have received in your change up to the light to make the point that you feel insulted by their suggestion.  Or is that just me!
    The simple fact is that there are an awful lot of counterfeit notes in circulation.  Many of them are so good, both in appearance and in ‘feel’, they easily pass as the genuine thing.  They might even have fooled you and so you simply pass on in the shop what has been passed on to you.  But the special light at the till isn’t fooled.  It spots the counterfeit, and you’re left embarrassed.  The fact that the note might have done a lot of good as it’s passed through previous owners is of no consequence. It might have been given as a present from a grandparent to a child, or as a donation to a person in the depths of poverty.  It might have been put in the collection in church just weeks before, or in a charity box.  But it’s still a fake, and like all fake notes it will end up being destroyed.
    A Christian writer, Warren Wiersbe, in his book ‘On being a servant of God’ uses this illustration when talking about counterfeit Christians.   Like banknotes, there are a great many counterfeit Christians about.  Like the banknote, we can have the look or feel of the genuine article and do a lot of good as we pass from person to person.  We may give to charity or to the church too, not just our banknotes but our time, energy and concern.  But that doesn’t make us real Christians either.  Sooner or later we too will stand before a light that will show up all our failings.  That will be on the Day of Judgement.
    When He was on earth, the Lord Jesus Christ warned people about that day.  His words, spoken as part of the Sermon on the Mount, and recorded in Matthew 7 tell us that there will be people who seem like Christians, even casting out demons in His name, but Jesus will say to them; “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
    For to be real Christians we need to know Christ.  We need to know Him personally and intimately, because Christianity is a relationship not a religion. We need to have come to put our trust exclusively in Him, and His death on the cross at Calvary alone. We need to be living every day in obedience to His word.  Is that true of you?

Floods Because of Sin?

It is not often that the words of a local councillor makes the news headlines, but David Silvester, a UKIP councillor in Henley-on-Thames managed just that last month, but has now been suspended as a result of it.  He faced a barrage of mockery and criticism, after stating that the country had been ‘beset by storms’ since the passing of the gay marriage legislation last year.  He had, apparently, previously warned the Prime Minister that if the government went ahead with the bill, God would punish the country.  The recent flooding, especially in the South of England, has, he claimed proved him right.  Despite the abuse and loss he has suffered, Mr Silvester has stuck to his guns!

    I wonder what you thought of his views.  Maybe somebody, knowing that you go to church, asked you what you thought.  What did you say?  How do you approach the issue biblically?  Because if we believe the Bible is the Word of God and profitable for every area of our lives and every question that life throws up, that is what we should do.  That appears to be what the councillor in question has done, and we should thank God for those in public office who do so, and pray for more like them.

    The Bible teaches the reality of God and his consistent opposition to sin.  It teaches that God reserves the right to punish sin in this world, and will certainly do so when this world is over.  It teaches that societies that reject God, his Word and His law, must expect to experience his judgement.  It teaches too that the weather is under the control of the sovereign God, and sometimes is used by God to punish wrongdoers.  The Bible in both Old and New Testament shows us that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman, and all sexual activity outside of biblical marriage is wrong. Mr Silvester is absolutely right in his statement of such truths.

    Where we are always on less safe ground is when we try to go further.  God’s ways ultimately are beyond our knowing.  Is the bad weather due to the Marriage Act?  We can’t say for sure one way or the other.  If the floods are a punishment for sin, there are a thousand other sins that God could be dealing with in the UK at the moment.  As a nation we have rejected His Word, His law, the day that he has given us to worship Him, and ultimately and worst of all, His Son Jesus Christ.  Though God is angered by sexual sin, it is not the unforgiveable sin.  There will be men and women in heaven one day who were guilty of such sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), but there will be nobody in heaven who has consistently rejected the Lord Jesus. 

    Which is where we have to stop thinking about others and focus on ourselves!  Never mind the sin of others, what about mine?  Do my sins call to God for punishment, or do I know they have been forgiven because I have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross? If so, my sins are cast not into a flood, but in the depths of the sea itself (Micah 7:19).

