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!