Three Hundred Years Ago This Month (January 2014)

         Howell Harris, one of the greatest Welshmen ever to have lived, one of the great preachers of the eighteenth century revival in the Principality, and a man who had a formative influence on the fellowship here at New Inn, was born on January 24^th 1714.  Along with men such as Daniel Rowland and William Williams in Wales, and the Wesley brothers and George Whitfield in England, Harris was mightily used by God to call the nation back to himself.

         Harris was born in Talgarth, Breconshire, the son of a farmer.  Though he had little education he grew up to become a schoolmaster.  The great change in his life began to take place on Palm Sunday, March 30th, 1735, when Harris attended the Parish Church at Talgarth. During the service the Vicar, Pryce Davies, announced that there would be a Communion Service the following Sunday, and said that he knew there were many people who did not come to the Communion because they felt they were not fit to partake of it. He went on to say, 'If you are not fit to take Communion you are not fit to pray, if you are not fit to pray you are not fit to live, and if you are not fit to live you are not fit to die'. These words hit this thoughtless schoolmaster with great force. He had never been a riotous person but he had lived a loose life; so these extraordinary words of the Vicar announcing a Communion Service began a process of conviction of sin which from then on led to an agony of repentance. 

He continued in an agony of repentance - trying to find peace and unable to find it - until Whit Sunday, which was May 25th, when he went again to a Communion Service in the same church. He describes how during a part of the service he had a tremendous fight with the devil. He had found a certain amount of peace in a neighbouring church, where he had given himself to God as best he could in his ignorance. That gave him a measure of peace, but the devil came and attacked him in this Communion on Whit Sunday, violently trying to shake his faith in everything. However, before the service was over he had found peace. Here are his own words describing this: 'At the table, Christ bleeding on the Cross was kept before my eyes constantly; and strength was given to me to believe that I was receiving pardon on account of that blood. I lost my burden; I went home leaping for joy, and I said to my neighbour who was sad, Why are you sad? I know my sins have been forgiven. Oh blessed day! Would that I might remember it gratefully evermore'!   

He immediately began to tell others about this and to hold meetings in his own home encouraging others to seek the same assurance that he had of Christ's forgiveness.  Harris was refused ordination in the Anglican Church on four occasions, because of his “Methodist” tendencies, but remained a lay preacher throughout his life, both in North and South Wales, tireless in his determination to bring the good news to the lost of the Principality.  His home in Trevecca became a centre for mission work and the training of preachers.  This was in part due to his association with the Countess of Huntingdon, who helped finance students to train and go out with the gospel.  He might not have been an accomplished theologian, but he was a zealous evangelist, whose preaching was powerfully accompanied by the Holy Spirit.  Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones says of him, “I have scarcely ever read of any man who has worked as hard as Howell Harris did. He would preach many times during the day, and after that would hold private societies with the converts, and after that would write his diaries. Very often he had no sleep at all, and would go back to his school the next day; or he would have a couple of hours' sleep and then travel and preach somewhere else. On and on he went, working in an almost superhuman manner. His voice became permanently husky quite early on in his preaching career, but he still continued.”  Harris has been described by one historian as ‘the most successful preacher that ever ascended a platform or pulpit in Wales.’  He died on July 21^st 1773, and over twenty thousand people were reported to have attended his funeral, when nine sermons were preached!

         His preaching often led him into personal danger, and he endured considerable persecution.   People formed into mobs that reviled and opposed him, while magistrates threatened him and imposed fines upon those who met for worship in their homes. Even the clergy were opposed to Harris and preached against him, branding him a false prophet and deceiver. 
Mobs often attacked Harris in all kinds of ways. He was shot at with pistols and pelted with apples and pears, dung and dirt, eggs and stones, and even a dead dog. In 1740, while ministering with William Seward in Caerleon, the two preachers were attacked so severely that that Seward eventually went blind in both eyes. 

         Although the exact details of the link between Howell Harris and the congregation here at New Inn are lost in the mists of time, there is good evidence that he preached here on numerous occasions.  Harry Lewis’s fine history of our fellowship records that Daniel James, minister at New Inn during the late eighteenth century, stated that ‘The Gospel was first introduced into this place by a Society of Methodists, many of whom had been awakened under the preaching of the eminent Mr Howell Harris who, finding the Established Church in those parts filled with carnal ministry, formed themselves into an independent church’.  We know that New Inn was a convenient meeting place for the Methodist Society Association meetings between 1744 and 1750, when Harris and Daniel Rowland often preached.