Fly on the Wall

“I wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall there today!”  I wonder if you’ve ever used an expression like that.  Perhaps you wanted to be a witness to the moment two people were meeting up, or when somebody was being told a particular piece of news.  As a fly on the wall you would have a great view of the event, but more importantly an unnoticed one.  We’re all a bit inquisitive – nosy – aren’t we, so if we haven’t said it, we’ve probably thought it.

    When we think about it, it is actually a daft thing to wish for.  Who would really want to change places with a fly?  They don’t seem to have much of a life do they?  And in most of our houses that life wouldn’t last long as we’d soon get out the fly spray, or clobber the insect with a rolled up copy of the Argus.  It’s far better to be a human being.  To become a fly we would have to give up our intellect, skills, emotions, thought processes and so much more.

    It’s Christmas time again, and so we as Christians are beginning once more to celebrate the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When we think of what the true message of the season really is, we are reminded just what an amazing truth it is.  God became man.  Without for a moment letting go of His God-ness, the Son of God chose to become man.  He took a frail human body and came to live on the planet that he had created.  The One who was eternal became a helpless infant.  He gave up the glory of life in Heaven with His Father, a life He had enjoyed eternally.  He gave up the worship of the countless angels that live there – worship that was rightfully his.  He came into a world spoilt by sin, a world of pain and death, and suffered the rejection of men and women who would not believe in him, and who eventually would execute Him. 

    For you and I to become a fly would be a major thing, but we would be simply exchanging one created form for another.  Though man is the highpoint of God’s creation, he is but a creature, made in the image of God.  But at the first Christmas the creator stepped into the world He had made.  God became man, a far greater transformation than you becoming a fly! That should really blow our minds.  It should cause us, along with the shepherds, their angelic visitors and the wise men, to adore and worship.

    That is particularly so because of the purpose of the incarnation.  The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world “to save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).  The incarnation happened for our salvation.  You and I have fallen short of God’s glory and broken His perfect law.  Because of that we are rightly under His condemnation.  Nothing we can say or do can change that.  It took the incarnation and the atonement on the cross that follows to give us a hope.  He came from Heaven to earth, so that we might go one day from earth to heaven.

    So don’t get lost this December amongst all the tinsel, turkey and TV!  Thank God for the incarnation, and worship the One it’s all about.

The Bible's Value

 How valuable is your Bible to you?  If you were stranded on a desert island, would it be something you would choose to have with you?  That question cropped up again this summer as rumours about the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs hit the press.  Whereas in the past the fact that you would have the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare was a given, the Corporation is under pressure to drop the first of these to keep in line with our increasingly secular society.  Though the BBC denied that this change was under consideration, I guess only time will tell. 

    One of the questions that the Desert Island Discs debate fuelled was; What makes the Bible so important?  Lots of so called experts contributed their ideas to the discussion.  Even arch secularist Richard Dawkins is on record as saying that due to the impact the King James Bible has had on our language, culture and history, to not know the Bible make us little more than barbarians.  Many of the points that were made were ones with which we would agree.  The Bible is a great book.  It contains marvelous stories of all sorts, wonderful poetry, history that is proving more and more reliable as archeological finds increasingly prove its accuracy, and a moral code that still forms the basis of most of civilization.  But is that all there is to say?  If so, then one day the Bible will be outdated.  Other stories will be written, and more fine poetry will be composed.  As ideas change, a new set of laws, more suitable to the tastes of modern mankind will emerge, and so the Bible will no longer merit our consideration anywhere, let alone on a desert island.

    But the Bible is more than a great book.  It claims for itself much more.  Indeed it claims to be the Word of God.  The Apostle Paul wrote;

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) 

If it is the Word of God, then it immediately transcends anything written by even the greatest of men.  That will also mean that we need to bring every area under the wisdom of its pages.  Only then can we hope to live life as God intended for us.

    But the Bible is also important because it is ultimately about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and not just a handbook to life on earth.  He told the religious leaders of His day; “You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39).  If we want eternal life the answer as to how to attain it is found in God’s Word. It is found in no other book.  But that is because the Bible from beginning to end points us to the Lord Jesus. He came into the world to deal with the problem of our sin that the Bible is equally honest about.  Outside of Jesus we must face an eternity separated from God – forever lost.  But when we commit ourselves to Him, confess our sin, and trust in the sacrifice He made on Calvary, then all our sins can be forgiven and we can enjoy heaven – more of a paradise than any desert island can be!