         The tercentenary of the birth of Howell Harris reminds us that God can suddenly break into the life of Wales, like He did again in 1859 and 1904, raising up ordinary men and using them to turn the nation to Himself. Our need of spiritual revival today is, if anything, greater than it was three hundred years ago.  But our God is the same God.  We need to pray urgently that He will visit us again. 

A True Messiah

The death early last month of Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected President of South Africa, and one of the icons of the twentieth century, was perhaps the most widely reported event of the whole of 2013.  Even in the UK, thousands of miles away, hour after hour of television and radio time were given over to coverage of his death, state memorial service and burial.  Many people here, though they might have had no connection with South Africa, and had never seen Mandela, let alone known him, seemed to share in what seemed like a worldwide sense of loss.  It was interesting to compare the reaction to his death with that of Margaret Thatcher earlier in the year.

         Watching the coverage as a Christian believer greatly interested me, particularly in the way that he was pictured almost as some sort of Messianic figure who had led the country out of the dark ages of apartheid into the light of a fully-fledged democracy.  Though one would have to recognise that the impact of Mandela’s life was truly remarkable, it would have been good for somebody to point out some of the other facts: that Mandela never renounced violence, or as far as we know, repented of the deaths of many, Christian missionaries included, for which as head of the ANC he was responsible.  The gap between the rich and poor in South Africa is greater now than ever.  We remember present day missionaries visiting us who spoke of the dangers of life there.  Perhaps it will be many years before his impact can be truly measured.

         What was, perhaps, even more interesting was the way in which he was set up as a great example of forgiveness.  Much was made of the way in which he had shown great kindness towards those who had been his captors on Robben Island, insisting they have the best seats at his inauguration as President, never forgetting their children’s birthdays etc.  We saw again, as we have when victims of IRA terrorism have been interviewed, how human beings are fascinated by forgiveness and envious of those who find it within themselves to act in such a way.

         Which brings us surely to Jesus!  He is the true Messiah, and the greatest example of forgiveness.  His ‘long walk’ was to a cross, rather than to freedom. Even as he hung there, numbered with terrorists but innocent of every charge laid against him, he prayed for his executioners and their forgiveness.  The kingdom that He brought in is an everlasting one, marked by universal peace and freedom.  The life of Jesus Christ not only means that you and I can have a better life here and now, but an eternity in heaven.

         Though many were happy to state that Mandela was now in heaven, making such statements is wrong, though I hope that he is.  The way to heaven for Mandela was the same as it is for you and me.  We must trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart.  Only by his perfect sacrifice being applied to our sin laden hearts can any of us be saved.  Is that true of you?

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.

A Special Star

Something special - a bright star. Someone special - the Christ child. But what did the Wise men see? Early Chinese astrologers recorded a brilliant star about this time. A super nova, many times brighter than the brightest star.  What is the brightest star you know Venus, Jupiter,  bright as they all shine they cannot give any amount of useful light. 

Balaam prophesied 'A Star shall come out of Jacob' NUM 24:17. Isaiah said 'Arise shine for your light has come...' ISA 60:1. 'The people who walked in darkness have  seen a great light those who dwelt in the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined'  ISA 60:2.
Peter speaks of 'the morning star arising in your hearts' 2PET 1:19. Jesus claimed to be the light of the world JOHN 8:12; 9:5, and revealed Himself to John as ‘the Bright and  Morning star' REV 22:16.

Notice in MATTHEW 2:4-6 The chief priests and scribes KNEW where Christ was to be born v5. Now they should have been the ones seeking Jesus, they should be the ones worshiping Him, but they do not.
Instead we find (Gentiles) the Wise men seeking with intent to find, to worship, Him.

How did these men from the East learn of this great event. It is possible they were aware of the Messianic prophecies, for they came seeking the one 'born King of the Jews' MATT 2:2. Suffice to say they believed their source, and followed the star.
We are blessed with Gods sure word, the Bible, but like the chief priests and scribes although many men 'know of’ Christ, there are few who seek Him, and fewer follow Him. The Wise men came not just to find Him they came to worship. And they came  with gifts, that their  worship may be acceptable.

The gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh are symbolic - Gold, royalty kingship. Frankincense - deity - God. Myrrh - death, mortality, passion and burial.
Note these are costly gifts - we are to give Him our all. He still requires a gift from us as he required of Israel of old. What can we bring Him? These words from a  children's hymn simply but completely answers that question.

        What can I give Him poor as I am?
        If  I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
        If I were a Wise man I would do my part,
        Yet, What can I give Him? Give my heart.