Indentity Crisis

“Don’t you know who I am?” is the famous line that celebrities often use to get them out of a sticky situation, or to get them into somewhere they initially are excluded from.  But in one of the funniest stories of the last few weeks, one famous face had to use the line in a most unexpected situation.

    Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, was minding his own business walking in the grounds of Buckingham Palace when he was challenged by armed police who demanded to know his identity and the reason why he was there.  According to some reports, he was made to lie on the ground whilst he protested that this was his mum’s house, and he could go for a walk in her garden if he wanted to!  In a short time the confusion was sorted out, although the embarrassment to the police officer concerned might take a little longer to fade away.

    Just a few days earlier an intruder had evaded the security at the Palace and got into the building.  As a result, having been caught out once, the ‘boys in blue’ were being extra cautious and so the blunder resulted.  Being the Son of the Monarch was no use – they simply didn’t know who he was!
    When I heard the story I thought of a verse in the New Testament.  In John’s first letter, written to persecuted Christian believers in the first century he reminds them;
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1)

    One of the most wonderful things about being a Christian is that we become children of God.  That is not something that we are naturally, but a right we have when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:11-13).  But although God knows that we are His children, the people around and about us do not.  We are just another member of the population to them.  But just like with Prince Andrew, just because we are not recognized as such, it doesn’t make us any less the child of the Sovereign One.

    In the next verse of the same chapter of 1 John we read;
“Beloved, now we are the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

     That verse tells us that there will come a day when the reality of what a Christian is will be unmistakable and recognized universally.  When the Lord Jesus Christ returns to this world every eye will see Him and will have to acknowledge Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Those who have trusted in Him will go to be with Him forever, and as well as seeing Him as He is, we will be radically transformed and will have a resurrection body like His.

Are you a child of the King?  Does He know you now?

Worthy of Our Wages

What would you do with all the money if you were on a salary of £300,000?  No not £300,000 a year, but that much every week!  That equals almost £30 a minute, every minute, whether you are working or not, indeed even when you are asleep.  That was a question posed by some of the newspapers a week or so ago.

Gareth Bale, a footballer originally from South Wales, had been transferred to a team in Spain for £85 million, and as well as getting a cut of that fee, those are reported to be his wages.  Reaction ranged from anger - that someone could be paid such wages for doing something so ultimately unimportant - to a more relaxed ‘good for him’ response. Either way, it’s difficult to work out how you could ever spend that much money every week.  

Is a footballer worth so much money?  Is anybody?  How can you judge the value of someone’s contribution to society?  Asking those questions gets us into difficult territory.  Though the Bible, our final authority on all questions of life, because it is God’s Word, doesn’t answer a question like that, it does have much to say on the subject of wages.  It was the first book ever to establish the right of a worker to a fair wage.  Way back in the Old Testament the truth that a worker is worthy of his hire was established and legislation in Old Testament Israel was framed to ensure the worker was never exploited, and always received his wage at the end of the day.  The Bible also has much to say about money, and especially riches.  Though money itself is not sinful, or being rich, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and riches are a snare which ultimately can cost us eternity if we are not careful.

Though the word ‘wages’ is used rarely in the New Testament, it is used in one of its most famous verses.  The Apostle Paul once wrote “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  Gareth Bale will no doubt say that he receives those wages because he deserves them.  They are not a gift but what he has earned.  The Bible tells us that because we sin – say, think and do things that are contrary to God and His holiness – we are due the consequences.  That is why ultimately we all must die.  But the good news of the Gospel is that we can escape what we do deserve and instead have what we don’t.  Instead of wages, what is rightfully ours, we can receive a gift from God.  That is eternal life, a life which has a unique fullness here on earth, and continues for ever in God’s presence in Heaven.  None of us can earn that because of our sin.  But through Jesus Christ, and only through Him, we can receive this wonderful present. 