Each time we come to worship, and no less at Christmastide. Our hymns, our songs, our carols are empty and meaningless unless we give ourselves to Him. Indeed Paul writing in ROMANS 12:1 says it is our reasonable service to present to God our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him.

However, presenting their gifts and worship was not the end of their encounter with God. For we read in v12 'Then, being divinely warned (instructed) in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed to their own country another way'
Here we note they obeyed God. Now this is very important. God spoke, they obeyed. It is often debated as to whether or not the Wise men became true believers.
On the evidence of this verse, they did. For they obeyed God.

This is surely the mark of a believer, not only does he seek God, not only does he worship God, but that he obeys God. If this is true of us, then we can agree with Peter 'The morning star has arisen in our hearts'. The true light has shed its radiant beams into our darkened souls.

The Wise men believed what they had learned concerning Jesus and they diligently sought the one they had learned about. They worshiped with costly sacrificial gifts. Then they were obedient to the word of God. Their message to us is clear we may search for God we may follow His star, we may even find God, we may even worship God. But unless we obey God Then His star has not arisen in our hearts and we are yet in the darkness of our sins.

May you truly experience His star in your life this Christmastide.

Fifty Years Ago This Month...

    On 22nd November 1963, one of the most memorable events of the modern age took place – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, USA.  Famously just about everybody can remember where they were when they heard the news.  Its effect on the modern world was immense, and the conspiracy theories about his death will probably get another airing this month as television will be full of programmes marking the anniversary.

    For believers, however, the date will be remembered as the day when the world lost a great modern Christian thinker and writer, Clive Staples Lewis, or C.S Lewis as he was better known.  He has been known to successive generations of children as the author of the Narnia series, which began with the famous The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  A wise reader will spot the Gospel themes in that book, themes that were enlarged upon in some of the Christian classics that also came from his pen.  Although many Christians find difficulty agreeing with everything he wrote, Mere Christianity and Screwtape Letters are among his works that should be read by all believers.

    C.S. Lewis became a Christian in a most ordinary way. He simply records that, on top of a bus, “I was driven to Whipsnade Zoo one morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the Zoo I did.”  From then on his life was different.  Though he remained an academic of the first order, being a Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University, he spent a great deal of time writing Christian apologetics; books that showed why belief in the gospel was valid in the modern age.  He once wrote; “… the Christian knows from the outset that the salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world.”  There is good evidence to suggest that Lewis suffered for his faith amongst his fellow university experts, and probably didn’t achieve the academic accomplishments his genius deserved.

    C.S. Lewis never saw himself as a theologian, but he loved theology and felt that proper theologians didn’t do enough to make Christian doctrine understandable and attractive at the level of ordinary people.  That was his job as he saw it.  In his words again; “If real theologians had tackled this laborious work of translation about a hundred years ago, when they began to lose touch with the people (for whom Christ died) there would have been no place for me.”

    Lewis’s view of the Old Testament wasn’t one that many of us would share.  He believed that stories such as those of Noah and Jonah were probably fables, though other parts of the history books were probably true.  In all his writings, as far as the Old Testament was concerned, he only wrote on The Psalms.  He would probably have described himself as a ‘New Testament Christian’, something which again many of us might take issue with him on.  But though his doctrine of Scripture was not evangelical, he had a much clearer view when it came to the person of Jesus Christ.  He defended the fact that Jesus was God all through his writings.  Perhaps his most famous quote, found in his book Mere Christianity and often cited from the pulpit in New Inn, was his reaction to the idea that Jesus was just a good teacher;
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God". That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

    Though he may not have had a fully worked out doctrine of justification by faith, he believed that salvation was only through the death of Christ, and that through it we can go to heaven.  He believed that Christians should think of heaven more than they do; “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next ... It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither.”

    As well as some unorthodox views on the Old Testament there are other areas where we would part company with him. Certainly, at least in the latter part of his life, he had regular confessions, prayed for the dead, and believed in some sort of purgatory. This belief in purgatory was a strange aberration and added to his agony on the death of his wife, Joy.  But on the basics of the Christian faith we would regard him as a brother, and thank God for the inroads his writings made in academic circles where other Christians wouldn’t gain a hearing.  At a time when liberal views of the Bible were in the ascendency, he wasn’t afraid to unapologetically defend belief in Jesus and express that in the language of common people.  He understood the world around him, and tried to show that to believe in another world wasn’t as irrational as many made out. Let him speak again; “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

In all the celebration of JFK this month, thank God for CS!