One day Gareth Bale’s footballing days will be over, and with it his ability to earn such sums.  However much we earn on earth, or however much we can build up in our bank accounts, one day we must leave it all behind too.  But if we are trusting in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross, our treasure will not be what we leave behind at death, but what we go to!   

The Best Wedding

It’s hard to remember now the days of only two or three television channels to choose from, isn’t it?  Now we have thirty or forty to choose from even if we haven’t got satellite television as well.  I suppose with the coming of multi-channel television, however, there was always going to be a lowering of quality.  I couldn’t help thinking that as I chanced on a programme on one of those extra channels the other week.

It is called ‘Don’t tell the Bride’.  Perhaps you have seen it, but if you haven’t, it takes as its premise the ludicrous idea of a groom being given total control of his wedding day.  To be on the show, he and his bride have to agree that she will know nothing about the day until it arrives.  The venue for the ceremony and reception, the flowers, colour of the bridesmaid dresses, even the design of the wedding dress itself is determined by him alone.  It’s hard to think that anybody would allow their special day to be organised like that, but with the TV company footing the bill, and the chance for fifteen minutes of fame, it’s surprising how many people agree to it.  Thankfully, I couldn’t imagine Linda letting me choose her wedding dress, but I’m sure she would have looked great walking down the aisle in a Newport County top!

Perhaps one of the reasons why I found it uncomfortable viewing is the fact that the Bible has much to say about the seriousness with which marriage is to be approached.  That is not surprising, because marriage is, after all, God’s idea.  He has given it to us as the basis of the family and of society.  One of the Ten Commandments is given over to protecting its sanctity.  That, of course, is why no politician should be foolish or arrogant enough to think he can redefine it.  Sadly we live in a day when marriage, if it is considered at all, is often treated as a light thing which can be entered upon thoughtlessly, and finished with just as casually.  Maybe television shows like this are a by-product of such thinking.

But then as I watched the programme I thought of something else from the Scriptures.  Marriage in the Bible is often used as a picture of the relationship between God and His people, between the Lord Jesus Christ and the church.  Perhaps Song of Solomon and Ephesians 5 spring readily to mind.  Because of that the last book of the Bible, Revelation, ends with a marriage.  That is because the whole of human history will end with a marriage and a wonderful banquet to follow.  In Revelation 21:2, the church is pictured as a beautiful and complete bride, ready to be joined with the Lord Jesus for eternity together.   The church will be more beautiful and pure than any bride has ever been.  And that too will be all because of the Bridegroom.  He doesn’t just choose the outfit she will be wearing, but provides it Himself, through His sacrificial death. She, that is, the church, will be clothed in His righteousness.  All our sins forgiven and paid for at the cross, we will be covered by His perfection.  That’s the wedding to end all weddings. 

Seeking Jesus

As revealed on this magazine page a few months back, I’m always amused by these surveys that you find reported on in the newspapers, and another one caught my eye a week or so ago.  It was published in The Times, and concerned the answers 2,000 adults gave to a question relating to what people considered important in life – things to do before you die!  The list gave us the fifty things considered essential to ‘living life to the full’.  As I reach another birthday this month, it seemed wise to have a good look at this list!

Some of them were obvious – stop worrying about money; be true to yourself; concentrate on what you have rather than what you don’t have.  Others were bizarre; try an adrenaline-packed activity such as sky-diving; visit all of Britain’s historical landmarks; go outside more.  Rather too many were just immoral so I won’t list those.  One of fifty was to ‘reach your desired career peak by the age of 40’.  Perhaps you’d better be the judge of whether I could include that in my list of ‘ticks’.  A brief scan of the list suggested that I could write ‘done that’ alongside about twenty of the fifty.  I won’t be taking up sky-diving to get to twenty-one!

So what are the truly essential experiences that make life complete?  How would we answer that as Christians?  I suppose the first thing to say is that the foundation of a question like this can often be a wrong one to start with.  Lists like this start with the presumption that death is the end, that ‘you’re a long time dead’ and so in the mean time we should eat, drink and be merry/skydiving’.  It suggests that all the truly wonderful experiences of life can only be enjoyed before death and so we need to pack as many of them in whilst we are able.

One of the things that we have seen in our studies in the book of Revelation is that this sort of thinking is simply not true.  For the Christian there is something unspeakably wonderful beyond the grave.  To be in a place where we can enjoy God, His presence, provision and protection, for ever, will be a far superior experience to anything that this world can offer.  To be in a place where every tear is wiped from our eye is a glorious hope to look forward to.  For the Christian, life will be incomparably better after death.  That is why the Apostle Paul didn’t know whether given the choice he would want to stay or go.

If that is the case, it should colour how we approach life here and now.  There is nothing wrong with the ambitions to learn a new instrument, go on safari, visit 25 different countries (others on the top 50).  After all we live in a world where God has given us ‘all things richly to enjoy’ (1 Timothy 6:17). But above all we need to “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).  Ultimately, the one thing we all need to do before death is to get right with God.  We need to acknowledge our sinfulness, believe in Christ as Saviour and commit ourselves to Him. Only then can we really enjoy life in this world or have hope of the greater pleasures of the next.   

Trying Our Best?

The death of Margaret Thatcher last month brought to an end the life of one of the defining figures of the last few decades.  Love her or loathe her, and there were few who didn’t have an opinion at one end of the spectrum or the other, her place in British history is undoubted.

In the newspapers in the days immediately following her death there were many personal stories about people’s dealings with her.  One of them particularly captured my attention, and not just mine.  The Bishop of London referred to the same story in his funeral address.

It concerned a letter from the nine-year-old son of a vicar which the Prime Minister had received.  It said; “Last night, when we were saying prayers, my Daddy said everyone has done wrong things except Jesus.  I said I don’t think you have done bad things because you are the Prime Minister.  Am I right or is my Daddy?”

Much to the family’s delight, Mrs. Thatcher sent a handwritten reply.  In it she wrote; “However good we try to be, we can never be as kind, gentle and wise as Jesus.  There will be times when we say or do something we wish we hadn’t done and we shall be sorry and try not to do it again.  We do our best, but our best is not as good as his daily life … As Prime Minister, I try very hard to do things right and because Jesus gave us a perfect example I try even harder. But your father is right in saying that we can never be as perfect as He was.”

I wonder what you make of that reply.  It has much that we would agree with.  It is hard to think of our current batch of leading politicians being quite so ‘politically incorrect’ as to praise Christ and acknowledge the perfection of his life.  All that the late Baroness said about Him is true; although I am sure we would want to say much more, because the Bible does.  He was not only perfect man, but God incarnate, the only Saviour and mediator between man and God.  There is no other way to God, eternal life and heaven, no other way to avoid eternal separation from God in hell itself, than through Jesus.

It is, perhaps, in our response to the perfection of Jesus that we must differ from Mrs. Thatcher.  Her response was to use Him as an example and “try even harder”.  Although 1 Peter 2, amongst other passages reminds us that He is an example, the whole of the New Testament, indeed of the Bible, proclaims that however hard we try, we can never achieve a standard that is acceptable to God, and that could earn us His favour.  He demands perfection of life in word, though and action, because He is perfectly holy.

That is why the Lord Jesus came.  He didn’t come just to be an example that if we follow would enable us to be saved.  He came into this world precisely because we can never save ourselves.  He came to bring salvation through his death in our place on the cross.  By trusting in Him we can have salvation and eternal life as a gift from this holy God.  Are you still trying hard … or are you trusting Christ?  

All Sorts of Emptiness

What springs to mind when you hear the word empty?  It’s not one of our favourite words is it?  The definition in the dictionary we have in the house goes like this; “void, containing nothing; devoid of, vacant, unoccupied; unloaded, destitute, desolate; meaningless, unsubstantial, shadowy; senseless, inane; without intelligence, ignorant; hungry, unsatisfied.”

If that were not bad enough it goes on to give some ways in which the word is used, in expressions such as empty-handed, which reminds us of someone with nothing to call their own, or, what is worse, empty-headed.  I guess we’ve all had to deal with people we could apply that to!  Even worse would be to describe somebody as empty-hearted.

As we look at the world around us we see spiritual emptiness.  It is clear that many people have a void at the centre of their life which they vainly try to satisfy with the material things that they can buy in the shops they visit.  Indeed the whole process of materialism seems to depend on such an ‘emptiness’.  Many people who are part of that approach to life often look at Christians and think that we must be empty-headed to believe in an unseen God and live for a crucified Saviour.

But as Christians we have to own up to the fact that our faith is based on something empty!  Right at the heart of the Christian faith there is something wonderfully empty.  It is the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ!  If it were still occupied, Christianity would be truly empty.  It would be futile.  As we celebrate another Easter Day, we rejoice that the fact that the grave is empty means that Christians, of all people, have a ‘fullness’ that the world will never give us.

The emptiness of the tomb of the Lord Jesus is one of the indisputable facts of history.  Unlike Mohammed, or any other great religious figure, there is no corpse and no occupied tomb to visit.  Though men for twenty centuries have advanced other explanations for the emptiness of the tomb, the only one that really stands up to investigation is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened.  Scared, cowardly disciples, absent at the cross and dejected for the next two days, are transformed into fearless preachers of the resurrection, willing to be martyred rather than deny that it happened.  The Apostle Paul staked his life upon the fact and was willing to refer people who doubted it to over 500 people who had met the risen Jesus, in his writings (1 Corinthians 15:6).  Have you examined the evidence for this great event?

 But if Jesus did rise from the dead, everything is changed.  Death has been defeated.  There is a hope that goes beyond the grave.  And if He did rise, He must be who He claimed to be – the Son of God and the Lord of life itself.  We need to worship Him as such, and repent of the empty lives we live.  We need to come in worship to the Lord of the empty tomb and receive the fullness of life that He came to bring.

The Fine Art of Procrastination

If something needs doing in your house, are you the sort of person who gets it done straight away, or are you more likely to put it off until a later date?  According to a survey, the results of which were published in The Times a couple of weeks back, we have become a society addicted to postponing household tasks – not so much a nation as a procrasti-nation!

2000 adults were surveyed by Crucial.com, apparently, and three quarters confessed to having this problem.  The domestic tasks that were most often delayed included filing documents, ironing, vacuuming, cleaning the toilet and washing the car.  The ‘winner’ however was cleaning the oven, which 56% of people said they were likely to put off until the last minute.

The survey also described the effect that this procrastination of tasks had on people, and particularly on their marriages. Leaving tasks incomplete not only makes us feel bad, it provokes regular arguments with partners. Over a quarter of the UK find they argue with partners about unfinished tasks around the home at least once a week. Men and women respond very differently to the pressure, with men admitting that they just wish their partner would stop bringing up the subject (31%) or occasionally be just that bit more understanding (27%). Women on the other hand overwhelmingly want their men to be more helpful (42%) or take control of the situation (27%).

Whatever your house is like – please don’t ask Linda about ours – we would all agree that the stress produced by putting things off is unnecessary.  But putting things off in other areas of our lives however can be more dangerous.  For example, we are always told to be watching our body and to be alert for symptoms of various diseases that need to be caught quickly.  Delaying going to the doctor can have serious consequences.

But with some things it is even more important that we act quickly.  That is certainly true when it comes to how we respond to the message of the Bible.  We may have read the Bible a lot, have listened to many sermons and have a good understanding of the Christian message.  We may have owned up to the inescapable fact that we are sinful, and considered the claim of the Bible that in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, we can find forgiveness and peace with God.  But we may have put off making a decision to submit to Him and come in faith and repentance that we might have eternal life.  Perhaps we are like Felix whose story is told in Acts 24.  After hearing the Apostle Paul challenging him to believe in Jesus, Felix sent Paul away and said he would hear him again when it was convenient.

As far as we know there was never a convenient time for Felix, and so he died, unforgiven, and went to a lost eternity.  Don’t be like him!  Listen to the Bible when it says; “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).  Don’t delay, come to Jesus today!

A Life for a Life

 Did you see the interview that Prince Harry gave from Afghanistan, broadcast at the end of his deployment as a soldier there?  It was interesting to catch a glimpse of this ‘playboy’ prince in his camouflage uniform, poised at a moment’s notice to put himself in mortal danger.  It is good to know that he is back home again, and we pray that all serving there will return home just as safely.

          The war in Afghanistan has caused Christians great concern.  Many believers would take a pacifist stance toward any war, especially one which seems to be so far away and so unconnected with British life.  They would argue from Scripture that all war is wrong and that Christians should campaign against it.  Pacificism has a long and honourable Christian tradition.

          Other Christians would take a different view, arguing, from Scripture, that in some circumstances it is right for countries, and even Christians, to take up arms against evil.  Through history, there has been an equally strong Christian doctrine of the ‘just war’.  For those of us who hold such a view, however, the war in Afghanistan has caused us almost as many problems as it does the pacifist, particularly when we consider what might end up as the government of the country in the future.  Perhaps it will be many years before we can truly tell whether such fears were groundless.

          We struggle with war because all war involves killing people, and Prince Harry openly acknowledged that.  When asked directly if he had been involved in such killing he was frank;

"Yeah, so lots of people have. The squadron's been out here. Everyone's fired a certain amount… We fire when we have to, take a life to save a life…” 

          It was the last part of that quote that struck me particularly.  When the pressure is on, and a soldier’s finger is on the trigger, that is what goes through his mind.  It must have been the same for those who fought in previous wars.  They thought of their own life and those of the fellow soldiers with whom they served – take a life to save a life.  Or perhaps they thought of families and friends back at home who might face danger if they didn’t succeed – take a life to save a life. 

          But as a Christian, when I heard those words I thought of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His life could be summed up slightly differently – Give a life to save many lives.  It was one of his enemies who counselled that “one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50).  Caiaphas spoke more truly than he realised.  Jesus gave his life that others might be saved.  Because He willingly went to the cross, you and I can be rescued from our sin and the wrath of a holy God.  As one of the hymns we sing says, he “gave His life that we might live.  This is our God, the servant King”

The One the Bible calls the Prince of Life, calls us now to follow Him!  

A Christmas Message

          If you have a 3D television, there was something new for you to enjoy last month, as for the first time, the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast was available in this new medium.  I don’t know what difference it made – did it seem that the corgis were going to jump out at you? – but the television news reports of the broadcast made much of the fact beforehand.

          Afterwards the reports concentrated on how Her Majesty had looked back on the two major events of 2012 – the Diamond Jubilee and the Summer Olympics.  As always, perhaps the most important part of the speech, which is the only one we are told that the Queen writes herself every year, was passed over by the news broadcasts.  As in every year recently, the Queen had spoken of her faith, and of what the Christmas season means to her.  Though the politically correct media organisations seem embarrassed by the fact, it is clear that a personal faith is a most important part of her life and what she said this Christmas is worth thinking about as we enter a new year.

            Speaking of the wise men of Matthew chapter 2 she said,

“visitors from afar … came with their gifts to worship the Christ child. From that day on he has inspired people to commit themselves to the best interests of others.  This is the time of year when we remember that God sent his only son 'to serve, not to be served'.  He restored love and service to the centre of our lives in the person of Jesus Christ.  It is my prayer this Christmas Day that his example and teaching will continue to bring people together to give the best of themselves in the service of others.

          It was interesting to hear such words about prayer, worship, God sending his only Son, and the person and work of Christ, coming from our Monarch.  It should give us renewed encouragement to pray ‘God save the Queen’.  But it was especially good to hear her at least partially quote the words of Jesus found in Mark 10:45;

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

          As the Queen reminded us, this verse points us to the example of Christ in serving others.  It was originally spoken to the disciples as they were aguing amongst themselves as to who was the greatest.  The Lord wants His people to rejoice in serving one another.  That must be our attitude in the twelve months that lie before us.  As the church of Jesus Christ we are all different and we all have our faults and failings.  But we are commanded to love and serve one another.  How will you do that in New Inn Congregational Church in 2013?

          But the part that the Queen didn’t quote is of great significance too.  The Lord Jesus came not just to serve but to give His life as a ransom for many.  Our only hope of eternal life is in the sacrifice of the Saviour on our behalf.  It is that message that we need to believe, preach and go on emphasising in another New Year.